The Colditz Story (1955)

I am a great fan of John Mills and Eric Portman and I think that this film is very worthy of being classed a classic. Unfortunately one omission was that Douglas Bader served time in Colditz but was not mentioned in any part although he certainly kept the Germans on their toes. Still a great film.
Redcap

The Colditz Story is one of my all-time most favorite War films. Sir John Mills, Eric Portman, Anton Differing (as a German officer) and Theodor Bikel (as a Polish Officer) were all just brillient in this great true story.

Words just can't say enough of how much I like this great movie. Also, in haveing the above mentioned actors in it-certainly doesn't hurt the movie at all ;-))

And as for movies with Sir John Mill, Eric Portman, Anton Differing and Theodor Bikel, outside of Dunkirk w/ Sir John Mills, this is my 2nd favorits of his movies. Eric Portman is another favorite actor of mine and this movie also comes in 2nd favorite Portman movie only because I thought he was superior in the excellent Richard Widmark movie: The Bedford Incident.

However, this is my favorite film w/ Theodor Bikel in it winning over: The African Queen. This movie also comes in second with Anton Differing. It's hard to pick a favorite of him in other films and he is not Nr.1 in this one-only because he had so few moments on-screen IMO.

Quote from Redcap

I am a great fan of John Mills and Eric Portman and I think that this film is very worthy of being classed a classic. Unfortunately one omission was that Douglas Bader served time in Colditz but was not mentioned in any part although he certainly kept the Germans on their toes. Still a great film.
Redcap

Hi Redcap, as you can tell, I too am a great fan of Sir John Mills and Eric Portman-among many other greats from the U.K. These gents have always been tops, in my book and no matter what role I see Sir Mills in, I greatly enjoy it.

What are your thoughts on others like: Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, James Donald, Oliver Reed, Harry Andrews, James Mason, Kenneth More, Charles Laughton, Michael Redgrave, Stanley Baker and Richard Burton? OF course, there are more that I like but can't think of their names at this time.

Take care and best regards-Carl.

Hi Ringo,
Sorry I have been off line lately with work pressures. I agree with you on Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Michael Cain etc. They are all good in their own rights. However another John Mills & Eric Portman film you may like is "We Dive At Dawn" where they play roles as submariners in the Baltic. Another good film is "In Which We Serve" starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough,Celia Johnson and Noel Coward. Hope you can get them and enjoy them as much as I do.
Regards
Redcap

Hi Carl,
I have just been looking through some of my movies and I ahve come up with the following and as regards the actors like Harry Andrews, Richard Burton, James Mason etc. James Mason made the film "The Desert Fox" his own and was excellent with Richard Burton in "The Desert Rats" also with Robert Newton. I don't think any one else could have played Douglas Bader Like Kenneth More in "Reach for the Sky" he also starred in "Sink the Bismark" and showed how good he was in the comedy "Genevieve" Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd did a good portrayal in "The Dam Busters". Stars too many to list but including Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Kenneth More, Trevor Howard, Edward Fox etc was "The Battle of Britain" where they all put in stirling performances, especially Trevor Howard. Oliver Reed made his name through 2 films "Hannibal" and "Oliver" he was good in both of them. Charles Laughton was to me a great actor on both stage and screen, I can remember seeing him in "Henry V111" and with John Mills in "Hobson's Choice" which was a comedy. Some others I think are worth a mention are:- Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Edward Fox, Sean Connery, David Niven and Leslie Howard. Ihope you enjoy this list.
Regards
Redcap

Quote from Redcap

Hi Ringo,
Sorry I have been off line lately with work pressures. I agree with you on Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Michael Cain etc. They are all good in their own rights. However another John Mills & Eric Portman film you may like is "We Dive At Dawn" where they play roles as submariners in the Baltic. Another good film is "In Which We Serve" starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough,Celia Johnson and Noel Coward. Hope you can get them and enjoy them as much as I do.
Regards
Redcap

Hi Redcap, Same here-sorry I have no steady access to the site till my Brother gets off his duff and orders it to be installed.

Thank you and those actors mentioned are some very fine actors. I grew up watching movies with Harry Andrews, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine etc. I was a sort of late in discovering Sir John Mills-who is far my most favorite Britich actor

I saw In Which We Serve so many years ago that I don't remember anything about it cept that it took place at sea. Same goes for Ice Cold In Alex-seen to long ago to remember anything more than that it was a great movie and that it took place in the Desert. I sure wish the movies companies that own these films and many others to boot-would release them all on DvD here in the USA. The Password Is Courage is another I have longed to get on DvD.

