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After finishing the car mechanics school at Gräf & Stift
factory in Vienna, without wanting to remember this day, I was called up
for the RAD the Reichsarbeitsdienst and was assigned construction work
on the Gugl at Linz, the so called "Führerstadt", houses for high
party members. I stayed there until middle of 1940 then I was sent to the
Westwall into the area of Radstatt in the Breisgau.
I worked there on the Westwall fortifications
until the war with France started. After the German troops had conquered
half of France I was drafted in to an assault-pioneer unit to attack the
Maginot-line where I saw my first casualties. When the fighting stopped
I had the opportunity to see the Maginot-line fortifications. I saw the
75km (?) long underground railway, the hospital bunkers and the double-gunned
defence turrets.
After sightseeing the town of Radstatt I received
order to report at the Landesinfanterieregiment 134 "Hoch u. Deutschmeister"
in Vienna at once. So I went back to Vienna. There at Strebersdorf I had
to exercise on the flood-area of the Danube and had to do a 70km march
to the exercise-ground Allentsteig where we practised attack tactics. After
a while I got to be the "boy" of a Leutnant and had to do his wife's shopping
and small jobs. This very comfortable time ended as I was ordered to the
Panzerregiment 3 where I was assigned to the maintenance-company at Brunn
in the area of Vienna because I did not have any tank experience.
The tank training followed on the so called "field of blood" at
the Hinterbrühel in the area of Mödling. We used Mark II, III
and IV with the short 75mm gun and it was here we practised embarking from
a tank under enemy fire for the first time.
Parallel to the education at the maintenance company went on. As
the Rgt. got the order to march on Greece we got through Hungary and Rumania
to the black sea where we assembled for the attack on Yugoslavia. There
I was assigned to follow the tank company as a motorcycle-messenger.
Then it started... nearly no fighting in Yugoslavia through Bulgaria
into Greece. There we carried out an attack on the Metaxas-line with Austrian
mountain troops and sustained high losses. We crossed the Thermopylen
and reached the Olymp. There I got ill with high fever. So it ended with
biking... didn't like it anyway. I was sent to Larissa to recover and it
was here where I saw paratroopers leaving on Junkers JU-52 planes for the
invasion of Crete.
A destroyed British
Cruiser tank in Larissa,Greece. It was here that Was sent to recover from
his illness.
After recovering from illness I followed my unit to Saloniki where
something happened I will never forget. One day we had a roll-call
and our commander wore his white gala-uniform as eight British planes
attacked. We all ran for our lives and hid somewhere and I hid under a
tank. Our commander jumped into the nearest hole he found but this hole
was the toilet-hole for the company and as he got up again his white uniform
was brown all over! We laughed ..especially me.. so I got three days jail.
That was not bad because I didn't feel well at that time as the food was
not good.
After that I was ordered to Saloniki to organize
and help with the entraining of the replacement parts of the company.
Meanwhile other parts of the 2nd Panzer Division, along with many Austrians,
were sent to Patras and boarded onto the ships "Gipfels" and "Marburg".
After these ships left the Gulf of Corinth they were torpedoed by
British submarines and sunk. That meant the loss of tanks, motorcycles,
guns, small arms and personnel. In Triest where I took a
break on my trip to Vienna, I heard that some were rescued by fishing
boats.
On our mechanized march through Albania and Kosovo
we got hungry and saw a cow in a field. We pushed the cow off the
field and prepared to slaughter it. Suddenly the farm maid came
running and cried: "Allah, Allah don't shoot, it is my only cow!!!"
but this did not stop us. The farm maid didn't get anything for
it either.
We drove to Triest where I reported at the HQ
and there I was informed about the catastrophe of the two troop-ships.
I was ordered to go to Nuernberg via Vienna and Erlangen and in Vienna
I was able to visit my parents.
In Nuernberg a new unit was lined up to occupy
Vichy France and we were transferred to Southern France to Augeli
and Rouen. Then came the attack on Russia in the night to the 21.6.1941...
(holiday from 28.June to 31.june 1941 and garrison in France)
For our spare time we got busses and one day I drove to the Spanish
border. Spanish fascists invited me to the bull-fights at Bilbao. But
also training went on as well and we trained there with the new Afrika-Korps
uniforms.
Then in September 1941 we got the order for transfer.
We were transported from La Rochelle via Paris, Loewen in Belgium,
14 days by train and foot via Ostende, Hamburg, Harburg and then
through Poland to the Russian border. It was no secret that we were
to attack Russia. The advance brings me into swamps and over dams
until I got the order to get some replacement parts from the
maintenance-company. On the way back we were shot at several times
and enemy planes attacked. On the way back to the front our Saurer-truck
(a tracked light reconnaissance vehicle, manufactured in Austria) had a
breakdown. We had to stop in a wood full with partisans and Russian
troops-a really bad situation. The changing of the tyre did not
work properly and we had to replace the brakes too, so I
had to walk back to the replacement parts depot. A motorcycle-messenger
of a Luftwaffe unit came by and took me with him whilst my three
friends stayed behind with the truck.
