Opening Moves

Still gripping the SS officer’s hand, Rhodes spoke without need for any interpretation.

“Hals und Beinbruch, Meine Herren.”

They all laughed.

“Hals und Beinbruch Oberst Rhodes.”

‘Break a leg’ was a common way to wish someone good luck in Germany.

For many, luck was in short supply that night.

Chapter 37 – THE ZILANTS

CANNON, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.

Ambrose Bierce

Early Morning, Monday, 6th August 1945, Airborne over Allied occupied Germany.

The Zilant was a creature of Russian Folklore, most often portrayed as a winged serpent, not that different to a European vision of a dragon.

On this night there were four such dragons flying through the darkness, all intent on bringing death to their allotted targets; the symposiums.

Men of the 100th Guards Rifle Division “Svir” formed these Zilant groups, which took off from their different airfields in the rear of the Soviet lines.

To the casual observer the aircraft of Zilant-4 were Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft. Most certainly, they were not, although the Lisunov Li-2’s had their roots in the DC-3 and had been produced under licence since 1936, first as the PS84 and then as the Lisunov.

The aircraft carrying Makarenko was a Li2-D paratrooper version marked to look exactly like a DC-3 of a USAAF transport unit, as were all the others in the same formation, but the other Zilant groups, as with the Kurgan formations, made do with whatever they could fly in to get them to where they were going.

Thousands of aircraft were in the air, each with a precise mission, be it delivery of fighting troops or saboteurs, or to bomb ground targets. Zilant-4 had been one of the first groups airborne, rising from Planá Airfield, near the Czech town of Ceske Budejovice. The other three Zilant groups were spread out to the north, each group targeted on one of the symposiums.

Zilant-1, consisting of 1st Battalion, 298th Guards Rifle Regiment, was targeted on Hamburg and the Schloss Ahrensburg.

The 2nd Battalion had a date with destiny as Zilant-2 at the Schloss Neuhaus near Paderborn.

2nd Battalion, 304th Guards Rifle Regiment, reinforced with 2 companies of the 1st battalion, all forming Zilant-3, was concentrated upon Frankfurt, and Schloss Kransberg.

Makarenko’s group, Zilant-4 consisting of 3rd Battalion 298th and a special grouping of divisional troops, had been handed Château de Haut-Kœnigsbourg, and the furthest flight. The remainder of his division was untasked.

Some Allied ground radar stations became aware of many aircraft crossing the new borders and reported in. Some reports were taken seriously, others were not, and some were confused with the intended Molotov flight paths but in any case, only a handful of night-fighters were sent airborne to investigate. Reports started to filter upwards but no-one senior enough received warning in time. Partially due to ineptitude on the part of the radar units but partially because of the successful interference in communications commenced by small groups of Soviet personnel, infiltrated weeks beforehand for the purpose of wreaking havoc behind allied lines.

Communication infrastructure destroyed during the allied advance into Germany and recently restored was swiftly destroyed again, along with a few communication centres and radar warning sites.

Some Soviets were caught in the act and small firefights broke out all over Germany and Northern Italy. The dying started before the sun rose over the morning skyline.

Timed to coincide with all attacks, units of Soviet-manned aircraft arrived over allied airbases at 0530. Those nearest the demarcation lines were mainly visited by Soviet Shturmoviks, PE-2’s and their attendant fighter escorts. The airbases further afield got more specialist attention from US built aircraft sent to Russia under lend-lease and British fighters that had survived the harrowing Arctic convoy run, all in their respective USAAF and RAF colours but flown by a Russian pilot, sowing confusion with friendly anti-aircraft batteries and responding aircraft alike.

In the first instance, all Soviet air forces were concentrated against the Western Allies airbases throughout Germany and Austria, in an effort to eradicate the weapons that had proved so successful in destroying the German armies in 1944. Operation Kurgan was absolutely vital to the plans set in motion that morning, for whilst the Soviet Commanders had little respect for the armies of the Western Allies, they understood only too well the power of the Air forces of their opponents.