The investigation into the alleged war crimes committed by Dr. Compton have led to the discovery of some of his personal letters to his Father, written during several battles between Allied and Axis forces in Europe and Africa. It is undetermined whether either side will use these letters as evidence in the upcoming trial, where it is alleged that Dr. Compton performed horrible experiments on humans captured by the Nazis. We will let you decide whether these letters reveal Dr. Compton to be a compassionate man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or simply a depraved human being. They follow:
September 8th, 1943
Dear Father,
How are you? Im fine. I?m writing to you from Berlin, can you believe? Berlin! I never thought I'd be in this magnificent city. Let me tell you, walking around in uniform definitely attracts the women here; I?ve had a few good nights already! I?m sure you've heard the news of the American take-over in Poland, I was in Warsaw when they took it. I had just gotten to the unit with a few others from Jump School when we were told of the plans to reinforce Warsaw. My friend Skippy said he was excited. When we first moved in, the city was in ruins from our bombings of Artillery and the Luftwaffe bombers from the first invasion in '39. We parachuted in on the 2nd of August, the thrill of jumping from the plane is amazing. We took control of the rail station, although part of it was in ruins from the bombings. We were using this station for supplies and as a routing station for prisoners to be sent to where ever it is they go. On the 19th of August we saw hundreds of American planes with what looked like thousands of parachutes. They had sent their army?s elite to fight us, and we were ready for them. We set up in a large factory, the ruined railway, and a street that lead to the loading docks of the station. Our defense was solid, we didn?t lose very many men in it, and the Americans pulled back. I was able to kill two or three of them before they managed to get away.
A few hours later, we got the orders to move forward, and push them out of the city completely. Our counter attack went well, but it was decided by command that the losses weren?t worth it since we were still in control of the station, and supplies continued to move in and out. We could hold out for a long time, but the Americans could not. But when the Fuhrer caught wind of this, he ordered another attack. Our Commander thought it was crazy, but orders are orders, especially when they come directly from Hitler. The second attack went much worse than the first, they had rallied around a church and one of their damaged tanks and held us off there. We had spread our men too thin, and when the counter attack came we had to pull out to save our lives and we lost the train station. We also lost a few good men, my friend Skippy was one of them. Without the train station our departure from Poland was inevitable. Fret not though, we already have our orders to go and take Finland from Allied hands. When we parachute in, like they did to us, they'll be shocked.
Your son,
Compton
Week 3
April 5th, 1944
Dear Father,
I finally recovered from that bout of heat exhaustion that kept me out of the battles in Denmark and Norway. I?m writing you from Italy; it seems like I?m going to see every part of Europe before this war is over. With only a few weeks between each of our engagements, Hitler has us jumping out of planes to engage this All-American airborne group wherever they go. They are a tough enemy, but in Finland we showed them who is in charge of this war. The town of Kalter is medium sized, but it is home to one of the few bridges left standing in Finland. Its not a large bridge, but it is big enough for our Panzers, and their Shermans to get across. Our Commander recognized its importance and asked The Fuhrer himself if we could be in charge of the defense of the bridge. After our success in the initial attack of Finland, we were given the go ahead. However, we couldn?t take our entire Battalion like we would have liked, we could only take a platoon of 16 men. I guess our commander must like me, because I was told I would be joining him.
We ended up joining a Panzer division to catch a ride to Kalter, and then we drove into the southern side of town. When we got there we immediately set up defenses around the bridge, and in the wheel house. We have a few reserves set in the back, looking over the destroyed church. One of the officers, a generalmajor who left the Netherlands to support Hitler, realized that those sneaky Americans might use the sewers to try and flank us, so was given a squad to go down there. I was stationed in the Wheel house with our Raketenpanzerb?chse, our anti armor. We wanted to keep it on overlook of the bridge, but a lucky American mortor round disabled one of our APCs on the bridge. This made the bridge impassable by any heavy armor, so we placed it indoors so we could cause massive damage to any troops who dared the narrow walk-way in the wheel house.
As the American's made their advancements into the town, our first contact was radioed from the sewers. Our radio emitted the heart-wrenching cries and the gun fire coming from down below. I remember it almost word for word Papa. I don?t think I'll ever forget it, I recognized the voice as well, it was a friend of mine, Obergefreiter Matthew. His last words were "Wir brauchen wieder wiederholen, m?ssen wir zur?ck in die Kanalisation. Amerikaner sind in Bewegung zu schnell, wir brauchen Hilfe! K?nnt ihr uns h?ren? Jeder? Sag meiner Frau, dass ich sie liebe." ("We need back up, repeat, we need back up in the sewers. Americans are moving in too quickly, We need help! Can you hear us? Any one? Tell my wife I love her.").
I wrote a letter to her already and sent it, with his pictures and the Iron Cross he had earned in a previous battle.
Our Commander came over the radio at that point and told us to focus; another squad would retrieve the men in the sewers. Our Panzerschreck called out to me and fired, He walked down the stairs as I provided cover for him. I heard a shot ring out and he stumbled down the stairs. I turned and looked and saw the exit wound in his back. He had been heading out the door to lead to our main street. I panicked, thinking they had already reached our side of the bridge until I heard another soldier cry out "Lieber Gott, war, dass ein Freund? Wer ist im Steuerhaus!?" ("Dear God, was that a friend? Who is in the wheelhouse!?"). I replied quickly it was a friendly coming out of the house as I lifted my friend over my shoulders. I carried him back to the church where we were putting the wounded for treatment. As I grabbed my rifle to get back into the action, a runner came up to the church, smiling: "Kommandant haben wir die Amerikaner wieder ?ber die Br?cke geschoben, sie zur?ckziehenden!" (Commander, we've pushed the Americans back across the bridge, they're retreating!").
We waited for our reinforcements to come as the Officers planned a counter attack. It took two days for the reinforcements and in that time the Americans had set up their defenses across the bridge. I was given a FG42, a weapon designed specifically for us paratroopers. Our Commander told us he would be joining us directly in the attack. He was advised not to, but he just looked at his advisor and said, "Wenn ich meine M?nner in den Tod f?r mich zu gehen erwarten, dann k?nnen sie von mir erwarten, meinen Tod zu gehen f?r sie." ("If I expect my men to go to their deaths for me, then they can expect me to go to my death for them.") He placed me at the point of his squad and our orders were to take the wheel house, and then drop through the wheel and support the forces going through the sewers so we could push up from behind them and capture them all.
I was the first to get into the wheel house, encountering only one enemy soldier. We exchanged shots and he shot a grenade at me. I returned the favor b y throwing one at him. Eventually the bullets stopped coming at me and I moved forward. He was lying in a doorway, grasping his throat. He looked into my eyes as I squeeze my trigger again and shot him to put him out of his misery. I set up the bipod on my weapon and provided support from on of the windows of a bakery along side the wheel house. As our Generaloberst moved up with his squad I attached to them and we made the push to a destroyed Allied Sherman. They pulled out of Kalter that night, and with our successful counter attack there, the American Armor had no way to support the rest of the invasion force in Finland. I hear they retreated all the way back into Sweden. We celebrated until we got our orders to head to Italy, most of us slept on the train on the way to Italy, but I find it hard to sleep now Papa. I can hear the radio still when I shut my eye, and I can see the look on that soldier?s face, the one who accidently shot our panzerschreck. War is destroying some of these young soldiers, and I think it may destroy me before it?s over.
Love,
Your Son.
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May 20th, 1944
Dear Father,
I am in North Africa. You can?t imagine the sights I have seen here. I watched Rommel's Panzers drive past us as we prepared to drop into the city of Ingot. The city is very large, and it is the only major city near a huge oil field. Our Commanders recognized that if they could secure the town, that it would be extremely easy to secure the nearby oil fields, which would make Rommel, and of course the Fuehrer very happy. We knew the American 82nd would be here again, even after their defeat in Finland. They must have been in country a week or two before us because we had been expecting the town to be under friendly control; it wasn?t supposed to be under attack any time soon, but it was! Our drop was planned to be for show, mostly. To raise the morale of the troops in the town, however we had gotten word of a planned attack from the enemy, so our commander decided we might as well drop with all of our equipment that way we wouldn?t be caught off guard by an early attacked. Thank God he did that, he saved countless lives, even though we sustained losses from their attack.
We were going to be guided in by the luftwaffe fighter planes as we jumped out and our parachutes opened up over this town. Imagine our surprise when we saw American fighter planes start to fly through our plane formation, and an eruption of flak cannon fire from the ground beneath us. We were ordered to jump out of our plane earlier than we had planned. As we floated to the ground we saw the 82nd dropping reinforcements. How scary of a sight that must have been from the ground. Both sides had thousands of white parachutes dropping into this town, their anti-air forces couldn?t tell which forces were which and had to stop firing. I watched an American transport plummet into the train station and destroy the rail yard. I landed in the ruins of the rail yard and looked up to see most of our men getting scrambled all over the city. I saw their fighters destroy planes with my friends still inside. I also saw our fearless forces destroy their planes, cheering to myself as they crashed to their fiery deaths inside the city. Someone is watching over me because I accidently found a platoon of our soldiers in a courtyard beside the train station. This was on May 1.
On the Second of May we were told we had orders to try and take our section of the city. We were right on the edge of the city. Our sector ran from the devastated rail way to a block of apartments and a social square. The Americans in our section were holed up in a church. They set up their HQ there, and had a few groups in the apartments and destroyed buildings around the church. My squad moved forward through the railway. We threw grenades into a small defensive spot and tried to advance some more. We were caught in a bottle neck and they managed to kill four of us and injure two others before we pulled back. The other side of our attack, through the apartments had gone better and they made it to the church, but the American defenses were too strong so we had to pull back. The battle lasted until nightfall, at which point we reset our defenses, preparing for an American counter attack in the morning.
