Hermann Klink was nineteen years old when he entered the German military. He trained as a "signalman", and at different times was responsible for both communications and movement of petrol, ammunition, vehicles, and supplies. He had risen to the rank of Obergefreiter (equivalent to a Specialist, E4) by Sept 1941 when he was sent to Baumholder. The post was "a good place, no problems", he recalled, but he still sounded exasperated over the bureaucracy of the German Wehrmacht: "It took forever to get all the equipment [for our Signal Regiment] that had been ordered...the system was quite inefficient." Deployment was delayed by these logistics until March 1942, when he left for Naples with a support unit to work in the German Administration Office for War Supplies. Here he was responsible for the shipment of petrol, ammunition, vehicles, and supplies to the North Africa theater. Rommel was waiting on the vehicles, he explained. Then it was on to Tripoli to Rommel's Headquarters in North Africa.
When asked if he had ever had a face-to-face encounter with Rommel, Herr Klink chuckled. He explained that the soldiers dug a hole in the sand with a shovel instead of using a latrine, "covering everything up." One day he was busy with his shovel in the designated area and noticed the Field Marshall (below) not far away doing the same. "I didn't know if I was supposed to salute or not", he laughed. "I didn't". |
