Five Rivers Of Fire

All Through Holland And Germany

The previous page was: "Derrick Cakebread's Rivers Of Fire"

This is the third part of Derrick Cakebread's actions in War, After having survived over three months under constant fire from the Germans at Normandy, he then survived all the river crossings under fire, through Holland, and now through Germany.

When we arrived in Germany there appeared to be no shortage of anything. There were houses, destroyed and abandoned of course. Where we found beautiful linens, and lace, cameras and all sorts of luxury goods, in fact you name it and they had it.

We went into blocks of flats, and found storerooms stacked from floor to ceiling, with sugar, real coffee, flour etc. We hadn't seen such food stocks in England since before the war, and even then, only because we saw them in shops. I felt that the Dutch people we had stayed with, would have liked to have, just a bit of What was here!

We couldn't take any of the linen and goods, because we couldn't carry them! Mostly because, when we went anywhere we walked or marched there. However, we did find a number of chickens at a farm, and one of our chaps, who had been a butcher in civilian life, killed and prepared a pig.

We built a great big bonfire, and cooked chicken and pork chops, eggs, and ate newly made bread, as another of the lads had been a baker before being called-up. I can remember how good it all tasted, and the smell of the food sizzling in the pans. Lovely!!

Derrick Cakebread's Rivers Of Fire

Crossing The Rhine

We then prepared to cross the Rhine. This of course, being the first river in Germany to be crossed, and we knew it wouldn't be easy. We did a lot of training mostly in Buffaloes, which are amphibious craft, like tanks, which move slowly on either land or water.

We discovered they had been used by the Yanks at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Evidently, they had been disasterous in the high seas, but they behaved quite alright, in the river crossings.

We were due to go over the Rhine, at 22:00 hours on the 23rd March. The R.A.F. were going to do a bombing raid on the Town of Wesel, at about the same time. The plan was; while the bombing was going on, we would get across about a mile east of Wesel, Where 46 R.M. Commando were to make a small bridgehead.

We were to go through them, and keep a watch for the green flares of the last Lancaster bomber, as the drop indicated the end of the raid. As soon as we saw this, we were to speed-march to Wesel, to take and hold onto the Railway station marshalling yards; which was our first objective.

All Went According To Plan

There was a lot of fierce fighting, and Gerry was putting in counter-attacks all night, they also had heavy artillery trained on our positions, but we held on. Our next objective was to take a factory.

We had heard that it made cables, but found a lot of the work was making bathroom equipment; we found the bags of plaster very useful for stopping some small-arms fire, when we used them as sandbags.

At around ten o' clock the next morning, the Yankee Airborne dropped in front of us, and our time there was practically over. The R.A.F. had given the town a terrible pounding, leaving it mostly in ruins.

It was here, that my old mate Tommy Treacher, whom I had met on the day we went into the Royal Marines was wounded. I came across him sitting on the curb. Apparently, a group of Germans had been hiding-out in the ruins, and fired a couple of panzer fursts, anti-tank shells, where they got six of our blokes.

Tommy looked O.K. a bit dazed perhaps; I asked him if he was alright. He said that he was, but though he had been hit. He wasn't bleeding, so it was difficult to tell. Evidently, he had been quite badly wounded internally, and after being treated at a field station was sent back to England.

Tommy was in hospital for some time, although I didn't know about his condition at the time. However, (when this story was written) he was still going strong then, and we remained mates until his death from old age in 2011.

Street Fighting In Wesel

After we moved out of the factory, we were pretty much occupied in street fighting and generally clearing the town of any pockets of resistance that remained; we took a lot of prisoners; some surrendering because they'd had enough of the war.

The Americans were attacking on their front as well, and eventually Wesel was cleared of the enemy; only a few days after we had made the original crossing of the Rhine. We left Wesel and continued our advance through Germany.

The fighting in Germany, followed a totally different pattern to that which we had experienced in Normandy. There, we had been enclosed in a small areas, quite often cut off from our main forces, and always under constant attacks.

In this campaign, after we left Holland, I did no sniping at all. We were never long enough in one place, we just kept on advancing.

The Armoured Units Surround Osnabruck

We were advancing so fast the Armoured Units by-passed a number of towns, which hadn't been cleared of enemy troops. These were the places we had to clear. I don't believe anybody knew where the Front Line was at the time, we certainly didn't.