Take care and best regards--Carl.

PS, Did you know that Michael Pate wrote the screenplays for a few movies? ;-)) I saw his name in the credits to a movie I recently watched-and darn if I can remember what the title of it was.

Quote from Redcap

Hi Carl,
I have just been looking through some of my movies and I ahve come up with the following and as regards the actors like Harry Andrews, Richard Burton, James Mason etc. James Mason made the film "The Desert Fox" his own and was excellent with Richard Burton in "The Desert Rats" also with Robert Newton. I don't think any one else could have played Douglas Bader Like Kenneth More in "Reach for the Sky" he also starred in "Sink the Bismark" and showed how good he was in the comedy "Genevieve" Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd did a good portrayal in "The Dam Busters". Stars too many to list but including Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Kenneth More, Trevor Howard, Edward Fox etc was "The Battle of Britain" where they all put in stirling performances, especially Trevor Howard. Oliver Reed made his name through 2 films "Hannibal" and "Oliver" he was good in both of them. Charles Laughton was to me a great actor on both stage and screen, I can remember seeing him in "Henry V111" and with John Mills in "Hobson's Choice" which was a comedy. Some others I think are worth a mention are:- Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Edward Fox, Sean Connery, David Niven and Leslie Howard. Ihope you enjoy this list.
Regards
Redcap

Hi Redcap, again sorry I could not reply to you sooner than today.

Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton et el, also are favorites of mine. James Mason was THE PERFECT person to play GFM Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel in both Rats and Fox. I couldn't imagine anyone else that could beat him in that role. James Mason was also so perfect as Colonel Brandt in: Cross of Iron-which is the first movie I ever saw him in-and from then, he's been a favorite of mine as well.

Richard Todd i've only seen in I think 1-2 movies-and I became an instant fan of his as well. I always did like Edward Fox-and of course Oliver Reed. I was saddened to find out that he had passed away when I saw that Gladiator-had been dedicated to him. I absolutely love that movie Hannible Brooks. That movie was shot on location and comes with many pleasant scenes. When I traveled through a good portion of Germany back in 2000-I visited many of the places you seen in "Brooks" and is partly why I love the movie so much. Also, I always did like James Donald as well.

Richard Harris, David Niven and Basil Rathbone are also favs and I watch movies with them in it anytime possible. Though I do like Sir Alec Guiness, I am not a big fan of his though I thought he was absolutely brilliant in everything I ever saw him in-especially "Kwai" and the original Star Wars trilogy and a little-known film called: Situation Hopeless, but Not Serious.

Speaking of Leslie Howard, I have seen him in only one film that im aware of-which was: Gone With the Wind. Did you know that he flew for the RAF and sadly, was killed in combat during the Battle of Britain (at least as I have known it to be how he died.) I think of what could have been-had he survived the war.

Take care and best regards--Carl.

Hi Ringo

Leslie Howard was more of a spy. Dont think he was a pilot. He was killed by the Germans believing they were shooting down Churchill. Full story below.

Apart form Gone with the Wind I remember seeing him in 49th Parallel and First of the Few which was a film about making of Spitfires and Battle of Britain.

