Erich von Le De Leon was born in 1918 on an estate on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Württemberg, the son of his grandfather, who fought as an artillery commander in the Franco-Prussian War and was fiefdomed by King Wilhelm I of Prussia. His father was a retired colonel who had fought in World War I, and the von der Leyen family was the quintessential Prussian Junker aristocracy.
In 1936, von Le de Leyen entered the Military Academy in Berlin, Germany.
The Berlin Military Academy in Germany was the first military school in the world to train senior staff officers, founded in 1810 by Scharnhorst, Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army. The German General Staff, which was born in 1806, was also created by Scharnhorst.
Von DeLeyen enrolled at the Berlin Military Academy in Germany, which had a history of more than 100 years.
In August 1939, von Vanille, a staff officer who had just been promoted from mid-commissioned officer to the rank of second lieutenant, was assigned to the 19th Panzer Corps under Lieutenant General Guderian and served as a radio communications staff officer under Colonel Walter Nelin, the superintendent of communications.
In September 1939, Second Lieutenant Von Delane joined the 19th Panzer Corps in the Polish campaign.
For the sake of narration, the following text will be written in the first person "I".
At 18 o'clock in the afternoon of August 31, 1939, I rushed with Colonel Nerin, the signal superintendent of the 19th Panzer Corps, to the armored reconnaissance battalion directly under the military headquarters just two kilometers from the Polish border.
The battalion commander, Major Fritz, reported to Colonel Nelin that the Polish troops in front of him were frequently mobilized and had not yet been fully deployed, and that the front-line troops were all light infantry and cavalry, equipped with light tanks.
Colonel Nelin conveyed the order of the military headquarters to the battalion commander of the Fritz: "General Guderian will not stay at the command tomorrow, the army headquarters will act together with the 3rd Panzer Division, which is tasked with the main attack." After the general offensive was launched, your battalion marched with the military headquarters to ensure the safety of the military headquarters. ”
Major Fritz invited us to dinner at his battalion headquarters, where beef with potato sauce and whole wheat bread were the standard meals in wartime.
Of course, such food existed only ...... the beginning of the war
At dinner, Colonel Nebayashi told me: "As a supplement to the radio and walkie-talkies, you should bring a communications platoon to follow me, so as to ensure that the orders of the military headquarters can be delivered to the units in a timely manner in case of emergency." ”
When we returned to the military headquarters after dinner, it was already 10 o'clock at night.
I was not in the 19th Panzer Corps for long, and after graduating from the military school I worked as a midshipman in the General Staff. Lieutenant General Guderian arrived on 22 August, and I arrived only a week before him. To sum up, I was transferred to this unit half a month before the start of the war.
When I returned to the military headquarters, I immediately went to the armored communications battalion and conveyed the order of Colonel Nelin, and the battalion commander, Major Krauss, gave me 10 motorcycles and 30 soldiers, led by a non-commissioned officer.
As a communications staff officer, I am well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of radio communications. In particular, walkie-talkies, although easy to use and timely command, are also easy to cause communication channel blockage due to mutual interference between machines.
Moreover, the transmission of information by radio must also be brief, otherwise longer messages can easily be intercepted by the enemy, resulting in leaks. Therefore, the use of manual transmission of commands on the battlefield is still an irreplaceable traditional means of communication.
At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, a sudden volley of cannons rang out, and the light of the fire tore apart the darkness before dawn. Groups of bombers flying over our heads will rain down on Polish airfields, roads, bridges, and Polish servicemen in a matter of minutes.
Although Lieutenant General Guderian strongly objected to the Air Force's targeting of roads and bridges for fear of affecting the speed of the Blitzkrieg of the armored forces, the commander of Army Group North, General von Bock, was unimpressed.
After a full hour of fire preparation, the German front-line units located on the German-Polish border launched an attack on Polish territory.
The 19th Armored Corps, where I worked, was subordinate to the 4th Army of Army Group North, with the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division, the 20th Motorized Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored Division, and its subordinate units.
The task of the 19th Panzer Army was to break through to the Polish border, and then advance rapidly from Pomerania to the Vistula River, cutting off the Polish army's retreat to the "Polish Corridor", so as to completely annihilate the Polish army in the area.
On the plains of western Poland, the military headquarters led with the 3rd Panzer Division, and the mechanized troops of the steel behemoth advanced quickly and orderly, encountering almost no decent resistance.
A little more than 20 minutes later, I met the first Polish prisoners.
