If he tells you that again, punch him in the kidneys (or maybe not). That's crap.
The Germans had fully motorised divisions. Particularly the "Big Three"
However, many of the infantry divisions (which formed the majority of the German military might) did get the short end of the stick. Many were only partionally motorised, and some not at all. They were however horsedrawn...
The only units to deploy any handdrawn stuff on a large scale were the Fallschirmjägers (paratroops), as horses tend to shy away from jumping out of aircraft.
First thing to point out is that i personally know nothing at all about this, so i'm not arguing just relaying what i'd been told.
Now the guy i've been talking to has a collection of something like 60 vehicles, and has just signed them over to the government under trust and has set himself up as a charity called the ZdKfz foundation
And he owns Rommel's staff car too
Now what Mike did tell me was that the "big three" as you put it, were fully motorised and highly trained which is why they were so feared and attacked with devestating effect, but the rest of the German army were horse drawn or manually motivated, and he has both horse drawn and hand carts in his collection. Apparently they simply did not have the resources to equip their units as there progress through europe was simply too fast.
Now i don't know the true facts but i'm not going to punch Mike in the kidneys over this as the guy speaks fluent german and is currently interviewing as many german veterans as he can track down. This may seem an unusual thing to be doing but there is a reason, simply that no-one else is?
Quite a few of his vehicles were SS etc, and by tracing thru their meticulous service records he has managed to track down some members of these vehicles crew and has reunited them with their vehicles for the first time in 60+ years. Now the problem is that rather than being seen as hero's as our veterans are, he has found most german veterans to be nervous and almost in hiding and almost dismissing their past actions. They are simply not proud of their actions no matter how great there Heroism was for their country. Once Mike has explained what he is doing and has managed to talk them round to an interview he has been witness to the first time that these brave soldiers have talked about their lives during the conflict. (you have to remember that not all german soldiers were goose-stepping nazi's).
Mike is video recording these interviews and they will be transcribed when they are finally put on the foundations website, but he is in a race against time as this information that they have is quite simply dying. now i'm not condoning any actions of war from any side but Mike is a truly fascinating guy to talk to if ever you can stop him for an hour or two.
It's stuff like this that should be being taught in schools to maybe give our children a wider perspective of war and modern history, which is all part of Mikes aim as he will be opening his collection up for educational visits.
I personally am compiling my family history, but i now kick myself that i did not talk more with my parents and grandparents, and when my mum died last xmas a big part of my family and social history died with her.
Now that she is gone i'm going through our family stuff, with things like my grandfathers service records, ration cards, pay book, leave requests and all the kinds of stuff that i wish i'd heard about from his own words.
So simply put, if you have a war veteran in your family or even someone who just survived the war at home, then go and talk to them and rejoice in their tales, but make sure that their legend lives on with your children and their kin
Colin
