Recently I came across a reference to a SS glider operation on 21 July 44 to seize an airfield at Vassieux, France.
The account was rather thin on details and only refered to the raiders as "SS troops" - without a unit designation.
Seeking further information I consulted the only reference I have on SS FJ Bn. 500 (Fallschirmjager der Waffen SS im Bild) and it makes no reference to the unit ever being in France and in fact states that they were at the Eastern Front at the time!!
So my question:
Does anyone know which unit conducted this operation? A web search has revealed little other than the following:
- Rehearsals for the mission took place at an airfield at Montelimar, France.
- First wave was approx. 20 gliders followed by serveral other lifts for an approximate total of 45 gliders in the operation (two of which may have been 242s).
Any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Very interesting info request and I think i can add a little more info for you in regards towards the Glider mission of Vasieux ( say Glider and you got me )
The main goal of this mission was to destroy and capture the French resistance movement that has grown quite strong in the area and formed a serious threath for the Germans as they already had their hands full with the Allied landing in normandy. It is known that US aircrafts dropped on a regular basis supply containers for these Partisans with Amo, riffle's etc .... + even training personel to build up a complete and well organized battle force.
During mid July 1944 the germans had gathered a strong taskforce to destroy this resistance nest, among tehse troops where :
2 grenadier Battalions ( 157 Res.Div. )
2 Pioneer Companie's ( 157 Res.Div. )
Polizei Regiment 19
Parts of the Sicherungsregt. 200
3 Ost - Battalions
The above named units had the task to close the area hermeticely
the follow units where set up to crack the actual nut as they had to move inside the area around Vassieux from the ground. :
4 Gebirgsjäger Battalions ( part of the 157 Res.Div. )
2 Gebirgs Batterie's ( part of the 157 Res.Div. )
1 Battalion from the 9 th Pz. Div.
2 Company's of FJ ( Battalion Jungwirth )had to be flewn in by Glider planes ( both DFS 230 and Go 242 ), in Lyon the Glider pilots where informed about their task .
During the morning of 21.07.44, 2 Staffeln of the I e Gruppe LLG 1 started towards their goal. One of the above mentioned Glider staffeln had to land in a area a few Kilometers away from the village Vassieux while the other had to land directly near the Village.
Near vassieux they received immediatly hostile Fire, about 3 Glider planes where hit during the landing and several FJ inside where already Killed before they hit the ground. These losses caused severe damage towards the German plan and during the house to house fighting.
on the evening of 21.07 the German landing troops where everywhere in the defensive ( losses : 29 KIA, 20 heavely wounded ), the next day was the same and the resistance had gained and received new troops a,d placed several attacks while the Germans could not bring in fresh aerial troops on the 22.07 due to bad wether .
On 23.07 the wheter bettered quite drasticly and the Germans immidiatly flew in fresh troops ( about 20 DFS 230 +> I/LLG 1 and 2 Go 242 from the I/LLG 2 ), the fighting continued in all its weight anotehr full day with heavy losses on both sides.
The German's managed to gain the initiative again when they flew in anotehr Go 242 on the 24.07 withe on board a 2 Cm Flak, within a few hour's this gun destroyed the most important resistance strongholds and the french troops had to draw backwards .
exact numbers of casualty's are not known anymore but sources speak of about 639 resistance fighters KIA and 201 Civilians KIA. On the German side there are absolutely no numbers known.
A total of 43 DFS 230 and 3 Go 242 glider planes where involved in this action.
sad part is that besides the many losses of lives in this mission ( both sides ) the battle was just for nothing as the German's retreated out of the French area a few weeks later .
I hope I was of some help for you,
cordial greetings,
__________________
my collectionfield : German glider pilots
Oh some more info +> as far as I know there where at least 4 Glider pilots killed during the Vassieux operation :
* Pyritz Eberhard
* Rink Karl
* Uffz. Metzen ( first name not known )
* Uffz. Birzer ( first name not known )
All these KIA pilots where part of the I/LLG 1
I have in my humble collection a Fotogrouping from a Glider pilot ( Uffz. Itter ) who particiapted in this Glider landing and I will post some shots that are related towards this action as soon as my new scanner is operational.
Cordial greetings,
__________________
my collectionfield : German glider pilots
I knew this would attract Stijn! Thanks for the great details. I suspect Prosper will also jump in when he returns.
I find information about this operation to be liitle known and rather fascinating. I would like to inquire about the use of the Go242. Did it carry troops into this operation? Or equipment? I have seen films showing the 1st FJD using Go242s during their movment into Catania Air Base in Sicily, during the summer of 1943. But, it appears they were flying in heavier equipment. Was the Go242 used for a combat assault, in the manner that the Dfs230 was designed for?
Willi
__________________ Willi
Preußens Gloria!
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." Thomas Jefferson ("Wie ein Fels im Meer.")
Is Battalion Jungwirth the same as 1st Battalion of FJR 5?
I am looking forward to your photos releated to this operation.
I am not sure how the Go-242 was used in this operation either - but I did find out it had mounts for up to 8 MGs!
