Battle for Troyes 1940 question

[scott_holst]

Hi-

I came across just a few lines of words on a small counter attack by French forces versus the Totenkopf Division at the town of Troyes in June 1940. All that was mentioned was the French counter-attacking with old world war one tanks and the SS defending with 37L ATG's and later 105 artillery pieces being brought up to bolster the SS defense.

Can someone tell me what French unit was involved in this attack, and what other equipment the French had at this battle?

This I think might be the very first scenario where SS and French troops actually battled against each other in 1940. Also, this scenario is for my SS pack and will use one of the KGP maps to represent the battle.

thank you

Scott

[churchill]

bonjour
la division totenkoppf n'a jamais combattu dans les rue de troyes, mais à romilly sur seine apparemment.
pour troyes , les allemands etait les 3,4,5 10eme panzer division de von kleist.
les combat ont eu lieu en periphérique essentiellement.
la ville a surtout subi de lourd bombardement qui ont destabilisé la défense.
je suis originaire de l'aube si tu as des questions , n'hesite pas.
merci

[Jérôme]

Which day ?
Any further clue ?

[scott_holst]

Hii-

Many thanks thus far for your help. Much appreciated. As for the battle, I found this tiny paragraph on this web sight:

http://www.germanwarmachine.com/waffenss/1940/west.htm

From what I can see, it looks like this action was faught on June 5th but I still need to know which French units were at this battle.

Scott

[churchill]

la bataille de troyes à eu lieu essentiellement le 15 juin 1940, le 13 et 14 ayant ete les plus durs au point de vue des bombardements.
je ne connais pas exactement les unités qui ont combattu dans troyes, mais dans l'aube il y a eu :
le 2e gc ( groupement  cuirassé), la 4e dlm (division legere mecanisé), la 7e DLM
la 2e,10e,14e,20e,45e,82e division d'infanterie.

[Jérôme]

Voici le passage mentionné par Scott :

The Battle of France
The German High Command now redirected its panzers south to smash the remaining French units defending Paris along the Somme. The SS units moved to their jump-off positions. The Leibstandarte was poised to strike at Soissons, north of Paris. The SS-VT was posted nearby and the Totenkopf was positioned to the east.

German troops surged southwards on 5 June and met only minimal resistance from the demoralized French Army. Columns of Leibstandarte troops skirted to the east of Paris and headed towards Vichy in central France. The regiment fought several brief skirmishes with pockets of French troops, but its main problem was finding a route through the roads jammed with German supply columns and refugees. Thousands of French soldiers were captured, and Dietrich also took the opportunity to enhance his art collection from several French chateaux. In one notable incident the élite SS regiment found itself in a brief battle with a detachment of World War I French tanks, which were impervious to its 37mm anti-tank guns. The regiment's 105mm field guns had to be brought up to knock them out.

The SS-VT pushed towards Troyes and fought a stiff action with retreating French troops. Resistance then broke, and soon the SS men were motoring westwards towards Bourdeaux. The Totenkopf Division now surged south towards Dijon and Lyon. A few French Moroccan units did put up resistance to Eicke's men, who treated any non-white prisoners with great brutality, executing them on the spot.


Il est vrai que c'est très bref.
Une action donc postérieure au 5 juin.
A lire le texte il n'est même pas sûr que cette action ait eu lieu près de Troyes ...
La meilleure chance pour aider Scott c'est de tomber sur quelqu'un qui aurait connaissance ou des notes sur cet engagement de la Totenkopf.

[barns]

je suis tombé sur ce lien mais pas eu le temps de l'éplucher....

http://www.chars-francais.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=7&id=28&Itemid=71

[churchill]

bonjour jerome
comme indiqué dans mes messages je suis originaire de l'aube et vit à 15 km de troyes.
j'ai un livre sur cette période, trés précis sur les evenements.
rien n'indique que la totenkopf c'est battu à troyes.
par contre cette derniére est passé à romilly ou nogent.
des massacres de prisonnier on eut lieu dans l'aube à montgeu ( totenkopf ??) rien ne peut laisser supposer cela.
je vais essayer de chercher mais à ma connaissance rien ne peut dire que cette division se soit battu à troyes.

par contre ce qui est sur c'est la date du combat dans troyes le 15 juin, date à laquelle un jeune lieutenant de 20 ans trouvera  la mort le jour de son anniversaire , (Taittenger).

je suis désoler de ne pas pouvoir parler en anglais.
par ailleurs je cherche un joueur aubois

merci

[scott_holst]

Hi all-

Once more thank you all the help you guys have given me. I would like to appologize for posting here and not speaking French, I feel bad about that.

As for the Battle, I actually went downstairs to my basement and found a book called Soldiers of Destruction" by Charles Sydnor which actually details a battle between the Totenkopf and Morrocan troops near Dijon  around June 18th.

Those Moroccan troops were close combat exoert with their knives kind of like the Gurka's. The SS hate going into Close Combat with those guys. Anyway, a great scenario will be made from this action. Just have to find out which Moroccan unit was there.


Scott

[barns]

hello,

9° Régiment Spahis Marocains perhaps fighting at Vercel near Besançon

[Robin]

I would like to appologize for posting here and not speaking French, I feel bad about that.

No need to: some of us are answering if French, even while they don't know if you will understand a word of their post.

[scott_holst]

Hi all-

Sorry for not responding sooner to some of the PM's sent out. I was at ASLOK : )

Anyway, a special thanks to hugo , who sent me a PM with a detailed battle report of the SS fighting in France.


Scott