Germany - WW2 interest (1 Viewer)

Big Nick

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We are thinking of doing 1 week of our 3 week touring holiday in Germany with the other 2 weeks in France.

I'm quite familiar with France and where things are in relation to each other but don't have a clue with Germany having never been before.

I'm quite into WW2 history especially tank warfare so would like to combine some of that type of stuff into the week

Prefer not to do huge mileages every day if possible around 100 miles max so we can get pitched/parked up by lunchtime and use the afternoon for visiting somewhere and then the evening to relax

Can anyone with a similar interest who has toured Germany give me any pointers

TIA!
 
May 8, 2010
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Not to do with tanks, but the Nazi Documentation Centre in Nuremberg is very interesting, and Nuremberg is a lovely city.

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DBK

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You can visit the Möhne dam, of dambusters fame, but there isn't much to see now. They repaired it.

What is interesting to see in Germany is how they rebuilt things so well after the war was over, at least in the west.
 
Jun 30, 2010
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Up north on the North German Plain. Check my Spelling please "Falenbosel" could be " Falenbostel"

Also Paderborn, I, completely by mistake , attended a reunion of the "Paderborner Panzers" from memory, it was the 10th Panzer Armee , in the early 60s
I was supposed to meet a mate I was in training with in a pub "alongside the Cathedral" (could have been church!) He didn't tell me which SIDE!! I walked in, spect I stood out like a spot on a domino, Any way they soon sussed I was a squaddie and good naturedly invited me to stay.

'spect @Tootles could tell you more cause he was once stationed there for a while
 

sdc77

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If you're over that way the eagles nest is worth a trip up to and the museum at the bottom is also interesting

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mjltigger

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Concentration camps and damms is all I remember of war time stuff when I was a kid.. Although lots of the then British barracks were German WW2 barracks but I'm not sure you can get in them.. I suspect wars are remembered more fondly by the winners..

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Oct 13, 2016
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Concentration camps and damms is all I remember of war time stuff when I was a kid.. Although lots of the then British barracks were German WW2 barracks but I'm not sure you can get in them.. I suspect wars are remembered more fondly by the winners..

A few things, most of the concentration camps are still there and are open to the public (most are free entry) Colditz has been open to the public since the wall came down, the British are no longer in German barracks, generally the barracks are now occupied by the Dutch (since 2015, I think) they are NOT open to the public, security and all that

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iLondoner

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Up north on the North German Plain. Check my Spelling please "Falenbosel" could be " Falenbostel"
My father-in-law was in the Gordon Highlanders and was captured at Saint Valery a couple of weeks after Dunkirk. He spent the rest of the war as a POW and was in a Stalag XX-B sub-camp at Groudenz (now Grudziadz) in Poland. In Jan 1945 along with another 80,000 POWs in Poland he was marched 750km west through the depths of winter and ended up in Fallingbostel which at that time was Stalag XI-B POW camp, located close to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. When Hubert was liberated he weighed six stone and was flown home in a Lancaster.

Later on the POW camp became a British base but there's still a small museum onsite.

I did a tour of many POW camps, concentration camps and death camps in Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. I stayed overnight in Colditz—the German guard quarters is now a youth hostel.

On the way to Germany you might consider a visit to Hackenberg fort on the Maginot Line, see http://www.bunkertours.co.uk/the_maginot_line.htm#The Fortress of Hackenberg
 
Oct 13, 2016
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My father-in-law was in the Gordon Highlanders and was captured at Saint Valery a couple of weeks after Dunkirk. He spent the rest of the war as a POW and was in a Stalag XX-B sub-camp at Groudenz (now Grudziadz) in Poland. In Jan 1945 along with another 80,000 POWs in Poland he was marched 750km west through the depths of winter and ended up in Fallingbostel which at that time was Stalag XI-B POW camp, located close to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. When Hubert was liberated he weighed six stone and was flown home in a Lancaster.

Later on the POW camp became a British base but there's still a small museum onsite.

I did a tour of many POW camps, concentration camps and death camps in Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. I stayed overnight in Colditz—the German guard quarters is now a youth hostel.

On the way to Germany you might consider a visit to Hackenberg fort on the Maginot Line, see http://www.bunkertours.co.uk/the_maginot_line.htm#The Fortress of Hackenberg

We actually go to Germany at least twice a year, where we go is ottingen, which is by Visselhovede, nearest town is Soltau, which is in the Luneberger Heiner, either way Bergen Belsen or Fallingbostel is about 20 k's. I visit Belsen every couple of years and Fallingbostel at least three times each visit. There is a very large camp/barracks almost next to Belsen, it used to be the home of the "Desert Rats", now transferred to the Dutch. There's an exceptional Greek restaurant we like in Fallingbostel, and as you enter Fallingbostel there's a "Boot station" (boat station & bar) where you can hire a canoe or pedalo for a trip up the river, and of course a beer and schnapps on your return, roll on June for our next visit
 
May 24, 2014
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We are thinking of doing 1 week of our 3 week touring holiday in Germany with the other 2 weeks in France.

I'm quite familiar with France and where things are in relation to each other but don't have a clue with Germany having never been before.

I'm quite into WW2 history especially tank warfare so would like to combine some of that type of stuff into the week

Prefer not to do huge mileages every day if possible around 100 miles max so we can get pitched/parked up by lunchtime and use the afternoon for visiting somewhere and then the evening to relax

Can anyone with a similar interest who has toured Germany give me any pointers

TIA!

Just developing your interest on tank warfare in WW2 ..have you come across the books writtten by Ken Tout who was with the 1st Northants Yeomanry serving in tanks. He was injured before he got beyond Holland but writes about the push through Germany (D Day to VE Day) and the detail should offer some locations. But also spend time with an earlier book of his (Tank 48 hours in August) a simply brilliant focus on his tank and crew in Normandy.

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Oct 13, 2016
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If you're into tanks and in north Germany, the Munster Tank museum is a must, more Tigers than a zoo

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laird of Dunstan

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The area around Belgium where the Spa racecourse is ,there's a memorial to the yanks who where murdered by the SS and lots of tanks in various village s ,there's a good mark 1 tiger at a place called either the three bridges or the three rivers ,there are Sherman's ,self propelled guns and tigers all around that area ,and as already been mentioned Bastogne,

When you compare the tiger tanks to the Sherman's ,it makes you wonder why our crews even tried to take the tigers on
 

iLondoner

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laird of Dunstan

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i was most fortunate when i was there,i met a fellow biker and he was an amateur historian on the Battle of the Bulge,he took me on a tour and pointed out places where the US army held up the Germans ans he also took me to a German cemetary ,i counted the crosses and then realised that there were 6 germans to a cross ,later on that day we rode up a track in the forrest and then walked up to a grave of a US soldier ,the grave was kept in an immaculate condition by the locals ,the yank had apparently harrased the Germans single handedly before being killed.
 

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