After The Battle 154 - Heligoland

5 4

HELIGOLAND

9

770306

No. 154

154097

£4.25

Number 154

NUMBER 154

LONDON STOCKIST for the After the Battle range: Motorbooks, 13/15 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4AN Telephone: 020 7836 5376. Fax: 020 7497 2539 United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution: Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues: Renniks Publications Pty Limited Unit 3, 37-39 Green Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019 Telephone: 61 2 9695 7055. Fax: 61 2 9695 7355 E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.renniks.com Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions: Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 622 Welland Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario Telephone: (905) 937 3100. Fax: (905) 937 1760 Toll Free: 1-800-661-6136 E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand Distribution: Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, PO Box 24486, Royal Oak, Auckland 1345, New Zealand Telephone: 021 627 870. Fax: 9-6252817 E-mail: [email protected] United States Distribution and Subscriptions: RZM Imports Inc, 184 North Ave., Stamford, CT 06901 Telephone: 1-203-324-5100. Fax: 1-203-324-5106 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rzm.com Italian Distribution: Tuttostoria, PO Box 395, 1-43100 Parma Telephone: ++390521 29 27 33. Fax: ++390521 29 03 87 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.tuttostoria.it Dutch Language Edition: SI Publicaties/Quo Vadis, Postbus 188, 6860 AD Oosterbeek Telephone: 026-4462834. E-mail: [email protected]

HELIGOLAND

CUXHAVEN

BREMERHAVEN WILHELMSHAVEN

IWM Q36-407-1

© Copyright After the Battle 2011 Editor: Karel Margry Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey Published by Battle of Britain International Ltd., The Mews, Hobbs Cross House, Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0NN, England Telephone: 01279 41 8833 Fax: 01279 41 9386 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.afterthebattle.com Printed in Great Britain by Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. After the Battle is published on the 15th of February, May, August and November.

Heligoland (or Helgoland as the Germans call it) is an archipelago of two tiny islands in the North Sea. Located 46 kilometres off the German coastline in the German Bight, it comprises the Hauptinsel (main island) — a high sandstone plateau with a harbour area at its base and encompassing just one square kilometre — and Düne (dune), a flat and sandy island less than half a kilometre to the east. Permanently inhabited since pre-historic times, from the 13th century possession of the archipelago alternated between the Kingdom of Denmark, the Duchy of Schleswig and the Hanseatic port of Hamburg until it finally became Danish in 1714. It remained so until 1807 when it was captured by the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, as a result of which it was formally ceded to Britain in 1814. By tradition a fishing station, in 1826 Heligoland became a seaside spa and it soon turned into a popular tourist resort for the German upper class, receiving thousands of visitors each year.

CONTENTS 2 3 12 13 15 23 28 29 33 34 35 52

Front Cover: Heligoland looking north-west in 2011. Image © National Air and Space Administration. (Google) Back Cover: Hitler and a party of Kriegsmarine commanders and high Nazi party officials descending the stairway between the Oberland and Unterland villages on Heligoland during his inspection visit to the fortress island on April 4, 1939 . . . then and now. Acknowledgements: For their help with the Heligoland story the Editor would like to thank Claude Fröhle and Hans-Jürgen Kühn, authors of Hochseefestung Helgoland. Eine militärgeschichtliche Entdeckungsreise, Maurice Laarman and Hans Houterman. For assistance with the Frankfurt story, he thanks Peter Hendrikx, Katrin Kokot and Ronny Loewy. Photo Credits: BA — Bundesarchiv; BAMA — Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv; IfS Frankfurt — Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt; IWM — Imperial War Museum, London; NIOD — Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam USNA — US National Archives.

2

In July 1890, Britain gave up Heligoland to Imperial Germany, exchanging it for the island of Zanzibar on the eastern coast of Africa as part of a treaty that regulated several other territorial interests of the two nations in Africa. The ceremony of handing over the island to Germany took place in front of the Governor’s House on August 10 of that year. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had arrived aboard the cruiser Irene, announced in his speech that Heligoland would become ‘a sea fortress, a guardian for German fishermen, a base for my warships, a bulwark protecting the German sea against any enemy’.

ATB

HELIGOLAND The First World War The Second World War The Oberland Installations The Unterland Installations Air War Post-War Operation ‘Big Bang’ Little Bang The Aftermath GERMANY The Allied Capture of Frankfurt PERSONALITY James Arness: 1923-2011

The Governor’s House stood at the southern end of the Oberland village on the edge of the Falm cliff. Under German times it continued to serve as the island’s headquarters, becoming the Kommandantur of its garrison. Destroyed in the 1945 bombing, its place is today taken by the Haus Fernsicht guest-house at No. 301 Am Falm.

Located in a perfect position to protect the sea-lanes to the major ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven, Heligoland was the ideal choice for a chief naval strongpoint, a role that it would serve in both the First and the Second World War. Immediately after acquiring the island in 1890, Germany The island of Heligoland lies in the North Sea some 45 kilometres from Wangeroog, the nearest Frisian island, and 65 kilometres from Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe. Just 1.2 kilometres long and half a kilometre wide, it has steep red cliffs, 55 metres high, at the highest point. The high ground consisted of a grass-covered triangular plateau known as the Oberland. A small town covered both the Oberland and the Unterland, which was the lower part of the island at the southern end, the top and bottom of the town being connected by both a stairway and lift. Adjoining the Unterland was a considerable area of reclaimed land known as the North-East District and the Harbour District. Heligoland’s sister island, located a quarter-mile due east, is called Düne. It was once attached to the main island but a storm in 1721 swept away the land in between. Düne itself is a low island made up of sand and shingle, its main feature being the aerodrome. Heligoland has had a chequered past. It is thought to have been inhabited since prehistoric times and in 697 was the home of Radbod, the last Frisian king. By 1231 it was in the possession of King Valdemar II of Denmark. Ownership then fluctuated between Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig until 1807 when the British took it from the Danes during the Napoleonic Wars. It stayed in British hands from 1807 until 1890 and was home for a while to Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, a veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar, who served as the island’s Lieutenant-Governor between 1840 and 1856. In 1890 Britain relinquished ownership when the island was ceded to Germany in exchange for Zanzibar (even though Zanzibar was technically ‘independent’ at the time negotiations took place).

began the construction of a major Kriegshaven (Naval Harbour) at the island’s southern end and building large coastal batteries and other fortifications on the Oberland plateau. Soon propagandists began to refer to Heligoland as the ‘Gibraltar of the North’. This aerial photograph was taken in 1921.

HELIGOLAND THE FIRST WORLD WAR Fortification of Heligoland by the Germans began almost as soon as they took possession. The whole dockyard had a network of railways laid down, the tracks connecting the pier to an inclined tunnel running from the Unterland to the Oberland. This tunnel through the cliffs was constructed by the Germans between 1891 and 1893 and contained up and down train lines of a metre gauge. A third rail between the other two was used to transport more weighty items as this could, if necessary, be spread over three tracks with three ‘trains’ running parallel. As a safety measure, the trucks were fitted with toothed racks and pawls. About a third of the way up there was a sliding armoured door with loopholes. The railway lines converged at the top and then diverged to serve various parts of the Oberland. The Südhafen (South Harbour) was built on reclaimed land between 1900 and 1916. The armament on Heligoland comprised four 21cm guns, two at either end of the island (dated 1892 and 1893), positioned in brick and concrete emplacements. Two of these guns were later moved in front of its neighbour to the north and south respectively to make room for four new turrets. Each was equipped with two 30.5cm guns: ‘Anna’ and ‘Bertha’ in the south and ‘Caesar’ and ‘Dora’ in the north. These guns were of 1911 manufacture though their rein-

By Chris Ransted forced-concrete emplacements were not completed until 1913. In addition, eight 28cm howitzers (dated 1892 and 1893) were positioned in brick and concrete works to fill the gap between the 30.5 guns. Four 8.8cm guns were also emplaced at Batterie Falm above the southern cliffs. Around 1913-14, additional anti-aircraft and harbour batteries were put in place together with the guns mounted on the west mole of the reclaimed land and a rangefinder station. Later in the war, 15cm guns were mounted at Falm in the south and Petersenhorn in the north. Now bristling with armaments, the total strength of the garrison during the First World War was around 4,000 under the command of Vizeadmiral Hermann Jacobson. The Kaiser was so proud of Heligoland that by 1914 he had visited the island more than 20 times. As a fortress island, it was ideally situated to protect the passage into and out of the River Elbe, the Weser and the Jade, and allowed a safe passage under its guns to the German fleet passing in or out through the minefields. It also afforded shelter to minelayers, ‘sweepers and submarines. On August 28, 1914, the Battle of Heligoland Bight took place in the seas nearby but, 3

AUSSENHAFEN (TORPEDO-BOOTS-HAFEN)

IWM Q36-407-23

INNENHAFEN (U-BOOTS-HAFEN)

taken out by the huge demolition of the island carried out by the British in April 1947. Our comparison was taken from the surviving knoll on which today stands the climate survey station of Hamburg University.

Left: The harbour’s West Mole as it looked at the end of the First World War. Right: As part of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, the Germans were obliged to destroy all the fortifications, military installations and the harbour on Heligoland — at their own expense and under the supervision of a special Inter-Allied Commission. The dismantling and demolitions lasted from February 1920 to July 1922. As part of neutralising the harbour,

most of the West Mole was blown up, the victors allowing the Germans to retain a stretch of just 350 metres. When Nazi Germany began reinstating the harbour in 1935 they also repaired and extended the moles. Begun in 1937, the new West Mole was built on the inner side of the old one. Not affected by the 1947 demolitions, the new mole and the jumble of concrete blocks that made up the old one today remain side by side.

ATB

ATB

Above: View of the naval harbour shortly after its completion. The Innenhafen (Inner Harbour) was meant for U-boats and the Aussenhafen (Outer Harbour) for torpedo boats. Below: The picture was taken from a part of the Oberland that was wholly

4

Ballonabwehrkanone Entfernungsmesser Flugabwehrkanone Kommandeurstand Maschinengewehr Maschinenkanone Revolverkanone Scheinwerfer Schnelladekanone

= = = = = = = = =

FRÖHLE-KÜHN VERLAGSGESELLSCHAFT

BAK EM Flak KdrSt. MG MK RevK. Schw. SK

Anti-balloon gun Range-finder Anti-aircraft gun Command post Machine gun Machine canon Quick-firing canon Searchlight Quick-loading canon

Above: Map of the Heligoland fortifications as they were during the First World War, showing all gun batteries, battery command posts, machine-gun and searchlight positions, underground installations, seaplane facilities and other military works constructed between 1890 and 1918. (This map comes from Hochseefestung Heligoland, the two-volume standard work on the fortress island by German historians Claude Fröhle and Hans-Jürgen Kühn, first published in 1998-99.) Right: All through the 1914-18 war, Heligoland served as a main submarine base of the Kaiserliche Marine, a first flotilla of ten U-Boats sailing from there in August 1914 in the first submarine war patrol in history. The initial campaign of attacking British warships soon led to unrestricted submarine warfare. These U-Boats lie moored in the Innenhafen in 1917, seen from the Nordostmole (North-East Mole) and looking across to the U-Boot-Kaie. Completed in April 1913, the Innenhafen could accommodate 26 U-boats. despite all these fortifications, locals said that only two rounds were actually fired in action during the war against a British ship out to the north-west. A report on the Heligoland defences issued by Britain’s War Office in 1921 described the amount of money that must have been spent on this fortress island as ‘colossal’. Following the defeat of Germany, and authorised by Article 115 of the Versailles Peace Treaty, the British demolished the installations and cut up the guns, measures that it was hoped would put a stop to any future military threat from the island. However, by the beginning of the Second World War, Heligoland had once again been built up into a formidable fortress by the Third Reich, only this time on a far greater scale than anything that had been envisaged earlier.

ATB

Right: It was renamed the Osthafen (East Harbour) in the Second World War, hence the Nordostmole became the Ostmole. 5

ATB

IWM Q36-407-33

Above: Wrecked German seaplanes left on the Fliegerkaie, the ‘Airmen’s Quay’ on the western side of the Aussenhafen, after the German capitulation in 1918. On the right are two of the three hangars (the third is just off to the right). At the far end of the quay, on the left, is the rear side of the dry dock pumping house. The seaplanes at Heligoland were operated by the II. Seeflieger-Abteilung, which also manned the Seeflug-Stationen on the islands of Sylt and Norderney and in Wilhelmshaven (see After the Battle No. 148), Borkum, Zeebrugge and Ostende. At the outbreak of war, there were six seaplanes stationed on the island. Aircraft were lowered into and pulled out of the water by means of a ramp. With a maximum range of 70 nautical miles, they were mainly used for reconnaissance duties. Right: None of the buildings remain today but this is the same view pictured from the presentday Süddamm (South Jetty), the landing point for today’s ferry to the mainland. 6

destruction carried out under Allied supervision, the facility was blown up. Right: It was never rebuilt and all that remains of its site today is a small protuberance from the quayside.

ATB

Left: The dry dock that protruded into the Aussenhafen (Outer Harbour) during the First World War. The building to its left was its pumping house. In August 1920, as part of the wholesale

ATB

defences erected during the 1914-18 war. Right: A century later and a string of modern hotels lines the Südstrand (South Beach) (above) and Kurpromenade (below) boulevards. A favourite haunt for birdwatchers and hikers, and with the added attraction of tax-free shopping, a total of over 400,000 tourists spend their weekends and holidays on Heligoland annually.

Left: A long flight of steps connected the Unterland with the Oberland. This picture was taken in October 1918, one month before the German capitulation. Right: Although a modern elevator was built to its immediate left, the stairway remains to

this day. Its various sections were re-aligned away from the cliff wall after the Second World War, but it still reaches the Oberland at the same spot. The blockhouse on the right has today been replaced by a small public toilet.

