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You know things must have been desperate for the Reich in October 1944 when Krengel is getting reconsidered for combat duty Also you loving goon Krengel, when your superior officer is going "hey we have a cushy instructor job for you out of harms way, *wink wink*" maybe you take the loving job
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Jan 27, 2017 11:43
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The Krengel Diary Part 28 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 1945 1 January: Went to bed at 3 AM. At 2 PM we had our first inspection of the New Year. We hear that 579 enemy aircraft were shot down during a raid on Nuremberg. I'm still on guard duty on the 13th. I visit a friend in Prague, Herr Meindl. 17 January: I'm still in Prague. We hear of a new Russian offensive in the east. We are doing intensive AT training now and our unit has the highest score in practice firing. On the 22nd we score 16 direct hits out of 20 rounds fired. We hear of another air raid on Nuremberg over the radio. I am granted home leave and race to the railroad station before my leave gets cancelled. On the 27th I am on a train to Pilsen and arrive in Nuremberg at 7 PM. 28 January: I talk to Dad for a long time. My library now contains 1011 books - very impressive. I am home until the 31st and take a train back to Prague. 1 February: We are training in camp with AT and Panzerfaust. SSgt.Kurt Irmer was killed when a warhead on a Panzerfaust exploded prematurely. I was only a few feet away but I'm okay. I received a letter from Inge saying that she is now a doctor. We continue our AT training. 17 March: I attended a Court Martial for a guy named Janz in Prague. On the 19th we get re-named Tank Reconnaissance Unit Feldherrnhalle and are now on Corps status. 22 March: My new Fieldpost Number is 67739A. 28 March: We fall in for departure, pack our bags and drive to the railroad station on the 29th. We reach Vienna on the 30th, and on the 31st we reach Pressburg [Bratislava]. We march through Kuty and then 12 miles to the east. 1 April, Easter Sunday: Easter once again but we have no time to celebrate. We unload our gear near Cazoo and see German tanks returning from the front, some badly shot up. 3 April: We patrol along a Russian breakthrough. One of our halftracks gets hit by Russian PaK; Hans Mill is killed, so is Kurr Pieger, and Paul Schreiber is severely wounded. We retreat to Garstin. 5 April: We retreat through Rustay, Holic, Lanzhof, and Hindenburg to Eisengrub. SSgt. Flotte is wounded. Nuremberg had another heavy air raid last night. 7 April: Today is just not our day. We set off at 6 PM but shortly the air compressor fails and after we repair it, the suspension breaks in half on one wheel. Nevertheless, we continue on 7 wheels. [The Puma had 8 wheels******] We reached a repair depot but they moved out before we had time to work on our Puma**. We are under Russian air attack but we receive no hits. So yeah, editor is basically calling all 8-wheelers Pumas. Kinda wish I had an original page that showed whether Krengel mentions "Puma" pre-1943. 9 April: We get a new Puma and a 5-man crew** and drive to Nikolsburg. We are attached to a night patrol on April 11th and with one more Puma we do reconnaissance toward Zitzersdorf and Gross-Inzersdorf. Pumas have a crew of 4. 10 April: At 7 AM we do reconnaissance toward Absdorf and repel an enemy attack with our 75mm AT guns. Then we begin to receive mortar frie. SSgt. Klasenbusch is KIA with shrapnel to his head. Six of our wheels are flat. We retreat and use the 2 spare wheels for repair. On 4 good wheels and 4 flats, we reach our line at Mistelbach.
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Jan 27, 2017 11:46
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Jobbo_Fett posted:As far as I understand it, acquiring writing paper could be a hard task at times according to a summary of an Italian war diary I'm trying to get my hands on. This is why some entries are short. Low on paper.  Any chance of getting that one, too? I very rarely see ground-level Japanese perspectives on WW2.
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Jan 27, 2017 12:24
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spectralent posted:
Probably, but its a lot thicker than Krengel's stuff and written way more in the style of memoirs rather than single-day diary entries. That being said, I probably won't feel so bad doing summaries of the text (or at least quotes of the interesting stuff) seeing as this book doesn't appear to care about reproducing the texts. So far, it seems that the people of Java and Sumatra accepted Japan with open arms as liberators, but not as masters. They hated the Dutch. A lot. But, interestingly, this passage appears early on for General Imamura's part (16th Division - Army) "I asked an interpreter, 'They are saying tuan something. But what does that mean?' 'That means "thank you master". [...] The interpreter began to talk with the old man, and told me, 'The thumbs-up sign means "good". It seems that the population are saying "welcome" to us. The old man is saying, "In Indonesia, a prophecy has been passed on for hundreds of years that people of the same race would come some day to restore the freedom of Indonesia.* Are you tuan the same people as us? Though your language is different from ours, you look like us." This is what he is asking us." * - At least since the late 18th century there had been prophecies in Java attributed to the 12th century King of Kediri, Jayabaya, predicting that the rule of the Europeans over Java would be short-lived. It would be ended by another foreign power, variously identified as Kling (India), Rum (Turkey), or in the 20th century, Japan, which would then withdraw after a period of five years or after the time taken for corn to ripen. Java would then be reunited and free, and an age of righteousness would dawn. Such prophecies were particularly rife int he years before the Pacific War.
