The Key West Citizen

New German
Army Comes
Into Being

By WARREN ROGERS JR.

MITTENWALD, Germany -
A new German army is rising
slowly out of the ashes of the
Nazis' World War II Wehrmacht.
In many ways it will be exactly
the same.

American military officials, in
Germany to help train this new
fighting force along American
lines, show no concern that it
might turn into a Frankenstein's
monster and attack its maker.

The German 1st Mountain Division, girding here in the Bavarian
Alps against potential Soviet attack
across neutral Austria, is a
case in point.

Its officers and key noncommissioned
officers are veterans of
the 1st Mountain Division. Some
of them fought the Poles, the
Western Allies and the Russians
in World War II. And with distinction.

Today, under a West German
government decision condoned by
the Americans, they may wear
the battle ribbons they won in
World War II. More traditional
trappings are in the offing: A
new Luftwaffe-like single-breasted
jacket, and boots on the order of
the old German jackboot but
made more comfortable for
marching.

Brig. Gen. Hans Buchner, a
veteran of the Old First, commands the division now. A few
days ago, talking here to correspondents from the North Atlantic
Treaty countries, he said: "We
have a fledgling army, but we
have one aim: to make it a success.

It is really easy to train a soldier in the field. But it is difficult
to make a soldier out of a young
man fresh from civilian life.
There are a lot of psychological
problems.

"We have every hope of making soldiers of the real old type,
soldiers such as we had in the
past, of good spirit and in the concept of the German soldier as he
once was seen in the world."

Gen. William L. Ruffner of the
U.S. Army is in charge of the 300
or so handpicked American soldiers who are helping the Germans train. His headquarters is in
Bonn and he has 37 teams scattered throughout West Germany.
The 300 are being gradually reduced and by 1958 will be gone,
leaving the Germans to continue
their training on their own.

After setting a 500,000-man goal
which soon proved too high, the
Germans are now in process of
building a 12-division force for
NATO. It is expected to number
between 300,000 and 350,000 men
including a highly mobile ground
force, atomic-age air force and a
small navy.

Brig. Gen. Ulrich de Maizieres,
chief of operations and training
for the German military staff,
told NATO correspondents that the force may reach 135,000 by New
Year's Day. It now numbers 65,000
in the army, 18,000 in the air
force, 11,000 in the navy and 5,000
in the territorial guard. All of
these 99,000 are volunteers except
10,000 conscripts in the army.

The 3,500 troops being schooled
at Mittenwald are given three
reasons to fight: For NATO, for
their division and for the mountains they love.

Officers said the young recruits,
ranging from 18 to 23, are lectured on NATO once a week. That
they know what it is was demonstrated when NATO journalists
cornered a youngster and asked
him for a definition.

With little hesitation, as if reciting a catechism, he replied:
"NATO is an alliance of the free
world to protect Western Europe
from the Communist menace"