European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Apart from that we had connections to our (female) radio operators that were abroad,

but that was initially limited to radio contact and coded correspondence.

When I was in Eger on holiday or because I needed my glass eye I used to say to the battalion’s doctor:

“Well, in Warsaw they are not able to make decent glass eyes.

In Wiesbaden they make the best glass eyes.

Then I got marching orders from near the front or from Russia or Poland to Wiesbaden

and then I took a detour past Eger. And i told to one or two:

“During this time I will be available in Eger. Can’t you come there, as well?”

We then met female comrades who were in Norway or Copenhagen.

It was very hard to co-ordinate such a holiday,

but it was obviously an exchange of experience that was thorough,

because you had to confine yourself to communicating in telegram styles during radio or coded correspondence.

And now you were able to analyse together: What has happened and what needs to be done?

These meetings took place, but it was really a thing that was quite free of emotions.

Injuries and being a radio operator

It was a bagatelle that brought me in front of the court martial in Africa.

If they had known what I really did, I would have been summarily executed.

As it was, I was taken to the court martial and condemned to the punishment battalion in Africa.

That was horrible because you were totally isolated

and because you were often sent out in front of the tanks – as cannon catch.