Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) (111 page)

The momentary change had not been lost on Perlmann.

“Major, we all lost good man in that place. I write words to the parent and sweetheart of thirty of my boy once we out of there. And for what?”

The hands drifted apart, almost reluctantly, remaining hovering in the limbo between handshake and lying at ease.

Ramsey cleared his throat with a low rumbling cough, inadvertently permitting Perlmann to continue.

“We fight alongside as each other as Kameraden today. I wish you and your man luck,” the German Maior extended his hand picking out a single word from the inscription and waving his finger at it, “And let us all make sure that all our fathers is proud of what we do here today.”

Ramsey smiled ruefully as he watched the disappearing figure lead his small escort away, hopping from cover to cover now he was out in the open and away from safety.

Llewellyn Force did not have a huge remit. The only requirement of it was to stand and fight. In the event that withdrawal became absolutely necessary then there was only one reliable exit point, that being the AdolphesBrücke between the Alter and Neuer Wall.

Charges had already been laid on it and it was not to fall into enemy hands intact.

Much of the area they defended had been ravaged by allied bombing over the previous years. Some structures were partially collapsed, offering the godsend of the rubble protection from which to fight. Some damaged buildings seemed more precarious, and the defence of those less hardy structures was of great concern to those positioned in them. Amazingly, the Rathaus had withstood all the RAF and USAAF had thrown at it relatively unscathed.

The StadthausBrücke to the south-west was the border of their zone, and most of it had been long since dropped into the water.

At the northeast end of their area of responsibility was the JungfernSteig, or rather the remains of the crossing point where it met the BallinDamm.

A rough wooden structure suitable for a few men to cross at a time ran across to the back of the Rathaus from the end of PostStraße. None of the officers would acknowledge the flimsy structure as a complete and proper bridge, much to the initial chagrin of Richardson, whose men had laboured long and hard to construct it from available wreckage. The humour of the running gag had brought a little light relief to command meetings the last two days, and Richardson now played to his audience in the role of indignant ‘Father of the Bride’ as the structure became colloquially known.

The left flank of their position hung onto the Binnen-Alster, a lake that provided a formidable barrier to the advancing Russians, forcing them to move around and into the positions occupied by Llewellyn Force.

This flank was the responsibility of the battered Fallschirmjager, now supported by a machine gun section from the Manchesters. 1st and 4th Kompagnies were the largest and Perlmann had the 4th on the Jungfernsteig and the 1st backstopping on the Reesendamm, with 2nd forward between Plan and Hermannstra²e and two platoons of the 3rd
Kompagnie pushed right up to the junction of Bergstra²e and Monckebergstra²e. The remaining half-platoon of 3rd and a full platoon from each of 1st and 4th provided the German reserve Additionally, the surviving two Sherman’s of ‘B’ troop from the Yeomanry were secreted in Gro²eBleichen, ready to move out should forces move up the BallinDamm.

Another two tank unit, ‘C’ Troop, was secreted in piles of rubble along the Alsterarkaden on the opposite bank to and level with the RathausMarkt. ‘D’ Troop was on the edge of the RathausMarkt, covering the approaches up HermannStra²e, Reesendamm, and Plan.

‘A’ Troop was positioned to cover the approaches to AdolphsBrücke and finally, the Squadron HQ’s four tanks remained in hiding on the AlterWall south-west of the Rathaus.

Most of the Royal Welch’s transport was the other side of the water, guarded by a handful of lightly wounded men.

‘A’ Company had been severely reduced by the last two attacks, and so was bolstered by the pioneer and admin platoon’s from the Welch’s support and Headquarters companies respectively. The combined group defended the ruins stretching from the Stadthausbrücke to the Exchange Building.

‘C’ Company, less a platoon held in reserve near the AdolphesBrücke, defended the next block to just short of the Rathaus.

Again, less a platoon dedicated to reserve duties, ‘D’ Company defended the Rathaus and immediate area. Their reserve platoon policed the 555th’s ‘Bride’ from rubble bunkers on the AlterWall.

The battalion 6-pdr anti-tank guns were spread out between the defending Welch, covering junctions and approaches.

The mortar platoon was established just off the north end of the AdolphesBrücke, plenteously supplied with ammunition and a good fire support plan for when the Russians started it all up again.

The members of the carrier platoon who had survived a pitiless artillery strike two days beforehand were drawn up in buildings on the JungfernSteig facing the Binnen-Alster.

Battalion HQ was established in the north-west corner of the Rathaus.

