In Part 1, I recounted what the Afrika Korps Gefreiter, Hans Walden, had written to Fraü H. Bronnold in his letter of the 2nd of May 1942.
His next letter of the 31st of May 1942 from “Afrika” was sent to her as “Fraü Hildeg. Bronnold” (Hildegard Bronnold) at the same address. Hans starts by saying “The day before yesterday I received your letter and at the same time a card from your husband in Stuttgart” and that “people in the desert” are “really happy about a token from home.”
© John Tull 2024, Going Postal
Rather than describe what has happened “since 26th”, (start of Operation “Theseus”) he self-censors by writing that “you can find out much better from the radio.” Hans does say that they have “moved further forward” and have the “most beautiful sand around us and the pleasure of breathing the air to live at 65o Celsius”.
Hans goes on to say that “Next month I will have been here for a year and for 16 months have not been on leave. But I have comrades who have not been home for almost 2 years” implying that Hans arrived in Africa in June 1941. He probably last had leave when his unit was still in Germany and before his unit, the Stab Nachschub-Kolonne-Abteilung 572, were reclassified for “tropical” use from the 7th of March 1941 to become part of the DAK. He continues with “what is more important is that the victorious end of the war is reached soon and then there will be coffee at home again.”
He tells Hildegarde that he does not need the cigarettes she has sent him as “we get enough to smoke here”, that she should give them to her husband and that she should not think that he sent her coffee just to get a “gift” in return. Hans mentions that “H. Kiesse” was lucky enough to go on leave and had written to Hans about it.
Hans wants to know how Hildegard spent Pentecost (which was on the 24th of May in 1942) as “we packed and made preparations” (presumably for the start of Operation Theseus) and only “3 days before the feast we realised that next Sunday was Pentecost. Life here is a bit spiritually timeless.”
Finally he completes this letter by writing “Today is Sunday – you can tell by the fact that there was milk in the coffee and that there was almost liquid canned butter in addition to jam. I’ve just been to the hairdresser’s wooden scaffolding and my fate has come true – my hair – my wife’s pride and joy – it’s gone – I have had it cut down because a flat is the most functional”.
His following letter of the 4th of August 1942 from “Agypsten” (Egypt) starts by saying that he had received her letter of the 8th of July in which she had “indirectly complained” about his “negligence” – presumably she had hinted that he was not promptly responding to her letters.
© John Tull 2024, Going Postal
Hans responds to this with, “Thank God I can rehabilitate myself brilliantly. The day before we entered Egypt, I had answered your gracious letter with a picture. Unfortunately, the letter will have been lost.” He had however remembered what he had written, presumably she had sent photographs to him as he goes on, “I made a compliment on your fabulous appearance; and described to you how much I liked your little daughter. Then that I imagined them almost exactly as they looked from your excellent writing! I was amused by the polite silence and the Grandmother and at the same time emphasised that everyone would envy me for having such a charming Grandmother. That was more or less the content of my letter – which I have not withheld from you. I have just been disturbed while writing – Tommy was here and dropped off a few greetings, but they only stirred up sand.”
Hans probably wanted to appear unperturbed that the RAF Desert Airforce were dropping bombs on his supply column as he goes on to write, “Now we have been in enemy territory for almost 6 weeks. We have penetrated deeply and are no longer far away (in African terms) from the two largest cities in Africa. We all hope that one day it will continue, so that we can get out of this miserable desert and once again see cities and people. Such a monotonous life like the one we lead here is not conceivable for a European at all. Add to that salty drinking water – you can probably imagine that your coffee or tea tastes accordingly.”
Prior to the time Hans had been writing the previous, now missing, letter to Hildegarde, the Panzerarmee Afrika had captured Mersa Matruh in Egypt but the “two largest cities in Africa”, Cairo and Alexandra, were not to be reached as the DAK advance had stalled on the 27th of July 1942 after the First Battle of El Alamein.
Hans would have been working hard as from the 15th of April to the 31st of August 1942, Hauptman Distel reported that the Nachschub-Kolonne-Abteilung 572 had collectively driven 773,011 kilometres and transported 41,183 ton of supplies.
Hans concludes with responding to an invite from Hildegarde to visit her with, “Hopefully this will happen, I am at home in Oberhausen and will, if possible, gladly make use of your invitation if I am ever on leave! It is very, very difficult here.”
So from these letters we now know that Hans was married, that Hildegard did not know where he lived (Oberhausen is about 25 miles north of Düsseldorf), that Hildegard’s husband also writes to him and that the photographs sent by Hildegard were of herself, her mother and her daughter.
In “Letters from Afrika” Part 3, Hans gives a clue as to his source of “Kaffee”, imagines what the Nile looks like and reveals the name of Hildegard’s daughter.
© John Tull 2024