The amount of opposition we encountered depended to a large extent upon the type of troops that were there, although none of the Germans gave in easily, naturally enough, as they were fighting on their own ground, We would have done the same.

Anyway, the 11th Armoured Division surrounded Osnabruck, and we had to go and capture it. It was the first large German town to fall, I understand.

Unusual, but we were taken in lorries, until we were about five miles from it, we had a 30-minute stop to have a bite to eat, and then we set off. The leading section put down a white tape and we followed that throughout the night, arriving in the early hours of the morning, at the place we were put in to do the attack.

Before The Attack

Just before we attacked, we went into a barn and had a hot drink and a rum ration. Then we went in. There was fierce street-fighting for several hours, and then quite suddenly it seemed, bed sheets were being draped out of the windows, and the town surrendered to us.

No.10 Inter-Allied Commando had been part of the Brigade since we did the Normandy landings. No.10 was made up entirely of foreign nationals, some German and Austrian Jews, and in addition to fighting with us, they acted as Interpreters for the Commando.

As far as I know, they never took any prisoners and after we reached the heart of Germany, and seen something of the Nazi's cruelty, we couldn't blame them.

Anyway, one of them, an Austrian Jew whom we knew as Ian Harris, (they had all taken English names, possibly in case they were captured) was sent to take the German surrender.

Apparently, the Senior German officer asked Ian for his rank, as he only wanted to surrender to one of our Senior Officers. Ian gave a rank of the top order, and we watched as the Germans marched out, very smartly, I have to say, and formally surrendered the town to an ordinary Marine.

Little did the German officer know that Ian was an ordinary Marine, as none of our officers wore any badges or signs of rank on their battle dresses when we were in action. Well we all looked alike!!!

The Big Clean-Up

Shortly after this, we went into a big old house that had been converted into flats and was comparatively undamaged. Down in the basement, there were big stainless steel sinks. We were all filthy, so one of the blokes got the boiler going, and some of us went foraging for wood or coal from the railway station.

Of course, there were no gas or electricity services after the shelling, fighting and what-have-you. So, I broke up a railway carriage, and stoked the boiler so the water was boiling hot. We all then jumped into the sinks, and had a lovely wash down. It felt great to be a clean Marine again.

The River Weser

Our next objective was to cross the River Weser. It was some way off, so again we were to be taken in trucks, this time by the Service Corps. They drove us to within a few miles of the river, stopping when we came under heavy artillery fire.

In fact, we were being stonked to blazes, and the drivers were yelling for us to get off their trucks, so they could get back out of range as soon as they could. They left in a bit of a hurry.

Anyway, we marched to a small town near the banks of the river. The next place we had to take was called Leese, which was a village just a couple of miles from the river, on the other side.

The Royal Engineers had made a small bridgehead there, and were trying to build a Bailey Bridge over the river. As the river was continually under fire, it was impossible to do, until we had captured Leese.

The following morning, it was decided that we would cross over in collapsible boats, known as Cockles. These held about six men, and you knelt to paddle them. They were fine once you had mastered the technique of getting in, as they had a nasty habit of turning over!!

Advanced On Leese Under Fire

We crossed over under heavy fire, and started to move along under cover of the river banks, towards Leese. We found the enemy had dug in along the river banks, and were supported by small-arms fire from beyond the banks.

Resistance was very heavy, and there was hard 'hand-to-hand' fighting. I don't know where our intelligence had come from, we had been informed that we were up against the German Pioneer Corps. In fact, we were up against an 'SS Battalion' a bit different to their Pioneer Corps!

The Luftwaffe sent over some Stuka dive-bombers; they heavily bombed the bridgehead, and the lads in the Engineers took a pasting. They then flew low and strafed the river banks where we were. Anyway some time during the day, we got the order to withdraw back to the bridgehead, as it was clear that 45 R.M. Commando didn't have enough men to comlete the task on its own.

That night the rest of the Brigade arrived, and we once more set off for Leese. Gerry was using shells that burst just over our heads, we used to call them air-bursts. When they exploded, they just scatter shrapnel all over the place.

