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Edward S., Wehrmacht Veteran

Edward S. was born in the US but his mother took him back to Austria when he was just 2 months old. When WW2 broke out, he was inducted into the Wehrmacht serving in several countries including 2 years on the Russian Front; he was assigned to Panzerjäger Abteilung 85 (anti-tank unit) under the 5th Mountain division where his job was to knock out tanks. Wounded by machine gun fire in Italy, he recuperated in Switzerland until the end of the war. He returned to Austria and tried to get a passport to come back to the US which took a few years to get. Finally, on Thanksgiving Day in 1953, he was allowed to return here aboard the new, ill-fated Andrea Doria which collided 3 years later with another passenger ship and sank off of Nantucket.
His 2-part story was published in a local newspaper and is quite interesting! In March 2007, I met him at a Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge luncheon to which he had been invited as a guest. So I spoke to him. He was gracious enough to show me his scrapbook from his war years which contains these excerpts and more that I didn't photograph. Very nice guy and mentally still very sharp! He remembers exact places and dates of different events that occurred over 60 years ago. With his permission, I share these photos with you here. Enjoy!
g6/90/599190/3/76148396.SmxmlY63.jpg g6/90/599190/3/76148397.R8eF9JfP.jpg g6/90/599190/3/76148398.w2uBFrS7.jpg Edward in uniform on Crete in 1941
g6/90/599190/3/76149077.cWqTDoJW.jpg g6/90/599190/3/76149078.9HC95tzZ.jpg check out the Acropolis IMG_0226.jpg
Warning sign! IMG_0221.jpg IMG_0222.jpg On guard
IMG_0217.jpg Edward in 1952 Tigers Lucky horseshoe
JU-52s Edward and his wife, Catherine Headed for Crete IMG_0219.jpg
IMG_0220.jpg IMG_0225.jpg IMG_0227.jpg IMG_0228.jpg
General Ringel in Crete IMG_0234.jpg