in as festive a mood as possible. 318 took dinner in a decorated barn, followed by a sing-song
around a borrowed piano. 'It was our sixth war Christmas, but it was the view of everyone that it
was the best of the six, which says much considering it was our first in the line,' the war diary noted.
On Boxing Day, at the height of the German counter-offensive further south through the Ardennes,
340 enemy aircraft were spotted approaching the corps area from the north-east, but there was no
attack. On the 29th, 318 took part in an indirect fire shoot, and several flying bombs passed over on
the 30th. On New Year's Eve, as snow swept Holland, a German plane crashed on the east bank of
the Maas, but its crew was recovered by a Wehrmacht patrol.
By the end of the year, 92nd LAA had engaged enemy aircraft on 93 occasions, expending
14,047 rounds of 40mm and 8,687 rounds of 20mm. It had 33 Category One claims, including 13
shared. Some 5,826 rounds of 40mm had been fired on ground targets.
FOURTEEN RAIDERS DOWNED
New Year's Day, 1945
`The enemy attacks were very low-level indeed.
On several occasions the guns had to break off firing
owing to the target disappearing behind buildings or trees'
ON January 1, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Henderson RA, of the 97th Anti-Tank Regiment, took
command when Lieutenant Colonel Bazeley transferred to 7th Field Regiment.
That same morning, the Germans launched a massive air offensive with almost 1,000 planes
against 16 Allied airfields in forward areas of Belgium and Holland. Operation Bodenplatte
(Baseplate) was the last major attack in the West by the Luftwaffe - and brought the 92nd's most
dramatic and successful engagement of the war.
At 9.15am, the regiment's air sentries saw a long line of 50 to 60 enemy aircraft approaching from
the east. The first wave consisted of between 15 and 18 FW 190s, flying in line astern at treetop
level. The planes, each carrying one bomb slung below the fuselage, passed over the 92nd's guns
towards Helmond and became involved in dogfights with British Spitfires, Typhoons and Tempests.
As they broke off from the battle, they swept back in strafing runs across the 92nd's area.
Ten minutes later, three more FW 190s roared across at 500ft from west to east, followed shortly
afterwards by a single unidentified aircraft flying at between 200ft and 300ft and an ME 109 at 100ft
over Leunen church.
ME 109s were reported to have RAF roundels and markings and some had an unusual red surround
to the black German cross. As more and more raiders - including at least one jet-propelled ME 262
- filled the skies, it became clear that for the anti-aircraft crews, this was a moment of extreme
danger but also a golden opportunity. All their years of training had been devoted to identifying
targets in a couple of seconds, aiming and shooting almost instantaneously. And here, on this first
day of 1945, there were targets galore.
For the next 45 minutes, with Jack Prior co-ordinating the radio links with the gunsites from the
school playground in Leunen, the Bofors fired almost continuously with devastating effect. A gun of
D Troop 318, commanded by Sergeant William `Taffy' James, destroyed three aircraft and shared
in the destruction of a fourth. 319 -which was at rest at the time, with many guns stripped down for
maintenance - rapidly brought its Bofors into action and shot down two more. 317 destroyed at
least one FW 190. `The enemy attacks were very low-level indeed,' Major Crane wrote in a report
soon after. `The pilots were determined, and displayed great skill in low flying. On several
occasions the guns had to break off firing owing to the target disappearing behind buildings, trees,
or flying below prescribed safety limits.'
In all, the regiment fired 1,765 rounds and destroyed seven planes outright. Two more were shot
down in conjunction with a neighbouring regiment, and five more were awarded as probably
destroyed. Four of the German planes were downed in an area only 1,000 yards square - testimony
to the intensity of the battle. As the action ended at 10.15am, the gunlayers slumped from their
Bofors, exhausted and dizzy from the frenzied pace of the firing.
`Today was a really happy one for us,' the 318 war diary recorded. `The Luftwaffe came
seeking action and we took it up.' The CO summed it up even more succinctly. `Sheer good
shooting, entirely visual,' he said. By the end of the day, the Germans had lost more than 200 aircraft
over Holland and Belgium and the Luftwaffe's last gamble had come to nothing.
Later, the 3rd Division intelligence summary acknowledged the 92nd's superb performance
during the New Year's Day attack. Twenty-nine planes had been destroyed by the corps, but the 14
shot down by the 92nd were `by far the largest to the credit of a single LAA regiment on that
memorable morning.'
ACROSS THE RHINE TO VICTORY
January to May 1945
'Through the early hours of the April 25th, the regiment's batteries used up 36,000 rounds.
By that evening, organised resistance in Bremen was collapsing and prisoners testified in no
uncertain terms as to the effect of sustained Bofors fire in an area shoot '
FOR the next fortnight, amid snow and deep frost, sporadic shelling, bombing, mortaring
and nebelwerfer strikes followed as the Germans tried unsuccessfully to gain a bridgehead across
the Maas. On January 5, a V-1 was spotted passing over at low level, followed by 15 more
vapour trails. Next day, 17 were seen. Six shells landed on divisional HQ and others on A Troop
area.