Eric Bowen, one of my mates, and I had one burst just over us. The force of the explsion spun us both round and knocked us over. When I got up and looked at Eric, he had shrapnel all over him, poor bloke, he was in a right mess. My beret was in shreds, but I didn't have a scratch on me. How lucky can you get!!

Anyway the battle finally ended, and we got into Leese in the early hours of the morning. I remember that in some of the remains, of houses, we found lots of bottles of drink. We soon finished those off!!

A Rest Before The River Aller

We had twenty-four hours rest here, and then moved into another village, where we dug in and protected the flanks of the Armoured Column. A couple of days later, We received orders to do a night crossing of the River Aller.

This turned out to be one of those really bad ones. We made the crossings in Buffaloes, which went all right. But, when we got over the other side, things got very hot indeed. It was heavily wooded country, and gerry was well dug-in and well-hidden.

'A' Troop's task was to get through the woods to the high-ground and dig in there. The fighting was close, and heavy going. Once again the Gerries was determined to defend their positions and we could hear the No.6, who were somewhere on our left, shouting and yelling "Commandos Coming" as they did a bayonet charge.

The Germans disliked the cold steel of the bayonet; which the Commandos used, when in close combat, to conserve ammunition. But Gerries biggest fear was facing a battle hardened Commando at any distance. Hitler's Orders to kill any Commando on sight, or if captured, didn't help to allay those fears.

Reaching High Ground

My troop managed to reach the high ground we had been ordered to take, and quickly got dug in, and beat off all attacks. However, we received orders to withdraw back to Brigade, eventually we made it.

It always feels tough to have fought so hard to take somewhere, and then have to get out and go back, and of course, at the time you don't know why! Apparently, the bridgehead we had made after the river crossing, was two wide to hold against the counter- attacks Gerry was putting in.

We needed to advance over a smaller area, to hold our strength and not get over-stretched. R.A.F. Typhoon bombers came swooping over, and they put in a rocket attack on the enemy positions. It was very effective.

I remember the situation as being thoroughly confused here, of course as an ordinary Marine, you only know your own small bit of the job you have to do, and nothing of the 'big picture'. Anyway, we were back at Brigade all night.

Back To Plan 'A'

The next morning, we were ordered to return to our original positions in the woods. The Commando did a bayonet charge through the woods, all of us in extended line. Even apart from the noises of mortars, and machine-guns, and so on, the noise of battle, particularly when you are doing a charge, screaming loudly, is awful.

You are all shouting and yelling as loud as you can, as you charge at the enemy, it's quite normal, can't seem to help it really, and you can hear the cries and shouts of fear of the wounded and dying. It isn't something you forget easily.

When we were recruits in training, we used to laugh at the noises we made then, but when it's for real, it's a different matter, your blood's up, and all you want to do is "Get at 'em' as our Sergeant-Major used to shout at us!!

We could hear 'C' Troop on our right getting a mauling, from the machine-guns Gerry had set in our positions of the previous day. In fact after this battle they could no longer fuction as a Fighting-Troop; the survivors went into the other Troops to strengthen them up. 'D' Troop had to do the same thing in Normandy.

Anyway we sent out a patrol and managed to bring in their wounded. My troop managed to get back to our slit trenches of the previous day; where we found Gerry occupying them. They were well dug in, and we had to fight bloody hard to get them out.

From the German dead, and from the prisoners we had taken, we discovered that we had been up against German Marines; I believe it was the first time the Royal Marines had fought German Marines in close-quarter fighting; anyway it explained why they had been so tough to beat.

German Resistance Here Finally Ended

The Engineers were now able to build a Bailey Bridge, which enabled the 11th Armoured Division to get their armour across the river. We stayed in the woods for almost a week, watching the build-up of the Allied Force.

Next, we heard we were going to Luneburg. There wasn't much opposition here. It was a lovely old town, and it appeared as if the war had passed it by. It was in an area similar to our Lake District.

Here, there were a number of hospitals and convalescent homes which seemed to mostly hold German Airmen who had lost limbs. Officially, we were not allowed to fraternise with the enemy, but some of them spoke very good English and we used to talk to them and often gave them cigarettes.

The houses there were large and rather luxurious so we all got ourselves decent billets. some of my mates and I went into one such house. We moved the family into one room and shared the house with them. They were a decent family and it worked well.

