CHAPTER 28 – OPERATION BACKSTABBER
21:46 (GMT)
Tuesday, May 13, 1941
Chatham naval base
Private George Lewis stuck his head out of one of the troop hatches of his 25-ton Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or IFV in short, and stared at the rows of hovercrafts visible in the moonlight and waiting for his comrades and their vehicles to be loaded aboard.
“My god! It looks like an invasion from Mars.”
“Yeah,” replied his friend, Corporal Peter Jones, “but we’re the ones that are going to do the invading. Isn’t that a nice change of scenario for you?”
“Sure is!”
They watched as an officer equipped with a loudspeaker sorted out which vehicles went in which hovercraft. Their turn soon came.
“Force Six, get in the hovercrafts numbered 195 to 219, in the last row to your right.”
Lewis’ WOLVERINE IFV followed the eighteen CHARGER main battle tanks, seventeen other WOLVERINES IFVs and six Bedford QL 3-ton trucks of their column towards the 24 hovercrafts assigned to Force Six. The rear loading ramps were already down, with Royal Navy ground guides waiting besides each hovercraft to help the loading. Lewis’ IFV was paired with one of the tanks before it rolled up the ramp of one hovercraft and stopped in the large cargo bay, the tank following them inside. Lieutenant Ralph Smith, Lewis’ platoon commander, then ordered everybody out of the hovercraft, assembling his men and the tankers supporting his platoon near the stern ramp of his hovercraft.
“Alright, men, it should take a couple more hours before the force is ready to depart. The force commander should be around soon to brief all of you on our mission. Stay close to your assigned hovercrafts. If you need to relieve yourselves, ask one of the sailors to show you where the latrines are on your hovercraft. Now, try to relax as much as possible in the meantime.”
“Sir,” shouted Lewis, “could you at least tell us now where we are going?”
“The force commander will tell you everything, Private. Just be patient.”
As the British were settling in for some waiting, they saw a long column of American-made trucks approach their group of hovercrafts. Each truck had the letters FFL and the Cross of Lorraine painted on their doors, while the troops riding the trucks wore the distinctive helmets of the French Army.
“Free French, on this operation?” Exclaimed Corporal Jones. “What for?”
“Beats me!” Replied George Lewis. “The six last hovercrafts are still empty: they must have been reserved for these frogs.”
The jeep leading the column of trucks stopped besides their hovercraft long enough for a tall woman in battledress and full combat gear to jump out. As the jeep sped towards one of the empty hovercrafts, the woman, wearing assault armor like the Welsh Guardsmen, walked to Lieutenant Smith, who saluted her crisply.
“The men are ready to be briefed, Colonel.”
“Excellent! Have them assemble around me.”
“Bloody hell!” Swore Lewis quietly to Jones. “We are going to be commanded by Colonel Laplante? Then we can expect one crazy mission.”
“Right you are, mate.”
With Major John Brannigan, the company commander, hurrying his 193 men and the 72 tankers supporting them, it took less than a minute to gather everyone in a semi-circle around Nancy Laplante. The British were then surrounded by about 500 french soldiers, with a few polish and Dutch officers mixed with them. Lewis glanced quickly at a nearby Frenchman, noticing the shoulder patches on his battledress.
“Infanterie de marine? Sounds like our own Royal Marines.”
Nancy Laplante then started speaking, cutting short his thoughts.
“Good evening to all! I’m Colonel Nancy Laplante and I will be commanding Force Six. Up to now, we have kept secret our mission from you, for a good reason: if the Germans are actually waiting for us on the objective, then we will all die today. Surprise will be of the utmost importance for this operation. Your officers have already been briefed in detail, so I will only need to tell you the main outlines of this mission. Before I do that, though, I will quickly translate what I just said to our French allies.”
Laplante then spoke for a while in French before switching back to English.
“As you can all see, this will be a combined multinational operation. We will be provided both air and sea support all the way to our objective. In turn, the other forces that are also part of this operation will strike five other major objectives. If we succeed in our respective missions, the Germans will be dealt a severe blow indeed. Some may ask why we have French troops with us tonight. Well, once you see what is our objective, you will quickly understand why.”
