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Advance to the Baltic… Battlegroup Fall of the Reich
Troops from 6th Airborne enter Minden to flush out the remaining defenders – a motley collection of Waffen SS replacements, Hitler Youth and Panzer crewmen with no tanks.
The engagement was preceeded by a land mattress barrage which Knocked out the supporting Sdkfz 251 Drilling, and the short battle dissolved into an infantry affair.
The German left flank quickly vanished under the assault of an airborne Blitz section, their Mk5 Stens proving lethal in the close confines of the street fighting, by defeating and securing the SS position on the British right flank and then able to hold off Hitler Youth troops and weather enemy MG fire.
On the British left, the main attack bogged down into a prolonged firefight over the main road. British troops initially got the upper hand but sniper fire, and supporting fire from the Sdkfz 251 Stummel, and then the arriving Brummbaer, pinned the British paratroopers down in a line of terraced apartments.
It was in the centre that the battle was decided however. The main German defence nest of two buildings also happened to be the aim8ng point for the supporting British mortars of the battalion. Bomb after bomb rained down with effective fire killing and suppressing the German defenders. Despite one unit of British airborne blundering into a house full of boobytraps, the mortar fire, combined with fire from the AEC armoured car, Vickers and snipers helped push the advance forwards and eventually cleared one of the central houses of enemy troops.
With this, the Germans withdrew, leaving Minden to the British…
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