They fell from the sky
They fell from the sky is one of the best-known war , doctor and romance novels by Heinz G. Konsalik from 1958, which takes place between 1943 and 1944 against the backdrop of the Battle of Monte Cassino . The book is divided into five chapters. It was also published in episodes in the Illustrated Revue from April to June 1960 under the title Ready for Heroic Death .
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Blurb
“ They fell from the sky is a novel about one of the greatest material battles of the Second World War - the battle for Monte Cassino. Seldom has a novel aroused such contradicting opinions as this work by Heinz G. Konsalik, which is always the focus of heated discussions. It was enthusiastically accepted and hostile, banned and released again. This achieved what the author intended, namely to shake you awake from a lethargy, to take a position on the most primitive basic human right: to be allowed to live and live. "
action
On September 9, 1943, at 3 a.m., the Allied landing on Italy began. Several British divisions go ashore. German artillery fire claims heavy casualties among the Allied marines. They plan with airborne troops to stab the Germans in the back and cut them off.
On September 10th, tourist trains arrive at the Termini railway station in Rome to bring reinforcements to the combat area. Among them are Dr. Pahlberg and sister Renate, lovers who have to separate.
The country has become restless. Partisan activities have increased sharply everywhere .
At Battipaglia , German paratroopers fought against a large British force. The British 8th Army wants to unite with the American one. They urgently need to stabilize the situation on the Salerno Front , since the German 29th Panzer Grenadier Division is right in between.
Major Caspar von der Breyle receives a visit from his son, Lieutenant Jürgen von der Breyle. While the father still believes in the final victory , the son worries about the futility of the war.
The 3rd paratrooper company is included in Battipaglia, supplies are interrupted and the soldiers have to take care of their own supplies. For worthless bills from the winter aid lottery , they buy a fattening pig from an old farmer and use it to prepare roast pork in the fields .
Medical officer Dr. Pahlberg and his superior are senior staff doctor Dr. Heitmann works in the Eboli field hospital . You have to treat 500 seriously wounded people in a fast-track process. Due to the lack of medical equipment (e.g. positive pressure ether anesthesia apparatus), a lot of improvisation has to be made, and due to time constraints , disinfection and asepsis usually fall by the wayside with the many gunshot wounds ( spleen gunshot , lung penetration , spinal column penetration and much more) . It comes u. a. a young man with a life threatening diaphragmatic injury on the operating table . There are difficulties with simple things like blood grouping . Often the wounded did not receive a routing slip from the main first aid station or lost their identification tags. The operation is extremely complicated because the spleen, the most blood-rich human organ in the abdominal cavity, is torn and the young soldier is in acute danger of bleeding to death. Since there is no grooved probe, Dr. Pahlberg feel the abdominal arteries and tie them off with his bare hands. The next patient who has been severely injured by shrapnel does not get through. Dr. Pahlberg is shocked by the lack of humanity and the fatalism with which Dr. Heitmann leads the operating theaters in the field hospital. Even with a shot in the stomach (machine gun sheaf, seven bullets, five bullets next to the spine and two bullets in the intestine), medical art is powerless.
In Rome, Renate Wagner makes her way to the hospital in Eboli. There are currently no telephone lines to the front. She is declared crazy because she desperately wants to go to the Salerno room, which threatens to be completely surrounded at any moment. Her superior, a colonel and chief of the hospital auxiliary forces, forbids her to work with her fiancé Pahlenberg for the fighting troops in Eboli, instead she should continue to do her service in Rome. In the vicinity of the Caracalla thermal baths , she meets a hospital team that is on their way to the front. Renate wants to join them, but the medical officer in charge vehemently refuses.
On the night of September 13-14, 1943, Allied airborne troops land to prevent Kesselring's counter-attack. It threatens to become a second Dunkirk . The 4th Paratrooper Division pushes from Battipaglia towards Salerno. Captain Gottschalk, who took Battipaglia in a coup with the 3rd Company , was proposed for the Knight's Cross by Colonel Stucken. Major von der Breyle separated in anger from his son Jürgen, who now tells him that his unit has suffered a 70% loss and that he has to write 183 letters to the parents of the fallen with the inscription "In proud mourning" .
Erwin Müller 17, the man with the buttock injury, does not want to go to a hospital. The men are occupied with little else than getting food. You have picked up an Italian farm girl and want to jointly abuse her. But Captain Gottschalk can prevent this. The Allied paratroopers landed on September 14, 1943. In the middle of the night, ship guns started again from the seaside. In addition, heavy bombing raids. A big shock for the German paratroopers who are in positions on the earth around Persano. The air landings also hit Lieutenant Jürgen von der Breyle at the Sele Bridge. Before that he had had a conversation with his father, which was suddenly interrupted. There are 1900 Allied paratroopers who land on only 1.2 km² and put the Germans under tremendous pressure. The 3rd Company, which has melted down to a combat group of only 70 men and is located behind Eboli on the Tusciano River, immediately comes into contact with the enemy. The group Maaßen of the 3rd Kp survived. It should remain in reserve as a storm group. Jürgen von der Breyle is missing.
