1940 - The Campaign into France
During Winter 1939/40 the 1., 2.
and 3. Gebirgs-Division had been assembled in the area southwest
of Köln (Cologne). Before being moved further towards the Belgian
/ Luxembourg border the 2. and 3. Gebirgs-Division were detached for the
campaign in Norway (Unternehmen Weserübung).
The 1. Gebirgs-Division stayed in
the Cologne area undergoing training and was continuously moved towards
the west.
When Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment
98 stayed in the area just north of Bonn, near the small village of Hersel,
Gabriel Kopold and some of his comrades got some hours off on a Saturday
afternoon to make a short trip into the town of Bonn (what after the war
became the capital of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland).
At the railway station in Bonn the
boys from Bavaria met some girls who were unloading boxes with china from
a freight wagon. It didn't take long and the girls agreed to a rendezvous
for dancing on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon their happened which
in such cases often happens, a boy and a girl fell in love. The girl, Christel
Fuchs from Bonn would three years later - in January 1943 - marry Gabriel
Kopold. |
