36
I was very impressed with the quality and commitment of these offi-
cers commissioned post-1954. They were, however, thin on the
ground and the slack had to be taken up by inexperienced national
servicemen.
It came as a surprise to meet only one
"von"
in the shape of the ele-
gant Hauptmann von Kielmansegge. As an aside, this family of
Hanovarian barons have featured twice in British history. Three
hundred years ago, one Kielmansegge was PR man to George I (his
aunt was the King's mistress!) attempting to sell a boorish and pro-
vincial despot to sophisticated London. He used Handel as his sup-
port weapon (think
Water Music
). His success was partial.
Two hundred years ago another Kielmansegge commanded the
Hanoverian contingent at Waterloo. This was a scratch force made
up from very young recruits with cadres who would have sworn
oaths to Napoleon. Wellington wisely posted them next to Ompt-
eda's battle-hardened veterans of the King's German Legion.
Our brigade was rather more "Kielmansegge" than "Ompteda".
Things were very much at sixes and sevens in the first two days and
the strain on the experienced officers and NCO's was very heavy.
One night when I was on watch, my sole German colleague was a
young second lieutenant of 15 months’ service. I was the experi-
enced Hauptmann from Berlin. My advice to him turned into rec-
ommendation as the night progressed and suddenly I found myself
in de-facto control of a Panzergrenadierbrigade. It was a heady ex-
perience, so much so, that had the brigade-major not come on duty
at 0600 and sent us to bed, I would have had the brigade rumbling
down the autobahn to invade Poland!
Things changed in the second week when all the national service-
men started looking and acting like German soldiers. By the end,
they were looking excellent; I then understood why the Soviet 3rd
Shock Army reckoned the Bundeswehr would be the real opposition
to their dash from Magdeburg to the Dutch coast. Probably so, but
they would have needed 10 days training first.
The lot of the Liaison Officer is not always a happy one. You are
lucky to get four hours sleep per day and foreign language work can
