87 German Boy Soldier 2 - Save the Last Bullet

British Normandy memorial - my prize winning photo

Heidi Langbein, author of Save the Last Bullet

Willi Langbein, German boy soldier WW2

James Papallia story Chapter 1 - Spooky or What? feature

Stop press - Meme kindly created by Gabriel Cervantes WW2 memoirs

Fighting Through Episode 86 – German Boy Soldier Pt 2 Save the Last Bullet

ww2 memoirs

More great unpublished history! WWII

WW2 podcast and memoirs

Intro Passage 1

At Kokoda the latrines were all busy as many of the soldiers had dysentery and Uncle Harry decided he had to go really bad so walked into the jungle to have a dump. As he was doing this he looked up and saw a Japanese soldier in a tree with his gun pointed at him.

Intro Passage 2

The Führer had issued the Volkssturm (Home Guard) decree,

drafting all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty because

he was running out of soldiers. Anybody who could hold a gun was sent off to the front.

Intro Passage 3

I glanced at the 20-metre mark to estimate the tank’s distance correctly.

Close, they’re close. I squared my stance. Right eye on

the viewfinder, left eye shut. I zeroed in on the tank directly in front

of me.

Welcome to this ww2 podcast

Hello again and another exciting WW2 welcome to the Fighting Through second world war podcast. 

I’m Paul Cheall, son of Bill Cheall whose WWII memoirs have been published by Pen and Sword – in FTFDTH. 

The aim of this podcast is to read family stories, memoirs, and interviews with veterans in all the countries and all the forces. I dare you to listen!

I’m so sorry I’ve been out of circulation during the summer but holidays, covid and recording the audiobook of Save the Last Bullet have just got in the way. Even my football team Norwich City have been underperforming. I was so disgusted the other week when they lost I decided to stop supporting them and in a fit of anger I nailed my season ticket to a lamppost. A few hours later I decided it hadn’t been a good idea as I’d miss seeing my mates, so I went out to get it back to find that someone had stolen the damn nail! Thanks Wayne! Old uns but good uns!

Another thing I did while I’ve been away was to enter a photograph competition run by the British Normandy Memorial trust, based at Vers sur Mers, just up from Gold Beach in France. My pic was a field full of bright red poppies and in the distance was the memorial.

You can see the pic in the show notes and my prize is to feature on the November page of the calendar. The whole memorial complex has only recently been completed and it’s a dedication to the 22,000 British, French and other foreigners, (both soldiers and citizens) killed during the World war two Normandy campaign under British command.

I visited France in 2019 and saw the memorial before all the surrounding plaques and supporting structures were erected so I was very lucky to get the shot that I did.

My full visit to Normandy is covered in episode 45. And you can see the video of the poppy scene in the show notes to this current episode at FTP.co.uk. The great thing about this memorial is that it’s near Vers sur Mer, where an excellent Gold Beach museum is, and Gold Beach proper is just down the road where the Green Howards, East Yorks and Sherwood Yeomanry tank regiment landed on 6 June. It’s only a short distance from Crepon where the Green Howards memorial is and just ten minutes drive from the busy town of Arromanches is where you’ll find that incredible artificial port, the Mulberry Harbour.

If you would like to support the British Normandy Memorial and would like one of these super calendars, there’s a link in the show notes.

This episode

Lined up for you in this episode is a chapter from Heidi Langbein’s newly published book about her German father as a 14 year old soldier. I’ve got a family story sent in by Bernie Walker, and I’ve also heard from the family of one of my dads comrades, Bill Vickers.

BILL VICKERS  Family stories 1 –- ww2 memoirs

On that latter note

Ed Savage wrote in recently:

“Hi Paul,

Thanks for all the information on your website, truly amazing (FTP), what an incredible man your father must have been.  A friend of mine has just asked me if I will look into any info I can find on his wife Sharon's dad, Francis William Vickers.

Francis was with the Green Howards and won the MM at Mareth in 1943.

Any hints on where to start would be greatly appreciated.

