10 The Highland Light Infantry at AVENDORF

AVENDORF, Germany

Listing Details

Date

1945-04-20

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The river, however, remained uncrossed and our task consisted in marching forward through the night to occupy LUDERSHAUSEN, 2 miles from the river, where we remained to cover the building of a bridge over a small river which lay in our path. Patrols were sent forward to the bank of the ELBE the same night to see whether a quick crossing would be possible, but they found that the nearby village of ARTLENBURG and other points on the road were occupied by enemy. During the next day-the 20 - than attack was prepared on these positions, and just before midnight " D" and " B" Companies moved forward to the attack, under cover of a good weight of artillery. There was a brisk but brief engagement at the entrance to the village of ARTLENBURG, and then the policemen who were defending it began to come in by dozens until nearly 200 had been taken. A further exploitation by "A" Company cleared the nearby village of AVENDORF without trouble. And so at last we stood on the west bank of the ELBE only four weeks to the day after crossing the Rhine. The memory of the advances made in that month, with the added knowledge that they were advances made into the heart ofthe enemy's own country, remained printed in our minds more vividly than any part of our campaign since the desperate battles of our earlier days in Normandy.