We still had to do picket duty outside the houses where our own troops were billeted, and also in the town, but it was nice and quiet and gave us a chance to rest for a while.

There was a 9-p.m. curfew for civilians, and we had to enforce that, but there was no trouble. After about a week we were told we were going to do another river crossing.

Crossing The River Elbe

We were taken in transport to within a few miles of the river, then we were under canvas for a time. We always seemed to be hungry; one of our officers went to a farm and brought back a load of chickens in a sack.

We killed these, plucked and prepared them and got a large cast- iron bath from somewhere. We got some leaks which we fried with loads of eggs, and ate them until we were full-up!! Its strange how you remember certain thing so clearly.

On the night we were due to cross the river, we were in position just after mid-night. We sat there for what seemed ages, in the pouring rain, waiting for our turn to get in the Buffaloes.

While we were waiting, we were under heavy mortar and small arms- fire all of the while; a number of Buffaloes were hit. Then it was our turn to go, there was a lot of firing from both sides, all kinds of ammunition was flying everywhere.

Once we reached the opposite side, our Artillery put down a creeping barrage over the enemy positions. The river banks on our side had been fairly flat, so we had been able to slide down and get in the Buffaloes.

But, on the other side, the banks rose up sharply leading into thick woods, and what with the mud and the rain, it was difficult to climb up to the top. Especially with the amount of equipment we were carrying. It was one step up, and two steps back!

The Bridgehead

I don't believe I have explained before, what a 'bridgehead' is. It is an area of the enemy's territory, which the leading troops take, and then hold the flanks, allowing the rest of the Force to pass through the centre.

Once this is established, and the main force is moving on towards their objective, the troops holding the bridgehead, fall in behind the rest of the force.

Anyway, together with 46 R.M. Commando, we entered Lauenburg in the early hours of the morning. It was an unusual town, and seemed to be built on two levels.

Our Commando went round it and came at it attacking from the side, and held on to that area. There wasn't much concerted opposition, it was more or less dealing with 'pockets of resistance' I think that was what the Official phrase was!

British Bogged Down At Lutau

The following day, we moved off again, to march to the next town of Lutau, it was about five miles away. Where some of the British Army were bogged down we were told, but by the time we had arrived, they had taken it, so we were ordered to take Wangelau, a village about three miles further on.

Although we didn't know it at the time, this was to be our last battle in Germany. We had been hearing rumours for awhile, that Gerry was about to give in, and we realised of course, by the speed of the Allied advance, that the war must be over soon.

Wangelau The End Of The War

On 30th April 1945, we advanced on Wangelau, and although the battle there was brief, there was some hard street fighting, and sadly, Sergeant Wilson of 'E' Troop was killed whilst attacking a machine-gun post.

Poor bloke, to have come so far and then get killed, he was with us right from the formation of the Commandos, now he was dead, and just when it was to be all over.

As I say, the battle didn't last very long before the bed sheets started to be hung out of the windows, and it was all over. We took a couple of hundred prisoners there, as the German troops were surrendering pretty quickly by then.

Port Of Neustadt

We moved on the next day, to Neustadt, a port on the Baltic sea. There was another concentration camp there. We had been passing a number of them for some time, they were slave worker camps, not death camps, thank goodness.

But even so, the people in them were so skinny and under-fed, most of them looked like they were about to die anyway; many of them had actually been worked to death.

We had been through one of them a few days earlier, I had put my pack down on one of the bunks for only a few moments, and when I put it back on it was running alive with fleas, and so was I!! Horrible.

It was a sobering sight to see all these poor devils, some of them wearing striped pyjama like clothing. They were just roaming about the town; they came from all of the occupied countries.

On 8th May, the war in Europe was officially ended, and we moved on once again, to Eutin, where we were to be the occupying force for a while.

Were Wolves

Eutin was situated on the side of a beautiful lake, and held what was formerly a Naval Barracks. The British took this over and we had the German sailors march in each morning, and get formed into working parties.

We went and got ourselves billets in good houses again, and did guard duties at our H.Q. and at all of the places where our own troops were. There were bands of young Germans who hadn't surrendered, roaming about, trying to cause trouble.

