Opening Moves

Dismissing the parade, Ramsey turned and looked over the Markt, sensing rather than seeing the heaps of enemy dead, knowing that they had suffered more losses than he had, but finding no consolation in the thought.

Ramsey wept, silently and stiffly, as only a man battling with his inner self can do.

For the Russians, the reaper’s bill was higher than could ever have been expected and without success to sweeten the bitterness of so many deaths.

179th Rifle Division was combat ineffective now. None of the five battalions committed had their commander, four being dead and one missing vital parts of his body, removed by grenades as he led his men forward at the Exchange. The five battalions consisting of one thousand seven hundred men just a few hours ago now mustered less than six hundred and many of those were unfit but refused to go to the aid stations.

The three battalions of 938th Rifle Regiment had done no better. I Btn had been hammered in their advance up Ballindamm, II Btn savaged as they went to the support of the under-pressure diversionary attack force, III/992nd Rifle Regt. III/938th had been the main force that blundered into the Markt, complete with companies from the 215th Rifles and the sappers of the 28th.

II Btn 28th Engineer Sappers had been pulled from the Ballindamm attack, preserved for the Markt assault and had suffered the most casualties of any battalion in the field, there being only twenty-four men left from a unit which boasted three hundred and sixty at the start of the day.

Second to them came the III/215th Rifles, which had been the opponents of Ramsey and the Fallschirmjager during their wild counter-attack. They had started the Battle of Hamburg with two hundred and ninety-nine effectives, ending with forty-seven capable of holding a weapon.

39th Guards Tanks had worked wonders and now had a total of eight running tanks, its mechanics scrounging from wrecks to make whole. Casualties amongst the crews had been less than the norm, as many had escaped back to their own lines. Their morale was shot away, lowered further by the grievous wounding of their much-loved commander.

10th Guards Mortar had been badly hit by radar-guided counter-battery fire, and the 64th Gun Artillery Brigade had been dealt with very harshly by allied ground-attack aircraft, appearing unopposed over the Hamburg skies.

Last on Beloborodov’s list were the 134th Knapsack Flamethrower Company of ninety-four men and one mad disfigured Kapitan. Simply put, there was no one left.

True to form, Beloborodov blamed the actions of the II/295th’s commander for the whole failure and was, surprisingly, believed.

He never did get the Guards Rifle Corps and 43rd Army was withdrawn from front-line action to reform.

2300 hrs Sunday 12th August 1945, Adjacent to the ‘Bride’, Altstad, Hamburg, Germany.

Llewellyn organised a command group on the quayside near the Bride, a large sandbagged position providing protection from the Soviet artillery fire that had been redirected onto the front line positions shortly after the failure of the attack.

No lighting was necessary as the burning Rathaus adequately illuminated the entire area.

As he waited for his officers, an orderly finished tending to the days wounds. A flesh wound to the right side of his belly and the nasty wrist wound which denied him the use of his right hand.

The two bullets from Scelerov’s pistol had hit nothing vital, and new bandages on calf and arm protected wounds that bled a lot but were not serious.

First to arrive was Schuster, the competent Fallschirmjager Hauptmann now sporting a head bandage, closely followed by 2nd Lieutenant Maitland of the Manchesters, Captain Jones of RWF’s A Company and CSM Price, the senior man left standing in the savaged D Company.

Next came Angell, Lieutenant of Yeomanry, his uniform stinking of petrol, his eyes speaking volumes of the horrors he had faced that day, deep in whispered conversation with C Coy’s Captain Anwill, who favoured a wounded leg.

Lieutenant Reece arrived, his uniform immaculate by comparison with the others, his mortar unit not having sustained a single casualty thus far, having joined in with the defeat of the Ballindamm assault and added to the misery of those slaughtered in the Markt from a distance only. Accompanying him was the less than pristine Ames, who had taken up a rifle in the Rathaus resistance, closing with an enemy face to face for the first time. Blackened by soot and with smoke-reddened eyes, he hoped never to repeat the experience.

Last to join the group was Ramsey, stiff and aching from his exertions.

Welcoming everyone and permitting smoking, Llewellyn swung into organising the defence for that night and the following day, formally and efficiently discharging his function, not referring to the horrors of the day.