by Gee, Colin
As the advance progressed, tanks fell out as mechanical difficulties took their toll. The unreliability of the IS-III was its its greatest downfall, and on this line of march, it claimed tank after tank.
By the time the 6th [Independent] Guards Breakthrough Tank Regiment entered recently liberated Buxtehude, there were only seven runners left, the others decorating various points of the road from whence they had come, engines and transmissions failed under the strain. Admittedly, the newly appointed regimental commander’s tank had not broken down, but that was no comfort to the dead man, killed with his crew by a German Panzerfaust on the approached to Elstorf.
Command of the unit now fell to a Captain, who organised the survivors into two platoons of four and three, himself in charge of the former, the latter falling under the command of Acting/Senior Lieutenant Stelmakh.
Fig #42 - Battle of Nottensdorf- the battlefield.
1400 hrs Monday 20th August 1945, Northern Plain around Nottensdorf, Germany
Allied forces - 1st Polish Armoured Regiment of 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, and 1st Polish Highland Battalion, and 2nd Platoon of 1st Polish Independent HMG Squadron, both of 3rd Polish Infantry Brigade, and 1st Polish Motorised Artillery Regiment, and A Squadron of 10th Polish Mounted Rifles Regiment, and 2nd Radar Section of 1st Polish Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, all of 1st Polish Armoured Division, and Fallschirmjager Batallione ‘Perlmann’, all of British XXX Corps, and 209 & 210 Batteries of 53rd Medium Regiment RA, all of 21st Army Group.
Soviet Forces - 1st and 3rd Battalions of 46th Mechanised Brigade, and 2nd Battalion of 376th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of 21st Breakthrough Artillery Division, and 72nd Penal Company, and 1st and 2nd Companies of 517th [Separate] Tank Regiment, and 3rd Battalion of 66th Engineer-Sapper Brigade, all of 11th Guards Army, all of 1st Baltic Front, and 6th [Independent] Guards Breakthrough Tank Regiment [Temporarily attached to 11th Guards Army], of 2nd Guards Tank Army, 1st Red Banner Central European Front,
25-pounder and 105mm high-explosive rounds commenced dropping on Nottensdorf and its environs on the stroke of 1pm precisely.
Formed up in the small German town were elements of the 11th Guards Army, about to launch their own attack, timed for an hour later.
The Soviet Mechanised battalions were arranged in line, which meant that the forward 1st Battalion bore the greater brunt of casualties. The tank-riding infantry were particularly badly hit, and frightened men ran in all directions seeking shelter from the barrage.
The battalion’s tanks, T34/85’s suffered less as they dropped back to the back edge of the town, leaving only two of their number behind.
After ten minutes, the artillery stopped abruptly, encouraging the infantry to emerge from their hiding places and seek out their wounded and dead comrades.
3rd Battalion, positioned in the woods behind Nottensdorf, watched on in horror as two groups of aircraft arrived overhead, one clearly fighters intent on protecting their charges, the other more concerned with attacking the targets on the ground.
The next group of Allied aircraft swept down to the attack, discharging their mix of rockets and 500lb bombs on the first run, then circling around and attacking with Hispano cannon.
Fig #43 - Nottensdorf - Dispositions.
The fighters, Spitfire Mk XIV’s of 41 Squadron RAF, immediately clashed with a Soviet fighter regiment, the XIV’s proving more capable than the outnumbered and outclassed Yak-3’s.
The Yak’s jettisoned their bombs before contact, and tried to use their superior low altitude performance to escape, but 41 Squadron splashed five in quick succession, driving the Soviet Air Regiment from the field.
The RAF had very few Hawker Tempests capable of ground attack, but losses meant that the highly capable fighter aircraft were so employed this day. Twelve Tempest V’s of 486 Squadron RNZAF were tasked with blasting a path for the Poles, instead of sweeping the skies for enemy fighters.
The 46th Mechanised Brigade contained six triple DShK anti-aircraft machine-gun mounts, each fixed on Gaz lorry, all of which pumped 12.7mm rounds into the air.
