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SPINECHICKEN, 2003 ©
2. Key Incidents In The Battle.
NUMBER ONE:
24th May 1974, The Battle Of Ridge 233
By Col. M. Sully , Royal Army Military Historian, Sandhurst Academy
FRIENDLY UNITS: 209th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, 8th MIDF Infantry Division
OPPOSING UNITS: 443rd Kolgujev Forest Guards Regiment, Kolgujev Army and 109th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armoured Division, Russian Army.
The MIDF forces swept onto the Southern beaches with relative ease on the 20th May; with fairly low casualties considering the size of the opposing force. The Allied front now stretched from La Riviere in the West, to the outskirts of Houdan in the east.
General Roetin, SCMIDF, was putting together an audacious plan to sweep up the western side of the island, capturing the radio station at Vigny and the garrison town of Goisse, and attacking the capital of La Trinite from the west flank. However, General Bradley wanted to implement another plan, to storm up to Vigny AND La Trinite with armed jeeps and tanks and seize the towns as the enemy struggled to organize itself in the north, then any remaining enemy behind would be cut off and be easy pickings. Most of the MIDF command agreed, but Roetin didn't "I will not be ordered around by this American bulldog" were his words. Despite the total refutement of his plan, he went ahead with it anyway.
Before Roetin could launch his assaults on Vigny and Goisse, the Western headland (nicknamed the "Malden Finger" due to it's shape) needed to be secured. It was a massive, 1000km long stretch of high rock, filled with high ridges and forests, and contained a large portion of the Southern Beach forces of the KGA that were waiting to counterattack. General Bradley wanted to carpet bomb the entire area, levelling all the tanks and buildings so that the infantry would be able to take it with ease, but Roetin, distrustful of air support, decided on a frontal assault.
The job fell to Colonel August Lentille, commander of the MIDF's 8th Infantry Division, who was ensconced in his headquarters of La Riviere. His men had taken the small seaside town on 21st May with minimal casualties. Colonel Lentille had little experience of commanding a frontal assault, but the job was given to him anyway.
On 28th May, Lentille positioned the 209th Mechanized Infantry Regiment as far forward as it could go, on the bottom of Ridge 233. Rising high into the air, the ridge was a forward post into the headland, with a radar station on its peak, as well as a large barracks. Capturing it would mean the MIDF would have a good position to continue, but it would need to be a swift assault. Roetin gave the go-ahead and Lentille sent the regiment straight up the ridge.
At first it seemed that the action would be a quick victory for the 8th, as they easily neutralized the two BMP's of the 443rd forest guards (effectively a reserve unit, poorly trained and frightened) that were stationed on the ridge. Taking only light casualties, the unit got rid of the remaining 443rd troops and carried on.
Then all hell broke lose. Machine gun posts in the trees began cutting the men down, and the T80 tanks of the 171st Mechanized Dragoon opened fire, quickly knocking out the aged M60 tanks of the 209th that were having difficulty on the muddy ridge. The garrison at the barracks was large, and had already been alerted to the 209th presence, quickly joining the fray. An hour into the battle, and three quarters of the 209th was gone. Its' tanks lay smouldering on the ridge, and it was covered in bodies. Radio Operator Jan Vincant, who was hiding from the Russians after the battle, in a former gun position, described the scene:
"I was lying in the shell hole next to the rotting corpse of a Kolgujevian. I was virtually out of ammo and had a bullet wound in my leg so I couldn't stand properly. I just lay there and looked out over the ridge. The scene was one of Dante-esque proportions. The air was thick with gunsmoke and the smoke rising from the wrecked armour. Bodies littered the ridgeside, Maldenese and Kolgujevian. Most had been killed by the bullets from the MG positions but some lay against each other, where they had been so close the bullets had gone right through them and you could see the grass poking out of the bullet holes. The smell of death was everywhere, and so nauseating, that I threw up several times. Lots of the trees had gone, and the ridge was littered with shell holes and bullet casings. So many dead, it was hard to find the living. I tell you, in that conflict I had fought in many nasty places, but this was the closest I had seen to hell itself."
