Got off lightly again...

Chief Petty Officer Hummel, whom the naval helpers called "Tommyschreck" on Flak-Ost, had his own idea of entertainment. He once asked the naval helper M.: "What are those flat, thin plates in the outer dike?", "Cow patties, Chief Petty Officer, right!... and what are those green, round apples on the street?" "Horse apples, Chief Petty Officer, right! and what are those raisin-sized marbles in the forest?", "Rabbit droppings, Chief Petty Officer", "right...... and how high is Kilimanjaro?", "I don't know, Chief Petty Officer", "I knew right away that you could only talk about shit....that was the end of the exam and the conversation.Martin M.

Picture right: Marine - Artillerymen of the Kugelbake Battery

Something tasty

When our instructor, Lance Corporal Kähler, was suddenly granted leave for the holidays at Christmas 1943, he said to Marine Helper V as he left the barracks: "My mother and my wife have already sent a Christmas package here. When it arrives, it should be opened and all perishable items should be taken out and distributed fairly." The packages arrived, they were opened and cakes, gingerbread biscuits and marzipan were divided up and destroyed. There was also something smoked in the contents, which could have been kept. It was put on the table, cut into slices and distributed. Nobody knew what it was, but it tasted delicious. When Kähler returned to the battery after his leave, he asked for the smoked goose breast... and suddenly everyone knew what we had enjoyed so much. Harald Schönemann

The dismissal

Marine helper A. was a "naval helper on duty" and was standing guard when the battery commander and the department commander, a captain, came over the bridge. He reported in accordance with the regulations: "Marine helper A. reports: No special incidents on guard." The captain greets and wants to move on, but he sees that a group of marine helpers have to crawl up the slope and a corporal is chasing them back and forth. He asks the battery commander for his name and wants to speak to the corporal later. There is no information about the conversation that then took place......... but Kähler was "relieved of his position as instructor of the marine helpers. The new instructor was private Döring. Harald Schönemann

Bildung ........ so nicht

During a morning inspection of the battery, Private Holzleitner is asked unprepared by the battery commander: "Holzleitner, do you know Goethe?" "No, Oberleitnant." The instruction followed: "Goethe was a great poet and wrote Faust." A few days later, the battery commander asks to check: "Holzleitner, who was Goethe?" "Goethe was a poet and wrote Faust, Oberleitnant!" Harald Schönemann

Unwanted quarantine

The naval helpers Amelung, Harupa, Dittmer, Schmidt, Müller, Meinecke and Pohlmann were in room 22 in the barracks. One day it turns out that MHMüller has scarlet fever. The whole room is immediately quarantined. "Jonny", that was MH.Schmidt's nickname, had just returned from shore leave and heard the news loudly from the window. MH. Dittmer asked him to bring his parents a bag of laundry, since he was not allowed in, and threw it out the window. Sergeant Matthäus came "by chance" around the corner, immediately noticed the situation and sent the bewildered, innocent "Jonny" into quarantine. Harald Schönemann

Accommodation and leisure

As naval helpers, we had a barracks as accommodation outside the battery area, between Control Center II and the main gate. When the alarm sounded, we put on our overalls that were ready and ran off, into the main gate and then through the vaulted corridor that led to the battery courtyard. The nailed soldiers' boots thundered in the vault, creating a tremendous amount of noise. At the exit, we spread out according to our combat station. We were often at the gun before the artillerymen, even though they had a much shorter route. Their accommodation was within the battery area. When we returned to our barracks after a night of shooting, our wall pictures were lying on the floor. The same was true of our radio, the so-called Volksempfänger. Most of the time, when the alarm sounded, we forgot to take it down from the ship. We were amazed every time we put it back and heard the music of the DTU, the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra, again. The device seemed indestructible to us. Our food was good and plentiful. If we had a big appetite, which was often the case at our age, we could always count on the cook to give us seconds. If we were called out at night and were at the battle station for a long time, the artillerymen were given extra tobacco products and we were given 50 g of sugar. These were then given out either as sugar or sweets, such as candy or even as lollipops. These were collected from the storeroom in Fish Hall 9. Free time within the battery, which we could decide how to spend it, was rare. We rummaged through the old, unused casemates and soon knew every nook and cranny. Sometimes we also used the only boat that was in the battery trench and used it to explore the surrounding area. Despite the shooting, water birds and songbirds nested in the reeds and on the banks of the trench. The northern part of the water was covered with camouflage nets. They were intended to make it more difficult to orientate ourselves from the air. Harald Schönemann

