Every week some students received induction notices and had to exchange their civilian clothes for a uniform. What did Hitler plan? He had occupied all northern Europe, including Norway and Denmark by now. Why did he need more soldiers? Mussolini had entered the war during the last days of the French campaign. The English army in Egypt had attacked his position in Libya and had driven his forces back to the gates of Tripoli. I was expecting a call into the army any minute. In the beginning of December 1940 I noticed the well-known paper in the mailbox. My time had come. I had to appear on the seventh of December with a group of Austrians in a school to assemble us for a transport to an unknown location. My first letter as a soldier to Irmgard from Weimar, where the army barracks had now become my home for the next eight weeks, describes my trip to this city.

My dearest Irmgard,

The first days of my basic training left me only a few moments to think of our past times and wonder what you are doing now. Eighteen men are shining their shoes, darning their socks and cleaning their rifles in a little room. There must be over 100 of such small rooms in this run-down old brick barrack, which, I am sure, already existed before World War I. Weimar, the famous city of Goethe, is now housing a wireless operator named Otto. To be a brand-new soldier means running all day for 18 hours, eight solid weeks long. I am sure I will make the distance from Marathon to Athens many times over. Coming from Berlin , that means Prussia, I can take the hard life much easier than all the Innsbruckers in our room, who already miss their mountains and the easy life in their hometown. Being torn away from the full life into a different world within three hours did not give me time to think.

When the train took off from Innsbruck I used my power of persuasion to convince the non-commissioned officer who picked us up to stop in Nürnberg and skip a train. Six hours in the Bavarian city gave us the last fling of life. First, all 70 were channeled into a beer hall. In spite of the many beers we drank, our sense of humor was missing. We changed locations and found a Tyrolian restaurant with a live band. After a few more beers we forgot our fate and 70 men started singing and kept on drinking beer. It turned into a real Bacchus festival. Since I had still some of my senses under control I started at two in the morning to collect the men, some sleeping, some still singing. The sergeant also needed some help. When we made a head count at the station, not a single person was missing. The sergeant thanked me over and over again when we arrived in the barracks. Too bad he is in a different company......

The basic training in all armies is the same. But the German Army tried to indoctrinate the "Cadaver Gehorsam" into its soldiers: a blind obedience, no questions asked, not even if it means your certain death. We were chased to the point of exhaustion, exposed to the cold and winter snow and kept awake for 24 hours to test our endurance. It was a tough eight weeks, but we all survived it. I never saw the city of Weimar because I always had to shave myself in the evening since there was not enough time for a shave in the morning. So, I always looked unshaven during the morning inspection. That meant no weekend pass.

Dear Irmgard,

I have my wardrobe filled with packages. I must have a trustworthy face since the rest of the men gave me their packages to guard until Christmas Eve. I was tempted to open your package, but I could not do it with a good conscience with all the other packages in my wardrobe. Often when I have my face buried in the icy snow and my bare hands are so cold that there is no feeling left, I think of the times in the mountains when my whole body was numb due to the icy winds and snow. Then I can forget my present situation. I have not learned the equanimity with which one should take this soldier-life. Just now the sergeant walked into our room and tried to play dirty tricks on us. I intentionally asked him a stupid question which he only recognized when the other soldiers started grinning. He ordered me to climb on top of my wardrobe with my rifle. I had to make 50 knee bends with my rifle stretched in front of me and shout with a loud voice, "I tried to undermine the authority of the army. I will never succeed." Some of the Tyrolians were almost ready to attack him. I could avoid a tragedy only with a quick joke. Maybe my equanimity is not so bad after all...

