Great history on this website of Horst: German, FW-190 Ace, Horst Petzschler    

An incredible set of Feldpost here to the “Communist Willy Siegmeyer” Sent from Soldat Willy Seigmeyer Schutzen-Regiment 962 – Penal unit destroyed in Tunis with the German Africa Corps Regiment 962 and 961 were formed at the end of 1942 in Belgium as Disciplinary 999 Brigade and were based in the Antwerp Region. A so called “Bewahrungseinheit” or “Strafbattalion” were German soldiers who had done some kind of failure ( Theft’s, almost Deserter’s, or so called “Cowards in the front of the Enemy”, and so on. Being in this unit was the only chance of Rehabilitation, it’s debated as to whether this unit was a penal unit, dispite this assumption the ordinary ranks were not permitted to wear the National Eagle, collar patches or cockade on their uniforms, nor were they allowed to wear the traditional army belt with the National Eagle displayed on them. In March 1943 the unit had reached up to Division size and became 999 Division, at the same time 961 and 962 rifle Regiments ( MOT ) were sent to North Afrika and were redesignated as the 999th Leichte Afrika Division. Actual units in N.Afrika were. Willy Siegmeyer is mentioned here: Naumburger in opposition and resistance against National Socialism “Geboren am 25. März 1911, Kellner, Schreberstraße 15, 9 Monate 1933/1934 inhaftiert, 1942 Strafbataillon 999, verstorben am 21. November 1977.” “Born on March 25, 1911, Kellner, Schreberstrasse 15, imprisoned for 9 months in 1933/1934, 1942 Penal Battalion 999, died on November 21, 1977.” https://www.naumburg-geschichte.de/geschichte/uebersichtwiderstand.htm ( Collected before – Collection of Walter Grunert, Naumburg ) The grouping consists of: Letter sent from 48398 E – Schutzen-Regiment 962 – 25.2.1943 – Sent from Africa to Hertel from Soldat W. Seigmeyer POW Letter Sent – 2nd of May 1944 -7.PM New York City, USA –  US Airmail Stamp – to Hertel Batreau –  Censored By US Censor 11589  – Arrived in Germany – Censored by German High Command – Inside – Water/Ink Censor – Sent from POW Camp Carson USA. Collectors Remarks – Short synopsis in German language – Post from the communist Willy Siegmeyer,  after years in prison he was  sent to the Front with Penal Unit 999. In Africa, he made it to US lines as a POW. Letter from his time as a POW on 2nd of May 1944. More on Camp Carson Fort Carson was established in 1942 as Camp Carson in the months after the US entry into World War II. It was named after a frontiersman, trapper, Indian fighter, and general, “Kit” Carson. During WWII, Fort Carson was a training center for about 125 units, most famously the 10th Mountain Division. Carson also trained all sorts of other personnel, including cooks, nurses, tank battalions, and Greek infantry and Italian ordnance units. Fort Carson, just south of Colorado Springs, made an ideal location for training mountain units for deployment to the European Alps or other mountainous areas. The demands of such terrain required Fort Carson to maintain the last mule trains in the US Army. From Fort opening to 1956, mule teams packed gear for Army mountain units; the senior mule, Hambone, served as mount for First Sergeants for thirteen years, survived until 1971, and was buried with full military honors. On the first day of 1943, Camp Carson opened a POW camp for about 9,000 German, Italian prisoners. The POWs worked to relieve a manpower shortage in Colorado, farming and canning and generally providing labor, for a low but real wage. Camp Carson became a fort in 1954, expanded its base land considerably in the 1950s and 1960s, and became home to armor units; today Fort Carson is home to the 10th Special Forces Group, 4th Infantry Division, and a large and varied collection of other and tenant units. https://www.fortcarsonhousing.com/history Final Comments:  There are not many stories like this and makes for a prime research project first source material.    

Really interesting lot here, Nancy Craig was a reporter for NBC, it seemed she interviewed Dr  R. Hildebrandt Rainer Hildebrandt, son of the art historian Hans Hildebrandt and the painter Lily Hildebrandt, studied physics in Berlin, later philosophy and sociology at the Faculty of Foreign Studies, and earned his doctorate under Franz Rupp on a topic in psychology.[1] At his university, a lively circle of resistant lecturers and students gathered from 1939/40 on. Among them were Harro Schulze-Boysen and Horst Heilmann as well as the professor Albrecht Haushofer and the student Rainer Hildebrandt. He had contact with the wider circle of the July 20, 1944, conspirators and was a member of the Haushofer circle: “A long look goes out to the companions. I lost my best friends, Albrecht Haushofer and Horst Heilmann, in the Nazi Reich and was myself imprisoned for 17 months. I learned to fight against injustice.” Hildebrandt was imprisoned for “Wehrkraftzersetzung” and connections to resistance groups. After the beginning of the Cold War, Hildebrandt, together with the writer Günther Birkenfeld, the then chairman of the Junge Union Ernst Benda and the then FDP city councilor Herbert Geisler, founded the anti-communist Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU), which was financed by secret services, as a licensee of the Allied Command. At the beginning, this Kampfgruppe was headed by Rainer Hildebrandt, whose main goal was initially to set up a tracing service to track down the many arrested and disappeared or abducted and missing and deceased persons in the Soviet occupation zone. Other files existed in parallel, such as one of denunciators who had imprisoned fellow citizens or those that provided information on the political, economic and military situation. According to his own account, there were three kidnapping attempts against Hildebrandt, including by the GDR State Security. According to Hildebrandt’s recollections, the first kidnapping attempt failed on July 24, 1949. After his retirement from the KgU, Hildebrandt devoted most of his time to public relations work and then to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August, which was founded shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Until the end, Hildebrandt directed the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. On October 1, 1992, Hildebrandt was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin, and in 1994 Roman Herzog awarded him the Federal Cross of Merit I Class. In 1995 Hildebrandt married Alexandra Hildebrandt. On January 9, 2004, Rainer Hildebrandt died at the age of 89. In 2004, the International Human Rights Award Dr.-Rainer-Hildebrandt-Medaille was established. It is awarded annually since 2005 to individuals who have campaigned for human rights in a non-violent manner. The jury includes Henry Kissinger, Avi Primor, Joachim Gauck, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and Sergei Khrushchev. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Hildebrandt Here is the Op Vittles information and video clip. https://www.c-span.org/video/?464908-1/operation-vittles