At a Polish barracks we passed, I saw nearly 100 Polish soldiers standing or squatting on the playground from outside the bombed-out wall, guarded by a dozen German soldiers.
Obviously, these Polish troops were in shock and had not yet recovered from the sudden war.
I looked at my watch, and it was 6:12 a.m. on September 1, 1939.
The military headquarters advanced rapidly with the 3rd Panzer Regiment of the 6th Panzer Division, and in just over an hour after the battle began, we had already left the rest of the troops far behind.
Originally, according to the pre-war deployment of the commander of Army Group North, General von Bock, the 19th Panzer Army was not the arrow unit of Army Group North.
We were deployed on the flank of General Strauss's 2nd Infantry Corps, and the strategic purpose was to get out of the way of the Polish troops in front of us, to strike directly into the depths, and to cut off the Polish army's retreat to the "Polish corridor" with a "right hook".
However, judging from the current battlefield situation, we have instead become the attacking vanguard of the entire Army Group North.
Obviously, the speed of the blitzkrieg of the 19th Panzer Army's 3rd Panzer Division, which advanced to a depth of 80 kilometers in less than two hours, not only caught the Polish army by surprise, but also the commander of Army Group North, General von Bock, by surprise.
General Guderian's wheeled armored command vehicle was equipped with two sets of radio communication equipment, which allowed the general to maintain uninterrupted communication with his divisions.
This made every unit under the 19th Panzer Corps receive the timely command of General Guderian at any time throughout the Polish campaign, and the combat efficiency increased exponentially.
But the rapid advance also made General Guderian almost die at the hands of his own troops in the first day of fighting.
On the way to the 6th Panzer Regiment, the forward unit of the 3rd Panzer Division, the army encountered an infantry detachment of the Polish army east of Fort Zempel, although General Guderian had ordered the follow-up troops not to fire artillery support, so as not to injure the forward troops.
But the gunners, who were fighting for the first time, may have been too nervous, and still shelled the front with heavy artillery.
I led the communications platoon to closely follow the general's command vehicle, and suddenly an artillery shell flew from behind and fell 100 meters in front of the command vehicle, followed by the second, third, and fourth rounds, just 50 meters away.
I saw that the command car turned sharply to the right, and as soon as it turned around, it was planted in a ditch, and the rear of the car was cocked, and it could not move. I hurriedly called out on the walkie-talkie to get the troops behind to stop the shelling.
Three wheeled armored vehicles of the armored reconnaissance battalion of the military headquarters quickly drove to the edge of the ditch and crossed the rear of the command vehicle side by side, using their own hulls as a barrier for the general's command vehicle.
However, the Polish army took advantage of this wave of chaos and concentrated bombardment with anti-aircraft artillery, and soon destroyed the three wheeled armored vehicles.
This was the first time we had seen it on the first day of fighting, resulting in the deaths of a lieutenant, a midshipman, and eight more soldiers.
This Polish infantry detachment was quickly wiped out, and General Guderian changed his command vehicle and continued to lead the 6th Panzer Regiment of the 3rd Panzer Division forward.
That night, the army headquarters and the 3rd Panzer Regiment of the 6th Panzer Division arrived on the banks of the Brachy River. Due to the speed of our advance, the other units of the 3rd Panzer Division, as well as the 2nd and 20th Motor Infantry Divisions, did not keep up.
The commander of the 6th Panzer Regiment advised General Guderian that the bridge had been burned by the Polish army, and the enemy situation on the other side was unknown, and whether to wait for the arrival of other troops and then cross the river together the next day.
The general was noncommittal, pondered for a moment, called Major Fritz, commander of the armored reconnaissance battalion of the military headquarters, and ordered him to send a company to cross the river in rubber boats to reconnoiter the situation on the other side.
At the same time, the general radio called the commander of the 3rd Panzer Division, Colonel Schwebenburg (promoted to major general in 1940), and ordered the division's engineer regiment to quickly rush to the Brachy River to build a pontoon bridge.
Since Colonel Schwebenburg was summoned to the headquarters by General von Bock, commander of Army Group North, to report on the day's battle, General Guderian sent the order directly to the engineer regiment of the 3rd Panzer Division.
Such an unconventional command was later called "disrespectful to his subordinates" by Admiral von Bock, and General Guderian retorted: "You called my division commander from the battlefield without informing me, how did you respect me?" ”
Two hours later, the commander of the armored reconnaissance battalion, Major Fritz, returned to report that the bridge over the river was not completely destroyed and that the tanks could pass after reinforcement.
