There’s a lot of sixty plus year old blokes, mostly wearing T-shirts from obscure German heavy metal festivals around.
Le Mans to Berlin and a bit beyond
- Thread starter Wapping
- Start date
There’s a lot of sixty plus year old blokes, mostly wearing T-shirts from obscure German heavy metal festivals around.
Interesting insight thanks Wapping. A few days ago I stumbled into Bastogne, greeted by a WW2 American tank with a shell hole up its rear. I had no idea. Embarrassingly! The Bulge, 101st airborne, the Screaming Eagles surrounded by German troops. Then, you’re in....the stories, history, human endurance as you are discovering. It’s unbelievable!
Oh yes, best cappuccino I’ve had in my life there too.
Oh yes, best cappuccino I’ve had in my life there too.
Naproxenfest
You supply drink food and crumpet...we'll supply class and style! Good to go!
Fascinating report...thanks
It's a very different cemetry to the one on the futa pass; it was 4 to a plot on one headstone; but like you say it's what you imagine on a personal level that makes the impact; horror and peace in harmony. Great write up wapping;
I made it the 13 miles to Poland on the Brompton of awesomeness, without turning the battery on:
My first view of the Oder:
One disappointment enroute. More later….
My first view of the Oder:
One disappointment enroute. More later….
everytime I get near Berlin, Greifwald or Usedom, I just get the urge to rush into Poland and shout "come on then...!" no idea why that is....
Interesting stuff, thank you.
Nice to see the Russian Cemetery and their war dead being remembered.
Some people/politicians are very quick to forget the crucial role and huge sacrifices the Russian people made during WW2.
Nice to see the Russian Cemetery and their war dead being remembered.
Some people/politicians are very quick to forget the crucial role and huge sacrifices the Russian people made during WW2.
Sunday.
I was keen to visit the German town of Kūstrin or, more precisely, the town of Kostryn nad Odra, as the territory east of the river Oder (formerly part of Prussia) was ceded to Poland at the end of the war.
Kostryn had long been a fortified town in the traditional sense, its strategic position on the confluence of the Warta and Oder rivers, coupled with to it being at the head of a very long straight road (now known as Highway 1) across the flat Oder river flood plain to Seelow and then Berlin.
The Germans knew that they had to hold the town and the Russians that they had to take it, not least as it stuck out eastwards from the Oder, creating a salient into the Russian front line. There then followed a very violent siege that lasted about 60 days from the end of 1944 through to early 1945. The town was 95% destroyed, never to be rebuilt. This gives its familiar name of ‘Pompeii on the Oder’.
My cycle ride took me cross country at first, through hamlet villages that all featured in the battle for the Seelow Heights, before turning right onto Highway 1. From here it was my plan to stop off on the way to visit the best preserved of the outlying forts that formed a part of the chain of forts around Küstrin, Fort Gorgast.
forte-cultura.com
Google told me that the fort was visitable (EUR 3 entry) on Sunday. Google lied, so I had to be satisfied by looking at the entrance through an iron gate:
A pause whilst the pictures I took synchronise…..
I was keen to visit the German town of Kūstrin or, more precisely, the town of Kostryn nad Odra, as the territory east of the river Oder (formerly part of Prussia) was ceded to Poland at the end of the war.
Kostryn had long been a fortified town in the traditional sense, its strategic position on the confluence of the Warta and Oder rivers, coupled with to it being at the head of a very long straight road (now known as Highway 1) across the flat Oder river flood plain to Seelow and then Berlin.
The Germans knew that they had to hold the town and the Russians that they had to take it, not least as it stuck out eastwards from the Oder, creating a salient into the Russian front line. There then followed a very violent siege that lasted about 60 days from the end of 1944 through to early 1945. The town was 95% destroyed, never to be rebuilt. This gives its familiar name of ‘Pompeii on the Oder’.
My cycle ride took me cross country at first, through hamlet villages that all featured in the battle for the Seelow Heights, before turning right onto Highway 1. From here it was my plan to stop off on the way to visit the best preserved of the outlying forts that formed a part of the chain of forts around Küstrin, Fort Gorgast.
Gorgast (DE) - FORTE CULTURA
Fort: outer fortress of the Prussian fortress Küstrin, jewel of military architecture in the Oder-Warthe region
forte-cultura.com
Google told me that the fort was visitable (EUR 3 entry) on Sunday. Google lied, so I had to be satisfied by looking at the entrance through an iron gate:
A pause whilst the pictures I took synchronise…..
Ì think of Lisa minnelli And cabaret
we clearly lead very different lives.....Ì think of Lisa minnelli And cabaret
One observation whilst I wait for the pictures. It is pretty clear that, like the Baltic coast of Germany, they don’t get too many visitors from the UK to this part of the country, whilst the Rhine / Mosel and of course Bavaria remain very popular. Those locals that I have spoken to seem all but amazed (and pleased) that I have come.
If you want a holiday ‘Away from it all’ and just to maybe cruise about ‘In the nature’ (as they put it) then I can recommend it.
