Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (45 page)

A discussion had taken place prior to the start of hostilities
,
during which the fate of the POW’s was discussed. Then, without
apparent
imperatives, there had been no change in
the harsh
policy
that the State and Party
applied to
the liberated soldiers.

Now that
such an
imperative existed, Zhukov hoped for some understanding from his political leadership.

Even so, he had used some standard ideological concepts to try and sway the men in power, such as employing the men in Shtrafbats, as Stalin had set up the penal units under Order 227 in July 1942.

“Get it tidied up and I will sign it immediately.”

Malinin saluted and swiftly vacated the room, leaving Zhukov alone with his thoughts.

Michel W
ij
ers leant back in his chair and enjoyed a bask in the Italian sun as he watched the little Ukra
i
nian at his task.

Beside him sat a snoozing corporal
,
who had long since become bored with watching
Ostap
Shandruk moving through the prisoners of the 14th Waf
fen Grenadiere Division der SS,
the infamous Galacian Division.

The
‘
corporal
’
would have looked more at home in the uniform of a
US
Marine 1st Lieutenant but, like Wijers, Solomon Meyer was in his role as a member of OSS.

Making up the threesome was a
serious looking
Polish
Captain
, there purely to smooth the way with the
Camp
Commandant
once Shandruk had completed his task.

Polish
II Corps controlled
Rimini
, and therefore the Galacians were their responsibility, or more accurately, problem.

Already a dece
nt number, Wijers estimated about seventy men, were sat in an area designated by the camp commandant, ready for their part in Rossiter’s plans

Shandruk, having been plucked from Sassy in record time, had met quickly with Rossiter for a briefing before movin
g off with the two
OSS
agents on a task of great importance.

Which task brought him to sunny
Italy
in the uniform of
an American infantry Master Sergeant in the presence of men from his old division. A dozen of the segregated men had fought in his old Pioniere unit and he knew their worth well. The celebrations that
should
accompany the reunion with old comrades could wait for now, as Shandruk understood the need for haste.

Explanations could also wait and, in a testament to their respect for the former officer, men held their questions back.

D
usk was falling before the task was completed and one hundred and ninety-eight
Ukrainian
SS had
volunteered, satisfying
Rossiter’s criteria.

The
Polish
officer sorted out the matter of release with the mystified Major commanding, backed up by the presence of a full col
onel of the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade, for that was Wijers’ role for the duration, adding weight to the cover story the Poles had been spoon fed.

His ‘rank’ also guaranteed cooperation from the
Italian
transport company
from which
he had commandeered tru
ck
and drivers
, trucks which would shortly carry the ‘volunteers’ to the military airfield nearby.

The
ten C47
aircraft
that
waited were
well
beyond his
ability to obtain
, having been approved by a much higher authority in
Versailles
.

It was gone midnight before the group began their long flight to
Paris
,
and shorter
second leg
to their final destination
of
Camp
5A
on the shores of Lough Neagh,
a few miles east of Cookstown
.

Cookstown was in
County Tyrone
,
Northern Ireland
.

Set aside for German prisoners of war, the
OSS
had appropriated the 5A facility for their own purposes two years beforehand
,
and few of its present inhabitants were American or British by birth.

Officially, neither the camp nor its inmates existed.

War does not determine who is right,
only who is left.

Bertrand Russell

Allied Forces
- 4e Compagnie, 2e B
attalion, 152e Regiment, and disorganised remnants of 12e Dragoon Regiment, all of
14e Infantry Division of
French 1e Army,
Remnants of 2833rd Combat Engineer Battalion, 540th US Engineer Combat Group, of
US 7th Army,
52
2nd[Nisei] Field Artillery Battalion
, all of
US 6th Army Group.

Soviet
Forces - 3rd Battalion, 11th Motorised Rifle Brigade, and 1st Battalion [less one company] 186th Tank Brigade, all of 10th Tank Corps,
and Special Tank Company, 44th [Motorised] Engineer Brigade,
and 76th Guards Mortar Regiment, all of 5th Guards Tank Army.