Two of the valuable Tempests were hit, one driving hard straight into the town, adding its fuel and weapon load to the fires already burning there. The second aircraft hit seemed to stagger in mid-air and started burning immediately. The pilot jumped, too late for his parachute to open.
As per the air battle plan, 486 Squadron then withdrew to safer height to police the battlefield. and prevent Soviet ground attack units from interfering.
The Polish artillery then opened up once more, walking the barrage from Nottensdorf, straight down the Cuxhaven Straβe, intending to batter the outskirts of Buxtehude.
Again, Soviet soldiers moving in the town were caught unawares and incurred more casualties.
The Polish attack force started moving up, and was clearly seen in the fields behind Bliedersdorf, as well as emerging from Horneburg.
Colonel Rumyantsev, the Brigade commander, wisely decided that he was outgunned, his assault a non-starter, and that defence was his sole option for now. From his position on a small piece of rising ground behind Nottensdorf, he ordered the 1st Battalion into some sort of order and directed the howitzers of the 376th Artillery Regiment into action.
47th Mechanised was fortunate to possess a large number of lend-lease vehicles, and Rumyantsev profited from having a roomy M3 half-track as his headquarters vehicle.
He ordered his liaison officer to get the assigned Shturmovik Regiment to hit the enemy artillery positions as a priority.
Assessing the approaching enemy forces, he oriented the 1st mainly against those emerging from Horneburg, dispatching half of the 3rd Battalion down the road towards Grundoldendorf, where a short company of penal troops had already been defensively positioned. The other half of the 3rd, he retained as a reserve.
A message sent to the seven tanks of the 6th Guards Tanks asked them to move up immediately, in order to take advantage of their heavier guns and range, a message that was not received.
The Allied air battle plan had a final twist up its sleeve.
Successfully employed by RAF Coastal Command in an anti-U Boat role, three Mosquito FB Mk XVIII Tsetses had been pressed into service for ground-attack. Today was their first official use in this role, and they were accompanied by another Mosquito with purely observers onboard, tasked with an evaluation of the performance. The Tsetses were allocated to ground attack on enemy vehicles, giving the final close support to the attacker’s.
T34’s and a handful of Zis-3 anti-tank guns opened fire at the lead elements of the Polish armour, being immediately rewarded with two very clear hits at long range.
Unfortunately for them, the Soviets were not using smokeless ammunition, and professionals with binoculars noted positions on maps whilst others talked into radios, passing on details to the Tsetse pilots circling over Ebersdorf.
The Mosquitoes approached from the south-east, confident in the cover provided by the circling Tempests above.
The Soviet DShK gunners waited patiently for the enemy to come into range, watching, assessing, as the British aircraft from the recently reconstituted 235 Squadron approached slowly, angling in from a height of three thousand feet.
At a range of about one and a half miles, the lead Tsetse opened fire.
The Tsetse’s carried a kick that was new to the Soviets, and the fuselage mounted 57mm Gun came as a nasty surprise. Normally equipped with twenty-five rounds, ammunition shortages meant that each aircraft carried only eighteen,
The first two shots missed a stationary T34, the third ploughed into the top of engine compartment, wrecking the power train and starting a small fire.
A gentle easing on the stick brought more joy for the aircraft, three shells smashing another T34 with more spectacular results. A further three shells badly damaged a Zis-3, incapacitating the crew.
The Mosquito flicked to port and applied power, rising into the sky as angry tracers from the DT’s followed behind.
> The second aircraft in line used ten rounds of 57mm and followed its leader, leaving another T34 and an AA/Gaz lorry in ruins behind it.
Lining up in leisurely fashion, the final Mosquito took out another tank but did not escape unscathed. A machine gun from the penal company scored hits, severely wounding the navigator. A bullet clipped the pilot and, instead of escaping safely to port, overflying the advancing Poles, the damaged plane lurched to starboard. The exposed underbelly attracted more fire, and pieces flew off the tail plane and starboard engine, and other bullets punctured the fuselage, releasing the navigator from his suffering and adding to that of the pilot, as a heavy calibre bullet destroyed his left calf.
