On the Western Front in early 1945, in northeastern France, in the remnants of the German army in Alsace and Lorraine, there was such a master, and in his unit was the title of the famous "revolver fast gunner - steak brother", and everywhere the steak brother reached, the French resistance organization was frightened and fled. Most of the guerrillas could only admit defeat when they encountered him, and the steak brother generally did not embarrass them. However, some resistance groups thought that the German army had fallen, so they were arrogant, and the steak brother was forced to teach them a good lesson, and the French guerrillas were directly beaten by him to doubt their lives and fled.
Promotional photos
Lieutenant Franz Giesler "Franz Giesler", then commander of the 5th Company of the 457th Grenadier Regiment of the 257th National Grenadier Division of the Wehrmacht, was one of the recipients of the Knight's Cross (awarded 29 April 1945), and the rank of captain at the end of the war;
According to circulating folklore, on January 3, 1945, the 457th Grenadier Regiment of Lieutenant Gorgisler of the Steak was withdrawn the next day and forced to turn into a defensive state due to excessive losses in strength during Operation North Wind.
■ The church of St. Maurice drenberg "Église Saint-Maurice de Lemberg", with its special geographical location, is on the edge of the 457th Grenadier Regiment's defensive line, and is a commanding height, so it is often attacked by the American and French forces.
In order to protect the hard-won results of the 457th Grenadier Regiment, the headquarters of the 457th Grenadier Regiment, on the advice of Lieutenant Gogisler of the Steak, set up a temporary day and night patrol, also known as the patrol, with only thirty or so men. The surrounding defensive line of the church of St. Maurice de Lemberg in Moselle, France, was reinforced, and various mines were planted in the surrounding area, anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire, deer and other measures were built, and a crossfire network was formed with more than a dozen surrounding machine gun groups.
■ At this time, in the area around the Moselle, various forces were mixed, including the extremely vicious French guerrillas, bandit forces, and the scattered soldiers of the US army. Lieutenant Gissler decided: "Take the initiative to attack the enemy, clear the tumor and time bomb in time, and open up a new situation of jihad for the revival of the empire." ”
In the small town area west of st. Maurice-drenberg Church, due to the weak German forces in the area, there were only one or two squads of German officers and soldiers stationed in some villages. In order to maintain the rule of the Empire, Germany recruited local thugs extensively in the form of high-ranking officials and houlu, so that they could act as legal treacherous lackeys for the Empire. Some of the bandits and bullies fell directly to Germany, and the other part of the bandits and bullies ostensibly claimed to remain "neutral", but behind the scenes, they and the Germans looked at each other and colluded.
At that time, after the reconnaissance team of the 1st Army of free France came to the area, the local pro-German bullies and bandits directly used the threat of force to prohibit the common people from contacting the Allies. Once the contact behavior of the common people's allies is discovered by these squires and bandits, they will be viciously retaliated against.
For example, in a village called "St. Louis", the bully squire slandered the Allies and forbade the common people to mention the Allies. Some ordinary people who had seen the Allied forces secretly said: "After the Americans entered the villages and towns, they did not commit any crimes, and they really beat the Germans." ”
When the bully squires learned the news from the "informants," they immediately sent three or five thugs to the village to arrest the common man, torture him, and beat the common man to death in public.
After this situation reached the headquarters of the German 457th Grenadier Regiment, Lieutenant Gorgisler sent someone to investigate and found that the bully squire in the village of "St. Louis" had privately contacted them and was a hardcore pro-German.
■ Therefore, Lieutenant Geisler led his troops into "St. Louis" and decided to support the bully squire while deterring more people, preparing to publicly execute the families of the bullies and squires captured alive.
At the public trial, the bully squire confessed to his family's crime of "hooking up with the Allies", and the twelve were hanged in public by the Germans. Naturally, most of the money and grain looted by the bully squires in the villagers' quarters went into the pockets of the Germans, and the people of St. Louis village were frightened to flee everywhere that day, and everyone knew that "the Germans are the thugs of the underworld."
The same is true not only in the village of "St. Louis", but also in the villages and towns of the lower Moselle, where a bully nicknamed "Poor Ghost Charles" has become a hardcore lackey of the Germans. The "poor ghost Charles" is actually not poor, but very rich, the family has hundreds of acres of good land, but it has always been rich and unkind. He was lame on one leg, and he was extremely ugly, but he was a well-known bully in the township, and he was cruel to the people of the township.
That night, more than two hundred anti-German guerrillas, composed of former French troops, carrying two small mountain guns, came out of the nearby strongholds to prepare to attack the German lines. The French guerrillas who entered the area of the church of St. Maurice Drenberg suddenly stopped outside the house on the east side of the church, only to see the leading American officer quickly aim the muzzle of the gun at the tall "German gun tower" in the city, but the guerrillas did not dream of it, and then the most strange thing happened!
With the commander's order, the artillery "banged" out the tongue of fire, but after the first cannon was fired, all the guerrillas listened with their ears stunned for half a day, and did not hear the explosion from afar, so soon the second cannon "banged" out again, and the result was unexpected, and there was still no movement at all.
