|
The 2 Kradschutzen Battalion in Eisenstadt, Austria
Anschluss
When Austria merged with Germany in mid March 1938 to create the
"greater Reich", the outward appearance from photos and newsreels showed an
enthusiastic Austrian population greeting Hitler and German troops. Behind the
scenes, however, the German military was hedging its bets with no real trust of
either the political or military leadership of their southeastern neighbor. Only
a few years earlier, the former Austrian chancellor, Engleburt Dollfuss, had
violently suppressed the Nazi movement. After his assassination, his successor,
Kurt Schuschnigg, was also seen as no particular friend of Berlin and was forced
from power by intense pressure from Hitler. The new chancellor, Arthur Seyss -
Inquart, created a pro Nazi government in Vienna and the massed German troops on
the border spilled across as the propaganda film crews captured the scenes.
|
|
|
|
There are no known photos showing the 2
Krad departing Manteuffel Kaserne for the long trip to Austria but here
are two stray and uncaptioned period pictures that give you a good
impression of that hectic day. In a motor pool that looks very familiar,
these mechanized infantry men are turned out in full kit and baggage; no
one looks very happy over the sudden alert. |
|
In the months running up to the invasion of Poland, in light of developing
doctrine, untested soldiers and new equipment, the High Command in Berlin had
few units they considered to be truly combat ready. Among these was the 2 Panzer
Division and when the deployment orders to Austria was written, they were fast
on the move. By committing the best the Wehrmacht had to offer, it guaranteed
there would be no Austrian dissent, no backing out of the union. Four infantry
divisions, a mountain - infantry division, a wide variety of corps support
troops and SS units were deployed in addition to the 2 Panzer.
|
|
|
|
At least here, a few of the men can muster a smile. Uncaptioned and
actual location unknown, again, a very familiar background. The fast
departure of K2 to Austria would have been a very similar scene. |
|
Of note, the famous Gross Deutschland Motorized Rifle Regiment stationed
in Berlin, the official ceremonial unit of the Nazi Party,
was attached to the 2 Panzer Division control and even though over 1/3
of the division’s tracked vehicles broke down on the long road march, much to
the participant’s and senior command’s silent alarm, the unit nevertheless
closed in relatively good order on Vienna. The crowds cheered wildly, the news
reel crews captured the euphoria and a series of grand parades for the Fuhrer
were held in the major Austrian cities of Lenz, Salzburg and the capital,
Vienna.
|
|
|
|
Period post card showing home of the 2 Krad in Eisenstadt,
Austria.
--Stefanowicz |
|
The 2 Kradschutzen Battalion was a participant in these events. The unit
was alerted and immediately departed Bad Kissingen on Saturday, 12 March 1938.
They arrived at Vienna in the early morning hours the following day. It had been
a remarkable road march of over 700 Kilometers, first south by southeast then
due east across the Austrian border, through the mountains and into the central
plateau.
There appears to be no written record that details these hectic hours
for the 2 Krad beyond the caption in one participants foto album. He titled the
page devoted to the movement as “ the very long ride “. There is, however, a
great recollection of the alert found in the post war unit history of the 2
Panzer Division’s anti - tank battalion that was stationed in Schweinfurt during
this same period. From Die Geschichte der 2 Panzer Division: Friedens - und
Kriegerlebnisse einer Generation ( The Story of the 2 Panzer Division - the
Peacetime and War Experiences of a Generation ) assembled by the veterans of the
38th Anti - Tank Battalion and edited by F. J. Strauss with the full support of
the Division’s Veteran’s Association, this account of the alert and deployment
of their battalion. It is safe to say that the experiences in Bad Kissingen were
quite similar.
|
|
|
|
Photo from the Oath Swearing
Ceremony as the first wave of Austrian Panzer troops join the 2 Panzer Divsion at Modling near Vienna.
Lt. Stotten standing in front.