Flight-Lieutenant Erskine, one of the few home grown New Zealanders in the squadron, accentuated his turn, applying power in an attempt to evade and gain height in the same manoeuvre.
The other two Mosquitoes, seeing their comrades in difficulty, returned to the attack, both claiming fresh kills as they discharged the rest of their 57mm rounds.
Erskine, in a display of great courage, conducted a second run, approaching from the south-east.
Spotting Soviet tanks on the edge of the woods, he thumbed the firing button, only to be greeted by silence as the damaged 57mm refused to fire.
Flicking the selector to cannon, he spared a sustained burst for two camouflaged vehicles sat on high ground between the woods and Nottensdorf, before his aircraft started to shudder and his most pressing concern was staying airborne.
The Mosquito flight disappeared over the Allied lines, two undamaged aircraft riding shotgun over their less fortunate comrade.
1427 hrs Monday 20th August 1945, Nottensdorf, Germany
Senior Lieutenant Pan, senior surviving officer of 1st Battalion, grimacing as a sympathetic but heavy-handed Sergeant bandaged his wounded legs, tried the radio again.
There was no reply.
Neither would there be.
The Brigade headquarters group had been hammered by the final pass of the twin engine aircraft that had hit 47th Mechanised so hard.
Colonel Rumyantsev was not dead, but would not last the hour out. The command group now consisted of a handful of shocked men trying to do their best for the wounded and dead contained in the two destroyed half-tracks.
A GAZ staff car containing 3rd Battalion’s commander halted at wreckage. Major Pugach could do no more than encourage the survivors in their efforts and say a soldier’s goodbye to the dying man who had been his leader for over two years.
Taking command of the 47th’s forces on the field, he went with Rumyantsev’s plan, handed 3rd Battalion to his deputy and moved up into Nottensdorf to command the battle.
1448 hrs Monday 20th August 1945, Bliederdorf, Germany
The Polish attack had hit problems. An over eager Major had pushed his units hard at the lightly defended Grundoldendorf, and, in the overextended advance, had exposed his left flank to fire from the Soviet tanks and anti-tank guns in Nottensdorf.
The central attacking force had not advanced in a coordinated fashion and was only just entering Habecksfeld. This had permitted the Soviets to concentrate their defensive fire against the southern force.
Sherman tanks of the 1st Armoured Regiment’s ‘C’ Squadron engaged T34’s to the north-east of Grundoldendorf, as well as those on the edge of Nottensdorf.
The artillery officer from the 376th called in salvoes on and around Dohrenstrasse and Nottensdorfer Strasse, where he could see the Polish tanks and infantry struggling forward.
All momentum was lost as the casualties amongst the tanks and support vehicles mounted, and the Polish Highland Infantry’s ‘B’ company went to ground in search of cover.
Machine guns of the Independent Company, positioned on the edge of Bliederdorf, tried to suppress the defenders with little success, the range being too great for effective work.
The heavy Vickers machine-guns tailed off as the order to cease fire was relayed, but not before some errant bursts had claimed seven of their own amongst the Polish infantry to their front.
Seven Sherman had been knocked out or disabled so far, in exchange for only three T34’s. ‘C’ Squadron attempted to push forward once more, partially as a response to the screaming and shouting over the radio from the Lieutenant Colonel commanding, and partially in an attempt to get out from under the barrage of artillery fire.
The Soviet M-30 122mm howitzers were pumping out five rounds a minute, successfully lashing the Poles struggling towards Grundoldendorf.
Behind the allied lines, the lessons of the previous days were being put into practice by the radar section of the Polish Anti-Aircraft Regiment. Experienced eyes checked maps and trajectories and found four suitable areas, relaying the coordinates to the two waiting batteries of 5.5” medium guns.
Ordering two full salvoes on the nearest possible location, the Royal Artillery officer waited for reports of slackening enemy fire.
None came, and the failure was emphasised by the distant but none the less spectacular destruction of a Sherman, blown apart by a direct strike on the turret roof.
Fire was switched to the second location, eight hundred yards behind the first and more high explosive was dispatched, but again, no lessening in fire resulted.
