Ostbataillon vs. Maquis

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gruppe.drei
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Ostbataillon vs. Maquis

Post by gruppe.drei »

Hello,

does anyone have an information about ostbataillons which fought against Maquis? I am looking for any information about osttruppe-unit which fought in Vercors Plateau. Could be Ostbataillon 406 or/and 654?

Thanks
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Jason Pipes
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Post by Jason Pipes »

I have a lengthy article on this, I will attempt to dig it up and post it ASAP.
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Post by sid guttridge »

Hi Gruppe Drei,

Another Ost Battalion got a drubbing from the maquis when it tried to approach a maquis concentration on the other side of the Rhone from Vercors at Mont Mouchet (I think the spelling is correct) in early-mid June 1944. I will dig out details for you.

At Vercors and Mont Mouchet in June-July 1944 the Maquis tried to set up liberated zones and conventional fighting took place as the Germans launched conventional assaults to suppress them. In both cases shortages of ammunition meant that conventional resistance by the maquis couldn't last to last more than a couple of days.

Cheers,

Sid.
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Post by phylo_roadking »

In both cases shortages of ammunition meant that conventional resistance by the maquis couldn't last to last more than a couple of days
Well, that was the secondary reason...hanging off he back of the fact that they rose at D-Day for Overlord instead of D-Day for Operation Anvil/Dragon!
"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." - Malcolm Reynolds
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Post by sid guttridge »

Hi Phylo,

In both cases the defensive positions were good, but the anmmunition supply was limited. This is what led to an early end to conventional resistance. Irregular warfare continued.

The concept of liberated redoubts was flawed because, as you point out, they only had a significant chance of success if tied closely to a neighbouring Allied landing. Even the reserve units that spearheaded the German attacks on Vercors and Mont Mouchet were too powerful to resist for long conventionally, even with an adequate ammunition supply.

Cheers,

Sid.
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Post by Loïc L. »

At the Mont Mouchet and others operations in Upper Auvergne it was a Volga Tatars Battalion and an Azeri Battalion.
Against the Maquis fought the Georgian Battalion 799 in Perigord and Limousin, Russian 654 not in the Alps but in Bourgogne-Nivernais, Volga Tartars Legion in Auvergne and the Armenian, Georgian and others Eastern Volunteers Battalions of the Freiwilligen Stamm Division like the Turkestanische Feld Bataillon I/370, certainly others...
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Post by sid guttridge »

Hi gruppedrei,

What I have found agrees with Loic.

Ost battalions played secondary roles in the attacks on the maquisards at both Mont Mouchet and Vercors in mid 1944.

Aware of a growing concentration of maquisards, on 2 June the Germans sent a battalion of Azerbaijanis from Freiwillige Stamm Rgt.2 (probably either 1/73, 804 or 806 Bns.) to approach Mont Mouchet from the south. However, the maquisards, at about 2,700 men, were already too strong for a single battalion to tackle unsupported and it was repulsed with loss.

As a result on 10 June the Germans mounted a major concentric attack employing 4,890 men. Most were from Ersatzheer and Police units but two of the six kampfgruppen each included three companies of Volga Tartars. (This is from German reports and so is probably authoritative, but no battalion number is mentioned). After two days of conventional resistance that used up most of their ammunition, the vast majority of the maquisards successfully broke out to the south, in the direction they had repulsed the Azerbaijanis the week before.

The following month the Germans mounted a similar operation against the Vercors Massif. The number of maquisards on the Massif is often given as 3,900 men. However, this is the number of maquisards in the whole department of Drome. There were actually some 1,374 maquisards on the Vercors Massif itself.

The Germans assembled some 14,700 men against them. Again most were from the Ersatzheer. However, there were also some 2,500 Osttruppen organized in three battalions, at least one of which was of Azerbaijanis from Freiwillige Stamm Rgt.2. It is possible that Ost.Btl.406 (Turkoman?) was one of them and Ukrainians have been mentioned more vaguely (This is plausible as the Ukrainian Freiwillige Stamm Rgt.3 was based at Macon). Along with Feldgendarmerie and SS-Police, they primarily acted defensively to seal off the western and south-western perimeter.

