John Stieber - Against the Odds - Survival on the Russian Front 1944-1945 [2nd Edition]

I took an engineering and science degree in University College Dublin and spent my professional life working for the Electricity Supply Board. I became involved in running the first turf-burning power-stations in Portarlington and Allenwood and also worked in Cork and Dublin power-stations.

Since my retirement I have visited many scenes from my early years. Annual class re-unions in Haubinda and holidays in Karlsbad have been particularly poignant.

I am very grateful that Hertha’s and my children have been able to grow up in a time of peace in this part of Europe. They are long since happily married and we now have four grandchildren.

Though my family and all our relatives were displaced from the land of their birth as a result of the war, we were more fortunate than others and, maybe, of us all, it was I who received the greatest share of luck.

Army-Corps — Group of two to four divisions

Army-Group — Group of two to four armies

Bannführer — Senior leader of a Hitler Youth group

Battalion — Unit composed of 500–1,000 men

Bazooka — Hand-held rocket launcher

BDM ( Bund Deutscher Mädchen ) — Association of German Girls

Division — Unit composed of 4,000–20,000 men

Elite Division — Division made up of soldiers with superior training and equipment

Feldmarschall — Field Marshal

Festung — A city which is defended to the end and becomes part of the war-zone

FLAK ( Fliegerabwehrkanone ) — Anti-aircraft gun

Gauleiter — High-ranking SS official, with wide-ranging powers, in charge of a province or zone

Gefreiter — Private, first class

Gun — Description of all types of canon, as against rifles or pistols

Generaloberst — Highest rank of a General

Hauptmann — Captain

Hauptwachtmeister — Staff sergeant in FLAK unit

Helper — Schoolboy drafted for service in an anti-aircraft battery

Herrenrasse — Master race

Hitler Jugend — Hitler Youth

Jungvolk — Junior section of the Hitler Youth

Kanonier — Private in a FLAK unit

Katjuscha — Russian multiple rocket launcher

Labour Service — Prescribed period in which young Germans had to do unskilled labouring work

Luftwaffen Helfer — Luftwaffe helper, or auxiliary

NCO — Non-commissioned officer

Oberst — Colonel

OC — Officer-in-charge

Panzer — Tank

RAD ( Reichs Arbeits Dienst ) — Labour Service

Realgymnasium — Grammar School

Sapper — Member of a special task force: building pontoon bridges, dynamiting and using flame throwers

Self-propelled gun — Gun mounted on tank-type tracked undercarriage

Skat — Popular card game for three players, similar to ‘Solo’

SS ( Schutzstaffel ) — Private army of elite guards

Sudetenland — German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia

Volkssturm — Type of Home Guard Militia created in September 1944

Wachtmeister — Sergeant in FLAK unit

Waffen SS — Military arm of the political SS

Wehrmacht — German Land Forces

Each army-group has 2 to 4 armies of approx. 200,000 men

Each army has 2 to 4 army-corps of 40,000 to 80,000 men

Each army-corps has 2 to 4 divisions of 4,000 to 20,000 men

Each division has 4 to 6 regiments of 1,000 to 4,000 men

Each regiment has 2 battalions of 500 to 1,000 men

Note: Germany had a peak of 27 armies in action during the war, comprising over 6 million men.

FLAK guns: 216

Tanks: 190

Self-propelled artillery: 66

Anti-tank guns: 73

Mortars: 74

Rocket launchers: 206

Machine-guns: 1,270

Flame throwers: 18

Armoured reconnaissance vehicles: 36

Armoured personnel carriers: 56

Aeroplanes: 2

Added to this there were vehicles and equipment associated with: sappers, supplies, communications, medical services, workshops and repair units, catering, military police and administration staff.

20-millimetre single-barrel guns: 82

20-millimetre four-barrel guns: 12

37-millimetre guns: 44

88-millimetre guns: 78

Total manpower of Panzer-Corps was 12,000 men.

20-millimetre self-propelled FLAK-gun

Theoretical firing rate 180 – 200 rounds per minute. Range 4,800 metres. Ceiling 1,070 metres. Muzzle velocity 800 – 900 metres per second. Eight shells per magazine. Net weight of shell 115 – 148 grams. Gun mounted on half-tracked modified Panzer 4 tank propulsion system.

37-millimetre self-propelled FLAK-gun

Theoretical firing rate 150 rounds per minute. Range 6,500 metres. Ceiling 1,525 metres. Muzzle velocity 840 metres per second. Eight shells per magazine. Net weight of shell 635 -700 grams. Gun mounting same as above.

88-millimetre FLAK-gun

Firing rate twenty rounds per minute. Range 19,700 metres. Ceiling 14,930 metres. Muzzle velocity 1,020 metres per second. Net weight of shell 9 – 9.5 kilograms.

105-millimetre FLAK-gun

Firing rate ten to fifteen rounds per minute. Range 17,300 metres. Ceiling 10,500 metres. Muzzle velocity 900 metres per second. Net weight of shell 15.9 kilograms.

T-34

Medium Russian tank. Crew of four. 500 horse-power engine. Weight 26.3 tons. Armour plating 75 millimetres. Max. speed 53 km/hour. Range 400 km. One 76.2 millimetre gun and two 7.6 millimetre machine-guns. Most commonly used Russian medium tank. Excellent in difficult terrain such as sand, swamps and snow. Very reliable.

T-75 “Joseph Stalin”

Heavy Russian tank. Crew of four. 513 horse-power engine. Weight 45 tons. Armour plating maximum 120 millimetres. Max. speed 37 km/hour. Range 240 km. One 122 millimetre gun and three 7.6 millimetre machine-guns. Heavy Russian tank. Good manoeuvrability for its size.

“Tiger”

Heavy German tank. Crew of five. 700 horse-power engine. Weight 50 tons. Armour plating 110 millimetres. Max. speed 38 km/hour. Range 100 km. One 88-millimetre gun and two 7.92-millimetre machine-guns. Superior to all opposition, but lacked manoeuvrability. 1,350 tanks built.

“Königstiger”

German “super tank.” Crew of five. 700 horse-power engine. Weight 68.6 tons. Armour plating maximum 150 millimetres. Max. speed 38 km/hour. Range 110 km. One 88-millimetre gun and two 7.92-millimetre machine-guns. Most powerful of any tank in 1944. Exceptionally heavy armour. Mechanically unreliable. 485 tanks built.

“Panther”

Heavy German tank. Crew of five. 700 horse-power engine. Weight 44.1 tons. Armour plating 80 – 120 millimetres. Max. speed 45 km/hour. Range 176 km. One 75-millimetre gun and two 7.92-millimetre machine-guns. Overall one of the best tanks built in World War Two.

Ilyuschin Il-2 “Stormovik” or “Black Death”

Russian two-seater fighter-bomber. Single 1,600 horse power engine. Max. speed 411 km/hour. Range 600 km. Ceiling 4,160 metres. Two 37-millimetre cannons, three 7.6-millimetre machine-guns and eight 25-kilogramme rockets or 600 kilogrammes of bombs. Special feature was its armour plating, up to 81 millimetres thick. 42,330 planes built.

Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka”

German two-seater dive-bomber. Single 1,210 horse-power engine. Max. Speed 400 km/hour. Range 800 km. Ceiling 6,730 metres. Three 7.92 machine-guns and 690 kilogrammes of bombs. 4,880 planes were built. The ‘Stukas’ dived at an angle of 70 to 80 degrees whereby air-brakes were used to limit the speed to 710 km/hour. A screaming siren operated during diving.