I spotted a Russian plane, a so called "sewing-machine"
(This was the Polikarpov PO-2 manufactured in 1928 with a top speed of
90m.p.h) above us and I told the driver not to turn on the lights.
He did and a few minutes later a bomb or maybe a hand grenade exploded
near us. (This is quite likely as small bombs were thrown from these planes
by the pilot) I was knocked unconscious and woke up in a ambulance
car with four other wounded soldiers. I lost all my upper teeth
and my leg was injured. I never found out what
happened to my driver. One of the four wounded was shot into
the head right behind the ear by a Russian sniper. He was unconscious.
Two others severely wounded were hit by an gun from a personnel
carrier.
A knocked out Soviet
SU-85 tank destroyer pictured by Franz during his time in Russia.
The journey ended after 40km in Smolensk. There
a General-staff medic sighted the wounded and divided them by injuries.
Some were transported by plane.... I was ordered to go with the train
to Spremberg in the Niederlausitz. That was December 1941.
I was operated on there several
times. I was in a room with 25 other wounded I was there for three weeks
nearly until Christmas.
As I recovered I was transferred to the recovery-company
of my unit in Brunn/Gebirge near Vienna. I was used as a train-guard
for a few months and the good thing was that I was near Vienna.
Then I got back to where my company were I was sent to "Tank-school"
in
Neuwaldegg near Vienna. I was instructed in driving the new Tiger
I tanks with 10 gears. For further training I was transferred to
Frankfurt where I was ordered to follow my unit to Paderborn where
we got further instruction on the Tiger and Mark IV. Then
we were moved to Poland.... I can't remember the city but I remember
thousands of Jews with the yellow stars on their breast guarded by
.. what I think were SS soldiers. We heard machine gun fire all night.
Until after the war I did not know what happened to them but I suppose
they were shot.
On the next day we advanced to Saporoschje to
assemble for the attack on Stalingrad.
After my recovery I was transferred to the 9th Panzer Division not
to my old PzRgt.. I was there as a z.b.V. because of my vast knowledge
about tank repair. After three months in Russia on my way back from
Vienna to the 9th Panzer Division we suddenly got order to stop
and disembark in the middle of nowhere. We were 76 men from all
kind of units and marched to hold the bridgehead of Wosskreßkensgoje.
A few cadets were among us who all died in the following fighting.
On the right flank I had to man a machine-gun emplacement. A tanker
used as a normal infantryman! It was there I was promoted to Oberfähnrich.
For a few months was no heavy fighting until
the 1st May the day of the Red Army. Three or four companies
attacked us on our bridgehead and I was all alone without a number
2 gunner. We were able to hold off all attacks and after three days the
attacks stopped and I saw crows had begun to eat the dead in front of
me. So I shot at them because I could not stand it. After a few days
we found a point with the Russians and were able to get the dead
bodies. I found a young blonde Russian wounded on the shoulder.
I helped him and sent him back.. I don't know what happened to him.
We were replaced by an mortar-unit and were allowed
to go back to our units. I reached the 9th Panzer Division Pz.Rgt.33
that was at Orel this time. We had to hold the middle-part of the
front. 400km with 50 tanks!
The regimental emblem
of Panzer Regiment 33 "Prinz Eugen". Not to be confused with the SS formation
of the same name, Panzer Regiment 33 was composed of members of the former
Austrian Tank Battalion which had been under the command of Lt Col Theiss
and after being incorporated into the Wehrmact was given the title of "Prinz
Eugen" on 2nd March 1943.
I got there on the 13th May 1942 but they had
no job for the newly arrived so they ordered us to clear the partisan
filled woods. We were positioned beside the road and waited. The
Russians were everywhere and we had no contact to our unit.
There were only three of us and we did not dare to attack the partisans..
we were happy as some armoured-personnel-carriers came along the
street and we jumped on. We drove back on the highway... Smolensk,
Kursk, Orel.
One day we were ordered to get a damaged tank
IV with our T-34 recovery tank. As we reached the MarkIV we saw
that it was full of holes from a 88mm gun captured by the Russians.
The interior was red from the blood of the crew. At that
point enemy mortars start firing at us.
Our unit advanced in the meanwhile to Stalino
to help the 6th Armee with the attack on Stalingrad there we came
under heavy artillery fire. In the area Wasjna-Briansk I was on
guard duty while my tank unit had a break. I heard that sound
of a "sewing-machine" flying over our camp. A soldier went out of
the small hut to light a cigarette. One minute later some bombs
exploded in the hut killing all men inside it. We recovered the bodies
and I was ordered to do the "dead-guard" until the burial the next
day. Somebody noticed that one of the dead had no head. I searched
for it but couldn't find it. They said that I did not look well enough
and was punished with looking at the dead the whole night. I will never
forget this night.
I was transferred to the 2nd Kompanie as the
driver of a Tiger I and was soon drafted to the HQ-unit. I always
wanted to the HQ . . I also learned how to maintain the Maybach-Tigermotor.
Franz (pictured
leaning out of the driver's hatch) along with his fellow crew members.
The Tiger in the photo was nicknamed "Stephi" by the crew after St. Stephens
Cathedral in Vienna.
