Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knights Cross by Albrecht Wacker

Author:Albrecht Wacker [Wacker, Albrecht]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2008-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Worse than hungry foxes

The German forces now regrouped, integrating Romanian units into their ranks. But the fighting force of their Romanian allies was so low, because of their lack of experience and equipment, that they brought no lasting relief. 3 Gebirgsjäger Division was in a very bad state once again as regards personnel and equipment and could only repair some of the damage by absorbing the scattered units and equipment of dispersed divisions. In addition more than a third of 3 GD was transferred just ten days later, on 17 April, to support a seriously endangered section of the front, where it was placed under the command of the divisions already posted there. Sepp was lucky to remain with the rest of the division, because what was designated ‘Combat Group Rhode’ (Kdr. GJR 138) – of which GJR 138 was the principal element – subsequently sustained awful losses of more than 800 men.

Fate was kind to the rest of the division for a few weeks. May showed itself from its best angle as regards the weather, and in GJR 144’s sector of the front, on the banks of the Dniester, the war seemed to take a break. Their opponents were entrenched within firing range but limited themselves to a ‘loose’ static fight – which means that they exchanged occasional mortar and machine-gun fire and to relieve the boredom sent out small patrols from time to time. The river between the adversaries was about 300 or 400m wide, and it wasn’t possible for the marksmen to creep between the enemy lines and search out good shooting positions. So Sepp toured the positions of his unit daily and confined himself to shooting at special targets pointed out by his comrades. At distances of up to 400m it was art more than accuracy if he managed to hit a head. But logically, he calculated, the demoralizing effect on those who escaped his projectiles by a hair’s breadth when they thought themselves at a safe distance would be considerable.

The daily routine of warfare seemed to diffuse a soldier’s sense of danger. As a rule he could not look upon his enemy’s fire as a direct and personal threat. Only if he was targeted by a single weapon or was involved in single combat man to man did he get the feeling of individual menace again, the feeling that ‘they’re out to get me’. Selective shooting by invisible marksmen scared even the most experienced soldiers. The marksman represented an individualized threat to his life. This explains the amazing impact of such soldiers on the battlefield, where, for example, a single marksman could drive an entire company into cover for hours. They would be seized by a kind of psychological paralysis, in which every single man felt individually threatened and feared that the slightest movement would make him the shooter’s next victim.

Generally a soldier has to live with the constant awareness of his own vulnerability and potential death. Many fail to bear up under this psychological load and in action they panic.

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