pavle wrote:I am talking about a former member of the GD who missed the evacuation with the main part of GD from Memel and who fled across the Frisches Nehrung towards Danzig, then he was transported to Zoppot to build up the defences there(an scrambled alarm unit) and later on he ended up fighting in Bróssel.
Hi Pavle,
Well, I've found this thread again! I live in Gdansk (Danzig) and am focused on its war history. I've collected Saft, Pantenius and some other sources, including divisional chronicles. None of them says about the GD detachment fighting near Danzig/Zoppot/Gotenhafen.
When you mention a former member of GD, you think of Guy Sayer, the author of the book "Forgotten Soldier", right? Please note that there are many questions to the factual value of this book. Personally, I've chcecked in a full database that there is NO place named "Broessel" (and similar) in the radius of 50 km from Danzig/Zoppot/Gotenhafen. The one and only, which could fit, is the suburb of Danzig, named Broesen. I live some 1-2 km from Broesen, so trust me, I know the place very well. I read the corresponding part of Sayer's book carefully many times and I categorically say, that Broesen surely is
not the place where he could have been fighting. The timeline of Sayer's fights and retreats just doesn't fit the real situation in this area. If he had been fighting in Broesen, he wouldn't have had a single chance to get back to Gotenhafen as he describes. The description fits to some village placed 5-10 km West from Gdansk/Zoppot/Gotenhafen (then the timeline would fit the reality), but - again - there was not a single foxhole named similiarly to "Broessel".
According Broesen, it wasn't defended by GR62 FHH, but by the Kgr. 73 (rest of 73.ID plus Marine Schuetzen Bataillon 109). The chronicle of 7.ID (which GR62 belonged to) doesn't mention any GD unit in this area. Btw. This is my favourite unit, as they fought right where I live today and their command post was in the building of my secondary school - the holes in the bricks made by shelling are still visible

The interesting thing is that the chronicle of 7.ID mentions a SS-unit which held positions in Broesen. Well, this is impossible to confirm, but I think that they could be the rest of the Latvian-SS which previously fought together with Kgr.73 in the Oliva Forest, NW of Gdansk.
Best regards from the very heart of the old battlefield,
Michal (from Flugplatz Langfuhr)