The German Soldier smell

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by sapper, Feb 22, 2008.

  1. Groundhugger

    Groundhugger Senior Member

    Interesting reading about smells I wonder if the British 'tommy' smelled of 'lifeboy' soap or 'carbolic' , what type of soap did they issue to the British soldier at the front in WW2 , can Tom or sapper remember ?.... , or was it 'sod' the wash and shave , just use the water for a 'Brew' !
     
  2. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Groundhugger
    memories of little things like soap are hard to dredge up after all this time but I do recall that we were always pushed for water in Africa and we must have had soap of some sort- just can't recall what it was.....

    In Italy we were living in luxury by comparison as the Canadians brought bath trailers with them and we were allowed the facilities as often as we wanted them in that we had a shower - a change of underwear- shirts etc so soap was the least of our worries - that is when we were in camp - in battle was always different as in one case we were fighting non stop for eighteen days on the trot and the Tanks were a bit high at times - then we had a two days rest and we made good use of the bath trailers and lots of swimming - which helped.

    The Nelson and Alexander clubs in both Naples and Rome also helped out with showers - haircuts etc -food and drink when on leave - which was seldom !

    I sometimes think to-day we shower and bath too often as we were never so fit and free of disease - might have been the B.O. that kept the bugs away - didn't seem to bother the mosquitos though !

    Cheers
     
  3. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Groundhugger -
    Now you got my memory going back to the time we built our own Shower house in Austria - and invited the locals to utilise it - but soap - we had lots of it.......

    BBC - WW2 People's War - Strassburg Pt. 2
    Enjoy.......
    Cheers
     
  4. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    The soap was a normal toilet soap. Much desired by the locals. They had a hard green gritty substance..

    We had one shower...and one only...... That was in Normandy. I never had a hair cut. Very occasionally we had a change of underwear.

    My most telling memory was one of exhaustion. With mines, and assaults, and a thousand things that came the Sappers way. Many times out in front of everyone. Sometimes to be recalled if we got too far ahead... with the usual:
    "Those bloody Sappers again" While our CRE always urged us to "Bash on"

    We looked like a band of bloody pirates. Long haired youngsters in Denims, with a Bren over the shoulder. Scruffy lot.
    Sapper
     
  5. tmac

    tmac Senior Member

    From Quartered Safe Out Here, the superb war memoirs of the late George McDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels …

    The first time I smelt Jap was in a deep dry-river bed in the Dry Belt, somewhere near Meiktila. I can no more describe the smell than I could describe a colour, but it was heavy and pungent and compounded of stale cooked rice and sweat and human waste and … Jap. Quite unlike the clean, acrid woodsmoke of an Indian village or the rather exotic and faintly decayed odour of the bashas in which the Burmese lived – and certainly nothing like the cooking smells of the Baluch hillmen and Gurkhas of our brigade, or our own British aromas. It was outside my experience of Oriental stenches – so how did I know it was Jap? Because we were deep inside enemy-held territory and who else would have dug the three bunkers facing me in the high bank, as I stood, feeling extremely lonely, with a gallon tin of fruit balanced precariously on one shoulder and my rifle at the trail in my other hand?
     
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  6. Ranger6

    Ranger6 Liar

    I guess i can kinda sorta relate To sapper.. In my war when we went into iraq we didnt bathe for about the first two weeks. we shaved daily. Due to the close fit of protective masks and better seals on your face..we used baby wipes. We also didnt sleep much. I can remeber 20 minutes cat naps.. a lot the first 3 or 4 days.. once we finally did get to sleep I crashed for about 10 hours.
     
  7. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    IT is true..You can sleep standing up
     
  8. Capt Bill

    Capt Bill wanderin off at a tangent

    I have a friend who, in the 1980's on patrol in Belfast, fell asleep standing up in a doorway!
     
  9. Stormbird

    Stormbird Restless

    I have a friend who, in the 1980's on patrol in Belfast, fell asleep standing up in a doorway!

    I have a friend who fell asleep while flying a single seat jet aircraft over decidedly unfriendly territory - rather a boring activity, wouldn't you think? :goodnight:

    SORRY , off - topic !!
     
  10. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I know the thread title is "The German soldier smell" but it seems to have gone slightly off-thread and I see we are now talking about falling asleep on duty.

    During my life as a Driver/Op in Light Ack Ack, I was part of a 3 man crew that had to keep a 19 wireless set going 24 hours around the clock.