And living soldiers was one thing the 209th had little of. Of the 100 strong force sent up the ridge initially only 20 remained. A small platoon that had been sent up from La Riviere as the 209th charged past the 443rd, had taken up position on the eastern flank of the ridge and lay in wait for the orders to rescue any survivors on the ridge. Corporal Thomas Regiton described what happened:
"We held our position overlooking the battle scene. It was awful, there were a lot of men moaning who hadn't died but were beyond repair. There were also sporadic shouts from the odd soldier who was alive but pinned down. We wanted to rescue them, but the trouble was, the KGA had now positioned snipers in the MG posts and we couldn't go out onto the open ridge. To top all that, command continued giving crazy orders. Our Captain wanted to piece together the survivors and fall back, but we were continually told that we must reinforce the positions on the ridge and make a full assault with remaining armour, The only problem was there wasn't any. So we just sat there and clutched our weapons, huddled against each other in the driving rain, and waited for reinforcements"
But they never came. Lentille, assuming the 209th had been destroyed completely, forgot about his troops and began prepping the 12th Infantry Regiment for an assault on the ridge. After 4 hours, and in darkness, Captain Jean Davidrite (mentioned in the quote) crawled across the muddy ridge in pitch black, finding survivors. He found 14 able bodied men, and gathered ammunition. Then, creeping around the Russians east flank, he launched a surprise assault on the troops, quickly knocking out two of the seven remaining T80s. In the darkness neither side could see what was really going on, so Davidrites' men moved slowly in the treeline as a group, to avoid friendly fire. The other five tanks however remained a problem, their machine guns raking the trees with fire. Out of rockets, Davidrite made the brave decision of racing across the open fields to pick up some rocket launchers from the Russian corpses. Shot three times, he managed to bring three RPGs and ammo over to his beleaguered troops before collapsing from the pain. He died minutes later.
With the fresh rockets, Davidrites' men easily picked off the tanks. Regiton continues: "They couldn't see us, we just unloaded rocket after rocket into them, picking off the crew if they got out or just watching the tanks erupt in flames. After we took out the last one we held our position, watching carefully for any survivors"
The troops waited another 5 hours until daybreak, when they saw the carnage before them. In less than 40 minutes, they had knocked out seven tanks and killed 30 men. Seizing the radio hut, Regiton radioed Lentille and informed him the ridge was taken. His unit was relieved by the 12th Infantry Division, who set about reinforcing the ridgeside for a further push into the headland.
Regiton provides a fitting description of the end of the battle. "'You guys look like heroes' said one of the 12th guys as they arrived in their jeeps on the ridge. I was covered in muck from my head to my boots, with a cigarette in my mouth and holding my rifle in one hand. So yeah, we all looked like heroes, but we didn't feel like them. We felt empty and sick. We hadn't eaten or drunk for hours, our ears were still ringing from the gunfire and explosions. And we had lost all our friends, our dearest friends in this battle.
My unit [the 209th] went up that ridge with 8 tanks and over 100 men. We came down with no tanks and 15 men. There were no wounded men to carry down, they had all expired in the night, bleeding to death in the mud or simply giving up all hope and taking their own lives. It was one of the worst battles in Maldenese history, perhaps even military history. And all for 233 meters of mud and stone. I prayed that it was over, but it wasn't"
Regiton was right, it took the 12th another 10 days to take the headland, at the cost of 700 more men. In the bunkers, ridges, forests and tank riddled plains of the rocky "Finger" peninsula, the best kind of heroism emerged, under the worst kind of fighting.
-M.Sulley
(SOURCES: "That Bloody Ridge"- T. Regiton 1989; "A History of the Finger"- Albert Louis, 2002. Thanks also to Pvt. J. Vincent, Louise Davidrite and the men of the 209th Memorial Trust on Malden.)
