by Griff Hosker
“We have covered ten miles in half an hour sir. We might make it.”
I continued scanning the trees. “One step at a time, Fletcher.”
The road rose and fell. It twisted and turned. Suddenly, as we turned and began to descend Emerson began reversing towards us and Davis fired his rifle. I heard machine guns and there was the unmistakeable whoosh of a rocket. As Emerson spun his jeep off the road, crashing the rear into a tree, a rocket hit a tree to our left. Davis said, “Ambush sir. They are in the woods to the left and the right at the bottom. They are camouflaged!”
I waved Lieutenant Cunliffe forward, “They have anti-tank guns. Give me and my men ten minutes to get into the woods. When you hear firing bring the cavalry.”
“Sir.”
“White get the jeep off the road and try to park it better than Emerson did.”
“Sir!” Emerson had a hurt look on his face.
“Just teasing Freddie. You did well. Fletcher get on to the Brigadier and tell him about the hold up.” I cupped my hands, “Lieutenant!”
Polly brought the rest of my men.
“There are Germans at the bottom of the slope. Lieutenant take the Sergeant Major and Sergeant Hay, head down the left. I will take Davis, White and Emerson, we will go down the right.”
I cocked my MP 40 and headed into the woods. We ran away from the road and, after thirty yards I turned so that we were going down the slope. White kept pace with me. He was eager to get to grips with the Germans. Commandos can move silently. Although we were moving quickly we looked down to ensure that we were not stepping on broken branches. As we neared the bottom Davis tapped my arm and pointed to the left. A hundred or so yards away there were the Germans. They had used some logs to make a barrier. They had, on our side of the road, a machine gun and a Panzerfaust. I counted twenty men. I could not see the far side of the road. The men on our side obscured them.
I pointed to the sniper rifle and Davis. He nodded and lay behind a tree. He had the silencer on his rifle and the Germans would not know where he was. I waved to the right and led White and Emerson so that we were behind the Germans. I kept my eye on the Germans and saw the German with the Panzerfaust pitch to the ground. The others looked around for the source of the danger. Just then Lieutenant Poulson and my other men opened fire. The fact that they used German weapons appeared to confuse the Germans. They delayed in firing. It allowed us to get to within sixty yards. I waved my men to the ground as Davis continued to pick off key personnel.
As the Germans fired, blindly in Davis’ direction we opened fire. We were behind them and our attack took them by surprise. I fired a short burst at the men trying to turn the MG 42. A sergeant was hit by an invisible hand. That would be Davis. Then I heard the crack of a seventeen pounder and the log barrier disappeared in a mass of splinters.
That was enough and their hands came up. We stood and headed towards them. These were not Volkssturm. These were hardened veterans. There were just fifteen survivors. Some had wounds.
“Sergeant Major Barker search them. White, Emerson go and fetch the jeeps.”
I saw that one of them had an MP 40. I held my hand out and said, “Ammunition.”
He took out the one clip he had remaining. It spoke volumes. He nodded towards my Commando flash, “Kommando.” I nodded. “The Fuhrer was right about you devils. You should all have been shot.”
“But we weren’t and your Fuhrer and his Third Reich are finished.” I waved the tanks forward, “Wait down the road a ways. We will follow with our jeeps when Captain Wilberforce arrives.”
This was what the Brigadier had not understood. It was not just the delay in eradicating bottle necks there was then the problem of prisoners. By the time we rejoined the tanks an hour would have elapsed. We had covered half of the distance but it had taken us two hours. By the time the jeeps had arrived and Captain Wilberforce had taken the prisoners away from us it was almost 1500 hours.
As we overtook the tanks I shouted, “Let’s hope there aren’t more delays like that.”
“Yes sir.”
When we finally left the forest we were in farmland and the going was easier. The tanks were able to travel slightly faster and the barrel of Lieutenant Cunliffe’s Sherman was just ten feet behind Fletcher’s head. The Lieutenant had a good view ahead from his elevated position. It was he who had the first view of Göttingen. “Major Harsker!” I turned. He pointed and shouted, “Göttingen!”
