Grüß Di' Gebirgspioniere,
Well, I checked my references last night. Looks like the Gebirgspioniere in the album are part of what General Hubert Lanz (commander, 1.GJD) calls the "Tag der [Gebirgs-]Pioniere" or "Day of the [Mountain] Engineers." September 1941 found both the 1st and 4th Gebirgsdivisions, along with the Rumanian Mountain Corps, on the banks of the Dnjepr River. Apparently, an army independent unit, Gebirgs-Pionier-Regiment-Stabes 620, was brought in to head up the making of the bridgehead across the Dnjepr River. The Gebirgspionier Batallions from both the 1st and 4th Gebirgsdivisions, along with a Romanian Bridge-building Company were put under the command of Geb.Pio.Rgt.Stabes 620. They built two bridge spans...one 300 meters long and the other 450 meters...under constant enemy artillery fire and areial bombardment. Unfortunately, none of my references have maps of the Dnjepr river crossing...have maps for August and October!!! So, we still don't know which unit this album belongs to....unless we can find out which unit the fallen Gebirgspionier belonged to.
Here's a little Gebirgsjäger humor about the "Jagerbart:"
Gebirgspioniere vor!
Well, I checked my references last night. Looks like the Gebirgspioniere in the album are part of what General Hubert Lanz (commander, 1.GJD) calls the "Tag der [Gebirgs-]Pioniere" or "Day of the [Mountain] Engineers." September 1941 found both the 1st and 4th Gebirgsdivisions, along with the Rumanian Mountain Corps, on the banks of the Dnjepr River. Apparently, an army independent unit, Gebirgs-Pionier-Regiment-Stabes 620, was brought in to head up the making of the bridgehead across the Dnjepr River. The Gebirgspionier Batallions from both the 1st and 4th Gebirgsdivisions, along with a Romanian Bridge-building Company were put under the command of Geb.Pio.Rgt.Stabes 620. They built two bridge spans...one 300 meters long and the other 450 meters...under constant enemy artillery fire and areial bombardment. Unfortunately, none of my references have maps of the Dnjepr river crossing...have maps for August and October!!! So, we still don't know which unit this album belongs to....unless we can find out which unit the fallen Gebirgspionier belonged to.
Here's a little Gebirgsjäger humor about the "Jagerbart:"
Gebirgspioniere vor!
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