Operation Plunder: The British and Canadian Operations

by Tim Saunders

  Immediately A Company had reorganised themselves and deployed into fire positions, D Company, personally led forward by Major Petrie, assaulted the Cathedral. ‘Despite strong opposition, the momentum of the attack rapidly quelled all resistance and the position was in turn captured.’ Major Lindsay wrote:

  It all sounds very easy when one writes it down, but this was far from being so. The clearing of every single house was a separate little military operation requiring a special reconnaissance, plan and execution. And the enemy were resisting fiercely all the time with Spandaus, bazookas and snipers, and only withdrawing a little further back at the last moment when their position became untenable.

  Meanwhile, at 0900 hours 5 BW had finally reduced the enemy strongpoint in the station to the north of the town. It had been a protracted fight and proved to be similar to the enemy’s last stand in the eastern sector of the town later in the day. The Jocks facing a fanatical enemy, who were surrounded, would typically secure a foothold in a building but would be promptly counter-attacked. Having seen off the enemy and secured a firm hold on a building, the remaining, often isolated, Fallschirmjäger would continue to resist, while others would infiltrate back into the buildings over the roofs, through attics, cellars and mouse holes. Controlling the men and the battle, clearing and then holding gains consumed manpower and was desperately slow. Eventually, the Black Watch succeeded in taking a handful of prisoners, mostly wounded.

  During what was thought to be the final clearance of the town, a shell splinter wounded Colonel Grant-Peterkin as he arrived at his new Tactical HQ, set up in a house in the south west corner of the town. The second-in-command, Major Martin Lindsay, wrote:

  After breakfast, Grant-Peterkin decided to move our command post down to a large cellar in a house in the nearest street in Rees, half a mile from us. He went on with the wireless set and one or two officers, leaving me to bring on the remainder of the men and vehicles in my own time. Soon after they had left, two or three salvoes of fairly heavy shells came down between us and the new HQ and I hoped they had been able to reach it in time. I put off our departure for about twenty minutes, by which time peace reigned again.

  Major Lindsay who took command in mid battle.

  When Major Lindsay and his group reached the cellar at the edge of Rees, he was greeted by the bad news:

  ′The Colonel has been hit,’ and there he was, sitting in a chair, saying he was quite all right but looking pretty green. I sent for our doctor, who said he had a small fragment in the ribs, and that of course he ought really to go back, but he didn’t think it had penetrated, in which case he would be all right. I said: ′For God’s sake go back, for you will only cramp my style if you are going to sit at my elbow while I command the battalion’, which perhaps was not very well put. He replied, ′No, you go down and see how the companies are, and I will stay by the wireless set.’ Half an hour later, the Adjutant rang me up to say that the Colonel wasn’t feeling well at all and had allowed himself to be evacuated.

  The situation in mid-morning, thirty-six hours after the crossing of the Rhine, Major Lindsay summed up on taking command:

  ... the companies had all taken their limited objectives of the night before, and D and C Companies had reached the Cathedral and cleaned up all the waterline as far as that, but the enemy were still resisting fiercely in what was still rather more than one-third of the town.

  The official battalion report detailed the location and situation of the individual companies, as follows:

  a. A Company were moving across the middle of the town to clear the area between Station Road and the cathedral.

  b. B Company were moving along the river bank and meeting opposition from within the town but the waterfront was being cleared of enemy.

  c. C Company was acting as anchor and occupied the cathedral square. The Company HQ was in the SW corner where Major Lindsay moved up to conduct the remainder of the operations.

  d. D Company were just south west of the cathedral covering the rear of B Company. One of the platoon commanders, Lieutenant Porter had been killed, by the same salvo that hit the CO, having already been injured by a Schumine during the previous evening.

  C Company HQ was in the corner house opposite the Cathedral Square, which is where Major Lindsay decided to command the remainder of the battle. In a difficult environment to exercise command and control, the Gordons’ tactical HQ was sited well forward in the centre of the town at an easy to find location.

