I came upon this bit of info in another thread. It supposedly took place during the defense of Neuruppin by the Waffen SS paratroop battalion 600. The author states he got the info from the book KOMMANDO:German Special Forces of World War Two by James Lucas. My question is were these guys really that good? That is barely a company of men holding off alot of armor. I read a story of german paras who stopped 5 SOVIET TANK ASSAULTS, 1 assault using panzerfaust, panzershreck, 2 assault used up their panzerfausts..., 3 assault used magnetic mines, 4 assault last of magnetic mines and satchel charges, 5 and final assault using satchel charges and genades in open hatches. in the end the soviets lost 4 battalions worth of tanks + dead russian infantry this mass of assaults was defended by 84 men and 34 wounded who wanted to die next to there comrades.
In the book Forgotten Legions by Antonio Munoz Para Btn 500/600 did fight there, but his accounts are in the 'heroic' style (think German version of Saving Private Ryan) so its hard to objectively judge about so confused an chaotic period. To be fair desparete men do desparete things in desparete times. So it may be accurate.
The problem with James Lucas is, I don't recall him ever using footnotes or bibliography. What the battalion did was unverifiable, unless you can find other sources. It is dubious that 83 people could stop five tank battalions.
From Wehrmacht Awards forum.SS FJ Btl 600 struck out for the German 12th Army lines near their old garrison town of Neustrelitz but were cut off by a Soviet thrust at Neuruppin, some thirty miles southwest of their goal. The four companies of SS-FJ-Btl 600 still numbered between eighty and a hundred men apiece. On April 30th, two Soviet armoured corps and two cavarly divisions fell on Neuruppin. SS-FJ-Btl 600 held them off with small arms and panzerfausts for an entire day. Veterans’ descriptions of the Cossack cavalry charges evoke a nightmare scenario. By nightfall, after repulsing nine Soviet attacks, just 180 SS paras were left from the 400-plus who had entered Neuruppin. The CO gave the order to split up into small groups and evade the encircling Soviet units under cover of night. SS-FJ-Btl 600 retreated westwards through Waren and Parchim with the intention of surrendering to the Americans.
Yes mate these guys were really that good.... Have a look at Martin Poppells Heaven and Hell if you get the chance...An epic in its own right. And a great man if we can ever call an enemy a great man. He certainly was. Band of Brothers...the Brits had em..and so too did the Germans as well as easy coy.
no not that good, just cannon fodder like many German Heer units fighting out till the last surrendering was out of the question to the Soviets.
Erich while I get your point these were still brave men fighting for a cause that they felt was just even if that was not the case. Under the circumstances they performed very well. It took the combined might of the world's most industrialized nations to defeat them.
am not sure you do the W-SS Fallshirm in name only was trained ground outfit serving in this capacity without heavy defensive weapons except for the miniscule Her Stug units that were in the area of jurisdiction. Any other experienced Heer unit serving in the last days of 1945 gave their all until overwhelmed and crushed.......example for my point is the Pz Jager Abt 1. used up it's Stug III's destroyed iun bitter defensive fightin in Ost Preußia the supportive Fla weapons both 2cm and 3.7cm knocked out the Panzerjagd served on the front lines house to house and broken lines with karbiner 98's and Pz faust and the token Panzerschreck destroying numerous Soviet armor in the amounts never known.
Well Poppells fighting was against the west rather than the Soviets...his scenarios on Scicily and Against Americans in Cherbourg peninsular and retreat to Germany are some of the best unit action descriptions I've ever read from any national units in ww2. His fighting against similar American and British paratroopers on the ground are remarkable. They were doing the same...fighting inland on foot and slogging it out no different than the German unit he was part of. A hero to his nation and someone who ran rings around allied similar units.
