Krieghoff â?? last days and Post Warâ?¦

[John D.]

Well â?? I promised to post this last weekâ?¦. Here is a short version of what Iâ??m working onâ?¦.

I would like to begin by personally and publicly thanking the many Veterans, organizations and individuals who have assisted with this small research project over the past years. Their contributions, memoirs and public and private comments have been of tremendous value over the years on gathering factual information regarding the liberation of Suhl â?? a seemingly insignificant two day battle in comparison to the rest of the European conflict. However, their courage, bravery and sacrifices will not be forgotten for as long as history is recorded.

For that, and the cover of freedom you have provided us through your efforts, we remain eternally grateful.

This research was initially started some years ago â?? on the simple premise to determine which US Personnel after the Suhl liberation might have 1) had access to the factory; 2) assembled the first generation of HK Lugers (GI â??Post War Partsâ?� Lugers that originated from the factory); and ultimately 3) where the current HK archives/tooling may have been transported to after the Soviet occupation of the area. As established points of reference, the research had two presumptions based on the information as provided by Mr. Gibson. First, that Suhl was taken without any resistance (thereby reducing the likelihood of extensive archival information); and second, that the US 11th Division was present in Suhl until September, 1945. Unfortunately, neither initial presumption proved to be entirely correct, which lead to more extensive research then originally anticipated.

The Krieghoff facilities were located in Suhl in these areas (I believe this is the first time that the Main Plant is actually shown by location, as are the Workers location).

Therefore, sources include, but are not limited to: National Archives (US), US Army National Archives, Military Archives (Potsdam), State Archives (previous GDR) Dornburg Branch, Th�¼ringisches Staatsarchiv, Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt/Berlin), Russian Special Archives (CSSA/Moscow). Further, over the course of the research, the personal recollections of Veterans and archival AARs of the following Battalions/Units including: 11th Div 42nd ATB/Co.B&C, 63rd AIB, 575th AAB, 41st Calvery/1st Platoon/Tr.A, and the 490th AFA.

Key 11th Armored Division Key Unit/Battalions â?? Suhl
Allied Force: Designated â??Combat Command Aâ?� (CCA)
42nd Armored Tank Battalion - Company B & C
63rd Armored Infantry Battalion
575th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion
41st Cavalry Recon Squadron. Mechanized â?? 1st Platoon Troop A
490th Armored Field Artillery Battalion (AFA)

42nd Tank Battalion - Company B & C
2 April, 1945 Lt. Col. Joe Ahee of the 42nd Armored Tank Battalion was given the order to advance and take Suhl beginning 3, April. Intelligence reports from that day indicated that high ranking Nazi officials fleeing Berlin may have been traveling to Suhl/Zella-Mehlis (this report was proved false on the 3rd).

Based in Obermassfeld â??Task Force Aheeâ?� (TF Ahee) as attached to Combat Command A (CCA). TF Ahee made ready at 06:00 Tuesday, April 3 and departed Obermassfeld at 07:00. The route to Suhl included, in order:

Belerith (taken at 07:20);
Vachdorf (taken at 07:40);
Marisfeld (taken at 07:45); and
Suhler Neudorf (taken at 09:20)

Up until this point, resistance to the advance was virtually non-existent. However, that changed on reaching the outskirts of Suhl.

Departing Obermassfeld just behind the 42nd was another group attached to CCA â?? the 63rd Armored Infantry Battalion. Their route to Suhl was slightly East of the 42nd, but like the 42nd â?? met with only light resistance through the town of Grub (taken at 07:40) as they made their way North to the city limits of Suhl. At 09:40, on the outskirts of the city, they started coming against small and sporadic pockets of resistance, which prevented them from catching TF Ahee until later.

At the same time - TF Ahee breaks into two smaller attack forces to come up from the South and the other from the SouthWest of the city.



