Daily doings of German soldiers

German Heer 1935-1945.

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D'haeseleer Guy
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Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by D'haeseleer Guy »

I was wondering what were the daily doings of the German soldiers in the lands they conquered? What did the soldiers do in the land where they were stationed. For example what did the German soldiers do in Normandy since 1940 untill the invasion? Did they had normal human contacts contacts with the locals on daily base? Or was this contact only purely when the locals passed the roadblocks. Did German medics sometimes give help when civilians were sick or injured?
When some-one has someinfo on this subject, please share this?

Thanks in advance,
Guy
RandJS
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by RandJS »

Hi,
Since no one has responded, I will share what little I can. Troops from one div in France sometimes helped on the local farms. I would presume that was early on, as later reports show the men marching into the nearby forests to cut timbers for landing bech defenses after thier normal guard shifts.
Reports from several divisions show that there were cordial relations-and friendships- with the locals in France and the other western conquered states.
There were always acts of sabatoge and syping, but frequency and severity depended on where they were located.
Boredom was a problem.
Hope that helps a little.
Rand
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D'haeseleer Guy
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by D'haeseleer Guy »

RandJS wrote:Hi,
Since no one has responded, I will share what little I can. Troops from one div in France sometimes helped on the local farms. I would presume that was early on, as later reports show the men marching into the nearby forests to cut timbers for landing bech defenses after thier normal guard shifts.
Reports from several divisions show that there were cordial relations-and friendships- with the locals in France and the other western conquered states.
There were always acts of sabatoge and syping, but frequency and severity depended on where they were located.
Boredom was a problem.
Hope that helps a little.
Rand
Thanks Rand for sharing the little info you've got.
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SEW
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by SEW »

And what can be done against boredom? Drill, drill, drill!
And if the officers don't take a look: drink!
I think not much different to any other Army.
This is what I know from a veteran...
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Holtingar
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by Holtingar »

Regarding the doings of German soldiers in the Netherlands some research is completed recently. There was a nice documentary on tv, and the results were published in a book. Quite an eye opener for many Dutchmen who fooled themselves by believing dads and grandfathers who spun tales about 'resistence'. In the first year of the occupation there were only 300-400 German soldiers in the Netherlands; later, when more came for the coastal defence, they talked in their letters home about 'paradise'. They went to the movietheaters restaurants and pubs ('kroegen') unarmed. 'Of course we did!' one of them said in an interview. 'You're not taking a girl out with a gun over your shoulder, do you?'
For the Dutch, you can find some of this info, with a well known video, on this page: >CLICK :[]
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der alte Landser
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by der alte Landser »

A great deal of their routine was taken up by training, equipment maintenance, prep for combat and so on. The book "Gods of War" by Hans Werner Woltersdorf (German title: "Picknick zwischen Biarritz und Shitomir") provides many vignettes that illustrate the day-to-day life of German soldiers in occupied France.
dsetzer
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by dsetzer »

On the web site of the German Historical Museum one can find an account by a German soldier who served in occupied France in 1940.

The account (in German) can be found here: http://www.dhm.de/lemo/forum/kollektive ... index.html

The relations between the occupying troops and the locals seemed to be relaxed and almost cordial (at least from this one soldier's point of view). He and his buddies had the run of the town and made use of it to visit all the major tourist sites and enjoy the shops, cafes and restaurants, where they were quite welcome. They never had any sense of being in danger from the French.

He does mention that as the war wore on the Maquis became much more active and the relationships between the German occupation troops and the locals became much more strained and dangerous.

After passing through Paris he moved on to Trouville on the channel coast. The French there treated the German soldiers much the same. His signal corps unit was stringing phone lines to link the shore batteries facing England and worked side by side with French crews of the telephone company without problem.

The French girls did not shy away from the soldiers either and he is able to report some amorous adventures also.

Accounts of his time in North Africa can be found in English translation here: http://home.comcast.net/~dhsetzer/Mork/

although he does not touch very much on relations with the locals in these pages, he does talk about the German soldiers attitudes toward their Italian allies in that theater of war.
--
Dan Setzer
Baltimore, MD USA
Memoirs of a German Private in WWII:
http://www.DanSetzer.us/Mork
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Alex Dekker
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Re: Daily doings of German soldiers

Post by Alex Dekker »

For Dutch readers: pick up 'Festunf Holland'. Several vets who were stationed in Holland do their story. Resistance: one did know it was there, another never had any problem with the Dutch. All vets had an easy time, some had a great time. As far as I reconstruct the life of my German grandfather here, it wasn't much indeed. Helping wounded soldiers, the ones who got wounded during excersices. A few soldiers entered a minefield near the coast and got blown away.
Always in need for info about: Dutchmen in the NSKK, HJ and TeNo.
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