Last Two Men Standing

It all starts at the school of the Luftwaffe" at Wermsdorf in Germany. This was a elite training school of the Luftwaffe. The recruits were 14 years old when they went to this school and it's important to mention that this school had nothing to do with National Socialism, it was a elite school of the German Wehrmacht (Luftwaffe). With no right arms stretched skywards, Hitler decided that this school had to close down. it wasn't national socialistic enough to be placed under the Hitler Youth. The problem with this group was avoided by simply renaming the school. So the group never became a part of the Hitler Youth but started training to become an elite unit of the Luftwaffe. They were given some infantry training but not the kind that would prepare them for the Hürtgen Forest.

For the Luftwaffen troops, they had been isolated from most of the war for three years while their homeland was being attacked from the west and the from the east. Now they were very happy that they would finally get their chance to help defend their homeland. They went into the Hürtgen Forest singing and as fanatic as hell, believing that they would throw the Americans back into the North Sea. Their battle happiness lasted until the very first artillery barrage. That's when they found out what war really means, they never heard a shot fired in anger.

Unlike many other German units, this group was pretty well armed and had several MG-42s and enough ammunition to stop the Veteran American 9th ID's attack on Schmidt. This was a rather remarkable accomplishment for a bunch of 17 year olds. But after three weeks of constant combat at Raffelsbrand, the US 60th/9th ID had all but annihilated 24th Luftwaffen Fortress Battalion. Trying to save some of these paratroops, Commander Liniger, the groups leader, wrote a letter to the Commander of the Luftwaffe, Herman Goring in an attempt to salvage this unit. He stressed that it would be a waste to have this elite group of paratroopers wiped out in a forest fight, but the letter never reached Goring.

After the Hürtgen Forest, the remains of the XXIV LFB were pulled out and sent to Winterswijk in Holland where they received some parachute training and at the NCO school they only were trained in small glider-planes. - there wasn't much left of the Luftwaffe during those days. It was at Winterswijk where Commander von der Heydte showed up (November 44) and picked out 15 men from the original XXIV LFB for the planned jump in the Bulge. -- of a total of 1200 men.

The remnants of LFB group (the fifteen men who were now really paratroopers) made the jump in the Battle of the Bulge. They landed in a ditch on some crossroads and waited for the German tanks that they were to join. They were without supplies with no radios. Some tanks did come but they were American and came from the direction of Eipen which indicated they were probably from the American's Big Red One outfit. The Americans saw the troops lying in the ditch and waved at them thinking they were Americans since the German Paratrooper helmets look a bit like the American helmets. The Germans waved back. No shots were fired.

When the German Paratroopers realized that their tanks wouldn't come and now without supplies, radio, food or ammo, they left their position at the crossroads and tried walking back to the German lines near Monschau. After three days, they made it only to find out that their Commander von de Heydte had been taken prisoner so they were ordered on to Reichswald. There they were ordered to hold position against the British flamethrower tanks that were breaking through. It was a slaughter. The few survivors were taken prisoner and the war finally ended for them.

Conclusions:

This story was made possible largely through the efforts of Ron van Rijt who is in many of the short war tales on this site. He is making an effort to tie two of the participants together for greetings. One is from the German site and one is from the American side. Both of the gentlemen were firing at each other as the above battle ended and, as Ron says, luckily they were both lousy shots. The American soldier is Don Stibitz and his picture is below on the left. His stories can be reached at: •The Million Dollar Wound by Donald Stibitz

From an e-mail from Ron:

As I told you, of the 15 men from the XXIV LFB who jumped in the Bulge, only Kurt and his friend are left today.

I wrote you in my last email that this jump failed and how it went, and after the survivors reached German lines near Monschau, they were send into the Reichswald; - Kurt told me that it was horrible to fight against flame throwing tanks, it probably was a Polish tank-brigade.

Kurt managed to get out and after retreating to the Rhine river, he was taken prisoner on March 27 where the war ended for him. For me, I think it's mighty interesting to know both Don and Kurt; - try to imagine, they didn't, and still don't even know each other, but in 1944 at Raffelsbrand there was only 50, maybe 100 yards between them, .... and they were trying to kill each other. -- they don't know, but I know. Isn't this really something ? ('m glad that both of them were lousy shooters so today I can call both of them my friend).

It's just great to study WWII from both sides. Ron

Well, I also can mention that after the XXIV LFB left Raffelsbrand end of October 44, the 272 VGD took over the position and the pillboxes; - their report can be read in the Günter Schmidt report on your site. - they held their position till early February 45 when the US 78th ID broke through. - the 5 month battle for Raffelsbrand ended.

Guess that's about it.