Two junior officers then brought up a light map board on which a map and a number of air photos were pinned, with one of the officers then holding a flashlight to illuminate the board. Lewis opened his mouth wide in stunned surprise as Laplante explained their mission and described the objective. In turn, the French soldiers around him became enthusiastic when she translated her briefing for their benefit. Once the briefing was over, the soldiers started to disperse to relax a bit before departure. Lewis and Jones didn’t have time to walk away, though: Lieutenant Smith signaled them to join him and Laplante near the hovercraft. A bit apprehensive, the two guardsmen walked to the two officers and saluted crisply. After returning their salute, Laplante smiled to them.
“Corporal Jones, Private Lewis, you have been assigned to me as my personal bodyguards for this operation. Lieutenant Smith here says that you are two of his best men.”
The guardsmen puffed their chests with pride at those words. Besides, many of the men of the regiment would have fought to get to be close to such an attractive woman.
“We will do our best, Colonel.” Shouted Jones.
“I’m sure you will, Corporal. I will ask only two things from both of you: follow me everywhere and don’t let the Germans capture me alive. If you see that I am about to be taken and that I ask you to, then you will have to kill me.”
“Maam?” Said Jones, shocked.
“You heard me, Corporal. If the Germans will capture me, they will torture me slowly to death, whether I answer their questions or not. If I ask you to, kill me without hesitation.”
“Er, yes maam!”
“Good! From now on, stay with me and cover my flanks.”
At precisely eleven O’clock, all the soldiers were told to get on board their respective hovercraft. The hovercrafts started their engines soon afterwards and lined up one behind the other to go down the boat ramp. At 23:20 hours, 57 LCMACs formed up on the waters of the Thames Estuary, escorted by eleven surface effect ships, and headed East. The other forces of Operation BACKSTABBER, dispersed between four other bases, followed according to a precise schedule. All around Great Britain, hundreds of bombers and fighter-bombers were getting ready to support the 214 LCMACs, 31 surface effect ships and seven regiments of guardsmen now on their way.
05:12 (GMT)
Wednesday, May 14, 1941
North Sea
“WAKE UP, RISE AND SHINE!”
The yells of the Welsh Guards sergeant got the sleepy soldiers out of the stretchers hooked up alongside the bulkheads of the hovercraft’s vehicle deck. Storing the stretchers away, the guardsmen then lined up at the service counter of the tiny galley for a cup of hot coffee and a bowl of porridge. They were not a little surprised to find themselves served by none other than Colonel Laplante.
“Call it a little comfort before battle, guys.” She said while pouring hot coffee and serving porridge. Lewis and Jones got their portions, then sat in some of the jump seats lining the bulkheads. A Polish major soon sat next to them, followed by a Dutch captain. The guardsmen knew that both officers were acting as liaison officers and were here because of their language skills. Every one of them ate in silence, their mission on their minds and feeling stress build up progressively as they got nearer to the coast of Germany. Ten minutes after finishing their breakfasts, the noise of multiple explosions made the guardsmen jump nervously. Laplante’s voice came on immediately on the deck’s loudspeaker.
“Do not worry: these are our flotilla’s guns firing on Hamburg’s port installations and defenses. You will also soon hear our bombers doing some work ahead of us. Get to your vehicles and be ready for combat.”
“Hamburg!” Said Lewis to Jones. “I never thought that we would find ourselves in the heart of Germany so soon in this war.”
Climbing inside their IFV, they sat besides Major Konrad Terleki and Captain Pieter Lunds and watched Laplante as she came in through the commander’s hatch. The Canadian smiled to them and gave a thumbs up signal.
“So far so good, gentlemen: the other forces are now at their respective objectives and have achieved complete surprise. Everything is going according to plan. We should be at our own objective in about half an hour.”
“Do you know how many of my compatriots we could find there, Colonel?” Asked Terleki. Laplante’s face became grave as she answered.
“A few hundreds, maybe two or three thousands, Major. Some of them will be women and most of them will be in very poor physical shape. I will need you to get them moving towards the hovercrafts without delay once the guards are taken care of. We won’t have the time to celebrate over there, as various German units may react to us quickly and we are deep inside enemy territory.”
Terleki nodded in comprehension.
“I realize that, Colonel. Thanks for including Neuengamme in your operation.”
