“Bei den Fraüen geschätzt”
In my DAK militaria collection I have a series of Feldpost letters, starting in May 1942, sent by a Deutsche Afrika Korps soldier, Hans Walden, to a Fraü H. Bronnold in Düsseldorf am Rhine in what was then the Rheinland Province of Germany. Who were they and what did Hans write about?
These letters were written, some in ink pen and others in pencil, using a mixture of Kurrentschrift (taught when Hans Walden was in school) and deutsche Normalschrift (taught when he joined the Wehrmacht) cursive scripts so included both letter forms and the use of umlauts that today are obsolete.
Feldpost is the German military postal service that enables postcards and letters to be posted free of charge and small packages at a nominal cost by serving members of all of the armed forces back home to Germany.
During WW2, each military unit had its own Feldpostnummer, which for secrecy was issued randomly, and which the serving soldier would notify his relatives of via a Benachrichtigungskarten or notification card to enable them to send him post without giving away his unit’s location in the address.
© John Tull 2024, Going Postal
Above, Picture 1: Letter of 2nd May 1942 in an Italian air mail envelope with original photograph of Afrika Korps drivers standing next to an Opel Blitz lorry.
Hans Walden – his Feldpostnummer 16419 identifies him as having been in Stab Nachschub-Kolonne-Abteilung 572 or the 572nd Motorized Supply Column Battalion where he was probably a lorry driver.
In 1942, the 572nd were attached to the Afrika Korps Headquarters and were composed of seven Companies or Supply Columns and a motorised Maintenance Platoon. Companies 1 to 6 were for stores whilst Company 7 carried fuel. Each column was composed of around twenty lorries carrying supplies plus three more, one with the officer in charge, his radio and kit, one loaded with the enlisted ranks kit and one with their own stores.
As a “Gefreiter”, Hans was a young, second level soldier, the first level being a Soldat (Soldier) or Schütze (Rifleman). He could, based on length of service and aptitude, become an Obergefreiter, then a Hauptgefreiter and finally a Stabsgefreiter before attaining the rank of an Unteroffizer within the Mannschaftsdienstgrad (Enlisted ranks).
© John Tull 2024, Going Postal
In this first, short letter, Hans in “Afrika” starts by saying he has just received the letter that “Fraü H. Bronnold” had sent, and he hoped she enjoyed the “little shipment” he had sent to her. Because he “knows” how much it “is appreciated by women”, he says he will send her “another brown greeting from the scorching continent at the next opportunity”. He says he does not want thanking for it as “your soldier likes to give pleasure”. Hans is of course referring to the coffee that he has sent and will be sending to her again! As to where Hans gets his coffee…this is revealed in a later letter. He concludes with “As you probably know, the parcel traffic to the homeland is very limited” and “So, good enjoyment and best regards – also to your husband.”
Fraü H. Bronnold – she lived at “Alte – Garde – Ufer: 24” or Old Guard Bank which was on the east bank of the Rhine as it flows through Düsseldorf. Originally called Cecilienallee after Princess Cecily of Mecklenburg, it was renamed by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party after the so-called Alter Kämpfer (Old Fighters) who as NSDAP members had joined the Kampforganisationen (Fighting organizations), the Sturmabteilung (SA) or Schutzstaffel (SS), before 1933. Today it is called Cäcilien Allee and, as in WW2, number “24” is an apartment block close to the Rheinuferpromenade (Rhine embankment promenade) although appearing to have been rebuilt post-war.
Hans’ Supply Column would have been bringing supplies from Tripoli or Benghazi through to where the Afrika Korps Headquarters were situated close to the front line, when he wrote this letter shortly before the start of Operation Theseus on the 26th of May 1942. Through this Operation, the Panzerarmee Afrika would ultimately win the Battle of Gazala against the British 8th Army, which allowed them to then advance towards Tobruk and on to the Egyptian border.
In “Letters from Afrika” Part 2, Hans sends another letter to Fraü H. Bronnold and starts to complain about life in the DAK.
© John Tull 2024