The destroyed hiding place

Two of the naval helpers had built themselves a small hiding place on the other bank. With great effort, the two had brought branches and twigs to build their little shelter. However, one day they were very disappointed: everything had been cleared away. The reason for this was the following: Sergeant Sch..., who was responsible for the Russians, had sent them out with a cart to collect firewood. He too was amazed that they had collected so much in such a short time. If it was rainy or cold outside, they met to play table tennis in the common room of the staff barracks, and serious tournaments were held. Sometimes the adults looked astonished when the boys were faster and more skillful. The game was quickly interrupted when Mate S. sat down at the piano. His repertoire included "My little mama, she's from Yokohama...", "Lili Marleen* and "Home, your stars". But mostly he "hot-talked" as we said, operetta melodies and pop songs. When he was in a good mood, he even gave a little request concert. All without sheet music - so improvised. Harald Schönemann

The performance

Anlässlich eines Kameradschaftsabends sollten wir Marinehelfer auch etwas darbieten. Wir setzten uns zusammen und beratschlagten. Schließlich stand fest, diejenigen, die noch nicht zu sehr im Stimmbruch waren, sollten auf der Bühne "Heimat, deine Sterne "singen. Damit dies auch recht stimmungsvoll wirken konnte, hatten wir folgendes ausgedacht. In der Mitte der Bühne sollte ein Holzstoß aufgebaut werden, darunter eine Glühbirne mit rotem Seidenpapier. Bei der Aufführung im vollen Saal, wir hatten gerade die erste Strophe gesungen qualmte der Holzstoß, denn das Seidenpapier war durch die Hitze der Birne entzündet worden. Sofort löschen! - Dennoch war es ein gelungener Abend.
Harald Schönemann

A bath with consequences

When the weather was good, we played football on the outer dike of Grimmershörn Bay. During one such game, it was already very cold autumn weather, and someone kicked the ball towards the edge of the rocks. It jumped up again and then ended up in the water. The naval assistant PA jumped after it and swam a short distance, reached the ball and came back to shore frozen. Despite drying off and warming up, this bath resulted in pneumonia and pleurisy, which had to be cured in the hospital on Elfenweg. Harald Schönemann

Before you know it.....

If you were assigned to room duty, you had to heat the stove in the room and make sure it was warm. This of course also included fetching the fuel. It was my turn again. So I set off with two buckets to the coal bunker to get coal and briquettes. When I got back, I opened the door with my elbows and saw that my comrades were "pumping" in push-ups. I had to laugh and said: "What nonsense are you doing?" I then received a huge scolding from Corporal Kähler, who was standing in the corner, and had to put the buckets down and immediately start pumping without knowing "why?".Horst St.

Shore leave and its problems

When we went ashore, that is, on holiday, we had to wear our blue naval uniform. This often caused problems, for example when tying the bow tie, which had to sit neatly and tidily over the knot. If you tried them for too long, they would get "dirty" and if you were in a hurry, everything would go wrong because of the excitement. Some of us tried so-called "cheat flies" that you could simply put on with an elastic band. But if you did that, you would be sent back by the UvD at the medical examination and you wouldn't get your leave card straight away. We had found a solution to the Hitler Youth armband over time. We simply attached it with snap fasteners. After leaving the battery, the armband was quickly removed and put in your pocket. If we were going to do the soldiers' jobs, we wanted to be seen as fully valid and not as little Hitler Youths. That worked well until they found out. The military police had a hand in it. So we were only allowed to go "ashore" if the armband was sewn onto our sleeve. Another, albeit one-off, difficulty for us was tying the knot. The little blue stripe had to run exactly diagonally. After hours of practice with the "old hands" who were given another favor for their efforts, we managed it and were happy and breathed a sigh of relief. After a long period of service we were promoted to senior naval assistants. The change to the uniform consisted of the "naval assistant" sleeve stripe being edged with gold braid. As there were no ready-made stripes available, we were supposed to buy the braid ourselves and sew it on. It was supposed to be 3 mm wide. Unfortunately, the uniform shop in Cuxhaven only had 9 mm braid. After sewing it on and the first shore leave, some of them came into the battery laughing. In the semi-darkness - blackouts were mandatory everywhere - they were mistaken for officers and greeted. Harald Schönemann