  The final organised enemy resistance on the riverbank was in the old Mill Tower, which was captured by B Company. With the last position overlooking the Rhine removed, the Royal Engineers were now able to carry out their much-delayed bridging operations immediately south of Rees, unhindered by enemy fire.

  The battle was, however, not over for B Company, who turned north to clear up the remainder of the town. They ran into very stiff opposition from a machine gun in a concrete pillbox at a crossroads a hundred yards north of the Cathedral. This enemy position was supported by Fallschirmjäger hidden in the houses along the approach road from the south. During this phase of the battle, three B Company officers became casualties.

  Lieutenant Halleron was shot in the back by a sniper and died; Second Lieutenant Macdonald was mortally wounded by a burst of Spandau fire from the pillbox and Lieutenant Burnel, a B Company spare officer called up to replace Halleron less than an hour earlier, was shot in the head and appeared to be severely wounded. Major Morrison was himself hit on the head by sniper fire but his helmet deflected the round and he was uninjured.

  Captain McNai, was again in action; having helped to rescue one of the officers, he set about dealing with the enemy positions. Captain Bill McFarlan took him up to a position which overlooked the enemy-held buildings. Meanwhile, the mountain gunners manhandled bits of the 3.7-inch gun up the stairs and set it up. McNair was demanding to know which window the sniper was using, so McFarlan took a large mirror off the wall and held it out of the window and the Spandau gunner obligingly fired at the reflection. ‘With no more than ″Oh, that one″ for a comment he gave orders for the gun to be dragged forward and, laid his gun and fired’ setting the house on fire and destroying the enemy Spandau position. With this success, B Company looked for a repeat performance from the gunners. By again carrying pieces of the gun and its ammunition (each round weighed twenty-one pounds) through the rubble, McNair and his mountain gunners eventually found a spot from which he could engage the pillbox and knocked it out with several well-placed shots.

  Hitlerjugend soldier prepares to throw a stick grenade.

  Major Lindsay recalled that McNair ’s:

  ... enthusiasm for battle ... can seldom have been seen before – in fact it was rather easy for some of our more battle weary officers to be quite funny about it. For each situation in this street to street battle, McNair had some excellent suggestion for using his gun. He hauled it over rubble, rushed it around corners, laid it on a house that was giving trouble, dodged back again, prepared his charges and then ran back to fire them...

  This very brave officer took incredible risks; finally, he ran out into a street, which was under fire and pulled in a wounded officer.

  Captain McNair RA and his gun were soon the talk of the division and ‘in a few hours, had become an almost legendary character’and received a well-deserved Military Cross.

  After this action, the Fallschirmjäger withdrew to their final pre-prepared defensive position, which was only a hundred yards square, sited around an ancient fortification on the extreme eastern edge of the town. Here they had well-prepared trenches and a large concrete casemate. B Company closed in but they were driven into cover by the fire of a determined enemy.

  At midday General Horrocks visited the Battalion and congratulated them on a job well done, however, he stressed how vital it was for the position to be fully cleared as soon as possible. Tanks were to be brought up in support of B Company, 1 Gordons in their attack on the final strongpoint in the early af
ternoon. However, the attack had to be delayed, as the rubblechoked streets prevented the tanks from getting into position to support the infantry. Since an attack from the south without armoured support would prove very costly, it was eventually decided that C Company should move so that they could attack from the north through the 5 BW’s positions in darkness. At dusk, C Company was poised to make the final attack. The Fallschirmjäger commander, Hauptmann Hubner, had, however, already told all his fit men to disperse and break through the cordon set up by 1 Gordons and 5 BW.

  The area of the German’s final stand on the eastern outskirts of Rees.

