Luftwaffe Report

[Maus]

Gentlemen,

I need some help in translating the following phrase "15 Gruppen im Zeil". This phrase is used in a Luftwaffe report that I am translating (and throughout many of the Luftwaffe reports we are translating). See the original report here (http://www.wehrmachtbericht.com/page29.php). The actual phrase is towards the bottom of the report by the section that starts out as Zeil I. We had originally thought this phrase meant "15 Groups in the Target", but that did not seem to make much sense. We then thought it could mean "15 groups fired at the target", but I am not satisfied with that translation either. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Brian Burmeister

http://www.wehrmachtbericht.com

[Tom Houlihan]

"on" the target, as in 15 Gruppen attacked it?

[phylo_roadking]

What about...

"were "targetted"" as in tasked/briefed for that objective?

[Maus]

Thanks guys for taking a shot at this one. It is tricky. My group of translators have gone back and forth several different times trying to come up with a logical translation, and we don't seem to have a decent one yet.

"On the Target" is basically what we have went with. I am not 100% confident that is the correct translation though.

"Were targeted" (i.e. 15 Groups were targeted) is a possibility. That is roughly what our first translation consisted of. We were not sure that was correct, and that is when we went with the "15 Groups fired at the Target".

Thanks guys for the input. Lets see if anyone else out there has anything more to add.

Kind Regards,

Brian

[Christoph Awender]

Hello,

Bombs were dropped in "groups" - which means the leader of the attack orders how many bombs in a row have to be unloaded above which target.
The sentence "15 Gruppen im Ziel" means that 15 groups/bomb loads hit the target area.

/Christoph

[Maus]

Hi Christoph,

Thanks for your assistance. That seems to make the most sense. I believe that is what we will go with. Thanks!

Kind Regards,

Brian

[vkun]

I doubt that this report deals with an attack by Luftwaffe airplanes. The header "Artl Flieger 3. (Pz) 41" points to an arty observer plane attached to XXXVIII AK. Thus the Ziel (target) reports refer to ground arty fire missions carried out. "Gruppe" in arty parlance means 1 round per howitzer in the specific unit, i.e. if a battery with 6 howitzers fired 15 Gruppen it means 6 howitzers x 15 rounds = 90 rounds on target.

[Maus]

Hi Vkun,

Thanks so much for the clarification. I was discussing this with my translator, and we both agreed that the reports are in regards to Artillery strikes and not Luftwaffe strikes, but we were still unsure of what a "gruppen" referred to. We knew that it dealt with "volleys" of shells, but we were just not sure how many how many shells were in a typical "gruppen". Now we know!! Thanks so much.

Kind Regards,

Brian Burmeister