ATB

IWM Q58372

ATB

Above and below: The seafront of the Unterland village. The civilian population of Heligoland — numbering some 2,600 — lived mostly of fishery, as evidenced by the small fishing boats on the beach in the foreground, and from tourism, as can be seen from the hotels and guest-houses lining the seafront. The wire obstacles seen in the foreground were anti-invasion

7

ATB

IWM Q36-407-40

Right: In order to transport supplies and ammunition from the harbour to the gun batteries on the Oberland a 180-metrelong incline tunnel was built through the rock face in 1891-93. Through it ran a double-track narrow-gauge railway that began on the northern mole of the Scheibenhafen (see the map on page 5), exited near the lighthouse on the Oberland and continued all the way to the western end of the island. Train wagons were pulled up the steep incline by a cable winch housed in an engine-house near the top end of the tunnel. The interior of the tunnel was clad with bricks and included access gates to other subterranean galleries, leading to ammunition storage rooms and (during the Second World War) the underground hospital and other facilities. This is the tunnel’s lower entrance. To the left of it stands a blockhouse armed with four 8mm machine guns. There was another blockhouse at the upper end. Note the imperial logo of Kaiser Wilhelm II above the tunnel.

Its main part completely obliterated by the massive explosion of 1947, today nothing remains of the subway tunnel. The site of its lower entrance is now masked by wooden houses that were built against the rock face in the post-war reconstruction of the Unterland village in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Left: The tunnel’s upper entrance showing the cable system that pulled wagons up the incline. Note the rack-and-pinion brake system running alongside the rails. Right: Although not really a remnant of the wartime tunnel, a small passageway cutting through a rocky outcrop on the Oberland serves as a

nice comparison to the wartime photo. It carries a road for the electric transport vans used on the island. (Except for heavy equipment used in the port area, motor vehicles are banned from Heligoland, all transport being done by means of electric vans or handcarts.)

ATB

BA BILD 183-2011-706-500

The railway tunnel as it looked after the 1918 armistice. It was not demolished after the war but only closed up and its passageway narrowed with infilling. When Hitler began re-arming the island in 1935 the tunnel was re-opened, cleared from debris, repaired and put back into use.

8

KOMMANDANTUR

30.5cm ‘BERTHA’

30.5cm ‘ANNA’

21cm GUN I

4 × 8.8cm

6 × 3.7cm

21cm GUN II INCLINE RAILWAY

ATB

IWM Q36-407-3

Above: Aerial photograph showing the position of the four main guns of the Südgruppe (South Group) from the First World War: 30.5cm heavy guns ‘A’ (‘Anna’) and ‘B’ (‘Bertha’) and 21cm guns ‘I’ and ‘II’. Also visible are the two groups of guns on the Falm cliff overlooking the Unterland, one of four 8.8cm guns and one of six 3.7cm anti-aircraft guns. The incline railway can be seen entering its tunnel at the bottom of the picture and exiting on the Oberland just to the right of ‘Bertha’. The large buildings below the Oberland village are the Kommandantur and the military hospital, and form part of the larger complex of barracks and parade grounds for the island garrison. Right: The group of six 3.7cm turretmounted and quick-firing flak guns on the Falm cliff overlooking the Unterland. The view is south-east towards the naval harbour. Below: This battery stood on a part of the cliff that was wholly blown away by the huge 1947 explosion. Our comparison was taken from a little further north along Am Falm.

9

IWM Q36-407-8

turret had a two-storied subterranean base containing ammunition, storage and personnel rooms. The guns could throw a 405kg shell a maximum range of 27 kilometres.

After the 1914-18 war, all batteries on Heligoland were destroyed under British supervision, the work on the big guns beginning by cutting up the barrels. This is turret ‘Bertha’. Note the wooden observation tower in the background with the lighthouse behind.

The two 21cm L/35 guns of the South Group suffered the same fate. The 21cm batteries were the first to be installed on the island, their construction beginning in January 1892 and being completed two years later. The guns had a maximum range of 13 kilometres.

Today the entire site where the Südgruppe stood no longer exists, having been blown into thin air by the mighty explosion of 1947. It cut a deep swath in the rock, leaving a half-open

crater of some 60 metres deep and 200 metres wide. In effect, the explosion created an intermediate level, baptised the Mittelland by the islanders.

ATB

IWM Q36-407-15

The impressive might of the two naval turrets ’Anna’ (background) and ‘Bertha’ (foreground), armed with twin 30.5cm (12-inch) SKL/50 guns. Built between 1908 and 1913, each

10

30.5cm ‘CAESAR’

30.5cm ‘DORA’ BATTERY COMMAND POST 21cm GUN III

21cm GUN IV

4 × 3.7cm FLAK 4 × 8.8cm

15cm FLARE

them were several lighter batteries, one of four 8.8cm SKL/30 guns with a 15cm Leuchtkanone (flare gun) next to it and one of four 3.7cm Flak guns.

IWM Q36-407-6

Aerial photo showing the artillery positions of the Nordgruppe (North Group) at the other end of the island: 30.5cm guns ‘C‘ (‘Caesar’) and ‘D’ (‘Dora’) and 21cm guns ‘III’ and ‘IV’. In front of

ATB

Above: A ground shot of ‘Caesar’ (at rear) and ‘Dora’ (in front). Of identical design as ‘Anna’ and ‘Bertha’, each turret was armed with two 30.5cm quickloading ship’s guns in armoured turrets, 40cm thick on the sides and 12cm thick on top, the front side being reinforced with an extra 7.5cm armoured plate. To prevent the turrets from endangering each other during firing, ‘Caesar’ was built a little higher up than ‘Dora’. Each had a combat crew of some 120 men. On November 24, 1914, the two guns opened up on four enemy destroyers — the only shots fired during the war. Right: Both emplacements were dismantled by the British after 1918. Today, the spire of the rebuilt St Nicolai Church and the replacement lighthouse (see page 15), seen left and right, respectively, in the far distance, are the only reference points to pinpoint a comparison. 11

THE SECOND WORLD WAR As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, changes began to take place on the island. The organisation Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) arranged day trips and short holidays for the working classes and in 1936 alone the island received 240,000 visitors. (It is interesting to note that a Nazi labour camp was later to be built on Alderney and called Lager Helgoland – see War in the Channel Islands Then and Now.) Heligoland was obviously once again of vital strategic importance to the Germans: the geography changed once more as more land was reclaimed, and Düne was also enlarged in the late 1930s from five hectares to about 40. Consequently, this militarisation resulted in the tourists being replaced by engineers, construction workers and armed forces personnel. Plans were also put in place in 1939 to construct U-Boat pens and by the end of 1941 the outer shell of these was complete. Made from reinforced concrete with 2cm armour plate protecting the windows, the pen was divided inside into three compartments. To give some idea of the protection it afforded, the weight of the three-metre-thick roof was estimated at 100,000 tons. It was 156 metres long and 94 metres wide and could hold five 250-ton XXIII Class U-Boats. Other craft that used Heligoland as a base included E-Boats as well as Molch and Biber miniature submarines. Some radio-controlled, explosive-filled ‘Linse’ motorboats were also deployed there for a while. 12

Brought to the island in 1936, the guns were mounted on revolving platforms in newly-constructed open circular concrete emplacements, built in a line on the northern half of the island. Like their precursors, they were interconnected with each other, with their various fire-command bunkers, and with other gun positions by a subterranean tunnel system, which ran the length of the island. Each gun had its own underground ammunition magazine, serviced by the narrow-gauge railway line that also ran the length of the island. This is the southernmost gun, No. 3.

ATB

Less than 15 years after Britain had disarmed the island, Heligoland again became the site for heavy coastal batteries. With Nazi Germany embarking on wholesale re-armament, from 1935 the island again became a naval strong point, many of the old fortifications and port installations being repaired and retaken into use and others replaced by modern equivalents, often in virtually the same place as their predecessors. In lieu of the four twin-gun 30.5cm batteries of the First World War now came Batterie von Schröder with three 30.5cm SKL/50 guns.

The whole site of Batterie von Schröder was reduced to a crater landscape by the devastating bombing raids of April 1945, and further devastated by the huge demolition explosion of 1947. Today nothing remains of the battery except a few traces of concrete. This is what is left of emplacement No. 3.

ATB

BA BILD 101 II-MW-5542-1A

In the winter of 1939, the open emplacements of Batterie von Schröder were closed up by the addition of a 3cm-thick steel turret-like encasement around the guns. This is Gun No. 2, pictured by Kriegsmarine PK photographer Engelmeier during the construction of the steel framework for the armour plating.

Concrete portruding out from under a mound of earth along one of the walking paths is all that remains to be seen of emplacement No. 2 today.

THE OBERLAND INSTALLATIONS There were two main coastal gun batteries: Batterie von Schröder and Batterie Jacobson, each with its own light flak protection. Magazines for the guns were situated underground in a shallow tunnel system which stretched for almost the entire length of the Oberland, varying in depth from three to 15 metres. This network of tunnels and command centres was faced with reinforced concrete in the most vulnerable areas. Below the main tunnel was a secondary system housing the water mains and cables supplying light and power. Ventilation and drainage tunnels branched off to a number of exits in the cliff face. A tunnel was used to supply the Oberland defences. It entered the cliff between the two main feed tunnels on the Unterland and climbed up a steep gradient until it emerged on the Oberland to the rear of and between Nos. 1 and 2 guns of Batterie Jacobson. It was about 400 metres long and carried a single-track cable and rack railway operated from a winch-house at the top of the tunnel. The walls and roof were lined with red brick. (During the bombing of the island, both ends received direct hits that blocked the entrances.) An air raid shelter for use by the civilian population was also constructed. It consisted of two spirals, two and a half metres wide, which entered the cliff on the Unterland and rose almost to the cliff top in a steep gradient. This tunnel was fitted with bunks and various first aid rooms. Leading from the spiral sloping tunnel and running to the hospital along the eastern side of the island was another tunnel shelter.

bays of this magazine were protected overhead by almost nine metres of reinforced concrete.

BA BILD 101 II-5562-5

Gun No. 1 was the first to have its encasement completed. The 30.5cm SKL/50 guns could throw a heavy 405kg shell to a maximum range of 32 kilometres (or a 250kg shell 51 kilometres). Von Schröder was manned by personnel from the 1. Batterie of Marine-Artillerie-Abteilung 122.

ATB

BATTERIE VON SCHRÖDER Batterie von Schröder in the north mounted three 30.5cm guns and one 15cm for firing star-shells. It was also the parent of two heavy flak batteries that were each armed with four 10.5cm dual-purpose guns. This battery was equipped with radar, searchlights, sound locators, range and height finders and periscopes. The guns were quite spread out so the tunnel complex below was somewhat larger than that for Batterie Jacobson. Two spacious ready-use ammunition magazines, each consisting of three bays, were situated on opposite sides of the handling room for each turret, shells and cartridges being stowed together. The connecting tunnel passed through each of the gun positions and ended at a range-finder

control position on the most northerly tip of the island. A reserve magazine was situated between No. 1 and No. 3 guns. The eight

More reinforced concrete marks the site of emplacement No. 1. 13

ATB

BA BILD 101 II-MW-5546-4

At the southern end of the Oberland, virtually on the exact same spot where the 30.5cm turrets ‘Anna’ and ‘Bertha’ and 21cm guns I and II had been during the First World War, now came Batterie Jacobson armed with three 17cm SKL/40 guns in revolving turrets. It was manned by the 2./MAA 122.

Built right above the main tunnel system running underneath the Oberland, which after the war was filled to overflowing with explosive ordnance for the 1947 demolition, Batterie Jacobson was blown sky-high when the big bang occurred, leaving nothing but the giant crater of the Mittelland.

FLAK BATTERIES Distributed over the three sides of the Oberland were as many anti-aircraft batteries: at the northern end was Flakbatterie Nordspitze, with four 10.5cm Flak guns; on the western side was Flakbatterie Westklippe, also with four 10.5cm guns; and in the south, overlooking the harbour, was Flak-Batterie Falm, with four 12.8cm and four 10.5cm guns. Down in the harbour itself was a fourth battery, the Hafenbatterie, again with four 10.5cm guns. These 20 heavy guns were augmented by numerous Flak guns of 2cm or 3.7cm calibre. 14

In addition to the two coastal batteries, the Germans built four main anti-aircraft batteries on the island: Flakbatterie Nordspitze, Flakbatterie Westklippe and the Hafenbatterie, each with four 10.5cm Flak guns, and Flak-Batterie Falm, with four 12.8cm and four 10.5cm guns. In addition, distributed all around the island, were many Flak positions with guns of smaller calibre, either 2cm or 3.7cm. This is one of the 10.5cm guns of Batterie Westklippe, pictured during a firing exercise. Flak positions on the island were manned by Marine-Flak-Abteilung 242 under Fregattenkapitän Erwin Schneider. From 1943, the gunners were mostly teenage boys conscripted class-wise from secondary schools in Pomerania, Silesia, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg to replace the original artillerymen so that they could be deployed elsewhere.

ATB

BATTERIE JACOBSON The Jacobson battery in the south of the island consisted of three 17cm guns, manufactured by Krupp in 1904. The battery also had one 15cm star-shell gun. Jacobson was the parent of two heavy dual-purpose batteries that were armed with four 12.8cm and four 10.5cm guns respectively. It was also equipped with range and height finders, searchlights and periscopes. A 200-metre feed tunnel, served by the railway, entered the ground beside No. 3 gun. Curving left, it then passed between Nos. 3 and 2 guns in a north-easterly direction until it formed a T-junction with the tunnel that connected the two coastal defence batteries. Access to the three 17cm guns was via steps from the feed tunnel. A number of compartments branched off from this tunnel housing such things as magazines, workshops, transformers, kitchens, dining halls, a hospital and living accommodation. An electric lift connected this battery with the main storage tunnels 42 metres below.

MAURICE LAARMAN COLLECTION

The three coast-defence guns were served by the metre-gauge railway that ran more or less parallel with the connecting tunnels which emerged at each gun position. Ammunition for the batteries was sent up by lift from the lower tunnels. Access to the guns from the connecting tunnel was via two flights of stairs. A control position, heavily reinforced, was situated on the western edge of the cliff and was linked via a branch tunnel to the connecting tunnel. There were numerous compartments running off of this tunnel housing workshops, power houses, storage, emergency water distillation plant, hospital facilities, living accommodation, etc. North of No. 1 gun a staircase descended almost 60 metres to a water supply where electric pumps fed the distillation plant. A second tunnel under the main connecting tunnel contained oil storage tanks and a ventilating plant. The ends of this tunnel — which was some 200 metres long — connected a ‘Y’ branch of the ventilation and drainage tunnel that emerged on the cliff face on the north-eastern side of the island.

Where once a flak gun stood is now a lookout point on the cliff.