I looked at my watch. It was now 1600 hours. We had managed it before dark. I shouted, “Freddie, stop!”
I clambered out and, taking my map and glasses, climbed up on to the Sherman. Using my binoculars I was able to see the town. It was three miles away and I could see the barrels of guns. It was defended. “Fletcher, get on to the main column. Tell them we are at the outskirts of Göttingen and it is defended. We will get as close as we can.”
“Sir.”
I turned to the Lieutenant, “The Leine river isn’t very large but I am guessing that they will have either destroyed or mined the bridges.” I pointed to the map. There is a railway line heading into Göttingen. There are two railway bridges. Let us head up to there. It will be straight and there won’t be any trains. If we don’t have a bridge then the advance stalls here.”
“Right sir. You lead?”
“Of course. We are faster and smaller. They might not waste a shell on us. I rejoined my men, “I will lead the way Freddie.”
I directed Sam. We took the next left. It meant we left the shortest route into the small town but we would reach the railway line and that appeared the quickest way in. We were no longer heading to Göttingen, we were keeping it two to three miles to the east of us. Consequently we did not encounter any more troops. It looked like they were making the Leine the next barrier to our advance. I knew that we were advancing on every front. Italy had been taken and the Eighth Army was heading for the Tyrol. In the north, Montgomery was driving towards the Baltic and, to the south of us Bradley and Patton were heading for Berlin. With the Russians heading west the Germans were being squeezed. They were just slowing the inevitable. Sadly we would lose soldiers while they did so.
We passed the tiny hamlet of Leineberg. The windows were shuttered and the doors closed. The houses looked empty. We followed the road and came to a crossing. There were four railway tracks in two pairs with a gap of ten yards between the pairs. I took out my glasses and saw the two railway bridges. They were about five hundred yards from us.
I shouted, “Lieutenant two tanks on each track. Sergeant Major you and Sergeant Hay take the far track. Lieutenant Poulson with me. Fletcher tell headquarters that the two railway bridges over the Leine are intact.”
“Sir!”
“White, drive as though you are at Brooklands!”
“Sir!”
There was a rough piece of ground between the tracks and White sensibly took that route. We bounced down. There was no chance of firing. The Germans at the bridge saw us. They began to fire. The four Shermans fired their main armament. Five hundred yards was close range for a tank and I saw one of the machine posts disappear as the H.E. from two tanks struck it. The other men fled across the bridge. The tanks’ machine guns spat out and three of the Germans fell into the river. White had reached the river first but he had to stop for there was no bridge in front of us. The river bank plunged down to the water. As we turned to drive onto the tracks, disaster struck. Cannon shells from a 20 mm tore through the engine and front tyres of our jeep. Even my mechanical wizard would be able to do nothing.
I grabbed White and pulled him behind the shelter of our jeep. Fletcher followed. We lay on the ground as shells tore into the jeep and the radio. The two tanks had seen the cannon and were firing at it. Suddenly it stopped but it was too late for the jeep. I risked rising and peering over the top of the jeep. The Germans were dug in on the other side of the bridge. The cannon had stopped firing and the smoke from our jeep was rising and obscuring us.
“White, Fle
tcher, grab the Bergens and guns. Head back to Lieutenant Poulson.”
“Where you off to sir?”
“I am going to check the bridge out.”
I slid down the bank a little and then crawled to the stone piers which rose twenty feet above me. It was a stone bridge and well made. I saw the wires and the explosives. It was set to blow. I shouted, “Down here!”
I took out my wire cutters from my battle jerkin and climbed up to the first charge. I snipped the wires. I realised that it would be hard to reach the charges in the middle of the bridge but, as the river was just ten yards wide at this point if we could take out half of the explosives then any damage might be kept to a minimum. I looked up and saw that there were metal girders under the stone and they had attached the cables and the explosives to them. Holding my wire cutters in my teeth I grabbed the nearest girder and swung up my legs. I worked my way down to the next charge. I held on with one arm and snipped the wires. I put the cutters in my mouth and, pulling my dagger, slashed the tape holding the explosives to the girder. They splashed into the river.
