In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier’s Memoir Of The Eastern Front

In Deadly Combat MODERN WAR STUDIES Theodore A. Wilson General Editor Raymond A. Callahan J. Garry Clifford Jacob W. Kipp Jay Luvaas Allan R. Millett Dennis Showalter Series Editors In Deadly Combat A German Soldier’s Memoir of the Eastern Front Gottlob Herbert Bidermann Translated and Edited by Derek S. Zumbro With an Introduction by Dennis Showalter University Press of Kansas © 2000 by the University Press of Kansas All rights reserved Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66049), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bidermann, G. H. (Gottlob Herbert) [Krim-Kurland. English] In deadly combat : a German soldier’s memoir of the Eastern Front / Gottlob Herbert Bidermann ; translated and edited by Derek S. Zumbro ; introduction by Dennis Showalter. p. cm.—(Modern war studies) The editor’s expanded translation of: Krim-Kurland : mit der 132. Infanterie-Division, 1941–1945 / G.H. Bidermann. [1964]. ISBN 0-7006-1016-2 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7006-2250-4 (ebook) 1. Bidermann, G. H. (Gottlob Herbert) 2. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Eastern Front. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, German. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons, Soviet. 5. Prisoners of war—Germany—Biography. 6. Prisoners of war—Soviet Union —Biography. 1. Zumbro, Derek S. II. Title. III. Series. D764.b4813 2000 940.54'217—dc21    99-055738 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library materials z39.48–1984. To the innocents who perished CONTENTS Preface, Derek S. Zumbro Acknowledgments Introduction, Dennis Showalter Map 1. The March Toward the East 2. Crossing the Dnieper 3. Makensia 4. In the Crimea 5. The Enemy 6. Sevastopol 7. Gaitolovo 8. Dyatly 9. The Oncoming End 10. Courland: The Last Front 11. The Bitter End Epilogue Appendixes Chronology of Engagements Military Cemeteries Table of Military Ranks Glossary Photo Gallery 1 Photo Gallery 2 PREFACE The soldiers of the German Wehrmacht’s 132d Infantry Division marched into Russia in 1941 with the profound belief that they were embarking upon a great crusade. They had been taught from youth that it was their responsibility to rid the world of Bolshevism, and in this naivety they had marched purposefully toward the east. Four years later, the remnants of this division, reduced by casualties to skeletal strength, sparsely clad in ragged uniforms, and surviving on carefully rationed horse meat, surrendered to the Soviet army. As a close friend of the Bidermann family, I had long been aware that Gottlob Bidermann had served for a number of years on the Eastern Front, but the true extent of this service did not come to light until 1985. At that time I had been requested by the Federal German Navy to serve as translator and liaison officer to the commodore of a U.S. Navy Task Force during a port visit to Kiel, Germany. In the course of this assignment I was provided the opportunity to invite friends in Europe to participate in a special tour of the U.S. Navy warships that were present in the north German port. I extended an invitation to G. H. Bidermann to visit this display of NATO power, for which he graciously thanked me, adding, however, that for him the invitation had arrived “forty years too late.” It was through this curious response that I was to learn the true extent of his experiences in Courland in 1945 and of the highly improbable rumor on