After I’d peeled my eyebrows off the ceiling and my chin off the floor I replied to Ed with some delight because Bill Vickers is a bit of a legend imho. He was a pal of Rufty Hill, who was killed on Gold Beach, and Stan Hollis VC - and the stories I’ve got about him are legend.  I’m not going to repeat the stories because they’re easy to find in a couple of episodes where I talk about him. He’s interviewed in a book Operation SCIPIO written by Barrie Barnes about the North African battle of Wadi Akarit when he gets in a right old scrap with the enemy.

You’ll need to check out the episodes themselves for his full story but he was of course in the Regimental Band with Rufty and a few others. I do however want to share this tale from Barries book where at the end of his interview with Barrie, Bill says:

“

Before the battle of ’Wadi Akarit’ five of my mates and me were sat talking and the topic came up what we would do when the war was over and we got back home; one said he would open a newsagents and general store, another said he hoped to get a lorry and go into the haulage business, the next one said he hoped to buy a mini bus and run bus trips, the next one said he hoped to get his job back at the steelworks.

The last one said he hoped to get a job in the building trade because with all the houses destroyed and damaged in the air raids there would be work for years. Then I was asked ‘What are you going to do when you get home Bill?’ my answer was ‘I'm going to wait until I get home’, I knew we had a lot more battles to fight and I was right.

Fate decreed that of the six of us, I was the only one to get home; two were killed at Mareth, two killed in Sicily and lastly my best mate Rufty Hill - one of the first killed on the beach on D-Day. None of them were married or had children, fate decreed my wife Gladys and I should have six children - three boys and three girls - one each for my mates and one for me."

So these kids must include Sharon the lady who’s currently digging for info on her Dad!

Sharon if you’re listening, now you know about your Dad. So you must have a couple of sisters and three brothers, the ones Bill referred to above.

Ed thanks so much for getting in touch. I’ve given you copies of everything I’ve got for the family, on Bill, including a load of photos.

You can hear all about Bill Vickers in episodes 25 and 78. There are links in the show notes.

Ed explained a little more: “I met Sharon’s husband, ie Bill's son in law, Keith, on a charity convoy to Ukraine about a month ago and we got talking about the research I'd done into my grandfather's war so he asked if I'd have a look into his wife's dad.

Can't thank you enough, looks like I'd better buy the book now :-).

And Keith has given me some info on his own efforts to raise money to help Ukraine.

He says “My own Just Giving Page is Ed Savage is fundraising for Yorkshire Aid Convoy and I raised over £2,400 for the first convoy which was then matched by my employer, BP.

Alternatively you can put people in contact with the Yorkshire Aid website Yorkshire Aid Convoy – Yorkshire Aid Convoy – Donate Now. That’s the link I’m putting in the show notes – there’s a pic of a smiling King Charles on their web site too!

Our second convoy Truck, nicknamed Trish, was donated by two brothers who lost their mum, Trish, during covid. Trish was a training vehicle that was left behind on our last trip and it was turned into an aid unit for doctors at the Front in Kharkiv.

I actually have a video of Trish arriving in Kharkiv on the back of a train to the sounds of air raid sirens and explosions, gets me every time. The lads have reported that repeated attempts are being made to hack their business website (presumably by Russians), they had left their web address plastered all over the vehicle. They are seeing the funny side.

I saw some incredible individual & personal acts of kindness from all of the drivers. One of them had built an orphanage in Ukraine and this was his first chance to get out there since before Covid.

The nuns of the orphanage and the children came to meet us - he was greeted like he was their father. This particular driver had taken what his church had managed to raise to give directly to the nuns. Another guy nicked everyone’s snacks out of the cabs and gave them to the kids, we only realised once we had set off  😀.

I have to admit to getting something in my eye on numerous occasions.   

Thanks again for your support. I'm really very glad to have accidentally met you and I know that my mate's family are really happy to have learnt more about Bill.

Cheers,

Ed  

Ah go on then - It’s a while since we had one so I’ll just add How Good is That?!

And Ed has given me a note from the Yorkshire aid convoy about what they need – and presumably what they are spending the money on.