2. Key Incidents In The Battle.
NUMBER ONE:
24th May 1974, The Battle Of Ridge 233
By Col. M. Sully , Royal Army Military Historian, Sandhurst Academy
FRIENDLY UNITS: 209th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, 8th MIDF Infantry Division
OPPOSING UNITS: 443rd Kolgujev Forest Guards Regiment, Kolgujev Army and 109th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armoured Division, Russian Army.
The MIDF forces swept onto the Southern beaches with relative ease on the 20th May; with fairly low casualties considering the size of the opposing force. The Allied front now stretched from La Riviere in the West, to the outskirts of Houdan in the east.
General Roetin, SCMIDF, was putting together an audacious plan to sweep up the western side of the island, capturing the radio station at Vigny and the garrison town of Goisse, and attacking the capital of La Trinite from the west flank. However, General Bradley wanted to implement another plan, to storm up to Vigny AND La Trinite with armed jeeps and tanks and seize the towns as the enemy struggled to organize itself in the north, then any remaining enemy behind would be cut off and be easy pickings. Most of the MIDF command agreed, but Roetin didn't "I will not be ordered around by this American bulldog" were his words. Despite the total refutement of his plan, he went ahead with it anyway.
Before Roetin could launch his assaults on Vigny and Goisse, the Western headland (nicknamed the "Malden Finger" due to it's shape) needed to be secured. It was a massive, 1000km long stretch of high rock, filled with high ridges and forests, and contained a large portion of the Southern Beach forces of the KGA that were waiting to counterattack. General Bradley wanted to carpet bomb the entire area, levelling all the tanks and buildings so that the infantry would be able to take it with ease, but Roetin, distrustful of air support, decided on a frontal assault.
The job fell to Colonel August Lentille, commander of the MIDF's 8th Infantry Division, who was ensconced in his headquarters of La Riviere. His men had taken the small seaside town on 21st May with minimal casualties. Colonel Lentille had little experience of commanding a frontal assault, but the job was given to him anyway.
On 28th May, Lentille positioned the 209th Mechanized Infantry Regiment as far forward as it could go, on the bottom of Ridge 233. Rising high into the air, the ridge was a forward post into the headland, with a radar station on its peak, as well as a large barracks. Capturing it would mean the MIDF would have a good position to continue, but it would need to be a swift assault. Roetin gave the go-ahead and Lentille sent the regiment straight up the ridge.
At first it seemed that the action would be a quick victory for the 8th, as they easily neutralized the two BMP's of the 443rd forest guards (effectively a reserve unit, poorly trained and frightened) that were stationed on the ridge. Taking only light casualties, the unit got rid of the remaining 443rd troops and carried on.
Then all hell broke lose. Machine gun posts in the trees began cutting the men down, and the T80 tanks of the 171st Mechanized Dragoon opened fire, quickly knocking out the aged M60 tanks of the 209th that were having difficulty on the muddy ridge. The garrison at the barracks was large, and had already been alerted to the 209th presence, quickly joining the fray. An hour into the battle, and three quarters of the 209th was gone. Its' tanks lay smouldering on the ridge, and it was covered in bodies. Radio Operator Jan Vincant, who was hiding from the Russians after the battle, in a former gun position, described the scene:
"I was lying in the shell hole next to the rotting corpse of a Kolgujevian. I was virtually out of ammo and had a bullet wound in my leg so I couldn't stand properly. I just lay there and looked out over the ridge. The scene was one of Dante-esque proportions. The air was thick with gunsmoke and the smoke rising from the wrecked armour. Bodies littered the ridgeside, Maldenese and Kolgujevian. Most had been killed by the bullets from the MG positions but some lay against each other, where they had been so close the bullets had gone right through them and you could see the grass poking out of the bullet holes. The smell of death was everywhere, and so nauseating, that I threw up several times. Lots of the trees had gone, and the ridge was littered with shell holes and bullet casings. So many dead, it was hard to find the living. I tell you, in that conflict I had fought in many nasty places, but this was the closest I had seen to hell itself."