ATB

Left: Command of the anti-aircraft guns on Heligoland was exercised by the Flak-Gruppen-Kommando (or Flagruko for short) set up in its own operations tower built just north-west of the Oberland village. Right: The only building to remain standing intact

after the 1945 bombing, the 1947 explosion and the five years when the island served as an RAF bombing training target (194651), the Flagruko tower was repaired in the 1950s and turned into a lighthouse to replace the one that had stood nearby.

ATB

Centre right: Germany’s night-fighter defences and the coastal and anti-aircraft batteries on Heligoland had their ‘eyes and ears’ in several early-warning radar installations, which included three WürzburgRiese, four Würzburg-D, four Seetakt (Freya) and one Wassermann stations. This is the 40-metre-high antenna of the FuMg 402 II Wassermann, pictured from the Flagruko tower. Developed by Siemens, it operated at 120-158 MHz and 100 kW and had a range of 300 kilometres. Later versions worked at 250 MHz and 800 kW and reached 600 kilometres. The radar position on Heligoland was known as the Funkmessstellung ‘Auster’.

E. REIMER

THE UNTERLAND INSTALLATIONS The reclaimed land in the north-east part of the Unterland was home to three light anti-aircraft guns and two barrage balloons while 13 other pieces were installed to protect the town and the tunnel entrance. The U-Boat pens were camouflaged with a paint scheme on the roof to try to disguise the large flat surface, and were protected by four guns. Three tunnels were driven almost horizontally into the cliffs. These carried a double-track, metre-gauge railway and had a series of chambers leading off from them. The whole system was 45 metres below the surface of the Oberland but just a few metres above the high-water mark, and was air-conditioned throughout. These tunnels were used for storage of ammunition and housed a hospital facility. An electric lift connected the lower level with Batterie Jacobson. Electricity for the lift and the lighting came from a generator house built into the cliff to the south of the main feed tunnels. A steeply inclined passage provided access to the cable railway tunnel and underground hospital, part of which lay just above the eastern side of the main storage tunnels. Due to the soft nature of the rock, all the tunnels were lined in concrete. In all, there was some 13.7 kilometres of tunnels under the island.

The foundations of the Wassermann and fastening points for its securing cables remain on the Oberland. 15

Map showing the fortifications, gun batteries, defence works and naval installations as they were during the Second World War. 16

Bet.Bw. Betonbrustwehr

= Concrete parapet

Flak

Flugabwehrkanone

= Anti-aircraft gun

FuMO

Funkmeßortungsgerät = Radar Langbasisbeobachtung = Long-base observation Leuchtgeschütz

= Star-shell gun

L.St.

Leitstand

= Command post

MG

Maschinengewehr

= Machine gun

Pak

Panzerabwehrkanone

= Anti-tank gun

R.St.

Ringstand

= Tobruk position

Schw.

Sheinwerfer

= Searchlight FRÖHLE-KÜHN VERLAGSGESELLSCHAFT

L.B.B. LG

By then a Luftwaffe airfield had been constructed on Düne Island. Compare with the plan on page 5. 17

and his party emerge from the narrow street leading from the Kommandantur to Am Falm, the avenue lining the Oberland cliff.

Left: Taking in the view of the Kriegsmarine port unfolding below him, and with a map laid out on the balustrade, the Führer listens to the explanation given by Admiral Erich Raeder, commander-inchief of the Kriegsmarine. On the left is Konteradmiral Otto von Schrader, Befehlshaber der Sicherung der Nordsee (Commander of Security of the North Sea) — whose fief included Heligoland — and on the right (behind the flagpole) is Heligoland’s Burgomas-

ter, Dr. Karl Meunier. Just visible between Hitler and Meunier is Dr. Robert Ley, leader of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. Right: All the houses along Am Falm were destroyed during the war and its aftermath, and rebuilding of the Oberland village in the mid1950s was done along a slightly different street pattern. This is the closest one can get to a comparison, taken near where SüderStrasse emerges onto Am Falm.

Enthusiastic islanders cheer as Hitler continues down Am Falm.

Today, unaware, tourists follow in the Führer’s footsteps.

ATB

ATB

On April 4, 1939, Hitler undertook a visit to the island to inspect the newly built fortifications. His personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann was on hand to cover the event. Here the Führer

18

ATB

back and forth against the side of the cliff, today’s version follows a somewhat different alignment.

Left: Having reached the bottom of the stairway the party proceeds into the Unterland village. Right: The same corner of what is today named Bremer Strasse and Lung Wai. The dark

passage on the left leads to the Fahrstuhl, the electric elevator up to the Oberland. Its vertical shaft was drilled out through the rock.

ATB

Left: The Führer and his escort proceeding down the stairway to the Unterland. Right: Whereas the original stairs zigzagged

19

ATB

its top. It can be seen towering above the narrow alley. Right: This is the same view in May 2011.

Left: Emerging onto the wider Kaiserstrasse, the island’s main shopping street. This shot gives a clearer view of the elevator’s passenger bridge. Right: The house that was built in 1933 only

lasted for 12 years and a new one now stands in its place. The small square off to the left is J. A. Siemens-Platz, named after the creator of Heligoland spa.

ATB

Left: The original elevator was a construction that stood separate from the cliff face, with a connecting passenger bridge at

20

ATB

ATB

Above: More islanders cheer the Führer and his party as they emerge from Kaiserstrasse onto the seafront boulevard. Perhaps explained by it British heritage, the Heligoland population joined the Nazi cause only hesitatingly, the NSDAP gaining just three of the nine seats in the 1933 community council elections. However, with the Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) Nazi welfare organisation arranging short and cheap holiday trips for working-class people to the island, the number of visitors rose to over 240,000 in 1936, bringing new prosperity to the islanders, and hence a rapidly growing popularity of the new regime. This would last until the outbreak of war on September 3 when the island was immediately closed to tourists. Right: Kaiserstrasse is today named Lung Wai (local dialect for ‘Long Street’). Risen from the ashes, the shops that now line the street make a good living from offering tax-free merchandise to the thousands of tourists that visit the island.

Having boarded a Kriegsmarine barge and put on his chinstrap, Hitler salutes the sailors on the landing stage. Note the crowds on the jetty and on the seafront in the background and the abundance of swastika flags.

The wooden pier of pre-war days has been replaced by a landing jetty of steel and concrete. This part of the harbour is called the Binnenreede and it is from here that shuttle-boats sail to and from nearby Düne Island. 21

island. The main reason for the sortie was to document the U-Boat bunker in the Osthafen.

Designed by the Marinebau-Direktion Hamburg and built in 1939-41 by the construction firms of Grün & Bilfinger and Dyckerhoff & Widmann, Heligoland’s U-Boat bunker served as the example for all the large submarine pens built along the Atlantic coast later in the war (see After the Battle No. 55). It comprised three ‘boxes’, each of which could take three UBoats of Types VII or IX. The northernmost Box A could accommodate a floating dock. The front of the boxes could be closed by 2cm-thick steel ‘hanging doors’. The roof was three metres

thick, later increased to five metres. On top of the roof were anti-aircraft platforms with 2cm and 3.7cm Flak guns and one of the Seetakt-type radars. Known as Nordsee III, the bunker played only a subsidiary role during the war, being used mainly as transit station for U-Boats on their way to and from the Atlantic pens and as basis for S-Boats and minesweepers. In the final months of the war, it also housed a flotilla of Seehund and Molch midget submarines. This picture was taken on June 19, 1943.

Blown up in the huge explosion in 1947, nothing remains of the U-Boat bunker except for chunks of concrete lying alongside

the northern quay of the Osthafen. Our comparison was taken from the basin’s southern mole.

ATB

E. REIMER

Three years later, on February 17, 1942, an RAF photo-reconnaissance aircraft on Sortie A/328 took an oblique picture of the

22

ROGER FREEMAN COLLECTION

The naval base and fortress island was considered a major threat by the Allies and therefore became the target of mine-laying and bombing operations by the Allied air forces, the first RAF raid taking place on December 3, 1939. In the autumn of 1944, the U-Boat pens became a special target of Operations ‘Aphrodite’ (Army) and ‘Anvil’ (Navy) under which explosive-filled, radio-controlled B-17 bombers of the US 562nd Bomb Squadron or Navy PB4Y Liberators, respectively, were steered onto a target from a ‘mother’ aircraft (after the pilot and co-pilot had parachuted out over England). Five attempts were made against Heligoland — in early August and on September 3, September 11, October 15 and October 30 — but all failed to hit the target. On the first attempt, one pilot was killed when his parachute failed to open and the missile crashed into the sea, most likely shot down by flak, before reaching the target. On the second, the US Navy controller flew the aircraft, B-17 42-63954, into Düne Island by mistake; on the third — illustrated in this sequence of three photos (right) — B-17 42-30180 was hit by flak and crashed into the sea just short of the island. (The smoke trail was released from a tank under the ‘baby’ aircraft so that the ‘mother’ could keep it in sight as it neared the target.) On the fourth mission, the two B-17s employed — 42-30039 Liberty Belle and 42-37743 — were both hit by flak, one crashing into the sea 200 metres from the target, the other exploding in mid-air. (A conventional bombing raid by B-17s earlier that day had destroyed many buildings on the Unterland but failed to hit the U-Boat pens.) On the fifth attempt, neither of the two B-17s which were used — 42-30066 and 42-3438 — reached the island: one crashing into the sea, the other exploding over Trollhättan in neutral Sweden.

ROGER FREEMAN COLLECTION

ROGER FREEMAN COLLECTION

AIR WAR On December 3, 1939, 24 Wellingtons targeted German warships in the North Sea. However, a bomb on one aircraft from No. 115 Squadron based at Marham hung up so it was released on Heligoland — the first bomb to drop on German soil during the war. Then on the 18th of that month the skies above the island were the setting for the ‘Battle of the Heligoland Bight’ which resulted in the deaths of 57 RAF bomber aircrews and two Luftwaffe fighter pilots. As the war continued so the RAF, and later the USAAF, flew missions over the area. Many of these were for the purpose of sowing mines in the surrounding waters while some operations were directed at the island itself. In 1944 these included attempts by the Americans to crash unmanned radio-controlled bombers loaded with explosives into the U-Boat pens as part of the US Eighth Air Force ‘Aphrodite’ and US Navy ‘Anvil’ projects. The first attempt took place on September 3 but the operator crashed the B-24 into the island of Düne by mistake. The next mission eight days later failed when the B-17 was shot down just short of the island. On October 15, two B-17s were successfully crashed close to the target although the U-Boat pens themselves remained intact. One further attempt was made on October 30 with two more B-17s but one ran out of fuel and came down in the sea. The operator of the other could not find the target due to bad weather so pointed his B-17 in the direction of Berlin but, when it was out of radio contact, the aircraft changed direction and eventually crashed close to Trollhättan in Sweden! 23

ATB

BAMA T5410/40583

Civilian air raid shelters on Heligoland consisted of a network of tunnels drilled into the rock. Divided over several levels and comprising a total length of about 750 metres, they could hold some 4,000 people — well sufficient to accommodate the entire civilian population of the island. The main shelter was the so-called Spiralle (left). Built into the cliff face at the eastern tip of the Unterland in 1940, it comprised two corkscrew galleries spiralling in opposite directions up to the Oberland, where there was another entrance for the people living there. Several other galleries led from the Spiralle deeper into the rock. The façade of the Spiralle lay behind where the Biologische Forschungsanstalt (Biological Research Institute) stands today on Kurpromenade. No visible trace of the shelter remains today but several entrances to other sections of the air raid tunnels remain elsewhere in the Unterland, notably in the narrow alleys running off Bremer Strasse (right). A stretch of the shelter tunnel system is today open to guided tours.

ATB

IWM CL2436

IWM CL2435

In 1941 two short runways were built on Düne Island, the first aircraft to land being a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on August 21, 1942, and for the latter part of the war, Bf 109s attached to JG11 operated from the base. The largest raid on Heligoland occurred quite late in the war when the RAF despatched 969 aircraft on April 18, 1945. Three Halifaxes failed to return from Nos. 408, 420 and 640 Squadrons, and 21 aircrew were lost as a result. The German casualties on the ground were much greater with 116 soldiers and 12 civilians killed with 13 listed as missing. Although the island was completely decimated by the raid, another 36 aircraft from Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons attacked the very next day with Tallboy bombs. The island was now a mass of craters and tangled wreckage but the U-Boat pens had still not been destroyed. In the days following the heavy raid, all the civilians were evacuated from the island as it was now considered virtually uninhabitable. Earlier in the month a group of islanders, led by Erich Friedrich, had managed to contact the Allies in secret to say that they would raise a white flag over the island and welcome them in. However on the morning of April 18, the group was arrested by the Gestapo and three days later the seven ringleaders, including Friedrich, were executed in Cuxhaven.

On April 18, 1945, RAF Bomber Command delivered a devastating 1,000-bomber raid which all but neutralised the island’s military capability. A total of 969 aircraft — 617 Lancasters, 332 Halifaxes and 20 Mosquitoes — blasted the naval base and town (and the airfield on Düne island) into crater-pitted moonscapes. Three Halifaxes were lost. The pre-strike picture (centre) was taken by a photo-reconnaissance aircraft on November 29, 1944, the one (above) shows the result just after the attack. The island’s 2,000 civilian inhabitants were evacuated to the mainland the following day. 24

That same day (May 19), 36 Lancasters of Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons attacked the main island’s coastal batteries with 12,000lb Tallboy bombs. All targets were hit and no aircraft lost. One of the bombs today stands outside the Heligoland Museum.

ATB

IWM BU6058

surrender. Here the minesweeper carrying the Admiral enters the Osthafen. The U-Boat bunker looms in the background. Picture taken by AFPU photographer Sergeant Norman Midgley. Right: Our comparison was taken from the Hermann Marwede, a sea rescue ship stationed on Heligoland that lay conveniently moored along the northern mole of the basin.