“That’s nothing, Major. There are so many other places I would have loved to raid, starting with Ravensbruck. The thoughts of what is happening there every day is like a nightmare to me.”
“What is this Ravensbruck, Colonel?” Asked the Dutch captain. Jones and Lewis listened discreetly as Laplante answered with a haunted look on her face.
“Women’s hell on earth, Captain. It is a concentration camp reserved exclusively for female prisoners. Political dissidents, resistance members, Jews, ethnic minorities and others deemed enemies of the Nazis are sent there. Starvation diets, overwork, beatings, tortures and executions will kill close to 100,000 of the inmates who will go through Ravensbruck during this war. There is one point you and Major Terleki must know: the Germans use inmates to help discipline the other prisoners in their concentration camps. They generally use common criminals or others ready to do anything to get a better treatment and then put them in charge of a barrack. These blockowas and stupowas, as they are commonly nicknamed, are to be treated like the Germans and segregated from the other camp inmates.”
“It will be done, Colonel.” Said Lunds firmly. “Anyone who collaborates with the Nazis will eventually pay the price for it.”
“Alright then! Let’s review the operation one last time.”
Twenty minutes later, the cargo deck loudspeaker came alive, making everybody look up.
“OBJECTIVE IN SIGHT! LANDING IN ONE MINUTE!”
Nancy stuck her torso out of her hatch and connected her helmet’s integrated headset to the IFV’s radio set, then activated her microphone.
“All call signs Six, this is Six Niner! Bingo in one minute! Acknowledge, over!”
Her four subordinate commanders answered in turn. Nancy confirmed reception, then shouted to the crew of the tank behind her IFV.
“LOAD H.E.-FRAG! THE GUARD TOWERS ARE YOUR FIRST OBJECTIVES, THEN THE GUARDS BARRACKS! GOOD LUCK!”
06:04 (Berlin Time)
Neuengamme concentration camp
25 km Southeast of Hamburg
The German SS Totenkopf soldier manning the northwest guard tower of the Neuengamme concentration camp was the first to spot the incoming British hovercrafts. He at first looked upwards on hearing their engines, thinking with dread that another bomber raid would soon follow the one that had just pounded to bits a nearby refinery. Seeing nothing in the sky and looking to the Northwest, where the noise was coming from, he saw a long line of the strangest machines he had ever seen, approaching fast on the nearby Elbe River. Grabbing his binoculars, the German examined for a few seconds the incoming craft, swearing out loud on seeing the British flag flying from the mast of the first hovercraft. Grabbing his field telephone, he frantically cranked it and shouted in it as soon as his Scharfuhrer{16} answered.
“The British are coming! I see about two dozens fast boats approaching on the Elbe, coming from Hamburg.”
“Sure, Finkel!” Replied the clearly skeptical NCO. “I suppose that the port defenses in Hamburg let them pass after making them pay a toll fee? Don’t you have better things to do than to disturb me with such nonsense?”
“But… these boats are flying the British flag.”
“Listen, Finkel! You keep on like this and I …”
The shrieking noise of a shell flying by was followed by an explosion, which blew a large hole in the top floor of the guards barrack block. Dozens more shells followed in quick order as the British craft opened fire on the camp, concentrating their aim on the part occupied by the guard force. Shaking from fear, Finkel saw with amazement the British craft leave the water, seemingly jumping over the low bank of the Elbe and continuing to race towards the camp at speeds of at least sixty kilometers per hour. Grabbing his machine gun, Finkel was transferring it to the northwest side of his guard tower when a hail of 20mm cannon fire from the leading craft cut him down.
Nancy patted the shoulder of her IFV driver as soon as the bow ramp went down.
“Go for the camp’s main gate!”
The driver gunned his engine and raced down the bow ramp, closely followed by the tank assigned to support their IFV. Nancy shouted more orders in the radio as they rushed towards the barbed wire gate of the concentration camp.
“This is Six niner! Call signs Six One and Six Two will clear the guards’ barracks now. Call signs Six Three and Six Four will follow me inside the prisoners compound. Out!”
