As myself and Owen have mentioned elsewhere, we were pleased and delighted to meet a number of veterans of both sides during the recent Italian Battlefields trip. This thread is dedicated to some photos of them, and further information we glean on them in due course.
John Dudley. John served with the East Surrey Regiment and 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, in 4th Division. he was wounded three times, and ended the war in Greece. I was especially please to bump into John, as I see him every year at War & Peace.
Burkhard Hogspiel. We met him outside the German War Cemetery at Caira. He served with Geb. Pioneer Btl 818, according to what he put in the cemetery visitors book. Anyone know any more about this?
Ted Doyle MM. Ted served with the 2nd RF, 4th Division, 1943-44 and was badly wounded in September 1944 on the Gothic Line when a Tiger took out the house he was in, killing his mates and badly wounding him. His MM appears to be for the September 1944 period, according to the battalion history.
Owen, I need you to add the details of this Beds & Herts veteran who was travelling with John and Ted. EDIT by Owen:This is George Bayliss, a Chelsea Pensioner. He joined the 2nd Bn Beds & Herts Regiment in 1938 in Hemel Heapstead. He was demobbed in 1946. I've written to him and sent him a picture very similar to this one. I've also asked him if he'd care to tell me about the 1940 campaign.
Otmar Bolldorf. This was one of our most amazing meetings - we literally bumped into him and his friend, as we were walking back from Snakeshead Ridge. He casually remarked he was a veteran, and seemed quite pleased when we spent half an hour questioning him about his experiences! Otmar fought with a Panzer Grenadier Regiment in 90th Panzer Division; he originally fought with the Afrika Corps and came up against the NZ troops quite a lot in Italy. He was attached to the defences at Cassino, and fought in the area around the Station and also up on Snakeshead Ridge. He was wounded near Aquino in May 1944. EDIT by Owen: Otmar was in 361 Panzer Grenadier Regiment.
And finally, one vet I would have liked to have had with me again, my old pal John Dray who fought with 5th Northants at Cassino. This is him pictured on Snakeshead back in 2004.
Every now and then this interweb thing glitters like a tiny jewel... Brilliant stuff. How did you get the pictures of the German guys in uniform? Cheers, Adam.
Adam, they had them with them, so we took copies on the spot. Don't ask, don't get, we found! It was all quite amazing.
As Paul said the German Veterans and Mr Dudley were all carrying photos in their wallets. Here's Burkhard Hogspiel (who is Austrian) getting out his....how's that for a then & now.
Burkhard Hogspiel. We met him outside the German War Cemetery at Caira. He served with Geb. Pioneer Btl 818, according to what he put in the cemetery visitors book. Anyone know any more about this? No one get tempted to whistle "Eidelweiss" to him? Gebirgs-Pionier Bataillon 818 was formed on 20th December 1943 and basically spent the war in Italy. As you probably know, they fought around the monastry in Cassino before withdrawing with Rome, Assisi, Perugia and Arezzo all getting a mention. They were also the unit that closed the Calla Pass. In November 1944, they established a boat transport over the Po and , slightly later, built a bridge in it's stead before withdrawing via Padua and Bassano to Etsch where they surrendered to the Americans. Dave.
Try searching with it's correct (German) spelling ("Bataillon" instead of "Battalion" , "Pionier" instead of "Pioneer" for example) and (in the case of German units) drop the initials (such as "Geb.", "Aufk." ,"Nachr.", etc), replacing them with the complete words ("Gebirgs", "Aufklarungs", "Nachrichten", etc)... Lexikon der Wehrmacht - Gebirgs-Pionier-Bataillon 818 Dave