IWM A28579

Left: Four weeks later, on May 11 — with all German troops in northern Germany having surrendered unconditionally six days before — a flotilla of four Kriegsmarine minesweepers set out from Cuxhaven to bring a British force under Admiral Gerhard Muirhead-Gould, the Flag Officer Wilhelmshaven and Naval Commander of Western Germany, to the island to accept its

ATB

Above: Muirhead-Gould stepping ashore. Waiting on the quay is Kapitän zur See Alfred Roegglen, the German island commander. The day before, his garrison had still numbered some 4,520 persons: 3,233 troops (890 officers, 2,343 other ranks) plus 1,125 German civilians and 162 foreigners. All German military forces were to evacuate the island before the arrival of the British so that morning some 3,200 had sailed for the mainland, leaving only a small deputation of some 40 soldiers to receive Muirhead and his party. The picture was taken by RN photographer Lieutenant Dennis Oulds. Right: The historic spot today. It lies along the western quay of the Südhafen. All buildings in the present-day harbour are post-war. 25

IWM BU6061

bombs. In the background is the long side of the U-Boat bunker.

ATB

Kapitän zur See Roegglen signing the surrender document on a water tank, which had been blown on the quayside by RAF

A simple bench marks the spot where the hand-over took place. Pleasure yachts lie moored along where the pens used to be. 26

Left: Hoisting the Union Jack on the dock side. The Scots Guards were accompanied by a detachment of engineers from No. 615 Field Squadron, RE, also from the Guards Armoured Division. The army troops stayed on the island only six days, re-embarking for Cuxhaven on the 17th. Above: The same view today, looking south-west towards the Outer Harbour.

ATB

IWM BU6064

The landing of the guardsmen was staged along Kohlendamm, the western mole of the present-day’s Südhafen.

IWM BU6067

ATB

IWM BU6062

Right: Meanwhile, troops from the Right Flank company of the 2nd Scots Guards, assigned as garrison force of the island, disembark from another German minesweeper. As the history of the Guards Armoured Division recorded: ‘Blankets, cookers and all the paraphernalia of a company on the move had to be carried up and down gangways and on to the bombed remains of the quay. It was a very warm day and very warm work; a good deal of clothing was taken off, to the horror of an official photographer [Sergeant Midgley], who did not consider that this was the proper way for guardsmen to arrive on Heligoland. Company Sergeant-Major J. Lindsay was drawn aside and, as soon as the last kit was ashore, five chosen men returned to the ship. Then, with caps straight and heads held high, and with Piper R. Crabbe in the lead, the landing of the Scots Guards was recorded for posterity.’ (below).

27

ATB

IWM A28581

Left: After accepting the surrender, Admiral Muirhead-Gould, his Naval Party and the Scots Guards officers made an inspection tour of the bomb-battered island. Lieutenant Oulds pictured them coming down the stairway from the Oberland. The elevator next to it has been ruined by the bombing raid of April 18, which also flattened most of the Unterland village — quite a different

Many fishermen, who due to the island’s history could be construed as being of British descent, wanted to return to their homeland. They particularly objected to the cemetery on the island being part of a bombing range, and on January 10, 1946, the Aldermen of Heligoland handed a formal petition to the British Government Office in Hamburg asking to be allowed back. However, this wish could not easily be granted. Most of the underground installations

were still intact and a huge amount of surplus ordnance would have to be dealt with, plus an unknown number of unexploded bombs. Apart from that, the Air Ministry wanted to keep control of the island for bombing practice. Around this time applications were also received from a number of companies wanting to salvage some 600 tons of equipment. This was also controversial as some of it no doubt belonged to people that once resided on the island and not to the German military.

ATB

POST-WAR According to the Potsdam Agreement of July 1945, the U-Boat pens on Heligoland were due for destruction by June 1947 and the remainder of the installations were to be eliminated by December 1948. The Chiefsof-Staff had already decided that the best use for the island for the foreseeable future would be as a bombing range. Although the Foreign Office raised no objection, following protests by locals it was asked to reconsider.

scene from when Hitler visited the island six years earlier. That same day, May 11, Muirhead ordered the evacuation of all the remaining civilians from the island. Right: Seven decades on and the Unterland village has been completely rebuilt. With undergrowth blocking the view above the steps, our comparison was taken from beside the present-day elevator exit.

Left: Scenes of destruction in the harbour. This is the Scheibenhafen, looking back to the Falm cliff. The entrance to the railway tunnel can be seen across the water on the right. Right: The view across the Scheibenhafen (now named Binnenhafen) as it looks today from its south-eastern quay. The tunnel 28

entrance now lies hidden behind the row of wooden houses seen in the centre of the photo. Note the striking difference in the shape of the cliff, caused by the massive post-war demolition. The huge dell behind the houses is what is today known as the Mittelland.

Right: Determined to neutralise Heligoland as a naval base and fortress once and for all, the Royal Navy decided to blow up the island in one massive demolition. Starting in August 1946, some 6,700 tons of ordnance was brought in and stacked inside the tunnels and fortifications, in the UBoat bunker and anywhere else where it might cause the greatest destruction. The ordnance included some 4,000 torpedowarheads, about 9,000 depth-charges and more than 51,000 shells. Here a member of the Royal Navy demolition team inspects some of the torpedo warheads. OPERATION ‘BIG BANG’ (April 18, 1947) On July 19, 1946, a party led by Captain Lionel Skipwith, the naval officer in charge at Cuxhaven, landed on Heligoland to carry out a reconnaissance of the war matériel on the island. However a breakdown in communications meant that their arrival coincided with a trial bombing of the U-Boat pens by the RAF! Fortunately there were no casualties. Though the Navy had already dumped 480 tons of munitions in the sea, it was found that the underground network of tunnels still contained huge quantities of explosive stores. Skipwith gave instructions to Gunner (T) Francis Woosnam in no uncertain terms: ‘Blow the bloody place up! U-Boat pens, armament, ammunition, underground installations — the lot’. Woosnam returned to Heligoland on August 15, 1946 in charge of the demolition team and he confessed later that he had little idea of how to tackle such a unique task. The problem was that it could not be destroyed a little at a time for fear of collapsing adjacent structures and burying tons of unexploded ordnance beyond hope of recovery. Also the wiring of detonators would be a nightmare as the charges would be spread all over the island and all would have to detonate at exactly the same moment. Conventional detonators would have to be used in large numbers and this in itself was quite a risk. As Woosnam was familiar with the ring main in a battleship whereby generators feed into the system to provide power even if the main suffers damage, he decided that a similar method could be adopted for the demolition. He successfully tried this out using Cortex inserted into depth-charge primer detonator envelopes (a large number of which were available) as a method of eliminating many individual detonators. However, when this method was put forward to higher authority for approval it was rejected as the demolition handbook stated that detonators must be used — not Cortex — to initiate a primer. However, about this time, Commander Edward de Wykersley Swift Colver, RNVR, an ammunition expert, visited Heligoland to advise the team on German munitions. He was shown the proposed Cortex method of detonation and promptly gave the idea his support.

Part of the Royal Navy team responsible for organising the giant demolition: Gunners Francis Woosnam and Edward Jellis, Chief Petty Officers S. J. Flay and G. A. Piper and Petty Officer F. J. Gillett. Damage to the existing transport systems on the island, and destruction to some connecting passages to the batteries, meant ammunition could not easily be removed. Also there was no lighting or power on the

island so portable generators had to be brought in. A request was made for the supply of smaller demolition charges, suitable for transporting into the more inaccessible parts of the Oberland fortifications, as all

29

Right: The day chosen for Operation ‘Big Bang’ was April 18, 1947 — two years to the day after the big RAF raid on the island. The explosives were controlled from the destroyer HMS Dunkirk and detonated by a cable from HMS Lasso, seen here. that was readily available were depthcharges which were difficult to manhandle through tight passageways. Just days before the demolition was due to take place, some 445 tons of TNT arrived. Packed in 39,925 boxes containing 20 blocks per box, this explosive was totally unsuitable for the task and just gave the demolition team an additional headache. All the TNT except 62 tons were moved into the U-Boat pens and stacked alongside depth-charges, while the remainder was unboxed and placed in two large craters next to the unloading jetty. Depth-charges were added along with Cortex wired into the main firing system. In all, 120,000 metres of Cortex were used. The electrical firing circuits were devised by and installed by Lieutenant Commander Francis Mildred, RN, and Lieutenant Commander J. Cramer, RNVR. In all, the munitions to be destroyed comprised 4,000 warheads, 8,971 depth-charges, 1,250 tons of TNT, 200 tons of Cyclonite, 2,834 beach mines, 51,566 shells of various calibres, 9,400 shell cartridges, and various assorted explosives. German naval ratings were employed to help with moving the charges and stored munitions. However they required close supervision as they were untrained in handling explosives and they were found in one instance trying to remove a jammed torpedo warhead from its transit case by dropping it from 1.5 metres to break the casing! As most of the men initially supplied were ‘vagrants and pressed men’, it was found necessary to replace them with personnel from the German minesweeping administration. With the deadline for the destruction in 1947 approaching, the firing had to be postponed as bad weather had held up the supply of the explosive charges needed. Thus the date of the big bang was put back from March 31 to April 18. As migrating birds would be expected on the island at this time, 15 minutes before the big detonation, it was planned to set off a small explosion every 30 seconds to keep the birds away. By Friday, April 18 the island had been completely evacuated of all personnel except members of the demolition team making lastminute checks. This included a medic and a German R-Boat crew standing by to evacuate everyone once that work was complete. Despite the amount of explosives and munitions being handled, some of which was deteriorating and exuding nitro-glycerine, there was only one injury recorded. This was right at the end to Gunner Woosnam personally when a detonator he was connecting to a cable exploded. ‘As I was holding the detonator approximately waist high at the time’, he recounted later, ‘I was somewhat concerned as to my marriage prospects. However a swift mopping-up operation by the MO and a judicious measure of medicinal brandy enabled me to have words with Lasso [the ship that had the firing button] and arrange for a sentry to guard the firing key before proceeding with the final task of fitting all positions with detonators.’ A firing cable had been laid from the island to HMS Lasso stationed approximately 15 kilometres to the south. A secondary back-up method of firing the charges Right: Although most published accounts said that Lieutenant-Commander Frank Graves pressed the button, it seems that it was actually Gunner Jellis who unleashed the big bang. If so, this shot of Graves’s thumb on the firing switch must have been staged for the official cameramen. 30

In charge of the operation and responsible for all safety and firing arrangements was Lieutenant-Commander Francis Mildred, seen here surveying the island through his binoculars from HMS Lasso.

Left: An unknown but brave photographer recorded the mighty explosion from nearby Düne island, less than a mile away. His first shot was what must be the last picture to

. . . soon the explosion is too big to be captured by his camera.

ATB

had been set up using a radio signal from HMS Bleasdale but, because of the accident with the detonator, it was thought prudent to render this option inoperative by disconnecting the aerial at the firing position. Once the preparations were complete the German R-Boat evacuated the Royal Navy personnel to the firing ships. Though they were unaware their equipment had been dismantled at the other end, HMS Bleasdale still transmitted the signal to detonate at the same moment that the firing button was pressed on HMS Lasso. According to Woosnam, and contrary to press reports and newsreels of the time, it was Gunner Edward Jellis who had his finger on the firing button — virtually his last task before retiring from the Navy. Seismographs at Kew Observatory, Richmond in Surrey, recorded that the instant of detonation came at 10 hours 59 minutes 58.5 seconds GMT. The explosion was enormous. In the photographs, the white smoke was believed to have resulted from the type of explosive in the torpedo warheads. Apart from HMS Bleasdale, ships with official spectators and press included HMS Dunkirk, HMS Albacore and MV Danzig. HMS Nepal, in the vicinity of Borkum, took recordings and measurements of the shock wave through the water.

show Heligoland in its old shape. Right: At 1 p.m. precisely the island erupts in a short, muffled but violent blast of flame and smoke . . .

The same view from Düne island today. It clearly shows the giant bite that was taken off Heligoland’s southern end. 31

The explosion seen from nine miles distance and 1,500 feet altitude. The sound waves of the explosion were expected to be heard in Britain, 300 to 400 miles away, and people were asked to write to the Air Ministry’s Meteorological Office to state the time and place as accurately as possible, but in the event no one reported having heard anything. Seismographs at Kew in Britain and at the Paris Observatory in France recorded the shock wave of the explosion but no trace of the sound wave

There was dead silence aboard the bridge of Dunkirk. All eyes were turned towards Heligoland, lying nine miles to the south-west. Then, suddenly, the island was rent from end to end by bursts of red flame, which flashed into glowing embers, then died and were submerged by grey-black smoke which billowed and funnelled and fumed and surged high into the air in gigantic mushrooms. They broke into white, and then browny-red billows as the cliffs pulverised and the very soil of Heligoland itself went up to meet the blue sky. It was a frightful and awe-inspiring sight. Nothing has been seen like it since the atomic bomb explosion at Bikini. Then came the sounds of the explosion which cracked and echoed around the horizon like a giant whip. The blast furrowed my hair as I stood on the bridge. Then the noise rumbled away into the distance and a lone voice said: ‘That was Heligoland.’ But the smoke continued to surge upwards. It reached up to many thousands of feet, driven there by the mightiest explosive force ever gathered in one place. It included 4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 depth-charges, TNT and 51,000 shells. It had been detonated at four points and had been fired by Lieutenant Commander Francis Mildred of London from the cable-layer Lasso. He pressed the button which sent two shafts of power to the island, one by wireless, the other by electric current through a nine-mile-long cable. Today’s explosion completed eight months preparation and took place exactly two years to the day when Royal Air Force bombers erased everything standing on the island’s surface. Aboard this ship, the Dunkirk, there was quiet satisfaction that by choice of name alone, this ship should have been chosen to assist in the last rites of Germany’s oncepowerful naval might. Watching on the bridge were Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Sholto Douglas, C-in-C of the British forces in Germany; General Sir Richard McCreery, commander of the British Army of the Rhine,

32

appeared on any instruments anywhere. The great cloud of smoke, red with disintegrated sandstone, rose to an estimated height of 10,000 feet. As many an observer noted, the explosion recalled the series of atom bomb tests held by the Americans at the Pacific island of Bikini, which had begun the previous summer. To this day, the Heligoland explosion remains the largest single non-nuclear detonation in history, recorded as such in the Guinness Book of Records.

