After Action Report
Ft. Custer, Michigan
März 05-07, 1999.
The allies were on the march toward the Siegfried line, when the soldaten of the LAH were quickly moved to seal a hole that was opened by the omnipresent allies pursuit toward the Fatherland. After arriving at our barracks, the weather started to change for the worse. A quick storm blew in and started dumping snow over the area. We shared a barracks with the 9th SS, 2nd Panzer, and a few Fallschirmjägers. After visiting the local brothel for the evening, the Soldaten of the LAH retired with only a few stragglers coming in through the night, some from their long journey from the Fatherland, and others that stumbled in from the brothel. Untersturmführer Otto Woods was the overall LAH Kommandeur. The morning of the 6th was as beautiful as it gets. Final count 10 inches of white powder, and 15 LAH soldaten. After the morning formation was pushed back several times, due to the inaccessibility of the area for incoming soldiers to register. Once the word was passed down to muster, the morning formation was held and the LAH was given the task to push the allies out of a stronghold of buildings that they had captured. After deploying to the field by a BMW bus the German units went to seek out and destroy the enemy. Final count was around 50 German Soldaten and between 30-40 Allies.
After several small engagements the brunt of the LAH and German units assaulted the block house, after trying to help the attackers with smoke Untersharführer Larry Montgomery and Panzerobergrenadier Kurt Kroeck, inadvertently lit a grenade and proceeded to blow themselves up, luckily I was behind Larry, and he took the full blunt of the explosion, after changing our shorts, the allied blockhouse fell to the onslaught of the aggressive LAH. During this engagement Untersturmführer Woods went back to the rear to be treated for mild frostbite to his feet. After being treated and released with a borrowed pair of felt boots, he returned to lead the LAH for their second scenario.
After eating a small lunch in the former allied stronghold, with the captured enemy watching, the unit Kommandeurs were briefed on the second scenario. Soldiers of the LAH were instructed to capture a crossroad and hold it. While maneuvering to the objective, a group of Brit Para's were also enroute to the crossroads, and were not expecting to be engaged so early, and they were cut down with the ferocity of the LAH. After moving out toward the objective once again, several of our Kamerads were cut down by enemy snipers. The German units pushed on and fought the enemy head on while several LAH and 9th SS soldaten outflanked the enemy and hit them on their right side, the battle ended up in the middle of a U.S. Army Radio Station with several modern GI's looking confused. Even these GI's couldn't help the enemy from the onslaught. The second scenario ended with another German victory!!!!! The soldiers mustered into formation and a vote was taken to either return to the barracks, or have a third scenario. Final vote was to have a third scenario, after several of the German and Allied soldiers returned. The third scenario started, final count was around 20 German and 20 Allied soldiers. The scenario consisted of both groups were to go toward the block house, and whoever got their first they were on the defensive. After moving toward the objective the German units came under fire from the Allied held blockhouse. (Actually the allies left around five minutes earlier, so they had the advantage) After numerous attempts to gain access to the stronghold, Untersturmführer Woods, Panzergrenadier Lance Varga, and another Soldaten managed to find the tunnel complex to the stronghold. After navigating the tunnels Panzergrenadier Varga gained access to the basement floor through a manhole cover and shot an enemy soldier covering the basement with the Untersturmführers' P-38. After negotiating up to the third floor, a door was kicked in and three Brit Para's were captured by Panzergrenadier Varga with the other rooms being cleared by Otto Woods. While this main attack was on Panzerobergrenadier Craig Lewis cleared the second floor of all enemy, before becoming a casualty of the 3 Brit Para's that were captured following his assault. The final scenario ended with a great day of fighting in a once in a lifetime snow environment. The LAH soldaten then mustered and marched back to our barracks, with the onlookers of the other allied and German units watching...
During the final formation several soldaten were promoted. Panzerobergrenadier Craig Lewis and Chris Benecke to Sturmann, SS-Kandidat Dale Golden received his coveted Cuff Title, and Panzergrenadier Lance Varga received a Kriegsverdienst Kreuz I Klasse (War Service Cross without Swords 1st Class) for helping a real wounded GI last year at Camden.
Special recognition to SS-Kandidat Tripp Whitlow for his first hard fought battle.
The Good:
1. Overall turnout of LAH soldaten was good for weather conditions.
2. 10 inches of snow fell over the night, got to finally use those overwhites, and felt boots.
3. The men of the LAH performed well, despite the inclement weather. (Except more people enjoyed it than not)
The Bad:
1. The usual John Wayne GI's. (The British as usual were very good at taking their hits...HOORAY to them)
The Ugly:
1. A blatant FARB by another SS unit which had a female SS member on the front line with East German Boots, uniform, and a modern Russian Tokarev pistol.