What type of training did you receive as a Sturmpioneer (Combat Engineer)?
We were trained as both Infantrymen and as combat engineers. We had to learn to fire all infantry weapons, 98K, MG34 and MG42, as well as be experts in demolition equipment. My squad was usually made up of ten men and this squad was usually assigned to an Infantry battalion to support them in combat. What type of vehicles did you use? We were supposed to be mounted in halftracks and Opel Blitz trucks. For the most part of the war, only the first battalion of the Der Fuhrer Regiment had halftracks at any given time and the rest of the regiment had trucks. I must point out; we ended up walking a lot during the war. Do you have any military items left from your service? My uniform and equipment was taken away as a POW, even my wristwatch. All my other military items were destroyed in Berlin. My mother was sent to a Russian concentration camp because she had a picture of me in my Waffen-SS uniform. She perished before I could get back home. The Waffen-SS was unique in its use of camouflage