and Vice-Admiral Sir Harold Walker, Flag Officer commanding the British Naval Forces in Germany. High-ranking American naval officers were there, too, to watch and report on the greatest man-made explosion in history. The big question mark before the explosion was – what would happen. Aboard the ship every precaution had been taken and special medical arrangements had been made to deal with any casualties. Thirsty-six miles away, in the coastal town of Cuxhaven, British Forces Clubs were closed down, and townspeople were ordered to keep their windows open. In Hamburg, 100 miles distant, a warning was issued to people living in cellars advising them to keep in the open during the explosion. Fifty seismograph stations located at points up to 600 miles from Heligoland measured the extent of the vibrations which a few days ago were expected to penetrate 100 miles into the earth’s crust. The Admiralty sent research ships with seismographs on board to the Frisian Islands and to metal roads near Edinburgh. Thirty German press representatives watched the end of their own Gibraltar from the decks of the German rescue tug Danzig. The 150 German sailors who unloaded and stacked the British ammunition, which has been brought from the mainland to Heligoland during the last eight months, were withdrawn three days ago, but three German guards with their police dogs were left on the island to ensure that there would be no outside interference. All this morning a naval aircraft patrolled the seas around the island, warning fishing boats and other vessels away. The Navy mounted Operation ‘Big Bang’ with the efficiency of a battle manoeuvre, and they have done their best to ensure that this time Heligoland’s fortifications are completely and utterly destroyed and a long way beyond repair. BBC REPORTER DOUGLAS WILLIS, BROADCASTING FROM HMS DUNKIRK, APRIL 18, 1947

The island seen from the air the day after the big bang. The U-Boat pens in the foreground are completely destroyed and LITTLE BANG (April 22, 1947) Two days after the big bang, the demolition team returned to carry out an inspection of the island. It was found that all positions had fired successfully with the exception of the dump of TNT blocks by the jetty where the main Cortex lead had been severed in at least two places. On April 22 the demolition team, accompanied by Commander Colver, returned to dispose of the British TNT blocks. They were instructed to do this without publicity as the powers that be did not want it to appear that the main explosion had been a failure — which it certainly was not! This meant the demolition team had to maintain radio silence. The team was only provisioned for an overnight stay, it was therefore impractical to

the cliffs which held the underground galleries have been utterly shattered.

blow up the TNT in a number of separate explosions as that would have taken at least a week. Instead it took the team until dusk to rewire the TNT, the flak tower on the Oberland being used as the firing point. ML 150 and the German R-Boat that had brought the men ashore were then ordered out to sea to stop any craft entering the area. Once they were safely out of the way the charges were fired. Despite the fact that the explosion was thought not to have been heard on the mainland, the team thought it sensible to break radio silence and pass an ‘Operation Complete’ message to Cuxhaven. In the event, the radio on ML 150 was found to be unserviceable and the message could not be sent. This had unfortunate consequences as the explosion had indeed been heard on the

The upper town remained to be seen much as it had been following the devastating raid by the Royal Air Force two years

mainland due to a low cloud base that evening and the flash was witnessed by Elbe 1 lighthouse. Being unable to raise ML 150 on the radio, the duty destroyer was despatched expecting to find a disaster. However the German R-boat was already in touch with the German Navy authorities in Cuxhaven, both before and after the explosion, although they had not communicated this fact to the Royal Navy. Apparently nobody thought of asking the Germans if they were in touch with their own craft! The first the demolition team knew of the excitement was when the surgeon from the destroyer woke them to ask what had happened. As a result, Colver and Woosnam had to go to Cuxhaven to explain the situation to the ‘not very happy’ authorities.

previously. Note that the Flak command tower is still standing over on the right. 33

ATB

Above: Heligoland remained under British occupation for another five years, being used as a training target for RAF bombers. This picture of the harbour was taken in August 1951, when British troops were at work removing any remaining usable equipment from the island. On March 1, 1952, the island was restored to the German authorities, who had to clear a huge amount of unexploded ordnance, landscape the main island, and rebuild the houses before it could be resettled. Below: The same view today.

still be seen half buried at the foot of one of the cliffs as late as 1999. If unexploded ordnance is uncovered, bomb disposal experts are flown in to deal with any such finds.

Today Heligoland has been developed into a holiday resort, particularly for ornithologists, and it also enjoys the benefit of being tax-exempt.

ATB

THE AFTERMATH The destructive power of the big bang was fantastic. The rock in the area of the main storage tunnels was found to have split right the way through from the eastern to western cliff faces. On the western side, the rock had disintegrated and piled up on the adjoining reef, forming, as it were, a large area of reclaimed land. Both the Jacobson and the Falm flak battery had been totally destroyed as the whole rock on which they had been built disappeared, and a crater now occupied the spot where the batteries had once stood. The other batteries were all now just craters. The U-Boat pens, having had torpedo warheads stacked around the columns that supported the roof, were completely destroyed. Thereafter, as originally planned, Heligoland continued to be used as a bombing range, but in 1950 the British were approached by the family of one of the Germans who had been killed in the April 1945 air raid and whose body still remained on the island. They asked if an interval in the bombing practice could be introduced to enable those buried on the island to be recovered — they estimated that there were over 400 graves in the cemetery. This was situated on the plateau just 200 metres from the surviving flak tower which was being used as the aiming point by bombers, and local lobster fishermen reported that many graves had been totally wiped out. Under pressure, the British arranged for an inspection of the graveyard and found only 12 graves unaffected by bombing, some of the damage apparently being caused in April 1945. It was therefore considered that identification of the remains from most of the graves would be virtually impossible. As a poor compromise, the RAF were asked to avoid bombing the cemetery — a pretty difficult thing to do bearing in mind the size of the island. The military occupation of Germany had already come to an end in 1949 with the creation of the Federal Republic in the Western Zones and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik in the East, and by 1952 the British finally bowed to pressure. The bombing range was relinquished and on March 1 Heligoland was restored to the German authorities. The huge task of reconstituting the devastated island took many years. Unexploded bombs had to be recovered and defuzed and thousands of tons of smashed concrete cleared. The town had to be totally rebuilt. However much evidence of its wartime heritage remains, not least the many craters and a very prominent flak tower on the Oberland that now serves as a lighthouse. A number of B-17 propellers have been recovered by fishermen in recent years from the waters around the island, and the wing from an aircraft could

Left: British Army sappers removing the remnants of a heavy Kriegsmarine crane from the west quay of the Osthafen. The remains of the U-Boat bunker can be seen in the far corner of 34

the basin. Right: A crew of sailors, posing for a group photo at what is today named the Südhafen, conveniently stand in for the dock-workers of six decades ago.

IWM EA60090

On March 27, 1945, after a short but intense two-day battle, troops of the US Third Army captured the German city of Frankfurt-am-Main. The operation involved two American divisions, the 6th Armored and 5th Infantry Division, which were opposed by an assorted collection of German garrison, training

and police troops, backed up by strong artillery. Here men of the 5th Division advance towards the city along the Frankfurt to Darmstadt Autobahn, the viaduct marking the Frankfurt South exit. This section of the road was the first of Germany’s new motorways to be brought into use.

THE ALLIED CAPTURE OF FRANKFURT tal of Hessen-Nassau, plans to build a series of governmental and party buildings in true Nazi architectural style along the inner city’s riverbank never got beyond the initial drawing-board stage. The Nazi persecution of the Jews, which started right away in 1933 and was officially sanctioned with the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws of 1936, decimated Frankfurt’s Jewish community. Of the some 25,000 Jews living in the city before 1933, some

By Karel Margry 8,000 had fled the country by May 1939. Isolation, stigmatisation and plunder were followed by round-ups and deportation, a total of 9,415 Frankfurt Jews being shipped off to death camps in the east between October 1941 and January 1944. Another 700 were driven to suicide. By 1945, few Jews remained in the city.

NIOD

Frankfurt-am-Main before the war was the ninth largest city of Germany. Situated on the Main river, with the greater part on the north bank, an important city since the 9th century, it was a centre of finance, commerce and transportation. A city with a strong socialist and liberal tradition and a large Jewish community, Frankfurt never fitted well into the National Socialist order. Hitler disliked the city, condemning it as ‘a hotbed of Jewish bankers and social democrats’. The Nazi party never gained the majority there, scoring only a moderate 44.1 per cent in the March 1933 Reichstag elections, against 20.9 per cent for the socialist SPD and 12.6 for the communist KPD. The day after the polls, Oberbürgermeister Ludwig Landmann, a Jew, was removed from office and replaced by a convinced Nazi, Dr Friedrich Krebs. In the months following, Nazis were put in all important positions of administration. Yet, the city never flourished under Nazism, a prime reason being the eternal squabbles and rivalry between Burgomaster Krebs and the local Gauleiter (Nazi Party provincial leader), Jakob Sprenger. The city made a good start on September 23, 1933, when Hitler came to Frankfurt for the ‘first spade into the ground’ ceremony, a well-staged propaganda event inaugurating the start of the Autobahn construction campaign (see The Third Reich Then and Now). However, in the subsequent drive to give emblematic names to the great cities of the Reich, Frankfurt definitely lost out. Forced to relinquish its emblem of ‘Messestadt’ (City of Trade Fairs) to Leipzig, the city was awarded the ill-fitting epithet of ‘Stadt des deutschen Handwerks’ (City of German Handicraft) in June 1935, although artisanship was never one of its main trades. The same happened with regard to city development. Although Frankfurt was the Gau capi-

The official opening ceremony on May 19, 1935 was an elaborately staged propaganda event, with Hitler opening the road in his open Mercedes and then saluting a column of trucks carrying those who had worked on its construction. The Autobahn at this point has now been widened to eight lanes and the bridge seen in the top photo has been demolished. 35

RICHARD H. CROSSETT

On March 25, the 6th Armored Division broke out of the Oppenheim bridgehead across the Rhine, with Combat Frankfurt was one of the first German cities to begin construction of air raid shelters for its population, some 780 cellar shelters having been completed by 1935. Construction of big air raid bunkers was started in late 1940, a total of 38 being completed by 1944, plus eight bunker towers for Reichsbahn personnel and two special bunkers at the Höchst and Frankfurt-Süd Hospitals. During the war, Frankfurt suffered a total of 78 Allied air raids. The first occurred on the night of June 3/4, 1940, and the first daylight attack on July 25, 1942. The first big raid hit the city on the night of October 4/5, 1943, but the worst was a series of three big attacks in March 1944: two 1,000-bomber raids by the RAF on the nights of the 18th/19th and 22nd/23rd, and one daylight strike by 175 USAAF bombers on the 24th. In all, the 78 raids killed a total of 4,822 people, wounded another 22,000 and left over half of the city in ruins. The entire Altstadt (mediaeval city centre) was reduced to ashes. By March 1945, of the original population of some 550,000, only some 269,000 remained in the city — half of them homeless. By then the ground war had moved dangerously close to Frankfurt, the Allied armies in the West having entered Germany in force and reached the Rhine river on a broad front, from Wesel in the north to Mulhouse in the south. On the night of March 22/23, the US 5th Infantry Division of the XII Corps of the US Third Army made a surprise crossing of the Rhine at Oppenheim (see After the Battle No. 16), some 40 kilometres to the southwest of Frankfurt. By the following day, the bridgehead was sufficiently large and secure to debouch armour from it. The plan of the XII Corps commander, Major General Manton S. Eddy, was to strike eastwards and north-eastwards from Oppenheim and, passing below Frankfurt, seize bridgeheads over the Main between that city and Aschaffenburg. Leading the advance would be the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions, on the right and 36

Command A on the left and Combat Command B on the right, and within two days had advanced into Frankfurt.

left respectively, with the 5th, 26th and 90th Infantry Divisions following in their wake to clean out remaining enemy pockets and reinforce the hoped-for bridgeheads across the Main. Opposing the XII Corps drive would be the LXXXV. Armeekorps, which was part of the 7. Armee of Heeresgruppe G. Commanded by General der Infanterie Baptist Kniess, the corps had only one weak division, the 159. Volksgrenadier-Division, the rest of its forces consisting of rear-echelon security detachments, hastily equipped students and cadres from nearby training schools and convalescent companies. Kniess’s headquarters assumed responsibility of the sector at midday on March 25, taking over from the provisional XII. Armeekorps which had been hastily set up five days before and had vainly tried to oppose the XII Corps crossing of the Rhine at Oppenheim. Responsible for defending the Main river around Frankfurt and Hanau as well as the Rhine opposite Mainz, Kniess — in consultation with the 7. Armee commander, General der Infanterie Hans Felber — withdrew most of the troops opposing the Oppenheim bridgehead to north of the Main, leaving only a weak shell in place to maintain a semblance of defence. The garrison of Frankfurt under its Stadtkommandant (City Commander), Generalmajor Friedrich Stemmermann, was incorporated into the corps defences. A conglomerate of troops of dubious combat value, its main components were the city’s anti-aircraft units of Flak-Gruppe Frankfurt with their fixed but powerful anti-aircraft guns; Grenadier-Ersatz- und AusbildungsBataillon 81 (a replacement training unit); Landesschützen-Ersatz-Bataillon I/IX (a local defence force unit); a Hungarian Ersatz-Infanterie-Bataillon (a replacement infantry unit); students and cadre from the Heeres-Musik-Schule (Army Music School) at Riederwald; and the municipal police force, all of them backed up by the local Volkssturm (home guard) units — a total

strength of perhaps 1,000 men. Appointed back in August 1944, Stemmermann had orders to defend the city ‘to the last man’. On the evening of March 24, Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger broadcast a call over the Frankfurt local radio for the immediate and complete evacuation of the city. His summons caused some confusion as the Reich Interior Ministry had earlier issued a directive that no more cities were to be evacuated. Few people heeded his call. Early on March 25, the 6th Armored Division, under Major General Robert W. Grow, began crossing the Rhine at Oppenheim into the 5th Division’s bridgehead. From an assembly area near Dexheim, the division crossed in single column, with Combat Command B (CCB) leading, followed by Combat Command A (CCA), Division Headquarters, Division Artillery, the 86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Combat Command Reserve (CCR) and the Division Trains. Passing through the 5th Division lines at Gross-Gerau, the armoured columns moved out to the north-east, entering a large forested area that stretched all the way to Frankfurt. Combat Command B at first met enemy resistance in the form of artillery, small arms and bazooka fire but, after bypassing this opposition, made rapid progress. Combat Command A, deploying to the left of CCB, divided into two columns, Task Force 15 on the left and Task Force 9 on the right. They also met resistance, especially Task Force 9 (under Lieutenant Colonel Frank K. Britton, CO of the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion) at Mörfelden, south of Frankfurt’s sprawling Rhein-Main Airport, where there was a large concentration of 88mm and 105mm artillery and flak guns. The force’s advance guard cleared out the town and then pushed on through the wooded area towards the next town in the direction of the airport, Walldorf. At a road junction near the uncompleted north-south