The Artillery Major from the 53rd Medium regiment examined the latest data and realised that the trajectory information had been misinterpreted.
Looking further afield he identified an area just east of route 141, beyond the range of his weapons standard ammunition.
However, in 1944, the British Army had introduced a super charge shell for the 5.5”, capable of reaching out to over eighteen thousand yards. His orders sent four salvoes of these 82lb shells into an area fifteen hundred feet wide by a thousand feet deep.
The effect was instant.
At the front line, Soviet artillery fire immediately halved, dropping away further as each salvo arrived on target.
The Soviet M-30 howitzers were being hit, but worse still were the casualties to their crews. Men were being obliterated as the effective counter-battery fire did its grisly work.
Hardly a shell failed to kill or wound, injure or destroy, but the Soviet gunners, inspired by their fearless commanding officer walking through the steel storm, strove hard to hitch up their charges and get the guns out to another location.
The Polish troopers in the southern prong stubbornly clung to their ground, but now lacked the strength to advance until reinforcements arrived.
1507 hrs Monday 20th August 1945, Horneburg, Germany
Polish infantry Lieutenant-Colonel Micha Krol, OC of the Highland Battalion, was in a blue funk. His attack had gone to pieces, the southern prong exposing its flank and then being battered into immobility by enemy artillery, his central force finding it unexpectedly hard to pick its way through the rubble of Schragenberg and Habecksfeld, the northern force slowly crawling through unexpectedly boggy conditions above the rail line.
Faulty reconnaissance work had failed to spot that the ground, whilst capable of supporting the Humber armoured cars of 10th Mounted Rifles advance element, would not take the medium tanks of ‘B’ Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment.
There was no opportunity to chastise the officer responsible, as ‘A’ Squadron of the Rifles Reconnaissance Regiment had taken casualties and ground to a halt within Habecksfeld, its commander’s vehicle gently burning on the main road.
His own ‘A’ and ‘HQ’ companies were badly strung out between the two villages and under fire from Soviet mortars.
Whilst the German Paratrooper unit was in the woods behind Postmoor, and could have been sent to stimulate the southernmost prong, he decided to sort out the main attack first. Prejudice and hate had played their part in his positioning of Perlmann’s unit, and both continued to do so, excluding the experienced unit from his thinking.
The company commanders of the Highland Infantry’s ‘A’ and ‘HQ’ companies received forceful reminders to push forward in support of the tanks and
he ordered more artillery to suppress Nottensdorf again.
1509 hrs Monday 20th August 1945, Schragenberg, Germany
‘B’ Squadron’s tanks were getting nowhere fast, and Major Pomorski decided to switch back to firmer ground, moving his command’s axis of advance to the rail track.
Immediately they made better progress, despite Soviet anti-tank guns bringing them under fire.
The lead tank was a relatively new M4 Sherman Firefly with a 17 pounder high-velocity gun, flanked by two 75mm equipped versions of the famous American medium tank. The nature of the terrain, boggy on one side with a small stream to the south, ensured that the armoured triangle was tight.
Pomorski’s ‘C’ Company pushed up with the tanks, successfully swatting aside Soviet infantry who had pushed out in advance of the main positions, losing only one vehicle as the combined force pushed on.
The force was made swift progress and quickly found itself level with Nottensdorf, screened from the town by trees.
The southernmost 75mm boomed, and a small hut disappeared, complete with whomever it was that had been stupid enough to show themselves as the tanks approached. The Sherman's hull machine gun rapped out small bursts, lashing each clump of bushes or section of hedge with .30cal bullets.
The lead tank stopped and its turret moved almost imperceptibly. The gunner had responded to the commander’s orders and sought out the target that had been called. He found the squat shape immediately.
“On target!”
The commander, a battle-hardened old Sergeant, wasted not a moment.
“Fire!”
The tank bucked and the breech threw itself backwards.
“Driver forward and right...,” the smoke of his own gun obscured his view, so he quickly tried to remember the terrain ahead, “In behind the hedge to our right front, Jan!”