Hello all

I was wondering and hunting for stories of familymembers who fought alongside the Germans or were Germans during WWII.

I'll begin :

My great Uncle was born in Antwerp, Belgium and died when 18 years old in Dessau, Germany.
He died appareantly a natural death.
He was transfered to Berlin cemetary where he remains throughout the war and even today on the soldiers cemetary.

I do not know however in what branch he was, was he in the Flemish SS division ? Or the NSKK ?

I do not know anymore then that and no one knows anything about him either.

Hopefully one day I will find out ...

HV

Flemish sounds like a regular heer division. Was he in WWII? Because 18 is awfully young even back then. Sorta weird if you ask me.

hi herrvermylen.
you mentioned your great uncle died in 1942. did he die in combat? where did it happen? was he in the panzer or infantry?

His father died of natural causes if you read in the article.

Can I get half credit for having a relative who fought for the Germans in WW1? I had a cousin several times removed by family relation and generations who served in the German army during WW1. He went missing somewhere on the Western Front in 1918 and was never heard from again. Perhaps he ran into my Grandfather, who served in the AEF in 1917-18.

My wifes Grandfather Was in the German army. From what i hear, he had been forced into fighting. And was stationed with the luftwaffe (spelling) using an Anti Air gun. not sure which gun, or where he was stationed, it was a very sore subject with him. and he died with alot of his stories.

My grandfather was in the US army stationed in the pacific, he was a Heavy machine gunner, using a Browning Water cooled automatic, not sure the model or where he was, he claims never to have had to kill anyone, but from what my dad has found he was in areas where some of the heavyest fighting occured. He sadly has had a couple of strokes, and Has a hard time talking.

Well actually there was a Flemish SS-batallion which near the end of the war was transformed into a division.

See for more info: http://www.feldgrau.com/lflander.html

The Germans recuted for this "Legion" starting from the age of 17(!).

The description "Death by natural causes" was sometimes used as a euphemism for being executed as a deserter, saboteur, self inflicted wounds or just dying of some sort of weird sickness.

I could very well be that he was a resistance member and has died in the hands of the Gestapo. Or died during training if he enlisted for the SS.

Kris

my german teacher from last year had 2 uncles that faught in ww2 on the german side, one was a currier in the SS the other fell in finland. my grandfather grew up during ww2, and when he was an adult, joined the Swiss Army!

Heya Kris

Thanks for that but if he was a deserter, saboteur, or resistance member he would not have been buried in the soldiers cemetary in Berlin !

So it is a mistery what happened to him and what he did over there.

Also one of my grandfathers was shipped to Germany to go work for the Germans.


Nice to see the stories of vets, especially German ones, there are hardly any left !

I met SS-Untersturmfuhrer Bert Degruyter (Flemish SS) and he had quite alot of interesting things to tell.
He was active, as most Flemish SS, on the eastern front.

One of the events were as follows :

His platoon was closing in on a Russian village, and to the right of them were Heer Gebirgsjagers closely following the Flemish SS'ers.

At one point he signalled the Heer troops to advance and enter the village but they would not move.

So he went to them and said :

"Yes we are Flemish and not Germans who order you but I outrank you so you do as you are told or I will have you court martialled !"

So the Heer moved in.

Alot more of events he has witnessed.

Herr

Well,

My great grampa was a partisan hunter for the Hungarian army in WW2, But that's about it.

Rob

dude in the german army if someone didnt follow orders they didnt court marshall them, they shot them.

My relatives in Germany had left at the turn of the century (20th) so I had no one directly related to me there. But due to VMI I got the priveledge of meeting a Dr. Wolf (MD) who had served as a JU 88 pilot throughout the entire war. At the end he was flying the Me 262. He gave a lecture that lasted 3 hours on his experiences to our Militaria society of which I was one of the founding members. Due to my knowledge of German while in a little vilage outside o Fulda, I got invited to the Stammtisch (owners table) where I talked with one of the few surviving U-boot men. Also met a guy in the field that was sightseeing one of our Reforger exercises that served in Panther and Jagdpanther tanks fighting Americans. Met UweFiest the author of one of the definitive books on the Tiger 1 at a Dallas gunshow. Of course scads of American vets of WW 2, Korea, Viet Nam and the first Iraqi War. I can never get enough of their histories

Well, my older brother's and sister's, 31 and 33, grandmother worked in the Luftwaffe. She was always in front of the maps, constantly moving around the little plastic pieces. She told me that the movie "Battle of Britian" was true. Whenever they were bombed, the rafters would come crack and fall. She was in until the end. Then, their grandfather was drafted by the German Army a week before the war ended. He decided not to go. Wonder why..... Thanks for your time.

If you guys would like to read a book of a German WWII vet theres a book called "Berlin Dance of Death" By: Helmut Altner. The title pretty much tells the story, he tells about his experiences in WWII and defending Berlin. It is a very depressing book I thought, it was also exciting in some parts.

Not true.
I think the vet knew what he was talking about as he also taught at the SS-school in Baden-Tolz.

HV

Partisan hunter ?
Have some stories to share about that ?

Luftwaffe female, that is interesting ! You never hear of them in the control room, got any stories ?

Hey Steve Joyca , wanna share some of their stories ?

Thanks guys !

HV

My father and uncle were in the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Division. I know he had many stories, but it was a subject that interested me greatly but he was never willing to share. I know that the war affected him greatly, and he would never tell me what happened to him. However, I know that he saw combat against the Americans.

herrvermylen,
Have you thought about contacting
the German government for a copy of your uncles service record?. Here in the UK you can get a copy (abeit) not a full copy of the service record of a a reletive
gives place of enlistement units/locations/rank ect might be worth contacting the german embassy in NZ to see if they could help you?

Gunther,
Were your uncle/dad brothers or did they become inlaws after the war? and did they serve in the same unit/regiment?




TsunamiBomb,
Why is 18 and in the forces weird?
I was in the Army at 16.5 years old in 1991 over here in the UK you can join as a junior soldier/leader before the cut backs each Corps/teeth arm had their own junior training depot after you passed out at 17.5 yrs after 12 mts training you then went on to adult trade training and were then posted although you werent allowed to serve oversee's or on Operational tours until you were 18

As for my granddad he was in the RASC in the 8th army spent time in the ivory coast,north africa.italy
my other granddad got his call up papers for the Cameronian's and though bugger this I'm not dying for a shilling a day and joined the Merchant navy and was torpedoed and was also on the Murmansk convoys might have been safer in the army :-)

My uncle and father were brothers and I believe they served in the same regiment, but i am not absolutely sure.