  With B Company about to attack, Hauptmann Hubner approached the company under a white flag and asked to surrender and made it plain that he wished to see Major Lindsay in order to negotiate terms for the treatment of his wounded men. The acting CO recalled:

  He was marched in front of me as I sat at my table poring over the map, and gave me a spectacular Hitler salute, which I ignored ... He was a nasty piece of work, cocksure and good looking in a flashy sort of way, but I had to admire the brave resistance which he had put up. The strain of the battle was apparent in the black chasms under his eyes. He said that they had left eight badly wounded men in two dug-outs.

  Hubner apparently complained that a Jock had relieved him of his wallet when he had surrendered but Lindsay was of the opinion that having looted most of Europe, the Nazis could expect little else in return!

  Rees after its capture.

  While these negotiations were taking place and complaints were being dealt with, a B Company platoon, led by Captain Bill Macfarlane entered the strongpoint and found it clear of active enemy. ‘It was a great moment when at 10 p.m. we were able to send the signal that the town was clear.’

  So ended a battle that had lasted for almost forty-eight hours resulting in the capture of two officers and 124 other ranks from the Fallschirmjäger and Volkssturm. A similar number were killed or wounded and some escaped to the north east in the dark. On the other hand, 1 Gordons’ losses totalled sixty-two officers and men.

  The defenders of Rees, who probably never exceeded 500 Germans of mixed quality, had prevented 5/7 Gordons crossing the Alter Rhine until midnight on D+1 and had drawn a second battalion (5 Black Watch) into the fight. Hauptmann Hubner had in effect, fixed all three battalions of 153 Brigade at a time when troops east of the Rhine were at a premium and badly delayed XXX Corps operations and, it could be argued, held up its advance for nearly two days. Hauptmann Hubner and his elite and far from elite force had done their job well. Sadly for them their comrades fared less well in their endeavours to destroy the Allied bridgeheads.

  The fighting over, a British despatch rider makes his way through the ruined streets of Rees.

  CHAPTER 9

  The Capture of Speldrop and Bienen

  IN CHAPTER 4, WE LEFT 1 Black Watch of 154 Brigade, mid-morning on 23 March, having been forced back from Speldrop by a vigorous German counter-attack and had only just managed to retain a foothold in Klein Esserden. As far as XXX Corps was concerned Speldrop and Bienen were key to breaking out of the bridgehead that was hemmed in by the Alter Rhine. Colonel Stacey the Canadian official historian explained the significance of the village:

  To expand northward therefore the villages of Speldrop and Bienen must be taken. Speldrop itself lies at the heel of the great horseshoe of which the Alter Rhein is the western side. Bienen at the northern end is the toe of the horseshoe and the waters of the Millinger Meer form the eastern side. A breakout could only be accomplished by securing Bienen, but Bienen could not be taken so long as the Germans held Speldrop.

  The Germans had fully appreciated the tactical value of these villages and were determined to hold them knowing that the British needed to take them to expand the bridgehead. A second attempt was made by 1 Black Watch, now supported by tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry and two of the Battalion’s Wasp flame-throwers. They were quickly in possession of Klein Esserden and then turned against Speldrop, ‘but could not get across the open ground without loss, and their attack failed’.

  See air photo on page 226

  The Royal Artillery Rocket Battery preparing to fire across the Rhine during Operation PLUNDER.

  Speldrop

  The Black Watch’s third attack on 24 March against Speldrop went in at 1630 hours, with the infantry advancing behind a creeping barrage of smoke and HE. The regimental historian records that ‘At first it fared well and even got a footing; but eventually it was expelled, leaving another platoon isolated and stranded’. Under cover of a smoke screen, the battered Jocks of the Black Watch withdrew, leaving their wounded sheltering in the cellars. One of the stranded platoons in Speldrop was successfully contacted by radio and told to take what cover they could from their own division’s artillery fire.

  In the late afternoon, the leading Canadian battalion, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Strickland, was ordered to take Speldrop, instead of Bienen, which had been nominated as their original task. Their war diary recorded:

  The attack by HLI of C was to be well supported; six field and two medium regiments, as well as two heavy batteries (7.2s) were available to back up our attempt to gain the village of Speldrop. At 1600 hours, behind a series of linear artillery concentrations and with the left flank screened by smoke to give protection against the German fire from the north, B Coy HLI of C went in from the west.