Fourteen tanks and fourteen IFVs formed up in assault line as soon as they left their hovercraft, rushing towards the brick buildings used by the German guards and the camp administration. The 23 trucks carrying the French naval infantry and the six empty trucks meant to help evacuate the sick and wounded followed Nancy’s eight armored vehicles as best they could on the marshy terrain between the Elbe River and the camp. The 4-inch guns and 20mm cannons of the 24 hovercrafts kept a steady fire in the meantime, raking the guards barracks from end to end. Nancy’s IFV didn’t slow down as it crashed through the camp’s main gate and crossed the large empty surface used for prisoners callouts. The tank following her stopped in the middle of the parade grounds and fired two 3.75-inch shells in quick succession, blowing up the two guard towers still intact, from which some machinegun fire was coming. The French infantry dismounted right in front of the wooden barracks housing the prisoners and immediately entered them, looking for any German guards. Nancy, followed by her bodyguards, Major Terleki and Captain Lunds, was actually the first to enter a prisoners barrack block. What they saw inside appalled them. Over 600 men, skinny and wearing rags, filled the stinking barrack.
“STAY DOWN! WAIT FOR THE ORDER TO MOVE OUT!” Shouted Nancy in French, with Terleki and Lunds repeating her instructions in Polish and Dutch respectively. Running down the rows of triple bunk beds, Nancy went to the other end of the block, searching for Germans. Finding none, she ran out of the block and into the next one, which was set somewhat apart from the others. That one turned out to be full of women, all of them already lying down on the floor. Her suspicions raised, Nancy scanned the block quickly, just in time to see a fleeting silhouette in gray uniform disappear in a doorway at the other end.
“Major, stay here with Captain Lunds! Jones, Lewis, with me!”
She had a hard time running down the length of the barrack, so packed was the floor with fearful prisoners. One of the inmates stretched out one arm, pleading as Nancy ran by her.
“I’m British! Please take me out of here.”
Nancy braked, hesitant, then pointed the woman to Lewis.
“Private, stay with her and get some info on her. Me and Jones will chase that German down.”
Jones at her back, Nancy stopped besides the doorway where the German had disappeared and gave a quick look inside. A pistol shot greeted her, with the bullet whistling by her head. Lowering her armored faceplate first, Nancy then jumped inside what was the latrine and washing area of the barrack block, her rifle at the ready. A lone German tried to line up his pistol on her but she beat him to it. A short burst cut down the SS guard, who fell over the line of latrine seats, dead. That made Nancy smile.
“A fine place to die for that piece of shit.”
Her remark made Jones laugh.
“Colonel, you talk like a real guardsman.”
“No point in being polite in combat, Corporal. Let me just do a quick check by radio.”
She activated her backpack radio, using her helmet microphone.
“All call signs Six, this is Six Niner: give me a short situation report, over!”
“Six One, the guards barracks are about leveled now. Resistance is down to a few isolated Germans. No losses to my unit yet, over.”
“Six Two, we just took what seems to have been the camp’s punishment block and have freed twelve inmates in very bad shape, apart from capturing four Germans. I have one man seriously wounded, over.”
“Six Three, all the inmate barracks have been secured. Request permission to start loading the inmates in the hovercrafts, over.”
“Six Three, from Six Niner, you may proceed now. Have Six Four help you with that, out.”
Nancy then returned to the main room and knelt besides the British woman that Lewis was protecting. A dozen French soldiers had also entered the block and were being cheered by the inmates.
“How do you feel, miss?”
“Weak but happy, Colonel. My name is Janet Harlow and I worked for the Special Operations Executive as a clandestine radio operator. I was captured in France six months ago. I…”
“Take your time, Janet.” Said softly Nancy, seeing that the young woman was having a hard time recounting her past nightmares. Choking back her tears, the British went on.
“The Gestapo tortured me, then sent me here with the promise that I would die here, slowly. You can’t imagine how wonderful it was to see you and the other soldiers.”
Harlow then broke down and started crying. Nancy gently hugged her, herself close to tears: to free such a camp had been a longtime dream for her. This alone made her exile in the past worthwhile. She then helped Harlow to her feet and shouted in French at the soldiers present.
“Help these women towards the hovercrafts. Be careful: they are very weak.”