Contradictory ...

The naval helpers Po and Hans S. were on shore leave. After a short discussion, it was decided to go to the cinema. But the film that was being shown at the "Gloria-Palast" was called "I'll entrust my wife to you" and was not suitable for young people, i.e. only for those over 18. Lance Corporal Brockmann and two other artillerymen from the battery were also standing in front of the box office. So they took off their caps and simply walked past the box office in the middle of them. The first hurdle had been overcome. But a Hitler Youth patrol was standing at the door in front of the cinema hall and was "checking IDs". Although the soldiers started a small uprising, they had to go back to the box office, get their entrance money back and watch the film "from outside". Such an absurdity: not too young for the gun, not old enough for the film. Harald Schönemann

Die Strafarbeit 

In addition to our service, guard duty and artillery drills, we also had the civilian duty of going to school, working for our certificate and for our transfer. We really couldn't complain about being bored. So we walked or drove from the battery to school in the morning to be taught by our teachers there. (We belonged to the 2nd Battalion of MHs) One day, the three of us didn't feel like going to school. We had decided to skip school. So we skipped school, wandered around the town and killed time. But as it happened, on the way we met our instructor in the battery, Corporal Kähler. We didn't know where he had come from so suddenly. Had he seen us? We made ourselves scarce and disappeared. In the afternoon, when we returned to the battery, we were told: "He had seen us." Because he had already reported. The next morning at roll call we had to step forward. We stood there like wet poodles, and it was announced in front of the entire battery that we had skipped school. The artillerymen responded with hidden laughter. We received a warning from the battery commander (...he is said to have smiled), and Lance Corporal Kähler gave us a punishment task, which we then had to show for inspection. We accepted the warning, but the punishment task a la school was too much. Where were we actually? Harald Schönemann

Not only learning to shoot, but also learning to smoke.

Unsere Ausbildung am Geschütz war oftmals recht humorvoll, denn die Munimänner waren die Russen, die „freiwillig“ in der Batterie Dienst taten. Neben vielen kleinen sprachlichen Missverständnissen, erlernten wir die ersten Brocken der russischen Sprache.
Ich habe am 4.Geschütz zum ersten Mal geraucht. Und das kam so: Als Seitenrichtnummer musste ich nach den gegebenen Werten mit dem Zweizeigersystem beide Zeiger in Deckung halten und so das Geschütz der Seite nach schwenken. Wenn wir schossen, musste ich durch den dabei entstehenden Pulverrauch immer kräftig husten. Mein Geschützführer meinte: Einem Raucher würde das nichts mehr anhaben können. So wurde ich Raucher.
Harald Schönemann

The disturbed bathroom

It was a wonderful summer day. We had high tide and the opportunity to swim on our doorstep. With permission, we naval helpers from the free watch left the battery through the north gate to swim on the beach. As the mud flats at the Kugelbake are very shallow, we had to walk a few hundred meters to be able to swim. We romped about, splashed each other and threw mud. Suddenly, in our high-spirited game, we heard the battery siren on the control station. The alarm was sounding. We turned around, ran the route to the beach through water that was sometimes knee-deep, then through the north gate and in our wet swimming trunks to the guns or to the control station. We stood there with weak knees and freezing, but we were lucky. After a short time it was clear that the enemy planes had turned away. We were then able to quickly go to our barracks and get dressed. When the alarm sounded shortly afterwards, we learned that the first daylight attack on Hamburg had been flown. After this incident, the battery commander ordered that in future a field telephone with a long cable had to be taken to the beach. Two men were to maintain contact with the command transmission room. In the event of a standby call, the bathers could be called back, not just when the siren sounded.Harald Schönemann

