German armor at St. Malo

[Kingfish]

Looking for any info on what units, and types, were present in St. Malo during August 1944. So far all I've found is that the independent 341st StuG brigade saw action there. I know none of the Panzer formations made it down that far, and as far as I can tell none of the 5 remaining divisions on the peninsula had any organic StuG / Marders in their OOBs.

That said, I have read several accounts that mention German armored units in action there. A unit citation of the 2nd Bn, 330th IR credits them with several assault guns, SPGs and tanks from the fighting near St. Joseph's hill, while accounts describing the "lost battalion" at Dinard mentions being counterattacked by German tanks.

Any help is appreciated.

[Dandelion]

Hi again King

I see we're still in Bretagne. You mean any info on any units in Saint-Malo right? Not around Saint-Malo as in in Dinan?

Assuming you mean in Saint-Malo;

- I.D. 266 was there, a rather miserable unit. The guys were a cadre from Southern Germany boosting an unhappy majority of Alsatians. All of them aged 35 to 45, most of them with only 6 months of training behind them, and none with any combat experience. The division contained no armour or TDs. She didn't even have her Panzerjäger bn, nor her Füsilier bn. Rgts 897 and 899 were present, with three regular battallions each. In addition, the II./Ost-Ausb.Rgt.Mitte served as IV./897, and the Ost-Btl.629 served as IV./899. The division was additionally reinforced by the Ost(Wolgatatar)-Btl.627 and Ost-Btl.Dnjepr 602. In terms of infantry that was it, a queer lot. Her artillery regiment (266th of course) was as Bodenständig as the rest of them, they didn't even have horses enough to move the pieces around.

Other than that we have the garrison of Saint-Malo. Looks a lot like the Brest garrison which we have discussed earlier.

- Fest.Kdtr.St.Malo (a staff)

- Festungs-Stammtruppen LXXIV (i.e. 74) of only 1 company

- Marine-Artillerie-Abt.608 with three batteries plus three island batteries, all of them containing both naval guns and AA guns.

- Heeres-Küstenartillerie-Regimentsstab 1266, unknown if any of her batteries were in St Malo.

- Ortskommandantur St Malo (511), a staff

- Sich.Btl. 1220 and 1222. These were lightly armed Landesschützen battallions, i.e. men aged 35 to 45. Not necessarily bad quality, but poorly equipped.

- Techn.Btl 12, or possibly 13, source is unclear. It's a Pionier unit of staff type (relying on OT or RAD units to do the actual work).

- Sicherheitsdienst, Kommandostelle Rennes, Außenstelle St. Malo (a handful of SD men).

Apart from the naval guns, the Kriegsmarine had evacuated. Luftwaffe never had much in St. Malo, the airfields were in Dinan and Dinard nearby.

Given the situation, there is always the possibility that stragglers from other units made it to St Malo, but were not recorded. As you point out however, one cannot find any armour of any type among the possible suspects.

Or perhaps one suspect might be relevant. There was a training battallion, armour I mean, containing captured French tanks. Somewhere in Bretagne, can't seem locate them in August specifically. Maybe it's them playing around with the Americans. I'll get back when I've located these fellows.

As for the 341st, did they really reach St Malo? I know they were in Rennes for some R&R when the invasion hit, and that they moved North to fight it, but I didn't know they went that far North.

Sincerely

Dandelion

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by Dandelion:

Hi again King

I see we're still in Bretagne.

Greetings

Yes, still in Bretagne and planning on staying for a while. I got plans, man, big :eek: :eek: :eek: plans.

You mean any info on any units in Saint-Malo right? Not around Saint-Malo as in in Dinan?

In and around, including Dinan / Dinard.

- I.D. 266 was there

Yep, saw that. Also know I.D. 77 was there, or what was left of it. The info on the Ost units is really helpful.

Question - wasn't the 266th destroyed outside of Brest by the US 6th amrd, or was it only part of the unit?

As for the 341st, did they really reach St Malo? I know they were in Rennes for some R&R when the invasion hit, and that they moved North to fight it, but I didn't know they went that far North.

My source here is Zetterling. Not sure how accurate he is.

[Dandelion]

Greetings

Yes, still in Bretagne and planning on staying for a while. I got plans, man, big :eek: :eek: :eek: plans.

Yeah? What would those include? You must have mapped every single skirmish in the Cotentin over the years here

In and around, including Dinan / Dinard.

Gotcha, will take a dive in the books tomorrow and see what we can dig up on the extended area.

- I.D. 266 was there

Yep, saw that. Also know I.D. 77 was there, or what was left of it. The info on the Ost units is really helpful.

[Dandelion]

Top of the Mornin' King

Scored nothing on the armour. The training unit (100th) seems to have disappeared completely by mid August, and on the 341st I find no more precise locations than the vague regional reference I found yesterday - North of Rennes.

Dinard had been evacuated by August (except for the Standort-Kdtr. Dinard - a staff), leaving the rather large airfield and also rather large POW camp there empty by the time fighting reached the town. Much the same with Dinan, which had a much smaller airfield (evacuated). Other than that, zip left.

On the 77th, I see Zetterling has already listed Tessin. Of additional interest to the scenario designer is of course the quality of units, which is a good reason to add a little something about the origins:

1049th was the former 1021st, whereas 1050th was formed from a mix of units (IR336, GR973, Füs.Btl.364). Except for the cadre, they were all a mix of (mainly) Württembergers and (a few) Alsatians from the Ergänzungstruppen (i.e. the "white" classes that had had a shortened (1 year) basic training, the men aged 27 to 35). The cadre were Naumburgers (Saxons) coming from the ID336. The Naumburger units had reached fame in 1870 and WWI, thus had a symbolic value beyond the obvious in the German army. Anyway, the men of the cadre were originally from the Reserve (by 1944 aged 24 to 35) and had had complete basic training (2 years), with 2 years combat experience before reaching Normandy.

Thus a whole other deal than the hapless 266th.

Got us no further on the tanks I guess. I am not extremely surprised. Not meaning to sound cynical, but studying the Ardennes a number of years back I was sent on quite a few wild goose chases by US AARs, looking for German armoured formations that in the end turned out to not exist, or turned out to be much smaller and containing much lighter AFV than reported, invariably turning out to not have lost the amount of vehicles reported.

Cheerio

Dandelion

[Kingfish]

I think the 100th was destroyed further north near Carentan. Zetterling shows them as being subordinate to the 91st Luftlande Div.

BTW, on a somewhat related topic, when was the fortress policy put into effect? I read somewhere that it was Jan '44, but somewhere else that it didn't actually go into effect until after the fall of Cherbourg.

[Dandelion]

St Malo in particular was declared a fortress sometime between August 18th and 20th. Interestingly, that's after Lorient and St Nazaire had been declared such (August 13th). Most such declarations came in August, and since Cherbourg fell in late June that was after the fall of Cherbourg.

But even Cherbourg was called a fortress in the staff meeting of June 17th.

Hitler had started his no-retreat policy in the winter of 1942, and from that point all German units that were cut off or threatened to be cut off tended to end up in something called a fortress. Even Cherbourg asked permission to surrender, but was denied.

Cheerio

Dandelion

[Kingfish]

I posted the same question over at the Axis history forum. Same thing, no solid info on any unit or types. Ironically, I came across a website of the 121st Regiment, and they describe being attacked by 4 Mark IVs just south of Dinard. I think this is an example of "Every tank is a Tiger" or in this case "Every StuG is a Mark IV".