From the city proper, the primary city officials and Nazis had fled, along with the regular Wehrmacht troops, leaving a the defense of the city to an estimated 600 Volkssturm and a handful of remaining Wehrmacht troops. These â??civilian soldersâ?� were poorly trained and grossly undermanned (and there were not enough Volkssturm arm-bands to go around, so identifying the opposing combatants was somewhat difficult), but given the small mountain roads on the outskirts of Suhl, launched both sniper attacks and launched their panzerfaust at the approaching enemy, hindering rapid progress.

Regarding the use of the panzerfaust, as it was explained to me: â??It was a â??one-typeâ?? use device â?? and they couldnâ??t aim it worth a nickel, I donâ??t know if they werenâ??t trained or were too old. Three or four were launched at our lead tank in the column, and they all missed. The only damage it did was to the guys trying to shoot them. Those things had the nasty habit of taking out whoever was dumb enough to try to launch oneâ?¦â?�

At 11:15, the first armored and infantry troops passed into the Suhl city limits from the South and SouthWest. These were members of the 42nd â?? Company B.

To the East, the 63rd was supported from covering artillery fire from 490th, who were attached to CCA and departed Bauerbach earlier that day. Taking up hilltop positions to fire down into Suhl in support of the 63rd advancement - A and B Batteries assumed firing positions in Altendambach while C Battery fired from an area five km south of Suhl. It was noted in the AAR, that given how Suhl was spread across a large area with wide-open spaces, damage from the supporting artillery was minimal.

At 12:00, the 63rd, also known as TF Brady, entered Suhl in support of TF Ahee.

By all accounts and archives, clearing Suhl was not an easy task. In fact, all units describe it as sometime stiff and fierce resistance was met (by both snipers panzerfaust attacks) and therefore, Suhl had to be cleared house-to-house and street by street. In fact, over 4 hours later, at 16:40, TF Brady for the first time reported that only one-third of the city was in US hands but the situation was still â??fluidâ?� (AAR â?? 63rd).

At that time (16:40), units of the 42nd TF Ahee, A and C Companies 63rd AIB and the 575th AAB were then attached to TF Brady in and effort to coordinate the assault through the remaining sections of Suhl.



At 18:00, all units attached to TF Brady ceased advancing due to the upcoming darkess, and set up road-blocks and patrols up to the railroad tracks in the Northern section of Suhl. As the skirmishes subsided, US forces controlled roughly two-thirds of Suhl for the night of April 3rd. Suhl had yet to be declared â??capturedâ?�.

April 4th at daybreak - TF Brady resumed and continued their advances through Suhl. At 10:00 Company B of the 63rd, Company B of the 42nd, and 1 platoon of troop â??Aâ?� of the 41st Cavalry moved out on a mission of clearing the route from Suhl to the East. All resistance was curtailed by 15:00 and by 18:00 on April 4th - the Task Force declared Suhl finally captured, and CCA reverted back to TF Ahee.



In reviewing the archival information â?? the following are somewhat interesting facts as they pertain to Krieghoff and all the gun manufacturers located in Suhl:

Several major firearm factories were captured in Suhl and surrounding area including:
- Krieghoff (machine guns/pistols)
- Gustloff-Werke (â??7.92mm MG 42â?� and MG34)
- J.P. Sauer
- Haenel - Haenel Schmeisser (MP41)
One factory alone was estimated to have 500 machine pistols and 500 to 1000 shot guns.

Reported Machinery/Equipment â?? Suhl (Source â?? US Archives)
- 101 lathes;
- 83 milling machines
- 35 drill presses
- 6 punch presses

Reported Small Arms â?? Suhl (Source â?? US Archives)
At least 3,500 machine pistols with sufficient parts for an additional 5,000 captured. Over a million rounds of small arms ammunition. Four main factories and over 50 small, decentralized plants.

