Guten Abend from Germany!

My name is Wendelin (I'm named after the patron saint of my region), I am 45 years old and live between the Siegfried Line (or Westwall, as it is called in German) and the Maginot Line. As most people here, I have relatives on both sides of the border.
WW II is present everywhere here. That starts with the grave of 5 Russian POW's died in captivity on our cemetery, bulletholes in older buildings like churches - I remember that 30 or 40 years ago many other buildings bore such scars, the monuments or plaques in churches with the many names of the K.I.A./M.I.A. And as I descend from a family of soldiers - although most of them not professional, but by draft - I have always been interestet in military affairs with focuses on WWII, War between the States, and the Wars against Napoleon.
I am also interested in Plastic Modelling. From time to time, I change between military vehicles (not only tanks, my favourite is a Wehrmacht horse-drawn cart) and aircraft of all periods, and also try a ship from time to time.

 

Hi JW,
thank You very much, and I will do my best!

Yours,
Wendelin

 

welcome to the forum wendelin..

 

Welcome, glad to have you on the forum! Enjoy your stay here!

 

Welcome to ww2f, its a friendly place with loads of good members.
I hope you have a good time here.

regards John

 

Howdy and welcome to the forum. Sounds like I lived close to where you are at. Stationed at Ramstain AB near Kaiserslautern. I lived in Niedermohr. Glad to have you with us. Happy posting. Tschuss

 

Allo Wendel, welcome to the forums you'll fit right in.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

Wendelin, welcome to the forums. Interesting location that you come from!

 

Welcome! I cannot wait to hear your stories, I am sure that they will be extremely insightful!

 

Welcome to this fine place! There are many fine people here and I am sure you will find many a new friend. Jump right in!

Cheers!

 

Thanks to all for the warm welcome, and a special Howdy to Ohio!
Ramstein AB is about an hour's ride by car from here (we've got a lot of speed limits at the Autobahn!). Years ago, when I commuted between here and Frankfurt nearly every weekend, I could see some interesting aircraft from time to time, once even watch a Hercules practicing the Khe San Approach! Today, I can see the Warthogs from Bitburg AB flying over from time to time.
For people interested in military history, not only WW II, this is quite an interesting region here. Not far from here, on the other side of the border, is the American Cemetery of St. Avold, where you can find the burial site of General George S. Patton. The central city of our Landkreis (something like a county in the US) is Saarlouis, built as a fortress around 1680 under the French King Louis XIV. from Marshal Vauban. Napoleon's Marshal Ney and General von Lettow-Vorbeck, the defender of Deutsch-Ost-Afrika in WW I, have been born there, the houses of their births only a few paces afar from each other. In WW II, the city has been heavily defended during Winter 1944-45 by the 21. Panzerdivision - it won some ill fame under the name Die Zitadelle von Saarlautern (the Nazis had rebaptized all towns and places with french sounding names, of which there are quite a lot here, and under french reign, after 1945, they were re-rebaptized...).
I am a member of a similar forum in Germany, to which I contribute from time to time and from which I won some valuable information. Here, I think, I can not only find some insight from "the other side", but it is also a fine occasion to practice English - You know, like that guy from Warsaw, who wanted to polish his English, but was told his English was Polish enough!
Best regards!

 

Wilkomme !

Wendelin I would not mind talking to you about your interest in Napoleon and the invasion of Germany until he was kicked out in 1813 if you are interested ..........

MFG Erich ~

 

Hi Wendelin , nice to have you here with us, where in Alsace do you have relatives if I may ask?

 

Hi Skipper,
my Grandfather was born in Hambach - les - Sarreguemines. That's where the "Smart" Car is built today.
Best regards

 

Hi Erich,
that would be interesting. 2 years ago, I stood on the platform on top of the Völkerschlacht-Denkmal in Leipzig. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared enough to recognise where the actions during the battle had taken place.
Best regards

 

yes battle of the nations and incredible battle it seemed the French were taking on the whole known worlds military in the area ... Battle for Leipzig. Quite an impressive monument, have only seen fotos so far.

E ~

 

Hi ObGeFr Wendolin--welcome to this fine site and I echo the others and are interested in hearing your stories.

Take Care--C.