The
deluge
had been constant since night had turned into day,
deadly
objects
of all shapes and descriptions dropping from the sky onto the positions occupied by Lieutena
nt Mercier’s grandly named ‘4th Compagnie Battle Group’.

A grandiose term for a modest group consisting of the survivors of his own 4e Compagnie, 2e Bataillon, 152e Infantry Regiment, swollen by stragglers and remnants from other units of the doomed 14th French Infantry Division plus thirty leaderless US engineers from the 2833rd Combat Engineer Battalion..

He was supposed to be acting as a mobile reserve for
his battalion, blessed as he was with a number of American trucks and ‘liberated’ civilian vehicles.

Instead,
Soviet
artillery and
ground attack aircraft had pinned him in place, his casualty list growing
,
seemingly every minute
bringing a report of more casualties
.

The radio had been active, but none of the urgent messa
ges were for his unit
. Requests for orders were rebuffed or ignored
.

Fig #40
- Hurlach

Mercier was one of the few ‘
proper’ soldiers
in the unit, or indeed
,
the division. It had been formed from mainly FFI elements as
France
was liberated and the powers that be wanted to be seen to contribute more manpower to the destruction of Nazi Germany. In truth, the French Military probably never imagined that the weak FFI based units would ever see real action, and certainly not of the type visited upon them by the battle-hardened Russian troopers.

In
Southern Germany
, they had been virtually welcomed as bordering on Liberators at times, the alternative of
Soviet
Occupation being far too horrible for most to contemplate.

Now things were very different.

On the 9th August, his division had found itself in the front line and on the receiving end of heavy
Soviet
ground and artillery attacks.

The 14th Infantry disintegrated under the pressure, some stalwarts
managing to form
defensive positions as the
Soviet
s flooded
past them
, others running as fast as their legs could carry them.

US
Cavalry and French armour had arrived and temporarily halted the attacks, but they had recommenced, displaying even more fury, and the defences were constantly breached and pushed back.

What was left of an organised 14th Division had been concentrated in the area between Hattenhofen and Fürstenfeldbruck, holding a frontage of ten kilometres. They had been bolstered by the addition of two battalions of the 2e French Armoured’s 3e Regiment de Marche du Tchad
, competent
motorised infantry, sadly now without much of their transport following heavy combat and air strikes.

The remnants of the 12e Reg
iment de Curiasseurs had been organised into a large company and were positioned around Adelshofen, ready to counter-attack when necessary.

The
Soviet
attack fell upon the forces gathered along the Augsberger Straβe running south-east from Mammendorf, vast
quantities of high-explosive being delivered by the artillery of 5th Guards Tank Army.

10th Tank Corps, new commander in place and logistical issues sorted, drove hard and fast into the French lines
.

2e French Armoured Division, anchored to the 14e at Mammendorf had to give ground, or be outflanked.

To the south, a composite team from the 45th US Infantry Division, covering from Fürstenfeldbruck to Gröbenzell, similarly folded back, but not before a company of M-10’s from the 645th Tank-Destroyer battalion savaged the flank of 10th Tank Corps advance, knockin
g out twenty of the 186th Tank B
rigade’s T34’s in as many minutes.

Despite this success, the 45th had to give ground.

10th Tank Corps flooded through, pushing hard and quickly, overrunning the artillery and support units behind the lines.

River crossings over the Amper at Schongeising and Grafrath were captured intact and without a fight
,
as the 10th raced on to its target of Buchloe, some
forty five
kilometres beyond the front line, intent on outflanking Augsberg.

A desperate attack by USAAF Thunderbolts ravaged the lead
Soviet
formations, leaving hundreds of men from the 11th Motorised Rifle Brigade dead and wounded in their wake, although not without
unaffordable
cost to the ground-attack unit
, which left five of its precious aircraft behind on the field.

The 11th thundered on and bounced the River Lech at Landsberg am
Lech
, a town made famous by the prison in which Hitler had written 'Mein Kampf'.

A handful of men from 2e French Armoured’s 97e Quartier General, a motor transport unit, were cut down as the motorised infantry pushed hard.