The third of May I was back on the rail way, set up behind some sand bags. As the Americans advanced we engaged them. They pushed the railway hard and we had to fall back into the apartments. They continued to try and push us out, but our defense proved strong and we managed to force their retreat. That night we reinforced our defenses. A small soldier came over to help me set up my sand bags. When I sy he was small, Papa, I mean he almost didn?t make the height requirement, but he makes up for it by being an expert shot with the k98. We call him Mini because of his short stature. I walked up behind him as he looked up at a destroyed roof. Our conversation went like this
"Gib mir einen Aufzug?" ("Give me a lift?")
"Was?" ("What?")
"Gib mir einen Lift, werde ich die Einrichtung auf diesem Felsvorsprung, wer w?rde schauen da oben?" ("Give me a lift, I am going to set up on that ledge, who would look up there?")
I laughed as I lifted all 45 kg (99 lbs.) of him up to the ledge. He just sat there called me a couple of bad names. I turned to get back to my position and looked back at him. I told him if they come our way to jump down and get back to those apartments. He just nodded and told me to run back to him if I thought they'd break our lines. They attacked the rails again, this time our defense was more prepared and we had our MG42 set up. They couldn?t push us back, and they retreated again. Apparently they had focused a majority of their troops on this attack for the railway because the rest of our forces dispersed in the city were able to push through the American defenses in their sectors and we took the town! With the securing of the town and the oil fields, Rommel's Panzer divisions were able to push the so-called American War Hero, Patton, back and out of Africa. The Americans were delivered their first major defeat in this war thanks to the hands of the German Paratroopers. I don?t know if Rommel will receive all the credit for clearing Africa, but know this Papa, the Battle of Ingot was a turning point in this war in favor for the Axis powers.
May 27th, 1944
Dear Papa,
A week ago I was celebrating with the men about our victories in Africa, and my promotion to Stabsfeldwebel (Sergeant Major). It was a short lived celebration. Two days after the victory in Africa we had orders to report to Denmark. We flew into Denmark on the 23rd, and that night got our orders to Norway. We left in the early morning hours of the 24th. I know I was exhausted... I can?t imagine how some of the men felt, including the junior enlisted. I made my rounds before we loaded onto our planes I saw many of the soldiers sleeping. I went to the commander and said invading was a mistake and he just nodded and agreed, but orders are orders. I told the Sergeants to make sure their men slept until we were an hour out, and then wake them.
We jumped out of our planes just before mid day on the 24th. We landed just outside of the Norwegian Capital City, Oslo. As our regiment moved into the city we came under attack, but by nightfall we were in the city. On the 25th we made our move into the city. We were attacking the area around a church, and the devils in baggy pants were on the other side of the church; their defenses were well placed. They had sharp shooters in the tower, and they managed to pick off two or three of our men before we knew what was happening. As our men tried to advance through a series of apartments to get to a courtyard, they were shot by the Americans set up across from them in another building. I?m not really sure if any of us made it across the courtyard before our orders to pull back came through. Exhausted and demoralized we set up our defenses in and around the courtyard, it proved to be useless against the American war machine as they pushed through us with ease. I was shot in my arm and was ordered to go to the medical tents in the back of our sector, I tried arguing but the commander insisted I go. The men I had put in charge of guarding the left side of the courtyard were killed in action, all of them. By the evening of the 26th reports that the entire attack on Oslo had been a complete and utter disaster, we were ordered to leave the city. We had gone to Norway with 35,000 troops, only 19,238 left in fighting condition.
With Love
Your Son.
June 10th, 1944
Dear Papa,
Only eight days after our staggering defeat in Norway, with almost half of our fighting force depleted, we were ordered to defend France. Our exhausted and destroyed regiment was placed in charge of Donner, a French town only 15 kilometers inland. On the night of the fifth of June the Americans parachuted into France, on the morning of the sixth they landed on the beaches of Normandy, just 15 kilometers away! In the afternoon artillery shells were hitting the town of Donner and the next day, the seventh, the American airborne units moved into Donner. Their initial attack on the town was unexpected for us. Our defenses were set up, and completely ineffective they pushed up from the main street of the city all the way back to our HQ, where we just barely managed to hold them off. Immediately we set up our defenses again, we managed to hold them off better this second time around, and the higher ups decided now would be the time for a counter attack. It was a mistake, as we made our way across to the other side of town we were ravaged by the Americans and their better vantage points. I was in some ruins outside of a field with my squad, when an American grenade flew toward us into the ruins, from a near by window. One of my soldiers... who we called Dodgy because of his fantastic luck with bullets.. called out "Granate! Runter!" ("Grenade! Get down!")
