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Book: Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying by Harald Welzer, Sönke Neitzel
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Authors: Harald Welzer, Sönke Neitzel
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defenses?
W INKLER : Don’t say that, the fellows had AA guns … The CO carried 50 kg. bombs. The CO took off first, made a quick survey, “Aha, there’s a house with a few motor vehicles.” He’s a pilot himself,
ssst,
the old “88” dives at an angle of 80 degrees, he presses the little button, banks quickly and makes for home. PWs were brought in the next day by the SS and by a Cossack unit; we had a Cossack unit, and they landed paratroops in there too … everywhere swarming with partisans … fired every night with tommy guns. They took some prisoners and what do you think the CO had hit? A whole staff with nothing but high officers, including an English General who had been landed there just a few days before. 99
In this anecdote,violence is clearly experienced as a kind of sport. The “game” Winkler talks about is the dropping of fragmentation bombs on an alleged group of partisans in theVercors region of the French Alps in July 1944—something he clearly enjoyed. After a series of difficult and deadly missions targeting Allied ships in theMediterranean, such a relatively easy assignment came as a welcome change. At long last, Winkler had another success story, another tale of a fruitful hunt and what was gunned down. The British staff Winkler hit somewhat haphazardly in the process barely rates a mention.
Conversations of this sort took place in an atmosphere of mutual agreement and tacit consensus. This example is from April 1941:
P ETRI *: Have you made daylight raids on E NGLAND ?
A NGERMÜLLER *: Yes, on L ONDON , on a Sunday and at a height of 30 m. It was fairly stormy weather and the balloons were notup. I was the only one (who went over). I dropped my bombs on a railway station—attacked the station three times. Then I flew off right across E NGLAND and afterwards the papers reported: “German raider machine guns streets.” Of course my crew enjoyed it, and they fired at everything.
P ETRI : At the civil population?
A NGERMÜLLER : Only military objectives!!! (Laughs.) 100
Angermüller’s pride is unmistakable. The attack on London he describes had a special status because, although it was a solo mission, he did not just drop bombs, but also flew low to strafe ground targets with machine gun fire. This sort of raid was so uncommon that it made a British newspaper—at least Angermüller says it did in order to underscore the impressive nature of his story. Angermüller’s answer to his comrade’s question as to whether he shot at civilians is obviously ironic. It was an opportunity for a bit of shared laughter.
T HE A ESTHETICS OF D ESTRUCTION
One of the most central and frequent conversational topics among soldiers was how their kills were visibly verified. In great detail, they list the targets they themselves hit as well as those destroyed by their squadrons and their competitors. This is not surprising when we consider that their superiors handed outawards andpromotions on that basis. (There were also other measures of achievement:Iron Crosses First Class andKnight’s Crosses were bestowed after a certain number of missions or verified kills.) In contrast to infantry soldiers, airmen had immediate concrete evidence of their success. They could see, with their own eyes, the decapacitated, burning remnants of enemy machinery or houses, trains, and bridges that went up in flames or collapsed.
Two aspects of killing from the air made it particularly suitable for being perceived and experienced as anaesthetic phenomenon. The destruction was visible, and it could be viewed from a relatively safe distance:
S IEBERT *: It’s grand to be an airman with one’s base in G ERMANY , so far away, and then to attack here.
M ERTINS *: One “Stuka” did a great deed. It sank an English warship. It flew over and dropped a 250 kg. bomb into the funnel and hit the magazine. It destroyed the ship. One saw it, too, inP OLAND . You drop your bombs and know exactly what you have hit every
W INKLER : Don’t say that, the fellows had AA guns … The CO carried 50 kg. bombs. The CO took off first, made a quick survey, “Aha, there’s a house with a few motor vehicles.” He’s a pilot himself,
ssst,
the old “88” dives at an angle of 80 degrees, he presses the little button, banks quickly and makes for home. PWs were brought in the next day by the SS and by a Cossack unit; we had a Cossack unit, and they landed paratroops in there too … everywhere swarming with partisans … fired every night with tommy guns. They took some prisoners and what do you think the CO had hit? A whole staff with nothing but high officers, including an English General who had been landed there just a few days before. 99
In this anecdote,violence is clearly experienced as a kind of sport. The “game” Winkler talks about is the dropping of fragmentation bombs on an alleged group of partisans in theVercors region of the French Alps in July 1944—something he clearly enjoyed. After a series of difficult and deadly missions targeting Allied ships in theMediterranean, such a relatively easy assignment came as a welcome change. At long last, Winkler had another success story, another tale of a fruitful hunt and what was gunned down. The British staff Winkler hit somewhat haphazardly in the process barely rates a mention.
Conversations of this sort took place in an atmosphere of mutual agreement and tacit consensus. This example is from April 1941:
P ETRI *: Have you made daylight raids on E NGLAND ?
A NGERMÜLLER *: Yes, on L ONDON , on a Sunday and at a height of 30 m. It was fairly stormy weather and the balloons were notup. I was the only one (who went over). I dropped my bombs on a railway station—attacked the station three times. Then I flew off right across E NGLAND and afterwards the papers reported: “German raider machine guns streets.” Of course my crew enjoyed it, and they fired at everything.
P ETRI : At the civil population?
A NGERMÜLLER : Only military objectives!!! (Laughs.) 100
Angermüller’s pride is unmistakable. The attack on London he describes had a special status because, although it was a solo mission, he did not just drop bombs, but also flew low to strafe ground targets with machine gun fire. This sort of raid was so uncommon that it made a British newspaper—at least Angermüller says it did in order to underscore the impressive nature of his story. Angermüller’s answer to his comrade’s question as to whether he shot at civilians is obviously ironic. It was an opportunity for a bit of shared laughter.
T HE A ESTHETICS OF D ESTRUCTION
One of the most central and frequent conversational topics among soldiers was how their kills were visibly verified. In great detail, they list the targets they themselves hit as well as those destroyed by their squadrons and their competitors. This is not surprising when we consider that their superiors handed outawards andpromotions on that basis. (There were also other measures of achievement:Iron Crosses First Class andKnight’s Crosses were bestowed after a certain number of missions or verified kills.) In contrast to infantry soldiers, airmen had immediate concrete evidence of their success. They could see, with their own eyes, the decapacitated, burning remnants of enemy machinery or houses, trains, and bridges that went up in flames or collapsed.
Two aspects of killing from the air made it particularly suitable for being perceived and experienced as anaesthetic phenomenon. The destruction was visible, and it could be viewed from a relatively safe distance:
S IEBERT *: It’s grand to be an airman with one’s base in G ERMANY , so far away, and then to attack here.
M ERTINS *: One “Stuka” did a great deed. It sank an English warship. It flew over and dropped a 250 kg. bomb into the funnel and hit the magazine. It destroyed the ship. One saw it, too, inP OLAND . You drop your bombs and know exactly what you have hit every
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