We called them 'Were wolves' and I dare say they would have liked to form a resistance movement, but we didn't give them the chance. we caught them, and members of the No.10 Inter-Allied Commando and our own Colonel Gray, interrogated them all, and their groups were soon disbanded.

Dis-placed Person's Troop

There was a lot to do; all of the troops were allocated different jobs. 'A' Troop were known as 'Dis-placed Person's troop'. We had to sort the poor devils from the camps, into their different nationalities, and arrange transports back to their own countries.

We did this by using various days for each location, on Mondays say, the transports that arrived were detailed to go to France, then on Tuesdays it would be Holland and so on. When we rounded them up we had to contain them in the designatd areas. Most of them were so pleased to be going home.

I have never forgotten Wednesdays!!! Wednesday was Russian day, and as fast as we put them on the lorries they would get off, and try to run away. Of course, at the time we couldn't understand it, but knowing what we do now, I sometimes wondered what did happen to them when they reached Russia.

We stayed here for a further few weeks and then we heard the good news, we had to take the transports ourselves, for home, to good old Blighty.

The Army of Occupation took over, as they did all over Germany and they were already getting essential services going again.

One Year Later

For some of us, it had been near-enough a whole year of fighting a determined enemy, forcing bridgeheads, patrolling no-man's land, facing attacks and counter-attacks, mortars, bombing, shelling, machine-guns of every discription and of course a huge amount of small-arms fire from troops and snipers, and there was the close-quarter fighting, with German troops, Hitler SS troops and German Marines. Some Year!! I shall never forget it, and the mates I lost, for as long as I live!!!

I think we got back to England early in June, and we were at Petworth, for all the usual stuff, medicals, getting new kit and equipment etc. Then I got 14-days leave.

I arrived home on the evening of 14th June, and I got married to my girl friend, on 16th June 1945. After leave, I returned to Petworth, and then moved to Eastbourne, where we did further training for service in the Far East.

I managed to get a couple of rooms for my wife and I, at Hamden Park, because the Commando expected to sail for Hong Kong very soon. However, two 'Atomic Bombs' were dropped on Japan, and they surrendered on 15th August 1945. At last, after six years it was all over, thank God!

Hong Kong

Four-Five R.M. Commando did go to Hong Kong, although those of us with a high de-mob number remained in England, pending the big demobilisation, whilst those men who had not been in so long, went there.

All the Army Commandos were demobilised, along with some of the Royal Marine Commandos, however the Navy retained a certain element of the Marine Commandos, who are still fighting today in Afghanistan, some 350 years since the birth of the Marines.

The Commandos had done thier jobs, now they were surplus to requirements; the fighting man was no longer needed, so he would be discarded, thrown on the military scrapheap of civvy-street. Now the man-of-action would have to fend for himself as a civvy.

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The De-mobbing

While we were waiting our turn to be de-mobbed, we still did some field exercises, mainly to keep us busy and out of the way, I suppose, and in October, we were on the range doing field firing, when my mate George Hall, got hit in the kidneys by a ricochet bullet and died on the way to hospital.

This hit me very hard. We had first met on the station, the day we were called up, Tommy, George and myself, and although he and Tommy were in 'B' Troop, whenever we were on leave, we always met up for a drink together. He really was a lovely lad, unassuming, and liked by everyone.

George lived in Camden Town, London. Part of a large and loving family, who it seemed, 'all' came to meet him or see him off, after his leave.

Most years since I left the Corps. I have been to Westminster Abbey on Remembrance Sunday, to pay my respects to the boys we lost, and to plant my cross for the lads of 'A' Troop, and every year, in the section reserved for Royal Marines is a cross of St George, from all his family. They never miss.

I've finally done it, I've written about my memories of the war, and my very small part in it. Actually, even I didn't think it would run to all these pages, and I seem to have left a lot untold.

As I said before, the war years was a terrible time, so many young lads didn't come back, but you do learn a lot about yourself, and having come through safely, I have lived knowing that every day since then is a bonus. All in all, I am glad I was there, in that mob, with those blokes.

That is Derrick Cakebread's own story of his memories, and, I am so grateful he let me put it on "www.modern-day-commando.com"

The next Link below will be: "45 Cdo Operation Crocodile"

Derrick Cakebread's Five Rivers 45 Cdo Operation Crocodile

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