He jumped on the grenade and then all I could hear was the ringing in my ears. I just stared at the lifeless ruined body of the man before me, he had sacrificed himself to keep me, and the ones around us, alive. I looked up and around to assess the remaining men. Most of us were covered in dirt, and wounded in one way or another, and we had no clue how the rest of the company was doing. I told them we were falling back and that?s just what we did. When we got back to the HQ we found most of the company there as well, just as wounded as we were. The Americans mustered their forces and drove us out of Donner. As we were pulling back we got reports that the Allied invasion of France had been an utter defeat for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. We're pulling back to Germany for, hopefully, some rest before we get our next set of orders Papa.
I will not lie, Papa, if the war ended tomorrow, and I could leave and come home and never see another friend of mine die, I'd be the happiest man in the world. I miss you and Mama very much, and I cannot wait for this terrible disaster to be over.
This was the last of Dr. Compton's letters that were seized by the Allied forces. However, Dr. Compton's counsel requested that a brief history of the Axis Command staff be set forth. It is unclear what their strategy may be and why they have requested that this be made public. Perhaps Dr. Compton will try to lay the blame on his commanders and use the rarely successful "I was following orders" defense.
The Axis Command Staff - Before and After the War
Riech Marshall Diethelm "Meg" Knaak (1899-1972) Commonly referred to as Meg, for his wife whom he married in 1918. Meg was born in 1899 in Berlin, Germany and enlisted in the Kaiser's Army, where he met a young Adolf Hitler in 1915, at the young age of 16. After the war, Meg left to Munich with his wife. However he stayed in touch with Hitler and in 1933. he was asked to be a general for the Luftwaffe, eventually taking the command of the 5th Fallschirmj?ger.
In the early years of the war Meg lead his troops to victories in Finland, Italy, and Africa. In 1944, with the staggering loss of more than half of his troops in the failed Norway Invasion, followed by the Allied invasion of France, the Marshall knew the war was on its way to closing. In the early summer months of 1945, with losses through the winter of 1944 and spring of 1945, Meg was ordered to try and invade Norway again. The Fallschirmj?ger at this point though was mostly just young boys with little to no combat experience, due to the massive losses from the earlier months. The 2nd Invasion failed more miserably than the first, and this time at a much higher cost of her 2nd in command. With Germany on it's last legs the, 82nd Airborne invaded Italy in the fall of 1945, and a weakened, and demoralized 5th Fallschirmj?ger could not stand the endless waves of parachutes dropping over head. On October 14, 1945 Riech Marshall Meg surrendered the 5th Fallschirmj?ger to the Allied Commander of the 82nd Airborne.
Generaloberst Joergen "Sonic" Prinz (1908-1945) Called Sonic due to his claims of being the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1935. However, he was not called Sonic during the war; he earned the name posthumously due to his stories of secret German testing of super sonic planes in the mid-30s. To this day, no evidence has ever been presented to back up Sonic?s tales. Joining the Luftwaffe in the research and development of German aircraft in 1934 as a test pilot, Sonic found a love of jumping out of aircraft, and when the Fallschirmj?ger regiments were created, he personally sought out and asked Reich Marshall Knaak to be his second in command, giving up his claim to fame as the "Selbstmordgedanken FlugzeugTestger?t" ("Sucidial Plane Tester").
Sonic soon earned respect amongst the light infantry as a talented sharpshooter, and was eventually given command of the sharp shooters in the regiment. Through countless battles it was the Generaloberst's placement of key troops and his dare devil tactics of putting his best sharpshooters on the front line at times, that won many of the battles in Europe and Africa. During the 2nd Invasion of Norway, the Generaloberst was killed saving the lives of his men by jumping on a grenade. Although this was heroic on his part, it is considered, by many, to be the costliest death of the 5th Fallschirmj?ger. Many historians connect the defeat of Italy in 1945 to Sonic's death earlier in the year.
Generalmajor Tamar "Dutch" Verhallen (1906-1980) Called Dutch by his men, because he was one of the only officers in the entire German Army from the Netherlands. The Generalmajor was loved and respected by those he commanded. Although he faced extreme prejudice in the mid to late 30s, Dutch earned his place as an officer during the initial invasion of Poland in 1939. Earning dozens of medals and achievements in the first invasion, he rose in rank and his name quickly reached the ears of Marshall Knaak. Knaak, having no problems with a Dutch Officer, at first placed Dutch in charge of only a platoon, but during the invasion of Finland, his heroics and the love of his men, quickly got him placed in charge of an entire company. Dutch was vital in the successful invasions of Finland and Africa.
Never afraid to be up close and personal with the enemy, Dutch's company and his squads were always assigned to any spots in towns that would involve close quarter combat. His well-trained troops excelled at CQC. It was this training that proved vital in the Battle of Kalt, as Dutch's troops eradicated Allied Forces in the sewers and set up a haven for the German paratroopers from Allied Bombers. Dutch was promoted to 2nd in Command after the untimely demise of Generaloberst Prinz, and was with Marshall Knaak at the surrender in Italy n 1945.
