- For the Steel Division II unit see SD2:Bewährungs.
Bewährungs. is a German Infantry unit added in Back to Hell.
Overview[ | ]
Bewährungstruppen (Probation Units) were recruited out of court-martialed military personnel, as disposable shock troops to use on dangerous missions. If they survived the mission and accomplished their objectives, they would be reinstated as a soldier and their sentence annulled. As military prisoners, they worked under strict supervision by their officers. Unlike conscripts drawn from civilian prisons, their combat ability was quite high, as all of them were trained soldiers with combat experience - and unlike normal soldiers, they got less or no leave from front service, resulting in intense training by doing and/or dying. Unsurprisingly, penal battalions suffered very high attrition throughout the war, but soldiers considered it a preferable alternative to slowly withering in Saxon moorlands or executions.
This particular unit was an ad hoc formation created on August 25, 1944, at Fresnes. German military prisoners were released from their cells and formed into a combat unit to protect the Fresnes prison where they were held from the Allied advance. Equipped with whatever weapons they could muster and an 88 mm FlaK gun, the soldiers engaged five Sherman tanks, destroying one, disabling two, and forcing another to retreat before the fifth managed a flanking move that led to them being overwhelmed.
Strategy[ | ]
As a large 13-man unit, they are the perfect meatshield. Their 1 veterancy, decent HE, and huge unit size allows them to fight reliably at any range.
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