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The Wolfsburg Story by Andy Jones continued...
Now I somehow was lucky enough to sit near our guide Fred and the question was raised how excellent his English was and how did he learn it? This is what he told us:
Italy 1943 - Fred was a corporal in Rommel’s Afrika Korp he was an excellent shot to boot making him obvious choice to be the unit’s sniper. It was Autumn the Germans had been defeated in Africa and had retreated to Italy. The British and American forces were advancing on all fronts and in Fred’s sector his unit was asked to hold the British advance long enough to assist in the German retreat. Fred’s Sergeant told him to mount a tree and take up position looking down the road as that was where the British would come.
Several days later Fred woke up in a British military hospital apparently the British out flanked his unit and attacked their rear Fred was taken out of the tree by a
bullet that hit his helmet and concussed him. He said the British were the best fighting force he had met and knew the Argentinians stood no chance trying to defend their positions in the Falklands.
Fred spent the rest of the war in a British POW camp in the North of England working on a farm. After the war he spent another 25 years in the UK.
After lunch we were shown around the museum, the part of the trip I was most looking forward to, and it did not disappoint.
The museum in those days was a quite small affair and covered half the area it does today. However, it still had an excellent array of vehicles from pre- war to the present. (1982). Mostly air-cooled models.
After taking photos and being allowed in some of the display vehicles, we ended our trip at the museum shop selling a
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