“What will you do with the German guards, Colonel?” Asked Harlow as Nancy supported her while walking out of the barrack block. That made Nancy hesitate: the laws of war would dictate that the guards were entitled to a trial, even though they were all probably guilty of atrocities against the inmates. Seeing the emaciated state of the women around her was however tempting Nancy into having the guards shot on the spot. One of the four military press correspondents accompanying her force then approached and started taking pictures of the ex-inmates and of their liberators. He took five pictures of Nancy and Janet before running towards another group of women. Only then did Nancy answer Janet in a low voice.
“I know that they deserve much less, Janet, but I intend to bring them to Great Britain, where they will be tried for war crimes. I promise you that you will have a chance to testify against them, like all the other ex-prisoners here.”
Janet didn’t reply to that, too weak to do much more than simply walk towards the row of hovercrafts, which had closed in on the camp and were now parked less than a hundred yards from the main gate. Janet looked with awe at the big machines.
“What are those things, Colonel?”
“They are called hovercrafts, Janet. Over 200 of them are involved today in coordinated raids against a total of six targets inside Germany.”
“Payback, at last!”
As they were passing by a long line of female ex-inmates, they saw a French soldier suddenly start running towards a small brunette.
“Claudette! Mon dieu, Claudette!”
“Maxime?” Said the teenager, disbelief in her voice. She then ran to meet the soldier, hugging him tearfully. Putting Private Lewis in charge of escorting Janet Harlow to the nearest hovercraft, Nancy approached the French couple and waited for them to part before smiling and speaking to them in French.
“You two know each other?”
The soldier answered her, choking off tears while holding the girl’s hands.
“Claudette is my sister, Colonel. This must be the nicest day of my life. I can’t thank God enough for this.”
Nancy had to turn away as tears came to her own eyes. A radio call then echoed in her headset.
“Six Niner, this is Six Two. We have found about a dozen small children that were held near the camp’s infirmary. Some of them seem to be pretty sick. I will need a medical team from callsign six four, over.”
Something she had seen on the Internet in the year 2006 then flashed back in Nancy’s mind.
“Six Two, be careful when handling those children. I believe that the camp doctor injected them with tuberculosis as part of some sick medical experiments. Cover your mouth and nose and keep them away from the other inmates, over.”
There was a marked pause on the radio.
“Six Two understood! We have taken the camp doctor and his two nurses as well. What should I do with them?”
It was obvious from the tone of Major Brannigan that he would have liked to simply shoot the said doctor on the spot. Nancy was furiously tempted to tell him to do just that. She however knew that such an order would be an illegal one.
“Six Two, just throw them in an hovercraft and keep them under tight guard. They will be judged in England. Six Niner, out to you. Six Four, send a medical team to the location of Six Two, over.”
“Six Four, I copy, out!”
“Six Niner, this is Six Zulu, urgent message, over!”
Nancy frowned: Six Zulu was the call sign of the lead hovercraft of her flotilla. It was probably relaying a message from one of the other forces or even from Great Britain.
“Six Niner listening, over.”
“Six Zulu, from Five Niner: call sign Five is under heavy attack from what looks like a Waffen SS regiment and is in danger of being overrun. They need reinforcements urgently, over.”
“Six Zulu, tell Five Niner that I’m on my way and will be in his location in half an hour, out. Six One and Six Two, did you copy the last transmission, over?”
“Six One, affirmative.”
“Six Two, affirmative.”
“Six One, send your callsign Six One Delta to my location near the main gate. Six Two, join me as well with your whole sub-unit as soon as Six Three will relieve you. Six Three, send immediately your callsign Alpha to relieve Six Two. I will also need Six Three Niner at my location now for a snap orders group. All call signs, acknowledge, over!”
Every one of her sub-units answered back promptly. As she waited for the designated elements to join her, she signaled her IFV and its support tank to get near her. They arrived besides her at the same time as Commandant Charles Grondin’s jeep. The tall French naval infantry officer jumped out of his jeep and ran to her, then saluted.
“Trouble in Hamburg, Colonel?”
“It seems so, Commandant. I will leave you with most of our tanks in support, so that you can finish the job here. I want all the ex-inmates and our men and vehicles loaded up and gone out of here in less than an hour. I will leave by road with one tank troop and our mechanized company to go help Force Five. We will meet back in Hamburg. Do you have any questions?”