Howard died in 1943 when he was returning to England from Lisbon on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. The aircraft was shot down by a German Junkers Ju 88 over the Bay of Biscay.[1] It has been rumoured that Howard was engaged in secret war work at the time, and that the Germans believed the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who had been in Algiers, to be on board. Howard's manager, Alfred Chenhalls, physically resembled Churchill, while Howard was tall and thin, like Churchill's bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson. However, this story has been completely discredited. Churchill himself seems to have been to blame for the spread of it; in his autobiography, he expresses sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life.
Several exhaustively detailed books such as Bloody Biscay (which comes to a slightly different conclusion), Flight 777 by Ian Colvin, and In Search of My Father by Howard's actor son Ronald, conclude that the Germans were almost certainly out to shoot down the plane in order to kill Howard himself.[2] His intelligence-gathering activities (while ostensibly on "entertainer goodwill" tours), as well as the chance to demoralise Britain with the loss of one of its most outspokenly patriotic figures, were behind the Luftwaffe attack. Ronald Howard's book, in particular, explores in great detail written German orders to the Staffel assigned to intercept the airliner, as well as communiques on the British side which verify intelligence reports of the time indicating a deliberate attack on Howard. It also makes clear that the Germans were well aware of Churchill's whereabouts at the time and were not so naïve as to believe the British Prime Minister would be traveling alone aboard an unescorted and unarmed civilian airliner when both the secrecy and air power of the British government were at his command.[3]
Howard was traveling through Spain and Portugal, ostensibly lecturing on film, but also meeting with local propagandists and shoring up support for the Allied cause. The Germans in all probability suspected even more surreptitious activities. (German agents were active throughout Spain and Portugal, which, like Switzerland, was a crossroads for persons from both sides of the conflict, but even more accessible to Allied citizens.) A book by Spanish writer José Rey-Ximena called 'El Vuelo del Ibis' ('The Flight of the Ibis') claims that Howard was on a top secret mission for Churchill to warn Franco to keep out of the war. Howard had contacts with Ricardo Gimenez-Arnau, head of Spains Foreign Office via an old girlfriend, Conchita Montenegro.
Ronald Howard, Leslie's son, was of the conviction that the orders to liquidate Leslie came from Goebbels, who had been ridiculed in one of Howard's films and who believed Howard to be the most dangerous propagandist in the British service.[4]
Howard was flying from Portela (Lisbon), Portugal back home to England on a regularly scheduled flight that did not pass over what would commonly be referred to as a war zone. The Luftwaffe records indicate that the Staffel was sent beyond its normal patrol area to intercept and shoot down the airliner, even though this flight had never before been disrupted. There were about fourteen other passengers, most of them either British executives with corporate ties in Portugal, or various British comparatively lower echelon government functionaries. There were also two or three children, the offspring of British military personnel.[5] The DC-3 was attacked by eight German JU-88s, despite the fact that Luftwaffe patrols in the nearest normal vicinity usually consisted of single planes. According to German documents, the plane was shot down at longitude 10.15 West, latitude 46.07 North, some 500 miles (800 km) from Bordeaux, France. (The DC-3's last radio message indicated it was being fired upon at longitude 09.37 West, latitude 46.54 North.) The German pilots photographed the wreckage floating in the Bay of Biscay. After the war, copies of these captured photos were sent to Howard's family.[6] [1]
Christopher Goss's book Bloody Biscay, however, quotes Oberleutnant Herbert Hintze, Staffel Führer of 14 Staffel, based in Bordeaux, France, as remarking that his Staffel shot down the DC-3 merely because the plane was recognised as an enemy aircraft, unaware that it was an unarmed civilian plane. Hintze states that his fellow Staffel pilots were angry that the Luftwaffe had not informed them of a scheduled flight between Lisbon and the UK, and that had they known, they could easily have escorted the plane to Bordeaux and captured it and all aboard. [1] More recently, Spanish author Jose Rey-Ximena has claimed in a book that the actor's plane was shot down as he was returning to England from a secret mission ordered by then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to dissuade Franco from joining the war with Hitler and Mussolini .[7] There have been rumours that documents connected with the shooting down of the airliner have been classified until 2025, though this has not been confirmed. [8][9]

Hi Carl and Duke Pilgrim,
Sorry Carl but Leslie Howard was a trained pilot but never flew with the RAF. He was on the aircraft that was shot down in the Bay of Biscay. The film mentioned about when Howard ridiculed Goebbels was "Spitfire" with David Niven, when Howard portrayed R. J. Mitchell the designer of the spitfire. Howard was a very patriotic Englishman and had a thatched cottage near Weybridge. He apparently broadcast to the German Nation on behalf of the British Government. My father, who knew Howard, said "When we lost Howard we lost a great Englishman". I was told that I met him but I don't remember as I was only Three years old. Still he was a brilliant actor and one of my favourites.
Hope this snippet helps. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year, I'll have a Glen Fiddich for you.
Best Wishes
Redcap(Bill)

Quote from DukePilgrim

Hi Ringo

Leslie Howard was more of a spy. Dont think he was a pilot. He was killed by the Germans believing they were shooting down Churchill. Full story below.

Apart form Gone with the Wind I remember seeing him in 49th Parallel and First of the Few which was a film about making of Spitfires and Battle of Britain.