The main attacks by Ersatzheer mountain troops and a battalion of armour went in from the north-east, east and south on 21 July. Again the maquisards attempted conventional resistance, but again soon ran low on ammunition and dispersed on the 23rd. On this occasion over half of the surrounded maquisards were killed or captured.

On 27 July the Germans began mopping up operations, in which the Osttruppen were certainly involved. On that day German forces discovered the main maquis hospital in a cave at Grotte de la Luire and dozens of their wounded and several medical staff were massacred. This was initially wrongly blamed on the SS, but it appears that the culprits were probably Osttruppen.

If your researches come up with more details of the Osttruppen battalions involved in any of these operations, I would be most interested to learn more.

Cheers,

Sid.
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Post by gruppe.drei »

2 Sid:

Thanks, guy! Your informations are great. I don´t have other sources beyond internet :-/

Could you recommend me any books or printed sources which are interested in Axis vs. Maquis in Vercors plateau?
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Post by sid guttridge »

Hi Gruppe drei,

The quality of the few books in English is poor, probably because they were influenced by early French works written when the Maquis were being sanctified. (Full of rubbish about the attacking Germans being elite tropps diverted from Normandy, etc. The Germans were almost all from Ersatzheer units, Police or Ostruppen and none of them were ever intended for Normandy. In fact, Vercors was perhaps the last clear cut German victory in France and was a debacle on the French side, despite the heroism of many maquisards))

Some more recent French books are a bit better, but I think that this is a subject that still awaits a good, dispassionate appraisal.

One exception in English is a book published by Airlife or Hikoki, but the title escapes me now.

If you use the search engine above, you will find some 20 threads about Vercors here on Feldgrau. Type "Vercors" into Keyword and "Sid Guttridge" under Author.

There is a good Swiss book in French on 157th Reserve Mountain Division, "La longue marche de la Division 157" which I reviewed on the Books section of Feldgrau a year or two back.

Cheers,

Sid.
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Post by michalst »

Jason Pipes:
I have a lengthy article on this, I will attempt to dig it up and post it ASAP.
Did you find that article?
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Ost-Battalion vs. Maquis

Post by AHK »

Some coverage in the following book which I recently purchased: Wehrmacht & SS, Caucasian, Muslim, and Asian Troops by J.F. Borsarello and W.Palinckx, Heimdal Edition, 2007.
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Re: Ost-Battalion vs. Maquis

Post by michalst »

AHK wrote:Some coverage in the following book which I recently purchased: Wehrmacht & SS, Caucasian, Muslim, and Asian Troops by J.F. Borsarello and W.Palinckx, Heimdal Edition, 2007.
By the way how is this book? Mostly photos or text?
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New Book

Post by AHK »

Mostly photos, but there is text in the 160 pages. I have not seen many of the photos before. Translation can be rough at times. Still the book is a worthwhile purchase I think.
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Re: Ostbataillon vs. Maquis

Post by Kordes »

See
Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg?: Kriegführung und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44
Von Peter Lieb
Veröffentlicht von Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007
ISBN 3486579924, 9783486579925
631 Seiten

An excellent preview of this book is at www.google.de ->mehr->Bücher Keyword Lieb Konventioneller Krieg
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Re: Ostbataillon vs. Maquis

Post by gruppe.drei »

Kordes wrote:See
Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg?: Kriegführung und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44
Von Peter Lieb
Veröffentlicht von Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007
ISBN 3486579924, 9783486579925
631 Seiten

An excellent preview of this book is at http://www.google.de ->mehr->Bücher Keyword Lieb Konventioneller Krieg
Hi,

does anybody could be so kind and could scan the complete article about Unternehmen Vercors from this book for me?

Thank you very much!
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