Martin Lindsay's account of 1st Gordons action at Goch
THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION OF THE 1ST GORDONS
ACTION AT GOCH IS TAKEN FROM
"SO FEW GOT THROUGH" by Martin Lindsay
February 18th.
All to-day has been spent in preparing for to-morrow's operation - the capture of Goch. I am scribbling these notes very late at night in what "must have been a coachman's room above the stables of a big schloss called "Grafenthal," at the south-east corner of the Reichswald. The Tac H.Q of both 152 and 153 Brigades are here. Roddy Sinclair, our Brigadier, has just got back, but there is to be no change in commanders till after the battle.
The plan is very simple.
Goch is to be attacked from the north-west. 15th Scottish are going for the far side of the river and 153 Brigade the near side. Of 153, 5th B.W. go first and take all the main parts of the town south of the river, up to and including the big square. They should have entered the town at 11 p.m. to-night. Then 5-7th Gordons are to pass through them and take on from beyond the square as far as the railway. Our objective is the area just south of the 5th B.W.-5-7th boundary. This includes the beginning of the main road leading out of the town to the south-west, with two road junctions, and there is a school, a factory and several largish buildings in the area. Air-photos show that the town has been very badly bombed and most of the streets are cratered or choked with rubble.
February 19th and 20th.
The day started with a Brigade L.O. waking me up pretty early to say that 5th B.W. had got into the town without any difficulty, that 5-7th Gordons had been committed, and that my Battalion had been called forward from Gennep and should reach Grafenthal about 9 a.m. This they duly did and the companies and transport were dispersed in the areas we had chosen for then the morning before.
The first two companies in the batting order were A and D and after about an hour I set off with their Company Commanders, Arthur Thomson and Casey Petrie, and Kenneth McDonald who has just taken over I.0. There was a lot of mortaring and shelling on the road into Goch and we twice stopped and took cover. There did not seem to be any great hurry, as one could see that the 5th-7th were not getting on very well from the number of their fighting vehicles which were held up at the roadside. We found the Black Watch Tac just inside the town and established our own near it. Akers and Neil were sent out at once to fill sandbags and put them on the sills of the two windows.
Bill Bradford told me that they had no difficulty in getting into the town and occupying the area astride the main road as all the Huns were asleep at the time in cellars. But when they tried to clean up a larger area in daylight, they soon found themselves in difficulties with snipers and spandaus. Companies of 5-7th Gordons were now fighting in what was nominally the 5th B.W. area and had scarcely entered their own objective. It was painfully obvious that first impressions were wrong and the enemy has every intention of defending the town.
The rest of the day was perfectly bloody. It just couldn't have been more unpleasant. As soon as the area of the square had been cleared, I decided to try to clean up the main street running south from it. It was obvious that the other two battalions were fully committed and could not do this, although it was really the boundary between them and should have been done before we arrived.
This street was the main one leading into our objective and A Company got to work. Almost at once their commander, Arthur Thomson, was killed, shot through the head by a sniper in the first few minutes of his first action while standing in a doorway talking to Bill Kyle, his second-in-command. Kyle took over and did very well, and the company made a certain amount of progress, but resistance stiffened and it was clear that no further advance could be made in that direction without heavy casualties. The street was badly cratered by debris so we could not use tanks or crocodiles, and any sortie by the bulldozer was met by aimed small-arms fire from snipers.
History Section Reference :
Reichswald
Museum Reference :
Documents - Reichswald
Black Watch - Reichswald.