The 71st had also suffered badly, and now ‘C’ Battery’s troops had only 2 guns each, of which only two were the lethal 17-pdr’s. These were stationed, one each, to cover the partially destroyed Stadthausbrücke and the intact AdolphesBrücke.

The other four, all 6-pdrs, had been dispatched to the north side of the battleground with orders to dig in to cover routes of approach and to get more ammunition, as most of their supply had been distributed amongst the Welch’s AT guns.

The 71st’s missing Battery commander was found by the Welch’s mortar men, floating face down in the canal, placing command responsibility firmly on the shoulders of the younger Ramsey.

1630 hrs, Sunday 12th August 1945, Altstad, Hamburg, Germany.

Soldiers around the world had learnt that time milestones were important marks in military affairs, and tended to sharpen their awareness on hours, quarters, and halves.

Experienced men saw the second hand clicking towards 4.30 and took a firmer grip on whatever it was they would do their killing with that day. The moment came and went with nothing more remarkable than the squeal of a diving seagull until the banshee wail of Soviet rockets took over the defenders senses. The rockets, joined by artillery and mortars shells, fell on the allied troops all along the northern edge of the Mönckebergstra²e.

Two short platoons of Fallschirmjager from the already greatly reduced 3rd Company were immolated in a storm of high explosive and then crushed by falling masonry as the previously damaged buildings between Mönckebergstra²e and Hermannstra²e collapsed.

Seven men struggled through the barrage, choking on the dust, trying to find safety. Two Black Watch privates dashed out and led the confused men into the relative safety of a sandbagged position on the edge of the Rathausmarkt.

One ‘A’ Sqdn Sherman took a direct hit from a 122mm shell and was transformed to a blazing junk pile, setting light to the adjacent building in Mönkedamm. The other ‘A’ Sqdn tank lost its nearside track to an adjacent burst in Adolphsplatz.

One section of the Welch’s C Company was set up to cover a 6-pdr defending the Borsenbrucke approach. Men and weapon disappeared in the blink of an eye as five Katyusha rockets contrived to land within a few feet of each other.

‘A’ Company of the Welch lost its commander and CSM, both killed by a massive 152mm howitzer shell punching through the roof of their building and arriving in the room they had selected as a headquarters. Although it did not explode, the projectile obliterated both men, leaving little evidence of their existence.

The dud shell proceeded to bury itself deeply in the buildings foundations.

Admin platoon lost half their number to Katyusha rockets, the survivors either leaving their positions in a quest for safety or burrowing deeper in the rubble. More casualties were inflicted on those trying to flee as a second wave of shells arrived.

Apart from those killed covering the anti-tank gun, ‘C’ Company was remarkably unscathed, its sole other casualties being a lance-Corporal who took a large concrete splinter in the left ear and the young fusilier who was subsequently hit in the face when it exited the NCO’s right ear. The screaming, blinded teenager was quickly carried away to the aid station on the other side of the Adolphesbrücke.

The Black Watch lost men too, although few rounds seemed to come their way. One Katyusha rocket obliterated a Bren gunner and his team in the centre of the Rathausmarkt and one mortar shell blew the company runner into the canal where, rendered unconscious by the blast, he sank like a stone.

The Rathaus was burning, having received huge quantities of incoming fire. The defenders were not occupying the upper floors and so the rocket and mortar strikes killed no one, solely damaging the upper structure and starting fires that developed quickly, producing vast quantities of thick smoke. The same could not be said of the heavy artillery fire.

In the first volley, four 122mm shells plunged down and penetrated deeper into the building, the first transforming the chamber of the Bürgerschaft into a ruin. It killed four fusiliers, namely the RWF’s chief medical officer, who was setting up a triage station with three of his men. The other three inflicted casualties on the Manchesters and fusiliers equally.

The newly-fledged commander of the 71st Anti-Tank Regiment’s ‘C’ Battery, 1st Lieutenant Ramsey, was not struck by the last projectile but was propelled by its irresistible explosive power, slamming into the adjacent stone window frame with such force that he remained ten foot up, welded into the stonework by the force. Whilst the sight was extremely gruesome, more than one man who passed the barely identifiable mess remarked on the presence of gaiters and the odd absence of boots and trousers.

High explosive can do strange things.

Fig#29 - Hamburg - Soviet artillery

At A - Two ‘platoons’ of Fallschirmjager lost when buildings unexpectedly collapse under bombardment.

At B - ‘A’ Sqdn Sherman killed by direct strike from a 122mm Shell.

At C - ‘A’ Sqdn Sherman disabled by near miss.

At D - 6-pdr Anti-tank gun and section from C/4RWF lost in Katyusha strike.