Desert Mystery: “Letters from Afrika” Part Four

In Part 3, I described how Afrika Korps Gefreiter, Hans Walden, had written to Hildegard Bronnold about food parcels he had sent to her, his imaginary coloured pencil sketch of the Nile and his hope to finally be sent home on leave.

In his next short letter of the 18^th of October 1942 from Agypsten (Egypt), he firstly thanked her for a recent letter but then told her that “My journey home is not going to happen – the case has failed – how I feel you may imagine” before going on to tell her about a sandstorm “I’m very bad at waiting – we had a storm for 2 days, which I had never experienced before – sandstorm so strong that day became night, unimaginable for a European. Rain squalls in between and temperature drops that we were freezing at night. This morning it stopped raging after 24 hours. Now all are sick. I have a tight headache – equivalent to the sauna. What you pick up is full of sand. You can’t protect yourself from the sand at all. But things will get better.”

Whilst the 8^th Army were pushing the DAK west away from Egypt, on the 8^th of November, a combined British and American force in Operation Torch invaded Morocco and Algeria and advanced east towards Tunisia in a pincer movement.

In his next letter of the 23^rd of November 1942, Hans, now an Obergefrieter, was back in Libya as the DAK retreated westwards after the second battle of El Alamein. Promotion to this rank was usually after a minimum of two years’ service therefore Hans had probably joined the Wehrmacht in 1940, before the DAK was formed, and so he would have been born around 1922.

Hans told Hildegard that he had received her letter from the 31^st of October but that “Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to catch up yet. Now that the worst is over, and the port is gone – I’ll do it straight away.” Hans could have been referring to either the fall of Tobruk on the 13^th of November or of Benghazi on the 20^th of November 1942, and goes on to describe the retreat “How you will hardly be able to imagine the circumstances surrounding the events. I can’t tell you, that for understandable reasons also not write – but it was hard, very hard. In the 1,300 km I have travelled, luck has been on my side in many a bad situation. The strain has been intense – but it is over, and we hope that the current calm will last for the time being. We will recover and then the Tommy will realise that we are still here.”

Hans goes on with, “Now it will soon be Christmas – many hopes that were linked to this festival have been shattered. We will celebrate Christmas in almost the same place where we celebrated it last year. But there are still many Christmas festivals to come – in any case, this is no reason to despair.”

In a postscript he added, “Tommy has my ink and my pen too!”

In his following letter of the 19^th of December 1942 from Libya, Hans added a coloured pencil sketch and tells Hildegard that he had received her letter of “1/12” on the “13/12” “but since it was put away during the night – and we’ve been on the road all the time since then – I could not answer the letter right away. And that’s why my Christmas greetings come much too late.” As the DAK were still retreating, he continues with, “So I’m writing from a break in the driving – we’re standing in a wadi and the sun means it, despite being December – very good. In the last few days it had rained a lot – you would have to be extra careful when driving, because the slippery wet sand on the roads is worse than black ice.”

He continues, “I was very, very happy that you were so worried to enquire about me – after all, that you write so frequently.” And he reassures her that, “Despite everything, I am still healthy and good at bending. Every now and then I get sentimental feelings, but that also passes. I’m sure you know the song about it.” He concludes with, “In any case, I wish you a Merry Christmas, much joy and many good things! The same goes for your husband and daughter. In your letter you wrote about a package – you will get that back, because after 20/12 nothing will be transported to Africa. It will probably be like last year – at Christmas not a bit of mail and in March the Christmas tree came, etc. But it will also work that way. Then I wish you a Happy New Year, lots of good humour and alcohol – I will close with that.”

By the 30^th of December 1942, the DAK as part of Panzerarmee Afrika had retreated west past Tobruk to El Agheila.

In “Letters from Afrika” Part 5, Hans gets strafed, losing his truck and all his kit, continues to not get any leave, visits Tunis and sends Hildegard a postcard of La Pavillion de Belvedere.
 

© John Tull 2024