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Jerry,
I know he was captured in the August so could well have been towards the end of that piece of fighting. He was in one of the Artillery Regiments of Hohenstaufen - but the towed one (I understand the other regiment was SP). He was on the crew of a 10.5cm leFH 18 towed by an SdKfz 11, which he told me he used to enjoy driving. His job on the gun position was as the fuse setter (artillery members here forgive me if my terminology is awry).
He was called up in 1943 aged 18 and I imagine selected for the Waffen SS as he was a big strapping chap. After training he deployed to the Ukraine where, as he put it, he helped lob some shells in the general direction of the Russians. Then of course, 6th June happened and together with Frundsberg they deployed to Normandy as 2nd SS Panzer Corps - as I'm sure you know
He was wounded prior to capture in the foot; he recalls sheltering under a door during an artillery bombardment.
In August at some juncture, he said his position was just over-run; he remembers Tommies with camouflaged faces and helmets peering at them through a hedge and basically that was that.
Just one final comment:
Fast forward a million years or so and I - as a serving soldier myself - was assisting in conducting a Battlefield Tour for a coachload of British junior officers in Normandy. One of the stands was at Hill 112. The briefing officer, who knew of my Uncle's history, at the end of his brief, said "And of course gentlemen, in that direction (gesturing) Mr Stoddart's uncle was deployed."
Cue much scratching of heads and studying of maps; at a break in the proceedings, a couple of the officers came up to me and enquired, "Sergeant Major, I can't quite work out who your Uncle was with; 9 RTR, 5th Wiltshires perhaps?"
"No Sir" quoth I, "9th SS Panzer division".
Anyway(!), 'have tracked down (no pun intended) the "Panzerwaffe" dio and, needless to say, am hooked. Once again, inspirational.
Brian
Ahhh well,Ausust means it was more likely after the Avranches idiocy. Maybe around Vire or during the general withdrawal before the noose was closed at Mt Ormel. There was a time period during when your guy was nabbed that,surprisingly,the Hohen and Frunds had ample supplies of 105mm ammo. Most folks are un aware that the Pz Divs only had 3 batteries of self propelled arty. 2 Wespe and 0ne Hummel. The rest were (barely) towed.
As a further aside,the 9th and 10th SS Pz were actually formed and trained to combat landings in the West. Emergency dictated their first action was in Russia,so after the landings they were loaded on "Blitz" transport trainloads and sent back to France,albeit with diminished strength suffered during the winter in Russia.
Best bit of info here though,is the fact that you were/are an NCO ! Well done.
J