Marine helpers have to peel potatoes

The Russians actually did the kitchen work, but one fine summer day we naval helpers were assigned to peel potatoes. At first we were very annoyed that, in addition to our usual duties such as going to school, doing homework, drilling, clearing the room, being at the gun or equipment when the alarm went off, etc., we were now also expected to peel the huge pile of potatoes for the whole battery. But orders are orders. So we took it with a sense of humor. We sat in the yard with our pile of potatoes right in front of the kitchen. That's when we got the idea that we wanted to get revenge with a nice song. We started singing the beautiful song: "A dog crept into the kitchen and stole an egg from the cook. Then the cook took the spoon and beat the dog to a pulp. Then lots of dogs came and dug him a grave. They put a gravestone for him on which was written: A dog crept into the kitchen etc... After we had sung this never-ending text in a nice monotone about 30 times, there was a terrible storm. The head chef, mate Max Mattäus (who later became the sergeant), rushed out of the kitchen with a bright red face. As he stood in front of us with his arms bent, his already considerable girth grew even larger and words like "Stop!*....." went mad!"...... and the like came pouring out of his mouth. We had to struggle to hold back our laughter, we had achieved our goal in this way. Afterwards we just hummed the stupid melody. What was left of it is a nice memory of this incident. HJSt.

Der Angriff am 11.06.1943 hatte für den Marinehelfer Karl-Heinz H. ergreifende persönliche Folgen. Er berichtet dazu:

On the Friday before Pentecost 1943, we were completely bombed out "at the post office" as we called it because we wanted to avoid "Adolt Hitler Square". Our house was still standing, but was badly damaged and had to be completely evacuated immediately. My family fled to my grandparents in Heiligenstadt/Eichsfeld. We had barely arrived there when I was called up for military service and was drafted to Cuxhaven as a naval assistant. I was 15 at the time. I only turned 16 on June 29th. Before us there had already been 2 "generations" of MH, as we were called for short, two classes from middle school. Towards the end of our time in MH, the 4th generation of anti-aircraft assistants came to the battery. They had initially been in the crew of a railway anti-aircraft train and had been badly bombed during one of the missions. Karl-Heinz H also remembers: "MH" was a euphemism for "soldiers", because we had to replace them completely after we had completed our training, just like the "helpers" elsewhere. At first they were called "Blitzmädchen" (lightning girls) because they were only supposed to do telephone and radio duty, but then they ended up in the anti-aircraft control center and we were assigned to the guns. The drafted naval helpers, mostly students from the Cuxhaven schools, were distributed to the various batteries around Cuxhaven. Essentially to the "Drangst", "Altenbruch" and "Kugelbake". Luckily I ended up at Fort Kugelbake, a fortress built in 1869, partly quite romantically made of red brick with underground passages and casemates, very well-kept gardens and comfortable accommodations and actually everything was much better than a bombed-out "home". And above all, the navy provided the well-known very good food. At Christmas 1940, according to the list, there were still 356 soldiers, active naval artillerymen, in the battery. At our time (according to the photo) there were still 49 men, 40 naval assistants and 16 naval assistants, women and boys clearly in the majority. So we didn't just "help", we replaced the soldiers, and we did this (almost) six times (356 - 49 to 56). We also had Russian prisoners of war in the battery (not in the photo, of course), who not only peeled potatoes or swept the yard, but also worked like us. At the cannons there were shell catchers or ammunition men, Geneva Convention or not. The battery commander had the rank of first lieutenant or lieutenant, and it changed. The anti-aircraft chief was a senior sergeant. The Russians were supervised by Schünemann, a staff sergeant. Towards the end, a few old "sergeants" joined us who had been reactivated and had already taken part in the First World War. One sergeant was Gorsky, who was said to be from the Society of Jesus, and certainly an intellectual. The sergeant major (or sergeant, as they were called everywhere) was Max Matthäus, a trained businessman from Hanover, typical in his arrogance (always with a little book between the first and third jacket buttons): "I know and can do everything!". On the whole, we were greeted by a rather cheerful atmosphere, not a martial tone. This was certainly thanks to the battery commander, Friedrich Kolander, an actor. He also acted in front of the company (bohemian" or "laisser faire" would certainly have been an exaggeration), but the frequent visits of his blonde wife (also an actress) dampened the warlike atmosphere. So we didn't fare too badly.KHH