"Bang, bang, bang", the guerrillas fired eleven rounds in a row, and there was not even the sound of a single shell exploding!!
The whole team was stunned! Since the battlefield, Lieutenant Gorgisler of the Steak has never encountered such a strange thing, all the guerrillas are stunned, the angry American commander while shouting "FKU", while personally operating the barrel, firing another twelfth shell at the target, the result, there is still no echo...
The astonished guerrillas gathered their strength and threw themselves at this strange "turret", only to find that this was not a turret at all, but a church, a church dedicated to Joan of Arc!
The German patrol, which had received information in advance, had long been prepared, and under the leadership of Lieutenant Gorgisler of the Steak, they methodically entered the position in the dark.
As soon as the guerrillas approached the rubble pile outside the church, they were blown up by mines planted in advance by the patrols.
The picture shows a German infantry squad unit hiding from artillery fire and its snipers;
Seeing that the attack was frustrated, the guerrillas immediately fired mortars at the sandbags behind the anti-tank obstacles. The earthen obstacles could not withstand the heavy bombardment of guerrilla artillery fire, and in a few moments they were blown out of several gaps. In order to suppress the fire of the German patrol thirty, the machine gunners of the guerrillas did not hesitate to tighten the trigger after the shelling stopped, and the dozen or so guerrillas then rushed to the gap in the wall.
The partisans who rushed in found the 12 shells they fired on the western wall of the Notre Dame Church, the back wall of the church, and the trees in the courtyard, and there were two civilian houses behind the Notre Dame Church, which contained a small ammunition depot of the German 457th Grenadier Regiment, but if any shell hit and exploded, detonating the ammunition depot, the entire German squad's defense line would be razed to the ground.
So how did this powerful American cannonball fail in front of the Church of Our Lady, or was it really blessed by the gods? When the guerrillas who climbed to the roof of the Church of Our Lady saw the idols enshrined in the main hall, they were stunned one by one, and invariably crawled in front of the main hall with brushes and prostrated their heads, drawing crosses in their hands, chanting words in their mouths, begging "Joan of Arc" to forgive themselves for the sin of firing at the Church of Notre Dame.
After that, the guerrillas specially sent a squad of troops to garrison the Church of Our Lady, which has been used as a holy place by the French throughout World War II and has been strictly protected.
The situation was very unfavorable to the German patrol, and Lieutenant Gogisler, thinking that there was still a team in his hand that was not used, immediately led the patrol to resist desperately, while ordering people to find those who were traitors and brought their own people to help.
The picture shows the German heavy infantry fighting back;
The houses on the west side of the church are much taller and stronger than those on the east side, and they store more weapons and ammunition than on the east side. After the U.S. commander in command of the guerrillas heard that their attack on the east of the Germans had been thwarted in a counterattack and that more than 20 bodies had been thrown down, they encountered the "St. Louis" village guards who had come to take the lead.
The "St. Louis" village guards were actually a ragtag group of local scoundrels, without even a few decent weapons, driven by the Germans, scattered and shouted "Long live the Führer" and rushed to the wall.
I saw a handful of maoous uncles among the guerrillas arrogantly scolding: "I have been here for two years, if anyone can touch it clearly, why should I still come here?" ”。
Lieutenant Gogisler of the Steak had to "reluctantly" teach him a good lesson, and then swept away the cover of his defense point with a machine gun and hit the pieces, and the uncle who was a handful of hairs was also stunned and became a low-key person.
Just then, another wave of guerrillas standing on the newly captured wall greeted them with machine-gun submachine guns, hitting the outlaws of the "St. Louis" village guard with no armor and no anger.
■ However, this also exposed the problem of insufficient firepower of the Patrol Troops of the German Civilian House Defense Line to the west, and the guerrillas immediately used superior weapons to concentrate fire to suppress the Patrols. A dozen Germans were so shot that they couldn't raise their heads, so they had to use their bayonets to pull out firing holes in the wall.
Just then, a harlot began to play tricks and dishonestly say to Lieutenant Gogisler of the Steakhouse, "Quick! We're running out of bullets! Lieutenant Gogisler of the Steak immediately took the lead and killed seven or eight guerrillas on the spot with submachine guns, capturing a large box full of ammunition. This undercover traitor actually touched a small gold bar on the corpse, and when the goal was achieved, he lay on the ground and pretended to be dead and slipped away.
Second Class Müller of the German Patrol had just reached out of the firing hole when he was killed in the eye by a bullet that flew from outside the firing hole. Corporal Rudolf saw this, and quickly took the second-class Mueller's 98K rifle out of the firing hole, aimed at the signal soldier in the guerrilla group with a US-made walkie-talkie, shot him down, and never stood up again.
■ Seeing that the strong attack was ineffective, the guerrillas immediately moved in American mortars to bombard the houses, and the south gate of the houses was blasted open by a shell into the soul. The two German rangers guarding the south gate braved a hail of bullets to rush to the back of the door and desperately counterattacked the guerrillas with MP40 submachine guns plus Rug P08 pistols.