September 8th, 1943
Dear Father,
How are you? Im fine. I?m writing to you from Berlin, can you believe? Berlin! I never thought I'd be in this magnificent city. Let me tell you, walking around in uniform definitely attracts the women here; I?ve had a few good nights already! I?m sure you've heard the news of the American take-over in Poland, I was in Warsaw when they took it. I had just gotten to the unit with a few others from Jump School when we were told of the plans to reinforce Warsaw. My friend Skippy said he was excited. When we first moved in, the city was in ruins from our bombings of Artillery and the Luftwaffe bombers from the first invasion in '39. We parachuted in on the 2nd of August, the thrill of jumping from the plane is amazing. We took control of the rail station, although part of it was in ruins from the bombings. We were using this station for supplies and as a routing station for prisoners to be sent to where ever it is they go. On the 19th of August we saw hundreds of American planes with what looked like thousands of parachutes. They had sent their army?s elite to fight us, and we were ready for them. We set up in a large factory, the ruined railway, and a street that lead to the loading docks of the station. Our defense was solid, we didn?t lose very many men in it, and the Americans pulled back. I was able to kill two or three of them before they managed to get away.
A few hours later, we got the orders to move forward, and push them out of the city completely. Our counter attack went well, but it was decided by command that the losses weren?t worth it since we were still in control of the station, and supplies continued to move in and out. We could hold out for a long time, but the Americans could not. But when the Fuhrer caught wind of this, he ordered another attack. Our Commander thought it was crazy, but orders are orders, especially when they come directly from Hitler. The second attack went much worse than the first, they had rallied around a church and one of their damaged tanks and held us off there. We had spread our men too thin, and when the counter attack came we had to pull out to save our lives and we lost the train station. We also lost a few good men, my friend Skippy was one of them. Without the train station our departure from Poland was inevitable. Fret not though, we already have our orders to go and take Finland from Allied hands. When we parachute in, like they did to us, they'll be shocked.
Your son,
Compton
Week 3
April 5th, 1944
Dear Father,
I finally recovered from that bout of heat exhaustion that kept me out of the battles in Denmark and Norway. I?m writing you from Italy; it seems like I?m going to see every part of Europe before this war is over. With only a few weeks between each of our engagements, Hitler has us jumping out of planes to engage this All-American airborne group wherever they go. They are a tough enemy, but in Finland we showed them who is in charge of this war. The town of Kalter is medium sized, but it is home to one of the few bridges left standing in Finland. Its not a large bridge, but it is big enough for our Panzers, and their Shermans to get across. Our Commander recognized its importance and asked The Fuhrer himself if we could be in charge of the defense of the bridge. After our success in the initial attack of Finland, we were given the go ahead. However, we couldn?t take our entire Battalion like we would have liked, we could only take a platoon of 16 men. I guess our commander must like me, because I was told I would be joining him.
We ended up joining a Panzer division to catch a ride to Kalter, and then we drove into the southern side of town. When we got there we immediately set up defenses around the bridge, and in the wheel house. We have a few reserves set in the back, looking over the destroyed church. One of the officers, a generalmajor who left the Netherlands to support Hitler, realized that those sneaky Americans might use the sewers to try and flank us, so was given a squad to go down there. I was stationed in the Wheel house with our Raketenpanzerb?chse, our anti armor. We wanted to keep it on overlook of the bridge, but a lucky American mortor round disabled one of our APCs on the bridge. This made the bridge impassable by any heavy armor, so we placed it indoors so we could cause massive damage to any troops who dared the narrow walk-way in the wheel house.
As the American's made their advancements into the town, our first contact was radioed from the sewers. Our radio emitted the heart-wrenching cries and the gun fire coming from down below. I remember it almost word for word Papa. I don?t think I'll ever forget it, I recognized the voice as well, it was a friend of mine, Obergefreiter Matthew. His last words were "Wir brauchen wieder wiederholen, m?ssen wir zur?ck in die Kanalisation. Amerikaner sind in Bewegung zu schnell, wir brauchen Hilfe! K?nnt ihr uns h?ren? Jeder? Sag meiner Frau, dass ich sie liebe." ("We need back up, repeat, we need back up in the sewers. Americans are moving in too quickly, We need help! Can you hear us? Any one? Tell my wife I love her.").
I wrote a letter to her already and sent it, with his pictures and the Iron Cross he had earned in a previous battle.