Die Russen

Als wir ankamen, waren die Russen schon da. Das heisst ca.25 Mann wohnten im Russenbunker, der nachts mit einer Stahltür und Vorhängeschloss von ihrem Aufseher, Stabsfeldwebel Schünemann verschlossen wurde. Tagsüber sah man sie häufig Kartoffeln schälen, Munition trimmend, in der Küche Abwasch machend.... Sie hatten eine relative Freiheit innerhalb der Festung, besonders der "Schuster* in seiner Baracke. Wenn man die Russen nach ihrem Beruf fragte, sagten sie übereinstimmend: "Bauer", dagegen stehen zwei Erlebnisse.
 
An unserem Geschütz hatten wir den kleineren der beiden Iwans (mit Namen). Wenn Flakalarm und nichts weiter los war, pflegten wir Marinehelfer im Geschützstand Hausaufgaben zu machen (weil wir ja nebenbei auch noch Schüler waren). Einmal hatte ich Englisch zu lesen auf und sprach „fruit“ falsch aus (fruit!) Iwan berichtigte mich spontan: frut! Also konnte er Englisch!
 
Ein andermal hatte ich chemische Formeln zu entwickeln. Iwan guckte mir über die Schulter und als ich einen Fehler machte‚ nahm er wortlos die Kreide und schrieb an den Deckenschutzschild die richtige Formel. Also Chemiker? Nein: Bauer!.
 
In ihrer Freizeit bastelten die Russen Spielzeug, die bekannten russischen Vögel, aus zwei kurzen Leisten, die sie kreuzförmig zusammensetzten, dann an den Enden sehr fein spalteten und bemalten. Wahrscheinlich haben sie sie in der Batterie gegen Lebensmittel vertauscht. Leider habe ich versäumt‚ mir einen davon zu sichern.
 
Wie sie in die Batterie gerieten, bleibt im Dunkeln. Möglicherweise nur, um der öde und den Gefahren des Gefangenlagers zu entgehen. Jedenfalls waren sie jetzt der "Zusammenarbeit mit dem Feind" schuldig. Eines Tages kam eine Abordnung des russischen Generals Wlassow (..er selbst dabei?) und warb für den Eintritt in die deutsche Wehrmacht. Da machten unsere Russen ihren schwersten Fehler. Obwohl sie um die Lage wissen mussten (flogen doch am helllichten Tage manchmal mehrere Hundert „Flyging Fortress“ zwischen Cuxhaven und Bremerhaven (damals Wesermünde) vor unseren Augen nach Deutschtand hinein) willigten sie ein. Als ich eines Tages im Kino (Gloria Palast) war, saßen eine Reihe vor mir zwei Soldaten in deutscher Uniform, die sich aber russisch unterhielten. Es waren "unsere" beiden Iwans. Ich befürchte, daß nicht ein einziger dieser netten Männer die erste Nachkriegszeit überlebt hat.
 

