Memories from World War II

 Alfred de Mello

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By 0500 hours my group of eight had positioned itself behind houses, barns and basements within a 30 yard distance from the German pillbox, and Sgt. Hayter with his group had deployed behind the knoll, and the antitank gun was emplaced just behind the crest of the knoll overlooking the bridge from another angle. It was still dark. Walker and Morris crawled across the muddy street toward the silhouette, etched against the grey morning sky, of the German pillbox at the east end of the bridge. The eerie silence was broken all of a sudden by machine gun fire from the enemy sentry at the base of the pillbox. All hell broke loose, as Sgt. Hayter's antitank gun knocked off this sentry, followed by constant fire from small arms and our BARs (Browning automatic rifles) during the better part of two minutes. Then silence. Moans of the wounded. Mortars and small arms could be heard from the western side of the river. Morris dead. 

Walker resumed his crawl and lobbed a grenade neatly into the pillbox. The remaining three Germans were killed by the blast. By 0540 hrs our men controlled this pillbox, and their machine gun, and now we had to cross the bridge to secure the western pillbox. Heavy fighting was taking place, evidently started by our three men who had the misfortune to land on the western side, and now it was our duty to rush to their rescue. The fighting around the western end of the bridge was bloody and confused, producing heavy casualties on both sides. 

My only recollection of the enemy, face to face, was when crawling flat against the muddy, wet asphalt and halfway across the arched bridge I saw a German helmet close by creeping towards me. In a split second I contemplated a young 20-year-old like me, with astonished grey eyes. It was the longest second in my life. The one with the quickest reflex would survive. Without aiming I pulled the trigger from my hip and blasted pointblank that cherubic face, feeling remorse, relief, regret, reassured, recoiled, reconciled, reprobation, remercy, revulsion, resurrected, my heart pounding wildly against the schnapps bottle cuddled between my shirt and chest. 

By 0945 hrs the western pillbox was in our hands, but we had lost nine men. Major Henderson radioed to the British Second Army that our mission was accomplished and requested news about the British advance. His ruddy face turned white: he was astounded to learn that all attacks of the Allies had been postponed, due to a totally unexpected German counteroffensive just south of our position, from Monschau down to Luxembourg, what would later be known as the Battle of the Bulge. It had started before daybreak on December 16, and was devastating the Ardennes. We were ordered to dig foxholes and hold the bridge until further notice. 

Indeed Eisenhower directed that all ongoing Allied offensive operations be halted, and Montgomery at his headquarters in Zondhoven was more than cautious and refused to budge the 21st Army Group, of which he was commander, including the British Second and Canadian First Armies. Weather conditions were miserable with sporadic rain showers contributing further to the mud amid general fog and mist. By the afternoon we were being pummeled by German mortars and machine guns. However both the enemy and we, were not interested in blowing up the bridge. The Germans fired on us from a distance of one hundred yards or so. All of a sudden we had become "penny packets", a British military term for inadequately small forces. Night fell at 1645 hrs. During the bitter cold night the fighting was confused and jumbled . 

One of the problems with night attacks with infantry troops is the inability to distinguish between friend and foe in the dark. Bumping into people with semi-automatic weapons with drawn bayonets is not a fun way to spend a night. Two of our men were wounded and Donahue was killed at our end of the bridge. 

On the 17th morning, at 1000 hrs our commander radioed again to the British Second Army, and glumly received the message: "Sorry, old chap. Don't expect any advance from us. All offensive operations are definitely cancelled. Cheerio". On hearing this I felt a painful sliver of fear arcing through my chest. There followed an absolute silence that comes from absolute knowledge of impending disaster. Paratroopers are too lightly equipped to hold off the heavily armed panzer- grenadiers. We were hard-pressed to stand up to repeated German tank-infantry attacks from the west. Our radioed request for an airdrop of supplies went unheeded because the overcast skies meant that we would have to hold on for days before any succor arrived. 

We were running out of ammunition, when by mid afternoon we sighted three German tanks with a dozen or so infantrymen clinging to each vehicle approaching us from the east. Bullets ripped across the chest of our commander. With Major Henderson dead, Harkins, Burton and we, decided to wave our hand-kerchiefs. We were woefully below strength, having lost 23 men including four badly wounded; we had no choice than to surrender. 

Germans killed? Scores, I suppose, but nobody cared to make any reckoning. Just staying alive took all one's ingenuity. 

We were taken to a P.O.W. camp outside the German town of Lüdenscheid, as we learnt after the War was over. Christmas was barely a week away, and some German officers, were chanting Christmas carols, with the accompaniment of a mouth-organ, and a harmonica, played by inexperienced hands. I approached this group after the lean evening meal, which they called “Abendbrot”,and as I knew some German, I offered to play the harmonica for them. When they heard the strains of “Oh Tannenbaum”, played and sung by me , they all joined, and some of them had tears rolling on their faces, as evidently they realised that the failure of the breakthrough into the Ardennes, meant that Germany had lost the war. I went on with all the German Christmas carols that we had learnt with Mama in Goa, and a spirit of camaraderie evolved, and I finally played “Lili Marlene” – which German song was popular all around the world at that time

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