USNA

A tank destroyer of the 603rd TD Battalion, part of the 6th Armored Division, speeds past two dead German soldiers lying surrounded by scattered equipment as it heads towards Frankfurt along one of the roads through the large forest south of the city. The picture was taken by Army photographer Pfc J. W. Lapine of the 166th Signal Photo Company. the resistance to the south-west. This ended the advance for the day. That night, Colonel Harris held a meeting with his commanders. Lagrew’s Task Force 15 was instructed to drive north-east along the Mainz–Frankfurt railway line until the Autobahn was hit, and then find bridges across the Main along the ten-kilometre stretch between Schwanheim, a suburb of Frankfurt on the south bank, and Offenbach, a town just east of Frankfurt also on the south bank. Covering Force Nelson was again to reconnoitre ahead one hour before Task Force 15 set out. Meanwhile, Britton’s Task Force 9 was to side-step to the left out of Mörfelden and bypass enemy resistance at Walldorf, leaving clearance of the airport to the follow-up infantry. Early on March 26, CCA moved out. Pro-

USNA

Frankfurt to Mannheim Autobahn, 88mm guns firing straight down the road from Walldorf hit the force, destroying several of its vehicles. During the fighting at the intersection, an 88mm shell hit the Sherman tank of Colonel John L. Hines, the commander of CCA, who was standing in the turret talking on the radio telephone. Shell fragments struck his face, tore away his eyes and nose and lodged in his throat, causing him to slump down into the turret choking. Before he passed out, he radioed Grow and gave a brief report of the situation and asked to be replaced. Grow, who was making his way forward, found Hines on the side of the road, checked his evacuation, and then placed Colonel Albert E. Harris, commander of the Reserve Command, who happened to be on his way to Hines, in command of CCA, telling him to continue the drive. However, the incident had taken the sting out of the attack and no further advance was made along this axis that day. Grow was shaken by the loss of one of his top commanders. Meanwhile, Task Force 15 under Lieutenant Colonel Embry D. Lagrew (CO of the 15th Tank Battalion), to the left of Task Force 9, raced north to the Main river. A mixed force of light and medium tanks, armoured infantry, armoured cars, assault guns, tank destroyers and engineers, it was led by a small vanguard known as Covering Force Nelson, under Captain Stuart D. Nelson. This comprised two platoons of M5 Stuart light tanks from Company D of the 15th Tank Battalion, one platoon from the 86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, one section of tank destroyers from the 603rd TD Battalion and a party of engineers from the 25th Armored Engineer Battalion. Scouting out routes of approach and reporting on enemy resistance, Covering Force Nelson probed north-east looking for a crossing of the Main in the vicinity of Frankfurt. As it approached the river near Raunheim, a village on the south bank some 15 kilometres west of Frankfurt, it received anti-tank fire from the far bank and 20mm fire from the near side of the river. Captain Nelson was wounded and his place was taken by Lieutenant Joseph J. Domotor. The force deployed and returned fire but then decided to withdraw and bypass

ceeding east through the woods along the Main river and passing below Schwanheim, Task Force 15 entered Goldstein — another suburb of Frankfurt on the south bank — and attacked the next borough of Niederrad, meeting only slight opposition. The first railway bridge east of the Autobahn — carrying the main line from Mainz — was found to be damaged but repairable. (During the night, Generalmajor Stemmermann had ordered all bridges over the Main in Frankfurt to be blown. German engineers carried out the demolitions after daylight but they were not entirely successful in all cases.) Meanwhile a reconnaissance patrol crossed the river in an assault boat and found the town district of Griesheim clear of enemy troops. Colonel Lagrew immediately requested additional infantry to secure a bridgehead. At the same time another detachment from his force continued up the river in search of an alternative crossing. Each time the column closed up to the river, thus exposing itself on the flat terrain between the woods and the river, it received strong fire from the enemy stationary 128mm flak guns positioned around Frankfurt. Nevertheless, penetrating into the south-bank district of Sachsenhausen, the column found a road bridge still standing, although too damaged by demolitions for vehicles to use. This was the Wilhelms-Brücke, connecting Sachsenhausen with the main part of the city. The Germans had tried to blow the span and it was pitted with deep craters and two small gaps but it was still passable for foot soldiers. Immediately, Task Force 15 switched its main effort to this bridge, abandoning the railway bridge at Niederrad. Tanks quickly deployed east and west of the bridge approach and put the main city on the far bank under a hail of machine-gun and tank cannon fire, forcing the German defenders to keep their heads down. Howitzers from the 212th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, firing from positions around the airport, added to the barrage. Then, at 1630 hours, attached infantrymen from Company C of the 9th Armoured Infantry Battalion dismounted from their half-tracks and rapidly pushed across the bridge to form a toehold on the far bank. The Germans reacted only with smallarms fire and the infantry platoons reached the far bank, taking up position in the buildings at either corner of the bridge. However, as soon as the Americans tried

Penetrating into the part of Frankfurt that lies on the south bank of the Main river, troops of Task Force 15 of Combat Command A discovered that one bridge — the Wilhelms-Brücke — was only partly destroyed and could still be used by foot soldiers. 37

ATB

USNA

beside the southern bridge rampart before starting their dash across. Right: The Wilhelms-Brücke was renamed the FriedensBrücke (Peace Bridge) in 1951. This is the same view today, seen from the corner of Theodor-Stern-Kai and Stresemann-Allee.

IfS FRANKFURT

Left: Seizing the opportunity, the Americans immediately put three companies of the 9th Armoured Infantry Battalion across the bridge. They caught the Germans completely off guard, receiving only small-arms fire. Here a group of soldiers bunches

GIs running across the bridge to the north bank. The span seen in the distance is the Adolf-Hitler-Brücke, the second road bridge into the main part of the city. blocks square on the southern approaches to the bridge. Overhead air bursts of 128mm flak shells made any activity in the open highly dangerous. The first American M5 tank that ventured out onto the bridge got

ATB

to push light tanks across the bridge, the Germans began pouring mortar, self-propelled and artillery fire onto it. In a period of just three hours, from 1800 to 2100, an estimated 5,000 rounds landed in the area two

stuck in one of the craters. Companies A and B of the 9th Armoured Infantry Battalion were detached from Task Force 9 and placed under control of Task Force 15. Lagrew immediately sent them across the bridge to further secure the foothold in the city, which now reached two blocks deep. Meanwhile, engineers from Company B of the 25th Armored Engineers, their worksite masked by smoke shells, attempted to repair the bridge to enable tanks and tank destroyers to cross, but the heavy German shelling made that impossible. The three rifle companies on the north side of the river were in a tight spot but as they did not receive so much shelling and because there was no German counterattack, they were able to maintain their positions. Moreover, reinforcement was underway. Right after the 6th Armored Division had passed through their lines on the 25th, the 5th Infantry Division (commanded by Major General S. Leroy Irwin) had started moving forward, its three regiments following in the wake of the tanks and mopping up behind them. Resistance was scattered and prisoners continued to surrender in groups. At 1530 on the 26th, Company C of the 10th Infantry (Colonel Robert P. Bell) reached and cleared the extensive Rhein-Main airport, finding some eight aircraft still intact. Half an hour later the 1st Battalion columns encoun-

The bridge railing has been modernised but the Kaiserdom cathedral in the background pinpoints the spot. The former Adolf Hitler Bridge is now masked by a new pedestrian bridge, 38

the Holbein-Steg, opened in 1990. The latter was designed by Albert Speer, Jr. (one of the sons of the Nazi armaments minister) — surely an ironic twist of history if ever there was one!

USNA

Once across the bridge, the troops reached a small square, the Blücher-Platz, where they occupied the block of houses seen on the right. Later they were joined here by the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Infantry of the 5th Division, who had been rushed into Frankfurt to reinforce the tiny bridgehead. This picture was taken later, when the troops were moving out deeper into the city. The photographer is standing with his back to the bridge, just a few metres from its northern end.

ATB

tered 88mm fire and enemy flak troops attempting to make a stand at Schwanheim, Companies B and C meeting stiff resistance. As soon as news of the 6th Armoured Division having seized a bridge into Frankfurt filtered back to XII Corps, the 5th Division was ordered to reinforce the tiny bridgehead. The 3rd Battalion of the 11th Infantry (Colonel Paul J. Black) — in regimental reserve and the only unit available — was rushed to the bridge site. Arriving there at 1935 hours, the battalion under Lieutenant Colonel William H. Birdsong dashed across the 300-metre-long span under heavy artillery fire, Company K in the lead, followed by Companies L and I. They found the armoured infantry precariously holding just the ground floors of two buildings at the far end of the bridge. Starting out from these, they set to work house-clearing and by dusk they had cleaned out about ten blocks. The enemy continued to pound the area with artillery and the 3rd Battalion Command Post was hit nine times by heavy shells. By 0700 next morning (March 27), the battalion had a bridgehead 600 metres long and 800 metres wide. Meanwhile, anxiety and confusion reigned on the German side. The German Stadtkommandant, now Kampfkommandant (Combat Commander), General Stemmermann, had only few troops with which to counter the American entry into the city, and they were only armed with rifles, machine guns and Panzerfaust rockets. The Volkssturm units, which had been helpful in erecting log barricades to block some of the main streets, were totally unfit for combat. Stemmermann, who had set up his command post in the StandortKommandantur (Local Wehrmacht Headquarters) building at No. 12 Taunusanlage, wavered between carrying on the fight or raising the white flag but found himself unable to come to a decision. Going out on an inspection of the front-line units, he was lightly wounded by a ricochet bullet near the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) but carried on nonetheless. Meanwhile, he had little help forthcoming

Following the usual custom in countries where political regimes change, so streets are given new names. Thus, Blücher-Platz has now been renamed the Baseler Platz. The street leading off on the right — Scharnhorst-Strasse during the war — is today

known as Baseler Strasse and leads to the large square in front of the Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main railway station. The street on the left, the former Blücher-Strasse, is now Stuttgarter Strasse and leads to the side entrance of the station. 39

ATB

USNA

Left: From the initial toehold at the Wilhelms-Brücke, the men of the 5th Division fought to expand the bridgehead. These GIs moving across a road-block of bricks and steel beams are in fact just east of the bridge, the house on the left being the corner block of Blücher-Platz. They are starting down Hermann-

40

where in Frankfurt, the GIs spotted civilians, issued with regular Army binoculars, observing from windows and directing the heavy artillery on to the target. When caught, the Americans did not waste much time with them. Once inside, Company I warded off any attempt to retake the station building, with its numerous underground passages and

rooms. Unable to continue the attack from where they were, the company looked for a new a route of attack. One platoon was left behind to keep the Germans occupied while another pulled back and started out on the new route, jumping fences, climbing garage roofs and passing through hotels. The mortar section, encumbered by their heavy loads, was unable to keep up but captured several

IWM EA60101

from the city’s civilian or party authorities. That afternoon, with the Americans already in the city, Gauleiter Sprenger — an ardent enemy of Oberbürgermeister Krebs to the very end — telephoned an order to a Volkssturm officer for an SA troop to arrest the burgomaster. The latter, who had withdrawn to his home in Bad Homburg, 15 kilometres north of the city, and no longer showed himself at the Town Hall, escaped arrest but decided to weather out the war in hiding. Sprenger himself fled from the city, first to Thuringia, then to Bavaria, where he would commit suicide by taking poison at Reit-im-Winkel on May 8. Meanwhile, the 5th Division’s 10th Infantry Regiment assembled in south Frankfurt near the crossing site. Patrols sent out along the south bank during the night (March 26/27) established that all other bridges across the Main leading into Frankfurt had been blown, leaving the damaged Wilhelms-Brücke as the most-promising option to pursue the advance. That night — their passage across shielded by the darkness — the regiment’s 3rd Battalion (Major Wilfrid H. Haughey, Jr.) crossed the bridge without being fired upon. The following morning, at 1030 hours, deploying itself to the left of its sister battalion from the 11th Regiment, they started out northwards toward the Hauptbahnhof, some 500 metres away. Resistance increased as the men worked their way under fire from enemy self-propelled guns through the rubble and few remaining buildings, eliminating snipers and mopping up in bitter house-to-house fighting. Having overcome three blocks of intense sniper fire, Company I reached the huge station. Finding access through the main doorway and lobby impossible, they sneaked in through the rear entrance. German self-propelled, 88mm and mortar fire hit the building, which was also under fire from small arms and machine guns. Here, as else-

Göring-Ufer, which runs along the northern bank of the river. Right: The debris has been cleared away but the corner house remains unchanged. Hermann-Göring-Ufer also fell victim to the rapid de-Nazification of street names, which followed immediately after the fall of the city, and is today Untermainkai.

In single file, troops of the 5th Division move further along Hermann-Göring-Ufer being pictured by Signal Corps photographer Lieutenant M. A. Freeman. The burnedout building marks the corner of Wiesenhütten-Strasse, which formed the front line on the morning of the second day.

IG-FARBEN BUILDING

BERGER STRASSE

OPERA HOUSE TAUNUSANLAGE GOETHE-STRASSE

CATHEDRAL

KAISER-PLATZ

HAUPTBAHNHOF ADOLF-HITLER-BRÜCKE HERMANN-GÕRING-UFER

BLÜCHER-PLATZ WILHELMS-BRÜCKE

ATB

Map of modern-day Frankfurt-am-Main. We have indicated the main locations illustrated in our story.

The decorative fence on the left has gone. Its present-day replacement closes off the forecourt of the U68 Jugendclub, a youngsters club of the German DGB trade union. Amazingly, the advertising-pillar on the riverbank pavement on the right survives in exactly the same spot.

prisoners who were hiding under hotel steps. Once both platoons had reached a better location, the attack was renewed and the company swiftly pushed into the main part of the city. By 1830 hours the area assigned to the battalion was clear and the unit prepared to continue the drive to the north. Meanwhile, back at the bridge, German artillery continued to rain down on the Wilhelms-Brücke. By now, sappers from the 166th Engineer Combat Battalion (a XII Corps unit) had joined the armoured engineers in attempting to repair the span and open it for vehicles, however still with very meagre success. At 0900 the construction of a Bailey bridge was started, but the intense enemy shelling prevented its continuance. It was estimated that approximately 4,000 rounds of artillery fell on the construction site during the morning. Meanwhile, on the German side, a change of command had taken place. Early that morning, General Kniess, the LXXXV. Armeekorps commander, had arrived at the command post on Taunusanlage and announced to Generalmajor Stemmermann that he was relieved of his command and replaced by Oberstleutnant Erich Löffler. The latter had already arrived and immediately took over as Kampfkommandant. He had come from Koblenz all alone, without a staff, so he quickly put one together from officers who happened to be in the command post: Leutnant Werner Brügel, (who originated from Frankfurt) was appointed his 41

USNA

A machine-gun team crouches behind the barricade erected on the corner of Hermann-Göring-Ufer and Wiesenhütten-Strasse.