Our Commander came over the radio at that point and told us to focus; another squad would retrieve the men in the sewers. Our Panzerschreck called out to me and fired, He walked down the stairs as I provided cover for him. I heard a shot ring out and he stumbled down the stairs. I turned and looked and saw the exit wound in his back. He had been heading out the door to lead to our main street. I panicked, thinking they had already reached our side of the bridge until I heard another soldier cry out "Lieber Gott, war, dass ein Freund? Wer ist im Steuerhaus!?" ("Dear God, was that a friend? Who is in the wheelhouse!?"). I replied quickly it was a friendly coming out of the house as I lifted my friend over my shoulders. I carried him back to the church where we were putting the wounded for treatment. As I grabbed my rifle to get back into the action, a runner came up to the church, smiling: "Kommandant haben wir die Amerikaner wieder ?ber die Br?cke geschoben, sie zur?ckziehenden!" (Commander, we've pushed the Americans back across the bridge, they're retreating!").
We waited for our reinforcements to come as the Officers planned a counter attack. It took two days for the reinforcements and in that time the Americans had set up their defenses across the bridge. I was given a FG42, a weapon designed specifically for us paratroopers. Our Commander told us he would be joining us directly in the attack. He was advised not to, but he just looked at his advisor and said, "Wenn ich meine M?nner in den Tod f?r mich zu gehen erwarten, dann k?nnen sie von mir erwarten, meinen Tod zu gehen f?r sie." ("If I expect my men to go to their deaths for me, then they can expect me to go to my death for them.") He placed me at the point of his squad and our orders were to take the wheel house, and then drop through the wheel and support the forces going through the sewers so we could push up from behind them and capture them all.
I was the first to get into the wheel house, encountering only one enemy soldier. We exchanged shots and he shot a grenade at me. I returned the favor b y throwing one at him. Eventually the bullets stopped coming at me and I moved forward. He was lying in a doorway, grasping his throat. He looked into my eyes as I squeeze my trigger again and shot him to put him out of his misery. I set up the bipod on my weapon and provided support from on of the windows of a bakery along side the wheel house. As our Generaloberst moved up with his squad I attached to them and we made the push to a destroyed Allied Sherman. They pulled out of Kalter that night, and with our successful counter attack there, the American Armor had no way to support the rest of the invasion force in Finland. I hear they retreated all the way back into Sweden. We celebrated until we got our orders to head to Italy, most of us slept on the train on the way to Italy, but I find it hard to sleep now Papa. I can hear the radio still when I shut my eye, and I can see the look on that soldier?s face, the one who accidently shot our panzerschreck. War is destroying some of these young soldiers, and I think it may destroy me before it?s over.
Love,
Your Son.
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May 20th, 1944
Dear Father,
I am in North Africa. You can?t imagine the sights I have seen here. I watched Rommel's Panzers drive past us as we prepared to drop into the city of Ingot. The city is very large, and it is the only major city near a huge oil field. Our Commanders recognized that if they could secure the town, that it would be extremely easy to secure the nearby oil fields, which would make Rommel, and of course the Fuehrer very happy. We knew the American 82nd would be here again, even after their defeat in Finland. They must have been in country a week or two before us because we had been expecting the town to be under friendly control; it wasn?t supposed to be under attack any time soon, but it was! Our drop was planned to be for show, mostly. To raise the morale of the troops in the town, however we had gotten word of a planned attack from the enemy, so our commander decided we might as well drop with all of our equipment that way we wouldn?t be caught off guard by an early attacked. Thank God he did that, he saved countless lives, even though we sustained losses from their attack.
We were going to be guided in by the luftwaffe fighter planes as we jumped out and our parachutes opened up over this town. Imagine our surprise when we saw American fighter planes start to fly through our plane formation, and an eruption of flak cannon fire from the ground beneath us. We were ordered to jump out of our plane earlier than we had planned. As we floated to the ground we saw the 82nd dropping reinforcements. How scary of a sight that must have been from the ground. Both sides had thousands of white parachutes dropping into this town, their anti-air forces couldn?t tell which forces were which and had to stop firing. I watched an American transport plummet into the train station and destroy the rail yard. I landed in the ruins of the rail yard and looked up to see most of our men getting scrambled all over the city. I saw their fighters destroy planes with my friends still inside. I also saw our fearless forces destroy their planes, cheering to myself as they crashed to their fiery deaths inside the city. Someone is watching over me because I accidently found a platoon of our soldiers in a courtyard beside the train station. This was on May 1.
On the Second of May we were told we had orders to try and take our section of the city. We were right on the edge of the city. Our sector ran from the devastated rail way to a block of apartments and a social square. The Americans in our section were holed up in a church. They set up their HQ there, and had a few groups in the apartments and destroyed buildings around the church. My squad moved forward through the railway. We threw grenades into a small defensive spot and tried to advance some more. We were caught in a bottle neck and they managed to kill four of us and injure two others before we pulled back. The other side of our attack, through the apartments had gone better and they made it to the church, but the American defenses were too strong so we had to pull back. The battle lasted until nightfall, at which point we reset our defenses, preparing for an American counter attack in the morning.
