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Kilstett is a common French, located in the department of the the Low-Rhine and the area Alsace.

Its inhabitants is called Kilstettois.

Geography

Kilstett is located at approximately 15 km in the north of Strasbourg. The village has a station the SNCF on the line Strasbourg - Lauterbourg, between Wantzenau and Gambsheim.

History

In January 1945, during the Second world war, a counter-offensive launched by the German army to try to take again Strasbourg was stopped at the time of the battle of Kilstett.

“On January 3rd in the morning, whereas the 1st French Army is very whole with the contact in the pocket of Colmar, De Lattre, having received the order to include Strasbourg in the zone of its army, decides at once to send the Guillaume general to it with his 3°DIA. But this great unit, then on the line of the Vosgean peaks, will be able to join only on January 5th in end-of-day. However the threat on Strasbourg is specified. In the night of the 4 to the 5 - according to information FFI-, the enemy undertook the construction of a bridge in front of Gambsheim in order to allow its armoured tanks to cross the Rhine. The General Schwartz, governor military of Strasbourg, affirms that it will fight until the end. HE has however only very weak forces: 4 squadrons of the Republican guard poorly armed, with very reduced manpower (less than 350 men) and of the FFI of Strasbourg. The 4 units of the Republican guard (...) constituted, under the orders of the Major Daucourt, a grouping articulated in 2 pennies groupings: - 3rd and the 5th squadron on the one hand, - 4th and the 8th squadron in addition. Each squadron had created a frank group which patrolled the night or held of the advanced observatories towards the Rhine.

For this very dangerous mission, the major Daucourt indicates 4th and 8th squadrons, reinforced by a group of the 5th squadron, is hardly 200 men. Connection is taken at once with the local FFI and an American element which is still there behind guard of the started fold. (...) The progression helped by the FFI of Kilstett starts with 15:15, on a ground discovered and absolutely dish. With 600 meters of the primary goal - Bettenhoffen- the first elements are taken under the fire of automatic weapons. Several republican guards are wounded. In spite of the complete absence of fires of friendly support, the progression continues under a violent one shooting of artillery and mortars. Lieutenant Cambours, ordering the 4th squadron, falls mortally struck. Its assistant lieutenant Perré, is seriously wounded. The squadrons operate to overflow German resistance. Towards 16:30, the enemy artillery shootings intensify, killing 3 republican guards and by still wounding several others. Despite everything, the progression continues. 2 wounded refuses to be made evacuate. It is about the guard Barjolet, the face devastated by a glare of shell and Martin guard, which, a burst eye and a crashed to pieces arm, must be the firm order object to go to be made look after. In spite of the keen opposition of the enemy, the accesses of Bettenrhoffen are reached. However, in front of the crushing superiority of the unfavourable shootings and the reduction worrying in the ammunition, the fold is decided. The guards take down under a hot fire and come to be reinstalled defensively in front of Kilstett, bringing back with them the casualties and dying. The night fall, disturbed gusts of machine-guns and explosions of shell, while threatening grondements of enemy tanks lets predict the attack at the small day. This one will however not occur. The Germans were " bluffés" by the combative heat of the guards and in addition, the alerted American artillery, destroyed the mount in construction in front of Gambsheim, thus prohibiting with the panzers the crossing of the Rhine. With the place and place of a German attack, it is an American company arrived on January 6th at 7:00 which tries at once, with 3 tanks and the Republican guard in accompaniment, to continue the started operation the day before. This column cannot bore, but brings back a ceintaine of German prisoners. The guards make them speak and learn with amazement - but not without pride that with 200 men hardly they succeeded in holding in failure the enemy head of bridge including/understanding 1600 combatants aguerris (...). This information exalte the moral one of all without however blurring the heavy tribute of the undergone losses: - 1 killed officer: Lieutenant Georges Cambours - 3 killed guards: Emile Barbin, Fernand Kember and Irenee Lannoy; - 1 officer very seriously wounded: Lieutenant Perré (become general in 1977) - 15 graded and wounded guards, majority seriously. (...) The gendarmerie made raise, with the assistance of the inhabitants of the village, a solemnly inaugurated stèole on January 23rd, 1949 and in front of which the gendarmerie of Alsace celebrates each year the combat of January 1945 by a commemorative catch of weapons.”

(extracted the article written by the lieutenant colonel (er) LALLEMANT Claude " Kilstett, January 5th, 1945, the gendarmerie guardian of the oath of Koufra" , SNAAG Magazine n°274, April 2006, p 17/18)

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Personalities related to the commune

See too

Common of the Low-Rhine

External bonds

Official site of the commune of Kilstett
Site of the Elementary school Louise Weiss de Kilstett
Kilstett on the site of INSEE
Kilstett on the site of Plane Quid
of Kilstett on Mapquest

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