| The Battle of Jebsheim, France - from a French point-of-view. Page 8 |
| The next part of this narration will include stories about some individual exploits, a recap of military forces and equipment in the Battle of Jebsheim and finally some rather interesting personal accounts from citizens of Jebsheim who were in the village during the battle. The Epic of Lieutenant Michel Durrmeyer: Michel Durrmeyer, originally of the Paris region, came from a family of eight children. His father, a general, was deported during the war. A medical student, he joined the Resistance after the Armistice of 1940 then passed through Spain in order to join the soldiers of Free France. In the 1st Shock Battalion, under the command of Major Gambiez, he lead the 2d Section of the 2d Company until his death, first as an officer-cadet, then as Second-Lieutenant. He was well liked by all, especially by the men of the 2d Company. We are told that he was fairly tall, slightly above the average, with rather long legs. With his calm assurance, poise, and aura of strength, his entire being inspired confidence. He distinguished himself in particular in the campaigns in Corsica (1943), on the Isle of Elba (June 1944), near and in Toulon (August 1944), in Dijon (September 1944), in Haute-Saone (October 1944), in the Vosges Mountains (end of October 1944), than at Belfort (November 1944), and in Alsace near Masevaux (November and December 1944). At the end of January 1945, the Shock Battalion is near Strasbourg (in Molsheim and Cronenbourg) and on 27 January he is assigned to the 5th Armored Division. On 28 January, the battalion is quartered in Selestat, in a state of alert, and on the 29th it is ordered to leave for Jebsheim. It is to leave at night and attack Hardt Woods to the east of Jebsheim at dawn. But the trucks are late arriving, the roads are practically impassable, and the battalion has to go by way of Saint-Hippolyte and Maison Rouge. The cold is bitter. The battalion does not reach Jebsheim until 0815 hours (8:15 AM) on 30 January. Objective of the attack: first reach the boundaries of Hardt Woods, then clean out the woods and proceed to the Artzenheim Canal. The attack, set for 0845 hours (8:45 AM) could not be carefully prepared for; moreover, two trucks do not arrive. The battalion, very tired, moves along terrain that is perfectly flat and covered with a thick blanket of fresh snow, making walking very difficult. On the right, the Americans are attacking also, along the Muntzenheim Canal. The old Roman way (Heidastressel) is quickly reached. There, two minutes rest, and then the advance continues. But suddenly, in a hail of intense fire, they are ambushed by the enemy from his cover in the woods. Precise mortar fire from 81s and machine-gun fire soon join the firing by the German artillery. The tanks are called for and when they reach the front line of attackers, they try to knock out the heavy weapons facing us. Lieutenant Durrmeyer rushes to find the tank commander to show him the precise position of the two auto-cannons that are causing so much destruction. The tank stops and Lieutenant Durrmeyer is indicating the position, when an anti-tank shell comes in and explodes at only a meter from him. A scream, Durrmeyer falls, a moan of death escapes his lips, he is severely wounded and loses all sense of pain. The captain rushes to the side of the wounded man who mutters a single word: "Captain", then he awaits the end, the end of his hard and brief heroic career. Several men from his platoon try to pull him out of this hell, but the enemy is fierce, he strikes blow after blow at this small huddle of men. Three men are killed and several are wounded. Lieutenant Durrmeyer is hit again by an explosion and this time he dies. The fighting continues for another hour and at 1700 (5:00 PM) the order to withdraw is received. The objective was not reached. But the Shock Battalion will have the chance for its revenge! Losses of the operation: 32 killed including 6 officers and 100 wounded including 10 officers. Lieutenant Durrmeyer, buried in the cemetery of Jebsheim, lay among us until the day when his family came and claimed his remains. In order to honor all the brave men who died in the Battle of Jebsheim, the city decided to give his name to a street in our village. Who better merits this honor than Lieutenant Michel Durrmeyer? COMMENTS OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL - FIRST FRENCH ARMY Here is what General de Lattre de Tassigny, CG 1st French Army, had to say after the battle of Jebsheim: "Nothing can give you an idea of the deplorable state of the unfortunate village. Five