A GERMAN PERSPECTIVE
By Rudolph May
I would first like to recount what happened before that night [June 5-6] in France. I had been a soldier on the Eastern Front between January 1942 and July 1943, where I was wounded in 1943. After my convalescence and some time off, I was sent for a time to Holland. (1)
Early in 1944, around March or April, I became involved in the reorganization of a division that was sent to France in April. We spent several days in Brittany and were then transported to Normandy. I belonged to a reconnaissance unit that was attached to a combat element.
At first we stayed in the vicinity of Valognes/Montebourg. In May 1944, our combat element was stationed one or two kilometers from Ste. Mère-Eglise. Nearby is a château surrounded by fields of grass divided by hedgerows and narrow passes. There are also some farms. The combat element consisted of 300 to 400 men: infantrymen, 40 to 60 half-track motorcycle troops, and the reconnaissance unit to which I belonged. We slept in tents. We hardly came into contact with the local people, although we sometimes went on little shopping tours into the village and did some bartering with its inhabitants. Above all, we bought milk and cider.
We did our work in the camp; that is, we constructed our positions or drove piles into the ground, the so-called Rommelspargeln (Rommel’s asparagus), in order to deter glider and airborne troops. The command post of our group was in the château mentioned above. The commanding officer was Captain Fischer, I believe. As a reconnaissance unit, we were located around the combat element in order to serve as a reserve.
I was a corporal, and my group consisted of about ten men. An NCO (noncommissioned officer) was in charge of us. We were quartered in the bell tower of the church in Ste. Mère-Eglise. Thus, we had a roof above our heads and did not have to lie in tents, in which it sometimes was very cold and wet.