The Polish army on the opposite bank was a cavalry unit, and the number would not exceed two companies. The armored reconnaissance battalion sent only one company, and through a short exchange of fire, it was found that the opponent's resistance was weak and did not take a heavy **. At present, the two sides are still firing at each other, and they basically pose no threat to our army.
After hearing the report, General Guderian decided to immediately strengthen the bridge for vehicles and tanks to pass through as soon as the engineer regiment arrived, and the infantry to cross the river in rubber boats. Before dawn, the 6th Panzer Regiment had to cross the Brachy River in its entirety and continue its advance in depth.
At 3 a.m. on September 2, 1939, after the 6th Panzer Regiment had completed its crossing, the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion escorted General Guderian back to the headquarters of the 3rd Panzer Division.
This was all I experienced on the first day of the war, during which I led the communications platoon to follow the general's command car at all times, and apart from an encounter with the Polish army east of Fort Zempel and the shelling of friendly troops, everything went very smoothly.
Chapter 2: Attacked by Night
At 5 o'clock in the morning on September 2, 1939, when we returned to the headquarters of the 3rd Panzer Division to establish the corps command post, the sound of rapid gunfire and the neighing of war horses suddenly rang out all around.
At this time, the 6th Armored Regiment of the 3rd Armored Division had crossed the Brashi River as the vanguard, and the other two regiments were also on their way to the Brashi River, and the division headquarters had only one armored air defense battalion and other non-combat service units stationed, plus the armored reconnaissance battalion of our military headquarters, all of which added up to about 1,500 people.
I hurriedly rushed to General Guderian's residence with a communications platoon to guard it, and at this time, Major Fritz, commander of the armored reconnaissance battalion of the military headquarters, wearing a steel helmet and carrying a submachine gun, also rushed over.
Behind him were all the vehicles of the battalion, including tanks, armored vehicles, cars, motorcycles, moving, centering on the general's residence, and a ring defense was being organized.
Major Fritz ordered me in a loud voice, Second Lieutenant, you are now under my command, and take your men to protect the general, and use them as shields if necessary.
At this moment, Captain Paul, commander of the armored air defense battalion of the division headquarters, also came over and urged Fritz, major, you protect the general to get into the car and leave quickly, and I will lead the troops to cut off the rear ...... for you
Before Captain Paul could finish speaking, General Guderian had already come out of the house, and the general asked us with a smile:
Have any of you ever seen an armored unit forged of steel, driven around like a sheep on horseback by a group of enemy cavalry?
General Guderian pointed to the tanks in front of him, where the armored reconnaissance battalion was forming a ring defense, and said:
Major Fritz, are you afraid that your tank will be chopped by the saber of the Polish cavalry?
Just when Major Fritz was embarrassed and did not know how to answer, the general ordered:
I don't need you here, so take your men and drive all the tanks and armored vehicles out to fight, and at dawn I will count how many sabers you have grabbed from the enemy? ”
Eventually, at our strong request, the communications platoon I led and an armored anti-aircraft company of Captain Paul remained to protect the general, and the rest of the troops were transferred to the battle.
General Guderian looked at the pistol I was holding and said:
Ensign, this is the battlefield, you are no longer a midshipman of the General Staff in Berlin, what you have in your hand should be ***8, not Ruger.
When the sky was dark, I accompanied General Guderian to inspect the battlefield, and I not only changed into a full set of individual equipment, but also pinned an M24 long-handled grenade to my waist in addition to ***8 and 4 32-round magazines.
In the wilderness, dozens of horses were scattered around the camp grazing leisurely, while their owners lay on the ground. As far as I could see, I saw at least 100 corpses of Polish soldiers.
Major Fritz came to report that the prisoners had been informed that it had been a Polish cavalry regiment that had attacked us last night, and that during our rapid assault during the day yesterday, due to the serious disconnection between our armored units and the infantry units, they had leaked out of our gaps, resulting in an attack on both the division and the corps headquarters last night.
But the losses were not large, we ** more than 40 people, killed nearly 300 enemies. Now that the ministry has been dispersed, it's up to the follow-up troops to clean them up!
At daybreak, the commander of the 3rd Panzer Division, Colonel Schwebenburg, arrived from the commander of Army Group North, General von Bock, to join us, and the army headquarters and division headquarters marched together towards the Brachy River.
