Zilant-1, consisting of 1st Battalion, 298th Guards Rifle Regiment, was targeted on Hamburg and the Schloss Ahrensburg.
The 2nd Battalion had a date with destiny as Zilant-2 at the Schloss Neuhaus near Paderborn.
2nd Battalion, 304th Guards Rifle Regiment, reinforced with 2 companies of the 1st battalion, all forming Zilant-3, was concentrated upon Frankfurt, and Schloss Kransberg.
Makarenko’s group, Zilant-4 consisting of 3rd Battalion 298th and a special grouping of divisional troops, had been handed Château de Haut-Kœnigsbourg, and the furthest flight. The remainder of his division was untasked.
Some Allied ground radar stations became aware of many aircraft crossing the new borders and reported in. Some reports were taken seriously, others were not, and some were confused with the intended Molotov flight paths but in any case, only a handful of night-fighters were sent airborne to investigate. Reports started to filter upwards but no-one senior enough received warning in time. Partially due to ineptitude on the part of the radar units but partially because of the successful interference in communications commenced by small groups of Soviet personnel, infiltrated weeks beforehand for the purpose of wreaking havoc behind allied lines.
Communication infrastructure destroyed during the allied advance into Germany and recently restored was swiftly destroyed again, along with a few communication centres and radar warning sites.
Some Soviets were caught in the act and small firefights broke out all over Germany and Northern Italy. The dying started before the sun rose over the morning skyline.
Timed to coincide with all attacks, units of Soviet-manned aircraft arrived over allied airbases at 0530. Those nearest the demarcation lines were mainly visited by Soviet Shturmoviks, PE-2’s and their attendant fighter escorts. The airbases further afield got more specialist attention from US built aircraft sent to Russia under lend-lease and British fighters that had survived the harrowing Arctic convoy run, all in their respective USAAF and RAF colours but flown by a Russian pilot, sowing confusion with friendly anti-aircraft batteries and responding aircraft alike.
In the first instance, all Soviet air forces were concentrated against the Western Allies airbases throughout Germany and Austria, in an effort to eradicate the weapons that had proved so successful in destroying the German armies in 1944. Operation Kurgan was absolutely vital to the plans set in motion that morning, for whilst the Soviet Commanders had little respect for the armies of the Western Allies, they understood only too well the power of the Air forces of their opponents.
With some cunning, the supposed flight to Paris of Ministers Molotov and Bulganin had been used to mask some of the air attacks. The Soviets had indicated five possible routes that the aircraft flight might take, citing security concerns over rogue fascist elements for not confirming the flight plan. In fact, Zilant-4 had flown the southernmost route totally unimpeded. Some allied radar controllers saw what they had been briefed to see, although the numbers of aircraft exceeded expectations. Others already lay dead with their equipment smashed around them.
At times, attacks were met with no resistance and whole squadrons were destroyed on the ground, crews killed as they slept. Some attacks received opposition as allied aircrew drove their mounts into the early morning sky, dodging the bombs and bullets that sought them out.
It was of little surprise that some responses were poorly aimed, and on at least two occasions RAF Tempests clawed friendly Mustangs out of the sky, sending both the young American pilots to a fiery death.
Airfields near the North German coast and through Denmark found themselves under ground assault from Soviet Naval infantry, landed in the night from darkened vessels of all sizes and descriptions.
The allied controlled airbase in Berlin came alive with light as Soviet artillery and Katyusha rockets brought down a huge barrage, destroying every aircraft on the ground and inflicting massive casualties on the base personnel.
In precious few cases were the attackers met fully and equally and, in the space of seventy-five minutes, the western air forces from the Alps to the Baltic suffered grievous casualties in men and machines. In one stroke, a major part of the Allied armies was crippled for some time to come for a modest toll in Soviet aircrew and planes.
In other operations, Soviet sabotage and assassination squads had mixed successes. General Clark’s warning had proved timely for all but one senior commander targeted, although for General George Patton it had been a close run thing, just missing the attack on his command centre, and for French General De Lattre de Tassigny in his Baden-Baden headquarters it had run closer, as his slight wounds from grenade shrapnel showed. Perversely, the attack on General Clark’s Salzburg headquarters was extremely effective in dealing death, and many US military personnel were killed before the situation was restored.
The only real success on the part of the assassination squads was in the British sector at the Headquarters of Bad Oeynhausen, where Field-Marshal Montgomery was severely wounded by sub-machine gunfire before the Russians attackers were driven off, killed, or taken prisoner.
Sabotage units successfully destroyed ammunition and fuel dumps across Germany and the Low countries. One special NKVD unit even managed to wreck the PLUTO facility at Ambleteuse in Northern France and another sunk two freighters in Antwerp harbour.
In all cases, casualties among the attacking Soviet units were extreme.
The groups targeting the symposiums carried out their missions with varying degrees of success.
Zilant-1, landing surprisingly accurately in fields to the north-west of Schloss Ahrensberg, swiftly formed and made their attack, overwhelming a strong detachment of British Military police. Within twenty minutes of the first shot, the Schloss was ablaze and every allied officer and all members of Symposium Hamburg were dead or left wounded to die amid the flames. Few of the attacking paratroopers had perished and they split into small groups, fanning out through the German countryside intent on further mischief before they were hunted down.
At Schloss Neuhaus near Paderborn, the result was much the same, although one aircraft was downed by anti-aircraft fire and one group of paratroopers drowned when dropped off target into the Lippesee. A company of US MP’s defended stoutly but the Soviet troopers stormed forward regardless of losses, killing all before them. No allied officers or symposium members escaped unharmed, although a desperate handful of wounded men managed to escape by swimming the moat.
Some remained inside and were found one by one with inevitable results, but not before one Major from the 82nd US Airborne Division had burst from his hiding place and gunned down the commander and 2-I-C of the attacking paratroopers. Whilst he paid with his life in seconds, almost cut in half by a burst from a PPS sub-machine gun, the net effect was to paralyse the attackers. Instead of fanning out to cause trouble elsewhere, the unit halted as the new commander, an inexperienced young Captain, struggled to gain control. As a result, the Zilant-2 force found themselves besieged almost medieval style by arriving US combat units.
Zilant-3’s attack was a bloodbath for both sides. Early heavy casualties came to the Russian paratroopers, as they were engaged both in the air and on the ground by wide-awake gunners of the 486th U.S. Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion using the deadly US M-16 half-track quadruple .50 cal Maxon anti-aircraft mount. This weapon could put about two thousand rounds a minute in the direction of the enemy and many casualties were simply obliterated in the blink of an eye.