So it could be used for assault - I know that does not mean that it was. This is the first use of it that I have found in an offensive role - but I am learning more everyday - so that doesn't count for much
I read in the September issue of Fly Past magazine that a partly restored DFS 230 glider, that was recovered from Vasieux in 1991, was displayed at the recent Paris Airshow.
In regards towards your questions => the Go 242 was not used in the same way as the DFS 230 in its role as combat assault + it was mainly used as a transport glider ( either for heavier weapens, men, supply, ammo, etc ... ) and that was also the case for the Vassieux Go's .
It could indeed mount up about 8 MG's but I have spoken with quite a few Go pilots and even with the Co pilots and they all confirm the same => the MG's where good as kind of scare away effect but they where totally unusefull against attacking aeroplanes and in all the encounters : Go 242 against enemy fighters the Go 242 was always the lozer !!!! resulting in the loss off the Go 242, the towing machine and in many cases the experienced crews !!!! ( who could not be easely replaced !!! )
Ian => I have not heard of the rediscovery of the Vassieux DFS wreck but it might be correct as I have seen a picture with a wreck of a DFS 230 that is on display in the Museum that sheds more light on the Vassiuex battle's in France.
Cordial greetings,
ps : the pictures will follow as soon as the scanner is operational
__________________
my collectionfield : German glider pilots
There is often confusion when it comes to accounts of SS involvement in the German assault in July 1944 on the so-called ‘Republic of Vercors’, established by the Gaullist FFI (Forces françaises de l’intérieur) on the Vercors plateau in the mountains just to the southwest of Grenoble.
French accounts of parachutistes SS and a British TV mini-series in the 1970s showing Fallschirmjäger jumping on Vercors in pea-dot jump smocks – like the one in the Ardennes museum – have reinforced the myth that SS-Fallschirmjäger were involved in the Vercors battle. However, there were no significant numbers of Waffen-SS personnel involved in the airborne elements of the German assault on the Vercors plateau in July 1944. The para and gliderborne elements were Luftwaffe and Heer and totalled almost three hundred men, many of whom were trained in mountain warfare.
The DFS-230s that landed on July 21st were not, as some sources recount, carrying Waffen-SS soldiers but Brandenburgers of Streifkorps Südfrankreich – formed in the spring of 1944 - and, of course, some of the KG 200 paratroopers of Kampfgruppe Jungwirth. The Streifkorps Südfrankreich men were issued with FJ helmets and smocks for the operation, in line with standing orders for gliderborne operations.
Most of the members of Streifkorps Südfrankreich came from the Legionnaire Battalion of the Brandenburg Lehr-Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Brandenburg Regiment. Some of these men were certainly para-trained. A recently sold Wehrpass for a member of the Brandenburg's 3rd Regt contained the entry for the Fallschirmschützenabzeichen des Heeres, as the Army Para Badge was known after its reinstitution on June 1st 1943.
But I digress. An interesting thing about Streifkorps Südfrankreich is that many of its members were Russian volunteers from the USSR. Two entire companies of the Lehr-Regiment were Soviet citizens. 1 Coy, referred to popularly in the Brandenburg Division as the “White Russians” came from Belorussia and the Ukraine and 2 Coy, known as “the Blacks”, comprised Azerbaijanis, Turkistanis and Armenians. But the first members of Streifkorps Südfrankreich were Spaniards under the command of Oberleutnant – later Waffen-Obersturmführer der SS – Demetrio. I recall Oscar G discussing these men in a previous thread. Perhaps he or someone else could repost that information in this thread.
There may have been a couple of SD and SS intelligence specialists in the gliders with Streifkorps Südfrankreich and Kampfgruppe Jungwirth – Luftwaffe paras from KG 200, Göring’s answer to the the Brandenburg and SS-Jagdverbände commando organisations - but no more than that. Polizei and SD mountain troops attacked FFI positions in and to the south of the village of Lans on the northern end of the Vercors plateau.
The German glider assault on the town of Vassieux towards the southern end of the Vercors plateau just after 09.30 hrs on July 21st 1944 was aimed at preventing the French from completing work on an airstrip that would have allowed the USAAF and RAF, already parachuting arms to the Vercors FFI, to airland arms and supplies and, more to the point, Allied troops or fresh FFI reinforcements.
Many of the DFS-230s landed on the unfinished airstrip. The French were massacred and withdrew from Vassieux. They mounted a courageous counterattack that night – during a heavy rainstorm - but just as they were getting a foothold in the town, an American OSS officer assumed command in the confusion of battle and ordered a retreat. Some survivors suggested that the OSS man simply lost his nerve but we will never know the truth.
The next day, the FFI fighters watched with horror as Ju-52s airlanded German mountain troops on the airstrip that was supposed to have received Allied forces…except that Allied HQ had deemed the strip too short for transport planes, hence the feverish French efforts to lengthen it! A FUBAR typical of war and of the rathert disdainful official British and American GHQ attitudes to resistance and partisan forces in general.
