Hans Wijers - Eastern Front Combat: The German Soldier in Battle from Stalingrad to Berlin

EASTERN FRONT
COMBAT

The Stackpole Military History Series

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Cavalry Raids of the Civil War

Ghost, Thunderbolt, and Wizard

Picketts Charge

Witness to Gettysburg

WORLD WAR II

Armor Battles of the Waffen-SS, 194345

Army of the West

Australian Commandos

The B-24 in China

Backwater War

The Battle of Sicily

Beyond the Beachhead

The Brandenburger Commandos

The Brigade

Bringing the Thunder

Coast Watching in World War II

Colossal Cracks

A Dangerous Assignment

D-Day to Berlin

Dive Bomber!

A Drop Too Many

Eagles of the Third Reich

Eastern Front Combat

Exit Rommel

Fist from the Sky

Flying American Combat Aircraft of World War II

Forging the Thunderbolt

Fortress France

The German Defeat in the East, 194445

German Order of Battle, Vol. 1

German Order of Battle, Vol. 2

German Order of Battle, Vol. 3

The Germans in Normandy

Germanys Panzer Arm in World War II

GI Ingenuity

The Great Ships

Grenadiers

Infantry Aces

Iron Arm

Iron Knights

Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Battle of the Bulge

Kursk

Luftwaffe Aces

Massacre at Tobruk

Mechanized Juggernaut or Military Anachronism?

Messerschmitts over Sicily

Michael Wittmann, Vol. 1

Michael Wittmann, Vol. 2

Mountain Warriors

The Nazi Rocketeers

On the Canal

Operation Mercury

Packs On!

Panzer Aces

Panzer Aces II

Panzer Commanders of the Western Front

The Panzer Legions

Panzers in Winter

The Path to Blitzkrieg

Retreat to the Reich

Rommels Desert Commanders

Rommels Desert War

The Savage Sky

A Soldier in the Cockpit

Soviet Blitzkrieg

Stalins Keys to Victory

Surviving Bataan and Beyond

T-34 in Action

Tigers in the Mud

The 12th SS, Vol. 1

The 12th SS, Vol. 2

The War against Rommels Supply Lines

War in the Aegean

THE COLD WAR / VIETNAM

Cyclops in the Jungle

Flying American Combat Aircraft: The Cold War

Here There Are Tigers

Land with No Sun

Street without Joy

Through the Valley

WARS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Never-Ending Conflict

GENERAL MILITARY HISTORY

Carriers in Combat

Desert Battles

Guerrilla Warfare

EASTERN FRONT
COMBAT

The German Soldier in Battle
from Stalingrad to Berlin

Edited by Hans Wijers

STACKPOLE
BOOKS

Copyright 2008 by Hans Wijers

Published by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
5067 Ritter Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
www.stackpolebooks.com

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055.

Cover design by Tracy Patterson

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eastern Front combat: the German soldier in battle from Stalingrad to Berlin / edited by Hans Wijers.1st ed.

p. cm.(Stackpole military history series)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8117-3442-4

1. World War, 19391945CampaignsEastern Front. 2. World War, 19391945Personal narratives, German. I. Wijers, Hans J.

D764.E23 2008
940.54'13430922dc22

2008017303

eISBN: 9780811746380

This book is dedicated to the one person in my life
who gave me the strength to do this. Thanks, SP.

Table of Contents

Introduction

T his book of combat narratives contains accounts from German soldiers who fought on the Eastern Front against Russia between 1941 and 1945 in World War II. The stories have been put together to give you, the reader, a sense of what it was like to live, fight, and die in the wars greatest battles.

Ive been interviewing German veterans for years and compiling their accounts covering nearly all the battles of World War II. These veterans, some aged close to ninety now, are still willing to talk about the past. The soldiers telling their stories here are just a few of the lucky ones that survived the war when millions of their countrymen did not.

From the Battle of Stalingrad to the bitter end in Berlin in 1945, these men tell their story as they experienced it. What they have to say is not about glory and heroism, but of life and death, and how they survived. I knew each of these veterans personally, and knowing that their accounts will live on in this book is important. The war on the Eastern Front was a different battle from the one fought in the West, and the harshness of the last battles became more than simply stopping the enemy, but defending their homeland, the soil they were born on, the house they lived in, their parents, and their families.

One of these veterans is Joachim Stempel, a survivor of Stalingrad and many long years in Russian captivity. There is also the story of Ernst Panse, another Stalingrad veteran, providing his perspective on the desperate fighting from inside the Stalingrad pocket. The account of Alfred Regeniter of the 276th Assault Gun Brigade gives more details about how fierce the fighting on the Eastern Front could be, even when protected in an armored assault gun firing high explosives. Gerd Dhler describes the futile defense on the Oder River in 1945 in the face of a massive Russian attack, holding out with a handful of sixteen-year-olds Luftwaffen Helfer knowing that any victory would be only a temporary one. There are also accounts from the final days in Berlin, the German capital, where some soldiers still believed that the Wunderwaffen Wonder Weaponspromised by Hitler would help them turn the tide. It was a vain hope.

This book is about the Eastern Front. When you read these stories, youll learn again that war is humanitys most terrible affliction. For those that were there, the memories remain, even to this day.

Hans J. Wijers

CHAPTER 1

The 24th Panzer Division
at Stalingrad

Ernst Panse

I n this report, Id like to explain how my unitthe 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Panzer Division (field post number 11468)was ordered to intervene in the encirclement battle of Stalingrad in the area of Kalach on the Don and how we experienced the bitter end on February 2, 1943, with the surrender of Stalingrad.