In spring of 1945 ...
... the end of the 2nd world war was near. The allies advanced deeper and deeper into Germany. The country was divided into several isolated areas which were still under control of the German army. One of these "islands" was the so called Ruhr Pocket which was enclosed by the rivers Rhine in the west and Ruhr to the north.
One of our attempts to cross this natural boundary took place in the north of Cologne at a small village called Hitdorf which was considered one of the weakest parts of the German defense line. At 2:30 in the morning we crossed the river in assault boats heading to the harbor of the village. Under heavy fire finding ourselves in a minefield our company was split into two parts which both fought their way through the hostile fire. Supported by following waves we managed to enter the village. During our efforts to clean the place of all enemies our base at the west bank recorded the following radio message.
At 8:30 Hitdorf was free of hostile forces. 68 prisoners were taken and everything looked like we had established a bridge into the Ruhr Pocket. But the "peace" just lasted for the quarter of an hour... A company of Germans approached from the south and forced us to retreat to the outskirts of the village. On the counter attack we took another 33 man as prisoners. With the help of medium and heavy artillery the enemy managed to destroy all wire communication and the artillery outpost in the church tower.
In the afternoon at 03:30 a German infantry company approached supported by two tanks. We called for artillery which scattered the Germans for a short time. The call of an additional Panzerfaust was the last message that we received from our third platoon. Another unit of 200 Germans overran our second platoon from the North. We had no choice but to fight our way back to the beach were we established our defense. We got further support by two additional platoons crossing the river. The destruction of one of the German tanks did not stop their approach for long.
At the end we had no choice but to retreat over the river to the west banks again. Two weeks later when we conquered the city of Wiesdorf we got hold of the following code table that may help in later investigations.