Magazine Ritterkreuz number 29 September 2013

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Massimiliano Afiero
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Magazine Ritterkreuz number 29 September 2013

Post by Massimiliano Afiero »

Is available the new issue of magazine Ritterkreuz (in Italian language), dedicated to Waffen SS military history.

Summary

Waffen SS in guerra, 54a parte: Wiking, estate-autunno 1943 (Waffen SS at war, Wiking, summer, autumn 1943)
SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Schulze
Impiego della 16.SS 'Reichsführer-SS' in Italia (Employement of 16.SS in Italy)
L'SS-Panzer-Abteilung 4 'Polizei'
Album di guerra, SS-Oscha. Kurt Kluwin 2a parte (War Album of Kurt Kluwin, Leibstandarte)
SS-Sturmbannführer Sepp Krafft
Semicingolati della Waffen SS, 3a parte: SdKfz.251 (Sdkfz.251)
Schwimmwagen, Belgio 1944

Waffen

For the member of Forum available a free copy in pdf format. send me a mp
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Massimiliano Afiero
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Re: Magazine Ritterkreuz number 29 September 2013

Post by Massimiliano Afiero »

An extract in english language, from the article about Sepp Krafft, write by Scott Revell:

On the 17th September 1944, the first elements of the British 1st Airborne Division dropped west of Arnhem with the objective of capturing a river crossing over the Rhine River. The initial Allied forces available were the 1st Airlanding Brigade who had the objective of securing the dropping zones for future drops and the 1st Parachute Brigade whose mission was to make their way into Arnhem to capture the bridges over the river Rhine. The three battalions of the 1st Parachute Brigade had been allocated their own routes into Arnhem and they moved off the dropping zones immediately. However by the end of the day on the 17th September 1944, only the 2nd Battalion had made it through the blocking line that the Germans had started to form during the afternoon. The majority of the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Parachute Regiment had been held up by determined resistance by SS-Soldiers en-route.
These SS-Soldiers were from the SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Bataillon 16, a SS training and replacement unit with its origins being in the area of Arnhem since 1941. The battalion, commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Sepp Krafft, engaged over the next 7-8 hours a number of sub-units of the 1st Airborne Division which included the 9th Field Company RE, the 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions as well as the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. This squadron was attached to the parachute brigade and their role in the early stages was to use their jeeps to drive from the area of Wolfheze to the road bridge and hold the northern end until the arrival of the 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions on foot.
The first engagement was against the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron under the command of Major Freddy Gough who had left the DZ in order to achieve its objective of a coup de main assault on the Arnhem Road Bridge. The Squadron was equipped with jeeps that furnished a Vickers ‘K’ machine gun which gave the commander of the 1st Airborne Division quite a mobile and combat capable element within his arsenal. With C Troop in the lead, the unit headed north over the Wolfheze level crossing and turned immediately right onto the Johannahoeveweg. Around 1545h the two lead jeeps from C Troop ran into ambush positions formed by the SS-Soldiers and both jeeps were instantly put out of action. The remainder of C Troop could only see what had happened to the second jeep. Their commander, Captain Hay, ordered the next section to move forward on foot, a normal action often practised on exercises, but the men from Krafft’s Battalion were in excellent defensive positions and beat them back with the use of machine guns and mortars. Seven Troopers were dead or would die later and four had been taken prisoner.
There would be several more engagements involving SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Bataillon 16 during the afternoon and evening of the 17th September 1944 where recruits interspersed with experienced NCOs, delayed the British Advance into Arnhem for a few vital hours. After the fighting had concluded around Arnhem, Krafft wrote a post-battle report which he sent directly to the head of the Waffen-SS, Heinrich Himmler. Historians and Arnhem enthusiasts alike are fortunate enough to have access to this diary (now in the Public Records Office in Kew, UK) which was found in Berlin by a British officer in mid-1945. It was sent back to England and a senior British Officer who was involved in the battle received it and organised it to be subsequently translated into English with the corresponding maps. The report by Krafft, even though with propagandist exaggerations about some of the successes achieved by his unit, provides us with substantive detail around the actions of his unit during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944.
Author Scott Revell, with Niall Cherry and Bob Gerritsen have used this report as the foundation of their new book released in June 2013 called Arnhem – A Few Vital Hours, SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Bataillon 16 at the Battle of Arnhem, September 1944 (ISBN 978-90-812703-4-2). The book covers the history of the unit form 1941 through to it being employed in coastal defences in 1944. With the Allied advance through France, elements of the unit returned to Arnhem where they enter into battle only a few weeks later.


(Continue on magazine in italian language)
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Re: Magazine Ritterkreuz number 29 September 2013

Post by Scott Revell »

What a well written article!!! (in my not so humble opinion 8) )

Cheers

Scott
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"A Bayonet has a worker at both ends"

http://www.defendingarnhem.com
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Massimiliano Afiero
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Re: Magazine Ritterkreuz number 29 September 2013

Post by Massimiliano Afiero »

Our magazine is always available for all queli authors who attend the forum in order to promote their new books and studies on the Italian market, through the pages of our bi-monthly. We invite everyone to send us excerpts from their books, so that they can be translated into Italian. Thanks to all contributor.

Waffen
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