  A Fallschirmjäger gun position officer receives fire orders to stop the Canadian advance.

  With the artillery keeping the enemy’s heads down, a single company of Canadians advanced across 1200 yards of flat, ‘horribly open fields’, which despite the smoke screen were swept by the enemy’s machine guns, artillery and mortar fire. A member of the battalion recalled, ‘Hugging the shelter of our own barrage, the leading company reached the outskirts of the built-up portion of the town but immediately ran into stiff resistance’. The CO believed that by sending B Company on its own he would be reducing casualties from both friendly and enemy fire. If an eighty-strong company could break into the village and establish a firm base, the remainder of the battalion could follow in stages with covering fire. This approach worked well at Speldrop but Sergeant Reidel led a bayonet charge against enemy positioned in an orchard and then led his men on through the outskirts of the village. The rest of the company followed Sergeant Reidel, who surprised Major King by promptly handing over the three troublesome 75 mm anti-tank guns and their crews as prisoners.

  Having reached the edge of the village Major King realised that he needed the HLI of C’s six-pounder anti-tank guns, as the enemy had moved a platoon of assault guns into Speldrop in support of the Fallschirmjäger. In addition, he requested the Wasp flame-throwers, which had been brought across the river aboard LVTs, to help him burn the enemy out of buildings. The Wasps however, had a strictly limited supply of flame fuel and would only be able to deal with a few buildings before withdrawing to refuel. B Company used this close support to help storm the German position and secure a lodgement amongst the buildings on the northern edge of the village.

  With B Company having broken into Speldrop, A Company was then brought across the open ground to join the fight against the determined Fallschirmjäger, who were defending the fortified houses. The Wasp flame-throwers negated the Fallschirmjäger’s defensive advantage to a degree. A member of the Battalion recalled that ‘even the resolution of these well trained toughs melted before the horrid jets of flame which the Wasps sprayed among them, and the backbone of their resistance was broken’. Meanwhile, C Company succeeded in clearing the southern part of the town extricating the trapped platoons of 1 Black Watch, while the fourth rifle company sent patrols north of the town and captured several Fallschirmjäger machine-gun crews who were, curiously enough, asleep at their guns. Colonel Stacey noted that ‘It was evident that the past twenty-four hours of almost continual attack and bombardment had rendered the German infantry completely exhausted’.
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  The Wasp flame-thrower, a converted carrier, is filled with flame fuel.

  The HLI of C’s war diary reads:

  The battle continued well into the morning of the 25th. Houses had to be cleared at the point of the bayonet and single Germans made suicidal attempts to break up our attacks ... It was necessary to push right through the town and drive the enemy out into the fields where they could be dealt with.

  One of the factors in downgrading German performance in Speldrop was the presence of the isolated Black Watch Platoons. Sergeant Johnson commanded one of the platoons and received a DCM for his part in the battle. The Fallschirmjäger had repeatedly fought their way into the platoon’s house before being ejected. When relieved, the Jocks counted thirty-five dead Germans around the house.

  Bienen 24 – 25 March 1945

  While the HLI of C was mopping up the last resistance in and around Speldrop, 7 Argylls were ordered to pass through 1 BW in Klein Esserden and to capture Bienen. The Battalion attacked Bienen in the fading light, but as at Speldrop numerous, well-prepared and still determined Germans, supported by panzers and assault guns opposed the Scots. It was obvious that 15th Panzergrenadiers had taken over responsibility for holding the vital ground of Bienen.

  The soldiers of B Company, who were acutely aware that they were facing self-propelled guns, delivered the Argyll’s first attack from the southwest and reported that ‘enemy spandau posts were chattering away all along the Bund’. Their historian describes the attack: