Unternehmen "Felix"
In October when the Battle of Britain
was definitely lost by the German Luftwaffe, Unternehmen "Seelöwe"
was called off and the 1. Gebirgs-Division was moved again to the
French Alps near the Swiss border.
Here near Besancon Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment
98 along with;
- Grenadier-Regiment "Großdeutschland"
- Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regiment 79,
- Pionier-Regiment "Geiger" (including 1 Gebirgs-Pionier-Bataillon)
- 1-2 Nebelwerfer-Abteilungen
- 1 Gebirgs-Nachrichten-Abteilung (Battalion)
plus supporting units were formed into a Sturmdivison
(Assault Division) - a kind of a Task Force - for the proposed Unternehmen
"Felix", the attack on the British fortress of Gibraltar.
The Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 98 and
the other units of the division underwent alpine training near Besancon
in an area that, to some extent, resembled the geographical situation of
the rock of Gibraltar.
|
|
|
| The Jägers, as Gabriel Kopold
later told, were rather sure that they would have succeeded in taking the
British fortress. But "Felix" as was "Seelöwe" were called off, and
until spring of 1941 Gabriel Kopold and his comrades enjoyed a relatively
quiet time in the French alps. |
|
|
