Germans in the British Army

I've just finished reading a book titled "From Dachau to D Day" by Helen Fry.
Willi Hirschfeld, a German Jew, became Willy Field and ended his war driving a Comet with the 8th (Kings Royal Irish) Hussars. Not many people realise that German nationals were fighting with our Forces in WW2.
A good read for those interested in the history of BAOR. I got it from my local lending library.

Bazza,
Helen also wrote:
'The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens.' This book covers accounts of hundreds of Germans who fought on our side after they were initially interned on reaching our shores.

Peter Leighton-Langer wrote.
The King's Own Loyal Enemy Aliens. This covers similar stories of Germans and Austrians fighting for our side.

I am at a loss as to the similarity of the titles!

On a similar note. A friend in Germany recently asked me if it was possible to track down a family who arrived UK 1938ish fleeing from Germany. It turns out one of the family joined Churchill's SOE. I got as far as The National Archives, but was prevented searching further due to access Classifications.

Alan

Thanks Alan, those two books were mentioned in "Dachau to D-Day", but I haven't seen them yet. I reckon there's still a hell of a lot we're not being told about the war.

Baz.

I wonder what the reaction was from your average squaddie to these non-Nazified German nationals fighting/working alongside them?

I know from my own family (English grandparents on both sides) there was a strong antipathy towards anything German. Nana (my maternal grandmother) was especially anti-German...in a genteel sort of way, of course...and when she and Papa went to UK in 1970 they visited us over in Germany.

My mother was a bit concerned how her mother would respond to just about anything, but especially to meeting German friends of theirs. We were quite good friends with a German family whose daughter, Pia, had babysat for Canadian families and her mother, Frau Becher, was a genteel woman reduced to being a seamstress after fleeing the Russians and crossing into what soon became West Germany after the war from Erfurt.

We were invited to tea with Pia, Frau Becher and the family and Nana, I could tell, didn't really want to go, but did. She said after something along the lines of "they're so much like us!" Duh, ya think???

Other members of Dad's side of the family, working class folk and salt-of-the-earth, were thrilled to meet us when we visited them in London but did say after Mom said they should come and visit us in Germany that oh, no...they'd never set foot in that country. Holidays in formerly fascist Spain were apparently alright, however.

I think bazza is quite correct...there is still a lot we're not being told about the war and the years immediately after it. I'm thinking here of the atomic program in the USA, even NASA, where several moderately to highly placed Nazi scientists were installed, quietly of course. We are now hearing bits and pieces of that era but I suspect there was a lot more going on.

Of course, the debate -- what debate there is -- centres around were the scientists actually "Nazi" or simply men doing their job and going with the flow. Not at all political, did they simply accept the dominant power as 'the way it is' as long as they continued to receive funding for their research etc.? Thing is, some of those men were very instrumental within Krupp, for instance, and other munitions manufacturers and, if one wanted to get right down to it, could have been considered war criminals for the role they played in developing weaponry. Of course, if they developed similar weaponry for the Allies they'd be patriots! Working for the Good Guys. Interesting how history gets written, uh?

Returning to the original theme....no doubt there were many refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and many of them would have headed for the UK (much closer and easier to get to than the USA, although many headed there too). Such individuals would be about as far removed from being Nazis as possible but nevertheless I have no doubt your average Brit would hardly hold warm feelings towards 'those huns...'

Looking for Ernest Finch, German Jew who fought for Great Britain. He saved my mothers life in Eutin...1945
Please contact Columbo1@cox.net

Looking for anyone who was in KristKrankenhouse Eutin, 1945 protecting Hungarian Jewish women who were injured when a train leaving Lubberstadt was bombed.

In 1943 there was a German Jew called Willie Danziger who was a private in the KOYLI who were stationed in the Kenley/Whyteleafe area of Surrey. As I remember his mates were quite protective towards him and got my mother to rent him a room so that his wife - also a German Jew - could be with him. When the battalion left to where i know not because I don't know it's designation - his wife got a flat in Belsize Park in London, to which he returned after the war.
We visited them a couple of times in 1946 but he had become very reclusive and wouldn't say where he had been or if he had even stayed with the regiment when they went abroad. We then lost touch, but i wonder if he would have been allowed to go to fight say in North Africa, Burma or Germany.

Guest wrote:

I've just finished reading a book titled "From Dachau to D Day" by Helen Fry.
Willi Hirschfeld, a German Jew, became Willy Field and ended his war driving a Comet with the 8th (Kings Royal Irish) Hussars. Not many people realise that German nationals were fighting with our Forces in WW2.
A good read for those interested in the history of BAOR. I got it from my local lending library.

I'd heard about Willy Field before now. (btw the 8th KRIH were in Cromwells, not Comets in 1945). I also had the pleasure of meeting another German who had fought for the Americans in similar circumstances (after being liberated from a camp) in 1944/45. I was staying at the UJC and he came over for a chat in the bar because he was on his own. He was in his 80's and had come back to England one last time to revisist some old haunts. The memsahib and I were so touched we asked the UJC staff to link our credit card to his room so that we paid for his stay, bar bill and meals. We didn't tell him and left before him. We just hoped that he recognised the gesture as one of thanks for all he'd been through and what he'd done and to let him know that some people still cared. This was only about 4 years ago.

I'm not sure but I think that Dickie Napier included a bit about Willy Field in his memoir "From Horses to Chieftains" which is one of the most enjoyable little books I've ever read.

Mar 8, 2013

The Commander of British Forces Germany has been speaking for the first time about the Army's Rebasing Plan which means British Troops will leave Germany completely in five years' time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQX589VGdoc

[quote="Hussar100"]

Guest wrote:

I've just finished reading a book titled "From Dachau to D Day" by Helen Fry.
Willi Hirschfeld, a German Jew, became Willy Field and ended his war driving a Comet with the 8th (Kings Royal Irish) Hussars. Not many people realise that German nationals were fighting with our Forces in WW2.
A good read for those interested in the history of BAOR. I got it from my local lending library.

I'd heard about Willy Field before now. (btw the 8th KRIH were in Cromwells, not Comets in 1945).

I read the book last year, think I mentioned it on this site at the time.

Yep, Willy was driving a Comet.

[quote="brum"]

Hussar100 wrote:

Guest wrote:

I've just finished reading a book titled "From Dachau to D Day" by Helen Fry.
Willi Hirschfeld, a German Jew, became Willy Field and ended his war driving a Comet with the 8th (Kings Royal Irish) Hussars. Not many people realise that German nationals were fighting with our Forces in WW2.
A good read for those interested in the history of BAOR. I got it from my local lending library.

I'd heard about Willy Field before now. (btw the 8th KRIH were in Cromwells, not Comets in 1945).

I read the book last year, think I mentioned it on this site at the time.

Yep, Willy was driving a Comet.

How could that be when the 8th KRIH were in Cromwells with Chafee's for recce?