Theme: "Movie Night"

I seem to remember that every Friday was film night. But not every film was "suitable for young people" and so we naval helpers were regularly "kicked out" after the newsreel and the cultural film, even though we were men. The soldiers were certainly happy about that because they could then sit in the dark with the female helpers without "competition". Of course, that bothered us and there were loud discussions about it in the bunker. One day my comrades chose me to complain to the police. But we hadn't considered that they could send the written statement back to the battery commander via the department commander. So it happened that I was called to the front at the next physical and ordered to report. I had to report to the battery commander in a big suit, steel helmet and gas mask. He lived in the barracks above the office (where the sergeant major was lurking). The walls of a barracks are very thin. So I reported: "Naval assistant P. reports for report!" The battery commander then thundered loudly at me and at the same time waved me to a chair that was in front of his desk. When I had sat down, he pointed down and made signs to his ears. Then he thundered again and immediately said quietly: "Take off your helmet." Then more theatrical thunder, which he mastered well as an actor. Then quietly: "Would you like a cigarette?" More thunder! and: "I can hear you well, but next time come straight to me." Thunder again and I was released. Sergeant Matthäus down below must have heard "everything". Military order had been restored. If I did it again, I had been threatened with solitary confinement. But it was all to no avail; the soldiers were left alone with the helpers... But I didn't notice any love affairs.

The Gooseherd

Hard to believe, but true. In the middle of the war, a soldier did nothing but fetch his geese from the bunker in the morning, graze them on the dyke and lead them back to their pen at 5 p.m. He was a simple farmhand or farmer from southern Germany and a little strange. We had little contact with him. But he certainly had to come back from the dyke when there was an "aircraft alarm" (our signal: the gun barrels were turned up), when the city had not yet received an air raid warning from sirens, but probably accordingly slowly. We too, when we were off duty and had perhaps gone to the deserted beach to swim, had to come back as quickly as possible through the small gate at the searchlight stand. I once also had to return from a rendezvous with a girl who had also brought some great cake. I have forgotten where the gooseherd was on duty, perhaps he just had to calm the animals down. Once a year (during Advent) there was plenty of roast goose for everyone. I remember that it was once served to me in the BÜ room (telephone switchboard) because I was on duty there. KHH

The Battery Festival

Once a year a battery festival was celebrated. The hall and the common room were decorated with streamers. There was good food (although we couldn't have had any better food every day, because we were in the Navy. Sometimes we even secretly took "leftovers" home with us. After all, we only lived on "stamps" (food cards = rations). But as for drinking, of course we boys weren't given beer or liquor. So we had agreed, "Everyone brings what they have" and we got beer, schnapps, brandy, champagne.... What to do with it? When we were "kicked out" of the hall around 10 p.m., we took the big coffee pot and poured all the alcohol we had into it, stirred it and then.... It tasted great. But we weren't used to the devil's stuff and went to bed terribly drunk. It happened as it had to: Alarm at night!! I can still remember very well how I pulled myself up the big wooden staircase that led to the guns rather than walking. We had to shoot too. The only ones who weren't "full" the Russians (ammunition trimmers and loader gunners), we MHs were half drunk, the soldiers were completely out of action. The "enemies" in the sky must have wondered where we were shooting... KHH

The test

Our battery commander, First Lieutenant Friedrich Kolander, whose real name was Kohlhase, was an actor in civilian life (after the war he played in the TAT, Frankfurt/M.). He looked like one too and, above all, he could act like one too. Which battery commander would otherwise recite a poem in front of the assembled troops at the inspection in the battery yard and then ask: "Holzleitner, who is that by?" To which H. replied: "I don't know, Lieutenant!" He was a simple man from southern Germany and Kolander beamed: "By me!" Because that was the case, he had been given the task by the department to test every troop support performance that had registered for the Cuxhaven area. Alongside some excellent performances, there were also some poor ones, which we then acknowledged with appropriate laughter. Those who failed were then not allowed to perform in the other batteries of the 4th MAA. Kolander was not present on one occasion and was replaced by a very young lieutenant. Some expert wanted to give a slide presentation about RUBENS. The lieutenant greeted him on the stage and then sat down in his place in the front row. Then the lights went out, and as soon as the first pictures appeared in the darkness our "reserve chief" fell asleep and only woke up again when our applause thanked the speaker. The lieutenant rushed onto the stage and thanked the speaker with moving words for the presentation about REMBRANDT! There was roaring laughter in the hall. KHH