Lieutenant Poulson and Fletcher were on the other two girders. I was half way across when the Germans tried to fire the explosives. I heard a crackle and nothing happened.
“Back!”
I started to crawl back. No one had begun to clear the explosives on the other bridge. The Lieutenant and Fletcher had almost made it back when the other bridge exploded. The charges had been set to concentrate the damage upwards but, inevitably there was a sideways blast and the concussion made me lose my grip. I fell. The river was just ten yards below me and it broke my fall but the blast had taken the wind from me. I sank and with bent legs, touched bottom. As I came up I involuntarily took in water. My hand broke the surface but I found myself choking. My head popped out of the water. I tried to speak but I could not, I was drowning. I felt myself sinking and there was nothing I could do. I though it ironical that I would not be killed by a bullet but by falling into the water. I slipped beneath the waves and everything began to go black.
Chapter 17
“Sir! Sir!”
I coughed as someone pressed against my chest. I began to vomit water and I felt as though I was choking.
“Thank God. Get him on his side!” It was Hewitt I could hear. I was still alive. I opened my eyes and looked into his. “You had us worried then sir. When Bill Hay dived in and pulled you out we thought you were dead. It is a good job Bill, here, took that course in resuscitation.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
Bill grinned, “You were a dead weight sir with the grenades and the guns. I was just pleased that the water is only shallow.” I tried to rise. “You just lie there, sir. Lieutenant Poulson has taken charge. Jerry has blown a hole in one bridge but we still hold this one. They have anti-tank guns and rockets on the far side. Captain Wilberforce is going to try to cross the river tonight and take them by surprise. Now we know it is shallow they are going to push your jeep into it and use that like a bridge.”
I nodded. It was a good plan.
“The column are just fifteen minutes away. We have the bridge.”
I lay back. It was what I would have done. Captain Wilberforce had come a long way.
Eventually they let me get up. There was still sporadic gunfire but Lieutenant Cunliffe was not risking his tanks. Davis had found a spot from which he could snipe at the Germans. I heard a rumble and a splash as the jeep was pushed by my men down the bank and into the river. It flipped on to its back at the bottom. There was a gap of five feet on one side and six on the other. The jeep was submerged but I could see the wheels and the exhaust pipe. Men could walk across it.
Darkness fell as the Brigadier arrived. “Well done Major. Lieutenant Cunliffe told us what you did. I am proud of you.”
“Captain Wilberforce will lead a raid over in the next hour. If you send tanks over at the same time we should have our bridgehead.”
“You and your men have a rest. Your real mission begins tomorrow. Tonight you are all spectators. The American 3rd Armoured Division took Paderborn and they are now racing ahead of us to the south. We managed to draw their defences away from the Third Herd to stop us. It is likely that the 3rd will reach Nordhausen and the Mittelbau-Dora complex first.”
“Then we may not be needed at all?”
“Possibly not but the 3rd Armoured is a huge division. They will move more slowly than you. You might sneak through.”
It did not sit well with us to watch while others fought but we obeyed orders. We heard the sounds of small arms fire as Captain Wilberforce led his Commandos up the far bank, under cover of darkness, to take the anti-tank guns and machine guns by surprise. The first Shermans rumbled and rattled over the railway bridge. We watched as the rest of the armour followed and then the half-tracks and lorries of the rest of the brigade. We heard the sound of the battle as it headed away from the river towards the eastern side of the town. We followed when the last of the lorries had crossed. When we reached the other side we saw that the defenders had been a mixture of paratroopers and Waffen S.S. They had died hard. There were dead Commandos mixed in with their bodies.
We were waved over to the side by a sergeant as we neared the centre of the town. “Brigadier Young says this is your billet for the night.” He pointed to a guest house. “We have commandeered this one. The Brigadier reckons you deserve it.”
“Thanks sergeant.”