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Jan 27, 2017 12:43
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Kengler joined the army in 1939 and was in the Fall of France (and for now the last survivor of his unit/group, people he last saw wheb he was 20 or something). We should see how much of the war he didn't spend sick.
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Jan 27, 2017 13:19
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maybe he is a super slick malingerer; getting / acting sick all the time while trying to volunteer for the front. guess it backfired finally though
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Jan 27, 2017 13:21
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So Krengel actually mentions a Hetzer as a Hetzer. Also, not sure if he's going all "RAGGGGGHHHHH SOVIET HORDES  "
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Jan 27, 2017 13:27
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How private is this diary? Do higher ups have the potential to have a peek now and then to make sure there's nothing against the war effort?
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Jan 27, 2017 14:05
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Fangz posted:How private is this diary? Do higher ups have the potential to have a peek now and then to make sure there's nothing against the war effort? Not sure, as there's nothing stated about that. I would imagine private enough. He did have Rommel sign the thing, so higher ups did peek at it, but who's to say how deeply they looked.  Also, same book, different diary. quote:We stop 1 km east of Jaruschnij to refuel and have a hot meal from the field kitchen of the 126th infantry, bean soup with bacon; not fully cooked but nevertheless it goes down well. The hinges on the Panzer hatches have to be oiled because the farts created by half-cooked beans can suffocate a driver and bow gunner in the bowels of the iron monster. 
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Jan 27, 2017 14:14
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Heh, farts. I think Krengel is getting diseases too serious to actually be malingering. Also, he does get his fair share of chrapnel and seems to be very happy to go help people after bombing, even if there is UXO about. He is strangely mum about his feeling, though. Saying that he didn't know why he visited Elizabeth is one of the few breaks.
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Jan 27, 2017 14:21
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I had a whole effortpost typed up re: when war got modern (and HEGEL said "the 1870s?"), I said "more the '90s" with links to the wiki articles of all the major players' rifles and the revolutionary French cannon developed in that decade. And also a paragraph on named artillery pieces, re: that person who asked. basically all the "modern" rifles came about in the last decade of the previous century, and also arty kinda got real badass around the same time ~1895. And then my computer froze and had to be hard power-cycled while I was proofreading it.  The French 75 was properly "Canon de 75 modèle 1897" and most of the big players' WWI infantry rifles were introduced around the same time, 1895-7, aside from the American one. But yeah the Great War kinda sucked for all involved, even if they did invent tanks and perfect machine guns. And indirect fire from essentially modern bolt-action rifles was A Thing circa the 1890s, hence I and the other guy saying "the '90s". Chillbro Baggins fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2017 15:23
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Well, I dreamed about Krengel last night (or rather, about reading about Krengel).FrozenVent posted:Going by the numbers on wikipedia, a brick shaped Carpathia would displace 36,100 MT to a box shaped Titanic's 81,600 MT. If we assume the Carpathia to have the same block coefficient, she would displace about 23,100 MT at full load, or a bit less than half Titanic's full displacement. This, yeah. Either Carpathia had the weirdest fuckin' underwater lines or Wikipedia is comparing numbers that aren't directly comparable (could be loaded versus unloaded drafts, but I'd guess the displacement figure is more likely). Civilian ship sizes weren't usually given by displacement, but rather by a measure of capacity. xthetenth posted:Longitudinal bulkheads were a contentious thing in naval design precisely for that reason. They can be useful but they require counterflooding in many cases. I believe you can balance off vital hits with flooding to non-vital sections which has value but not failing deadly has a lot of value too. Brown is generally opposed to longitudinal subdivision. Might dig it up later when I have more time.
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Jan 27, 2017 16:02
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Yeah, 1890 is certainly when poo poo go real in a modern sense and the conflict and war we know first appeared. The ability of a decently camoflaged soldier being able to fire smokeless rounds at incredible ranges rapidly whilst being able to reload multiple rounds at ease in any stance is proof enough. In 1870 this stuff was still in the prototype phase and soldiers/armies were sort of caught in a obvious transition between the changing technology and tactics.