During the last nine years I had spent Christmas away from home. It caused my mother many tears during the Christmas holidays, my sister told me. A skiing trip into the mountains always seemed preferable to a Christmas at home. My parents usually had given me a skiing trip as a present. Now I had to celebrate Christmas again away from the family. My previous holiday experiences helped me not to get melancholy or depressed. A lot of people were thinking of us. During the first three weeks the pressure of basic training had fused the group in our room into a close-knit friendly unit. Here is the letter I wrote to Irmgard

Dear Irmgard,

It is early morning. A strange but pleasant feeling engulfs me. In front of me stands the little angel which carries the heart with its candle in both hands. It will be with me as a talisman wherever I go. This angel brightens like a lucky star my first Christmas in the army and will give with its burning heart a warm affectionate feeling. On morining of Christmas Eve, as every day when it is dark outside, we had to do our morning exercises. Everybody had a cold and was coughing continuously. But in the afternoon we were relieved of all duties. I convinced my comrades that they should lock up the beer and schnapps and save the champagne bottles for New Year's Eve. Our private first class, whom we call "Little Napoleon" because he is such a hated tyrant, tried to stay in the room for our Christmas celebration. He stuck around and did not want to leave. We sacrificed one bottle of champagne and a few candles. After s-everal songs we told him that our celebration was over. When he finally left, I got all the locked-up packages out of my locker. The real Christmas feeling entered the room. After a "Silent Night" and lighting some more candles on our little tree, one could hear only the rustling noise of opening letters. When I opened your letter, I could hardly suppress my tears. In the rough existence of a soldier's life such a lovely letter touches the emotions. I was happy to have contributed to the true Christmas spirit among us. The opened packages filled with cookies and other goodies made us feel that we were not forgotten.....

New Year's Eve as a soldier was celebrated with lots of booze. But having run and exercised all day long, sleep overcame us at midnight. Now we started to practice the Morse code every day for one hour. I had already practiced the Morse code just for fun many years earlier, so I became skilled in a short time.

On January 17 I was ordered to appear before the company commander. With some anxiety I searched my memory for any recent transgression I had committed in my short military career. I appeared in full uniform at the captain's door. After I hesitantly knocked at the door, a "Come in" sounded like an order to step through the door. "Panzerfunker Otto, you will be transferred tomorrow to the staff of the general in Kassel as a wireless operator. Any question?"

"No sir," I answered. This move would cut my basic training two weeks short. As much as I hated to leave my 18 comrades with whom by now I had developed a close friendship, I was proud to be transferred to such a prestigious job. A new batch of recruits had already arrived and started their basic training program. Why does Hitler need so many soldiers? I asked myself again and again. Mussolini had tried to conquer Albania and became stuck as he did in Libya. Hitler had to send the German Army to bail him out. In the meantime the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria and were in the process of invading Greece. English troops had occupied the island of Crete and were surprised when German paratroopers landed and took several thousand English soldiers prisoner. Hitler now controlled all of Europe. I was sure he would make peace with England now since his attempted invasion of the island had failed miserably. But more and more people were being drafted. All my old classmates from school were in the army.

In Kassel I perfected my speed in the Morse code so I could operate the wireless equipment one story above the floor of the general. Here I familiarized myself with the famous "Schlüssel Maschine." the secret code machine. It had a typewriter keyboard with five wheels above the keyboard on which one could set the daily secret code with letters and figures. The wheels were covered and locked so nobody could read the daily code by accident or intention. The German Army command was very sure that the German engineers had created a machine with an unbreakable code.

In 1942 the English Navy had forced a German submarine near the coast of England to the surface and discovered one of the famous coding machines on board. They turned it over to the British Army intelligence. Within one year they had broken the German code, even though the Germans changed it weekly. This remained unknown to the Germans. I had to decode messages from the High Command which sometimes gave orders to move whole divisions into occupied Poland. It was furthest from my mind that Hitler was preparing for an invasion of Russia, for we had a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Why was Hitler drafting every able-bodied German into the Armed Forces? Why was he transferring many divisions into Poland? It did not make sense. The busy life on the wireless, sometimes up to two days without sleep, did not give me much time to think about the secrets of war and try to figure them out.

During one weekend I visited my grandmother in Karlshafen. Fourteen hours in pleasant surroundings sleeping in a regular bed and chatting with Grandmother was a refreshing vacation in my rather boring life.

