User blog:SPARTAN 119/Malmedy Survivors vs "Dead Men" of Osoweic

The survivor of the Malmedy Massacre, the American soldiers who fought through enemy patrols and freezing cold to escape a Nazi atrocity

VS

The "Dead Men" of Osoweic, the Russian soldiers who survived a gas attack to "rise from the dead" and drive off the German assault

WHO IS DEADLIEST!?

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.

“Dead Men” of Osowiec
"Turmoil at the front, Wilhelm’s forces on the hunt, there’s a thunder in the East, an attack of the deceased!"

- Attack of the Dead Men by Sabaton

The Battle of Osoweic Fortress took place in Osoweic in present-day Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), during 1914 and 1915, when the Russian defenders held out against two German assaults, first in September, 1914, and then a second time from February to August 1915. The German bombarded the fortress with heavy guns, including the famous 406mm Krupp “Big Bertha” mortars, using both conventional concrete-piercing shells and chlorine gas. At 4 AM on August 6th, 1915, the Germans bombarded the fortress with conventional and gas rounds, flooding the fortress with gas, which severely effected the Russians, who did not have gas masks. The Germans then deployed 7000 men to assault the fortress in the morning.

The German assault was countercharged by 60-100 Russians who, coughing up blood and sporting chemical burns and other injuries, had a “corpse-like” appearance. The Germans were so terrified by what looked like an army of the living dead, that they retreated. As they fled, the remaining Russian artillery opened up, causing severe casualties. This incident would become known as “The Attack of the Dead Men”. The few Russian survivors of the attack, and the rest of the Russian garrison, would retreat from the fortress on August 18th.

=Weapons=

M1 Bayonet (Malmedy)
The M1 Bayonet was the bayonet for the M1 Garand, a knife bayonet designed to be used both on a rifle and dismounted as combat knife, with a ten inch blade and a four-inch blade, with an overall length of 14 inches. The weapon has a single edge blade with a clip point similar to typical combat knife.

Dismounted Bayonet (Dead Men)
The Russian Army in World War I used a spike bayonet with their Mosin-Nagant rifle, with a spike bayonet, a roughly 30cm metal spike attacked to the rifle by a socket. While not designed for use dismounted, in desperate situations in both World Wars, Russian bayonets were used they way, as short stabbing weapons.

119’s Edge
The Malmedy Survivors’ M1 Bayonet, as it designed to be used dismounted.

M3 Trench Knife (Malmedy)
The M3 Fighting Knife, also referred to as a trench knife is a short combat knife issued to soldiers not issued with a bayonet, including airborne forces and shock troops. The weapons was designed for close combat, but also often used as tool. The blade was 6.75 inches long with an 11-inch overall length.

MPL-50 Entrenching Tool (Dead Men)
The MPL-50, commonly known as a “Saperka” is a Russian entrenching tool first issued in 1869 that has seen almost 150 years of continuous service with the armed forces of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation. The tool is a simple 50cm long shovel with a wooden handle and steel blade. In addition to use as a shovel, the MPL-50 has one side sharpened for use as an axe, as has been used for other uses such as a hammer, a paddle for small rafts, and even a frying pan. While not designed as a weapon, it sometimes saw use, particularly in brutal close-quarters fighting of the First and Second World Wars. Today, Russian Spetsnaz soldiers still train in using the MPL-50 as a melee and even a throwing weapon.

119’s Edge
The Dead Men Osoweic’s MPL-50 for its greater length, allowing for much further reach than the trench knife, and has the potential to greater damage with its heavier weight, and it can even be thrown like an axe.

Colt M1911 (Malmedy)
The M1911 is a semi-automatic pistol that fires the .45 ACP round. The weapon is single-action and is recoil-operated. The famous firearms designer produced the pistol to be used as the standard sidearm for the United States military. The weapon was used through countless conflicts like World War II and the Vietnam War. Production for the weapon came through the United States' need to modernize its arsenal. It is still being used by American law-enforcement and military forces in limited amounts. The M1911 has a seven-round magazine and an effective range about 50-70 meters.

Nagant M1897 (Dead Men)
The Nagant M1895 was a Russian seven-shot revolver and one of the first firearms to successfully use a suppressor. The revolver used a complicated "gas-seal" system that fired telescoped cartridges with the bullet flush with the case mouth. When the cylinder was cocked, it moved forward to seal itself against the base of the barrel. This prevented gas loss and raised the bullet's velocity. The revolver was reloaded using a loading gate, making reloading an extended process. The weapon has an effective range of 22 meters.

119’s Edge
The Malmedy Survivor’s M1911 for its superior range and stopping power.

Captured Kar 98K (Malmedy)
Troops trapped behind enemy lines without hope of resupply like the survivors of Malmedy were forced to use any weapons they could get their hands on, including those of their German foes. One of the most common weapons was the German Kar. 98k. The Mauser Karabiner 98k was the standard service rifle of the German military from 1935-1945. It was a bolt-action rifle with an internal magazine. Bullets could be loaded with a five-round stripper clip or loaded singly into the magazine by hand. Various attachments such as grenade launchers, suppressors, and bayonets could be attached to the Karabiner 98k. It became at a disadvantage to US forces semi-automatic M1 Garand during World War II due to it's bolt-action slowing down the rate of fire, which prompted the development of the Gewehr 43. The Kar 98k has an effective range of 500 meters with iron sights, and developed a reputation for accuracy.

Mosin-Nagant (Dead Men)
The Mosin–Nagant is a bolt-action, internal magazine-fed, military rifle invented under the government commission by Russian and Belgian inventors, and used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations. It is one of the longest serving bolt action rifles in history, being issued until the 1940s (and up to the 1960s in third world client nations of the USSR). The weapon has an effective range of 500 meters with iron sights.

119’s Edge
The two weapons are very similar, and proved on the battlefields of World War II to be about evenly matched. =X-Factors=

Explanations
The American forces at Malmedy were members of a field artillery observation battalion, so they were by no means as well trained as units such as Army Rangers or airborne forces, but were still probably had better training than the Russians of the First World War, who, due to chronic budget and supply shortages, would have less to devote to training. In terms of combat experience, some of the Malmedy survivors were veterans of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, giving them extensive combat experience against the Germans. The defenders of Osoweic had fought against three major German attacks in the approximately one-year period since the war began in 1914. They saw extensive combat, but not near the amount that some of the Americans in World War II, who had been fighting for two years at this point had seen. In terms of tenacity, the survivors were certainly did not give up easily, facing German patrols and frostbite, but the “Dead Men” of Osoweic were literally coughing up blood and, in some cases, even bits of their lungs, their eyes, throat, and lungs burned by chlorine gas. As such, the survivors of Malmedy suffered from frostbite and possibly bullet wounds, but many of the Russians were literally coughing up blood from extensive chemical burns, fighting from drowning in their own blood. While scoring lower for physical condition, the "Dead Men" take a definite edge of psychological warfare given their terrifying appearance. =Notes= The battle will take place in a snow-covered forest with group of bunkers within.

Both sides will have five men.