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Jan 27, 2017 16:14
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drat, seems like Krengel ain't even mind getting all the ladies dirle-swanger  (I'll see myself out)
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Jan 27, 2017 16:14
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MikeCrotch posted:You know things must have been desperate for the Reich in October 1944 when Krengel is getting reconsidered for combat duty This isn't that uncommon. One of my grandfathers basically snuck out of a hospital and then stowed away on an ammo ship so he would be with his buddies for Okinawa. Some people don't like to feel like they aren't pulling their weight when all their friends are out fighting and dying at the front. Man, though, Krengel got lucky. Basically on sick leave or training detail all through 43 44 then he gets assigned to the front in the Czech- Austria area which means he's both in the last major continental European pocket of Wehrmacht that got to lay down their arms rather than surrender under duress AND he's steadily heading towards Pattons army. PLUS if he had stayed around Berlin in a trainer unit it's practically guaranteed he would have gotten swept into the defense of the capital. Seriously the dude is lucky as gently caress.
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Jan 27, 2017 16:23
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I like how d-day just kind of happens without him bothering to mention it at all. And also how short the "someone tried to kill hitler. He's fine though" entry is. It's a very...unique perspective of a major period of human history Thanks for sharing the diaries!
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Jan 27, 2017 16:24
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Ainsley McTree posted:I like how d-day just kind of happens without him bothering to mention it at all. And also how short the "someone tried to kill hitler. He's fine though" entry is. It's a very...unique perspective of a major period of human history "Berlin got bombed again. My last lay's mum is sad her house burned down."
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Jan 27, 2017 17:04
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Ainsley McTree posted:I like how d-day just kind of happens without him bothering to mention it at all. And also how short the "someone tried to kill hitler. He's fine though" entry is. It's a very...unique perspective of a major period of human history I have to wonder if Krengel ever knew that he personally met the guy who tried to kill Hitler. That seems like the kind of thing one would mention in one's personal diary. But then, depending on how much Krengel's higher-ups were seeing of his writings, that might have very well been the kind of thing he didn't want others to know about...
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Jan 27, 2017 17:08
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i'm surprised they give him leave "just" because his city was bombed considering how often major cities must have gotten bombed
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Jan 27, 2017 17:08
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Argus Zant posted:I have to wonder if Krengel ever knew that he personally met the guy who tried to kill Hitler. That seems like the kind of thing one would mention in one's personal diary. But then, depending on how much Krengel's higher-ups were seeing of his writings, that might have very well been the kind of thing he didn't want others to know about... I feel like that fact probably wasn't publicized at the time to avoid people freaking out too much.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:12
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I forget the details but there was a lot of legal poo poo surrounding bomb damaged residences. Right to the bitter end the Nazis didn't want the middle class turning against them, and part of that was state help in rebuilding and assessing damage. Soldiers who were nearby could get leave to assess damage.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:14
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I too am very surprised he didn't mention D-Day at all, or even so much as tangentially refer to there now being an entire western front to worry about as well. It's all hospitals and frakkin' Frauleins for Krengel.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:19
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How was D-Day reported on in the German media?
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Jan 27, 2017 17:30
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Most of the battleships that weren't catastrophically killed (e.g. magazine explosions) went down on an even keel, because part of the built-in survivability of BBs was the ability to counterflood the non-holed side. Becuase BBs are kinda top-heavy, with all the guns and turret armor, so you really don't want to let it list. Re: named guns: tanks have names, and a tank is basically a gun on wheels. Pretty much any crew-served weapon (and sometimes even rifles) will have a name.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:37
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Fangz posted:How was D-Day reported on in the German media? If I remember correctly it wasn't for a long time
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Jan 27, 2017 18:18
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Cyrano4747 posted:This isn't that uncommon. One of my grandfathers basically snuck out of a hospital and then stowed away on an ammo ship so he would be with his buddies for Okinawa. Some people don't like to feel like they aren't pulling their weight when all their friends are out fighting and dying at the front. Isn't that nazi shitbag Schörner in command of this pocket at the very end?
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Jan 27, 2017 18:30
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I think you need to be a Nazi shitback to be in command of anything at that point. Do people name AA guns and light or medium mortars?
