All Alone: A Lithuanian AAR

The World on Fire. July – September, 1941

Once all the operations in Libya ended, we got onto our ships and went back to our base in Alexandria for re-organization and re-supply, leaving the British and Iraqis to secure the coast around Tripoli.

We were still on our way, when the announcement came about the declaration of war between Axis and Soviet Union on July 22. Everyone’s thoughts were far from the shores of Northern Africa at that moment, but there was just no way for us to know how our closest ones were doing.

After Soviets bombed German forces in Helsinki, Finland joined the war along with Hungary and Romania a few days later.



We were hanging on every word coming from the frontlines, but it was mainly from German propaganda Wochenshau announcements, that we were able to gather something. After crushing initial Soviet defences, German forces rushed along the roads to the biggest cities, leaving the retreating Soviet troops to wander in the countryside until they were captured or destroyed. However, fierce and bloody battles were fought for Kaunas and other main cities.

Soviets, on the other hand, started using scorched earth tactics by burning everything they could not take with them. And that left our families in between..

In the meantime, in the Medditerranean region, British Middle-East Command seemed a bit lost, after Northern Africa was secured so unexpectedly quickly and Italians were pushed to the very corners of the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps relying on the shifted focus of Germans to the Eastern Front, a division of British marines, lead by Gen.Keightley, conducted a landing in Athens, by driving out German paratroopers.
However, Allied command failed to exploit this in any way, while Athens were held for the next two months, until Germans returned in force in October, and Brits had to abandon Greece for now.

By the 15th of August we were as ready for combat, as we were likely to get. Especially happy we were with our new latest-model British made artillery guns, replacing our trusty but older QF 25 pounders. Our SOF brigade, along with command and support troops from the 1st ‘Freedom’ Division, loaded on ships and headed West, to Sardinia.

After initial beachhead was created by 3rd Royal Marine division on the Northern shore at Olbia on 26th of August, we moved in to secure the harbour, and our brigade marched through Sassari and Laconi South, to Cagliari, main port of the island. It was defended by single Italian division, lead by an experienced gen.Messe, which moved to meet us at Olbia, leaving the harbour essentially unprotected, except for token guard force and logistics personnel. While the operation went as planned, and initial efforts by Italians to contain us at the beachhead were brushed away, it was their airforce we had problems with.

Two Cagliari-based bomber wings, supported by a wing of fighters, had conducted no less than 10 raids on our positions and columns of marching troops. Especially painful was the crossing of Tirso river on the 1st of September, as the Italians have blown the bridges over it, and the bombers came right at the moment when we were crossing it over the pontoon bridges and rubber boats.



In about a week we have reached Cagliari, but it took another 3 days to clear all the pockets of resistance and push back the surrounded Italians, trying to get to the harbour, in order to flee to the mainland.

Nearly 6000 enemy troops surrendered by September 9 after relentless assault by Lithuanian and British troops. As the Italians fought stubbornly till the end, the casualties were quite high on both sides. During whole Sardinia Operation about 400 Allied troops were lost in action as opposed to nearly 800 Italians. Our brigade lost 67 men.

Just after we got back to Alexandria, another order was issued – this time closer to ‘home’ – Crete. As the first shots were fired again by the 3rd Royal Marine Division, our brigade and 3rd Division ‘Kaunas’ jumped right into the middle of the battle, so the operation could be completed in shortest terms. When sailing towards Irakleio, we were certain of our victory, even if we knew that Italians might be entrenched and more experienced than us. We had total confidence in our commanders and our brothers in arms.



On the Eastern Front, all Baltic States were in German hands in the North by the end of September, and in the South German tanks were already on the outskirts of Kiev.

From Desert To Snow. October - November, 1941

We had only about a week to rest after leaving Crete, when the command was given to pack our belongings and head for the harbour of Alexandria. The logistics personnel was all busy handling and packing on board our heavier weapons for several days already, and it looked like we were finally leaving Africa, at least for now. In the end, it appeared to be true! We were heading back to Cardiff, to our home base in the British Isles.

