Forgotten Soldier

In October 1943, 17 year old Hitler Youth member Heinz Nebel was drafted into service with the Reich Arbeits Dienst. He had no idea then, that a year and a half later,he would be lying, severly wounded, in a hospital. In mid-May of 1944, Nebel was released from the Arbeits Dienst with the rank of Arbeitsmann and reported a month later to Wilhelmshaven for Kriegsmarine training. At the same time hundreds of miles away, the 272 Infantry Division was sustaining heavy losses battling the invading Americans and British in Caen, Normandy.

The Allied Invasion of France had begun. Nebel never suspected that his Kriegsmarine training would have anything to do with the 272 Infantry Division.

Between Normandy and the backwards march of the 272 Infantry Division to the Falaise Pocket, the 272 was virtually obliterated. The remaining veterans of the 272 were pulled back to Doberitz at the start of September 1944. Together with the remnants of the 575 Volks Grenadier Division and newly trained draftees, the 272 Volks Grenadier Division was formed officially in October 1944, Berlin Falkensee.

Heinz Nebel's Kriegsmarine career was abruptly ended September 19,1944, and on October 8, 1944, he was officially a Grenadier in the 5th Company of the newly formed ArtilleryRegiment 272, 272 Volks Grenadier Division. He, along with at least 44 of his fellow Kriegsmarine members from 2 Admiral Nordsee Station, Stamm Ersatz Abteilung 2 Marine Ersatz Abteilung, Wilhelshaven, were transferred to the 272 Volks Grenadier Division to fill the ranks. They were shocked to find themselves in infantry and artillery regiments and going to the front. Of them, a handful survived the war and those who did survive were badly wounded.

Nebel said they received only short training with the newly formed Artillery Regiment 272 and were then shipped to the West Front, October 24,1944. The Division was transported from Berlin-Falkensee to the Eifel-Ardennes area. Nebel remembers being transported to a small town, Herhahn in the Eifel. In November 1944, the Division took position along the West Wall, Monschau area. On December 6, 1944, two regiments and artillery counter attacked units of the 28 U.S. Infantry Division during the Battle ofthe Hurtgen Forest. By December 15, they rejoined the Division near Monschau and prepared to attack nearby U.S. units. As the tides of war changed, the 272 V.G.D., along with the 6 SS pander Army were forced to defend against the 78 U.S. Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge. Again, they suffered heavy losses and most elements of the 272 V.G.D. were withdrawn to Kesternich, a small town in the Eifel.

They were again attacked January 4and 5, 1945. A heavy battle ensued. The 272 V.G.D. was positioned in a bunker complex along the Siegfried Line near Kesternich. A detailed combat report from that engagement states that an American tank stuck its barrel into the bunkers and blasted away. The Verlustmeldung (casualty reports) describe the men as being badly burned, dismembered and some even as "unidentifiable". Inside a single bunker, Bunker 24, were 20-24 German soldiers, including a lieutenant, badly wounded or killed -all the result of a single U.S. tank's action. Nebel was wounded by shrapnel January 4, 1945, (or thereabouts as he remembers), and on January 5, 1945, the entire 5th Company of Artillery Regiment 272 formed the 5th Company of Feld Ersatz Battalion 272.

On February 5, 1945, the 272 V.G.D.was down to 6000 soldiers in the Eifel. The soldier's cemetery in Gemund contains the remains of 583 men killed in the Eifel, November 1944 to February 1945. At some point, Nebel had been promoted to Gefreiten, thought he did not know when and there was no date of the promotion in his records. They simply listed him as"Gefreiten". Nebel said they threw everything they had at the advancing Americans: all elements of the 272V.G.D. including his Feld Ersatz Battalion and even the Division Kampf Schule attempted to hold back the advancing U.S. forces. Even snipers from the 272 V.G.D. could not halt the U.S. tacks and U.S. infantry's advance. A round had badly mangled his right leg and knee. Nebel was evacuated from schwandnaule in the Eifel to Einruhrand then on to Heilbronn. It was there his right leg was amputated. He lay in the hospital for five weeks. He said, at the time, he was told he had been promoted to Unteroffizier because of his severe wounds, but no records of the promotion exist. He was also told he was being awarded the EKII and the Silver Wound Badge for the same severe wounds, but no paperwork or medals ever came his way.

