Poor Old Spike
31 Aug 03, 16:14
I see the following programme was broadcast on Radio Scotland last month. I had a brief correspondence with one of the guys,Werner Busse,a few years ago after seeing him on a Brit TV prog.I stupidly later gave his letter away to a military buff,but can remember he told me "Our training was very hard" and he became a young radio operator in a Panther operating in the Tarnopol area,"I was very frightened",and was later transferred to 12th SS Hitlerjugend Pz Div as a Tiger commander in Normandy. A Brit AT-unit knocked out the tank,killing all his crew "I was wounded and taken prisoner and treated very well"
After the war he married a Scottish girl and settled in Inverness,and the last I heard he was a wine bar manager there,and is an honourary member of a Brit Army sergeants mess in the area among open-minded Scots who have no problem with his ex-SS tag.
As he told me,"We were not war criminals,just soldiers doing our job."
-----------------------------------------------
http://icperthshire.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/strathearnnews/strathnews/content_objectid=13090354_method=full_siteid=88886 _headline=--German-prisoners-re-united-name_page.html
RADIO SCOTLAND - GERMAN PRISONERS REUNITED June 30th 2003
TWO Germans who spent part of the second world war as prisoners at Cultybraggan camp have been reunited for a radio programme to be broadcast this weekend.
Heinrich Steinmeyer was recently flown back to Scotland from his home in North Germany to take part in Return From Freedom , which goes out on Radio Scotland at 11.05am on Sunday.
On his return to the camp, near Comrie, Heinrich met up with Werner Busse, a fellow prisoner who stayed and eventually married in Scotland after the war.
The pair spent time sharing their vivid memories of camp life, which included witnessing the murder of a fellow prisoner who was hung for breaking the strict Waffen SS code of honour it was alleged that he had openly expressed anti-Nazi sentiments.
Accompanied by reporter Jane Francchi, Heinrich recollects his experiences as a PoW in camp 21, which was home to 4,000 soldiers from Hitler s elite forces during and after the war. "It was the continuation of army life in German barracks but without the freedom," he says.
The programme also features a contribution from local man Jock Watson, who became a camp warden after a spell in the 52nd Mountain Division. He and other Comrie residents recall the high spirits among the prisoners, and how they became a feature of life in Comrie at the time.
Like Heinrich, Werner Busse joined the Waffen SS Panzer Division after graduating from the Hitler Youth and was captured in Normandy by Scottish servicemen in 1944, aged 20. Both men passed an emotional time as they talked about how they came to be in the SS, what it meant to them, and how they both came to love Scotland after the war ended.
Heinrich returned to Germany in 1956. He reveals in the programme how he would like to scatter his ashes in a river near Comrie, and says the kindness he received from people in Scotland remains his abiding memory of the country.
"I had a great time in Scotland and I am very glad to be back," he adds.
After the war he married a Scottish girl and settled in Inverness,and the last I heard he was a wine bar manager there,and is an honourary member of a Brit Army sergeants mess in the area among open-minded Scots who have no problem with his ex-SS tag.
As he told me,"We were not war criminals,just soldiers doing our job."
-----------------------------------------------
http://icperthshire.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/strathearnnews/strathnews/content_objectid=13090354_method=full_siteid=88886 _headline=--German-prisoners-re-united-name_page.html
RADIO SCOTLAND - GERMAN PRISONERS REUNITED June 30th 2003
TWO Germans who spent part of the second world war as prisoners at Cultybraggan camp have been reunited for a radio programme to be broadcast this weekend.
Heinrich Steinmeyer was recently flown back to Scotland from his home in North Germany to take part in Return From Freedom , which goes out on Radio Scotland at 11.05am on Sunday.
On his return to the camp, near Comrie, Heinrich met up with Werner Busse, a fellow prisoner who stayed and eventually married in Scotland after the war.
The pair spent time sharing their vivid memories of camp life, which included witnessing the murder of a fellow prisoner who was hung for breaking the strict Waffen SS code of honour it was alleged that he had openly expressed anti-Nazi sentiments.
Accompanied by reporter Jane Francchi, Heinrich recollects his experiences as a PoW in camp 21, which was home to 4,000 soldiers from Hitler s elite forces during and after the war. "It was the continuation of army life in German barracks but without the freedom," he says.
The programme also features a contribution from local man Jock Watson, who became a camp warden after a spell in the 52nd Mountain Division. He and other Comrie residents recall the high spirits among the prisoners, and how they became a feature of life in Comrie at the time.
Like Heinrich, Werner Busse joined the Waffen SS Panzer Division after graduating from the Hitler Youth and was captured in Normandy by Scottish servicemen in 1944, aged 20. Both men passed an emotional time as they talked about how they came to be in the SS, what it meant to them, and how they both came to love Scotland after the war ended.
Heinrich returned to Germany in 1956. He reveals in the programme how he would like to scatter his ashes in a river near Comrie, and says the kindness he received from people in Scotland remains his abiding memory of the country.
"I had a great time in Scotland and I am very glad to be back," he adds.