In the Monti Picentini in the Campanian Apennines , Felix Strahmann met the girl Maria Armenata. He had received an order from company commander Gottschalk to drive a BMW motorcycle to Cotursi and to ask for new grenade launchers to be assigned there. It will be a dangerous journey through the Italian mountains. Colonel Stucken had issued a divisional order that no more prisoners could be taken with partisans and that they were to be shot dead immediately after being captured . On the street he meets a pretty girl with clay jugs fetching water. She speaks a little German and says that her mother is very sick. The two are sympathetic and agree to meet again. When Strathmann drives on, Maria meets with the partisan Emilio Bernatti. He wants to know everything from her, where the paratroopers are, what orders they have, etc. He threatens her because she flirted with the German . The German armed forces leadership has bet 1000 marks on Bernatti, Mario Dragomare and Francesco Sinimbaldi. The Italian partisans have joined forces with British sabotage columns. The Bernatti group has been tasked with sealing off the German paratroopers' routes of retreat over the mountains.
The withdrawal of the British parachute troops in the rear of the German 10th Army caused a great shock in the command of the Wehrmacht in Rome. News discipline had to be maintained in order not to encourage the Italian partisans to strike even harder and more consistently against the German supplies. Renate works in the Roman hospital. In doing so, she becomes a witness to many human fates. So that of Lieutenant Horst Braun. This one has a simple lower leg penetration. Inadequate care and disinfection has turned it into severe purulent gangrene and the entire leg has to be peeled out from the joint and amputated . He is traumatized and wants Renate to throw away his uniform. But she takes this from the patient and wants to pretend to be a paratrooper with the fictitious name Lieutenant Reinhold Wagner in order to get to her Erich on an adventurous route. Sergeant Hugo Lehmann III supervises the paratrooper training department 2 on a training area between Rome and Monterosi . The training battalion is to be disbanded due to the fatal situation at the front. The troops already suspect that the war will take a dramatic turn at some point and will ultimately be fought on German soil.
The field hospital of medical officer Dr. Pahlberg has been moved to Benevento . Gina, the wife of Mario Dragomare, the partisan, is expecting a child. Painful labor heralds an extremely complicated birth. The child's head is too big. It does not fit through the birth canal and has become stuck. Neither the old midwife nor a local villager can help. Although 100,000 lire are exposed on Emilio Bernatti's head and the hiding place of the partisans is threatened with destruction by retaliatory measures by the Wehrmacht , they have to dare to get the German doctor from the hospital as a last resort. Major Caspar von der Breyle is saddened to death. He has to write to his wife in Germany that her son is missing, but he has no strength to do so. The hope that Jürgen might have miraculously survived is slim to disappear. His comrade's body has already been recovered. Colonel Stucken takes pity on his Ib. He knows how a father should feel in such a situation. The pain is all the greater since it is her only child, her "Crown Prince". The division commander offers to write the letter to his wife.
Felix Strathmann wants to see Maria Armenata again. He has aviator chocolate and chocolate cola with him. But it does not appear and this fact saves Strathmann's life. Meanwhile, Mario Dragomare and his heavily pregnant wife go into the valley and look for Dr. Pahlberg. He operates in a house while the outskirts of Eboli are being shot at with artillery shells. Dr. Pahlberg and his surgical team had just taken care of the last wounded man and forwarded the transports to other collection points. Equipment and instruments were already packed for laying. Gina is at the end of her strength, she has been in labor for nine hours. Pahlberg had only been to gynecology once as a young assistant doctor . He doesn't trust himself to do this. Nevertheless, he wants to use the Hickian expression in this breech position , but this does not work. It only saves a caesarean section . SanFeldwebel Krankowski is sick because his wife has bled to death with a third child from a ruptured aorta . And now Gina reminds him of his late wife. The abdomen of the anesthetized woman is disinfected with iodine and then Dr. Pahlberg. They encourage the uterine bladder to light up with the child. It has to be done very quickly so that the child does not suffocate or suffer permanent damage. It is a living girl. The mother's abdominal cavity is cleaned of blood residues and disinfected with sulfonamide against peritonitis . They don't even have saline to revive the severely weakened woman. Outside the war continues and the 5th Army advances against Eboli. But Bernatti is overjoyed.
At the same time, Stucken orders an anti-partisan squad to end the non-stop attacks on Wehrmacht personnel and equipment. Major Caspar von der Breyle is entrusted with this task. During one of these actions, Bernatti is shot. There is no reunion between Felix and Maria because 1.) Bernatti is dead and 2.) the German troops have to retreat to the Reinhard line at Volturno and Gustavstellung. Cassino and the Lirital should serve as a locking position for the Via Casilina . Once the road is clear, the way to Rome is open to the tanks. The Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino , 516 meters above sea level, was the key to this. If Monte Cassino falls, the way to Rome is free. The German defenders have included the monastery in the defense of the Gustav Line.
