Bert Trautmann - Second World War

Second World War

In 1941, Trautmann joined the Luftwaffe, initially as a radio operator. During training, he did not show much aptitude for radio work, so he transferred to Spandau to become a Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper). He served first in Occupied Poland, though being stationed far behind the front line resulted in boredom for his regiment, which resorted to sports and practical jokes to pass the time. One such practical joke involving a car backfired on Trautmann, resulting in a staff sergeant burning his arms. Trautmann was court-martialled, and received a three-month prison sentence. At the start of his confinement, Trautmann came down with acute appendicitis, and spent the remainder of his sentence in a military hospital.

In October 1941, he rejoined the 35th at Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where the German advance had halted because of the early onset of winter. Over-winter hit-and-run attacks on Soviet Army supply routes were the main focus of the unit, and in spring, Trautmann was promoted to corporal. Gains were made in 1942, but the Soviet counter-offensive hit Trautmann's unit hard, and by the time it was withdrawn from the Eastern Front, only 300 of the original 1,000 remained. Trautmann won five medals for his actions on the Eastern Front, including an Iron Cross First Class.

Promoted to sergeant, Trautmann was part of a unit formed from the remnants of several others which had been decimated in the east, stationed in France in anticipation of the Allied invasion of Normandy. In 1944, he was one of the few survivors of the Allied bombing of Kleve, and with no unit left, he decided to head home to Bremen. By this point, German soldiers without valid leave papers were being shot as deserters, so Trautmann sought to avoid troops from either side. However, a few days later, he was captured in a barn by two American soldiers. Deciding that Trautmann had no useful intelligence to give them, the soldiers marched him out of the barn with his hands raised. Fearing he was about to be executed, Trautmann fled. After evading his captors, he jumped over a fence, only to land at the feet of a British soldier, who greeted him with the words "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of tea?" Earlier in the war, he had been captured by the Russians and later the French Resistance, but escaped both times. With the war drawing to a close, Trautmann did not attempt a third escape.

He was initially imprisoned near Ostend, Belgium, then transferred to a transit camp in Essex, where he was interrogated. As a volunteer soldier who had been subject to indoctrination from a young age, he was classified as a category "C" prisoner by the authorities, meaning he was regarded as a Nazi. Trautmann, one of only 90 of his original regiment to survive the war, was then transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp at Marbury Hall, near Northwich, Cheshire, interned with other category "C" prisoners. He was soon downgraded to non-Nazi "B" status, following, which he was taken to PoW Camp 50 (now Byrchall High School) in Ashton-in-Makerfield, a small town in Lancashire between St Helens and Wigan, where he stayed until 1948.

Football matches were regularly held at the camp, in which Trautmann played outfield. However, in a match against amateur team Haydock Park, Trautmann picked up an injury while playing centre-half. He asked to swap positions with goalkeeper Gunther Luhr, and from that day forward played as a goalkeeper. It was during this time he became known as "Bert", as the English had trouble pronouncing "Bernd", the abbreviated version of his name.