Quiztime: Otto Bracht's Iron Cross 2nd Class

[PKeating]

Stijn David is excluded from this quiz because he knows the answer! So, where did Otto Bracht earn the EK2 and what do you think he was doing, or had been doing, when he was recommended for it?

PK

[Chris Boonzaier]

Stijn=Cholm.

[PKeating]

Getting warmer but there's still an icicle on your nose...

Hoch in die Lufte schwebt unser Vogel...

Here's a photo of Otto Bracht, which I found by chance in the ECPA-D archives in Fort d'Ivry.

PK

Edited April 6, 2007 by PKeating

[J Temple-West]

The date suggests D-Day, Normandy?or is that a little too easy?

[PKeating]

'Fraid so, John! LOL! If it's any consolation, guys, it took me a while to work it out!

Edited April 6, 2007 by PKeating

[Chris Boonzaier]

Obviously something to do with gliders? Authorised on the 6th of June, so it may have happened a week or two earlier?

[Chris Boonzaier]

A word that is almost like Titties but not so pretty?

[PKeating]

I'll allow gliders!

PK

[PKeating]

Titties? Oh...I see!

P

[Chris Boonzaier]

(I did not want to guess to early....) lets see what the others come up with...

[PKeating]

No Marshall Tittio ?

That's what I thought. And it's possible. But he would have to have been seconded to another transport squadron for R?sselsprung. Which is entirely possible given the need for glider pilots for the Tito operation. However, I am not sure that the EK2 document would have come from the Fallschirm-Armee Oberkommando in that case.

Otto Bracht flew gliders for sport before and after WW2: http://lsg-lippe.de/htm/ve_gesch.htm

PK

[PKeating]

Collage, showing the rare Military Glider Pilot Licence.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Tito or no Tito... its a damned nice group to have... the Front photo is great, a really objective shot, not a "Get a shot of me for my album, wait, let me take my specs off.... do I look fat from this angle... wait, wait... gotta get the hat on right...." kinda photo.

[Bear]

Hello,

It seems Otto had a rough day and it looks as though his glasses are broken.

thanks,

barry

[PKeating]

3./LLG2 was formed in August 1942 as part of I./LLG2. From April to September 1943, I Gruppe was in southern France, based consecutively at Orange, Nancy and Istres. I Gruppe flew Heinkel He111 and Go242s. 3./LLG2 took eight Go242s to Naples on 11.9.1943 and from there to Catania on 13.7.1943. The rest of the Gruppe followed them on 14.7.1943 and airlifted 1. Fallschirmj?ger-Division?s heavy equipment to Sicily on 20.7.1943. However, 3./LLG2?s crews had returned to Istres on 19.7.1943.

After airlifting elements of 2. Fallschirmj?ger-Division to Rome to disarm Italian forces early in August 1943, I./LLG2 returned to France and thence to Hagenau, in Germany, in September 1943, remaining there until June 1944, when they flew back to Istres. I./LLG2 left France in September 1944.

The photograph I found in the French ECPA-D archives at Fort d?Ivry of Otto Bracht in combat kit was from a roll of film shot by a Luftwaffe photo-reporter of the Fallschirm-Propaganda-Kompanie in the Ukraine sometime during the winter of 1943/44. 2. FJD had been transferred from Italy to the southern sector of the Eastern Front in November 1943. Or, rather, the rump of 2. FJD had been transferred to Shitomir (which sort of rhymes with Tito), the rest being taken as cadre for the newly-forming 4. FJD.

The heavily understrength division, comprising I./FJR2, III./FJR2, IV./FJR2, II./FJR5 and some supporting arms, fought at Shitomir and then at Kirovograd in January 1944. Retreating through Krioj Rog, Uman, Novgorodka and Kiev, April 1944 found the remnants of 2. FJD in the Kishinev zone, from where they were moved back to Germany for R&R and thence to Western France.

So, there are two possibilities: Bracht?s EK2 could have been for something he did when on the ground with 2. FJD in the southern USSR after airlanding reinforcements or supplies, perhaps during the Battle of Kirovograd, or it could have been for the Battle of Drvar on 25/26.5.1944. The OKW issued their Drvar communiqu? on 6.6.1944 and awards were made for Drvar on and around that date. If seconded to pilot a DFS 230 into Drvar, Bracht would have come from Hagenau and would have been back there by the evening of 26.5.1944 or the following day and from there to Istres when news of the Allied landings broke.

Otto Bracht could have been seconded for the Drvar operation on 25.5.1944. Although LLG2 was primarily equipped with the huge Gotha 242 gliders, they also flew DFS 230s and Bracht would have been DFS 230-qualified. As far as I know, glider pilots and other attached personnel were evacuated from Drvar shortly after the end of the battle on the morning of 26.5.1944. So his EK2 could easily have been for Drvar but issued by the FS-AOK in France, whose HQ was in Nancy, on 6.6.1944 along with other awards. The Luftwaffe awardee lists would have been telegrammed or telexed to local Luftwaffe headquarters so it would make sense. The document is handsigned by General Walter Lackner in the absence of Generaloberst Student.

I haven?t researched airlandings in the Ukraine during the fighting withdrawal in the winter of 1943/44 but if anyone has any information to share, I would be grateful to see it. I would also be interested in readers? opinions. It?s a bit of a trick quiz or ?non-quiz? but what do you think? I would love it to be a Drvar award but it could be for southern Russia.

PK

[Bernhard H.Holst]

Hello Prosper.

I believe the action during which this fellow distinguished himself, was theGerman airborne / land forces action against the French Resistance formations in the Vercors area. If recollection serves right the timeframe is before D-Day (May 1944) to get rid of a much troublesome partisan activity. And I also believe the resistance formations were simply called "Vercors".

Bernhard H. Holst

[PKeating]

I thought of that but upon checking it out, the Vercors battles took place in June and July 1944, with the gliderborne assault on 23.7.1944.

PK

Edited April 7, 2007 by PKeating

[Stijn David]

Otto Bracht = Hehehe, i know that one

[PKeating]

Paddy