World War II. Afrika Korps. The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (German: Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from March 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The unit’s best known commander was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
(Some foxing and age-toning, no dustjacket.)
First Edition. 256 p. : port. ; 21 cm. #0921
The letter fell from Bahnemann’s hands. ‘I’m Leaving’, he said. ‘I’m deserting – tonight’.
Gunther Bahnemann’s military service, during World War II under Rommel in the Middle East, is featured in his autobiography which was published in 1961.
Hearing that his father had been arrested and killed in Germany, Corporal Gunther Bahnemann, Iron Cross, despatch rider in Rommel’s Afrika Korps, described that, for him, the war was over. Hours later equipped with only the barest essentials for survival, he rode out of camp into the hostile desert He has published other works of travel and adventure in remote parts. Bahnemann was brought to Australia as a prisoner of war on the Queen Mary from a British detention centre in Cairo, Egypt. He was released under supervision in 1946.
Bahnemann claimed to be a master mariner, having gone to sea at 13 on one of the last merchant vessels under sail, and a boat builder. He also worked in the mines in Mt Isa. Bahnemann was released on parole in 1963 after serving four years of a seven year sentence for attempted murder. He fired a shot at Detective Glen Hallahan. Hallahan and Detective Terry Lewis received the George Medal for disarming him. Doubt was later cast on this conviction as on others due to the exposure of Lewis’s criminal activities by the Fitzgerald Inquiry (1987-1989) into Queensland police corruption.
Bahnemann, Gunther. | Germany. Heer. Panzerarmeekorps Afrika. | World War, 1939-1945 — Personal narratives, German. | World War, 1939-1945 — Africa, North. | World War, 1939-1945 — Desertions.