Request for Aid for Ukraine

To whom it may concern,

We are a UK registered charity delivering aid into Ukraine requesting the following humanitarian aid donations:

Hygiene products (sanitary pads, tampons, nappies, wipes)

Medical supplies (first aid kits, bandages, gauzes, dressings for burns)

Thermal underwear

Torches and standalone lamps

Candles

Batteries and power banks

Blankets

Bedding

Tents, mats and sleeping bags

Tent heaters

Communications (mobile phones, radios and walkie talkies)

Laptops and tablets

Non-perishable food (inc baby formula, tinned food, grains, pasta, flour, crackers)

Tableware

Crutches and walkers

If you feel you are able to help in any way please get in touch via www.yorkshireaidconvoy.co.uk

yours sincerely

Gary Dooley

Trustee

That list is in the full show transcript, at FTP…

And the link to the Yorkshire Aid Convoy website is in the show notes, but to remind you it’s www.yorkshireaidconvoy.co.uk. You’ll find photos, videos and all sorts there, as well as that photo of King Charles, the aristocrat formerly known as Prince (ya heard it on the FTP first!)

Review 1

The following people kindly left show reviews in various places:

• Andy wake up world from the United Kingdom
• anonymousthe4 from Australia
• Eric York Pennsylvania
• JWM1960s

Review Keith Gibson

My Dad and many of my uncles fought in WW2. My father in law was a tank man in WW2 and Korea. None of them would say much about their war experiences so hearing about the experiences of others who served is a privilege. Thanks for your efforts. Keith.

Review/Survey 5 Mike Mullane Tennessee

Thank you SO much for all the effort you have put into this. To hear the podcast in your English accent feels as if you put us right there. I have read a lot of Books about WWII. But to hear your Dad’s accounts from his own eyes and thoughts is Truly riveting. Looking for the book to read now. Thank you, Mike – that’ll be the FTFDTH book then?

Back in the early 80's I was in the army and stationed in Nurembourg Germany at Merrell Barracks. It was once headquarters for the SS. I was a young private back then and was very curious. In the chapel of the barracks there were still the swastikas embedded in the floor. There were several levels underground that we were forbidden to go into. But one time I snuck down a level and found a stars and stripes newspaper with the headline “kids, watch out for Ike”. To this day I wish I’d held onto that. I believe the paper was from Eisenhower running for president, after his retirement.

I was in the Army and my last unit was with the 101 Screaming Eagles.

Be safe and Gods Speed. 

This was only the second Podcast I have listened to and I am hooked on the series.

Spooky or What 15.35

Time for a very well timed story. Because talking about the Screaming Eagles, which Mike was, I’ve just received a spooky ghost story written by one of our youngest listeners, James Papallia. James is military mad and is a huge fan of WW2 and General Eisenhower. His Dad Frank sent this in on James behalf.

Apparently James teacher told Frank that James, in his own time, has started to write a book. It's more a collection of short stories but cool nonetheless - they're all about World War II.

Captain James Papallia - thank you for giving us that scary story I just love it and the next one apparently is going to be at Dunkirk I wonder who you've going to meet there are!? Be proud of your writings – I’m sure there’s a future historian in you James – make sure you keep your first manuscript – it might be worth a fortune one day!

BERNIE WALKER Family stories 1 WW2

Bernie Walker
North Turramurra, Australia

Harry Cramp

My father in laws best friend was “Uncle” Harry Cramp.

I remember many good times with them, family barbeques, golf and playing cards and of course there was

whiskey.

Harry was also a big part of my father in law’s famous bushwalking club in the Blue Mtns. west of Sydney.

One weekend while we were doing a bushwalk on the 6-foot track between Jenolan Caves and Katoomba

Uncle Harry was telling of the time he was in the Australian Army in WW2.

He trained at Holsworthy army barracks. It was established in the late 1800’s and has been in use since WW1.

Originally it was a massive training ground.

In the entryway of my log cabin west of Sydney we had an old train carriage seat complete with the back wall,

mirrors, seat numbers and brass luggage rack. We used it to put our shoes on and off. Uncle Harry was

not a small guy and in the 1980s was a hefty 130kg.

