Vrijheid. The Things We Cherish. February - March, 1944.
Vrijheid. The Things We Cherish. February - March, 1944.
The feeling of freedom was overwhelming. The roofs, windows, even trees, orange banners and tricolors were flying everywhere, people were flocking to our headquarters, most just to express their gratitude and joy, others, mainly from underground resistance, ready to join our ranks and bring the fight further south, to Gouda, immediately. However, British command being suspicious also of possible infiltrators and spies, was reluctant to use these wannabe soldiers for front line duty without proper screening and preparation.
Within one month nearly 2000 men joined our Volunteer division "Kaunas" forming a separate Dutch brigade.
By March 1 the Marines linked up with the Americans from "the Big Red One" north of the Hague, finally surrounding the Axis troops entrenched around Rotterdam and Gouda, but numerous waterways prevented supplies reaching us in Amsterdam. Despite that, preparations for an all-out assault started immediately.
Battle of Arnhem
With supply lines still stretched for 200 kilometres from Eindhoven through Arnhem, passing a number of bridges, it was only to be expected that German blow will land where it hurts most.
In the early hours of March 2, the 454. German Reserve Division attacked eastern approaches of Arnhem, soon to be joined by 61. Infantry coming from Rijn, totaling 12 thousand men, against nearly 7000 Lithuanian volunteers, led by Gen. Liatukas, the Chief of Lithuanian Liberation Army himself.
At the same time the Ijsel river was forded and the bridge at Deventer was assaulted by another Reserve division together with infantry attacking from Zwolle. The road to Arnhem at Apeldoorn was defended by 3rd Lithuanian infantry division of Maj.Gen.Karvelis, this time - 14000 Germans against 7000 Lithuanians.
Supply route Arnhem - Amersfoort - Amsterdam had to be protected at all costs. March 2, 1944.
Battle in Apeldoorn lasted two days, with Germans retreating back behind the river, leaving nearly 900 dead, while Lithuanian losses were much less - 170 men wounded and lost. A counter-attack was mounted immediately, on the Reserve troops in Deventer, but the opportunity to take the bridge over the Ijsel was missed, and the attack was drowned in blood in a hurricane of machine gun and mortar fire from the right bank of the river, without facilitating the situation of the troops in Arnhem.
The have managed to pull it off, nevertheless. After a dogged fight that took five days, the Germans withdrew on March 6, leaving our troops to mourn over a thousand of lives lost, while their losses where a bit lighter - nearly 700 men.
Battle of Rotterdam
In the meantime, the noose was being tightened around Rotterdam more and more every day - the German garrison at Betuwe fell on March 3, with further attacks of Hungarian troops on our 2nd. Infantry division repelled one after another, while the Marines were sent in to clear the pockets of resistance around Gouda - it was thought that only the scattered remnants of 217. German Infantry were still defending it, along with supporting staff of Hungarian High command, led by Gen.Barankay. Thus, it was even more unexpected, when the Marines were flanked and attacked by entirely fresh German Infantry division from Rotterdam, and our division was scrambled to battle having only a handful of clips each for our guns, in order to save them, without even waiting for our own Corps HQ of Gen.Zemaitis, now stuck in Amersfoort, to join the battle.
The supply route, stalled for almost a week due to fighting, was safe for now, but the effects were apparent - while food was sufficient, ammo was sorely lacking. March 7, 1944
Within 2 days of intense fighting we managed to route the defenders from Gouda, and on March 11 the Germans were pushed back from Haarlem as well. The price we paid for this was high - 13 percent Marines were either lost or wounded, close to 1200, against about the same number of Axis troops.
There was no need for encouragement for any of the troops - everyone wanted to finish this as soon as possible, feeling that the war is coming to an end soon. However, Germans thought differently - more than 22000 Axis troops were totally surrounded in Rotterdam, and it took another 3 days of artillery barrage and all-out assault until they surrendered. Only 3/4th of the Germans survived the bombardment.
A file of Lithuanian troops march through ruins in the suburbs of Rotterdam. March 14, 1944.
It was announced the same day that Bulgarian government surrendered to Romania. Greece is in danger!