Dr. Pahlberg is the last to leave the hospital building. He marks them with "Operation of a birth" so that the Englishmen who are coming up can discover them and take care of them. As soon as they got into the car, the artillery fired at them. In the middle of September 1943 the 5th US Army made the breakthrough and the German troops retreated to the north, fighting. Torrential rains begin in October. On October 1, 1943, Naples fell . Theo Klein only regrets not being able to go to the brothel there. The mud hinders the movements of the allies. Therefore the air war is intensified. The 3rd Company is deployed in Cassino in pouring rain. In contrast to all other branches of the army, the paratroopers leave the most robust impression. The Monte Cassino monastery is evacuated. Major von Sporken studied art history before the war , was even a lecturer at the University of Greifswald and is very familiar with the subject. The immeasurable riches of the treasures of Monte Cassino are well known to him. According to Generalfeldmarschall Kesselring's orders, a ban mile has been laid around the monastery, which German soldiers are not allowed to enter. Major von Sporken is received by Bishop Diamare. Diamare remains optimistic as there is no way he is assuming an air strike on the church shrines. After a two-day discussion, the archabbot finally declares himself ready to evacuate the church treasures, including the remains of St. Apollinaris, and the 70,000-volume library to Rome.
After the monastery has been cleared, civilian refugees want to seek protection from the bombing there. On November 3rd, the Archabbot Diamare Maj. Spork in a thanksgiving mass. The archabbot, who is over 80 years old, steadfastly refuses to leave the monastery. It snows around Christmas time. Now Indian troops are trying in vain to penetrate the German positions on Monte Cairo. Dr. Heitmann and Dr. Pahlberg do their medical services in the mountain village of Albaneta. There is no time to operate, they just connect and tie off. The conditions are terrible. A sergeant's arm has to be cut off because it only hangs on two tendons. The 34th US Infantry Division storms Monte Trocchio.
After Bernatti's death, Piero Larmenatto took over the leadership of the 60-man partisan group. You should prepare the British advance with acts of sabotage against Wehrmacht property. The Larmenatto group is behind the Germans in the mountains around Monte Cassino. Mario and Gina Dragomare have stayed in Eboli, where they are cared for by US military doctors who approve of the German caesarean section. After little Emilia is born, Gina makes her husband promise that he will never shoot Germans again. The partisan group operates out of cave hiding places in Monte Abata. They mine access roads for German supplies, blow up bridges and shoot at columns of paratroopers from an ambush. But the Major von Breyle's hunting squads are after them. So far, the "cleanup troops" have not yet found their trail due to the omnipresent destruction. The Maaßen group is also assigned to fight anti-banding.
They are assigned to two groups, one of which operates in the mountains and the other, the more dangerous of the two, in the valley. One group is even supposed to be led by a German. This fact in particular spurs the soldiers on to hunt down this traitor.
Felix Strathmann meets Maria Armenata in a ravine. In light snow in an olive grove . She surprises him and at first he wants to kill her with the paratrooper's knife . But then he recognizes her. Felix absolutely has to prevent Küppers, Klein and Maaßen from finding them. She leads him into a partisan's nest. The fact that she is one of the partisans shocked him very much. But she loves him and allows him to take her "like a wolf takes a she- wolf" . In the cave they indulge their passions. The paratrooper Felix Strathmann has been missing since then.
Major vd Breyle is out and about in the gorge with the Kübelwagen. Shots indicate contact with the enemy. But with that, Klein and Küppers only killed one hare. vd Breyle pursues a figure. It must be the German traitor. He met him. It is his son Jürgen. Then the father is hit in the chest by a bullet. When he wakes up again, he beats Jürgen. He is outraged at how his offspring was so able to turn out of the honorable line of ancestors - all faultless Prussian officers for 400 years. Jürgen tells Caspar that he is only fighting the war. They both know they would continue to pursue each other. The major will continue to be determined to execute his son, a partisan . But Jürgen despises all the old, in his eyes lying values of cadaver obedience , which his father embodies and which he blindly follows. Above all, he wants to put an end to all the madness and senseless killing of war. He sees his father on the side of the butchers. He asks him the fundamental question of why this pointless war is being waged at all. Caspar replies that he is only carrying out orders from above and that he is following the oath he has sworn. The father does not have the heart to shoot his son on the spot, but only knocks him down with one blow of the buttocks. He gives Jürgen the chance to flee into the mountains, but warns him that their next encounter will be fatal in any case. But then the sense of duty comes back and he gives off a burst of fire from his submachine gun on the fleeing person who is injured in the arm and leg. Mass and small reach the major. This tells them nothing about the encounter, but continues to instruct them to comb through the area.