On the banks of the Brashi River, we encountered the 23rd Motorized Infantry Division, which was temporarily attached to our army, erecting a pontoon bridge to cross the river.
At this time, the situation on the battlefield was that the 3rd Panzer Division had advanced towards the Vistula River after crossing the Brachy River last night, and the division commander, Colonel Schwebenburg, had already led the division headquarters and his direct team to catch up with his troops.
On the left flank, however, the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division was held back by two light tank divisions of the Polish army in the Greater Croatian area, and its progress was very slow.
The 20th Motorized Infantry Division in the center was under the greatest pressure in yesterday's advance, fighting from morning to night, constantly being held back by Polish troops. Although they were all skirmishes, the roads in the area they traveled were destroyed by the bombardment of the air force at the beginning of the war, and the progress did not go well.
So far, only the 3rd Panzer Division, which is on the right flank of the army, has advanced rapidly, and it is expected that the whole division will reach the Vistula River in the evening.
At noon, after the military headquarters crossed the Brashi River, two battle reports came one after another.
The good news is that the 2nd Motor Infantry Division has broken through the Greater Cronian region and is moving forward at a rapid pace.
The bad news is that the 6th Panzer Regiment of the 3rd Panzer Division crossed the Bushira River last night and was suddenly attacked by Polish troops when it arrived at the Vistula River at noon and was about to force its way through.
The troops who crossed the river were surrounded by the Polish army in the forest on the other side of the river, while the troops who did not cross the river were beaten by the Polish army and could not cross the river.
Across the Vistula River, the 3rd Panzer Regiment of the 6th Panzer Division was split in half by the Polish army.
Although the other two regiments of the 3rd Panzer Division rushed to relieve the siege of the 6th Panzer Regiment, they were blocked by heavy Polish troops at a distance of 40 kilometers, and it was difficult to break through for a while. The Polish army had not only heavy artillery, but also light tanks and several aircraft.
Since the division commander, Colonel Schwebenburg, led by the division headquarters, had not yet arrived, the regiments of the 3rd Panzer Division were currently in a difficult situation and were fighting on their own.
After hearing the battle report, General Guderian frowned and strictly ordered the 23rd Motorized Infantry Division, which was temporarily attached to our army, to rush to the Vistula River with a forced march to reinforce the 3rd Panzer Division.
At camp in the evening, I went to visit my immediate superior, Colonel Walter Nelin, Commander of Signals of the 19th Panzer Corps.
Colonel Nelin was hit in the left shoulder by a stray bullet during a surprise attack on the military headquarters by the Polish cavalry regiment last night. At this time, he had a high fever and was almost unconscious.
I felt very uncomfortable, and if Colonel Nelin did not have surgery as soon as possible, it might be life-threatening. However, because we are advancing so fast, the medical service detachment is still far behind us.
And if Colonel Nehrin is transferred to the rear, and because we are blitzkrieg all the way, not a war of annihilation, and now there are remnants of the Polish army along the way, and the security problem cannot be guaranteed at all, which puts Colonel Nelin's injuries in a dilemma, which can be described as two ends of the first rat.
As soon as I came out of Colonel Nerin's tent, I met Major Fritz, who was commanding the armoured reconnaissance battalion of the military headquarters to build a ring defense with all the vehicles and tanks, and learned the lesson of last night.
I had been in the 19th Panzer Corps for less than 20 days, and I didn't know Major Fritz well, but after fighting side by side last night, our friendship quickly developed.
Perhaps, only in times of war, between life and death, will the distance between people close so quickly. Otherwise, a junior officer like me, who had just been promoted from midshipman to second lieutenant, would not have been able to become friends with a major so quickly in the highly hierarchical German army.
I sat side by side with Major Fritz in an open-top jeep, and he handed me a cigarette and asked, "Is there a new war report?"
I said, no!
In the night, two cigarette butts flickered on and off. A field gendarme came and saluted us, and asked us to put out our cigarette butts because of the lights.
Yes, it's the first time we've experienced war, and despite being officers, we ignore these details.
It was the second day of fighting, and until nightfall, no new reports came, but the battle continued, and we were all worried about the 3rd Panzer Division, the 6th Panzer Regiment, for fear of any more bad news.
Due to space constraints, this article contains only two chapters from the memoirs of Second Lieutenant De Leyen (later promoted to Colonel).
If it can be recognized, this series of articles will continue to be updated daily.