The feeling of freedom was overwhelming. The roofs, windows, even trees, orange banners and tricolors were flying everywhere, people were flocking to our headquarters, most just to express their gratitude and joy, others, mainly from underground resistance, ready to join our ranks and bring the fight further south, to Gouda, immediately. However, British command being suspicious also of possible infiltrators and spies, was reluctant to use these wannabe soldiers for front line duty without proper screening and preparation.
Within one month nearly 2000 men joined our Volunteer division "Kaunas" forming a separate Dutch brigade.
By March 1 the Marines linked up with the Americans from "the Big Red One" north of the Hague, finally surrounding the Axis troops entrenched around Rotterdam and Gouda, but numerous waterways prevented supplies reaching us in Amsterdam. Despite that, preparations for an all-out assault started immediately.
Battle of Arnhem
With supply lines still stretched for 200 kilometres from Eindhoven through Arnhem, passing a number of bridges, it was only to be expected that German blow will land where it hurts most.
In the early hours of March 2, the 454. German Reserve Division attacked eastern approaches of Arnhem, soon to be joined by 61. Infantry coming from Rijn, totaling 12 thousand men, against nearly 7000 Lithuanian volunteers, led by Gen. Liatukas, the Chief of Lithuanian Liberation Army himself.
At the same time the Ijsel river was forded and the bridge at Deventer was assaulted by another Reserve division together with infantry attacking from Zwolle. The road to Arnhem at Apeldoorn was defended by 3rd Lithuanian infantry division of Maj.Gen.Karvelis, this time - 14000 Germans against 7000 Lithuanians.
Supply route Arnhem - Amersfoort - Amsterdam had to be protected at all costs. March 2, 1944.
Battle in Apeldoorn lasted two days, with Germans retreating back behind the river, leaving nearly 900 dead, while Lithuanian losses were much less - 170 men wounded and lost. A counter-attack was mounted immediately, on the Reserve troops in Deventer, but the opportunity to take the bridge over the Ijsel was missed, and the attack was drowned in blood in a hurricane of machine gun and mortar fire from the right bank of the river, without facilitating the situation of the troops in Arnhem.
The have managed to pull it off, nevertheless. After a dogged fight that took five days, the Germans withdrew on March 6, leaving our troops to mourn over a thousand of lives lost, while their losses where a bit lighter - nearly 700 men.
Battle of Rotterdam
In the meantime, the noose was being tightened around Rotterdam more and more every day - the German garrison at Betuwe fell on March 3, with further attacks of Hungarian troops on our 2nd. Infantry division repelled one after another, while the Marines were sent in to clear the pockets of resistance around Gouda - it was thought that only the scattered remnants of 217. German Infantry were still defending it, along with supporting staff of Hungarian High command, led by Gen.Barankay. Thus, it was even more unexpected, when the Marines were flanked and attacked by entirely fresh German Infantry division from Rotterdam, and our division was scrambled to battle having only a handful of clips each for our guns, in order to save them, without even waiting for our own Corps HQ of Gen.Zemaitis, now stuck in Amersfoort, to join the battle.
The supply route, stalled for almost a week due to fighting, was safe for now, but the effects were apparent - while food was sufficient, ammo was sorely lacking. March 7, 1944
Within 2 days of intense fighting we managed to route the defenders from Gouda, and on March 11 the Germans were pushed back from Haarlem as well. The price we paid for this was high - 13 percent Marines were either lost or wounded, close to 1200, against about the same number of Axis troops.
There was no need for encouragement for any of the troops - everyone wanted to finish this as soon as possible, feeling that the war is coming to an end soon. However, Germans thought differently - more than 22000 Axis troops were totally surrounded in Rotterdam, and it took another 3 days of artillery barrage and all-out assault until they surrendered. Only 3/4th of the Germans survived the bombardment.
A file of Lithuanian troops march through ruins in the suburbs of Rotterdam. March 14, 1944.
It was announced the same day that Bulgarian government surrendered to Romania. Greece is in danger!
. After Axis was dropped in favor to the Allies (as you may remember from Lithuanian exploits), it did not take long for the Tsar to become dissuaded with them as well, with strong communist sentiment building both among political functionaries and masses. Apparently, this was one of the reason for withdrawal of Lithuanian expeditionary Corps from the theater and gradual decrease in British military presence in Bulgaria, which led to the capture of Sofia by Romanians and forced the capitulation of Bulgarian forces.