42

equipment depots in the city that were still accessible, especially those in the Westhafen, to be evacuated, and their medical supplies to be distributed to military and civilian aid posts in the city. Although he had orders to destroy the local electricity, gas and water works and other public facilities, he did not order their execution saying there was ‘no time for that’. When Löffler assumed command, around

1100 hours on the 27th, the American bridgehead in the city extended from the banks of the Main east of the Wilhelms-Brücke along Wiesenhütten-Strasse to the eastern end of the Bahnhofplatz (where they held the Schumann Theatre and the Carlton Hotel), then along Mainzer Landstrasse west to AdolfHitler-Platz, where the line swung back to the river by way of the railway sidings of the Güterbahnhof (freight station) and Haupt-

ATB

Adjutant; a Luftwaffe Oberleutnant, who had made his way back from the airport, became his aide-de-camp; two or three Majors zbV (zur besonderen Verfügung) from the Kommandantur staff, became operations officers; Major Graf von Helldorf, left behind by Kniess as liaison officer, was added to the staff. A veteran and highly-decorated combat officer, Löffler knew full well that the war was lost. Realising that Frankfurt, apart from being attacked head-on from the south, was being encircled by wider pincer movements north and east of the city (coming from Koblenz on the Rhine and Hanau on the Main respectively), he had no illusion that he could hold the city for more than a few days. His plan was to fight a delaying action to enable as many troops and as much equipment as possible to escape the developing trap. At the same time, he wanted to save Frankfurt and its population from senseless destruction and bloodshed. He therefore instructed his troops to oppose the Americans but not in such force that they would pull out of the city and call in their bombers to finish the job — an unusual but quite sensible instruction given the circumstances. For the same reason, he decided not to launch any strong counter-attacks — which would have been difficult anyway in view of the lack of troops and means. Faced with having only a hodgepodge of troops with which to defend the city, Löffler took two remarkable decisions: he ordered the Volkssturm troops to disband and go home, uttering ‘What can I possibly do with these old, untrained and practically unarmed people?’; and, not trusting it reliability in combat, he ordered the Hungarian infantry battalion to hand over its weapons to German units. He also ordered all supply and

The same heap of sand can be seen in the far distance on the picture on page 40. Another photo by Lieutenant Freeman.

The lamppost is still in the same position and the original iron railing remains along the pavement on the far side of the street.

IfS FRANKFURT

bahnhof. His plan was for his troops to slowly pull back in three phases — one that same evening, another later during the night and a third during the night of March 28/29 — to the northern fringes of town, and then try to escape from entrapment by making their way to the north or north-east. One advantage for the German defenders was that the local public telephone system still worked, which offset the lack of Army signal equipment. Also, all through the battle, the command post received phone calls from civilians living in areas already occupied by the Americans, informing them of what the enemy was doing. This intelligence was particularly valuable when coming from the south side of the river or the direct vicinity of the Wilhelms-Brücke. It enabled the Germans to concentrate and augment their artillery fire whenever and wherever something seemed afoot. (In contrast, the sector commander at the Westhafen reported that the population in his area was calling upon his troops to take off, desert or surrender.) At noon, a particularly heavy German barrage hit the bridge. It failed to increase the damage, so the American engineers resumed repair work, while yet another unit — the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel John N. Acuff, Jr. — prepared to cross. Company G was ready to go over but then had to take cover due to the intense shelling. By 1330 the barrage had slackened somewhat and the company rushed across, followed by Company E after another interval of heavy shelling. By 1550 hours, Company F had crossed and the troops had cleared a few houses west of the bridge. Now all across, the 2nd Battalion struck south-westward towards the railway shunting yards and the direction of Griesheim. As the afternoon wore on, the Germans became aware of the flow of men, materiel and supplies across the single span into the city. About 1600 hours a crimson smoke shell burst just above the bridge. Obviously a marker round, it heralded an artillery concentration of unbelievable intensity on the bridge and its immediate surroundings, most of it from high-velocity anti-aircraft guns, which caused death and destruction among the Americans soldiers and vehicles. One of the casualties was Captain Thadeus F.

Yet another street barricade had been thrown up further down Hermann-GöringUfer. The Adolf-Hitler-Brücke across the River Main lies on the right, behind the tree.

ATB USNA

ATB

IfS FRANKFURT

Right: The same view today, looking east along Untermainkai. The Führer’s bridge was rapidly de-Nazified too and is since known as the Untermain-Brücke.

Left: A German woman makes her way over the same barricade shortly after the fighting passed by. Centre: The bridge marks the spot where Untermainkai changes its name to Mainkai. Of the houses along the far side of the street only the middle one remains unchanged. The Cathedral is just visible in the background.

Continuing the advance, the troops clamber over another of the enemy roadblocks. The picture was taken by Signal Corps photographer Pfc J. M. Musae. 43

USNA

USNA

Brücke in order that tanks could cross to the north bank to reinforce the infantry. The German demolitions had left two big holes in the roadway about the middle of the bridge and strewn a large section of the span with debris.

Although the engineers tried desperately to repair the span, the extremely heavy German artillery on the bridge area made that impossible and the battle for the main city was fought by

foot soldiers without direct help from the armour. All the tanks could do was give fire support from the southern bank, as pictured here by Associated Press photographer Byron Rollins.

IWM AP276829

USNA

USNA

Above and below: These stills from Signal Corps film footage show the engineers — first those of the 25th Armored Engineer Battalion, later relieved by men of the 166th Engineer Combat Battalion — attempting to patch up the Wilhelms-

44

ATB

The same view of Platform 21 today, taken from Platform 20.

ATB

IfS FRANKFURT

Kubarek, the commander of Company F, 10th Infantry, who was killed in the doorway of the combined 2nd and 3rd Battalion Command Post, a building some 100 metres east of the bridge. As it happened, an hour earlier, Allied artillery had struck a blow on a German command post, with far greater consequences. About 1500 hours, a series of about a dozen high-explosive shells scored direct hits on the Kommandantur building on Taunusanlage, located just 300 metres from the American-held Hauptbahnhof. The shells, as one witness called it, ‘came in practically through the windows’ and caused great havoc in the staff rooms on the first floor. Oberstleutnant Löffler, the new Kampfkommandant, was horribly wounded, his predecessor Generalmajor Stemmermann (who was still in the command post awaiting the car that would take him to the rear) grievously wounded as well. Of Löffler’s staff, Major Graf von Helldorf was killed instantly; his adjutant Leutnant Brügel seriously wounded in the shoulder, and his Luftwaffe Oberleutnant aide lightly injured. All the casualties were quickly evacuated to a main dressing station in the cellar of the Opera House on nearby Opernplatz. However, Löffler was beyond help and he died within hours. Stemmermann was eventually evacuated to a military hospital in Dornholzhausen and he survived. The elimination of the German command staff to all intents and purposes meant the end of organised resistance in the city. Lower unit commanders at isolated strong points would carry on fighting but without orders and control from above they would give up quickly and raise the white flag easily. On March 28, the Americans continued to push more infantry across. At mid-morning, the 5th Division’s third regiment, the 2nd Infantry under Colonel A. Worrel Roffe, joined the fray. All its three battalions made crossings in the face of fierce artillery fire and, fanning out beyond the station against slackening resistance, secured positions well

IWM EA60790

Right: During the night of March 26/27, the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Infantry crossed into the bridgehead and the following morning attacked and captured the Hauptbahnhof. Despite coming under heavy fire from self-propelled guns, mortars and machine guns, Company I doggedly held on to the massive building. The fighting around the station was the fiercest of the entire battle for the city. Here smoke curls from one of the platforms after the building was secured. Asbestos sheets have been placed over the openings to smother the flames.

The smoke came from a passenger train set alight by the artillery fire on Track 21 just in front of the station roof.

Where formerly the station was open to allow the steam to escape, now protective glass has been added to its front. 45

Right: Commanding the German troops in Frankfurt was Generalmajor Friedrich Stemmermann. Born on April 6, 1892, at Mülhausen in the Alsace, he had fought as an Oberleutnant in the First World War. In 1920, he changed to the Police force but he re-entered the army as a Major in 1934. Little is known of his wartime career but he was appointed Stadtkommandant (City Commander) of Frankfurt on August 1, 1944, a position that changed to Kampfkommandant (Combat Commander) when American forces approached the city in March 1945. (He is not to be confused with his elder brother, General der Artillerie Wilhelm Stemmermann, who commanded the XI. Armeekorps on the Russian Front and was killed on February 18, 1944, while attempting to break out of the Cherkassy Pocket.)

On March 27, the second day of the battle for the city, Stemmermann was relieved as Kampfkommandant by Oberstleutnant Erich Löffler (right), a veteran and highly decorated combat officer. Born on March 22, 1908 at Eisenach in Thuringia, Löffler had joined the army as a private before the war. Serving as Hauptfeldwebel of the 3. Kompanie of Infanterie-Regiment 57 of the 9. Infanterie-Division, he was commissioned shortly after the outbreak of war and hence made a speedy career, fighting in France in 1940 and on the Eastern Front from 1941 and rising to become battalion and then regimental commander. Exceptionally courageous in combat, he was awarded the Infanteriesturmabzeichen (Assault Infantry Badge), Verwundetenabzeichen (Wounded in Action Badge), four Panzervernichtungsabzeichen (Tank Destruction Badges), the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold and in October 1942, by which time he commanded the II. Bataillon of Grenadier-Regiment 57, the Knight’s Cross. By 1943, he had assumed command of the regiment.

ATB

IWM AP276885

within the city. Later in the day, the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Infantry and the 1st Battalion of the 10th (the latter having completed the clearing of Schwanheim the previous day) crossed into the bridgehead, leaving only the 1st Battalion of the 11th Regiment in division reserve on the south side of the river. The eight American battalions now on the north bank quickly expanded the bridgehead, penetrating into the western, northern and eastern districts of the city. By then German opposition was rapidly dying down and only light resistance was encountered. In the sector of the 10th Regiment, the 3rd Battalion cleared the area from Mainzer Landstrasse north-east to Grüneburg-Platz, which they reached by 0800 on the 29th. Company K crossed the Nidda river, which

Left: With Oberstleutnant Löffler and his command staff decimated by a series of direct hits on his command post in the afternoon of the 27th, the German defence of the city collapsed and the 5th Division had little trouble cleaning out the rest of the city. Here troops of the 11th Infantry move up Berger 46

Strasse, the street leading uphill and north-eastwards through the Bornheim district. Another picture by AP photographer Rollins who was looking south-west from the corner with Saalburg-Strasse. Right: Today this spot is occupied by one of the entrances to the Bornheim-Mitte U-Bahn station.

IWM AP?????

civilians no doubt thankful that the fighting for the city has finished . . . yet the war would not be over for another month.

The tram rails have been lifted and the aspect softened by the planting of trees but this is the same street today pictured at

the intersection of Berger Strasse with Rendeler Strasse (left) and Ringel-Strasse (right).

ATB

Turning around and walking a little further up the street, Rollins pictured the same troops advancing through throngs of curious

47

Right: It was only after the end of fighting on March 29 that the engineers finally succeeded in repairing the Wilhelms-Brücke. Now, at last, American tanks and vehicles could roll across and enter the main part of the city.

USNA

runs through the north-western part of Frankfurt, and captured the tram bridge intact. By noon the battalion had passed through the city and companies were occupying the northern suburbs. The 2nd Battalion, striking out northwards from positions along the Main at 1300 hours on the 28th, by evening had reached the line of Bockenheimer Landstrasse. The following day at 0730 they moved on through Bockenheim to clear the northern suburb of Ginnheim. The 1st Battalion, having finished its crossing at 2050 hours on the 28th, moved to the area north-west of the station. Then clearing the western portion of the city practically unopposed, it secured two additional bridges over the Nidda. The three battalions of the 2nd Infantry advanced northwards, mopping up the districts of Eschersheim, Preungesheim and Seckbach. The two battalions of the 11th Infantry moved eastwards, clearing the districts of Osthafen and Bornheim. By the

ATB

Right: The original buildings on the north bank are today dwarfed by the modern skyscraper built next to it. Photo taken from the corner of Schaumainkai.

IfS FRANKFURT

evening of March 29 all of Frankfurt with its suburbs had been cleaned out and mopped up. The battle for Frankfurt was over. It had cost the Americans about 150 men killed. The Germans had suffered considerably more casualties. Immediately after the end of fighting, US Military Government Detachment F2D2 moved in to take over administration of the city, Lieutenant Colonel Howard D. Criswell becoming Military Governor with headquarters at No. 25 Bockenheimer Landstrasse. Even before he arrived, the Americans had already removed Nazi burgomaster Krebs from office. On March 28, while fighting was still going on in the city, Lieutenant Colonel William H. Blakefield, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry, had summoned Krebs to report to his command post, which had been set up in the building of the Metallgesellschaft on Reuterweg, to discuss the first administrative measures. When Krebs failed to show up, Blakefield relieved him from office. Two days later, Lieutenant Colonel Criswell appointed Wilhelm Hollbach, a local journalist, as the provisional new burgomaster of Frankfurt. Although Hollbach performed well, he would be replaced by Dr. Kurt Blaum on July 4. The 5th Division remained in Frankfurt as garrison force for a number of days, until April 5. The troops patrolled the city, guarded essential installations and maintained law and order. Although the city was in ruins from the bombing and fighting and the non-fraternisation rule was in effect, the soldiers welcomed the short respite from combat, having been in the line non-stop since the previous November.

