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Der Gemsenjäger

Frontblatt der 5. Gebirgsjäger division    2. /GJR 100

Torrance Tactical After action report

F.P.Nr.24971c                                                                   17-18 April 2009

   This was one of the most amazing tacticals our unit has done in many a year. The lead elements of the 5^th arrived about noon on Friday and by 2 pm we were geared up and ready to take the field. This time we planed to stay out in the field all day and all night, no tents and nothing to sleep in but one blanket per jager. The temperature was a balmy 72 degrees and with all the gear and wools it became a bit hot. The scenario was the airborne drops at D-Day inside German held territory and the Allied airborne was to take three key bridges before sunrise and hold them for the ground forces to advance and stop German forces from counterattacking.

    We were the first unit to hit the field so we had plenty of time to scout out a bridge and the surrounding area to find a good location to deny the Allies easy access to that bridge. The area we choose was within 80 yards of a bridge and on very high ground overlooking a crossroad. From here we had command of a field, and the only gully that could be negotiated on foot at night out of that field, a road and crossroads, and everything coming and going from the bridge. A very strategic location as we were about to find out. Our goal was to hold up as many allied airborne in the DZ as long as possible to prevent them from assaulting their primary objective the bridge.

   We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing our positions, keeping a watchful eye out for any enemy activity. As evening arrived we settled into becoming a listening and observation post. A short while later we heard jeeps coming down the road, Allied pathfinders! They stopped at the bridge for a short time then took off down the road. I had a hunch that they may have dropped off supplies for the airborne so I had a patrol take a look around and sure enough we found two packs loaded with three demolition charges, parachute flares, ammo and bottled water, which we confiscated and put to good use. As night fall arrived the rest of the 5^th arrived and that brought our total strength to 10 men.

   As the 5^th settled in for the night there would not be much sleep to be had for the temperature began to drop and we were tactical so no fire to keep us warm. Most of us tried to sleep with all our combat gear on which made things very uncomfortable. While we were expecting to be hit at any time through the night another enemy set in upon us, the cold! And boy did it get cold and all we had to keep us warm was one blanket each. In fact it went down to 30 degrees that night. By 3:30-4 am most of us were shivering so bad a couple of the guys became sick. We heated up some coffee on our little Esbit stoves to try and warm ourselves and it did help some. Around 4:30 we heard the sounds of trucks moving through the fields, the airborne are dropping!

   Still half frozen we gathered our weapons and broke into two fire teams and made our way to the edge of the woods taking up firing positions. Gazing out over the field we started to make out dark silhouettes moving across the field against the somewhat lighter sky right toward our positions. As they got to within 40-50 yards of us we set off one of the captured parachute flares, everyone hit the ground. The airborne troopers must have thought the flare was set off by one of their own pathfinders for they headed right straight for us. We held our fire until two full squads of airborne were about twenty five feet in front of us and opened up on them. They had to of crapped their pants! They went into confusion and the ones that fell back on their flanks were hit again. Other airborne troops that landed to our right in the field tried a flanking maneuver and ran into the second fire team and they too were decimated. The first fifteen minutes or so was a turkey shoot for our unit. We fell back to prepared positions and a two hour slug-fest began. We were outnumbered 4-5 to 1 but it was still dark out and we had a very good defensive position. They kept coming and coming and we just kept beating them back, finally frustration started to set in for the airborne and they started to charge in at us and we would just mow them down. At about 6:30 reinforcements arrived and the airborne never did take control of that bridge or the surrounding high ground that we had held. Out of 10 men we were down to only 4 survivors and very little ammo left. We had hoped to tie up the Allied airborne for about 30 minutes but we managed to hold them off for two hours, inflicting very heavy casualties and causing them to fail in the capturing of a strategic bridge.

HURRA DIE GAMS!

   After this major engagement we made our way back behind German lines for a little rest and re-supply, since most of us had just gone thru most of our days ammo supply. Our next set of orders was to go to the “central woods” and help in the clearing of this area of Allied forces. As we made our way closer to the wooded area German units started to appear and were retreating from the woods, this does not look good. We had a choice either turn back and risk being stuck in an open field and most likely getting wiped out or head into the woods and try to turn back the Allied forces driving through. We headed for the woods and what I thought would be an encounter of the not so good kind. We entered into the woods quickly and set up a defensive perimeter but saw and encountered no one much to our surprise. As we watched and waited our recon. bike came by and gave us the latest intelligence report, telling us that the Allies had dropped back and set up a defensive screen about three hundred yards in front of us. We waited for reinforcements and prepared to go on the offensive. On our flanks German armor showed up and with a 222 armored car on our right flank and a 251 Hanomag on our left we started our advance. I had the squad in two fire teams and leap frog in support of each other. The terrain was very dense with undergrowth and command and control quickly broke down and the two fire teams became separated. The other German unit that was supporting our attack was already engaged with the enemy and when we ran into them the 5^th was so fragmented that a coordinated attack was impossible and we suffered heavy casualties. We did manage to cause the Allies to give up the “central woods” but as a fighting force we ceased to exist. This will become a valuable learning tool for many mistakes were made.

   Things went from bad to worst after the central woods engagement. As we made our way back to help reopen a bridge that the Allies were trying to take we were ambushed and effectively taken out of action. As walking dead we made our way back behind German lines and reformed to join back into the fight. A short time later we were pressed into service to help reopen that bridge and walked into a hornets nest. The Allies were positioned on either side of the bridge and on a ridge about two hundred yards away shooting down at the road leading to the bridge. There were two other SS units, the 5^th and light armored support all trying to clear the area around this bridge. We all took heavy casualties but between the armor and our rifle grenades we did manage to clear both sides. The 5^th was down to only four of us and a SS MG-42 team left when the American forces counter-attacked. Twenty-thirty GI’s came at us but we were able to catch them in an open area and decimate them. Some GI’s did manage to get through and took out the MG team and soon it was only me and an SS guy left. We took out the remaining GI’s and fell back to our own lines to see who was left only to be shoot point blank by some trigger happy German.

   This was one of those events were you go through an emotional roller coaster ride, the morning battle we kicked butt and was on a high. By afternoon nothing went right and many mistakes were made. But in the end it sure was a ton of fun!

HURRA DIE GAMS!

Reickert, Feldwebel und Gruppenführer

2./GJR100