GERHARD FRIEDRICH DOSE, AGED 79, ON THE BATTLE OF GRIMBOSQ
To be continued ...
Gerhard Friedrich Dose,
aged 79, wrote from Germany.
‘On the Internet I found your page on the battle of
Grimbosq. It is written that on 8 Aug 1944 fresh German
troops made an attack. At 0958 hrs the German ‘Nebelwerfer’
started just one battery of shells and at 1000 hrs the
attack began with our Coy. Led by Obersturmführer (Lt)
Kurt Havemeister, it made just one attack. Of the 110
soldiers, after the attack just 10 were left, so a
counter-attack was impossible. I was a member of this
unit, 12 SS Panzerdivision, transferred in May 1944 to
the SS after I was released from the flying personal
[Pilot] of the German Airforce. I read that on 8 Aug
three German tanks were in action. I saw three German
tanks but they made no attacks to the combatline as they
were unable to go into action.In the afternoon, our Division
Commander, Generalmajor Kurt Meyer, called Panzermeyer,
was with our Company. I picked him up near Grimbosq. He
talked with us and gave the order to withdraw in the
early evening, when the British Artillery fire and the
Bombing of the Airforce would stop. After the visit I
took him back to Grimbosq where we sat under a bridge
over a little creek. In the evening we went back to our
trucks in the hope that the British troops would take
care of the wounded and dead German soldiers. Of the ten
left men only one man was not wounded. I was one of the
last German soldiers who left Falaise and absolutely the
last one who passed Trun on 18 Aug 1944. Captured in
Namur, Belgium, on 8 Sep 1944, I was interned at
Compiegne. While there an abscess developed from two
little shrapnel pieces. A doctor operated and removed
them. I still have a 4 cm scar on my left thumb.
You can read, in German, about my internment on the
Internet under:
Bericht von der Gefangenschaft vom 8. September 1944 bis
8. März 1947 at www.collasius.org/ZEITZEUGEN
dann Gerhard Friedrich Dose
Click
here for the British account of the Grimbosq battle and
a photograph of the Jamieson VC painting.
B&C 100 |
