GERMANS RUSH TROOPS WEST TO MEET FRENCH (9/8/39)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, McHenry Library, U.C. Santa Cruz | 9/8/39 | Otto D. Tolischus, G.H. Archambault, Ferdinand Kuhn Jr.

[tcrlaf]

Hitler’s orders were to fire NO SHOTS at the French, even if they advanced in to Germany. He still hoped for a negotiated settlement with France and Germany after Poland was absorbed.

[abb]

If England had gone along with such a plan, likely it would have taken place.

[CougarGA7]

Yep. I was having touble with the word drecht. Is that casualty?

I’m way to far removed from when I was taking German lessons. I used to be relatively fluent...18 years ago.

[henkster]

I think “da drecht” is like “da druben” or “over yonder.” It’s a dialect phrase. Or so I believe. I am also somewhat removed from the days of my German degree at Indiana University. Only about 28 years removed....

My pronunciation was considered flawless but my grammar was terrible.

I keep up with German by following Formel 1 on the German web sites.

[CougarGA7]

I’m glad you kept refreshed. I can’t say I did so I’m forced to rack my brain for old data. Maybe I should just have you take a stab at translating that document I put up. I’ll try to get to it tonight, but it will take me a while to do it.

[henkster]

I could only translate it in chunks. I don’t have the skill or time for literal translation of the whole thing. I pretty much grasp the main gist of an article but have to exercise the brain muscle pretty hard to get all the nuances.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Executive Order 8248, 9/8/1939; New York Times, 9/10/1939

Thanks for posting this item. I didn't save either of the articles from fiche. I tend to go with the old "if it bleeds, it leads" school of editing.

[PAR35]

Found no details on U-29

12 ships sunk for a total of 67,277 GRT
1 warship sunk for a total of 22,500 tons (carrier)

Captain at the time was Otto Schuhart. He earned two Iron Crosses (2nd class with entire crew & 1st Class personally) and later a Knight's Cross.

He died in 1990. He had a 10 year break in service before rejoining the navy in 1955.

[BroJoeK]

"Captain at the time was Otto Schuhart. He earned two Iron Crosses"

Nice work, thanks!

While we're mentioning him, Schuhart & U-29 will make news again, in just a few days (someone warn HMS Courageous, there's trouble ahead!):

[BroJoeK]

"Knew I’d seen the bottom pic before."

For what it's worth, this is Wiki's photo of the massacre in Ciepielow, Sept 8, 1939:

"On September 8, 1939, after the Invasion of Poland, the village of Dąbrowa (near Ciepielów) was the site of a mass murder of approximately 300 Polish prisoners of war from the Polish 74th Infantry Regiment of Upper Silesia commanded by Major Józef Pelc. They were ordered to be shot as partisans by Oberst Walter Wessel, commander of the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, after the commanding officer of the 11th Company was killed by a sniper"

[PAR35]

HMS Courageous

That's what got every man in the crew the IC2. He got one of those, and then a separate IC1 for being captain. The KC came several years later.

[Cerb]

This is a very rushed translation and by no means good. If anyone feels like correcting my mistakes go ahead. The text seems a little odd to me, it’s like a cliché of Wehrmacht crimes in poland. But even clichés come from somewhere. So this is roughly what the text says:

Our first combat in Poland

The things that ocurred so far bode ill (?). The day before yesterday our sergeant fatally shot with his 08 a 70-80 year old peasant out of the moving car. The peasant was trying to lead his cow into the stable, probably to keep it from running on the street. [The Sergeant] was very proud of his shooting skills - just imagine - out of the moving car and 12 m distance.

I just can’t believe it. Just a few weeks ago he had married and was so tender with his wife and so nice to his parents in law. Maybe he just wanted to shoot the cow? Unfortunately the pride he feels because of his shooting doesn’t allow this conclusion. Besides, a dutiful Sergeant on his way to CO would not dare to shoot a cow, which he could not use as food for his troops. This would be theft of “Wehrmachtseigentum” (property of the Wehrmacht).

Shortly after the column stood, which made it possible to see how a grey-haired old woman ran up to the corpse, crying. Maybe the “hero” would have shot that woman too, but the car was standing, so that wouldn’t have proven his shooting skill.

The same day - we still hadn’t engaged in combat, but we saw wounded Poles with raised hands left and right of the street, walking towards us - Oberjäger K. shot a wounded Pole from the moving car because he had only one arm raised. It was obvious that the Pole was only able to raise one arm, since the other arm was completely crushed at the shoulder. He just did it for the fun of shooting. I saw him aiming his MP towards the man and called out to him “Oberjäger!”. He lowered the MP. But as soon as I had turned my head I heard the sound of the shot. The Pole collapsed. K. hadn’t been able to refrain from shooting. How am I to understand that?

(2) Those were the heroic deeds of our platoon before we were even fired upon.

Now the forest of Ciepielow, close to Zwolen, the 11th platoon of our Batallion takes point. We follow,I hear MG-fire. The vanguard is under attack.[military orders I have a hard time translating since i only know the expressions in german] I’m a little scared it is hard to be brave if you don’t know why. [more orders] I obey. I consider the danger to be shot to be the punishment for my iconsequent behavior, I m not scared anymore. I just trod along, I don’t see a single Pole. Our man at the MG shoots. Ricochets everywhere. Now I realize, the Poles are shooting too. A bullet whistles closely past my right ear. Captain von Lewinsky hits the dirt first. Headshot from above. Snipers. I admire the braveness of those snipers. We spot one of them, the medic shoots him down with his pistol. [he says something to the effect that the connection broke, probably talking about the radio? or everyone ran for cover and they lost each other] Everyone is running through the forest. An hour later we regroup on the street. We lost 14 men, including Captain lewinsky. Colonel Kassel is furious, the monocle in the eye. “How dare they stand in our way! And they shot Lewinsky!” The Privates are of no importance to him.
He claims the prisoners are partisans, although everyone of them is wearing uniform. They have to take them off. Well, no they do look more like partisans. We cut their suspenders, to make it more difficult to run.
Now the prisoners have to head back in one long line along the street. Where do they take them? Back to the camp?

5 minutes later I hear the sound of a dozen heavy german machineguns. I rush towards the noise, a hundred meters back I see the 300 Polish prisoners, dead in the ditch next to the street. I risk to take 2 fotos, suddenly one of the Krad-drivers who committed the slaughter proudly stands in front of my camera lense, as ordered by Colonel Wessel.