Opening Moves

No-one will know if they would have suffered at the hands of the irate RAF soldiers, for the entire group disappeared in a fireball of exploding aviation fuel as the first of four Soviet manned P-39 D-2 Aircobras, devoid of any national markings, swept over the field. The aircraft dropped five hundred pound bombs from home built fuselage-mounted racks, copied from American originals, aiming to crater the runway before going about the business of destroying the then stranded aircraft below.

The first bomb skipped off the runway and ploughed on through the controllers van, killing all inside, terminating in the fuel storage bunker where it finally decided to function as it was designed. Everyone for eighty yards in all directions died in an instant.

Bombs two and three hit the runway and created deep craters, scattering stone and earth in all directions but did not deny its use.

Number four’s bomb refused to drop and so the aircraft banked around for a second attempt to release the weapon, which it stubbornly refused to do despite the pilot skilfully jinking the aircraft.

A 40mm Bofors gun on the edge of the strip started to hammer out its defiance but the well-trained and experienced Soviet pilots soon silenced it. Other guns joined the defence but the Aircobras worked over the field expertly, destroying aircraft at will, concentrating on anyone attempting to take off.

Parked on the western edge of the field, even the two defunct Me262’s perished, curiosities retained for fun by the RAF base personnel, relics from the airfields Luftwaffe usage by Kampfgeschwader 51. The four aircraft retired after seven minutes of intense action that left the field cratered, fuel storage facilities wrecked, buildings burning and every aircraft smashed beyond repair. Casualties amongst the ground crew and flight personnel were severe.

Only a single hit had been inflicted on the attacking Soviets machines.

0559 hrs Monday, 6th August 1945, 182 Squadron RAF, airborne over Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.

Circling at low level over the Bad Oeynhausen Headquarters, the Typhoon pilots of 182 heard nothing of the drama at their airfield as Rheine’s means of communication had been smashed by the Aircobras attentions, or of the other numerous similar dramas being played out on RAF and USAAF airfields all over Europe.

Below them, they had all the drama they could cope with. Smoke and flames belched from the Hotel Konigshof, a former Gestapo HQ, now 21st Army Group Command building, and the telltale flashes of heavy ground firing became evident.

On the scene, one quick-witted RAF liaison officer had grabbed a radio and worked his way through his frequency book trying to find some way of communicating with the aircraft above him. He could see what they could not, which was a body of enemy troops retreating under the cover of the smoke, heading north for the forest.

A number of the locations he tried would never answer, struck down by either commando attacks or aircraft bombs. He was unable to raise Rheinbaden, the location of the headquarters of the British Air Forces of Occupation, formerly 2nd Tactical Air Force RAF and suspected, as was the case, that similar events had transpired there. US 9th Air Force headquarters in Wiesbaden had suffered the worst of all.

He managed to get through to an RAF controller in Bielefeld who was able to establish contact with the circling typhoons and connect the two.

Giving calm and precise instructions the young Squadron Leader organised a strike on the retreating Soviet paratroopers, ignoring the pain caused by the grenade wounds in both legs. Wooden splinters from what had once been chairs and tables protruded from his flesh like a myriad of porcupine quills.

Three of the Typhoons swept down, unloading their RP-3 rockets as directed along the west side of the River Weser, slaughtering the retreating men in the gruesome ways that only sixty pounds of high explosive can manage. Pausing only to let the smoke from their ordnance clear, the three swept back down to low level and began to mercilessly grind up the survivors with their 20mm cannon.

Having taken heavy casualties during their assault on the Konigshof, these elite Russian paratroopers could take little of this kind of butchery and they scattered, discipline gone, not returning fire, just in an all out attempt to find personal safety and to hell with everyone else.

As the British infantry pursued them, they initially rarely took prisoners, killing without mercy in the main. Soon they became more and more horrified at the detritus of men that the RAF aircraft had spread around the ground. With their sympathy growing, shocked and dazed Russians were gathered up almost compassionately until only the occasional diehard required swift and decisive terminal force applied. Exactly one hundred and forty men had commenced the assault on Montgomery’s Headquarters. Twenty-seven remained when the firing stopped, beaten, bloodied but alive.