Howard died in 1943 when he was returning to England from Lisbon on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. The aircraft was shot down by a German Junkers Ju 88 over the Bay of Biscay.[1] It has been rumoured that Howard was engaged in secret war work at the time, and that the Germans believed the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who had been in Algiers, to be on board. Howard's manager, Alfred Chenhalls, physically resembled Churchill, while Howard was tall and thin, like Churchill's bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson. However, this story has been completely discredited. Churchill himself seems to have been to blame for the spread of it; in his autobiography, he expresses sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life.
Several exhaustively detailed books such as Bloody Biscay (which comes to a slightly different conclusion), Flight 777 by Ian Colvin, and In Search of My Father by Howard's actor son Ronald, conclude that the Germans were almost certainly out to shoot down the plane in order to kill Howard himself.[2] His intelligence-gathering activities (while ostensibly on "entertainer goodwill" tours), as well as the chance to demoralise Britain with the loss of one of its most outspokenly patriotic figures, were behind the Luftwaffe attack. Ronald Howard's book, in particular, explores in great detail written German orders to the Staffel assigned to intercept the airliner, as well as communiques on the British side which verify intelligence reports of the time indicating a deliberate attack on Howard. It also makes clear that the Germans were well aware of Churchill's whereabouts at the time and were not so naïve as to believe the British Prime Minister would be traveling alone aboard an unescorted and unarmed civilian airliner when both the secrecy and air power of the British government were at his command.[3]
Howard was traveling through Spain and Portugal, ostensibly lecturing on film, but also meeting with local propagandists and shoring up support for the Allied cause. The Germans in all probability suspected even more surreptitious activities. (German agents were active throughout Spain and Portugal, which, like Switzerland, was a crossroads for persons from both sides of the conflict, but even more accessible to Allied citizens.) A book by Spanish writer José Rey-Ximena called 'El Vuelo del Ibis' ('The Flight of the Ibis') claims that Howard was on a top secret mission for Churchill to warn Franco to keep out of the war. Howard had contacts with Ricardo Gimenez-Arnau, head of Spains Foreign Office via an old girlfriend, Conchita Montenegro.
Ronald Howard, Leslie's son, was of the conviction that the orders to liquidate Leslie came from Goebbels, who had been ridiculed in one of Howard's films and who believed Howard to be the most dangerous propagandist in the British service.[4]
Howard was flying from Portela (Lisbon), Portugal back home to England on a regularly scheduled flight that did not pass over what would commonly be referred to as a war zone. The Luftwaffe records indicate that the Staffel was sent beyond its normal patrol area to intercept and shoot down the airliner, even though this flight had never before been disrupted. There were about fourteen other passengers, most of them either British executives with corporate ties in Portugal, or various British comparatively lower echelon government functionaries. There were also two or three children, the offspring of British military personnel.[5] The DC-3 was attacked by eight German JU-88s, despite the fact that Luftwaffe patrols in the nearest normal vicinity usually consisted of single planes. According to German documents, the plane was shot down at longitude 10.15 West, latitude 46.07 North, some 500 miles (800 km) from Bordeaux, France. (The DC-3's last radio message indicated it was being fired upon at longitude 09.37 West, latitude 46.54 North.) The German pilots photographed the wreckage floating in the Bay of Biscay. After the war, copies of these captured photos were sent to Howard's family.[6] [1]
Christopher Goss's book Bloody Biscay, however, quotes Oberleutnant Herbert Hintze, Staffel Führer of 14 Staffel, based in Bordeaux, France, as remarking that his Staffel shot down the DC-3 merely because the plane was recognised as an enemy aircraft, unaware that it was an unarmed civilian plane. Hintze states that his fellow Staffel pilots were angry that the Luftwaffe had not informed them of a scheduled flight between Lisbon and the UK, and that had they known, they could easily have escorted the plane to Bordeaux and captured it and all aboard. [1] More recently, Spanish author Jose Rey-Ximena has claimed in a book that the actor's plane was shot down as he was returning to England from a secret mission ordered by then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to dissuade Franco from joining the war with Hitler and Mussolini .[7] There have been rumours that documents connected with the shooting down of the airliner have been classified until 2025, though this has not been confirmed. [8][9]

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Thanks much for this story. I need to make sure the fellows over on the history site im also on-know of this informative article you posted. I never did know much of anything about how he died with the exception of the apparent wrong info about him being a Fighter Pilot in the RAF and being killed sometime durint the BoB. Thanks again for this correction.

Take care and best regards--Carl

PS: Merry (belated) Christmas and hope you have a great New Years.