Dear Irmgard,

My wireless station is turning into an intellectual religious experience. Two pastors and one priest have joined the group. Debates with the priest, the pastors and myself are endless. I admire the tremendous knowledge of the priest. He has an ascetic personality, is very smart, very ambitious and a great psychologist. His eyes shift continuously with suspicion back and forth. The two pastors, both from small villages, are down-to-earth persons with an unbelievably thick skin, full of humor and irony. They disguise everything into religious language and I laugh continuously about their negative outlook on military life. I have to admire their "oily skin" from which everything around here runs off. Nothing throws them in their fatalistic attitude. I thought I had inherited some tough skin from my grandfather, but nothing comes close to these three church representatives....

I got hold of a bottle of French champagne and a gallon bottle of 45-year old coffee liquor a sergeant had bought at the PX at a Parisian military base. I sent it to Irmgard after I had wrapped it carefully. The large liquor bottle was only half full. But I hoped the postal service was honest enough to ship it. The liquor tasted more like cognac than sweet coffee.

I made a long poem and mailed it with the package. Here it is but it is hard to translate into English, so I write in German:¹

The safe arrival of the package was confirmed in her next letter. I hoped that there would be something left of the liquor or champagne when I met her for the vacation which I had coming. The sergeant told me I could take six days off in the second week of March. I felt that there was something going on in the military field. They did not give us a furlough unless they planned to send us somewhere into the boon docks. What a treat I had ahead of me! Irmgard had arranged a trip into the Stubai Alps. We had planned to climb with our skis and crampon the Zuckerhut, the highest peak in the Stubai Valley north of Innsbruck. I had left a rope and my seal skins previously with Irmgard.

As the train pulled slowly into the Munich railroad station, I leaned far out of the window, hoping to find Irmgard on the platform. Finally, I could spot her familiar white and gray fur coat. After four months of separation my heart jumped as I embraced and kissed her.

"I have everything arranged," she said. " We have tickets, food, skis, knapsack, rope and crampon at home. The train for Innsbruck takes off in two hours." I got out of my uniform and into my ski clothes, and we left for the station. Within two hours we were in Innsbruck. The weather could have not been better as we changed into the electric train, which brought us to the end of the Stubai Valley. Spring was in the air with wild flowers sprouting everywhere. On the high mountains the snow still reflected the sunlight.

We had our work cut out for us. Irmgard had bought enough food for four days. We stopped at one of the last houses where an old man gave us the key for the Stubai shelter 9,000 feet high, a place in which we could sleep. He assured us that there were enough blankets in the hut, but if we wanted to cook or warm up the hut, we would have to carry wood with us up the mountain. Our knapsacks were already heavy, but a few pieces of firewood still had room. After four hours of carrying our skis on our shoulders we arrived at the first hut. A couple was staying there all winter to cook simple meals for the skiers and keep the place warm. Both sexes had to sleep in a small room with straw bunks.

At daybreak we climbed with our seal skins for another three hours over the Stubai glacier to the Stubai refuge hut. This is a larger house on a little hill with an adjoining hut farther down the slope. Both are closed over the winter. There was already a large party in the big house. So, we opened the small hut and tried to make ourselves comfortable. The thermometer showed 10 degrees and it would sink at least to zero during the night. It was still early afternoon and time to get some skiing done. We climbed for two hours on the glacier halfway up the Zuckerhut to finish with an exciting run down towards our cold sleeping quarters. I got a fire going while Irmgard tried to get a meal together on the little stove. It took all our clothes and 10 blankets for each of us to get warmed up in this cold hut. The sleeping quarter was separated from the cabin entrance. No heat could enter the room from the stove. The morning wash had to take place in the snow followed by a cold breakfast. To go to the bath room was a special hard task. The outhouse was 100 yards away from the hut and covered with snow. The seat had layers of ice.