I looked at him in surprise as he told us that when he had finished basic training in 1942, they boarded an old

rattler (interstate country train) from Sydney to Cairns. The cars were full to capacity, and he said that the only

place left to sleep laying down flat was in the luggage rack

He must have been smaller then!

At Cairns they were put on transport ships to Papua New Guinea (PNG) where he was one of the Aussies to go

all the way to Kokoda. It was a hard slog for them and surprisingly he never saw a live Japanese soldier during

the whole trek but was shot at a lot so he shot back.

From time to time they came across a body of a dead soldier. One time a fellow soldier said we better bury this

one and Harry said to the fellow, “That is very kind of you and a noble thing to do to a fallen enemy” The fella

retorted “If we don’t bury him now, he will begin to stink in this jungle heat and that I can’t stand!!”.

At Kokoda the latrines were all busy as many of the soldiers had dysentery and Uncle Harry decided he had

to go really bad so walked back into the jungle to have a dump. As he was doing this he looked up to his left and saw his first live Japanese soldier in a tree with his gun pointed at him. He stood up very quickly when he saw him and a bullet went where his head had been and grazed his buttocks!!

One of his mates was on Guard duty and saw

the Japanese soldier just as he shot Uncle Harry in the butt. His mate quickly despatched the fellow in the tree

and even though they thought they had done a good job of mopping up the Japanese soldiers, they had to do

another careful sweep so no more people got shot in the ass.

No purple heart for getting shot the bum.

Uncle Harry’s final patrols were in Japan. The troop ship they were on was to be one of the first wave to hit the

beaches on the main island of Japan south of Tokyo. They were lucky as the day Japan surrendered, they hit

the beach and went into the nearest town. There was not a person to be seen and no-one shot at them as

their Emperor had told them to lay down their arms and where was the first place the Aussies went? The

brewery - and boy did they enjoy the Japanese beer!!

He spent the rest of his tour in Japan as an occupation soldier making great friends in Japan and went back

many times after the war with his last trip in the mid 1980’s. I have not been able to find out the exact unit

Harry was in but I do believe that he may have been in the Unit that Les Cook was in.

When I lived in Leura in the Blue Mts west of Sydney one weekend my Father-in-law, Uncle Harry and I were

putting up a clothesline and as you know it is not easy doing anything with a committee, but we did have fun.

Then a big Black Cockatoo was up a big tree near us went “CAW CAW CAW CAW” and as quick as a wink my

father-in-law said yes dear! Harry, Jerry, and I fell on the ground still laughing and if you knew my Mother-inlaw

you would understand why we were laughing.

She was looking out the back window of the house where we were assembling the clothesline

and later asked us what we were laughing about. We quickly said it was a joke we couldn’t repeat and that

just made her mad! Again.

Jerry (Jaroslav Valek)

My father-in law, Jerry was born in 1930 in Brno Czechoslovakia (Near Prague) – Now the Czech Republic

(Czechnia).

In the first years of German occupation, he spent that time with an Auntie and Uncle in the mountains. In

about 1943 he ended up in Prague. To survive, even though he was a child, he worked as an interpreter as

he was gifted being able to speak Russian, German, Italian, some French, Spanish and of course Czech.

He was very lucky as his work as an interpreter kept him clothed and barely fed (enough to stave off

starvation).

One day he was walking down the street just after several people were shot due to German reprisals after a

partisan attack. Sadly, as the Nazi’s would shoot 10 for every one of theirs that they lost and sometimes even

wipe out whole towns if one of the high-ranking officers was shot. They never knew what the Nazi SS mongrels

would do!!

The townspeople that were nearby and were not shot were made to pile up the bodies. Jerry came across the

pile of bodies that were put in a narrow lane and one of the hands reached out and grabbed his arm as he

heard a whimper for help. There was sadly nothing that he could do as the German soldiers were watching and

he would have been punished or even shot and added to the pile.

Another relative from his wife’s side of the family angrily accused Jerry of being in the Hitler Youth and when

I asked about it he said he did join as he was desperate and they also had no choice. They were given uniforms

(clothing was short in supply) they exercised and trained to fight and most importantly they were fed as food

was also very scarce for the common citizen especially in the occupied countries.