Only to see the U.S. governor watch the steak Gogisler shoot with 98K, and even one did not hit, could not help grinning, but also shouted at him in German: "At your level, if you set up a stall in the United States, buy one get one free and play casually, uncle I have already made a fortune!" ”。
But when he took a closer look, the bullets hit the narrow gap between the mortar and the gun mount, and the American commander was shocked but regretted it too late. Lieutenant Geisler's next shot, all the shells were detonated by one shot at once. It can be described as "not very hurtful, extremely insulting!" ”
The Germans ready to attack
■ Other rangers and village guards carried out furniture and debris to plug the gap, and those with guns found shelter and continued to shoot outward, and the guerrillas would not be able to attack for a while and a half.
The guerrillas who had occupied the houses in the east thought that the patrol members of the houses in the west were attracted to the south, so they thought of taking advantage of the chaos and ordered people to go around and attack the houses in the west. However, they never expected to be hit head-on by the German gunners who had already been guarding here, although the accuracy of the old shotgun was low, but the scattered bullets fired in a fan made the guerrillas unable to lift their heads.
The guerrilla commander in the rear saw that the road was not open, and immediately ordered the machine gunners to shoot at the west side of the house. Although the west side of the house is a wooden brick building, it is too old, and it will be hit by a big hole in the short time. When the five guerrillas saw that there was a gap to be drilled, they immediately climbed up and seized it, but they were not expected to be beaten down with bows and arrows by the village guards guarding here.
The guerrillas saw that the attack on the houses in the west could not take advantage, and immediately took a detour to the houses in the north to sneak in. But the Germans who were guarding the houses to the west had already lost more than half of them, and the guerrillas had invaded the village. Unexpectedly, the guerrillas who had just rushed into the houses on the west side did not go far, and they encountered the crossfire of two German machine guns, and they retreated in a hurry.
■ At this time, the combat units under the 457th Grenadier Regiment, which received the warning for help, also rushed to the scene. Although the 6th Company only has more than 70 people left, the will to fight and combat experience are much richer.
The soldiers of the 6th Company of the 457th Grenadier Regiment drove to the site of the exchange of fire in armored vehicles and drove down the guerrillas occupying the commanding heights with only one wave of charge. Subsequently, they launched an onslaught on the guerrillas in the northern houses to relieve the pressure on the patrols in the western houses.
In that short fierce battle, a guerrilla sniper who was not afraid of death climbed to the roof of the house to prepare for condescending shooting, but was shot down by the steak brother with a pistol and fell directly into the sheepfold. He was slashed at by a wounded German soldier with a shovel until the ground turned blood red.
The Wilham brothers, who were huddled in a courtyard in a house on the north side, ran out of ammunition and repeatedly repelled the guerrilla attack with bayonets and grenades, and finally exhausted their ammunition. In the face of the swarming guerrillas, the brothers shouted "die and do not surrender" while holding a rifle loaded with a bayonet and were killed on the spot by the guerrillas while charging.
German wheeled armored vehicle with crew
Shortly after the guerrillas attacked the western houses, the 6th Company of the 457th Grenadier Regiment seized the opportunity and a wheeled armored vehicle charged into the west side of the houses to fight the guerrillas to the death.
The two platoons of the 457th Grenadier Regiment also joined the battle one after another, until more than six or seven o'clock in the morning, the guerrillas saw that they could not defeat the Church of St. Maurice Dromberg, and the nearby German troops and minions units also came to join the reinforcements, and the guerrillas' will to fight finally collapsed, and they hurriedly collected the defeated troops and retreated in a hurry.
When the guerrillas retreated, they did not even have time to drag the bodies of their comrades away. After the battle, the Germans found a total of 49 bodies of German and minions, 187 bodies of guerrillas, and captured 5 guerrillas in various places inside and outside the Church of St. Maurice Drenberg. Also seized were 145 firearms (including submachine guns, machine guns, pistols and rifles), as well as more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition of various types and a number of other ammunition, among other things.
Geesler, who was promoted to captain
During the battle at the Church of St. Maurice drenberg, the old and weak women and children in the village were not idle under the gun muzzle of the German army, and they were actively delivering water and food, helping the German army to deliver ammunition and strain the wounded, and "uniting as one" to repel the guerrillas.
(Solemn declaration: This article is independently collected by the "Tongtian Sect Lord" of the "Tongtian Sect Lord" team of The Xuanwei ZhenjiangDongge Team, sorted out and summarized, and the original debut, the full text is edited and proofread by the "Marquis of Licang", and the additions, deletions and corrections.) ） The theme of this article is to tell the history of Germany in The Second World War in a popular way, and the wild history is not equivalent to the correct history, but it must be derived from the correct history. This article does not deal with any question of political tendencies, does not contain any content that washes, applauds or propagates imperialism; the comments section prohibits all comments that excuse fascism, and does not accept any form of unreasonable teasing. Remembering history · Don't forget your original intentions. Secondary reprinting is prohibited, and the marketing number must be investigated.