Interview with Rolf Hertenstein: A World War II Panzerman in Poland and France

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Hertenstein: The French soldiers were all right, but they became very demoralized early on. They didn’t know what to do once we broke through their lines. That goes for our break-through to the English Channel as well as our breakthrough in the Weygand Line. The French lost coherence, and control of their units fairly early. When they stopped and fought, they usually did very well, but that was on an individual unit basis. You cannot do much to stop a well-organized force with an army that is very thoroughly demoralized.

WWII: One of the greatest criticisms leveled at the senior German leadership for their conduct of the campaign is that they allowed more than 330,000 soldiers to be evacuated from Dunkirk to Britain. Since your unit had had such a large part to play in isolating that force, what did you think of the evacuation?

Hertenstein: How could that happen? This is still one of the most discussed incidents of the war, except maybe the question of why Hitler sacrificed the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. We couldn’t believe it. Some of these questions are difficult to answer even now. I have read so much about it and why we did that. To what extent the reading of history books or reports has affected my own memory is difficult to distinguish. We knew one thing, the enemy forces in Dunkirk had lost most of their heavy equipment, such as heavy artillery and so on. We were wondering why Göring didn’t come in with the Luftwaffe and his Stukas and knock the hell out of the enemy when they were embarking. I believe there were two reasons that Hitler decided not to attack Dunkirk with the army. First, he believed Göring when he said, “I will take care of it, mein Führer.” Göring had a big mouth. By the way, we were kind of envious of the Luftwaffe. It got so much more than we could even imagine getting in supplies and so on. The second argument was that Hitler hoped to come to some sort of an arrangement with England, so he didn’t annihilate them at Dunkirk. To what extent this is the truth, I don’t know. We thought we should have gone on to Dunkirk because the British couldn’t defend themselves. We didn’t accept the argument 100 percent that the terrain couldn’t be traveled by our panzers. Of course, we weren’t there. The question remains, why did we let them get away? In that respect we were disappointed.

WWII: Even with the failure to stop the evacuation at Dunkirk, the victory in France was a remarkable achievement. There must have been some sense of satisfaction that you had defeated the nation that had imposed such harsh conditions on Germany at the end of World War I.

Hertenstein: I don’t know if one can say we felt a sense of revenge when France had to sue for peace, but up to a point, that was quite likely how we felt. At least we had a strong feeling of satisfaction to be victorious, and to have lost so few lives compared with the last war.

WWII: You had now participated in two successful campaigns and become an officer. You had also received the Iron Cross. Do you have any recollection of the particular action that resulted in your receiving this award and did you receive any other decorations for your service?

Hertenstein: I could not tell you today. I believe it was when I fought at the Maginot Line, once we were on the other side of the Meuse River. My grandfather, on my mother’s side, got his Iron Cross at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71. I think I also got mine there. When I received it, my company commander told me that they had already recommended me for the Iron Cross in Poland but were turned down. Lieutenant Meyer got the Iron Cross Second Class, and the Iron Cross First Class in Poland. The Second Class Iron Cross was awarded before the First Class. There were relatively few soldiers who got the Iron Cross First Class in the Polish campaign. I just got a pat on the back. Generally, if a panzer commander got the Iron Cross First Class, his gunner would get an Iron Cross Second Class. Without his gunner the commander wasn’t worth anything anyway. The gunner was a significant part of the whole action. I also received the Armored Assault Badge [Panzerkampfabzeichen] that was awarded to those who had participated in three panzer attacks. They didn’t count the attacks we experienced in Poland, but started counting the battles with the campaign against France. All the men in my tank crew got the Armored Assault Badge. I participated in six armored attacks in France.

WWII: Did you remain in France after the campaign and have a chance to enjoy the fruits of your victory?

Hertenstein: After the campaign we went back to Vienna. There we participated in a victory parade in our panzers. The whole 2nd Division was there. I believe the parade was for our division commander, [Maj. Gen. Rudolf] Veiel. We drove through some of the big thoroughfares in Vienna, and quite a crowd was there. n

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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