He didn’t believe what they were taught knowing that it was just brainwashing. He kept his thoughts to

himself and said that he did what he had to do to survive.

Near the end of the war, he went back up into the mountains to stay with Auntie and Uncle. Then went back

to Brno in Czech (where he trained to operate a delicatessen after the war ended).

It was said by many Czechs (when the Russians were approaching from the east) that they were upset that

the American army would not move through Czechoslovakia to save them from the Russians as

they knew what both the Russians and the Germans did to the Polish people, wiping out many more Jews and

killing off as many partisans as they could.

As the first months of the Russian occupation began and seeing what was starting to happen to

Czechoslovakia, Jerry, his brother Joe and 2 friends decided to try to get to the west.

The first time they only got a few miles and the local police caught them on their way to the border. They

spent the night in jail and were told not to do it again. Being stubborn they tried again a couple of weeks later

travelling by night and hiding during the day. But they didn’t hide well enough this time. The 3rd night they

thought that they had crossed the border and laid down to sleep after they crossed the railway tracks

thinking that they were in Austria.

German Shepard’s had gotten their scent and they were woken up by their barking. They were caught again as they were on the wrong side of the tracks, so were in Czechoslovakia not Austria.

They spent the next 3 months in Jail as the Police chief thought that would teach them a lesson and they

would not to try to leave the country again.

The Police Chief was wrong as they certainly were stubborn and wanted to see what the world had for them

that would be certainly better than what the communists had in store for them.

They made a third attempt, this time travelling cross country staying away from the roads, villages and checkpoints.

(This time they could not take his brother Joe as he suffered from pneumonia. Joe was extremely upset

but went on to do accounting and business studies eventually becoming an economic advisor to the Czech

government, retiring just before the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. He was never happy with the

communists but like so many just kept it to himself to preserve his life. )

Getting near Vienna they contacted the Zatapek family who lived there at the time in the English sector.

The Valek family and the Zatapeks had been close friends. Emil Zatapek was a very well-known runner and a

champion cyclist, going on to set records as a runner then went on to win multiple gold medals at several

Olympic Games.

They got to a farm (friends of the Zatapek’s) who had a farm wagon with a false bottom where they were

hidden for the ride under a load of hay. The wagon had been used for transporting downed Allied airmen, and

anything else that they could while Austria was part of the Third Reich and everyone was being constantly

watched. With military occupation after the war it was still the same with just a few more freedoms.

They were fed, rested and given more travelling clothes.

Emil being a champion athlete had freedom to train and cycle through all of Vienna even though it was divided

up into 4 sectors (French, English, American and Russian).

He trained with a team of cyclists, and as they trained almost every day they were basically ignored passing

through all of the checkpoints they got around them then eventually out of the city.

Their next destination was across the border into Germany. They found work on farms quite easily as so many

of the young men had died or were missing at the end of the war.

On one farm they were very well taken care of but decided to move on after a few days when the farmer’s

daughter got too interested in him. Jerry was not ready to be a farmer in Germany.

In a very circuitous route they eventually made their way into Italy.

Like many they had a long walk to Rome and when they got there they were sleeping under bridges, seeing the

sites like the Coliseum that at that time had most of its floor and was covered with grass along with all of the

wonderful sites of the ancient city.

Eating was a problem and they had to take to subterfuge - sometimes they would go to a restaurant where you could get a carafe of wine and some bread.

As the waiter came with their order, one of them would ask

where the bathroom was, the second would then go - and Jerry would finish his wine and also pretend to go to the

toilet. All 3 of them would skip - not paying a bill. The restaurants eventually caught on so they could not get a

free feed that way anymore.

Being catholic they knew one of the priests at the Vatican and were able to get some assistance, Red Cross

packages and food from time to time. The priest was a good friend to many.

In desperation and wanting to have a regular meal the three of them joined the French Foreign Legion that

had a base near the Vatican. They were fed then clothed (fresh uniforms) and were starting their basic

training.

The problem is once they joined the French Foreign Legion, there was no leaving at that time.

