… that at times I can talk the most utter and unadulerated rubbish … "surely not" – ed …
You may remember the other day at Bilstein I was going on … "and on and on etc etc" – ed … about the lack of a War Memorial to the dead of World War II and how it seemed to be that the Germans were ignoring them …
So here at Dossem in the village cemetery is a War Memorial to the dead of World War I and World War II.
And to give you some idea of the suffering, then in complete contrast to the situation in the UK, there are far more dead in World War II than World War I, and I reckon that about 80% of those deaths in World War II came in the final 12 months of the war.
The situation in Germany must have been more cataclysmic for the Germans than anyone could imagine in that final 12-month period.
Here are some other people for whom World War II was quite cataclysmic.
The neighbourhood was home to a Prisoner of War Camp and some of the inhabitants were Polish, whose country had of course been erased from the map.
When the camp was liberated towards the end of the war, there are about 130 Poles who remained behind.
Unfortunately, they would never return home, for they were lying in the cemetery, and of those, about 84 had a very sorry tale to tell.
One Sunday evening before the xamp was liberated and they were still prisoners,, they were in the Prison chapel praying when an RAF bomber flew over to attack a nearby railway station. It missed its aim completely and the bomb that it dropped fell squarely onto the chapel.
Any time other than a Sunday late evening, the chapel would have been empty.
This is the site of the camp and the road here is the main track that ran through the camp back in those days.
Intended to be a military airfield, the site was taken over in September 1940 as a Prisoner-of-War camp and was known as Oglag VIB, or more colloquially as Warburg. Its claim to fame is that it was the site of what became known as the Warburg Wire Job, where a couple of prisoners fused the searchlights and in the darkness the remainder stormed the fences. Incredibly, three of them actually made a “home run” back to their home.
You may be forgiven for thinking that it’s a shame that there’s nothing now left of the camp, but these huts are actually on the site of huts that I once saw on the plan of the camp and for all I know, they may well be the originals.
Today, they are being used to house refugees and asylum seekers, “mitarbeiters” as the sign told me. So I suppose that it still does have a connection wit prisoners then. It’s just a shame that I couldn’t manage to go in for a wander around though.
This is my hotel from last night. A gorgeous place with a lovely view out over the Mohnesee and with breakfast included, it came to all of €69:00. In fact, I had to have the receptionist write down the price to make sure that I had it correct, because it really was such good value as that.
I had a couple of good showers and washed my clothes, the main reason why I stop every so often in a hotel. But if ever I’m out this way again, I’ll be making a beeline to here without a doubt.
On my way to Warburg I came by the Eder Dam, the third dam that the Dambusters attacked. This was another beautiful drive to reach here and the setting of the dam is totally stunning. It’s easily one of the most spectacular places that I’ve ever visited.
It must have been no mean feat to build it because its situation is such that it is a challenging environment to say the least. But the lake that they created when the steep valley was dammed was well worth the effort. It’s definitely my favourite of the three dams, although due to the steep sides of the valley, parking is rather limited.
And building it was not the only thing that was challenging. Destroying it was a monumental task.
The Lancasters had to come out of that valley to the right, behing the castle, swing hard left across the lake and then head for the dam at 240mph, settling down to a height of 60 feet as they were doing it, and releasing the bomb at about 500 yards from the dam wall. So my reckoning is that they had about half a mile to adjust themselves, which in real time is about 7 seconds
Once they had done all of that, they then had to do the difficult bit, and that was to climb up over the mountain that is on the other side of the dam, which you can see in the photo just here.
Destroying the Eder Dam and surviving the attack was without a doubt the most challenging task that the Dambusters had, and it’s no surprise that the crews had been hand-picked for the mission. Not many aircrew could have been trusted with this attack.
My inexperienced eye managed to pick up a few things that are suggestive of repaired bomb damage. Parts of the parapet stone are much smoother and so probably newer that the original stonework, but it’s here at the pressure buttresses that the evidence is clearer.
If you look at the caps, you’ll notice that some of them (the ones nearer the edges) are made of stone but others (the ones nearer the centre) are made of brick. That’s my opinion anyway, for what it’s worth.
So having visited Warburg, I’m now on my way south-east. I’m in the former East Germany and while the contrast with the West isn’t as devastating as it was when I was last here in 1988, you can still see the difference, even after a quarter of a century of unification.
However, there are signs of things to come.
Here at Benterode, on the site of an old coal mine, there’s a company called KD Stahl und Maschinenbau that manufacture horizontal-axis wind turbines so I went for a wander around. These need more wind to make them turn and are rather heavy on bearing wear, but for confined spaces they are quite ideal.
They had several designs available, but of course being a Sunday evening there was no-one around to talk to about them. And in any case, with the amount of German that I can remember, what chance would I have of talking to anyone?
So tonight I’m parked up on a rest area on the Autobahn to Leipzig. And tomorrow I’ll be on my way again.
