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Asthma and the German soldier

Discussion in 'WWII General' started by Riter, Mar 17, 2021.

  1. Riter

    Riter Well-Known Member

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    Got a book in the mail the other day and I haven't started in it but I've flipped through the pages. The author had asthma and was still taken into the Wehrmacht! So, what were the health standards for a landser; even if he was an artilleryman?

    You'd think that if the Wehrmacht needed warm bodies that an asthmatic would be made a clerk where no strenous activity would trigger an attack.

    Book is Klaus Willmann's Death March Through Russia. See page 65.
     
  2. DarkLord

    DarkLord Active Member

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    Does it say when he was taken in? Pretty much all of the warring nations started with very high standards, and systematically lowered their health standards as the war ground on. Admittedly, kind of a dick move to put a guy who can't run for his life on a battlefield.
     
  3. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    They had in Normandy units of 'stomach' and 'hearing' problems. And so on. Asthma does not surprise me.
     
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  4. Riter

    Riter Well-Known Member

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    The White Bread division fought very well in Normandy. Nowadays we know its a lack of enzymes that cause the digestive issues. Your body doesn't produce as much enzymes as you get older. First major food group I gave up was alcohol. No buzz - beat red and headache. Pass. Then other foods like cabbage (OK pickled but not cole slaw), broccoli, milk shakes (ice cream & cheese is OK, but not milk) joined the list of verboten foods.

    I haven't read the book so I don't know where and when he was inducted.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2021
  5. Riter

    Riter Well-Known Member

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    Just found out about an asthmatic GI who was 4F but managed to squeeze into the service. He felt strongly about serving and doing his duty. Dunno how he got through boot camp either or AIT. Afterward he belonged to the 399th Infantry, 100th Infantry Div. when he was KIA while firing his BAR at the Germans near Lemberg. PFC William G. Zilliox was KIA on Dec. 8, 1944.
     
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  6. Riter

    Riter Well-Known Member

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    Read the Death March Book and the soldier as a recruit did not divulge his condition to the examining doctor. The doctor could not detect it. It acted up only after they invaded Russia and he was sent back to Germany. The regimental doctor was aware of it and didn't discharge him. He returned to the front as a forward observer and later became a gun captain.
     
  7. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    I am presently reading D Day Through German Eyes, Holger Eckhertz, 2015, 2016.

    It is a collection of interviews made in 1954, where he talked with soldiers who had fought at Normandy on 6 June 1944. In chapter 3, Eckhertz talked with Marten Eineg, of the 726 IR, 716 Static Infantry Division.

    In the interview, he stated he had a "chronic lung condition", which I took to mean asthma. He had previously been rejected by the Labor Corps because of his "problematic breathing." He stated he had above average eyesight and in 1943, when he was 17, he served as an observer of a Flak crew in Munchen. In the spring of 1944, he was inducted into the heer and sent to Normandy to be assigned to a battery of 88mm guns overlooking Gold beach.
     
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