Wehrmacht Special Forces

[von Poop]

Reference to Frogmen activity after the bridge was taken here: http://www.worldwar.nl/recollections..._engineers.htm

Having captured the bridge the next occurrence was a couple of Jerry frogmen floated down the river from the Reichswald with dirty great charges which they lifted to lodge them on the bottom of the far side of the "home pier". They didn't do much structural damage , but removed about 50 feet of decking for the full width of the carriageway, so the bridge was useless until we had put two ft D/S (Double/Single) Baileys side by side to reopen the bridge. (...)

There's quite a bit more on there from:
"Reminiscences of 2nd Lt. (later Major) Anthony Vivian
14th Field Squadron Royal Engineers"

(How was Berlin?)

[Owen]

There is a good description of the operation to blow the railway bridgefrom the British point of view in my 43rd Div history.There's some refernece to German humour because for the next few days the Germans kept sending anything that floated tree trunks, haystacks etc etc towards the bridge which the British troops shot to peices. A DUKW patroled under the bridge after the attack with headlights on.
I want to know a bit more about it from the German side.
Here's what I know already,from 43rd Div history page 144.

Under the bridge, the Waal, dirty brown and in shadow, flowed on. Anyone swimming down it in the darkness would be quite invisible.
In the early hours of the morning, German "frogmen" entered the river from the east. They were sailors, who had been trained in Venice in long-distance swimming under water with special equipment. They wore tight-fitting rubber suits and breathing masks, their feet had large flappers attached to them, the only weapon that they carried was a sheath knife. they were complete even to waterproof wrist-watches.
They swam down the Waal in the darkness towing two large torpede-like explosive charges which were destined to be fastened to the road bridge and the railway bridge. These were so designed that when they were placed in a vertical position the time mchanism came into action and after allowing the swimmers to get clear, they exploded.
The frogmen had no difficulty in swimming under the wire boom which had been placed across the river, but the current gave them some trouble when they reached the bridges and they found theycould not fasten the charges in a vertical position. The charge fastened to the road bridge failed, although part of it exploded and caused some damage. The attack on the railway bridge, already in dubious condition, was more successful. A complete span collapsed in the middle and subsided into the river beyond repair.
The swimmers, with every reason to be stasfied with the successs of their venture, now moved down with the current, intending to land in German positions around Ochten.
they landed too early, however, and walked straight into the arms of 10 Troop of 43 Reconnaissance Regiment. Our men opened fire on them with Brens, one of the enemy surrendered at once,whilst the others took to the water and swam towards the far bank of the river, only to be rounded up by Dutch Resistance troops. Five more were captured by B Squadron further along the dyke bank. They were certainly brave men and were,perhaps, a little unfortunate in misjudging the distance to Ochten and their own troops.

I'd still like to know more about the Frogmen, anyone know any more on them?

[Marina]

Thanks very much, Adam -all so simple in English!
Marina

[Herroberst]

Originally Posted by Owen D

I'd still like to know more about the Frogmen, anyone know any more on them?

German frogmen attacked the Orne River Bridges which took them fourteen hours to approach. The two groups destroyed all their targets delaying British supplies with a loss of only one man.

The Antwerp lock gates were destroyed.

As Owen mentioned there was another assault on the Arnhem River Bridges to prevent the movement of British Second Army's supplies at a loss of ten out of twelve men.

The most common known mission was Remagen.

[Kiwiwriter]

They were also used against the Nijmegen bridges after Market-Garden, and succeeded in blowing a hole in the rail bridge, but not the road bridge.

Later, they were used against the Remagen Bridge. However, they got caught or killed. That bridge fell down from exhaustion.

[Owen]

In 112th (Wessex) Field Regiment History is a extract of an Isum regards the Nijmegen frogmen.
Here are their ranks and names.

Group 1 (Road bridge)
Obermaat ORLOWSKI
Mat Obgefr DYCK
Mat Gefr GEBEL
Mat Gefr HALWELKA
Fldwbl SCHMIDT
Masch Maat ORDOFF
Steuermannsmaat KOHLRUSCH
Mar Art Maat WEBER

Group 2 (Raliway Bridge)
Funkmaat BRETTSCHNEIDER
Mar Art Obgefr OLLE
Mat Obgefr JAGER
Fernschrieber Obgefr WOLSCHEN

Note:- These men were all Sailors their ranks vary from ordinary Seaman 1st Class (Mat Obgefr) to Teleprinter Operator - (Fernschrieber Obgefr.)

[dbf]

The Diary for 3 IG has in the appendices, sentry duties listed and what to look out for. Threats from floating mines and frogmen with torpedoes were to be taken seriously ...

My father remembers standing on the bridge on watch for mines and sabotage. He and his mate thought they saw something coming downstream with the current. They set off the alarm by trying to shoot the mine. Repeated attempts to detonate it were fruitless.
Officers alarmed at the shooting ran to the bridge, incl. JOE who took out his binoculars and smiled. "If it indeed had been a mine, you would have saved the bridge, however it is not." All eyes scanned the river as the bloated body of a cow with legs extended drifted past ... so I guess that may have been the German sense of humour at work then.
dbf

[Herroberst]

Great info Owen, Thanks

Came back to the site and glad to see this thread. A while back I came across the son of an engineer at Remagen who generously offered some Wehrmacht war booty for sale. I didn't ask why he was getting rid of it, but he had pictures and lots of info on his Dad's unit which he understandably did not want to part with. Have you guys heard of any new books on German special forces?

[Owen]

This bit on You Tube mentions Nijmegen at 36 seconds.
I'm sure he says "acht und zwanzig september" (28th) and Waal and Nijmegen.

YouTube - WW2 - German frogmen blow up a bridge (Nov 1944)

[dbf]

Originally Posted by Owen

This bit on You Tube mentions Nijmegen at 36 seconds.
I'm sure he says "acht und zwanzig september" (28th) and Waal and Nijmegen.

YouTube - WW2 - German frogmen blow up a bridge (Nov 1944)

Hi Owen,
Yes, exactly what it says on the tin, or info blurb in this case.

You understood correctly, "acht und zwanzigsten September ... die Waal
Brücke bei Nimwegen"; the usual propaganda intro ...doesn't he have big lungs! ... all shot in real time I'm sure.

Was it a moonlit night then? That's mentioned in the film.

D