One night we were ordered to advance to the front
with no lights on. Between our tanks were lorries and motorcycles
along with some foreign units who had also joined us. One of our
tanks did not see three "Kradmelder" and hit them. All three died.
This happened many time when going into position without lights
on.
We were not able to break through the Russian
ring and the supply did not come through we had to abandon our tanks
in Slobzowo (?). We had to destroy 28 of our own tanks so that the
Russians would not get them. Only a crane-truck and a recovery tank
was all that was left then. The roads were nearly impassable because
of mud.
The type of crane
truck Franz talks about is pictured here. It seems to be mounted on the
back of an Opel lorry-seen here assisting a disabled Tiger I tank.
Me and three other men stayed to destroy the tanks.
Two men were working while the other two were sleeping. During this
time I was lucky to use a Russian sauna.
Suddenly about 20 russian soldiers come near to the house where
me and my friend slept. My two other men were working on the tanks.
We had made friends with the women living there and so they warned us.
It was too late to use the backdoor so we hid in the coal-cellar.
We heard the Russians accuse the women of being German friends and
than they raped them. We could hear them cry but could not help
without being killed ourselves. After some time the russians left
and the women got us and come with us to the place where our tanks
are. The Russians did not attack the place-maybe they thought twice to
opposing a Tiger-tank regiment. The women followed us for two months
through the Russian woods.
Some day we could hear German words and because we had nothing in
common with normal German soldiers we surrendered with hands up.
They brought us to the General in command and
after some questions we were brought back to our unit. The two women
stayed as Hiwis (volunteer helpers) in our company. I was
recommended for the EKII.
Here I remember another incident. As we pulled
back from Russia an SS-unit tried to force us to pull their vehicles
out of the mud. They pointed with their guns at us. The enemy following
us and then our own people want to shoot us! That was too much.
There were four of us and we fired at them while we drove
into safety. I never talked about this incident.
Soon we were transferred to the west in the line up of the new s.Pz.Abt.506
equipped with King-Tigers. This unit was under direct command
of the OKH as z.b.V. Me myself I got the "schwarzsucht" and had
to stay three month in hospital before I got to the 506 in the Rheinland
again.
A MKIV belonging
to Franz's unit stuck in the Russian mud.
In my time on the Western front I remember one
day as we parked our vehicles in a wood we suddenly came under heavy
artillery fire. I saw a plane flying above us and that my comrades
had hung up their clothes for drying on the trees. I ran
out of the wood otherwise I am sure I would have died. Right beside
the wood I reached a small road. As I ran along, two military-policemen
("Kettenhunde") stopped me. I told them that I had to report in
the HQ which was 3km away. They did not believe me so I raised my
MP40 and grabbed one of the grenades in my belt. I threw the grenade
and then I ran into a field. I don't know what happened to the police-men
but when I got back to the place where they had been they were gone.
I went back to my unit and saw that it was nearly destroyed. All
the tanks were destroyed. That was in the area of Eckweiler - Gelsenkirchen.
We had no food supplies so we had to get something
ourselves. I met the fiancé of my sister and we tried to
hunt wild boar with a Kar 98k-he tried to push wild boars into my direction
but that did not work. As I looked for him I found him shivering, sitting
on a tree.
At this time we were attacked by enemy P-38 fighters, they were
very fast and accurate.
I had installed a Flakvierlings-2cm AA gun on
my tank and this was a good weapon against those planes. In this
vicinity was an air-raid of about 600 planes and the earth was
moving. It was the P-38 that escorted those bombers who had attacked
us.
Many hid in the woods... some infantry units that kept on marching
were hit. We had no fuel left for our Tigers so we had to
fight like infantrymen.
1.
2. 
3.
4.
Photographs taken by Franz during the Ardennes Offensive
of which he took part in:
1."A secret turn behind the Ardennes Forest" is the caption Franz
gave to this photograph which shows what appears to be a Tiger I gun mantlet
loaded on to it-quite unusual on the western front during this late stage
in the war.
2. An Sdkfz 6 half track photographed at the same location.
3. Again photographed at the same location an Sdkfz 251.
4. An Sdkfz 251/1 Wurfrahem 40. Known as the "Stuka zu Fuss"
or Stuka on Foot this converted half-track could project either incendiary
or HE rounds from its 28cm rocket launchers.
On the march to the front we passed an abandoned
ambulance car and I had the idea to play wounded. Myself and three comrades
bandaged our hands with the remaining material of the ambulance
and said that we were wounded during the air attack by the P-38
. I hit my hand to be really wounded and looked for the next American
soldier to surrender to. Before he was captured the tank crews destroyed
the Tigers somewhere in a wood near the Ruhr. There they collected all
of their medals, passes, weapons and buried them there. They were eventually
captured by the Americans and after he convinced them that he was tanker
and not an SS man (this was due to the black panzer uniform that Franz
was wearing complete with the Totenkopf collar patches) he was handed
over to the French and went into captivity.
Franz Eschner pictured
with the uniform that almost got him killed. The black panzer uniform was
often mistaken for the uniform of the SS and on more than one occasion
ordinary Wehrmact armoured troops were shot rather than be taken prisoner.
(more info to follow shortly)