    This meant that for periods of a week at a time, one would be on the 12:00 hrs to 0800 hrs shift and would therefore get no proper sleep for a solid week.

    When inevitably we had to move on (during the Sicily campaign) this was the net result:

    The campaign in Sicily lasted only a month and at the closing stages when we were moving up towards Messina I had my first serious flirtation with death. As I have already mentioned, I was part of a crew of three wireless ops, and for my sins I had been made the official driver.
    In theory the driving was supposed to be split three ways but in practice the other two lads were happy to drive during daylight but disappeared into the back of the truck when night fell.
    On this particular occasion I was driving without lights along a mountain road between Patti and Messina, with the sea on my left. I had been without sleep for several days and the strain of following a tiny light on the differential of the truck in front finally mesmerised me to such an extent that I literally fell asleep on the road.
    The first thing I knew was this G-d Almighty crash and I automatically stamped on the foot brake and applied the hand brake. I then attempted to take stock of the situation and found the following:
    1. I had run off the road towards the sea but had been halted by a telegraph pole.
    2. The impact had been such that I had literally run UP the pole and my bonnet was pointing skyward.
    3. It was impossible to tell at that stage what was going to happen if and when I released the hand brake.
    4. Peter and Danny, my crew-mates at the back had woken and were demanding to know what the hell was going on.
    Fortunately the fates smiled on me that night and when we had unloaded the back of the truck of its occupants and moveable gear I was able to release the brake, the truck slid down the pole, while Peter and Dave hung on to the tail to ensure that it did not slip seaward. We waited until the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) sergeant caught up with us and then with only light repairs were able to drive on.

    Happy days !

    Ron
     
  11. ranville

    ranville Senior Member

    I know the thread title is "The German soldier smell" but it seems to have gone slightly off-thread and I see we are now talking about falling asleep on duty.

    During my life as a Driver/Op in Light Ack Ack, I was part of a 3 man crew that had to keep a 19 wireless set going 24 hours around the clock.

    This meant that for periods of a week at a time, one would be on the 12:00 hrs to 0800 hrs shift and would therefore get no proper sleep for a solid week.

    When inevitably we had to move on (during the Sicily campaign) this was the net result:

    The campaign in Sicily lasted only a month and at the closing stages when we were moving up towards Messina I had my first serious flirtation with death. As I have already mentioned, I was part of a crew of three wireless ops, and for my sins I had been made the official driver.
    In theory the driving was supposed to be split three ways but in practice the other two lads were happy to drive during daylight but disappeared into the back of the truck when night fell.
    On this particular occasion I was driving without lights along a mountain road between Patti and Messina, with the sea on my left. I had been without sleep for several days and the strain of following a tiny light on the differential of the truck in front finally mesmerised me to such an extent that I literally fell asleep on the road.
    The first thing I knew was this G-d Almighty crash and I automatically stamped on the foot brake and applied the hand brake. I then attempted to take stock of the situation and found the following:
    1. I had run off the road towards the sea but had been halted by a telegraph pole.
    2. The impact had been such that I had literally run UP the pole and my bonnet was pointing skyward.
    3. It was impossible to tell at that stage what was going to happen if and when I released the hand brake.
    4. Peter and Danny, my crew-mates at the back had woken and were demanding to know what the hell was going on.
    Fortunately the fates smiled on me that night and when we had unloaded the back of the truck of its occupants and moveable gear I was able to release the brake, the truck slid down the pole, while Peter and Dave hung on to the tail to ensure that it did not slip seaward. We waited until the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) sergeant caught up with us and then with only light repairs were able to drive on.

    Happy days !

    Ron

    You're one lucky bloke Ron!------Thanks for your tales--Very interesting and informative as usual.

    Ps I thought 'the smell' was attributed to cheap[and pongy] dubbin they put on their boots.[and other leather stuff]---Also the foreign fags, i suspect ,could pong a bit too!
     
  12. Ranger6

    Ranger6 Liar

    Yeah ive fell asleep during road marching. Several times. In ranger school I threw a thumb tack in my boot, id relax lower my foot and id instantly be alerted. I also saw guys strap bungie cords to theyre Kevlar helmets (K-pots) and theyre ruck sacks to keep theyre heads up and one idiot put tobasco sauce in his eye.. ya also learn to sleep anyplace litterally
     
  13. Over Here

    Over Here Junior Member

    I'm sure that this would have had something to do with it. The Germans were very keen pipe smokers at the time. Add this smell to sweat, leather, clothing processing and their diet at the time and you'd have something pretty unique but also potentially pretty common across the whole army.