The third of May I was back on the rail way, set up behind some sand bags. As the Americans advanced we engaged them. They pushed the railway hard and we had to fall back into the apartments. They continued to try and push us out, but our defense proved strong and we managed to force their retreat. That night we reinforced our defenses. A small soldier came over to help me set up my sand bags. When I sy he was small, Papa, I mean he almost didn?t make the height requirement, but he makes up for it by being an expert shot with the k98. We call him Mini because of his short stature. I walked up behind him as he looked up at a destroyed roof. Our conversation went like this
"Gib mir einen Aufzug?" ("Give me a lift?")
"Was?" ("What?")
"Gib mir einen Lift, werde ich die Einrichtung auf diesem Felsvorsprung, wer w?rde schauen da oben?" ("Give me a lift, I am going to set up on that ledge, who would look up there?")
I laughed as I lifted all 45 kg (99 lbs.) of him up to the ledge. He just sat there called me a couple of bad names. I turned to get back to my position and looked back at him. I told him if they come our way to jump down and get back to those apartments. He just nodded and told me to run back to him if I thought they'd break our lines. They attacked the rails again, this time our defense was more prepared and we had our MG42 set up. They couldn?t push us back, and they retreated again. Apparently they had focused a majority of their troops on this attack for the railway because the rest of our forces dispersed in the city were able to push through the American defenses in their sectors and we took the town! With the securing of the town and the oil fields, Rommel's Panzer divisions were able to push the so-called American War Hero, Patton, back and out of Africa. The Americans were delivered their first major defeat in this war thanks to the hands of the German Paratroopers. I don?t know if Rommel will receive all the credit for clearing Africa, but know this Papa, the Battle of Ingot was a turning point in this war in favor for the Axis powers.
May 27th, 1944
Dear Papa,
A week ago I was celebrating with the men about our victories in Africa, and my promotion to Stabsfeldwebel (Sergeant Major). It was a short lived celebration. Two days after the victory in Africa we had orders to report to Denmark. We flew into Denmark on the 23rd, and that night got our orders to Norway. We left in the early morning hours of the 24th. I know I was exhausted... I can?t imagine how some of the men felt, including the junior enlisted. I made my rounds before we loaded onto our planes I saw many of the soldiers sleeping. I went to the commander and said invading was a mistake and he just nodded and agreed, but orders are orders. I told the Sergeants to make sure their men slept until we were an hour out, and then wake them.
We jumped out of our planes just before mid day on the 24th. We landed just outside of the Norwegian Capital City, Oslo. As our regiment moved into the city we came under attack, but by nightfall we were in the city. On the 25th we made our move into the city. We were attacking the area around a church, and the devils in baggy pants were on the other side of the church; their defenses were well placed. They had sharp shooters in the tower, and they managed to pick off two or three of our men before we knew what was happening. As our men tried to advance through a series of apartments to get to a courtyard, they were shot by the Americans set up across from them in another building. I?m not really sure if any of us made it across the courtyard before our orders to pull back came through. Exhausted and demoralized we set up our defenses in and around the courtyard, it proved to be useless against the American war machine as they pushed through us with ease. I was shot in my arm and was ordered to go to the medical tents in the back of our sector, I tried arguing but the commander insisted I go. The men I had put in charge of guarding the left side of the courtyard were killed in action, all of them. By the evening of the 26th reports that the entire attack on Oslo had been a complete and utter disaster, we were ordered to leave the city. We had gone to Norway with 35,000 troops, only 19,238 left in fighting condition.
With Love
Your Son.
June 10th, 1944
Dear Papa,
Only eight days after our staggering defeat in Norway, with almost half of our fighting force depleted, we were ordered to defend France. Our exhausted and destroyed regiment was placed in charge of Donner, a French town only 15 kilometers inland. On the night of the fifth of June the Americans parachuted into France, on the morning of the sixth they landed on the beaches of Normandy, just 15 kilometers away! In the afternoon artillery shells were hitting the town of Donner and the next day, the seventh, the American airborne units moved into Donner. Their initial attack on the town was unexpected for us. Our defenses were set up, and completely ineffective they pushed up from the main street of the city all the way back to our HQ, where we just barely managed to hold them off. Immediately we set up our defenses again, we managed to hold them off better this second time around, and the higher ups decided now would be the time for a counter attack. It was a mistake, as we made our way across to the other side of town we were ravaged by the Americans and their better vantage points. I was in some ruins outside of a field with my squad, when an American grenade flew toward us into the ruins, from a near by window. One of my soldiers... who we called Dodgy because of his fantastic luck with bullets.. called out "Granate! Runter!" ("Grenade! Get down!")