Their friendly priest was wondering where they were and tracked them down in the camp. Talking to them

over the back fence of the camp one evening he helped them plan their escape. They jumped the fence going

AWOL and hid in the Vatican.

As soon as he could the priest smuggled them eventually to a displaced persons camp southeast of Rome in

Ancona. The camp was run by a big one-armed American Colonel from Nebraska (they thought). He was tough but fair.

A better camp could not have existed, and it was a very short walk into the town.

They all had work to do cleaning, washing, cooking and occasionally work in the town or on nearby farms.

The Red Cross was a fantastic organization and helped out so many people during and after the war and Jerry

would always go out of his way to donate to the Red Cross.

The Red Cross would give each of the people in the camp a voucher that could be used for getting clothing,

food or whatever was needed at that time.

Jerry and his mates at the camp went to one of the local Brothels and convinced the Madame that the

vouchers were redeemable by the Camp commandant (the big one-armed American Colonel) at the end of the

month.

To put it nicely they had a great 4 weeks before the Madame showed up at the camp demanding payment for

services rendered and was very very upset when the Colonel had her escorted to the front gate.

Jerry and his mates were found out and had to do a lot of KP. Jerry never did like peeling potatoes!

By this time 3 years had gone by. Jerry and all of the people in the displaced persons camp were offered free

passage to places like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand and Australia where immigrants were needed for a

wide variety of industries and occupations.

Jerry being the only one who understood some English told his friends that they should accept the jobs in

Australia. He thought it was a ship station (building ships as some of them were experienced carpenters) but it

was a Sheep Station near Bathurst. They had all sold their warm coats thinking that they were going to be

working in sunny Sydney then nearly froze when they were on the train to Bathurst - at that time a 2 day train

journey.

Some of the mates took a long time to forgive him for selling off their coats. The quarters on the

sheep station were also not insulated and were cold in the winter and hot as hell in the summer.

A long time was spent working sheep and fixing fences. There are many places in the Australian outback where

a 50,000-acre paddock could be stocked with 50,000 sheep and there would be the

same number of wild kangaroos.

Jerry working as a Jackaroo was riding the fence line checking the wires and posts one day, then looked to his

left and there was a big red kangaroo looking him straight in the eye!

Jerry was 5’10” and on a 17 hand high horse so the Kangaroo would have been 8 feet tall (2.4

metres)!

Eventually Jerry would end up in Sydney starting one of the first delicatessens in Glebe near

Sydney and ended up driving trams in Sydney.

A short-sighted government tore out the tram tracks in 1961 and Jerry had the honour of driving the

last Bondi tram. He was given this as he had stopped a runaway tram and saved the life of a woman who

slipped and fell where her dress went under the wheels. If the tram had rolled 12 more inches it would have

crushed her legs. Jerry ended up being the head of Finance in NSW Transport.

In the mid 1980’s Jerry and his wife were able to go to Brno and see his brother and family for the first time in

40 years. Brother Joe and his wife Liba were allowed to cross the border to go to Austria for a weekend with

Jerry and his wife (Joe’s children were not allowed by the communist government to travel with them basically

being held hostage as was the usual thing while the communists were in power).

When they went into a big supermarket in Vienna, Joe and Liba burst into tears as they had not seen that

much food and that much variety since 1939. Joe told me that in their grocery stores there was one type of

mustard and in Vienna there was over 50 different types and brands.

My heart goes out to all that have served in all wars to preserve and achieve peace. Good luck to the people of

Ukraine in defence of their country and my hope goes out to the wonderful people of Russia that will

hopefully one day push their government to pull out of Ukraine and live at peace with their neighbors, not

coveting what does not belong to them.

Bernie – many thanks for writing in with that story. The timing is rather good as it partly matches the flavour of Heidi’s father’s memoir, coming up.

Buy me a coffee 1 Jeff Mansour

I’m so glad to have found your podcast. You recite the stories with the care and respect they deserve and you express genuine interest and, when appropriate, humor. It’s Band of Brothers meets Band of Blokes! Thank you!

Buy me a coffee 2 Lisa

Lisa Loftis – self styled Psycho fan Springfield, Missouri

USA

Here’s a newspaper clipping of an old wartime recipe that Lisa sent from her grandmother. It really belongs in my Mum’s episode 33 Women at War but here goes anyway.

