Military Service
He was a group leader in the Hitler Youth organization before the war.
He was conscripted into military service and began serving with an anti-aircraft battery at Vegesack near Bremen during World War II. After brief service on the Eastern Front, including the siege of Leningrad, he returned to Germany in 1942 to work as a trainer and advisor at the Reichsluftfahrtministerium. He attended the People's Court, presided over by Roland Freisler, as an army spectator at some of the show trials for officers involved in the July 20 plot where an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate Hitler at Rastenburg and was disgusted by the whole process. Toward the end of the war, from December 1944 onwards, he served as an Oberleutnant in the Flakartillery on the Western Front. He was captured by the British in April 1945 on Lüneburg Heath and was a prisoner of war until August. During his service in World War II Schmidt was awarded the Iron Cross.
Read more about this topic: Helmut Schmidt
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