Opening Moves

0423 hrs Friday 10th August 1945, Battle lines of the 15th US Armored Division, Bad Driburg, Germany.

Having recovered from their appalling exercise in front of the Russians, the mainly untried personnel of the newly formed 15th US Armored Division had finally regained their haughty swagger. Few had seen action, and most of those that had were the product of their former commanders moving on problem people rather than sending quality personnel to provide example and experience.

Removing the inept Divisional Commander had been a first step and they were also boosted by a sprinkling of talent from the 13th and 20th Armored Divisions, both now back in the States training for the Invasion of Japan.

The inclusion of some ex-POW tank crew made the most difference, as a handful of experienced men from the prime US Armored formations took their place alongside the greenhorns.

Not a moment too soon, as the 15th was handed a difficult mission.

Their task was to attack the Russian 3rd Army to their front and push them back to the Diemel River, relieving the pressure north of Kassel. The Soviets had already been in action for four days and had been badly handled at Hildesheim so were probably ripe for plucking.

Major Nathaniel Parker may have been a prize fool but he was looking forward to the Friday dawn attack, commanding his own company of Pershing Tanks in the 361st  Tank Btn, 15th Armored Div.

Clad as he would be in forty-two tons of mobile armour and armed with a devastating 90mm high-velocity gun, his excitement about charging through enemy positions kept his sleep unrewarding for most of the night, dreaming as he was of medals and glory.

Soon he would show that old kraut what it meant to be a tanker.

Elsewhere during the night, British and Commonwealth bomber crews visited a range of locations with varying degrees of success.

The railway junction at Prague was totally obliterated, where as the important junction at Dresden was hardly touched, and both missions cost the British and Commonwealth bomber force six aircraft apiece.

In Vienna, squadrons from North Italy caused great destruction. Once known as the Reichsbrücke, the newly renamed ‘Red Army Bridge’ was dropped into the Donau by a wave of high-explosive that left the city completely cut in two as other bridges, the work of many hours by Soviet engineers, were similarly destroyed.

The world-famous brick built Göltzsch Railway Viaduct was visited by three specially equipped Lancaster’s just as dawn was rising. None of the huge tallboy bombs actually hit but the explosions and shock waves were enough to topple the magnificent structure.

Whilst no military headquarters other than Zhukov’s was directly hit, many a Soviet Marshall and General got little sleep as high-explosive fell from the skies nearby.

The rest of the allied plan went well.

Up and down Europe, a maximum bomber effort put over thirteen-hundred aircraft into the attack, destroying railway lines and bridges, road junctions and bridges, airfields and bridges. All in an attempt to ruin Soviet logistics and to prevent free movement of the Red Army’s superior numbers.

Soviet night bombers passing in the opposite direction were often badly handled by allied night fighters using radar to hunt down their prey, although one notable and unfortunate Soviet success was the destruction again inflicted upon Frankfurt’s main airfield, closing it for the foreseeable future.

Every night fighter the Allies possessed went up and enjoyed remarkable successes, gutting numerous Soviet night fighter units sent up by the enemy. So much so that for that night and the nights that followed, it was the Allied Air forces that owned the skies in darkness.

Having received reinforcements from the disbanding units in the UK and those on their way home, ground attack squadrons threw themselves into one huge attack, one massive effort to claw back the inequality that faced them in daylight operations, mirroring the Soviet effort of 6th August but with less success.

Valuable pilots and aircraft were lost pressing home attacks through intense anti-aircraft fire or swarms of Soviet fighter planes. The savaged allied fighter’s flying escort were occasionally overwhelmed and on three occasions whole squadrons ceased to exist.

Both sides could recover, bringing new pilots and aircraft into action. The question was who could do so faster, and for now, it could only be the Russians.

American bombers then rose to do their work in daylight, repeating many of the targets from the night before.

Escorted by weary Mustangs, the Flying Fortresses and Liberators dropped thousands of pounds of high explosive on communications routes the length and breadth of Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Poland.

American losses were modest in bombers but the mission was yet again heavy on the fighters, whose second mission of the day cost more lives than the first.