It’s called Liver filling

One chopped onion 1 tablespoon butter or fortified margarine

2 hard cooked eggs

2/3 of a pound of steamed pork liver

Third Cup of cream

salt and pepper

steam 25 minutes in deep well cooker or tightly covered pan

cool and put through … and it suddenly stops!

I’m thinking maybe … put it through a 2’’ mortar and fire it at the Germans but maybe not. They might fire some sauerkraut back at us and I don’t know which is worse. You know it’s funny how the various nationalities are nicknamed by what they eat. We called the Germans the Krauts – presumably after Sauerkraut sausage, We call the French the Frogs and they call us the Rosbifs!

Jerries came from the shape of German helmets which resembled an upside down chamber pot and Jerry is thought to come from Jeroboam, a large bottle.

Aiden Lee on Quora shed light on the nickname Hun for the Germans. While inspecting corpses in ww1, soldiers apparently found belts with the words Gott mit Uns which meant God with us, but they thought it meant Uns, or Ungarians, resulting to them being referred to as Uns – or if you were an officer, the Huns.

But we all love each other really … don’t we?!

Listener do you know any more?!

I can’t find any things the Germans called the Brits apart from Englander or Tommy – as in For you Tommy…

That does remind me to remind you, if you haven’t already, to check out the podcast For that same phrase - It’s an excellent run down of various mesmerising POW escape attempts – on a podcast player near you.

Anyway, thanks for the recipe and your support Lisa.

Melissa

Melissa Arnold from Sault [Sue] St Marie, Ontario, Canada. Collector of stories extraordinaire. Has recently worked in a nursing home and often listened to veteran stories during the covid lockdown. Well done Melissa.

Thank you guys, all of you

Peter Skeggs Gooch from Wymondham Norfolk England. A podcast I will keep listening to time and again. Peter is a proud owner of Dad’s book.

Your father has my sincere admiration for all he gave us, freedom and hope, what more could anyone ask for.
Complimentary FT bookmark is in the post Peter. Let me know if it hasn’t turned up.

MAIN EVENT – HEIDI Save the last bullet

Tarah!

Roughly 2 years ago, Heidi Langbein wrote to me:

“Dear Paul, 

My father, Willi Langbein, was 13 when the Nazis took him away from his parents under the pretense of protecting him. Instead, he was molded into cannon fodder for use against the Russian army. He was sent to the Eastern Front in the last days of the war, and was never expected to return alive. Having survived against all odds, my father gives an eye-witness account of the devastating effects of war from his unique perspective as a child soldier. I have written a book, as yet unpublished, in memoir form, transcribed from audio tapes he narrated in German and from my many conversations with him. I strongly believe his story should be shared with the public due to its relevance to current events.”

That was my contact with Heidi and following on from that I produced a FT WW2 podcast episode, 69, showcasing Willi’s story and appealing for interested publishers to get in touch. Well, that episode took off rather well for me and was downloaded over 12,000 times, roughly double my average. It certainly boded well for the clear interest there is in the German side of WW2, as already evidenced in the emergence of the new magazine out Iron Cross and the success of Jonathan Trigg’s book, D-Day Through German Eyes, which coincidentally I also featured in episode 47.

And little did I know that when I tipped off my own publishers, PNS, they would express interest in Heidi and within 18 months the book would be polished off, printed and distributed in the UK and America. How Good is that? I can hear you ask!

And who’d have thought I would personally get involved with the production of the audio version of the book? I’ve donated my labour for free with this project but Heidi is going to donate a generous sum to charity on the back of sales volumes achieved.

So there you go, it’s been a herculean effort all round and I must congratulate Heidi for her many years of effort to bring this book to fruition and if there are any awards going for dogged persistence, she wins it in spades. You can hear me interview Heidi about it in episode 69. And she’s currently busying herself producing German and Spanish translations of the book, whilst holding down a busy full time day job! And in case you’re wondering, will I be involved in the German audio book? I very much doubt it.