The reason for this move, as we found out from our commanding officers only after the arrival to Britain on October 9, was that defences of Norway were falling apart. After a one-year long struggle, Germans have managed to capture Trondheim and its harbour, shortening their supply lines that way significantly, without the need for supply ships to navigate through mined fjords to Narvik in the North. However, Norwegians' main concern was that their army was incapable to stop German tanks, mostly due to the lack of their own armour or effective AT weapons. Even though British 4th Marine division was fighting alongside of Norwegians for some time already, and several light French Hotchkiss tanks were available, they were no match for German PzKwf II, III and NbFz VI model tanks, rolling now towards Oslo.



Thus, after refitting and resting for a few days, we were all on board again and steaming through the Channel towards the shores of Norway. On October 18, after initial reconnaissance reports showed that the harbour is only lightly protected, we landed in force - at first - elements of our SOF division, securing the perimeter around the city within the very same day, and then all the rest - 2 Inf and 3 Mil divisions, in total more than 40,000 men.

The landing of Lithuanian troops was foreseen as part of British operation Jupiter, proposed by Churchill, intending the capture of not only Trondheim by Lithuanians, but also Narvik by British Marines. The beachheads were to be reinforced as necessary and, ideally, expanded to meet in the middle of Norway. Our trusted friends from the 3rd Royal Marine Division were to land in Narvik.

Our part of the operation was to cut the supply lines for the advancing Germans and, if possible, surround and make them surrender. Then, we should have marched all the way to the North to link-up with the Brits coming from Narvik.

The first part of the plan seemed to work well - we have efficiently cut all communication and supply lines for German 2nd HArm Division and the 76th Infantry division, and Brits landed unopposed in Narvik. However, already by the end of October, it was clear that neither we could attack the Germans and their tanks directly, at least for now, neither the Marines could move anywhere without leaving the harbour unprotected, as the reinforcements and supplies were delayed by severe winter storms in the North sea for several weeks.


It was near that time, on November 4, to be exact, that we heard about Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, bringing the USA into the war with Germany as well.

Only two weeks later, after we linked with Norwegian troops and surrounded exhausted and famished Germans, more than 15,000 surviving troops surrendered few days later, and all the equipment fell into the hands of the Allies. We turned back towards Trondheim.

Even though Brits failed to expand anywhere from Narvik, being effectively blocked by 3 Infantry divisions from the South, it was decided that we should proceed with the second part of the Operation Jupiter as soon as possible, as no other relief force was immediately available to assist the marines. In addition to that, on the 12th of November Germans started an attack attempting to dislodge the Brits from Narvik. There was no time to lose.

Our next target was the closest mountain pass to Sweden near the town of Nordli, more than 200 kilometres North. This mountain pass was one of the very few, still usable in winter, used by Germans to bring reinforcements through Sweden.


On November 21, USA declared war on Vichy France, bringing it to the war with Allies and opening another front in Africa.

A Fjord Too Far. December, 1941 – January, 1942

November 25. Our initial push north from Trondheim was going relatively well, even if slow. True, we had to march on foot along a single road through freezing rains and snow storms, but we were promised some Norwegian Army transports and assistance reaching us from the South any day now. At least there was some warm food and ammo supplies were sufficient, and, sometimes, this is the only thing that matters to a soldier. Encountering only insignificant German resistance, we have reached the outskirts of the Sulstu, our first operative goal - 115 km north from Trondheim) in two weeks.


On December 12, we first heard the news about a significant British landing (again) all over Greece – no less than 3 infantry divisions, lead by Army commander Gen. Hutton, recently transferred to Middle-East Command from Burma. Few days later, Greek guerrillas liberated several towns in Macedonian mountains. Sadly, in about a week all Brits had to evacuate from Euboea island without being able to link-up with them, after being pushed to shores by superior German forces.



At the same time Brits were occupied with re-taking Malta for the second time from the Italians. Italians, on the other hand, made a surprise attack on Crete, bypassing patrolling Royal Navy ships at night. Besides, several Iraqi divisions, with support directly from the Middle-East Command, have converged on Vichy France-controlled Syria, making great gains within several weeks. Mexico joined our cause just before Christmas.

It was all so distant at that time, however, somewhere on the borderlines of our everyday lives, and most of it we heard only much later.



By the end of December everyone finally saw and started to realize the size of efforts needed in order to complete our operation. Our forward elements have managed to reach province of Snasa (mere 200 km from Trondheim) in 6 weeks, while the bulk of forces were still marching through Hell. Narvik was still more than 700 km away. Forward scouts reported German divisions, some with light tanks, digging-in in every direction - North, East and West.