And living soldiers was one thing the 209th had little of. Of the 100 strong force sent up the ridge initially only 20 remained. A small platoon that had been sent up from La Riviere as the 209th charged past the 443rd, had taken up position on the eastern flank of the ridge and lay in wait for the orders to rescue any survivors on the ridge. Corporal Thomas Regiton described what happened:
"We held our position overlooking the battle scene. It was awful, there were a lot of men moaning who hadn't died but were beyond repair. There were also sporadic shouts from the odd soldier who was alive but pinned down. We wanted to rescue them, but the trouble was, the KGA had now positioned snipers in the MG posts and we couldn't go out onto the open ridge. To top all that, command continued giving crazy orders. Our Captain wanted to piece together the survivors and fall back, but we were continually told that we must reinforce the positions on the ridge and make a full assault with remaining armour, The only problem was there wasn't any. So we just sat there and clutched our weapons, huddled against each other in the driving rain, and waited for reinforcements"
But they never came. Lentille, assuming the 209th had been destroyed completely, forgot about his troops and began prepping the 12th Infantry Regiment for an assault on the ridge. After 4 hours, and in darkness, Captain Jean Davidrite (mentioned in the quote) crawled across the muddy ridge in pitch black, finding survivors. He found 14 able bodied men, and gathered ammunition. Then, creeping around the Russians east flank, he launched a surprise assault on the troops, quickly knocking out two of the seven remaining T80s. In the darkness neither side could see what was really going on, so Davidrites' men moved slowly in the treeline as a group, to avoid friendly fire. The other five tanks however remained a problem, their machine guns raking the trees with fire. Out of rockets, Davidrite made the brave decision of racing across the open fields to pick up some rocket launchers from the Russian corpses. Shot three times, he managed to bring three RPGs and ammo over to his beleaguered troops before collapsing from the pain. He died minutes later.
With the fresh rockets, Davidrites' men easily picked off the tanks. Regiton continues: "They couldn't see us, we just unloaded rocket after rocket into them, picking off the crew if they got out or just watching the tanks erupt in flames. After we took out the last one we held our position, watching carefully for any survivors"
The troops waited another 5 hours until daybreak, when they saw the carnage before them. In less than 40 minutes, they had knocked out seven tanks and killed 30 men. Seizing the radio hut, Regiton radioed Lentille and informed him the ridge was taken. His unit was relieved by the 12th Infantry Division, who set about reinforcing the ridgeside for a further push into the headland.
Regiton provides a fitting description of the end of the battle. "'You guys look like heroes' said one of the 12th guys as they arrived in their jeeps on the ridge. I was covered in muck from my head to my boots, with a cigarette in my mouth and holding my rifle in one hand. So yeah, we all looked like heroes, but we didn't feel like them. We felt empty and sick. We hadn't eaten or drunk for hours, our ears were still ringing from the gunfire and explosions. And we had lost all our friends, our dearest friends in this battle.
My unit [the 209th] went up that ridge with 8 tanks and over 100 men. We came down with no tanks and 15 men. There were no wounded men to carry down, they had all expired in the night, bleeding to death in the mud or simply giving up all hope and taking their own lives. It was one of the worst battles in Maldenese history, perhaps even military history. And all for 233 meters of mud and stone. I prayed that it was over, but it wasn't"
Regiton was right, it took the 12th another 10 days to take the headland, at the cost of 700 more men. In the bunkers, ridges, forests and tank riddled plains of the rocky "Finger" peninsula, the best kind of heroism emerged, under the worst kind of fighting.
-M.Sulley
(SOURCES: "That Bloody Ridge"- T. Regiton 1989; "A History of the Finger"- Albert Louis, 2002. Thanks also to Pvt. J. Vincent, Louise Davidrite and the men of the 209th Memorial Trust on Malden.)