Quote from Redcap

Hi Carl and Duke Pilgrim,
Sorry Carl but Leslie Howard was a trained pilot but never flew with the RAF. He was on the aircraft that was shot down in the Bay of Biscay. The film mentioned about when Howard ridiculed Goebbels was "Spitfire" with David Niven, when Howard portrayed R. J. Mitchell the designer of the spitfire. Howard was a very patriotic Englishman and had a thatched cottage near Weybridge. He apparently broadcast to the German Nation on behalf of the British Government. My father, who knew Howard, said "When we lost Howard we lost a great Englishman". I was told that I met him but I don't remember as I was only Three years old. Still he was a brilliant actor and one of my favourites.
Hope this snippet helps. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year, I'll have a Glen Fiddich for you.
Best Wishes
Redcap(Bill)

Hi Bill, thank you as well for this correction and extra info. I consider myself a WWII buff and am always glad to be corrected when I don't have the truthful facts. I'm glad to have the truth on this. Heh heh, now if we could only get some of the Researchers over at The History Channel to revise their adament positions about their claiming that there were Waffen SS units that were stationed and or fought at the Battle of Stalingrad--which is pure Fiction and never happened. ;-))

Hi Carl,
Glad to be of help. If I can think of or remember anything else I will let you know. I agree there were no Waffen SS at Stalingrad. Just a snippet for you, I lived in London during WW2 and we were in what we called "doodlebug alley" where we watched the V1's coming over. We were lucky in that only the house got damaged. Late in 1944 I was playing on a bomb site with some friends when we saw a bright flash in the sky. Minutes later we were picking up pieces of metal and wire, of course being kids we started making a game of it. My Uncle Sid was a Policeman and he came around and took our playthings away, in the process I got a clip around the ear, and it wasn't until 1948 that we found out that the flash was a V2 rocket that had exploded early. What a relief. Have a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Regards Bill

Quote from Redcap

Hi Carl,
Glad to be of help. If I can think of or remember anything else I will let you know. I agree there were no Waffen SS at Stalingrad. Just a snippet for you, I lived in London during WW2 and we were in what we called "doodlebug alley" where we watched the V1's coming over. We were lucky in that only the house got damaged. Late in 1944 I was playing on a bomb site with some friends when we saw a bright flash in the sky. Minutes later we were picking up pieces of metal and wire, of course being kids we started making a game of it. My Uncle Sid was a Policeman and he came around and took our playthings away, in the process I got a clip around the ear, and it wasn't until 1948 that we found out that the flash was a V2 rocket that had exploded early. What a relief. Have a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Regards Bill

Hi Bill, those were interesting times to be in. A good friend of mines wife also experianced the "Buzz Bombs." In 1950 they married and immigrated to the USA--where he got a job working under Werner v. Braun. My friend had been an Artillery officer in the German Army-and spent his entire service fighting on the Eastern Front. Bedo also has the diistinction of never surrendering. About 10 years ago, he gave me his only remaining momento of his service-which was his 41-42 Eastern Front Medal.

It bugs me to a certain degree, when all-out blatant errors are made and never corrected--such as saying Waffen SS being at Stalingrad. The History Channel is well-known for them.

Have a Happy New Years-and wish I could buy you a Steak Dinner.

Hi Carl,
They were very interesting times. I am pleased that your friend made in safely as the Eastern Front was not a very pleasant place to be in. When I played Football (Soccer) in Munich our team were looked after by some returned German Servicemen and what they had to say was at times horrific. They all served on the Eastern Front. I must admit we were treated like royalty and were well looked after. This was in 1956/7 when I was playing for West London Schoolboys. Please pass on my regards to your friend for a Happy 2009. Another snippet, my Uncle Bill had a farm about a mile from Tangmere aerodrome and I can remember Spitfires, Typhoons and Mosquitos takinf of on raids during the late 1944 and early 1945. We used to count the aircraft as they came back. Again only being 4 - 5 we didn't really understand what was happening although I still remember the different nationalities that were stationed nearby.
Have a good day
Regards
Bill

Quote from Redcap

Hi Carl,
They were very interesting times. I am pleased that your friend made in safely as the Eastern Front was not a very pleasant place to be in. When I played Football (Soccer) in Munich our team were looked after by some returned German Servicemen and what they had to say was at times horrific. They all served on the Eastern Front. I must admit we were treated like royalty and were well looked after. This was in 1956/7 when I was playing for West London Schoolboys. Please pass on my regards to your friend for a Happy 2009. Another snippet, my Uncle Bill had a farm about a mile from Tangmere aerodrome and I can remember Spitfires, Typhoons and Mosquitos takinf of on raids during the late 1944 and early 1945. We used to count the aircraft as they came back. Again only being 4 - 5 we didn't really understand what was happening although I still remember the different nationalities that were stationed nearby.
Have a good day
Regards
Bill

Hi Bill, and thank you for more stories. The guys over at www.ww2f.com would absolutely love you being there. We also have several WWII vets who visit and post.

