I went into the house. It was a different house from the one I had left in July 1941. But it was the goal of my homecoming, after six years, one month and twenty days of war, and as a prisoner of war.
Thus ended the adventure of my youth. I was not yet 24 years old.
Glossary
Abteilung / Abt. – Battalion / department / section, dependent upon context
alte Hasen – lit. ‘old hares’, i.e. ‘old hands’
Baubataillon – Construction battalion
Ersatz – Replacement
Etappenschweine – lit. ‘Rear-area pigs’, contemptuous term used by frontline soldiers for men who populated rear-area postings avoiding seeing action
Fahnenjunkerunteroffizier – Non-commissioned officer cadet
Feldgendarmerie – Field police
Feldwebel – Sergeant
Festung – Fortress, or more usually referring to a ‘fortified place’
Gebirgsjäger – Mountain troops
Gefreiter – Lance-corporal
General der Artillerie – General of artillery
Generalfeldmarschall – Field Marshall
General der Infanterie – General of infantry
Generalleutnant – Lieutenant-General
Generalmajor – Major-General
Generaloberst – General
Hauptfeldwebel – Senior sergeant
Hauptmann – Captain
Heeresgruppe – Army group
Heimatschuss – Soldiers’ term for a wound that would require its recipient to be shipped home for treatment
Heimatkehrer – lit. ‘Homecomers’, used to refer to German soldiers returning from captivity after WWII
Hilfsarbeiter – Labourer, possibly foreign
Hilfswilliger – Auxiliary, usually non-Germans assisting military formations in a non-combat capacity
Hochdeutsch – lit. ‘high German’, equivalent of ‘the Queen’s English’
Infanteriegeschütz – Infantry gun
Kampfgruppe – Battle group
Kreis – Administrative region, approximately equivalent to a county in size
Kreisstadt – Chief town in a Kreis
Kübelwagen – Jeep, command car
Landesschützen – Regional defence troops
Landser – Nickname for German soldiers, equivalent to the British ‘Tommy’ or US ‘G.I.’
Leutnant – Lieutenant
Marschbataillon – Personnel replacement transfer battalion
Nebelwerfer – Rocket launcher
Oberfähnrich – Officer candidate
Oberfeldwebel – Master sergeant
Obergefreiter – Corporal
Oberleutnant – First lieutenant
Oberst – Colonel
Oberstleutnant – Lieutenant-colonel
Panzer Abteilung – Tank battalion
Panzerjäger – Tank hunter
Ratschbum – German slang term for the Soviet 76mm gun
SS-Unterscharführer – SS sergeant
SS-Untersturmführer – SS second lieutenant
Stadtkreis – District formed by a town
Stahlhelm – Steel helmet
Stellungsbaustab – Trench construction staff
Sturmgeschütz – Assault gun
Sturmgewehr – Assault rifle
Unteroffizier – NCO/sergeant
Volk – lit. ‘People’ but in German the term encompasses a pseudo-mystical reference to the way that the people, the land they live in etc. are inextricably linked
Volksartilleriecorps – People’s artillery corps
Volksgrenadier – People’s grenadier
Volkssturm – German equivalent of the Home Guard
Wehrkreis – Military area/district, a German administrative area for military purposes
eBooks published by Helion & Company
A selection of forthcoming eBooks from Helion & Company
Barbarossa Derailed: The Battle for Smolensk 10 July–10 September 1941 Volume 1: The German Advance, The Encirclement Battle, and the First and Second Soviet Counteroffensives, 10 July-24 August 1941
David M. Glantz
ISBN 9781907677502
Mussolini’s War. Fascist Italy’s Military Struggles from Africa and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet Union 1935–45
Frank Joseph
ISBN 9781907677519
Penalty Strike. The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander 1943–45 (Soviet Memoirs of War Vol 1)
Alexander V. Pyl’cyn
ISBN 9781907677533
Red Star Airacobra. Memoirs of a Soviet Fighter Ace 1941–45 (Soviet Memoirs of War Vol 2)
Evgeniy Mariinskiy
ISBN 9781907677540
Over Fields of Fire. Flying the Sturmovik in Action on the Eastern Front 1942–45 (Soviet Memoirs of War Vol 3)
Anna Timofeeva-Egorova
ISBN 9781907677557
Secrets of the Cold War. US Army Europe’s Intelligence & Counterintelligence Activities against the Soviets during the Cold War