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One opportunity available to German soldiers not available to many Allied soldiers was home leaves. Germany soldiers stationed in France, the Low Countries, Denmark, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy could board a train and be home in hours. Even in the Soviet Union, while the distances were greater, the soldiers were only about a day or so away fom the Reich by train. This was not the case for the American, Canadian, and other allied servicemen. Nor was it this case for many British servicemen, unless stationed in Britain itself. We know that German soldiers were given home leaves and other furloughs. It ws not possible to bring Americans home until the War had been won. The distances wer too great. We believe leaves were fairly common in the early years. Many men must have been grnted leaves after the short vicyorious campigns in Ppland (1939), the North (Denmark and Norway--1940)), the West (France and and the Lowlands-1940), and the South (Yugoslavia and and Greece--1941)). And of course many men were sraioned within the Reich. We do not know the details as to how himes keaves were hanfdeled in the Whermacht and Luftwaffe. The Kreifmarine for the most part had their bases within the borders of the Reich. We do not yet have details on how common such leaves were and how they were distributed. Nor do weknow the periods involved.We think home leaves were fairly common until 1943 when the War began to go against the NAZIs. From that time the military situtation began go deterioratecand hard pressed units could not afford to grant leaves.
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