    Orig. German WW2 Bremaria Cigarette/ Pipe Tobacco - Tobacco and Related Items

    On the diet front, I've read a veteran comment (possibly in one of Mark Bando's books) that German bodies seemed to decompose much faster than Allied (particularly US) ones. This was put down to a lower level of preservatives in their food and a lower quality diet in general. I wonder if this could also manifest itself in sweat etc. while someone was alive?

    Actually it would probably be a case of fewer preservatives. In Vietnam US corpses were found to decompose much more slowly than Vietnamese ones, due to the preservatives in the American diet, both military and civilian.

    It's an interesting subject this; someone could do a thesis on it, were it not so politically incorrect!

    In Japan they used to say that Caucasians had a "butter smell", and many black people seem to have a very strong, acrid body odour. Different genes, different diets, different body chemistry.
     
  14. Stormbird

    Stormbird Restless

    I visited the Norwegian camp in Maimanah, Faryab, AFG a while ago. Along with the Norwegians, Latvian troops are stationed there.

    The Norwegians claim the Latvians smell! They're eating the same diet and using the same laundry, so what could that one be ??
    (I din't ask the Latvians about any Norwegian smell... must remember that for next time.)
     
  15. HexxenHammer

    HexxenHammer Junior Member

    Hi everyone,

    I stumbled across this thread after searching for information about washing uniforms during wartime and have to say it's been fascinating for me! After taking all thats been said onboard the only suggestions i have would be a combination of what has already been stated. But what about stuff like hair oils/pomades. They can have a very strong sickly sweet odour to them and as i've seen from photos of the time they seemed to like the slick hair look. Just a thought! :)

    Not wishing to pinch the thread but i would just like to ask about what you mentioned earlier and what i was searching for initially. About uniform washing, i'm getting into re-enacting ww2 and i want to wash my uniform as authentic as possible. Really for the right look as i don't like the way people put on these shows and look like they just walked out of the supply depot! I intent on getting down and dirty to give it a genuine look, hopefully without the smell :) , but have never been able to find anything on how soldiers would wash there kit out in the field. Was it just washed in streams or did they have access to soap flakes? Any help would be very much appreciated!

    Many Thanks! Paul.
     
  16. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Did anyone mention delousing powders? ;)
     
  17. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    did they have access to soap flakes?

    Hi Paul,
    A warm welcome to the forum.

    I think the lack of access to such luxuries, on both sides, may have led to a 'British Soldier Smell' as well!:D

    As a reenactor, presumably 'German' (from your rather Teutonic sounding username) you might be interested in this thread on the subject:

    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/general/7112-re-enacting-good-bad.html

    Best regards,
    Tom.
     
  18. Cobber

    Cobber Senior Member

    My father recalled in Korea you could smell the Chinese due to the strong garlic smell due to the food they ate.

    My father {Australian Infantry} also mentioned about a smell of the Chinese. He did not as far as I can remember him saying anything about Garlic however this would of been one of the myriad of smells coming of the soldiers.
    As many have said the smell of the enemy went both ways.
    So many differing factors that can bring on a smell in the area where men have entrenched themselves. Most especially when these entrenchments are covered.

    This is a interesting thread especially the memories of you Veterans. Thanks for sharing.
    Cbbr
     
  19. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    When you read this description of the trenches in WW1, it is a wonder that they could detect any smells at all from the enemy.

    The first thing a new recruit would notice on the way to the Frontline was the smell, rotting bodies in shallow graves, men who hadn't washed in weeks because there were no facilities, overflowing cess pits, creosol or chloride of lime, used to stave off the constant threat of disease and infection. Cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke, and cooking food. Although overwhelming to a new recruit, they soon got used to the smell and eventually became part of the smell with their own body odour.
     
  20. HexxenHammer

    HexxenHammer Junior Member

    Thanks Tom, I am actually planning on primarily Polish/Polish resistance but will eventually get British, American and German (Heer not SS) maybe even a Russian one. :) I don't particularly want the authentic pong but because the stuff i'm getting is as genuine as it can be ( same guy who supplies for films, inc Saving Private Ryan) i want them to age as genuine as possible. I was planning on hand washing with water mainly. Sometimes with soap or soap flakes when the need to "freshen up" is required ;)
     

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