You are absolutely correct about what you said about the Eastern Front. That place was a different kind of hell to have been in. I know several E.Front Vets-one of whom was captured w/ a small group of men who were trying to escape from Stalingrad. Herr Giehler inparticular-was a Medical Sergeant attached to one of the Regiments in the 3rd Motorized Inf Div. He was captured in Jan or early Feb-43-was finally released in 1955-and was one of those 6,000 to make it back to Germany. He recently retired as a Doctor.

Hi Carl,
I am glad that your friend was able to retire as a doctor. He certainly had a lot to put up with after the end of the war. I have a lady who works with me in Veterans Support and Advocacy Service and I just found out that her father flew Hurricanes and Spitfires during WW2. He was stationed at Northolt which was about 12 miles from where I lived. He was originally in the Polish Air Force and managed to get to England where he joined the RAF. Krystyna still has his log books and she is going to bring them in to show me. I was also able to tell her where the Polish Memorial is situated as she is going to England in April on a honeymoon, half her luck. Still in V.S.A.S.A. we still have some veterans from WW2, Korea, Vioetnam and East Timor. Some of their tales are hilarious and I thought that we were bad in Vietnam. If Krystyna will allow it I will photocopy some of her father's entries in the log books and pass it on. Talk to you soon.
Regards
Bill

Quote from Redcap

Hi Carl,
I am glad that your friend was able to retire as a doctor. He certainly had a lot to put up with after the end of the war. I have a lady who works with me in Veterans Support and Advocacy Service and I just found out that her father flew Hurricanes and Spitfires during WW2. He was stationed at Northolt which was about 12 miles from where I lived. He was originally in the Polish Air Force and managed to get to England where he joined the RAF. Krystyna still has his log books and she is going to bring them in to show me. I was also able to tell her where the Polish Memorial is situated as she is going to England in April on a honeymoon, half her luck. Still in V.S.A.S.A. we still have some veterans from WW2, Korea, Vioetnam and East Timor. Some of their tales are hilarious and I thought that we were bad in Vietnam. If Krystyna will allow it I will photocopy some of her father's entries in the log books and pass it on. Talk to you soon.
Regards
Bill

Hi Bill, sorry I had not thouht to look into these again since several months ago but--yeah I an glad he chose a civilian career of one that saved lives. I wish I could have some of his stories to tell here. As far as I know-his only child/my friend Susanne-still has yet to get him to tell her anything. I would love to read factual firsthand acounts of what it was like to be a Medic at Stalingrad-and then in primitive Soviet Gulags and such. Many of those 90,000 who surrendered when GFM Friedrich Paulus surrendered the 6th Army-and that never made it back to G erman soil-Mr. Giehler saw many of them die on the road to Gulags, being worked to death, starved, executions and such. Seeing that many of my Comrades die and in horrible ways would have probably made me go insane. I don't know how Mr. Giehler was able to keep his sanity-being a PoW for 12 odd years.

There are numerous books all in German (of course) that were written about all aspects of things dealing with that battle. If these ever get translated into English-you can bet your boots that many of those stories will be made into movies.

Hi Carl,
Glad to have you back on deck again. I have missed our little chats. I can understand your friends position as my father was in Burma and even up till he died would not talk about his experiences. Although I did find out he was in The "Chindits" a jungle commando. He gave me some photos which I gave to the Imperial War Musuem in London, they told me that they are to graphic to put on show. I was talking to an ex serviceman, who was in the German Army, he was in North Africa and Italy, and he said that over 60% of his unit that was sent to the Eastern Front did not return. He was lucky that he was in hospital recovering from wounds and considers himself lucky that he was captured by the British Army before he was sent back to his unit. Anyway friend I hope that you like the keyring. It is the badge of the RoyalAustralian Corps of Military Police (RACMP) and the Corps Motto. Talk to you soon.
Regards
Bill