More from: "My Time in Service: "
I got to Germany 25 years after the War ended. And we started a program called : Return forces to Germany. or : REFORGER. Lots of Field exercises in the Bavarian Wood and mountains. I bought CooCoo Clocks and Beer Steins for all my relatives, and my girl back home. And even 25 years after the War, parts of cities were still under repair...and East Germany still looked like the War ended yesterday.
So today I was talking to a Veteran who was there during the actual occupation (1945-1955). He was there in 1950-53. And he told me some good stories and some well, not so good. The kinds of things the History Book leave out so the Victor looks perfect and a Hero. But I shall talk about the "good things".
So one of the things they did, was have the kids come out and ride in jeeps, tanks, half tracks , what have you. And they set up mortars and machine guns, and let the kids play with them (no ammo , of course).
So when I got home to look up more details about that time...I came across the picture of the little German boy looking into the gunsight of an 81 MM Mortar. And it brought back memories.
We used to invite the local population out a couple of times each summer. And I would set up my mortars (an 81 mm and a 4.2 inch) and the kids would swamp us. We would teach them how to set out the aiming stakes....and they would run like the wind, trying to beat the time of the other kids. It was fun for them.
And if they got the bubbles level, and the site anywhere near the aiming stake, we gave them a chocolate bar. Hersheys, of course. And they treated those candy bars like gold. So one time, a middle age guy was watching us pretty intensely. He had a very pretty teen age girl standing next to him...who kept looking at her Dad...and then looking at us. I noticed them both. So I went over to them...and said the old "Do you speak English" (I forgot how I said it in German...but it must have come out okay.) The Teenage girl said in perfect English:
"Yes. My Dad does not. But I do."
"Well, can you ask your Dad why he is watching us so carefully?"
She spoke to her Dad. He hesitated for just a minute or so.
She looked surprised.
"My Dad was in Mortar Platoon in the War. And he wanted to see what your Mortar looked like. Would it be possible for him to look at it up close?"
"Of course!"
We thought we were going to walk him through like we did the kids. Nope. We ended up learning all about German mortars. He wanted to know things like the rate of fire, range...bursting radius, how we armed the round. Very technical stuff. Weights of the different parts, how we carried them, and how we trained so that everyone could do every job from Ammo Bearer to Gunner. And then FDC if you were smart enough.
Until that day, I never knew about German mortars. He fired a 8 cm Granatwerfer 34. Which was almost exactly like our 81 MM mortar. He said there was a little mortar that was kind of like our 60 MM SF mortar...but they stopped using it because it had to many parts and only went like 400 meters.
He had actual Combat Experience...but didn't talk much about that. Except to say he hated the Russians, but admired the American...and Brits, and had nothing good to say about the French either.
His daughter learned a lot about her father that day. Since she was our translator, she was hearing a lot about her Dad's time in Service. Word got out, and almost all of the Battalions Mortar guys, and the HHQ Heavy Mortar Platoon leaders came over too.
We ended up talking to that guy for like an hour. We gave him and his daughter both Candy Bars. Which lit her face up like a candle, and got a smile from him.
We did have a couple of guys who served in Germany during the War, or at least the last two years of it. And several guys who were there for the Occupation. last I saw of that guy and his daughter, they were off to the Mess Tent(which we used for refreshments) with a half dozen of our Old guys. I think that was a win win - for the Veterans.
And I went back to watching ten year old German kids sprint with glee to cover 100 meters and drop the far aiming stake.
And a little bit of History was passed on.