This is not a dry compilation of dates and figures, rather it is a intense personal account of combat and comradeship in the deadly final acts of the Second World War. Rolf Fischer was born near Bremen in 1927. At age 15, he and his classmates were called up to serve as auxiliaries at the local anti aircraft defense battery. Here Rolf and his friends experienced allied bombing raids, death, and killing. Along with the young auxiliaries, the flak battery is comprised of wounded front veterans and Soviet prisoners of war, referred to as Hiwis . Rolf describes in great detail how all three groups interact and learn to work together. At age 17 Rolf is called up to the regular army and is sent to basic training with the 65th Regiment, 22 Luftlande Infanterie Division at Delmenhorst. From there he is sent to a specialized machine gun training facility in Denmark. Here Rolf and other handpicked recruits are taught to use MG 42s equipped with infrared optics. This early night-fighting gear was sometimes referred to by the Germans as Vampir (Vampire). The author provides an in-depth description of the equipment and its usage. Upon completion of the course Rolf (now a Corporal) and his squad are deployed on the Western Front, where they operate as an independent fire team, moving from unit to unit along the front. Rolf describes brutal combat in the Hurtgen Forest, supporting German Paratroopers (Fallschirmjager) in a desperate counterattack, and defending a position against dangerous US Army Rangers. He goes on to describe his surrender and captivity in a British POW camp. This is not a dry compilation of dates and figures, rather it is a intense personal account of combat and comradeship in the deadly final acts of the Second World War. Fischer’s narrative is constructed mostly through dialogue, providing an unusually immersive, cinematic feel to this exceptional memoir.
AUTHOR: Rudolf Rolf Fischer was born in Blumenthal in 1927. After the war he found work as a wool buyer and lived in both the UK and Australia. He married an Englishwoman, for whom he began writing his memoirs about 30 years after the war. Rolf died on April 1, 2020, and left this manuscript to his grandson. Rolf wrote: This is for Margaret; it might help her to understand my many peculiarities, or rather their origin, better. A view from the other side will, no doubt, show the difference between the world of a 15-year-old German boy and that of a slightly younger English girl during those awful days.
SELLING POINTS: . Perhaps the only detailed account of training and combat with the Vampir infrared equipped small arms in WWII . The author describes growing up in the Third Reich during WWII, auxiliary service with a flak battery on the home front, and frontline combat with a specialised and little-known unit using exotic weaponry . Readers also gain insight into struggling for survival as a prisoner of war, and attempting to transition to civilian life in impoverished postwar Germany 17 b/w photographs