But boy we had some fun wrapping my tonsils around some of those German words. We had me sending emergency Whatsapp messages to Heidi asking how to pronounce a word and her graciously recording the answer during what I imagine was her lunch hour. Words like wherertuchtigungslager! Wehrer tüchti gungs lager – sounds like it would mean something like ‘Where the heck have I put my beers?’  but actually means military training camp, which is where this next chapter is located. So this is your last chance to soak up the vibes from this book before you buy it.  Unless of course you stay for the PS where one final passage awaits, with Willi facing off an oncoming Russian tank.

Sometime in the future I’m going to be able to share some hilarious outtakes from my recording of Save the Last Bullet, because although the book clearly has a serious side, there’s also plenty of humour, which had me falling off my chair more than once.

Here’s a quick resume of the book, before we enjoy the chapter.

Willi Langbein was just thirteen when the Nazis took him away from his parents under the pretence of protecting him. Their real reason was to turn him into cannon-fodder for use against Hitler's enemies. Deployed to the collapsing Eastern Front in the last days of the war, Willi, now aged fourteen, and his schoolmates were ordered to stave off the relentless Russian advance. None was expected to return alive from the final battles of the Third Reich.

Against all odds, Willi does survive but his ordeal is far from over. He returns home to find everything he knows destroyed. Numb and confused, he is mandated to serve one year of forced farm labour.

After his release, he gradually realizes that all he was taught to believe in was a lie and he sinks into depression. Eventually, thanks to his friendship with a kind British soldier, he begins to heal. It begins to dawn on him that he can play a part to ensure that the evil he witnessed is never repeated.

Ultimately, he succeeds by earning the Medal of European Merit in 1979 for his contribution to the advancement of European democracy. Willi's graphic and moving story, told from a Nazi child soldier's perspective, is an inspiring memoir of lost innocence and despair, but also of determination and hope restored.

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So, to bring you up to date in the book, our young hero Willi has left his home in Witten after his parents were coerced by the Nazi government to allow their children to be evacuated to rural areas of Germany. The national socialist propaganda machine invested a great deal of effort in portraying the KLV program (KLV) as health giving vacation trips for city children. But that isn’t really what it turned out to be.

Willi is staying with a German family in the city of Konstanz and very rarely sees his parents, one of the few exceptions being Christmas 1943 when he sneaks home to see them. You may have heard about that in the Christmas episode 76. I listened to it again yesterday and it is an absolute cracker, excuse the pun.

Willi turned 14 in May 1944 and graduated from the Hitler Jungfolk youngsters into the Hitler Jugend, where these older boys would choose a military speciality.

And this brings us to the chapter 13 of Save the Last Bullet, Military Training, here goes.

Insert clip

And then we will leave it. It’s quite scary, really, because reading through the book it’s difficult not to be struck by the comparisons with present times and if you replaced the names of the leaders and the countries, it’s quite disturbing what the parallels are. It is a great story and one which has few comparisons but I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions if you happen to buy the book. 

If you’re interested in buying Save the Last Bullet you can get it from bookstores in the UK and USA, Amazon or Pen and Sword direct. There are some links in the shownotes.

And Good luck to Heidi with her launch.

Thanks

Round up

Thank you so very much for your support and feedback and for making the time to listen to me. I do appreciate you all.

If you want to help this show WW2

write, like, rate, review or share it - howsoever it pleases you. Above all – enjoy.

And thanks to Kevin Koller from Utah for sharing a couple of my Facebook posts with his family and friends together with a rec to listen to the pod. Good man Kevin.

In that vein

Ben Etheridge from Victoria Aus. For being such a champion follower this month.

He’s been all over my Twitter and FB etc like a rash. Good on yer mate.

PS Save the Last Bullet “bonus” track

When an audio book is submitted for approval you have to submit a sample passage to paint the flavour of its quality before it passes into the production stage. That passage then later becomes the sample that potential customers can play to help them decide whether to buy the book. So here’s the sample Heidi and I chose TO PUT FORWARD. It’s the very scary moment that 14 year old Willi is stood in a fox hole aiming his weapon at an oncoming Russian tank.

I’m Paul Cheall

God Speed!

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