The owner was a pragmatic man. The war was lost but one day tourists would come back. He was smiling and he was helpful. The fact that I spoke German made it easier for us. He had no food but the rooms were clean. The bed linen required washing but when you have slept in a field then any bed linen is a luxury. Fletcher took White and Foster to scrounge. It was an art form. I sat in the lounge of the guest house with my sergeants and Lieutenant Poulson. Emerson and Betts were checking the vehicles.
“First, John, how is Betts’ ankle?”
“It is fine sir. He is as fit as he ever was.”
“Good, we can afford no lame ducks on this next part of our mission. Any other injuries?”
Gordy said, “You mean apart from you sir?”
“Cheeky, Sarn’t Major.”
“No sir. Everyone is recovered.”
I spread out the map. “We are no longer tied to roads nor to the tanks. We have no radio which means that once we leave here we disappear. Gordy, make sure we have spares of everything. Freddie is going to sort out more fuel for us. We will rearrange the vehicles. Emerson and Davis are a good team. They lead. Gordy you and Bill take Betts. I will have Fletcher and White. That leaves Hewitt and Foster with you Lieutenant.”
“And what exactly do we do when we reach this slave labour factory, sir?”
I turned to Bill, “What we can. Intelligence believes that the S.S. who run these places will attempt to kill all of the workers and then try to destroy the factory. The closer the allies get to the factory the more likely they are to do it. The Americans have a team racing ahead too. We may not be alone.”
“Sir, there could be hundreds of guards and they will be well armed.”
“So they will attack us. While they are attacking us they can’t slaughter the workers and every hour we can buy brings the Brigadier and his column that little bit closer. He thinks that the Americans may get there before we do.”
They understood and we went through the maps identifying where there might be problems and hold ups. Fletcher and his scroungers had done well. We had various bits and bobs of food and we used the guest house kitchen to make an impromptu stew. The vegetables they had scrounged added to the corned beef of our rations and were augmented by a bottle of wheat beer made it a veritable feast.
As we ate Fletcher said, “The locals reckon the war will be over in days sir.”
“How do you know that, Fletcher?”
“Sam here, he spoke to them. A couple of the German Fraus took a shine to him. It must be his blue eyes and cute little smile.”
Sam blushed, “I just spoke to them politely and they responded.”
Gordy lit a cigarette, “So you reckon March 1945 will be when the war ends, sir?”
“No Gordy. Hitler has his Alpenfestung to fall back to.”
“What is that sir?”
Sam said, “Alpine fortress.”
“That’s right. Remember when we were in Austria? That is part of it. Lots of castles and narrow passes. If he gets there it could take months and months to winkle him out.”
Gordy shook his head, “I thought it would be too good to be true.”
Even as we were eating we heard the sound of gunfire as die hard German soldiers were hunted down. I knew, from what Fletcher had gleaned, that the sheer number of captured Germans was causing a problem. Soldiers who should have been forging east were having to head west and escort the thirty thousand Germans who had been captured to POW camps.
We were not going to take the MG 42 machine guns. We would rely on our other automatic weapons. The last thing we all did was to strip down and clean our weapons. I sharpened my dagger and I reorganized my Bergen. The Brigadier told us that he was sending out the column of Shermans and Captain Wilberforce’s company to probe to the south east. We hoped it would draw any Germans that way. Then the main column would follow our route north east towards Waake. We had planned a route which avoided all the major towns between us and our target. It added distance but we would avoid any bottlenecks. What worried me was the lack of radio. We could not call up an airstrike nor for the cavalry to come to rescue us. We were on our own.
The first part of the journey was quiet. We passed through a forest just a mile or so from Göttingen and then we almost stumbled upon the half dozen houses which made up Waake. The road twisted and turned but we were not having to slow up for the Shermans. I suspected that the main column would struggle to make the speed we managed. When we zipped through Seeburg we saw our first civilians. There were some women with young children and, as we sped through the hamlet, they scooped up their young and headed indoors. I took it as a good sign that the Germans were not expecting us to take this route.