Opening Moves

Doing what the Germans did best, an ad hoc force of Perlmann’s troopers counter-attacked violently and threw the Soviet infantry back with heavy loss of life, recovering the lost ground.

‘A’ Company RWF still received incoming mortar fire but was generally fine as only II/259th Rifles were opposite them with nothing more than a holding brief.

RWF’s mortars were dropping accurate fire to the east of the Rathaus, denying the area, rather than killing in numbers.

Down Ballindamm came a mixed force of infantry, engineers and tanks, the latter of which were three survivors from the previous attack, intent on surviving this attack as well. Remaining outside panzerfaust range, they proceeded to pound the Fallschirmjager defensive positions with accurate HE rounds, causing some casualties

A 6-pdr shell streaked across the water, catching the nearest tank on the turret ring and boring inside, destroying the mechanics and flesh in equal measure.

Only the hull gunner and driver escaped and fled down Gertrudenstraße, uniforms smouldering.

Enraged, the other two tanks turned their guns on the anti-tank gun and destroyed it in turn, complete with its entire crew and four members of the RWF carrier platoon who were nearby.

The artillery was still killing, a salvo of shells arriving near the Bleichenbrücke destroying four of the RWF trucks and killing the fusiliers set to guard them.

III/259th Rifles made a sudden surge, charging recklessly through the smoke in Große Johannisstraße, losing considerable numbers of men to grenades and small arms fire in the process.

A large group broke into the ground floor of the Exchange, having mistakenly crossed the junction, missing their intended target. Close combat with the RWF’s ‘A’ Company ensued.

A short platoon of battle-hardened Russians burst upon the already unsteady survivors of the Admin platoon and virtually wiped them out in close combat, the clerks and drivers being unprepared for the horror of bayonets and sharpened spades wielded by a enemy filled with hate.

Two sections from ‘A’ Coys 2nd Platoon were swiftly thrown into the fray and managed to beat the Russians back into the corridors and rooms from which they had emerged. The reserve platoon was summoned and the Captain now commanding the depleted company held his ground until they arrived and he could throw the Russians back out into the street. Very few Soviet soldiers lived to retreat back across the road.

In the initial rush across the open ground, a larger group had managed to reach their intended target and, as with ‘A’ Coy, the Fusiliers of ‘C’ Coy found themselves in fighting where the hand grenade and sub-machine gun ruled as a king until the closer bestial work required less sophisticated weapons.

A 6-pdr position became the focus of much fighting, with the Soviets determined to capture the weapon and the Welch equally determined to retain it. The gunners had succumbed in the first rush and lay dead around their weapon.

A T-34 pushed forward, encouraged by signs of friendly infantry in the buildings on either side of Adolphsplatz. Another survivor of the previous attack, this commander, an experienced and decorated Starshina, had got through his war so far by skill and luck and, by his own admission, more of the latter than the former.

His hull gunner was on the ball and a short burst killed a ‘C’ Coy Corporal intent on setting up a PIAT to their front. A quick glimpse through the smoke and another burst took the lives of two stretcher-bearers rushing forward through Adolphsplatz as they searched for ruined bodies to transport to the Aid post.

The same hole in the smoke gave the tank commander his own glimpse of other enemy to his front, and he knew his luck had finally run out.

An ‘A’ Sqdn Sherman had him targeted and he watched as the white blob reached out towards him, struck in a shower of sparks and then whined away off the mantlet, failing to penetrate.

Ordering his gunner to return fire, he got his driver to manoeuvre to the right, moving the T-34 into the lee of the building where ‘C’ Company was fighting for its life against his infantrymen.

The 85mm barked and the shell streaked past the enemy tank, striking the bridge beyond and ricocheting skyward.

The Sherman fired again, hitting the side of the building and bringing down brickwork, adding more dust to the smoke and immersing the T-34 in a cloud of particles and smoke, shutting off all sight of the enemy.

Opening his hatch and holding the half-moon section forward to provide cover for his upper body, the Starshina deployed his PPS, in case enemy infantry took advantage of the cover offered by the smoke and dust to try and get close in.

The Sherman, having no target registered, decided on a speculative shot and fired another AP shell.

The Starshina’s luck had indeed run out and it was an unusual death.