The news of the missing Felix Strathmann does not attract much attention apart from the usual country stories of the "post theft". von der Breyle publishes the daily reports and makes his entries as usual. Fallen: none; Wounded: none; Missing: none. The comment in brackets: Corporal Strathmann got lost. Come back to the troops. Brief situation report: no contact with the enemy. Unsuccessful action. February 10, 1944. vd Breyle. Major But the Maaßen group has orders to look for Strathmann and are combing a ravine in which he could very likely be. A snow storm comes up. Then they actually find Strathmann's handkerchief, which he used to clean his rifle . Captain Gottschalk writes in his report that Strathmann is missing during a partisan fight. It is believed that he was killed by partisans.
Felix Strathmann sleeps with Maria in the cave on a mattress. The horror of war rages around the two lovers. Artillery fire leveled Cassino. There are more and more dead and wounded. The Albaneta field hospital has been cut off and the access roads are constantly being bombed. The conditions are becoming more and more unbearable. Now the bandages are running out. The gauze bandages are unwound from the dead and used for the newly injured. The dead are picked up in trucks by a funeral squad. Before this, the identification tags are broken and the loss report is passed on to the troops concerned. There are only 300 ampoules of tetanus vaccine left , which in no way help with this massive attack of wounded. Hopeless cases are no longer given a tetanus ration. The headshots in particular demoralize the hospital room with their terrible screams. In one day they recorded 37 deaths, then mostly 50 in the evening hours. Everything from the HKL. is mostly hopeless Dr. Heitmann takes large doses of pervitin against the constant stress , which bring him to the brink of heart attack . Partisans have interrupted the supply of medical devices. Nothing arrives in Albaneta anymore.
The paratroopers defend the rugged Klosterberg from a bunker and trench system with MG 42 machine guns , 7.5 cm mountain guns and 10 cm light guns . The allies, which consist of Maori, New Zealanders, Indians, British and many others, are grappling with this. The supply situation for the paratroopers is poor. They have to share tight space with the rotting fallen. Field post is still being received. Sergeant Küppers receives a divorce decree sent to his wife. The marriage fell apart because of his frequent visits to the brothel . Medical officer Dr. Pahlberg appears on the monastery grounds and takes care of the wounded. It is very close to him that he has to amputate the leg of an attractive young woman. Sergeant Lehmann III from the paratrooper school prepares the paratroopers with hard training for their jump. Then he dies in an operation.
On February 16, 1944 at 9:45 am, the abbey was destroyed by an air raid by 142 Flying Fortress bombers. General Freyberg , Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand troops , suspected artillery monitors in the monastery. It is bombed, although there are 1,300 Italian refugees on the monastery grounds, but they can still be evacuated at the last moment. The destruction is enormous. Colonel von Stucken later orders the paratroopers to dig themselves into the rubble for defense. The steps and serpentines on the Klosterberg have been mined by pioneers. They want to make a second Verdun out of the ruins .
A second wave of bombers followed with B-25 and B-26 aircraft. Dr. Pahlberg operates again in Albaneta, a neighboring mountain of Monte Cassino. The bombing resulted in another mass casualty with the worst injuries. Dr. Heitmann can only cope with the stress by ingesting dangerously high amounts of pervitin . The medical conditions under which doctors have to operate around the clock are catastrophic and terrible human drama unfolds.
On February 17, 1944, the 3rd Parachute Company under Captain Gottschalk moved into their new positions on the Klosterberg. General Freyberg wants to take this with only one battalion, since he does not expect serious resistance. The mountain positions, which were only 400 meters below the monastery, are pulled up. Around 250 corpses are still lying around in the courtyard, giving off a bestial stench. There are even pregnant women among them.
Maria Armenata passes the German lines. She cares for Felix Strathmann in a hiding place of the partisan group Larmenatto. Maria Armenata wants to hide her lover with her aunt in Campagna. Strathmann finds himself in a conflict of conscience. On the one hand he is consumed with love for the beautiful Italian woman and on the other hand he wants to be with his comrades, they consider him a deserter. Then they ride away.
Renate Wagner helps out in a new Roman hospital that was built especially for the many wounded from the Montecassino battle. Many tell her about the heroic deeds of her Erich. She has to go to him and on one occasion may steal a parachute.