We took our rope and crampon, put on our seal skins and started the ascent to the Zuckerhut. The last section of the mountain ends in a steep pyramid and requires a rope and crampon. We pushed our skis into the snow and started up the sharp ridge. There were cornices with overhanging snow off and on. Slowly, tied together with a rope, we made it up to the top. There was not a cloud in the sky. Our eyes could wander at least 100 miles all around the Alps. In the far distance 11,000 to 13,000 foot high peaks rose into the sky. No wind bothered us and we wanted to stay forever on the top. As the sun sank on the horizon, we started our way down. I stayed above, holding Irmgard on the rope. Suddenly a cornice gave way and she started to slide swiftly downhill. I pushed the ice ax deep into the snow and braced myself to wait for the jerk, which came when she was at the end of the rope. I held her until she gave me the signal that she was O.K., then I pulled her slowly back onto the ridge. The rest of the descent went smoothly. We picked up our skis and headed for our cold quarters.

The next day we skied down the mountain as long as the snow permitted and walked the last four hours carrying the skis. We then took the train back to Innsbruck, where we found rooms in a small hotel. Either a double bed was available or each one of us could sleep with another person in a room: man with man and woman with woman. It was not a difficult decision. With the war an unknown factor, being not even 21-one years old, I decided to remain a gentleman and sleep in separate beds and rooms. The war should be over in less than a year, we hoped, and then we could make up our minds what we would want to do with our lives. To get married before one finished one's studies and had a profession was out of the question. Our good-bye was one of the toughest ones in my life. It was a good thing that we did not know that the separation would last over five years. I went back to Kassel with the hope that the army would send me to some place where the action was.

Dear Irmgard,

Everybody turns his head wondering where I got my nice tan. I kidded my comrades that I had come back from a vacation in Africa. Some soldiers even believed it since the word "Africa" was on everybody's lips. Some of the soldiers in Kassel had been transferred recently to different units and were now writing from Rome. What a pity but some of my skin was already flaking off my face, the leftover from one of my greatest vacations. But the news that some of the German Army units would be transferred to Africa, made my pulse beat faster. Again I asked the commander, " What is in the cards for me?" .....

Dear Irmgard.

My ears are buzzing and my heart beats hard from the three grams of quinine we had to take as a test dose. I feel a little bit groggy. We are housed in a school in East Berlin, one of the worst areas of the city. Everything is very primitive, but a fresh spirit moves through all the soldiers. We know that we will eventually end up in a hot focal point of combat. I want to sleep, sleep, just sleep. Last night I was standing on one leg in the train from Kassel to Berlin for eight hours. There was no room for a second leg. Everything moves so fast. First the vacation, then the order to travel to Berlin and then right away three grams of quinine. I have not slept since Kassel. But strange thoughts go through my mind. I am aware that I will end up in a war theater where the Tommy has an advantage and the bullets are whistling. Maybe the rest of my suntan will protect me from an African sunburn. Ha,ha!....

The new commander restricted us to the school. Nobody could get out, and that in the middle of Berlin! Not even relatives were allowed to visit us. With my sisters and brother and parents only a half hour away, this was particularly cruel. I got at least a telephone call through to my mother. But orders remained orders, no matter how ridiculous they were. People could see us through the window in our new hot climate uniforms. Whom are they trying to kid? The army issued us a tropical helmet, a one-man tent, special boots, where the shaft is made from cloth, net underwear and a snazzy cap. The whole outfit weighted at least 60 pounds. Everybody was wondering what kind of faces the girls will make when we came back on vacation in this good-looking uniform. Nobody mentioned the possibility that some of us might not come back, a thought that sometimes entered my mind. The army had picked only unmarried soldiers in good physical condition, none of us was over 20 years old. In other words, we were a select bunch. After four days we were finally let out into the town. How different are the Berliners from the other Germans! One could go into any restaurant and eat. Nobody asked for a ration card. Everybody was friendly and helpful. After 18 months of war and many bombing attacks the spirit of the Berliners was still unbent. Not a single shop had any cigarettes. But when a soldier entered, the owner found a package hidden somewhere in a corner. Every bakery sold bread or pastry to a soldier without a ration card. I am really proud to be a Berliner. One could not find this attitude in Munich, Innsbruck or Königsberg.