User blog:El Alamein/The Malmedy Survivors vs. the Dunkirk Evacuees



It's a battle between two of the most beleaguered Allied soldiers of the Second World War as the Malmedy Survivors, the few Americans who escaped being killed in the open snow by the 1st SS Panzer Division at the Malmedy Massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, take up arms against the Dunkirk Evacuees, the British soldiers who desperately held out against an unstoppable German advance long enough to pull back to relative safety across the English Channel! Both warriors went through hell in their last-ditch efforts to survive some of World War II's most unforgiving episodes, but when the last ragged breaths of the dying have faded into silence, only one will be the deadliest warrior!

Malmedy Survivors




The Malmedy Survivors were 43 men left of about 120 that managed to escape ferocious German guns after their captors of the 1st SS Panzer Divison opened fire on their mostly unarmed prisoners. The massacre took place on December 17, 1944, in a field near the Belgian town of Malmedy. The men who made it back to Allied lines faced an intense brutal winter's cold, SS search parties sent after them, and their own wits and many who escaped the inital attack perished quickly afterward. Their struggle was featured in the film  Saints and Soldiers,  as survivors of the massacre struggle to evade German patrols and hide out until the Allies retake the area.

Weapons
|-| Close Range Weapon=

M3 Trench Knife




 * 6.75-inch blade


 * 3.5-inch serrated edge


 * Riveted leather sheath


 * Carbon steel blade


 * -| Mid Range Weapon=

M1 Bayonet




 * 16-inch blade


 * 4-inch handle


 * Rawhide scabbard


 * -| Long Range Weapon=

Colt M1911




 * .45 ACP round


 * 7-round detachable box magazine


 * Muzzle velocity: 825 ft/s (251 m/s)


 * Two spare magazines (three total)

Dunkirk Evacuees




The Dunkirk Evacuees were the men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) who, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War, made a hasty and complete retreat across the English Channel to escape capture and annihilation by the advancing Nazi German forces. During Operation Dynamo over 300,000 British soldiers were ferried to relative safety. Of course, during this evacuation they were forced to fight desperately in an effort to hold off the German advance and they were harrassed with aerial attacks in an effort to impede their efforts. In the process of the Dunkirk Evacuation the British were forced to abandon vast quantities of vehicles, weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other valuable wartime material.

Weapons
|-| Close Range Weapon=

Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife




 * 7-inch blade


 * Double-edged


 * Metal scabbard


 * Carbon steel blade


 * -| Mid Range Weapon=

Pattern 1907 Sword Bayonet




 * 20-inch blade


 * 4.75-inch handle


 * Metal scabbard


 * -| Long Range Weapon=

'''Webley Mk. VI'''




 * .455 Webley round


 * 6-round cylinder


 * Muzzle velocity: 620 ft/s (190 m/s)


 * Two spare cylinders(three total)

X-Factors
|-| Logistics=

*Malmedy Survivors: 49

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 56

The Malmedy Survivors are very low on ammunition--they pretty much have what they were able to escape with. That being said, the Dunkirk Evacuees are not much better off, having had to discard and abandon large quantities of munitions and weapons in their haste to escape across the Channel. Still, the Dunkirk Evacuees had the ability to choose what to discard and when, a luxury the Malmedy Survivors simply did not have.


 * -| Stealth=

*Malmedy Survivors: 78

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 64

The Dunkirk Evacuees had no need for stealth, as their greatest moment of glory was a high-profile defensive operation for an even higher-profile evacuation (it was lauded as a great victory by the British press to increase morale). The Malmedy Survivors, on the other hand, had a need to sneak through the Ardennes Forest and maintain a low profile after being fired upon by the 1st SS Panzer Division, as the Nazis hunted down the survivors with better-armed search patrols.


 * -| Training=

*Malmedy Survivors: 75

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 75

The Malmedy Survivors are trained soldiers of the United States military - they're not special forces or anything, but their training is up to par with the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force. Both forces were comprised of volunteers mixed with draftees and both received more or less the same kind of general training that was expected for an infantryman of the time period.


 * -| Experience=

*Malmedy Survivors: 72

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 70

I have to give the slightest of edges to the Malmedy Survivors simply because they are fighting later on in the war and thus have had more opportunities to experience combat. The Dunkirk Evacuees were certainly baptized by fire during the Battle of France, but many major battles, including the Battle of Britain and the North African campaign, simply had not yet happened. The Malmedy Survivors, alternately, very well could have seen combat across Europe if they had been fighting since the invasion of Italy in 1943. Again, this is highly dependent on the experiences of the individual men, so this is why the difference is so marginal, but the Malmedy Survivors still get the edge.


 * -| Endurance=

*Malmedy Survivors: 71

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 85

Although the Malmedy Survivors faced intense periods of hardships and braved the cold of the Ardennes winter, it was only for a very brief (if very intense) period of time. The Dunkirk Evacuees, alternately, had to hold out against a prolonged German attack for a much longer period of time, and many times had to make do while undersupplied and overwhelmed numerically.


 * -| Fatigue=

*Malmedy Survivors: 80

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 73

While the Dunkirk Evacuees were pretty relentlessly harassed by the Germans during their escape, they were still part of a very large, coordinated operation and as a result there were likely a very few number of opportunities for rest or rotation for each man. The Malmedy Survivors did not have this option whatsoever, as hesitation meant running the risk of being captured or shot by the pursuing Germans.


 * -| Calm Under Fire=

*Malmedy Survivors: 73

*Dunkirk Evacuees: 89

The Malmedy Survivors are trained to operate under combat conditions where an enemy is shooting back at them, but their primary focus is to stay alive and escape their ordeal. The Dunkirk Evacuees, alternately, operated almost entirely under enemy fire during their escape attempt, including artillery and aerial attacks as they waited on the beaches.

Battle
Will be a 5-on-5.

To be written.

Expert's Opinion
To be determined.