Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): Last letters of German soldier August Willy Hagel to his family, Eastern Front 1943 (Published on 28/03/2025)
Between 27/01/ and 03/10/1943, August Willy Hagel wrote five letters to his family from the Eastern Front, the first and fourth of which are published here. He fell the day after writing the last of these letters.
(source: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, Letzte Lebenszeichen – Briefe aus dem Krieg (2010), p. 80 ff. [translation from German language]):
First letter to his wife Lina and on his daughter Eva’s seventh birthday
“On 27/1/1943
My dearest wife!
On 21/1/, I received your letters of 31st and 4th January and thank you from the bottom of my heart. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reply yet because we have been fighting partisans and Russian cavalry since 22/1/. This morning it is a little quieter and the bombs alone cannot disturb us. We have difficult days behind us and possibly even more difficult ones ahead of us. They say we are trapped. A plane is due to arrive this afternoon and we want to give them our mail.
My dear Ly, I’ve destroyed all the mail, I only have your letter from 31/12/ in my breast pocket and I want to respond only to it today. You wrote it on the last day of the old year and expressed many wishes for the new year to me and for me. I know that you are completely serious about this and now I want to reveal myself to you.
It may be that I will no longer come to you and therefore I must take a detailed inventory. If I am no longer with you, please keep me in good memory and you, dear, sweet girl, marry later if you have the opportunity, but only choose a good father for our children. I can’t say whether I have been one, but I have tried hard to be a good husband and father and to become an even better one. If that is no longer possible for me, then fate has decided otherwise and I and you will have to bow to it. I have one more request! Don’t despair about the future and don’t lose your head because of the children! If there is no other way, you will still have time and opportunity to die later. And if you want to thank me, then do it by remaining strong and faithful and opening up and preserving the future for the children and watching over them. That is my only and last wish and you still have to fulfill it. I expect it from you, because I left you for you and only left you so that you could and should live on. My last thoughts will be with you and if I can, I will watch over you later.
You have all my love and trust and will not let me down. I know that and that’s why I can look forward to the future with confidence.
You will now say that I did something stupid with my replacement. That’s not the case! The front is everywhere now. There are no differences in the troops and in age this winter. Even the last man has to step up. You can read about what’s going on in the newspapers and on the radio, but it’s even worse. There is a superior force in front of us on the whole front that nobody could have foreseen or expected. Nobody is lying in the rear and idle, but is facing the enemy with a weapon. The old father with many children is standing next to the 18-year-old boy and the OT man [“Organisation Todt”, the construction group] next to the Arbeitsdienst [labour service] and next to the railwayman and everyone is fighting off the oncoming red tide.
We have constantly unstable weather here. The day before yesterday there was a thaw and overnight it was around 40 degrees cold again. The boots are wet and now frozen. Didn’t sleep all night. First it was the partisans and then we were on patrol. Then partisans from outside the town and then troops. Now we have cleared the road in the middle with many casualties and are holding our position in the Igelstellung [defensive position for all-round defense]. Hundreds of dead men, women and children lie in front of our position. You have to be tough. If you show your face on the street or in the houses, you lose your life. The day before yesterday I went out 20 km further in 3 cars to lead the attack from outside the town. With this tactic they are advancing step by step and house by house and we are losing more and more freedom of movement. Our armored troops are due to arrive in two days and we have to hold our ground until then. Fortunately, our losses are still very low, but the planes are getting better and better at attacking us. Again and again we have to dig ourselves and soldiers out and secure the rescue. Neither side has any guns and the grenade launchers have almost no effect on solid buildings.
It’s Evi’s birthday today and you’ll probably all be at the table to celebrate. Unfortunately I can’t, but I’m thinking about it too. How time flies! When I left you, she was the same age as Huschi and now she’s already two years older. Well, my dear girl, once again all the best to you and the children for the future and keep me in good memory. Farewell everyone and be brave to the last. Many greetings and kisses to you all and many thanks to you, dear Lina, for your care and love.
always your dad”
Fourth letter from August Willy Hagel to his family
„On Sunday, 12/9/1943 – 9:00 a.m.
My dearest girl!
You poor woman have certainly gone through an anxious time without news from me. Unfortunately, I have been unable to write and I am forcibly taking the time to do so in a quiet hour, but I don’t know when the letter will be sent. Everything is going haywire here. But one thing at a time!
Last Sunday at 3:00 [a.m.] we were detached and occupied our village exit against forces that had broken through. Entrenched during the day, enemy contact in the evening. The next morning the Russians attacked until dark. We withdrew in the evening and attacked ourselves on Tuesday morning. Gained 5 km of ground. During the night we disengaged and moved to a new position under heavy fire and pressure. Wednesday heavy fighting during the day with counter-attack and then in the evening again disengagement from the enemy. On Thursday until 9:00 [a.m.] completely quiet as in the previous night. But then it was colorful and fun. Barrage, tanks, planes in large numbers. Losses high. Then the Russians attacked at 10:00 [a.m.], from both sides of us and after 15 minutes also from our side. Our wings were already in full flight and we didn’t notice. So we were far ahead and were in danger of getting encircled. All we had to do now was move to the rear as quickly as possible. We concentrated their fire on us and didn’t spare us anything. The Russians were on both sides and we had to go right through them. They shot at us up to 100 meters like rabbits. Nobody can imagine this situation!
Behind us, on both sides and diagonally in front of us Russian infantry, between us the artillery shells, infantry bullets, bombs and aircraft fire. The sky is full of airplanes. Tanks are already ahead of us and shooting from the front. We fought for our lives over hill and dale, through woods, fields, meadows, marshes, water, cornfields. Five times I went through anti-tank obstacles and even more times I was on the ground and had no strength for minutes and wanted to stay down. But then I said a quick prayer and went on for a few hundred meters until the next collapse. I hadn’t eaten anything two days before, it was a hot day and I was very thirsty. Drank swamp water. I threw away everything I didn’t need and by 3 p.m. I had finally escaped the fire and the tanks and reached the right edge of our still-standing front.
There we last 6 of us took over the infantry protection of a battery. It then came into combat with 8 tanks. 6 were hit and one hit the last of our three guns. I then went with the wounded to the dressing station, slept there and marched off alone on Friday. I then met the doctor and five of our men and now we are looking for the rest of our troops. Out of 300, 47 were still in position before the last attack. What’s left today will be fewer. So my baptism of fire was good and plentiful beyond all measure. I held my ground bravely and I’m sure of my EK [Iron Cross] and possibly the Sturmabzeichen [assault badge]. The commander praised me and shook my hand. I’m to become a company sergeant in the F.A.B [Feld-Ausbildungs-Bataillon, Field Training Battalion] again. Many comrades dead, the wounded captured (foot wounded). The situation is still unclear and the Russians seem to be advancing rapidly. Since yesterday evening rain and deep mud on the roads. I have already walked over 50 km. New boots. A pair of socks as property and the little things in the map pocket are all I have. Burnt knapsack, clothes bag, blanket, steel helmet, gas mask, canteen lost.
Now a thousand warm greetings and kisses to everyone from your dad.”
August Willy Hagel was born on 17/05/1906 in Kindschen, district of Tilsit/East Prussia, he fell on 04/10/1943 in the Pekari area, 20 km south of Kanew/Ukraine. Initially buried at the military cemetery in Babitschi, the Volksbund transferred him to the German military cemetery in Kiev in November 2007.
(Head picture: Plate on a “comrades’ grave”
at the German military cemetery in Kastel near Saarburg, September 2024,
translated inscription: “In this comrades’ grave rest 65 known and 30 German soldiers whose names are not known”)
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