To avoid possible encirclement, our division was tasked to lead the attack against single German 23. Inf division stationed around Steinkjer, but horrible weather, seemingly thousands of streams, ravines and lakes, and, first of all, masterful positioning of enemy forces, even if half-starved, led by experienced Gen.Busch, have significantly hampered our efforts, by beating off one attack after another. Just almost a week later we have managed to rout them, with a loss of 536 men out of more than 20,000, while Germans lost 723.



And then the grim news came. Due to unprecedented colds and unceasing storms raging at sea during the December, no convoy could reach the Marines fighting in Narvik. After a nearly 6 week-long battle against at least four German divisions, when first supply ships arrived, the marines were forced to evacuate instead, with more than 30 percent of 8000 men killed or lost. It was a severe blow to all of us.



However, sadly ironic as it was, the skies soon cleared and late reinforcements of 4th Marine division came only 5 days later, while Germans had not yet fully secured the harbour. Exhausted Germans were in no position to attack again, and we had an even bigger motivation to rise for an attack again.

Our probing attacks towards Nordli revealed that Germans were giving their best to keep all the forces stationed in Norway in fighting order. During the first week of January we routed the HQ of Heeresgruppe A, led by von Blomberg himself, and several Army HQs, while, after questioning prisoner "tongues", we found out that a separate Theatre HQ - Hell HQ - was recently created in order to support their troops first-hand.

North We Go. January - April, 1942.

All days became as one. Grey skies above, dirty snow beneath our feet. And Germans, Germans everywhere. It was so much a different experience than fighting Italians in the desert, or even Soviets in the woods of Lithuania - they seemed untiring, battle-hardened, always one step ahead of anything we could muster.



As we fully secured Snasa and 1st division headed further north to Grong, on January 18 single 87. Infantry division started their attack from the mountain passes at Nordli on our remaining forces. Our guys in Grong were shelled by mortar fire and artillery guns of 62. Inf division, trying to turn our attack back. We were quite lucky in this, as our division was left as rearguard further south, but we got our orders to push north at our fastest for a counterattack. A few days later, another German division joined the attack on Snasa from the west, from Namsos, taking all our forces in pincers. It was quite expected, though, 211. Inf division soldiers were caught in several ambushes and routed.


After week-long battles we won, with a loss of 626 men, against 1361 Germans in Snasa, and 508 lost Lithuanians and 330 Germans in Grong.

Upon our arrival to Snasa, a difficult decision was to be made - we knew that there is a number of German divisions in Nordli, determined to keep the foothold this side of the mountain range, in order to keep the way for reinforcements. And we knew that more Germans were coming..

Our first attempt to approach the Germans in a broad front was met by well prepared machine gun nests, precise shooting and mortar fire. Our 2nd volunteer division took the bulk of losses, no less that 600 guys were lost or wounded during the first two days, with nearly 1000 lost in total in 5 days. However, in 2 more days German started to give way - one after another their positions were left empty, allowing us to reach the top of the pass by February 5. 1960 guys were lost out of 29500 in the fighting, against only 434 out of 35,000 Germans.



In the meantime, 1st volunteer division, supported by our 4th infantry, was trying to reach the shore at Kolvereid, brushing aside an exhausted 211. Infantry. Our 3rd volunteer division cleared all resistance from Sorli, close to Swedish border, shutting the mountain pass off.

We reached the sea by middle of February, catching 3 German divisions in a sack - no less than 28,000 German soldiers surrendered at the beginning of March, when Norwegian troops pushed from the south to Steinkjer. Gebirgsjager Division "Nord" and experienced 1st. Panzer division, a veteran of countless battles from Poland to France, was among them.


Our next operational target was at Mo i Rana - another mountain pass from Sweden and one of the narrowest spot of Norway - less than 30 km as the crow flies to Swedish border. We have reached German positions, manned by 2nd Gebirgsjaeger division and backed by a number of HQ's on April 2. As Germans were constantly on the run, no resistance was expected, so when a storm of bullets was unleashed on our forward troops, everyone was shocked to the core. When our reserves arrived, however, Germans were routed, with 178 Lithuanians lost, against 7 Germans.


3 German Infantry divisions were routed from Bjellaanes a week later without any losses. Several Norvegian divisions were now successfully pushing along us as well. Everything started to look a lot better. Only 250 km to Narvik left. Spring at last.