On February 17, 1944, around 5:00 p.m., Klein and Küppers had a gun battle with Gurkhas . They fight, but they eat their chocolate very calmly . It is the third enemy attack by five battalions. The bitter resistance worries General Freyberg. The first attack alone cost them 12 officers and 130 soldiers. The third attack also collapses at Height 444. The Indians contract between elevation 444 and 569 to wait for the night. Bloody hand-to-hand combat in the dark is expected. Major von Sporken is enthusiastic about the heroic combat performance of 3rd Company. While a comrade is firing the MG, the others are cooking dinner. In the middle of the hail of bullets and at risk of death, the soldiers of the Maaßen group bring Major von Sporken a self-cooked meal. From height 569 you can see the inner courtyard of the monastery ruin and direct mortar fire onto it. Snipers make life difficult for them. Dr. Pahlberg operates an emergency hospital in the basement of the monastery. Shots in the head and in the stomach are brought in. The wounded are not named by name, but only identified on the basis of their wounding pattern (“The lung penetration”, “The stomach wound”, etc.). Morphine for pain relief is only kept for hopeful cases. Most of the others have to die in agony. Major von Sporken visits Dr. Pahlberg in the cellar and personally convince himself of its miracles. Even Kesselring is said to have heard of his surgical skills. You have a philosophical conversation about the futility of war. For Dr. Pahlberg is not about heroic deeds, just dullness and the complete depersonalization of the human being . The commander continues to demand hardship up to self-sacrifice.
Renate announces to Erich in one of her love letters that she will be with him very soon. Dr. Pahlberg pays the major a return visit. He shows him his fiancée's letter, fearing that she might actually come here and slip through the front barrier. The major tells him that it is the power of love that gives Renate this superhuman strength.
Klein and Küppers cook coffee for each other during breaks in combat and reminisce about the Battle of Corinth on April 26, 1941, which gave the troops a legendary reputation.
On February 18, 1944, the wire connection to the command post of Colonel Stucken was interrupted. The Gurkhas move to their starting positions. Freyberg's third attack on the Klosterberg was also a disaster. The press speaks of the heroism of the "Green Devils", the invincible German paratroopers. Rations of homemade schnapps are shared in the monastery cellar. Major von Sporken wants a reporter from Captain Gottschalk in order to re-establish the connection through the cut line. This reporter should go through to the division command post. Also unmarried and a devil as a volunteer for the suicide mission. The choice falls on Theo Klein. But Sergeant Küppers also reports. The two puzzles and Küppers wins. Küppers is divorced and the child has been given to his wife. He receives reports on strength, armament, ammunition and San supplies, which must under no circumstances fall into enemy hands. In an emergency, they have to be swallowed. The highly dangerous reporting path is approx. 700 meters and leads through terrain that is easily visible to the enemy and is constantly under fire. The chances of getting through are minimal.
The Gurkha corporal Tandi Meheranhi has established himself on a mule track at height 569. Much of the Indian battalion had already been withdrawn. Küppers passes the Death Gorge and has so far been able to climb the Italian mountains and hills without any problems. Küppers and Meheranhi meet suddenly. Küppers initially incapacitates the Indian with the edge of his hand against the carotid artery . Then there is a scramble in which Meheranhi is fatally injured with his kris in the chest. It is a bad experience because the Indian is the first melee death for which Küppers is responsible. He feels strong remorse. Küppers reaches Colonel Stucken and hands him the registration papers.
Truce on Monte Cassino. Both sides need to reclassify. Onset of winter combined with heavy downpours . In retaliation for the slaps suffered, General Freyberg has scheduled another major attack for February 24th . An improvement in the weather situation, including for further air strikes, is not expected again until mid-March. The front activities go lower activity continued, patrol company , position expansion, smaller bunker attacks commandos, harassing etc. On Küppers was back on the mountain monastery. He only brought reports from over there and field post . The hand-to-hand combat experience was very tough, as it is very different from killing with a firearm from a long distance. In Crete, too, the paratroopers killed with the cutting knife , only with the Indian it seemed like murder. Theo Klein does not know this conflict. The slopes between the town of Cassino and Monte Cassino are littered with unburied bodies.
The snowfall subsides and snowmelt sets in. The hospital is set up again at height 444. The 30 dead supply soldiers in the Death Gorge ("Death Gorge" and "Inderhügel" as the places where Monte Cassino was baptized) should finally be recovered. There is an encounter between medical officer Dr. Pahlenberg and the German-speaking American, the battalion doctor Captain Dr. James Bolton. They meet each other full of humanity as "comrades" and exchange cigarettes with one another. Dr. Pahlenberg envies the American for their endless reserves of blood , the miracle drug penicillin, etc. Dr. Pahlenberg helps them with a complicated kidney shot. The wounded man, who has been lying on the hill in the rain for two days, cannot be transported and threatens to die at any moment because the projectile is stuck in the kidney. Under the most primitive conditions, they operate in the middle of the field and extirpate a kidney, covered by a tarpaulin and illuminated by the simplest spotlights. San Feldwebel Krankowski assists him. Major von Sporken can observe this highly dramatic scene with binoculars from the monastery hill. You operate in dirt and rain without aseptic conditions and save a person. The Americans are infinitely grateful to the German surgeon and say goodbye to the absurdity of the war with pathetic words, because the ceasefire will pass in an hour. Then they are enemies again and have to carry out orders and shoot each other. Dr. Pahlberg even has to do it, because in the event of an infringement, "cowardice before the enemy" applies and it says shooting. They exchange addresses and Bolton invites Dr. After the end of the war, Pahlberg went to his house in Boston , Massachusetts , and he went to Kiel , where he was also welcome. Erich receives penicillin as a parting present.
