Opening Moves

On his way south to the airfield, Eisenhower was shaken from deep thought by the hammering of anti-aircraft weapons nearby. First looking at the firers, he saw a number of stationary M-15 Anti-aircraft gun halftracks firing furiously skywards. The unit had been on its way to Frankfurt’s main airfield to stiffen up defences but the enemy was here, and here right now. Turning his head, he was startled to see Soviet aircraft heading for the same airfield, preparing to bomb one of their suspected targets into submission.

In the last few days, Soviet pilots had developed a healthy respect for the quadruple .50cal mounts carried on the M-16 halftracks or on trailers, and had learned to stay out of MG range to avoid taking punishing hits.

The aircraft flying overhead belonged to the 11th Guards Bomber Red Banner Air Regiment and were all experience pilots who had learned this lesson well.

However, the M-15 was a different animal altogether, and had a sting that had cost many a Luftwaffe pilot his life. Having learned the range of the .50cal and then learned to stay out of it, a large number of German pilots had been shocked to find their aircraft disintegrating under the impact of 37mm cannon shells. Experienced US gunners often only used the two machine guns until the target came closer, then surprising it with burst of 37mm shells from their triple gun mount.

11th Guards also acquired this knowledge the hard way as three Shturmovik were flayed from the skies in under a minute with no chance for any of the crews to escape.

Eisenhower’s driver pulled the car over into a place of safety from where her charge could observe the air battle.

Fighters came flitting overhead and, with eyes shielded, both driver and General could see Soviet and allied aircraft engaged in a twisting low-level dance of death in which there were losers on each side, marked by the black of smoke, the red of fire or the orange bloom of an explosion.

At the airfield itself, the Shturmoviks pressed home their attack, desperate to destroy the hangars and office buildings that were considered a possible SHAEF location.

More fell victim to a new arrival on the European battlefield, the M19 GMC, a converted M24 Chafee tank sporting twin 40mm cannon. Two such weapons were situated at each end of the main runway and each claimed a Soviet bomber in short order. Unfortunately, having broken through the fighter cordon and into the IL-3’s, an American P-51D Mustang was hacked from the sky in a tragic case of mistaken identity, wreckage ploughing into an air-raid shelter on the perimeter and claiming another eight allied lives.

Of the fifteen aircraft the 11th had committed to the attack, only nine released their bombs over the target. The tenth, commanded by the Regimental Commander himself, carried its bomb load remorselessly on further into allied territory, unusually steadily, dead hands holding the controls in perfect balance.

The strike was very accurate and much damage was done to the facilities they targeted, and even to two parked C-47 transports being refuelled nearby, both of which were transformed into inferno’s before the regiment turned for home.

The 339th Bomber Air Regiment attacked their allocated Frankfurt target with eleven remaining IL-3’s, successfully tumbling much of the building to the ground and raining death and destruction on the poor unfortunates within. This target had been selected on the basis of the number of vehicles going back and forth rather than military certainty. That it was the St Elisabethen Krankenhaus was of no concern to those planning the raid and the aircrew executing those plans were not aware of the fact that they were bombing a civilian hospital and sending over three hundred innocents to an early end.

The 220th Guards Stalingrad Red Banner Air Regiment were most successful and actually hit their intended target of SHAEF, spreading their high explosive over both the I.G.Farben building and the nearby Gruneberg Park prison camp, used as a transit centre and troop accommodation as well as still containing a few ex-POW US aircrew waiting their turn to go home.

Casualties in the park were heavy, in the I.G.Farben building even heavier, as fire took hold and carved its way through the whole structure. A building preserved from destruction by the Allied bomber fleet on Eisenhower’s express direction, burned for three days before the US Air force and local Frankfurt fire fighters could extinguish the flames.

Many members of SHAEF staff were killed and wounded as few had run for cover, most staying to finish their preparations for the move to Versailles.