If you want a holiday ‘Away from it all’ and just to maybe cruise about ‘In the nature’ (as they put it) then I can recommend it.
stop telling people, the place is empty, pretty and a good place to visit.... ffs.... it'll spoil it....
Back to Sunday….
The dead straight A1:
The fort at Gorgast:
I guess it is or was home to someone:
A little Russian memorial at Kustrin-Keitz:
I noticed that the Polish flagged wreath (we are still just in Germany) was laid on 23 February, which I assume ties up with the date of the small town’s liberation:
The dead straight A1:
The fort at Gorgast:
I guess it is or was home to someone:
A little Russian memorial at Kustrin-Keitz:
I noticed that the Polish flagged wreath (we are still just in Germany) was laid on 23 February, which I assume ties up with the date of the small town’s liberation:
The good thing about the slower speed of a bicycle is that you sometimes notice things that you’d otherwise miss and / or it’s more often easier to stop.
As I cycled out of Kustrin-Keith, I happened to spot the generic German sign for a military graveyard, so I detoured a little. It was hidden away. It holds very few military graves in the form of of headstones but does record the fallen:
The upper section records deaths in the two world wars. The lower section records ‘Unknown grave location’. I am wondering if the upper list shows that the plot is some sort of mass burial site?
What was interesting is that the graveyard shows clear evidence of the fighting in and around the whole area:
As I cycled out of Kustrin-Keith, I happened to spot the generic German sign for a military graveyard, so I detoured a little. It was hidden away. It holds very few military graves in the form of of headstones but does record the fallen:
The upper section records deaths in the two world wars. The lower section records ‘Unknown grave location’. I am wondering if the upper list shows that the plot is some sort of mass burial site?
What was interesting is that the graveyard shows clear evidence of the fighting in and around the whole area:
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Time to pedal on and my first view of the Oder, which now forms a natural (and actual) border between Germany and Poland:
The ‘Old Town’ of Kustrin, with it walled fortifications, sits on an island in the Oder.
This model from the museum shows it quite well:
It was, until 1945, a bustling place, complete with shops, houses, a tram system and more besides. The first warning that the citizens received that something was going badly wrong (the Nazi party suppressed all ‘defeatist’ news) was when a trickle and then a flood of refugees appeared, all fleeing westwards.
This stream then suddenly stopped! This could only mean one thing that the Russians had overtaken the refugee columns and were now very close.
The Russians then paused, not least as their troops were exhausted but also because they were outrunning their extended supply lines, stretching back 100’s of miles. Zuhkov, then ordered that Kustrin be bypassed but besieged, whilst his front armies concentrated on establishing bridgeheads on the west bank of the Oder. So began the siege that would see the town utterly destroyed, the German troops ordered to hold it all cost, their only access to other German troops being via a narrow gap over the river. Only late in the day was permission granted for the civilians to be evacuated by night. There’s a copy of the order (in German and Polish) in the museum:
Google translates the text as:
Children four and over would have to walk. The last line is particularly telling. No civilian who was even remotely capable of carrying a weapon was to leave. The dreadful truth is that you’d be hung as a traitor, should you even try. The bottom of the barrel, physically and morally had been reached and breached. Eventually, the encirclement was complete and the town, along with its remaining forces reduced to all but zero.
This model from the museum shows it quite well:
It was, until 1945, a bustling place, complete with shops, houses, a tram system and more besides. The first warning that the citizens received that something was going badly wrong (the Nazi party suppressed all ‘defeatist’ news) was when a trickle and then a flood of refugees appeared, all fleeing westwards.
This stream then suddenly stopped! This could only mean one thing that the Russians had overtaken the refugee columns and were now very close.
The Russians then paused, not least as their troops were exhausted but also because they were outrunning their extended supply lines, stretching back 100’s of miles. Zuhkov, then ordered that Kustrin be bypassed but besieged, whilst his front armies concentrated on establishing bridgeheads on the west bank of the Oder. So began the siege that would see the town utterly destroyed, the German troops ordered to hold it all cost, their only access to other German troops being via a narrow gap over the river. Only late in the day was permission granted for the civilians to be evacuated by night. There’s a copy of the order (in German and Polish) in the museum:
Google translates the text as:
Children four and over would have to walk. The last line is particularly telling. No civilian who was even remotely capable of carrying a weapon was to leave. The dreadful truth is that you’d be hung as a traitor, should you even try. The bottom of the barrel, physically and morally had been reached and breached. Eventually, the encirclement was complete and the town, along with its remaining forces reduced to all but zero.
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Post war, the ‘Old Town’ on the island was never rebuilt, hence its ‘Pompeii’ name:
‘Pompeii’ done, it was time for me to cycle back the 14 or so miles to ‘home’, just missing the thunderstorm that broke behind me as I left.
That said, I had one more visit that I wanted to make, back at Seelow. As Highway 1 goes to Seelow, I added a couple of miles on….
More to follow.
That said, I had one more visit that I wanted to make, back at Seelow. As Highway 1 goes to Seelow, I added a couple of miles on….
More to follow.
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