The Wehrmacht OKW reports that on March 16, after heavy air strikes and artillery preparations, the Allies launched another ground attack on the town of Cassino. Heavy fighting against New Zealand, Indian and French troops in the city of Cassino is reported on March 17th.
March 15, 1944 is spring-like mild. The command post of Colonel Stucken in Albaneta has been informed that Freyberg's final attack is imminent. It is imperative that the Allies freely fight the Liri Valley as time is pressing and Rome must be liberated. The III. Paratrooper battalion only made up of 130 men, with companies not more than 30 men strong. At 8:30 a.m., an allied bomber wave appears. There are several waves that completely destroy Cassino and the Monte Cassino monastery by 12:30 p.m. The chaos is terrible. 14 paratroopers are buried alive from the falling debris in a cellar. Then the heaviest artillery barrage from heavy artillery up to 24 cm caliber sets in until 3:30 p.m. It is the worst artillery strike of World War II . A total of 195,696 artillery shells are fired by explosive fire. It is the concentrated firepower of the artillery of three army corps.
The inferno is watched from a hill near Cervano by Generals Alexander , Clark and Eaker . They come to the conclusion that no one could have survived this fire. Clark keeps the way into the Liri valley bombed free. General Alexander wants to give Freyland the order to launch the ground offensive. The village of Cassino is to be taken by infantry with armored protection and the Klosterberg via the Rocca Janula foothill by the 5th Indian Brigade. At around 1:00 p.m., Freyberg's first battalions invade Cassino. The focus is on the train station and Via Casilina. The second paratrooper battalion fights in the northern part of the city and receives the attackers with heavy defensive fire. They are completely perplexed by the unexpected resistance after the biggest barrage of all time. The 4/6 Rajputana Rifle Regiment attacked the monastery mountain from the Rocca Janula. Rocca Janula falls around midnight in pouring rain. A seriously wounded paratrooper, the last survivor of the 2nd Company, reports Major v. Sporken the loss of Rocca Janula, the advance of the Indians at height 165 and 236, as well as the beginning occupation of height 435, the last hill before the monastery walls. The Maaßen group is preparing for the fire fight from height 435. The Gurkhas climb the mountainside and are taken under heavy machine-gun fire.
General Freyberg is reported that all officers of the Indian brigade have died. The attack can only be resumed with fresh forces at dawn. The paratroopers launch a last-ditch counterattack and cut off the Indians at Height 435. A New Zealand tank regiment with 17 light tanks leads a tank attack from Albaneta. Stucken's command post is also involved in the fighting. Six tanks are destroyed by close combat in close combat and the attack must be canceled.
On March 20, 1944, three Ju-52s are approaching Monte Cassino. They contain 60 men and ammunition for the mountain artillery. Renate Wagner is in one of these machines. Captain Gottschalk is happy about the supplies, but also knows that 70% of the men could break their legs in the dangerous night landing. Tanks open fire on the landing paratroopers with turret machine guns. There were four dead and twelve injured on landing. Lieutenant Mönning, the leader of the landing force, is collecting. Among them a young lieutenant whom nobody knows. Colonel Stucken instructs those who have landed on the situation. A figure appears who behaves very unmilitary in the midst of enemy insight and constant fire. It's Renate Wagner. There is a touching reunion scene with Dr. Pahlberg. The fact that she pretended to be a lieutenant just to get to the Monte Cassino monastery causes great irritation.
On March 22nd, 1944, a partisan fighting force, Major von der Breyle, brought a dying man from Height 134. It was his son Jürgen. Then there is a tank attack from height 593. Breyle's life has no meaning after the death of his son. So he fights an enemy tank with a T-mine and kills himself in the process.
After another attack, Freyberg had to retreat over the Kalvarienberg (hill 593). The Second Battle of Cassino, the largest battle of materials in World War II, was lost for the Allies. The legendary paratroopers of the “Green Devils” are promoted and awarded. General Anders with the 2nd Polish Corps takes over.
Dr. Pahlberg wants Renate to leave the monastery ruins. It is suicide to stay here. But Renate steadfastly refuses. To express her determination, she runs into the area of action of Indian snipers and can be saved by Erich at the last moment.
On May 11, 1944, a new Allied fire roller was opened and the Polish Carpathian fighters began their assault. The Calvary is taken at 1:00 am, followed by the Massa Albaneta and the “Phantom Height”. It's the final attack. Klein and Küppers defend themselves desperately with machine gun fire and hand grenades . Volksdeutsche from Posen, Bromberg and Thorn call for help in German when they are struck down by Klein's machine-gun fire. A dud falls into the operating room basement, but can be thrown into the courtyard at the last second, where it kills Eugen Tack, the "largest bottle of the German Wehrmacht". Lieutenant Weimann dies from being shot through the lung four times. On May 15th the Allied regiments break into the German positions and the paratroopers evacuate the mountain on May 17th. Küppers and Klein are killed. Dr. Pahlberg and Renate are picked up by a partisan group. Before they are shot, however, Sinimbaldi recognizes the German “Dottore” who saved Gina Dragomare. He entertains the two and finally releases them so that they can rejoin the retreating Germans.
