The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

of the way, he quickly got his two MG teams ready and radioed back to
company headquarters that he was in position to fire. In the meantime, the
artillery behind had arrived and unlimbered, and had begun firing. With
shells hurtling through the air and with small arms beginning to crackle,
Hellmuth was given the order for his men to open fire. Ahead, he watched
the assault troops, crouching in their rubber boats, paddling furiously across
the river. Soon the room was thick with the smell of cordite and oil.
Through the haze of battle, Hellmuth saw white flags appearing from the
enemy already as the assault troops began scrambling out of their boats and
up the far bank, their flame-throwers and hand-grenades ready. More
infantry were now pouring across the river, the signal for Hellmuth to
dismantle his MGs and get his men across the water as well. ‘To our
surprise,’ noted Hellmuth, ‘the owner of the house invited us to a cup of hot
coffee even though we hadn’t exactly been polite to him.’
Quickly swigging back the coffee, they then found a couple of spare
boats and made their way across the river. On the far bank, they came up
against a large wire fence. Lying on his front, Hellmuth cut a hole and then
his men hurried through the gap, lumbering their gear as quickly as they
could. Ahead were the blackened remains of a Dutch concrete bunker.
Prisoners sat around it and Hellmuth was surprised that no-one seemed to
have taken responsibility for them. Shrugging to himself, he ordered his
men forward, the infantry either side and in front of them.
During the rest of the day, Hellmuth’s Gruppe never had cause to fire
their machine guns again. Instead, they merely followed the advance,
carrying their heavy loads through field after field, the sound of gunfire
always up ahead of them. Late in the afternoon, they reached the village of
Horst. There they learned they had achieved the day’s objective – a distance
of about twelve miles.
Hellmuth and his men were absolutely exhausted. His first day in action
had left a strong impression on him. It was real war at last and yet they had
been largely unhindered by the enemy, making it feel rather like a tight
exercise carried out by the book.
Back at Felsennet, General Halder’s anxious waiting game was far from
over, but by nine o’clock that evening intelligence had arrived that
motorized enemy columns were moving in the direction of Brussels. Just as
he had hoped and prayed, it seemed the Allies were moving forward to