Opening Moves

“Explain Sturmbannfuhrer.”

“Sir, I am here to fight for Germany first and Europe second. If I cannot fight as a German soldier then I will fight in the costume of the Folies Bergère if it provides me with the opportunity to liberate my fatherland.”

Bittrich tried but could not help smiling and his eyes flicked swiftly to Knocke who obviously had similar problems.

The ball was back in Lavalle’s court.

“So Commandant, you understand that you would be fighting as a Legionnaire under French command, acting under French orders and wearing French insignia?”

Uhlmann had already noticed the altered eagle, which now bore coloured wings, one of French and one of German national colours, the body constituted by some strange unfamiliar device which he would soon understand as the grenade insignia of La Légion Étrangère. It had been decided to create an insignia that covered completely the area previously occupied by the SS eagle, and every man present carried it on his upper left arm and, strangely to Uhlmann, even Lavalle was so adorned.

“Herr General, I understand perfectly and will serve with honour until the Soviets are gone from my homeland.”

Knocke leant forward.

“And beyond Sturmbannfuhrer?”

The meaning of that was loud and clear.

“To the gates of Moscow if need be Herr Standartenfuhrer.”

It was a good answer and with it, Sturmbannfuhrer Rolf Uhlmann ceased to be, becoming, with five handshakes, Commandant Rolf Uhlmann of the newly forming 1st Legion Brigade de Chars D’Assault ‘Camerone’.

The British message arrived just before midnight bringing some excitement to an otherwise unusually uneventful evening. Suspicious commanders had organised and sent out patrols but nothing seemed amiss as, aircraft excepted, Europe enjoyed its quietest night for a week.

Eisenhower was awoken by a staff major clutching a report from McCreery. Grabbing his glasses Eisenhower swiftly read the few lines, exhibiting real relief at the report.

Hamburg had held.

Chapter 54 – THE STORM

It is only the dead who have seen the end of war.

Plato

0258 hrs Monday 13th August 1945, The Frontline, Europe.

From the smallest to the largest, each weapon was tended by a silent and expectant crew. Poised with shell in hand or firing cord taught ready for the order, the length of the Soviet front line concealed artillerymen with their mortars, howitzers, rockets and field artillery in numbers undreamt of in modern warfare.

All bent for a single purpose.

Officers concentrated on their watches, tense with the expectation and understanding of what was about to come to pass.

The constant drone of enemy bombers overhead only served to increase the tension felt in a million hearts, although the sound of distant muffled explosions was unheeded by those preparing for battle.

The seconds advanced, bringing closer the moment of action until it arrived in an instant of unprecedented noise, light, and fury.

Hundreds upon hundreds of weapons barked, spitting shells into the night sky only for them to fall upon their targets, killing and maiming thousands of allied soldiers in a few minutes, stunning some into shocked inactivity and destroying some units as effective formations.

Opposite the assault formations the biggest concentrations of artillery did their awful work, psychologically as well as physically destroying men in a few minutes of fiery hell.

The Soviet spearhead formations charged forward and, meeting very little resistance, broke through the front lines and rushed onward.

Europe lay bare before them.

This is not the End.

List of figures

Fig#1 – Table of comparative ranks

Fig#2 – Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

Fig#3 – Château – First floor

Fig#4 – Château – Second floor

Fig#5 – Château – New Accomodation

Fig#6 – Château – New First floor

Fig#7 – Château – New Second floor

Fig#8 – Château – Defence of First floor

Fig#9 – Château – The Battle.

Fig#10 – Battlle of Kefermarkt

Fig#11 – Battle of Helingenthal

Fig#12 – Battle of Malkendorf

Fig#13 – Malkendorf – First Assault.

Fig#14 – Malkendorf – Second Assault

Fig#15 – Rottenbauer – the Battleground

Fig#16 – Rottenbauer – 0858hrs

Fig#17 – Reichenberg – First Flare

Fig#18 – Reichenberg – Second Flare

Fig#19 – Reichenberg – Third Flare

Fig#20 – Reichenberg – Death Throes

Fig#21 – Battleground at Trendelburg

Fig#22 – Trendelburg – Stealthy Attack

Fig#23 – Trendelburg – Sound of shots

Fig#24 – The Fall of Trendelburg

Fig#25 – Trendelburg – Final Positions

Fig#26 – Hamburg – Allied defensive line

Fig#27 – Hamburg – Soviet Positions

Fig#28 – Hamburg – Llewellyn Force

Fig#29 – Hamburg – Soviet Artillery

Fig#30 – Hamburg – initial Soviet Attack

Fig#31 – Hamburg -  Finale

Bibliography

Rosignoli, Guido

The Allied Forces in Italy 1943-45

ISBN 0-7153-92123

Kleinfeld & Tambs, Gerald R. & Lewis A.

Hitler’s Spanish Legion – The Blue Division in Russia

ISBN 0-9767380-8-2

Delaforce, Patrick

The Black Bull – From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division

ISBN 0-75370-350-5