Main and minor characters
- Colonel Hans Stucken : Commander of the 34th Paratrooper Division
- Major Ia Richard von Sporken : Ia - first general staff officer in the division staff, responsible for the deputy division leadership
- † Major Caspar von der Breyle : Ib - Second General Staff Officer in the Division Staff , responsible for supplies
- † Lieutenant Jürgen von der Breyle : Caspar's son. At the officers' school he is the best of his year in terms of tactics . Because of his bad experiences on the Eastern Front, he considers war a crime.
- Captain Reinhold Gottschalk: Company Commander of the 3rd Company (3rd FschJgKp) II./I. Batl./34. FD. Knight's Cross bearer.
- Feldwebel Kurt Maaßen: Paratrooper 3rd FschJgKp
- Sergeant Heinrich Küppers: Paratrooper 3rd FschJgKp
- Corporal Theo Klein: constantly horny paratrooper 3rd FschJgKp
- Corporal Felix Strathmann : Paratrooper 3rd FschJgKp. Carrier of EK I and EK II, silver wound badge, Crete badge, destroyed three American tanks with concentrated loads with a PzVernTrp in the battle of Etna . He is the son of a seaman and a washerwoman from Hamburg-St. Pauli . Felix grew up in the immediate vicinity of the red light district. He was supposed to be a locksmith in shipbuilding and volunteered for the military.
- Josef Bergmann: Paratrooper 3rd FschJgKp
- Dr. Paul Heitmann: Chief Medical Officer and Pahlberg's superior
- Dr. Erich Pahlberg : idealist and medical officer with deep conviction. While his colleagues accept death as a "favor for Greater Germany", he accuses the army medical system as a murderous instrument of a criminal regime.
- Dr. Klaus Christopher: sub-doctor
- Renate Wagner : golden blonde Red Cross nurse and fiancee von Pahlberg. She is strictly against war and heroic death.
- Maria Armenata : the pretty and classy partisan girl . She falls in love with Felix. For her he is “mia dolce” ( my sweetie ).
- Emilio Bernatti, Mario Dragomare and Francesco Sinimbaldi: local partisans
linguistic style
“ The sea breeze met them on the road. He whistled around the corners of the alleys and drove the stench of fish and rot into every corner. The linen stretched across the alleyways on lines rattled and fluttered through the night sky like an army of giant vultures. "
The linguistic style is partly pathetic, but partly also appropriate to the harsh reality of war. There are a lot of rough expressions like Kurt, put your nose in the dirt, take your bum down, pinch your buttocks and lie still. "Guys, you have to stick to the floor like you do at night to your wives!" , "Sergeant Müller 17 [reports] with a torn right ass cheek!" Or "A wonderful shot!", Private Gruben said grumbling. “Exactly three centimeters from the rear sight.” For example, Captain Gottschalk's bucket car stops next to a soldier who is doing his business in the ditch as if it were the most normal thing in the world. The company commander prescribes castor for better bowel movements . The crude language of war medicine is also used. “[...] Man is just a sack! You can cut it open, you can sew it up! And if he ever has a hole, we'll plug it! ” . Konsalik's pictorial style alternates with sober descriptions of military operations. He also gives a very detailed insight into how the paratroopers' training courses run . The linguistic style is partly tendentious and distorting reality. The male partisans sometimes make very derogatory remarks about their own women. "I'll kill you, you bitch ... You should drown all women in a war, then victory is easier!" In return, the good German characters always behave as extremely chivalrous .
Reviews
Some controversy arose when the book was released. The first publication is said to have been stopped by the then Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss . On May 6, 1960, the title was indexed by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to young people as a font harmful to minors. The reason was:
" Glorifying war through an incredibly drastic and with the best will to be taken seriously superman-like exaggeration of a small troop of" sky dogs ", whose grandiose adventures make the war or an important phase of the war appear as a" rabbatz ", as an adventure that this Successfully pass the »devil guys« with calm calm, almost with your left hand. To have them against you was "an honor" even for a superior opponent (...) What other parts of the armed forces could not achieve were little fish for them (...) "You win wars with such devils" (...) "
There is also talk of a "smeary kitschy love story" and "disgusting lust" .
Der Spiegel published a review on it in 1958. Konsalik's novel with memoirs and army reports provide the authentic setting for the battle of Monte Cassino. The author's imaginative story is thus enriched with military expertise and reports unbelievable heroic deeds. Despite a confusing plethora of plots , the book would remain equally boring . It would be about pervitin-addicted troop doctors ' who communicate in sentimental noble German and would not even debate collective guilt in the final phase of the Second World War . The climax would be the jump of the paratroopers, including the young nurse in lieutenant's uniform who absolutely wants to see her beloved medical officer, above the monastery.