--Franz Steinzer |
|
“On the evening of 10 March ( Thursday ) 1938, the Battalion Adjutant and
the 3rd Company Commander are on leave; the officers of the battalion and those
from the 4th Panzer Regiment are entertaining their wives and guests at the
Military Garrison Ball at the ( Schweinfurt ) Wintersaison. ( a large function
hall ) Suddenly at about 22 00 hrs. quite unexpectedly, the mobilization order
was received to include possible deployment not only for the men in Schweinfurt
but the associated Reserve units. At about 22 45 hrs. the general alert alarms
were sounded in the barracks the those who were asleep were quickly out of bed.
The NCOs who had passes for Schweinfurt were quickly retrieved using trucks and
motorcycles. The preparation efforts for such a deployment, with an as of yet
unknown purpose or destination, went according to plan through the night. Let
there be no secret, wild rumors flew and they were met with often repeated
orders.
“‘Should the anti-tank cannons be combat zeroed?! … Should the troops
carry their full set of clothing and gear?! … What about the personal effects in
the barracks, pack for storage or not pack??!! ‘ The night was filled with
questions of that nature while some of the subordinates muttered that it was all
only a drill. Later on, such alarms and our reactions became well rehearsed
events and we certainly had the opportunity to practice what we learned.“
|
|
|
|
On the road! Members of 2 Krad off to one of their many
deployments. This time it is Czechoslovakia.
--Stefanowicz |
|
11 March At exactly 7 AM, we were fully march ready. Towards 11 AM,
the final march order was received and by 11 45, we had joined the assembled 2nd
Panzer Division on the march in the vicinity of Bamberg. The objective was still
undetermined. Closer still to Bamberg, we received an intermediate objective for
the day, we passed through Nurnberg and reached the vicinity of Regensburg“
12 March “The march continued, Straubing - Passau, across the Austrian
border near Scharding and then further over the Lenz near Enns, where the
battalion - once more on Austrian soil - spent the night at the Cavalry
Barracks.“
|
|
|
|
"The battles were fast and often. Hardly time to take a photo and
move on." 2 Krad and French war dead in 1940.
--Stefanowicz |
|
“It was sort of a ghostly existence. No one really knew what to make of
this deployment. We had considered the possibility that at the border, there may
have been a battle but, this did not come to pass. This was really the first ‘
Flower War ‘. … and a short while later, all this became a ’ rain of flower
blossoms …’“.
A few paragraphs later, the narrative continues:
13 March “The battalion resumed the march over the Saint Polten and
into the vicinity of Vienna. Near Puckersdorf, the Adjutant and CO of Company 3
finally caught up with the column and we were halted and ordered to ‘ clean and
dress everything up’ . Then, through the indescribable joy of the population, we
marched into the near suburbs of the city …“
|
|
|
|
" ... but somehow, we always came home to a parade." 2 Krad
returns to Austria after France.
--Stefanowicz |
|
A glimpse of the 2nd Kradschutzen Battalion briefly appears in the
microfilm rolls of the Bad Kissingen Stadtarchiv. By going back through the
Saale Zeitung records for the key dates, Erwin Ritter found a mention of the
unit.
Understandably, reporting on the Anschluss dominated the mid March
editions of the Bad Kissingen newspaper. The reports were glowing, filled with
the unquestioning enthusiasm of the day and based in large part on radio reports
from Radio Vienna and Radio Berlin. The headline of the Monday 14 March 1938
paper was “Austria, a Land of the German Government“ and a few pages later, in
this brief note from what can best be described as a News of the Region column:
“Our Kradschutzen Battalion in Vienna. Oberburgermeister Doctor
Pollwein ( Mayor of Bad Kissingen ) reports receipt of the following telegram
from the Commander of noted Kradschutzen Battalion # 2: that the battalion
reports its arrival in Vienna in the early hours between Saturday and Sunday. We
are greatly please that our military unit has had the opportunity to participate
in this great event.“
|
|
|
|
In the Soviet Union, it all changed.