hundred German bodies turned the streets into a real slaughterhouse. We ourselves had three hundred men disabled and the Americans at least as many. But we had taken 750 prisoners and the 254th IRUS more than 300. Jebsheim is indeed the symbol of Franco-American brotherhood that reigns in the hearts of the men of our 1st French Army. It is also the symbol of the heroism heeded to breach the enemy front and reach the line from which the decisive push will begin in the direction of Brisach." THE MATERIAL OF THE BATTLE OF JEBSHEIM: 1. Mines: The Germans had buried all kinds of mines in Jebsheim and its immediate surroundings. These included anti-tank, anti-personnel, metallic, glass and Bakelite. Fortunately, the thick layer of snow and ice prevented them from fully playing their deadly role. The work of the mine-clearer's was not easy, because the means of detecting mines that were furnished by the American army, were not effective when mines were in insulating substances. Bayonets and daggers were the only effective means of finding and neutralizing them. 2. Tanks: From a material point of view, our tanks and tank-destroyers were outclassed by the German counterparts. When you think that our armored cars could be pierced at 2000 meters by the German 88, whereas out tank-destroyers could not expect to destroy an enemy tank farther away than 800 meters and often then only after several hits and that our tanks were nearly powerless when put up against the heavy protection devices, one can only admire the heroism of our men who, in demoralizing conditions, took up the fight and emerged victorious! 3. The Panzerfaust (German bazooka): This compact individual weapon allowed a simple soldier, hiding behind a tree or a wall, to destroy a tank a short distance away and then to disappear in the ensuing confusion, without being seen. But the paratroopers of the 1st Regiment of Paratroopers became quickly familiar with these bazookas and were only too glad to make good use of the ones the enemy abandoned on the field. 4. Equipment- Clothing: The lack of warm clothing for the troops was obviously a great handicap for our soldiers. Certain units from Africa were still fighting in the cotton clothing from the Tunisian and Italian campaigns, the very ones they had been wearing on disembarking in the south of France on 15 August 1944. American boots, light and supple, were not practical for bitter cold and slush. But it had been necessary to send essential supplies to the front lines first, supplies such as munitions, rations and above all, gasoline which was essential for rapid advance---the rest could wait! The German soldiers, on the other hand, had come from Norway and Finland (with their equipment dutiable to the far north) and those from Austria were used to the very cold weather of the high mountains and they suffered less from the cold. Moreover, the German troops on the defensive were stationed in villages. Sheltered from the misery of snow and cold, whereas those on the offensive were forced to spend the nights in the open countryside. This explains the many cases of frostbite. 5. Equipment- Camouflage: The men on both sides had taken to wearing white linen from bed sheets in order to be less conspicuous in the thick snow--mistakes of identity were numerous. a. One day, during the attack on Illhaeusern by the 1st Battalion of the Foreign Legion, there were several mistaken identities, one of which was very amusing. A German officer, not knowing what was going on, arrived on a bike on Elsenheim Road at the French line. There, he calmly gets off his bike. Having noticed in a foxhole one of "his" soldiers without white clothes and with a helmet cover, he chews him out: "This is too much! You're going to pay for this--the order is strict--Why are you not wearing white? You are not in order!" To which, the soldier who had been challenged replied facetiously, in excellent German while holding the barrel of his machine gun against the officer's chest: "Hands up! I'm very sorry, lieutenant, if I am not in order, but I am about to be! Give me your hood, your revolver, and your bike and be so kind as to follow me!" He was a legionnaire from Sairigne's Battalion. b. A small group of paratroopers near Linden-tree Square, seeing in the twilight soldiers in white crossing the street two houses down, and not knowing if they are friends or enemies, shouts to them" "Are you Americans? Are you Americans?". They see the men panic and take shelter so they fired at them. They never would know if the "whites" on the other side were Germans taking our men for Americans or Americans taking them for Germans. |
