It was one of the original pair that hissed a warning, focussing the watchers on a new threat, approaching from the island side.
“Hold your fire, menschen,” hissed Schuster, immediately moving across the rear of the position to get closer to whatever it was…
“It’s a boat, Herr Maior… there… low in the water…”
The sentry held out his arm, pointing down the line of sight.
Snatching up his binoculars, Schuster strained his eyes, trying to work out what was the source of the growing engine noise.
‘What the hell?’
Shouting.
“Can you hear that?”
“Yep, Herr Maior. Don’t know what he’s saying though.”
“Weapons ready!”
The paratroopers settled themselves, waiting for the fire order.
Shouting.
“If they’re trying to make a sneak attack, then someone should tell them how to do it!”
No-one even sniggered, as minds concentrated on getting the first shot just right.
Shouting.
‘What?… what the he…’
“Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”
The tension left many a trigger finger, although more than one veteran looked at officer wondering why.
Shouting… in some unknown tongue… and in German.
“Watch them closely, menschen.”
Schuster moved off to one side and flicked his torch, sending three swift bursts of light in the direction of the approaching ‘boat’.
“Come this way, whoever you are. I warn you, no tricks.”
The schwimmwagen, Schuster recognised it as it reached the shoreline, pushed itself up and out of the water, moving forward slowly until the driver found a place that obscured him and his vehicle from the sight of the Soviets they had left behind.
The occupants were wise enough to stay silent, surrounded as they now were by tough-looking paratroopers.
“You get one chance at this, so make it good.”
Even as he spoke, Schuster noted the familiar SS camouflage and what looked like a Polish General’s uniform.
“Herr Maior, we’re all that’s left of Battalion Storch, Skorzeny’s special raiding group.”
“Your ID, Feldwebel.”
Bancke collected up the necessary from the four silent men with him, and passed it over to Schuster.
The Polish ID card drew closest examination.
“Skorzeny’s raiders eh? Where is the mighty Colonel?”
“Somewhere back there, Herr Maior. Far as we now, he never escaped. We got away after being ambushed by the NKVD, first night of the attacks. Been running ever since.”
He pointed across the water.
“And that? A diversion, I assume?”
“Yes, Herr Maior. Couple of our special friction charges were set and all we had to do was hide and wait for someone to set them off.”
Handing back the ID cards, Schuster gestured to his men, signalling a relaxation in approach.
“Well, Feldwebel, you’re all back in friendly lines now, so welcome to the fuck up that is liberated Poland.”
The tension disappeared in an instant.
Beckoning to two troopers, Schuster assigned them to cling to the vehicle and direct the escapees to the aid post, where their obvious wounds and bruises could be attended to.
Taking his leave of the readiness squad’s commander, he helped Bancke adjust the rear propeller and found a perch for himself.
Even without an overall organising force controlling Soviet resistance at the commencement of the landings, the Polish Liberation Army Group had been in trouble from the start.
The rapid organisation of Soviet resistance under Kudryashev and Rybko, combined with the excellent defence and subsequent counter-attack that Bagramyan mounted against the British Twenty-First Army Group, meant that it was still in trouble.
During the planning stage, even though the rewards for success were huge, many had considered the Pantomime operation to be too ambitious.
Some had even drawn parallels with Market-Garden, with its paradrops at considerable distance, and the narrowness of the route that the relief force would take.
The doubters were in the minority, and frayed nerves had been soothed by the fact that considerable friendly forces would already be on the ground, in the person of First Polish Army [AWP].
Perhaps, not surprisingly, the invasion element had gone extremely smoothly, the supporting divisions and subsequent logistical support delivered according to timetable, thanks to experience gained in Allied operations against the German enemy.
The Red Air Force had valiantly tried to interfere and, barring one bomb hit on the battleship HMS Warspite, had failed, and done so at further great cost to their dwindling number of men and machines.
Surviving submarines from the Baltic Fleet had also tried, with much more success, torpedoing three Allied warships.
The USS Reno, an Atlanta-class light cruiser specifically on station for her enhanced AA abilities and only recently returned to service following damage sustained against the Japanese in 1945, was again struck and damaged. Only a few minor injuries were sustained, all her guns remained in action throughout the day, and she remained on her battle station.
HMS Saintes, a hastily commissioned Battle class AA destroyer, lost her stern to twin torpedo strikes, and had to be towed back to Kiel. Thirty-seven of her crew were killed in the explosion and the subsequent desperate attempts at damage control.
The AA ship, KMS Thetis, a former Norwegian pre-dreadnought battleship, converted post-1940 Norwegian invasion and taken into German service, succumbed to two torpedoes and settled upright in shallow water, some two hundred yards off Berg Dievenow.
She continued to fire throughout the attack, and for days to come, despite the loss of twenty-seven of her crew.
None of the attacking submarines returned to their home ports, as American, British and German sub-hunter groups proved extremely effective, sending eight to the bottom of the Baltic in as many hours.
One German destroyer, KMS Karl Galster, brought about her own problems by enthusiastically following up a depth charge attack from the Dutch HNLMS Van Galen.
Once the Soviet submarine had been sunk, the Van Galen took the stricken Karl Galster in tow, the blast of the Dutch depth charges under her stern having blown numerous prop seals as well as wrecking the shaft mountings and bending the shafts themselves.
In spite of these relatively minor issues, the Allied fleet poured men and equipment ashore, plus much needed munitions, stocks captured from the Soviets destined for the Poles, whose own supplies had been eroded by demands from the Western Front.
The Polish Liberation Army Group comprised two Armies, the First [AWP] and Tenth.
The former was comprised of the original Polish forces in country and was now stable. Within First Army [AWP], there had been many Soviet officers and men, and the vast majority were handled with care and disarmed without violence, out of deference to comrades who had fought side by side against the German. Although many Russians had already been sent westward to other units to replace battle losses, non-Polish soldiers still accounted for nearly 10% of the strength of First Army [AWP], creating a logistical issue as prisoners by their numbers alone.
Despite the warnings from the intelligence services, some NKVD units had still been unprepared, and many of their soldiers were caught napping by Polish soldiers intent on carving out their country’s freedom.
The NKVD divisions that had been placed strategically around Pomerania had been emasculated by silent attacks, the commanders either captured or killed, depending on how much resistance they chose to display. There was no love lost between Pole and NKVD soldier, something that manifested itself clearly, as the slightest hint of dissent or failure to lay down weapons was met with brute force rapidly applied.