Konsalik's book is also a plea for the power of youth, which is embodied by Erich Pahlberg and Renate Wagner and has to assert itself against traditional thinking. Their love is stronger than any concerns of their often fatherly superiors and devoid of all reason. Among other things, it is about pathos, hero worship and the pain that parents feel when their only child is stolen from them. Major von der Breyle Colonel Stucken, for example, figuratively says that women do not understand when millions of mothers feel this same pain (“sacrifice for Greater Germany ”), because for each only their own child is the whole world and not their sons the whole nation.
Historical context
Konsalik sheds light on some episodes from the great material battle over Monte Cassino in Italy. The novel begins in September 1943 with the Allied landing in Salerno . It was the special location of the key position of Monte Cassino on the way to Rome that escalated the particularly intense fighting. As early as December 1943, the Canadian 1st Infantry Division fought German paratroopers near Ortona in very hard fighting . The US advance was stopped on the Gustav Line. Particularly fierce fighting broke out in the ruins of the abbey.
On February 15, 1944, 250 Allied bombers dropped approx. 363 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs over the abbey, thus initiating the "house-to-house" battle over the remaining rubble. The 1st Battalion of the 3rd Paratrooper Regiment under Colonel Heilmann had holed up there. Monte Cassino became a small Verdun, where every section of the trench and every remnant of the wall was fiercely contested . The mountain was covered with 588,094 artillery shells in the last week of March 1944 and yet the Freyberg Corps was exhausted in bloody repulsed attacks . Ultimately, it was Polish infantrymen who captured the monastery of Monte Cassino.
Text output
- Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Schneekluth Verlag, Darmstadt 1958, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 .
- Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 .
literature
- Matthias Harder: Experience of War. To depict the Second World War in the novels by Heinz G. Konsalik. With a bibliography of the author's German-language publications (1953–1996) . (= Epistemata, literary studies series. 232). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1999, ISBN 3-8260-1565-7 .
Web links
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 .
- ↑ on the back the blood group and the rhesus factor are noted
- ^ Surgical instruments developed by Erwin Payr
- ↑ Due to the frequency of the surnames Müller, Meier etc. these have been numbered for the sake of simplicity
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 63.
- ↑ the "armed men"
- ↑ possibly synonymous with the Volturno line
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 125.
- ↑ "But I want you, lucky one ... alive, beautiful, strong, brave!" In Heinz Konsalik: They fell from heaven . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 127.
- ↑ Targeted deactivation of the alarm posts by silent killing and being dragged off by the enemy
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 141.
- ↑ Main battle line
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 148.
- ↑ or Douglas A-26
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 27.
- ↑ FschJgRgt 2 under Colonel Sturm in the attack on the Corinth canal bridge with subsequent occupation of the isthmus
- ↑ possibly research error by Konsalik Nepalese = Gurkha, instead of Indian?
- ↑ Traditional ride . Never again on your own. Der Spiegel 3971951, from September 29, 1951
- ↑ apparently not yet in use in the German medical service. Here were sulfonamides used
- ^ Peter Caddick-Adams: Monte Cassino. Ten Armies in Hell. Oxford University Press. 2013, p. 326: 978-0-1999-7464-1.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 281.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 292.
- ↑ fictional unit of the Wehrmacht. Indeed, the 1st Paratrooper Division fought under Lieutenant General Richard Heidrich in Monte Cassino
- ↑ the "whore-buck of the company", "two pounds of girl's breast for dessert" from Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 125.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 7.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 65.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 35.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 35.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 35.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 43.
- ↑ Heinz Konsalik: They fell from the sky . Neuer Kaiser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-453-00073-0 , p. 74.
- ↑ Federal testing agency for writings harmful to minors. Decision 716
- ↑ a b c d e f New in Germany: Heinz Günther Konsalik: "They fell from heaven". In: Der Spiegel. 48/1958, November 26, 1958. (spiegel.de)
- ↑ Second World War. Why the battle for Monte Cassino was so tough. In: The world. January 17, 2017. (welt.de)
- ↑ also called "Little Stalingrad" or "Italian Stalingrad"
- ↑ Second World War: Gustav Line 1944. First US attack on Monte Cassino was a disaster. In: The world. January 17, 2017. (welt.de)
- ↑ Contemporary history: knee-deep in ruins. Was it a translation error that caused the Allies to bomb the Montecassino Abbey in 1944? In: Der Spiegel. 16/2000. (magazin.spiegel.de)
- ^ A b c d Raymond Cartier: The Second World War 1942–1944. Lingen Verlag, Cologne 1965, ISBN 3-492-02284-7 , p. 845.
- ↑ Battle of Monte Cassino. A huge heap of rubble remained. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. May 13, 2019. (faz.net)