Report of August Govert
With pictures of then and today

 

    First I want to say what a great experience it was for me to meet the comrades from the USA, especially those who killed my tank at Kommerscheidt on the 4^th of November 1944; - it was Lt. Col. Ray Fleig from the 707 Tk/Bn and his gunner, - I think it was a really unique meeting.

 

 

                        Here is my report about what happened in November 1944.

    It was the 3^rd of November when we drove from Wegberg to Nideggen, early in he morning of November 4^th. after arriving in Schmidt, we took position at the edge of the forest. We checked our tanks again and then received some rations. We ate all of the rations at that time because we felt we might not have the chance to eat them the next day.      At 1400 hours the order came; - “Panzer Marsch”; attack on Schmidt!!! The Panzer 4 of Feldwebel Dolezal was to take the lead.

    I drove our tank along the right side of Schmidt in the direction of Kommerscheidt where we reached the first houses of the village. Suddenly the order came; - Dolezal stop drive back; - (we probably had driven too far ahead already).

    The commander ordered me to put the gear in reverse and turn the turret to 6 o'clock; - that meant the barrel would be pointing to the rear of the tank. That was my death-sentence; - when the turret stands at 6, the driver can't get out any longer since the back part of the turret is right above the hatch. At that very moment an American shell hit our turret; - it was such a unlucky shot that it killed both our commander and gunner and wounded our loader. Our radioman and loader got out of the tank.

    Lt. Col. Ray Fleig couldn't understand that we left our tank after only one hit which was not even an armor-piercing shell. But how could he have known that our tank was already disabled after this single hit.

    I was sitting down below in my tank and only heard on my headphone; - “the officer is dead” -- in fact there was no officer in our tank, our commander was Feldwebel Dolezal. I tried to turn my tank but received another hit in the front of the tank; - this one came in where our radioman would have been sitting but thank God he had already gotten out of our tank. The radio gear protected me from the shrapnel so I only got a slight wound on my right eyebrow; - lucky me.

    This last hit blew of the hatch so I got out of the tank and took shelter behind it. I saw a garden with a porch and tried to go there but I drew fire. Ray Fleig was firing the bow gun of his Sherman so I decided to run back. I could see that my tank was now on fire and burning. I grabbed my cap which was lying on the ground close to the tank and then ran for cover to a chicken coup that was located beside a nearby house.

    After that I saw the tank of Oberfeldwebel Pichler. He told me to get on his tank where I also found our wounded radioman and loader. We found out how much fire a tank draws. Tank and artillery shells were flying all around our tank, thank God we were not hit.

    Then I saw a pillbox. I went inside and was astonished to find several American soldiers. The offered me a seat and took care of my wound and then offered me a cigarette which I smoked. Suddenly I heard tanks outside, German tanks. I said goodbye to the Americans and left the pillbox, no one tried to stop me.

At the edge of the village, I saw the tanks of First Lieutenant Adams. I think there were three tanks. We brought our wounded back to Schmidt and at the church I saw a German assault gun with only one man aboard, no driver. Because I was a driver, I drove this assault-gun with the wounded aboard through the forest to the direction of Nideggen. One severely wounded comrade unfortunately bled to death because we couldn't find any medics. Such a pity. This is what I experienced in November 1944 at Kommerscheidt and Schmidt.

    P.S. Before we attacked (why would I leave this out?), I always prayed. It felt good to find yourself in God's hand.

    For this attack, I later received the Iron Cross Second Class and my name was published in the honor book of the 116 Panzer Division along with the crew of Oberfeldwebel Pichler and Feldwebel Doleral.