Wehrmacht soldiers in other wars...

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Guys,

I recall a Soviet-era, East German joke about Vietnam (or really about the USSR).

The North Vietnamese approached the USSR for supplies.

Vietnamese officer: "We badly need hundreds of optical sights for our anti-aircraft guns to fight the US bombers."

Soviet officer checks his list: "Yup, you can have them."

Vietnamese officer: "We also need ten thousand watches so our infantry officers can coordinate their assaults on the Americans."

Soviet officer again checking his list: "O.K. They are available."

The Vietnamese requests continue and the Soviet officer approves them all from his list, until:

Vietnamese officer: "And our civilians are starving. We need 100,000 tons of rice."

Soviet officer, after running through his list to the bottom: "Sorry, East Germany does not produce rice."

Cheers,

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

It seems that ex-Luftwaffe pilots who were in the French Foreign Legion were stuck for life as infantryman on the battlefield. They can't ask for a transfer to military aviation of France. It doesn't work that way. The FFL doesn't have any flying machines. However there were a few German Legionnaires that somehow managed to secure a position in flying French military planes. Maybe some higher ups in the French military called for volunteers among the FFL. Just a thought.


Edward L. Hsiao

[Edward L. Hsiao]

German Waffen-SS veterans joined with the South Africans and were commissioned specifically to go and join the fighting over the Congo Crisis. These Germans were professionals according to one mercenary of another county. I got this information from another forum.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

You are yet again advancing a questionable proposition without providing any evidence whatsoever. Why do you keep on doing this?

I think it highly unlikely that the South Africans commissioned W-SS veterans specifically to serve in the Congo.

But if you believe it to be so, please tell us what forum you got this from, so that we can check?

I served in Rhodesia in the 1970s. We had a a lot of older WWII British/Rhodesian veterans as senior officers, but I never came across a single German WWII veteran, let alone an ex-W-SS member. We had some younger Germans. I had a very, very good German sergeant, who had been an artillery lieutenant in the Bundeswehr. I knew of another German sergeant in his 20s who was essentially a post-war Nazi, and I still have contact with a third German of the post-war generation who was a battalion commander in my force. However, when it came to recruiting foreigners en masse from the non-English speaking world it was to France that a recruiting mission was sent.

Cheers,

Sid

[Bokkop]

German Waffen-SS veterans joined with the South Africans and were commissioned specifically to go and join the fighting over the Congo Crisis. These Germans were professionals according to one mercenary of another county. I got this information from another forum.

Edward L. Hsiao

South Africa didn't take part in the Congo Crisis, and in any case was hardly likely to commission ex soldiers from elsewhere -- the SA Army was tiny in the early 60s. And if they wanted to hire more, there were many SA WW2 vets.

Some of the mercenaries were South African or were SA-based WW2 vets, for instance the redoubtable Mike Hoare. Some of those were commissioned in the Katangese army.

[Ken S.]

So you actually have real-world participation in historical events? You seem to have spent many hours hammering out many books-worth of message board posts on innumerable internet forums (I assume without any financial backing) when all this time you could have been a real-life Jonathan Higgins writing international best sellers. If you have in fact published a book about your Rhodesian escapades I'd genuinely like to read it, if I can find really cheap second-hand copy online somehow...

I served in Rhodesia in the 1970s.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Ken S.,

I have largely restricted myself to two forums - Feldgrau and AHF.

If you know where I might get financial backing for my 20-year exercise in self indulgence on these sites, please point me in the right direction.

Sadly, I am not overly interested in fiction (though doubtless some here may disagree), so your kind suggestion that I write some is not going to prove a new stream of income, welcome though it would be.

Nope, I have published nothing on my time in Rhodesia. It was fascinating to me, but would not make a particularly marketable yarn.

However, it did allow me to meet and serve with some interesting post-war Germans, such as Walter, Jurgen and Horst, and some older British/Rhodesian officers from WWII. But above all, the most interesting and rewarding aspect was to command African troops.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

It would be interesting to see a picture of a German Wehrmacht veteran in a US Army uniform with much of his US medals and WWII German medals. Anybody has a picture?

Edward L. Hsiao

[Ken S.]

Veteran Spotlight: Wolfgang Goettig has a very interesting military history and life story. Wolfgang is a German WWII Veteran and a U.S. Korean War Veteran. He was a Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe, but before he saw any flight time, he was forced into the Wehrmacht infantry when the Allies were storming across Europe in 1945. But, after his capture by the American forces, he was stunned to learn that the information they were given regarding the Allies was completely false and misleading. He eventually immigrated to the US after the war. He later served in the US Army during the Korean war, and was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor for his efforts at Heartbreak Ridge. His book titled “From Hitler Youth to American Hero” tells his amazing story.

https://www.facebook.com/WWIIHeritageDa ... =3&theater

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

You post, "It would be interesting to see a picture of a German Wehrmacht veteran in a US Army uniform with much of his US medals and WWII German medals. Anybody has a picture?"

Were they allowed to wear both?

Rhodesian veterans are not allowed to mount their Rhodesian UDI-era medals with their British ones.

Cheers,

Sid

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

Interesting to know about Wolfgang Goettig who was a Wehrmacht veteran who served in the US Army in the Korean War. I seen a picture of him as a Sgt.Major in the US Army.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

Again you give no sources.

Apparently Goettig was born in 1928, which means he could have been among the last Germans mobilised at the very end of the war. From reviews, I can't glean what he actually did beyond one describing his "auxiliary" service in WWII. Have you any more detail?

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Well read the book by Wolfgang Goettig called "From Hitler Youth to American Hero".

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

HI Edward,

I take it from your reply that you, yourself, haven't read the book and can't verify he was in the Wehrmacht.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Hohlladung]

Hi,

I found 2 pilots of the Luftwaffe, who served as paratroopers in the FFL in Indochine 1953:

Franz Stadler (J.G.27) and
Helmut Günther Sauer (L.K.S.1)

Source: Jägerblatt 3/1953

Best regards