Fallschirm snipers?

[Raschdorf]

Did the Fallschirmjager have snipers?

My Dad and I have a reenacting club out here in Nevada. We and our Fallschirmjager partners in arms fight against the American 10th Mountain Dv. Everyone of us that fights as Germans, or Italians...portray a Regiment of the 4/Fallsch.Dv. As you might know that division has many Italian volintiers now that the Italian government turned it's back on the Fatherland, and collaborates what's left of there army with the Allied Armies. Those Italians that will refuse the armistice will volunteer for a German unit and continiue fighting as an Axis power.
With all these mix and mach events happening so close to the end of the war, and the Fallschirmjager remaining as foot soldiers - one does wonder - did the Fallschirmjager have snipers? Will someone please answer this question.

[img]file:///C:/My%20Documents/Alex%20Pictures/ScanImage52b.jpg[/img]


[img]file://C:My DocumentsAlex PicturesObergefreiter, Alexander Raschdorf.jpg[/img]

[John Hodgin]

Alex, I cannot see either of your images. Can anyone else see them? This thread has a strange slant to it so far, hummm.

Yes, there were Fj snipers, but I know little about them. Such as, if they had specific sniper training or were just excellent marksmen that were given scoped rifles. Willi was a sniper collector long before he began collecting Fallschirmjäger so I'm sure he can contribute more. I even think there was a thread about this in the past.
John

[Prosper Keating]

Willi has a very nice period photograph showing paratroopers with sniper rifles covering a knocked-out T34 as their company commander checks it out but they are SS-Fallschirmjäger on the Eastern Front in 1945. It's part of a roll of film shot by an SS-Kriegsberichter but it's one of the images that wasn't published in the German press at the time. Below is the one that was published. The two FJ with sniper rifles have been cropped form the image but in the original prints they are standing on the right. Perhaps Willi can oblige with his image. I have a copy of it somewhere but I'll leave it to him as he knows more about sniper-related subjects than me...and indeed most other people on these forums.

Prosper

[John Hodgin]

Hi Prosper,

There were Luftwaffe Fj snipers on the western front as well, I remember reading accounts of British and US troops that faced them....they were excellent marksmen.
jh

[Mike C]

There is, as well, at least one picture of a FJ patrol in Italy - with the lead man carrying a Kar 98K with scope. The men are dressed (as I remember) in smocks and FJ helmets. It is impossible to say when and where - but my sense is 4th FJ Division in the "wadis" around Anzio. Will be away for a couple of days but will look for the picture on my return.

Mike

[Willi Z.]

Hmmm.........interesting start to this thread. Glad we recovered. Re-enacting matters belong in the Living History section.

FJ sniper on Kreta. This wounded sniper (note goggles and k98 bando) is carrying a super early low turret sniper with a Zf39 4x Hensoldt scope and rubber eyepiece.

[Willi Z.]

FJ with Zf41 "marksman" k98 at Monte Cassino.

[Willi Z.]

FJ Pionier with scope can for the Zf41 1.5x scope.

[Willi Z.]

The photo that Prosper was referring to.

[Willi Z.]

Though the photo calls these guys SS FJs, the sniper "could" be regular Waffen SS. Note the infantry gear, the "dot44" reversible winter parka and the M43. Looks like he has a high turret sniper with a "bek" Zf42 4x scope.

[Willi Z.]

Another FJ on Kreta apparently getting a well-deserved rest. Hard to see exactly what his scope setup is, but it looks like another low turret.

[Steve in Florida]

Re: That first photo Willi posted. The guy in the center is saying "Look, Tommy didn't bring his weapon to an island invasion. Everybody point and laugh at him." (kinda looks like Gilbert Goddfrey). I've personally examined a Kar98K short side rail sniper and an MP43 both with gratuitous Luft markings all over the rifles, scopes, and mounts. Doubt these were for Flak or aviator usage

[Prosper Keating]

Though the photo calls these guys SS FJs, the sniper "could" be regular Waffen SS. Note the infantry gear, the "dot44" reversible winter parka and the M43. Looks like he has a high turret sniper with a "bek" Zf42 4x scope.

True. They could be members of SS-Jagdverband Mitte, who fought side-by-side with SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 in these last battles. That said, some of the SS paratroopers were wearing dot pattern parkas and two-piece combat suits with M43s by this stage. An order had gone out early in 1945 that only members of the para bn who were fit for parachute training were to be issued with FJ kit. It was pretty irrelevant by then, of course, as para training had effectively ceased in Germany and the occupied territories by October 1944. But they could be stray Waffen-SS men recruited from one of the depots, hospitals or transit points and 'pressganged' into Skorzeny's ad hoc kampfgruppe. I doubt it though because their kit is apparently in such good order.

PK

[Ben]

Hmmm.........interesting start to this thread. Glad we recovered. Re-enacting matters belong in the Living History section.

FJ sniper on Kreta. This wounded sniper (note goggles and k98 bando) is carrying a super early low turret sniper with a Zf39 4x Hensoldt scope and rubber eyepiece.

Willi,

if you look at the dial of his scope you will see that the scope set-up is actually a Carl Zeiss Jena Zielvier (also a scope of the ZF39 family) with, as you said, low turret mount. Interesting detail is that the scope has the rubber eye piece. A left over practice from WWI which wasn't very often used in WWII.

You will probably have the whole serie of pictures as well where this particular shot came from. One thing of interest is that one of the Australian soldiers is wearing Fallschirmjäger boots! Wonder what happened next. Or?? Just another propaganda shoot with Germans acting as Allied?

Cheers,

Ben

[Willi Z.]

Will add some more on this tonight.

Damn Ben, good eye! You are correct. The elevation dial on a Zeiss scope faces to the rear, to the front on a Hensoldt scope. This one faces to the rear.

That photo is from about 15 shots of this particular Gruppe on Kreta. They advance through some Allied postions, past some bodies and take a number of POWs. Of interest is to note that the sniper is part of a 10-man Gruppe, something I wanted to expand upon later.

Willi