After Vercors, Streifkorps Südfrankreich was sent to the north of Italy where it fought against Italian partisans in the Turin area and also on the Franco-Italian border. The Brandenburg commando units came under Waffen-SS control in September 1944 and Streifkorps Südfrankreich was eventually redesignated SS-Jagdverband Südwest in January 1945. Many of the members were by this time Italians. The unit fought against the Americans in the Black Forest early in 1945 before moving to Austria in April 1945 en route to the intended Alpine Redoubt Hitler had ordered Otto Skorzeny to set up.
Not many FFI fighters survived Vercors. Of the estimated six to eight thousand armed maquisards on the plateau, most were killed in combat. Few of those who surrendered escaped with their lives although a couple of survivors have spoken of being told to run for their lives by German soldiers who were obviously reluctant to hang them or shoot them down in cold blood as orders stipulated. One group was said to have been spared by a German commander because they had treated wounded German prisoners as well as their own men but this is unsubstantiated although I did speak with the grandson of a man, now dead, who was apparently with the FFI group in question.
But on the whole, the Brandenburgers and KG 200 paratroopers were a pretty tough lot and neither gave nor expected any quarter in anti-partisan warfare. As for the SD units, well, that speaks for itself. Many of the SD men were street scum from French North Africa, violent Arab toughs and hooligans whose principal activities involved roaming about the French countryside in terrorising French people, for which the Nazis paid them well. So did the Vichy regime. Now the French welfare system pays their grandsons to do much the same thing…but that’s another issue.
The French remain traumatised by WW2 to this day and with a few exceptions – such as the amazing 1972 film Lacombe Lucien – have preferred to try to forget the shadier aspects of the Occupation such as collaboration and the fatal consequences for innocent French citizens of actions by French resistance fighters – many of whom were simply criminals and thugs using the war as a convenient excuse for what amounted to common gangsterism – against German occupation forces.
There are books to be written about all of this but not here. I've rambled on long enough but I hope that you now know a bit more about the Vercors battle. It is a fascinating episode albeit it a tragic one.
PK
Last edited by Prosper Keating; 08-24-2003 at 02:53 PM.
An interesting thing about Streifkorps Südfrankreich is that many of its members were Russian volunteers from the USSR. Two entire companies of the Lehr-Regiment were Soviet citizens. 1 Coy, referred to popularly in the Brandenburg Division as the “White Russians” came from Belorussia and the Ukraine and 2 Coy, known as “the Blacks”, comprised Azerbaijanis, Turkistanis and Armenians. But the first members of Streifkorps Südfrankreich were Spaniards under the command of Oberleutnant – later Waffen-Obersturmführer der SS – Demetrio. I recall Oscar G discussing these men in a previous thread. Perhaps he or someone else could repost that information in this thread
As Prosper has commented, most of the members of Streifkorps Südfrankreich came from the Legionnaire Battalion of the Brandenburg Lehr-Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Brandenburg Regiment. The first contingent of Brandenburgers to form Streifkorps Sudfrankreich was the Spaniards of 8th Coy of that 2nd Battalion, under the command of Oberleutant Demetrio. From them, an Einsatzgruppe Pyrenären was formed for duty along the Spanish-French frontier. About 50 spaniards were attached to this special unit operating against French (and spanish) resistance in those mountains.
A recently sold Wehrpass for a member of the Brandenburg's 3rd Regt contained the entry for the Fallschirmschützenabzeichen des Heeres, as the Army Para Badge was known after its reinstitution on June 1st 1943.
Prosper,
Was that the one on http://www.ssbw.co.uk/? Because if it was I didn't like the Para Badge Entry at all. Although I can't be entirely sure without seeing the overstamp, at first glance it looks like many of the fake entries that, sadly, are found in original wehrpasses these days, together with a fake scribbled signature.
I couldn't make out the stamp certifying the entry as the scans I received as JPEGs were low res. If it is a dodgy entry then someone was quite intelligent about it. They did their research into the Brandenburg...which isn't all that easy as there are no definitive reference works on Brandenburg airborne units and sub-units. The information that has been published is spread around and some of the books are out of print. To be sure of the entry, one would have to be able to verify the stamp, as you said, and the certifying official's signature. When I am dealing with rare ID papers such as this, I find that one becomes familiar with the handwriting and style of certain officers and NCOs. For the money that this Wehrpass is likely to have fetched, one would make the effort to research the entry thoroughly. As far as the entry itself goes, I have seen far sloppier entries and signatures in paybooks and passbooks.
I saw that too and in my opinion it was a decent Wehrpaß that had been ruined by someone putting in the APB.....the stamp I believe was that of Fallschirmschule IV.....and the award was made sometime mid 1941.....the entry and hand writing was terrible for a period entry!!! Also the person authorising the entry look like Graf.
Page 20/21 was not shown to verify if the jump training was entered there....so I would say it was not. Also there was not Fallschirmschule as units attached to which you find in most paras books!?!??!?
I would not have liked it for my collection.....
/Ian
Last edited by Ian Jewison; 09-03-2003 at 11:52 AM.
SS FJ Glider Operation in France?
Vasieux
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Vassieux 1944
Thanks for the great details. I suspect Prosper will also jump in when he returns.
Great Information
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