He jumped on the grenade and then all I could hear was the ringing in my ears. I just stared at the lifeless ruined body of the man before me, he had sacrificed himself to keep me, and the ones around us, alive. I looked up and around to assess the remaining men. Most of us were covered in dirt, and wounded in one way or another, and we had no clue how the rest of the company was doing. I told them we were falling back and that?s just what we did. When we got back to the HQ we found most of the company there as well, just as wounded as we were. The Americans mustered their forces and drove us out of Donner. As we were pulling back we got reports that the Allied invasion of France had been an utter defeat for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. We're pulling back to Germany for, hopefully, some rest before we get our next set of orders Papa.
I will not lie, Papa, if the war ended tomorrow, and I could leave and come home and never see another friend of mine die, I'd be the happiest man in the world. I miss you and Mama very much, and I cannot wait for this terrible disaster to be over.
This was the last of Dr. Compton's letters that were seized by the Allied forces. However, Dr. Compton's counsel requested that a brief history of the Axis Command staff be set forth. It is unclear what their strategy may be and why they have requested that this be made public. Perhaps Dr. Compton will try to lay the blame on his commanders and use the rarely successful "I was following orders" defense.
The Axis Command Staff - Before and After the War
Riech Marshall Diethelm "Meg" Knaak (1899-1972) Commonly referred to as Meg, for his wife whom he married in 1918. Meg was born in 1899 in Berlin, Germany and enlisted in the Kaiser's Army, where he met a young Adolf Hitler in 1915, at the young age of 16. After the war, Meg left to Munich with his wife. However he stayed in touch with Hitler and in 1933. he was asked to be a general for the Luftwaffe, eventually taking the command of the 5th Fallschirmj?ger.
In the early years of the war Meg lead his troops to victories in Finland, Italy, and Africa. In 1944, with the staggering loss of more than half of his troops in the failed Norway Invasion, followed by the Allied invasion of France, the Marshall knew the war was on its way to closing. In the early summer months of 1945, with losses through the winter of 1944 and spring of 1945, Meg was ordered to try and invade Norway again. The Fallschirmj?ger at this point though was mostly just young boys with little to no combat experience, due to the massive losses from the earlier months. The 2nd Invasion failed more miserably than the first, and this time at a much higher cost of her 2nd in command. With Germany on it's last legs the, 82nd Airborne invaded Italy in the fall of 1945, and a weakened, and demoralized 5th Fallschirmj?ger could not stand the endless waves of parachutes dropping over head. On October 14, 1945 Riech Marshall Meg surrendered the 5th Fallschirmj?ger to the Allied Commander of the 82nd Airborne.
Generaloberst Joergen "Sonic" Prinz (1908-1945) Called Sonic due to his claims of being the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1935. However, he was not called Sonic during the war; he earned the name posthumously due to his stories of secret German testing of super sonic planes in the mid-30s. To this day, no evidence has ever been presented to back up Sonic?s tales. Joining the Luftwaffe in the research and development of German aircraft in 1934 as a test pilot, Sonic found a love of jumping out of aircraft, and when the Fallschirmj?ger regiments were created, he personally sought out and asked Reich Marshall Knaak to be his second in command, giving up his claim to fame as the "Selbstmordgedanken FlugzeugTestger?t" ("Sucidial Plane Tester").
Sonic soon earned respect amongst the light infantry as a talented sharpshooter, and was eventually given command of the sharp shooters in the regiment. Through countless battles it was the Generaloberst's placement of key troops and his dare devil tactics of putting his best sharpshooters on the front line at times, that won many of the battles in Europe and Africa. During the 2nd Invasion of Norway, the Generaloberst was killed saving the lives of his men by jumping on a grenade. Although this was heroic on his part, it is considered, by many, to be the costliest death of the 5th Fallschirmj?ger. Many historians connect the defeat of Italy in 1945 to Sonic's death earlier in the year.
Generalmajor Tamar "Dutch" Verhallen (1906-1980) Called Dutch by his men, because he was one of the only officers in the entire German Army from the Netherlands. The Generalmajor was loved and respected by those he commanded. Although he faced extreme prejudice in the mid to late 30s, Dutch earned his place as an officer during the initial invasion of Poland in 1939. Earning dozens of medals and achievements in the first invasion, he rose in rank and his name quickly reached the ears of Marshall Knaak. Knaak, having no problems with a Dutch Officer, at first placed Dutch in charge of only a platoon, but during the invasion of Finland, his heroics and the love of his men, quickly got him placed in charge of an entire company. Dutch was vital in the successful invasions of Finland and Africa.
Never afraid to be up close and personal with the enemy, Dutch's company and his squads were always assigned to any spots in towns that would involve close quarter combat. His well-trained troops excelled at CQC. It was this training that proved vital in the Battle of Kalt, as Dutch's troops eradicated Allied Forces in the sewers and set up a haven for the German paratroopers from Allied Bombers. Dutch was promoted to 2nd in Command after the untimely demise of Generaloberst Prinz, and was with Marshall Knaak at the surrender in Italy n 1945.