ATB

Centre: With traffic across the river restored, Jeeps roll across the KaiserPlatz in the centre of town. Turning into Friedens-Strasse, they are about to pass the ruins of the Frankfurter Hof Hotel (the colonnade on the left). Left: Repaired and rebuilt, the hotel is still one of the city’s finest hotels albeit now under the name Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof. The fountain on the traffic island has been moved to the right. 48

USNA

ruins, and across the river is the Sachsenhausen district. The two destroyed bridges are the Obermain-Brücke (left) — renamed the Ignatz-Bubis-Brücke in 2000 — and the Alte Brücke (right).

Left: A 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun has been set up in front of the Opera House on Opern-Platz. Note the Red Cross flag still flying from the building indicating that this was a German Hauptverbandplatz (main dressing station) during the battle. It was here that Oberstleutnant Löffler and Generalmajor

Stemmermann were taken after they had been grievously wounded by shell-fire on their command post on nearby Taunusanlage. Right: An easy landmark to match up, the southern façade of the Alte Oper was being restored when Karel took his comparison in March 2010.

ATB

IWM EA60596

Frankfurt devastated by Allied bombing, pictured looking south from the air on March 31, 1945. At bottom is the centre of the Altstadt (Old Town) with the Kaiserdom cathedral rising among the

49

ATB

IWM EA61004

the name board at centre) in Frankfurt’s pre-war city directory. This pointed to a shop in Alte Rothof-Strasse and, although it was not the correct location, it brought him close to the right spot which turned out to be just around he corner. He stumbled upon it as he came walking back from the Opera House.

Left: Having captured the city, the Allies were also in a position to inspect the effect of their strategic bombing. Here an American soldier stands amid the ruins of the Adler-Werke, one of Germany’s largest producers of half-track vehicles. The factory had been bombed by the RAF on the night of March 22/23, 1944, by the US Eighth Air Force on March 24, and again by the RAF on September 12/13. With many of its branches evacuated elsewhere after the March attacks, production at the factory suffered from a lack of labour. To make up for it, from August 1944 to March 1945 the plant employed a force of some 1,100 slave workers from Buchenwald, Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps, who were

housed in an on-site camp known as KZ Frankfurt/AdlerWerke or under the cover name KZ ‘Katzbach’. This was a satellite camp of Natzweiler and in the eight months of its existence at least 227 of its inmates died from hard labour, starvation, maltreatment and Allied bomb attacks, with many more frail and crippled ones being shipped off to Vaihingen camp to die there. The some 900 surviving prisoners were finally evacuated to other camps in March 1945, the last 400 on the 24th — just two days before the arrival of the Americans. Right: The Adler plant still stands between KleyerStrasse and Weilburger Strasse in the Gallusviertel industrial district immediately west of the Hauptbahnhof.

ATB

IWM EA60899

Left: Close to the Opera House, a long line of civilians queue up outside a building on bomb-damaged Goethe-Strasse in the city centre. The two Jeeps belong to the US Army magazine The Stars and Stripes. Right: The wartime caption did not identify the street but Karel found it by looking up Stempel-Eck (seen on

50

conglomerate, and was designed by architect Hans Poelzig. Built in 1928-31, the massive complex — at that time the largest office building in Europe — had served as the company’s main headquarters until the American capture of the city. SHAEF moved in on May 26, transferring here from Versailles and Reims in France (see After the Battle No. 48).

IWM BU7731

A sequel of the battle for Frankfurt came two months later when the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) under General Dwight D. Eisenhower took over the IG Farben building on Grüneburg-Platz in the Westend district to serve as its main headquarters in Germany. The building had been commissioned by the IG Farben chemical industry

WERNER LOTT

Above: On June 10, Eisenhower received British Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgi Zhukov and other top Allied commanders at his new command post to celebrate Allied victory. Here they are walking up the steps of the Kasino building at the rear of the complex. Right: With SHAEF being dissolved on July 14, 1945, the building became the seat of American Military Government in Germany which occupied it until 1949, when it became the office of the US High Commissioner for Germany. From 1952 until 1992 it served as the headquarters of the US V Corps (which together with the VII Corps represented the US Army’s presence in Europe) and of the Northern Area Command, being renamed the General Creighton W. Abrams Building by the Americans in 1975. Returned to the German Federal Government in 1995, it was sold to the State of Hesse the following year. Today it is used by Frankfurt’s Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and by the Fritz Bauer Institute, the latter being the main holocaust research centre in Germany. It was renamed the Poelzig-Bau in 2009. 51

‘When I watched Gun Law in the 1950s on our tiny black and white television’, writes Winston, our Editor-in-Chief, ‘never could I have imagined that half a century later I would be putting together an obituary to my screen hero. I had written to James Arness for a signed photo which I still have framed on my wall. Years later when watching an old episode of Gunsmoke on DVD, the series looked dated but at the time we were captivated by the adventures in Dodge City.’ At the end of the war, Arness and his long-time friend Dick Bremicker left Minnesota to head out west to California. They were two ex-servicemen looking for work. A fortunate meeting with David O. Selznick, the boss of RKO Pictures, led to a screen test and a part in The Farmer’s Daughter as one of Loretta Young’s brothers, the film being released in September 1946. When Arness followed this with the part of a minister in a George Bernard Shaw play Candida, he ended up marrying his stage wife Virginia Chapman in 1948. A small part followed in a Warner Brothers western Whiplash (1948) and then MGM’s story of the Battle of the Bulge in Battleground (1949). Another western which came his way was Wagonmaster (1950) and the same year Sierra with Audie Murphy (see After the Battle No. 3), a former member of the 3rd Infantry Division in which Arness had seen service in Italy. Matt Dillon, your Editor-in-Chief’s boyhood hero, is dead. For 20 years from 1955 to 1975, to many millions of fans James Arness was Matt Dillon, the heroic marshal of Dodge City in Gunsmoke (the name was changed to Gun Law for contractural reasons when screened in Britain). The series began in the States in 1952 as a radio programme featuring William Conrad and it went on to make 635 episodes on television, making Arness a household name on both sides of the Atlantic. Arness was an extremely private person, much more so than his younger brother Peter Graves, the star of the equally popular Mission Impossible, so few viewers realised at the time that he had been invalided out of the US Army having been wounded at Anzio.

JAMES ARNESS: 1923-2011 In 1951 John Wayne asked Arness to join the cast of his next film Big Jim McLain about a communist cell operating in Hawaii and one scene (right) was filmed at the sunken battleship Arizona. The later memorial had not been built — then there was just a crude quarterdeck and flagpole. When CBS offered him the part of Marshal Matt Dillon in a Western series to be made for television, Arness hesitated in case it stopped him getting back into films. That’s when he got a call from Wayne: ‘He asked me to come over and see him. Duke had been in contact with CBS, and he strongly suggested that I take the part. He said, the series was going to be a tremendous break for me. “You know,” he said, “I started out doing little acting parts like you’ve been doing, and it took me a long time to get noticed and begin getting roles that meant something. If you do this you’ll get a tremendous amount of experience, and most importantly, you’ll learn how to work in front of a camera.” At this point I was thinking, my God, here’s this guy who’s been great to me, someone I’ve always thought the world of, telling me I ought to do this. I decided the hell with it, I’ll do it!’ 52

Pictured at the family home in Minneapolis. L-R: Peter, father Rolf who served in the cavalry in WWI; mother Ruth, and James. Born James King Aurness (he later dropped the ‘u’) on May 26, 1923, his father of Norwegian descent was a cavalry officer during the First World War. He taught James everything he knew about hunting and bought him his first .22 rifle when he was 11 years old. As soon as he was old enough, he expressed a wish to join the Naval Air Force to become a fighter pilot having watched the planes taking off and landing at the nearby Wold Chamberlin airfield at Minneapolis. However at his interview he was rejected, both for not having had two years at college with a high grade, but also because at 6ft 7ins he was too tall! Still determined to enlist without waiting for his call-up papers to arrive, he wrote to the draft board asking them to expedite his enlistment. This produced a quick response and he was ordered to report to the US Army at Fort Snelling on March 23, 1943. Basic training followed at the huge Wheeler camp in Georgia. Arness later wrote that ’I got through everything like gangbusters. I was stoked up by our routine and had a blast. The regimentation and discipline demanded by the instructors was fun. And being a part of a whole group of guys gave me a great feeling, something I hadn’t experienced much before. During my childhood I’d only had a few friends at a time, but now I was part of a group. It gave me a new sense of worth and belonging; those were happy days for me.’ At the end of the 13-week basic induction he was told that the army would like him to stay on as a member of the training staff with the rank of corporal, but Arness had other ideas. He said that his instructor ‘looked at me like I was some kind of nut. I’m sure he was thinking this kid didn’t know what was ahead of him’. After a brief leave he travelled by train to Fort Meade, Maryland, which was the collecting point for all those heading overseas. From there it was to Newport News, Virginia, to cross the Atlantic. Arriving at

Private James Arness — a picture taken in 1945 after he had been invalided back to the United States.

Casablanca in French Morocco, the newlyarrived replacement troops were moved on by rail to Oran in Algeria where vessels were waiting to take them to Naples in Italy. It was now December 1943, the city having been captured some two months previously. ‘I’d been assigned to the 2nd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment (the ‘Cotton Balers’) of the 3rd Infantry Division. We were loaded aboard a convoy of trucks and were taken northward, and next morning we were told that we were situated on a hillside above the town of San Pietro (see After the Battle No. 18). We were told that we

would be joining the front line troops at Cassino but first we would have to ford the Volturno River to gain experience out of harm’s way. One day we came upon a German soldier’s body and his remains were in an advanced state of decay. It was our first experience of this kind and it made a deep impression on all of us. It certainly brought home what lay ahead. A few days later some American bodies strapped to mules were brought down from the mountain and the images of these dead men lingered with me for some time. My enthusiasm for adventure was waning rapidly.’

Arness describes how the reality of war soon came home to him when he reached the battlefield at Anzio. Here Graves Registration personnel unload the body of a dead Ranger. 53

After returning to Naples, the unit undertook amphibious assault training on the island of Capri and at Salerno in preparation for the landings at Anzio (see After the Battle No. 52). The 3rd Division was to land on Red Beach at Nettuno and, because of his height, Arness was singled out to be first off the ramp to test the depth of the water! At the same time the squad sergeant handed him two packages. ‘What’s in them?’ he asked. ‘Oh, just some TNT charges for blowing bridges! ’We were ordered to start moving inland immediately but just before leaving the beach two guys, part of a demolition team, fortunately relieved me of the TNT.’ On January 20, Major General John P. Lucas, the commander of the US VI Corps, ordered an attack on Cisterna using three Ranger battalions and Arness recalled watching as hundreds of the elite soldiers filtered through their lines with only a handful returning safely.

Private Arness was a member of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division. On February 2, 1944, the 2nd Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion, which had been severely reduced in strength, to successfully repulse a German counter-attack in the attempt to capture Cisterna. Aggressive patrolling and improving defensive preparations led to the capture of some 50 prisoners. Although this photo ideally illustrates this event, and shows GIs of the 7th Infantry, the photo is dated four months later. On the night of February 1, 1944, Arness was point man on a night patrol. ‘I was probable 40 to 50 feet ahead of my squad, picking my way since I couldn’t see ahead of me. We were under strict orders not to speak as we crept along but as I was walking through a small vineyard I heard voices 50 feet ahead of me. In what seemed like seconds later, a gutteral voice yelled and enemy fire burst out in front of me. I’d walked right into a German machine gun nest. I was hit in the right leg but was able to leap over a row of vines out of the line of fire. Then I fell to the ground in excruciating pain; it felt like the bones on my lower leg had been shot all to hell.’

When the wound suffered by Arness on February 1 was deemed serious, he was first taken to the 95th Evacuation Hospital just behind the beach from where he was shipped aboard an LST to a British hospital ship. From Naples, the wounded were flown to 54

The German position was overrun and Arness was stretchered out to the tented 95th Evacuation Hospital that was situated just behind the beach. When his wound was examined his leg bones were found to be severely splintered and the injury was declared Grade ZI (Zone of Interior) meaning evacuation and eventual shipment back to the States. Meanwhile the leg was set in plaster but Arness explained that by the time he got back to the US, blood had soaked through the cast and he smelled terrible. When the plaster was cut off it was found that he had contracted osteomyelitis. ‘The doctor said that I was extremely fortu-

Bizerte in Tunisia and then by rail to Algeria. After reaching Charleston, South Carolina, he was then sent to the Schick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa and later to Camp Carson in Colorado for rehabilitation. He finally arrived home in January 1945.

James with brother Peter at home for rest and recuperation. Peter had served for two years in the US Army Air Force before studying drama and following James to Hollywood where he changed his name to Graves — the surname of his maternal grandfather — to avoid any confusion. Apart from a career spanning nearly 60 years in a multitude of films, television shows, and as a presenter and narrator, Peter’s most memorable role was undoubtedly as Jim Phelps in Mission Impossible which ran from 1967 to 1973. Peter Graves died on March 14, 2010 aged 83.

James Arness as we all remember him. He recalled in his autobiography that ‘little did we know then that Gunsmoke would become the longest-running series in TV history. CBS had wanted a smoking gun as the opening scene, but Charles Marquis Warren, the lead producer and director, insisted that Matt stand on Boot Hill overlooking Dodge while making a few philosophical comments about the challenges he faced. This opener stayed on the air for the first several years. Later the writers changed it to a shoot-out on Main Street between Matt and a faceless man-in-black.’

nate not to lose the leg and cautioned me that as I got older, it might cause me other problems. He more or less forecast the future. As my right leg had shrunk to half the size of the other and was 5/8th of an inch shorter, I walked with a limp for the first two years and had to have several operations in later life.’ James Arness was officially discharged from the army on January 29, 1945, his medals and uniform disappearing over the years. However, in January 2000, Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera travelled to Los Angeles to present him with a duplicate set: ‘It is my great pleasure to stand before you today, after almost 55 years, to award you the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal and Bronze Star . . . Mr Arness, from your service in uniform during our nation’s time of need through your storied journey entertaining countless American families, you have stood as a proud representative . . . It is my pleasure to present you these awards for your distinguished military service to our nation.’ So surely there is no other way to end this story but with Matt Dillon on Boot Hill. Aged 88, James Arness died on June 3, 2011, his final words being: ‘I wanted to take the time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke’. His funeral was private for family only and Mrs Janet Arness has specifically asked us not to reveal her husband’s final resting place although the information is freely available on the internet. However, we can reveal that he is remembered under his birth name of James Aurness. 55