“None, Colonel! I will wrap up things here as quickly as possible.”
“Good! You are in charge of this location as soon as I’m gone, Commandant.”
Nancy then climbed on her IFV and took place in the commander’s hatch. Four tanks and seventeen IFVs soon joined her two armored vehicles. She then gave the signal to move and sped away with her mechanized force. After a last look at her, Grondin returned to his jeep and jumped in.
“She certainly knows her job… for a woman.” He said to his driver before having him head towards the men of his first company.
06:53 (Berlin Time)
South suburbs of Hamburg, Germany
Nancy’s mechanized column had to cut somewhat its breakneck speed as it left the main highway and started to follow the city’s streets towards the Blohm & Voss submarine construction yards, the objective of Force Five. By now, Colonel Winters, commander of Force Five, had given her by radio a detailed report of his situation: he was pinned down along the docks and the submarine launching bays of the yard by a large German infantry force positioned within the unfinished submarine hulls and construction equipment. The cluttered grounds of the yard were preventing Winters from fully using his own tanks. However, his tanks had in turn been the only thing stopping the overwhelming German force from swamping him. What Winters needed and had requested from Nancy was to have an infantry force enter the yards and take the Germans by surprise from the rear. Nancy knew that she was going to be heavily outnumbered during a close quarter fight but had no choice. If she didn’t succeed in stopping the Germans, Force Five could be wiped out entirely, something that could also prevent her own force from going back down the Elbe River through Hamburg on its way to the open sea and Great Britain. She gloomily thought that she was probably going to suffer heavy casualties in the next hours, something she dreaded.
Having made her mind on an attack plan, Nancy activated her radio microphone.
“Six Two, this is Six Niner. Six Two Alpha, along with Six One Delta, will go up on Alter Wall Strasse, then left along Jungfernstieg and Feld-Strasse, in order to approach the submarine yards from the Northeast. The enemy must have left their transport vehicles in that area. Six Two Alpha will destroy them and prevent any enemy retreat in that direction. The rest of us will go down Ost-West-Strasse and Reeperbahn before dismounting and entering the yards on foot. Acknowledge, over!”
Major Brannigan answered her quickly, then relayed her orders to his first platoon and the tank troop accompanying them. As they arrived at the junction with Alter Wall Strasse, Nancy had her IFV slow down and stop long enough for her to point her tanks and the four IFVs of six two alpha in the right direction. That prompted a remark on the intercom from her driver.
“You seem to know Hamburg well, Colonel.”
“I visited it a few times… after the war. Forward, driver!”
The driver scratched his head, somewhat confused, before pushing again on his accelerator pedal.
The noise of a heated battle was evident in the distance as they rolled down the nearly deserted streets. The rare civilian cars and trucks they met either assumed that they were German military vehicles or turned precipitously into side streets. At one street corner, as Nancy’s IFV slowed down to negotiate a sharp turn, they passed in front of a young boy ready to sell his bundle of newspapers. Nancy grinned to him and flashed a victory sign with two fingers, leaving the stunned boy to stare at her and the British flag flying from her vehicle’s radio antenna. As for the pedestrians and the people out on their balconies, they could only look on in disbelief and helpless rage as the British soldiers sped by while taunting them with mocking greetings. Nancy couldn’t help giggle at some of the juicier exchanges between German civilians and her soldiers. Seeing a number of wanted posters with her picture plastered on facades at a street corner, she made a point of taking off her helmet for a few seconds and combing her shoulder-length hair as a dozen civilians waiting at a bus stop looked on.
Just before arriving at the limits of the submarine yards, Nancy turned her column of fourteen IFVs up a side street and rolled for another 300 yards before turning again towards the Blohm & Voss facilities. They soon had to stop: the terrain was now too cluttered with steel structures and wood blocks for any vehicle to advance.
“Get out and follow me in single file!” Yelled Nancy over the noise of the nearby battle between the Germans and Force Five. “Make sure that you have a full ammunition load on you first.”
Herself grabbing two extra rifle magazines and two more rifle grenades, Nancy got out of her IFV and assembled her troops. She now had 128 infantrymen with her.
“Alright, listen up! We will now deploy in extended line across t