--Stefanowicz |
|
A few paragraphs later, a report that a 25 year old man from Schweinfurt
had been sentenced to a year in prison for “intimate relations“ with a ½ Jewish
woman appeared followed by a brief listing of local obituaries.
Throughout Austria, the activities associated with the Anschluss and
the various Hitler parades received enormous coverage in the German press;
hundreds of photographs of the events appear in both period and modern
historical books. There are several images of the 2 Krad taking part in the
military parade through the streets of Vienna. The soldiers appear businesslike
and perhaps somewhat weary on their motorcycles.
Eisenstadt
Once the dust settled and the flowers were swept from the streets, the
decision was made in Berlin to retain the 2nd Panzer Division in Austria and the
various battalions of the small Austrian Army would deploy to Germany and, for
the most part, be integrated into existing German units. This policy seems
designed to merge important aspects of Austria into the dominant German culture.
For the military, this would insure that military training, equipment and
doctrine were rapidly standardized, there would no longer be an army that
thought of itself as Austrian, only as German. There were, however, interesting
consequences for the 2 Panzer Division.
The German Army personnel system was based on tying units to
geographical regions for both replacements and locations of training barracks.
With the move to Austria, the replacement pool for the 2nd Panzer Division
became the Ostmark region, former Austria, and as more and more casualties were
sustained by 2 Panzer over the run of the war, the " German " character of the
unit, based in part on the initial staffing from the Bavarian and Thungarian
towns that first raised the battalions and then contributed sons with each
yearly draft, quickly gave way to an " Austrian " sense and dialect. Further,
while in Vienna, a few Austrian units were added as complete blocks to the 2
Panzer Division. This unit, among the best trained and equipped German tank
divisions in the late 1930s is recalled in the post war years as the " Viennese
Panzer Division ". By the time the unit went to war in Poland, well over 75% of
the enlisted men recalled an Austrian background. The officers of the unit were
drawn from greater Germany as a whole.
The ironic twist to the story continues with the fate of the Austrian
army units at the time of the Anchluss. As the small corps of mechanized units
moved to Germany for retraining and fresh equipment some of these units occupied
the Meiningen, Wurzberg and Bamberg barracks just vacated by the 2nd Panzer. The
Austrian Light Artillery Regiment #3 for example, was redesignated and added to
the just built 4th Panzer Division. Its home barracks was located in Meiningen
and its replacement pool region became central Germany.
The men of the 2nd Panzer Division moved into garrison locations in
and around Vienna, the 2 Kradschutzen Battalion found a home in a long existing
castle like structure in the small city of Eisenstadt, about 100 kilometers SE
of Vienna.
http://www.eisenstadt.at/ The facilities had previously been home to the
recently departed Austrian Infantry Regiment #13. The town may have lacked some
of the charm of Bad Kissingen, but for the officers and men from central
Germany, it probably had a certain exotic charm, the Hungarian border was only a
few dozen kilometers distant. Their life, however, was hardly a relaxed affair.
The motorcycle infantry unit participated in the occupation of the
Sudatenland in Czechoslovakia
http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/czech.htm
the integration and training of a new “ class “ of draftees and an
increasingly up tempo field and range training schedule. In September 1939, the
2nd Panzer Division was on the far southern flank during the invasion of Poland
and the men of the 2 Kradschutzen Battalion won their first awards for combat
valor and buried their first war dead.
|
|
|
|
Found in Bad Neustadt, a few stray pages from a Kradschutzen photo
album that probably once belonged to a soldier stationed at Manteuffel
and then deployed to Austria. In this group, a souvenir post
card from Eisenstadt, officers in discussion, learning to operate a
motorcycle. |
|
|
From the same small collection: a
squad ready for machine gun training, on a march with the
motorcycles and an very informal group picture. The off white
uniform was called the Drillig Anzug and is almost always seen on
recruits in training. In the pre war years, with a mandatory two
year term, as one year - group of soldiers finished
its commitment, the Krad battalion would lose over 40% of its
experienced junior enlisted troops. The training cycle began again.
|
|
Return to History
Part I
|
|