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Jan 27, 2017 19:41
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PittTheElder posted:So that's his way of telling us he's Erika's baby-daddy right? Loving this look into civilian Germany as things start to go downhill. I'm not really sure why he'd be oblique about it in his own diary. Plus with the sky almost literally falling I bet people are hooking up a lot more. JcDent posted:He's a complicated man 
Nebakenezzer fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2017 19:50
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MikeCrotch posted:If I remember correctly it wasn't for a long time I'm not sure, I think it got reported pretty quickly. I've seen the Newsreels, and I think it was reported the same week. They tried to spin it hard as "Moscow orders Anglo-American landing in France" and "Poor French villagers terrorized by allied fighter-bombers" Fake edit: found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCducL04Iv0 So about ten days later. Not sure if newspapers reported earlier.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:00
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Delivery McGee posted:Most of the battleships that weren't catastrophically killed (e.g. magazine explosions) went down on an even keel, because part of the built-in survivability of BBs was the ability to counterflood the non-holed side. Becuase BBs are kinda top-heavy, with all the guns and turret armor, so you really don't want to let it list. Yamato didn't, because the torpedo bombers were concentrating all their hits onto one side. Kongo didn't, because it was an older design that had been made extra top-heavy. EDIT: I'm thinking of Kirishima, but Kongo probably capsized as well.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:04
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wdarkk posted:Yamato didn't, because the torpedo bombers were concentrating all their hits onto one side. Yamato literally ran out of spaces to flood, including her starboard engine rooms. Accounts differ on whether or not the engineers were trapped within.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:07
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Polikarpov posted:Yamato literally ran out of spaces to flood, including her starboard engine rooms. Accounts differ on whether or not the engineers were trapped within. Poor bastards.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:20
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SeanBeansShako posted:Poor bastards. Fairly sure one of the IJN carriers (but not Akagi, that one had her DC team evacuated as the ship was abandoned) had something similar happen at Midway but with fire. Their whole firefighting/DC specialist team went into a smoke-filled engine room and never came back out and the ship ended up burning uncontrolled for several hours before sinking. Might have been Kaga but it could have been Hiryu or Soryu just as likely. I have shattered sword on Kindle but am phone posting and can't search the text to check.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:42
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You are more or less right, the problems with damage control on board Japanese aircraft carriers have been bought up in this thread a few times now.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:44
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SeanBeansShako posted:You are more or less right, the problems with damage control on board Japanese aircraft carriers have been bought up in this thread a few times now. True, I'm probably one of the folks who brought it up in the past too 
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Jan 27, 2017 21:47
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I imagine the answer is probably obvious but to what extent are you as a commanding officer held responsible for your unit not succeeding at accomplishing its objectives? Do you only get court martialed and investigated if the brass legitimately were certain you should have accomplished your goals and there's evidence you personally hosed up? How does this differ from say, in WWII between the US, British, German and Soviet armies?
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Jan 27, 2017 22:03
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Nine of Eight posted:I feel like that fact probably wasn't publicized at the time to avoid people freaking out too much. He was specifically allowed to commit suicide and given a state funeral rather than executed so they could keep it quiet. Edit: oh yeah forgot that bit! feedmegin fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2017 22:16
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feedmegin posted:He was specifically allowed to commit suicide and given a state funeral rather than executed so they could keep it quiet. not rommel, he met either stauffenberg himself or one of his relatives
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Jan 27, 2017 22:34
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Delivery McGee posted:I had a whole effortpost typed up re: when war got modern (and HEGEL said "the 1870s?"), I said "more the '90s" with links to the wiki articles of all the major players' rifles and the revolutionary French cannon developed in that decade. And also a paragraph on named artillery pieces, re: that person who asked. SeanBeansShako posted:Yeah, 1890 is certainly when poo poo go real in a modern sense and the conflict and war we know first appeared. The ability of a decently camoflaged soldier being able to fire smokeless rounds at incredible ranges rapidly whilst being able to reload multiple rounds at ease in any stance is proof enough.
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Jan 27, 2017 22:53
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FAUXTON posted:Fairly sure one of the IJN carriers (but not Akagi, that one had her DC team evacuated as the ship was abandoned) had something similar happen at Midway but with fire. Their whole firefighting/DC specialist team went into a smoke-filled engine room and never came back out and the ship ended up burning uncontrolled for several hours before sinking. Might have been Kaga but it could have been Hiryu or Soryu just as likely. I have shattered sword on Kindle but am phone posting and can't search the text to check. Unless I'm grossly mistaken, that situation was by no means unique to either any single Japanese ship or engagement throughout WW2. As a matter of fact, I think, with the exception of the Akagi, that same scenario went down across the board for Kido Butai- DC teams either went belowdecks and never came back up, or were killed in the initial explosions that caused the damage they would have needed to control.
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Jan 27, 2017 23:22
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