He was transferred from the hospital at Heilbronn to one in Badmerkenheim, and later to Darmstadt and again to Bergedorf by Hamburg, where he was officially released from the military at just 18 years of age. The war had ended in defeat for Germany by then. He began his journey home to the Russian Zone. He knew what awaited him, but he just wanted to go home. So, in the night, he went secretly over the Russian Zone Border and was shortly thereafter taken into custody by the Russians. However, the Russians kept his discharge papers, so he had no chance to escape from the Russian Sector and no record of his military service. He finally arrived at his home in Zens, a small village with 102 inhabitants, about 30 kilometers south of Magdeburg, where he continues to live today.

Living in East Germany, he received a monthly pension of $200, and additional $25 for being handicapped. He could not prove to the DDR government that he had ever been a soldier; no photos in uniform, no uniform, no papers. When Germany unified in October 1990, he wrote to the Bundes Archives to attempt to obtain his service record, but again with no success. It was as if he had never served in the military, and yet he had given a leg defending Germany.

In September 1991, a moldy suitcase was discovered in a cellar in the little Harz mountain village of Wernigerode, where the remnants of the III. Artillery Regiment 272 had surrendered to the Americans in April 1945. This silicase contained divisional records, over 160 Wehrpasses, Soldbuchs, correspondence, reports - all from various battalions and companies of the 272 V.G.D.

I bought that suitcase. Using addresses from 1944/45, I wrote over 70 letters, to all the soldiers from the 272 V.G.D., that I thought could possibly be alive. I received 13 replies. Nebel's letter was among the replies. With many corrections, it was badly typed on a typewriter he had borrowed from his son who lives in some small village an hour or more away from his father. He wrote that he had never received either a military pension or a militry disability pension because the government had never been able to locate any records of his military service or combat injury. I made copies of his entire file, (Wehrpass, numerous papers, Kriegsstmmroll Buch listing, etc.), got them notarized and sent them to him. Due to his handicap, Nebel is confined to his house, so his wife attempted to submit the copies. They do not own acar, so she made 11 bus trips to various government offices until she finally found the correct office to submit the papers. As of February 1994, Nebel is still waiting to get a reply from the German Government.

In February 1994, I visited Heinz Nebel and his family. I wanted to personally return his Wehrpass and military service records. He still lives in that same village. The roads remain much the same as they were in the war years: all cobblestone and narrow with little maintenance. Nebel's house, on the main street of the village , was his mother's house. At some point it was renovated, but today remains without much modern convenience. A television is his only contact with the outside world. His ill-fitting prosthesis causes his stump to blister, so basically, he is confined to his three and a half room house. The"yard" is filled with livestock. His wife raises rabbits (76 hutches), chickens, dogs and at one time ponies, all to survive. Before the wall came down, their little side livestock business did well, as Frau Nebel said, locals came to them for eggs and they sold several rabbits a week for roughly $5 each. Now, most locals choose to shop at newly built supermarkets.

He has no telephone, so it's not possible to simply phone and check on the status of the paperwork. As stated before, he has no auto, so he cannot easily visit government offices to make inquiries. When I left Nebel's home,tears welled up in his eyes as hec lutched the papers. He is left to survive on $200 a month in a country where soldiers cannot be proud of their service. Heinz Nebel, with his remaining two teeth and ill-fitting prosthesis,s its in his chair and hopes for a better future.

Emilie CaldwellStewart is a dealer and collector of German Third Reich documents and paper items. She is well known throughout the hobby and is always willing to share her knowledge with other collectors.

Emilie Caldwell Stewart, Forgotten Soldier", Der Gauleiter, 1994