Pioniere

[Kessler]

Feldgrau,

I apologize for not searching better, but after an hour of two of scanning I've only found minimal information and leads for my question.

Question: What would be a good combat engineer group to reenact as and what should it display most notably?

I looked deep into the Pionere and learned very little beyond the training video "Pionere Vor!" which I likely have mispelled. From scanning here I can tell they used to be called Technical Groups, or some other, but that's about the end of the learning.

I've only seen one American reenacting group display a Pionere impression, and it was fantastic. Im looking to carry on those brave soldaten memories by creating a similar impression, only I have no real information to go off of.

I've seen all the bridge building I can handle, please point me elsewhere
Mp44.nl was useful in obtaining information on gear and a few good field pictures. Otherwise that's all I really know.

[fridgeman]

In WW2 the germans had lots of specialized Pioniertruppen, for example Sturmpioniere (Assault engineer), Eisenbahnpioniere (Railway engineer)
and the Luftlandepioniere (air assault engineer).

I'm not familar with reenactment, but i think you might search something like the Sturmpioniere/Luftlandepioniere. Their first combat action (as far as i know)
was the attack of the belgium "Sperrfort" Eben-Emael in may 1940, a big Bunker construction, comparable to Forts of the french marginot line.
The german troops flew over Aachen to belgium, with the new transport glider "DFS 230", which were pulled to the belgium border by JU-52 planes.
A mixture of 90 soldiers, Fallschirmjäger- and Pioniertruppen, landed nearly silent on the fort and started to destroy the big fort guns with hollow charges.
After one day of battle, reinforced by a Infanterieregiment, the german soldiers captured the fort and took 1.200 defenders as prisoners of war.

Sadly i can't tell you something about their early-wartime equipment. I guess it was 85% of the Airborne equipment,
and alot of explosives and detonators (the biggest hollow charge used at Fort Eben-Emael had about 50kg ~110 pounds, and was
used to destroy a big barrier inside the fort's tunnel system.

[Kessler]

Sturmpionier was the concept I was aiming for. Thank you for narrowing that down for me and thanks for the fight to look into. Hopefully there will be something on it somewhere.

Im still gathering up as much as I can, pictures and stories are what sow this patchwork togeather.

[hucks216]

How about Pionier Btl 45, Panzerpionier-Btl 50, Pionier Btl 162, Pionier Btl 294 or Pionier Btl 336 which were powerful & experienced units brought in and placed under 6 Armee's control for the fighting in the factory district of Stalingrad? They are all covered in the book Island Of Fire by Jason D Mark (ISBN: 097510763-1)

[fridgeman]

The attack at Eben-Emael is well-known and i think there are some books about in english too. If you are able to understand
german, here is a good recherched chronology of it. http://www.koelner-luftfahrt.de/ebenemael.htm There are also some pictures,
showing the fort and the german soldiers involved in the operation. Feel free to ask for translation, if you find something interesting
which you can't understand.

[Kessler]

How about Pionier Btl 45, Panzerpionier-Btl 50, Pionier Btl 162, Pionier Btl 294 or Pionier Btl 336 which were powerful & experienced units brought in and placed under 6 Armee's control for the fighting in the factory district of Stalingrad? They are all covered in the book Island Of Fire by Jason D Mark (ISBN: 097510763-1)

Thanks for the book, I'll put in an order today.
I was hoping to avoid "Stallingrad"-esque looking Pionere groups for fear of seeming too "fan boy"ish. However, the pioniere on the attack is absolutely what Im looking for, so it's still a great start.

What units fought against western allies, were they still effective? I've heard legend type stories from pionere reenactors about whole Kompanie sized Kampfguppen somehow appearing behind British or Americn units and wrecking house. Are there any stories to support that?

[fridgeman]

A well known operation behind enemy lines on the western front, but not very a very successful one,
was "Unternehmen Greif". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif

German volunteers were equipped with allied uniforms, weapons and vehicles. Their order was to cause trouble behind the enemy lines by the bust
of bridges and depots, by giving false orders to allied troops, place false mine warnings, replace roadsigns and so on. There were only volunteers in this unit, because when you got caught in an enemy uniform you were treated as a spy, not as a POW. That ment you got the death penalty.

[charlieboy]

hi kessler
hucks 216 wrote about the four pioneer battalions,
that where sent to stalingrad, to eliminate the resistance in the factory district
these where indeed specially trained personell, in all forms of combat, demolition, expert assault infantry specialists.etc
personally i think this could be the one to follow,with your reenact group, purely when you think about it,
at stalingrad ''gains where made by yards not miles''
and with very heavy loss of lives.
''have you got the book yet,island of fire'' if so you will see what hucks 216 means,
not for the faint hearted to be there in that situation at stalingrad.
rather them than me.
best wishes
micky