Opening Moves

Reliable reports from Lubeck stated that Soviet artillery was falling all over the city and infantry were already in the suburbs, attacking on two fronts.

More red arrows ran almost to Trittau, a short distance east of Hamburg.

Better news emanated from elements of the 82nd US Airborne division, who seemed to have held their ground in the face of waves of Soviet infantry south of that route.

More disturbing was the combination of action reports at Melbeck and Grünhagen, south of Luneberg, where Russian paratroopers were reported in control of the road bridges and in contact with elements of the 84th US Infantry division’s 309th Engineer Battalion. Soviet tanks and infantry were hammering on the southern edge of Uelzen and the lack of response to any messages aimed at the 335th Regimental Combat Team of the 84th, known to be stationed in Uelzen and Bodenteich, meant that the divisional cavalry was having a hard time of it. 11th Guards Army had blasted its way through with artillery and rockets before the tanks of the 1st Tank Corps relieved paratrooper units who had taken the canal bridge east of Uelzen. If this report was true then Soviet units were already nearly ten miles beyond first point of contact, and that report was timed at 0840 hrs.

Confusion reigned in the sector of the 102nd US Infantry division. Elements in and around Wolfsburg reported distant artillery fire but nothing more. Other units spoke of tanks in large numbers hammering their way through, possibly already in Königslutter and Lehre.

British Guards near Wolfenbuttal reported Soviet tanks and infantry approaching from the south.

The 30th Cavalry Recon troops, who were positioned on that axis, were off the grid. 30th US Infantry Division, their parent formation, was holding Goslar and its environs and, by all accounts, inflicting heavy casualties on its attackers.

There were no reports of any ground activity for a distance of almost thirty miles south of Goslar but allied troops were dying as Soviet artillery took them under fire.

The 4th US Cavalry Group had virtually ceased to exist, buried under an avalanche of fire and massive assaults, its few survivors falling back to new positions as a very serious Soviet attack drove from Rittmannshausen towards Kassel.

Most surprisingly, 5th US Armored Division units seemed to be falling back before an attack aimed at Bad Hersfeld. No reports had been received from the divisions command units but the 5th was a prime formation and would have been expected to hold on for much longer. Eisenhower had already dispatched a Brigadier-General to assess the situation and do whatever was necessary to restore the divisions ‘spine’. Ike was not to know that Major-General Oliver and most his staff lay dead in their command post, victims of a clandestine assault by Siberian infantrymen well equipped for stealthy attack. The 5th was leaderless and it showed.

An adjacent formation, the 6th US Armored Division, was faring no better for its command structure had also fallen victim to ground assault, although this time the attackers were beaten off with heavy casualties. Whilst the Divisional Commander was still breathing, he was in no fit state to issue orders, concussed as he was by a grenade and in any case, his ability to control his division had been destroyed with his main radio equipment. General George Windle Read Jr was a tough and decorated soldier but he was out of the fight for some time and so his senior surviving officer took control, trying to ease the 6th into some sort of defensive order using runners and short-range radios but instead caused a major gap to open in the lines.

Although still in possession of parts of North Fulda the 6th had over adjusted and Soviet forces were already well on the road to the south-west. Their target was obvious and of pressing concern to those in the very headquarters tasked with stopping them.

It was Frankfurt.

Further along the line, 89th US Infantry had been badly handled and was falling back to the south-west. No news of the 355th RCT had been heard since the intensive artillery barrage commenced. Some garbled reports of paratroops on the Säale Bridge northeast of Bad Neustadt had come from a unit of the 340th Field Artillery stationed nearby. They were unconfirmed and no further contact had been made.

One recent unconfirmed report placed units of 76th US Infantry Division in heavy fighting in Ebern, north of Bamberg, other divisional units being forced back towards Hofheim, threatening the flanks of the 89th.

6th Cavalry in Coburg reported nothing save the distant noises of combat, and neither did any of the formations in the curved defensive front from Coburg round to Weiden.

South of Weiden the story was very different.