Post War Control of Suhl and Krieghoff History
Again, while Mr. Gibson presents that Suhl was under US control until September, 1945 â?? in fact, US forces pulled back in the opening days of July (2, July 1945 to be exact). From a Krieghoff collectorâ??s standpoint, this is a vital piece of information as it reflects on the actual time-line that â??Post War Krieghoff" may have been produced, by whom and in what order the different variations may have appeared.

Coming from Saxonia, the Soviets first occupied the Eastern Thuringian areas on July 3, 1945 by reaching and controlling Weimar and Erfurt and to the South, Soviet occupation in Thuringia Schmalkalden and Suhl took place on July 3rd as well. On 9 July 1945 the Soviet military administration (SMATh) took active control of all forms of government in the Thuringia region, including the local government set up by the US established under Dr. Hermann L Brill, a Thuringia born native who was to restore a â??free Thuringiaâ?�. In fact, Dr. Brill fled his native Thuringia in September 1945, after being arrested twice by the Soviets for extended questioning.

Therefore, from a â??post warâ?� Krieghoff production standpoint, only 2.5 months need to be accounted for as to how Post War variations came about. To this point, after Suhl was captured, one noted comment by a member of the campaign included (unit and battery name omitted, for now).

â??At that time â?? there was more loot then we could carry. Everyone had a camera and a pistol, at least one of eachâ?¦. That area was ripe since almost every house in the city manufactured some kind of a gun or part of a gun â?? and didnâ??t matter if it was for the Walther plant or those in Suhl. Battery â?? â?? of our unit stationed in Suhl wasnâ??t doing badly, but they had to set up an assembly only since their pistols were largely in parts still.â?� (US Veteran of the campaign referring to the Krieghoff facility â?? name and Battery omitted until/unless publication)

Based on that research point, it appears that the first Post War variation taken out of the factory were by individuals assigned to guard the Krieghoff factory itself. Further, as noted by another from that same unit: â??Well, there wasnâ??t a lot of time to spend making these Lugers, as we were busy with our assignments, and not many of us knew how to do it anyway. The toughest part was finding barrels and the plates that fit on the sides of them. I'm going to guess only about 15 or 20 of the guys actually got one made anyway. Besides, you could find one already made from a buddy whoâ??d want to trade you something for it. Cameras, wine and binoculars were pretty good for trading, too.â?�

The Soviet Perspective
After Soviet occupation of the Thuringia district, they begin to pay themselves â??war reparationsâ?� and literally â??stripâ?� any known asset out of Suhl.. Under this â??Reparation Act to the USSRâ?� (as it was officially documented within the Russian Archives), Suhl had a total of 4,623 pieces of light & heavy tooling, machines and equipment confiscated and sent to various Russian controlled sites within the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The list includes: milling machines, lathes, pattern machines, â??gun making toolingâ?�; presses, stamping equipment, etc. Additionally, they also â??confiscatedâ?� over 814 tools and equipment for manufacturing bicycles and horse buggies.

Upon â??confiscatingâ?� this equipment under the Reparation Act, most of the major factories are blasted apart after any office equipment is also taken (desks, chairs, filing cabinets, etc.). As well, contrary to conventional wisdom â?? much of the paper archives from the gun makers of Suhl were also kept. I suspect in case the Russians thought they might have either a need to know how to set up the tooling and/or learn some manufacturing shortcuts.

The final comment Iâ??ll make â?? and share with the reader, is that I found a Russian Battle Map from the Russian archives (a scan of my copy below - the original somewhat large), and when I first saw it â?? gave me a moment to pause. This map is dated April 3rd, 1945 (the day Suhl was attacked by the US 11th CCA), and when viewed in color â?? shows tremendous sweeping blood red colors as the Russian Troops to designate the Troop movements into the Thuringia district after crossing over from Austria. After conducting this research for years to assemble the important data â?? one look at this map, and I understood immediately why Suhl and the Thuringia district fell into the hands of the Russians. In short â?? theirs was not a â??warâ?� â?? theirs was a â??vengeanceâ?�.



Respectfully,
John Dunkle