But Wirth was too smart to confront a group of heavily armed drunks, who he hardly knew, in the middle of the night. Technically, the men SS sergeants and corporals, but in reality, Wirth recognized that they were largely thugs and sadists—fine for murdering Jews, but potentially dangerous if provoked by a strange and stuffy officer.
Wirth found himself a bunk in one of the barracks and lay down.
Finally, about an hour after midnight the revelers grew tired and the sub-camp quieted. Wirth was able to drop off to sleep for the first time in two days. Despite the bunk’s discomfort Wirth slept deeply. Too soon he was roused by a commotion in the room.
“Was ist Ios” he asked an SS sergeant, as he tried to orient himself. Slowly he remembered that instead of lying in his comfortable bed in Lubin he was in a filthy death camp barrack.
“There is shooting Herr Obersfurmfirehrer. It sounds like it is coming from the Lager IV—the extermination camp.”
“That’s not so unusual” said Wirth, rising on an elbow, but not leaving the bunk. He listened to the shooting, and though he was not an expert, it sounded like German Mausers and MG-34s. That would be normal coming from the extermination lager, in the event a gas engine gave out. Not an uncommon occurrence Wirth reassured himself and the SS man.
“As you say Herr Obersturmfuhrer” said the sergeant, grateful to return to his bunk.
“Nichts!” said Wirth suddenly, realizing why he was at Treblinka in the first place. “Get all the men up and have them assemble immediately. I’m going to see the Commandant.” The disappointed sergeant, still tipsy, saluted and stumbled out the door.
Wirth pulled on his boots, and strapped on his pistol belt. By the time he got outside the shooting had almost stopped. Within the camp there seemed to be some stirring but no general alarm. He walked quickly toward Erbel’s quarters, increasingly hopeful. Perhaps, it was just the guards eliminating some leftover transport Jews, or recalcitrant Sondercommandos. He stepped through the gate leading to the Forward Camp when Treblinka was rocked by a huge explosion, and just as suddenly, the lights went out.
Rafi had put the rocket from the B-300 precisely on target. The projectile itself contained a tandem thermobaric warhead designed to penetrate several inches of reinforced concrete or armor. It went through the wooden generator shack as if it was paper, and the secondary charge turned the entire building to matchsticks. The radio antenna atop the shack was destroyed in the blast as well. He’d fired from one of the towers overlooking the extermination sub-camp, with Yatom acting as his spotter. Yatom waived to Nir and Feldhandler, who remained at the foot of the tower to avoid the launcher’s backblast. The two men now joined Yatom, while Yatom sent Rafi to the northwest tower to join Roskovsky and Ido. Using his thermal binoculars Yatom scanned the death camp now shrouded in complete darkness.
They had broken into the extermination sub-camp just moments before. That proved to be more difficult than expected. The outside perimeter was not mined nor patrolled, but the camp’s fences, though neither electrified nor wired to emit a warning signal, still turned out to be a significant obstacle. The Germans built some first-rate fences, difficult and time consuming to cut through, and in doing that the Israeli assault had almost faltered As Roskovsky and Itzak crept forward to cut the wire, the commandos, with suppressed weapons, engaged the platoon of Ukranians and Germans guarding the sub-camp.
The Israelis fired from cover in the brush, but they were unable to take advantage of their night-optics in the heavily illuminated camp. Ilan and Bolander took on the guards in the towers while Mofaz, Yatom and Itzak poured suppressed fire at the exposed perimeter guards. They killed several, but soon enough the surviving guards and immediate reinforcements started to shoot back. One Ukranian team got a burst off from their MG-34 before Bolander put them down, and other Ukranians got off several volleys toward the commandos. This was the shooting that Wirth had heard.
As Itzak and Roskovsky reached the wire the German fire increased, and the sayeret was lucky to have come out of the fight unscathed. Itzak took a round in the chest from an MP-40. A ceramic plate stopped the bullet, but he was down a few seconds. Yatom himself had a round go through his clown hat, while another round had grazed Roskovsky’s helmet. With all the German fire, and two of his men already exposed, Yatom had all of the commandos, plus Feldhander with his unsuppressed Galil, pouring fire into the extermination Lager. Afier several minutes of careful shooting most of the German guards had either fallen, gone to ground or fled. Itzak and Roskovsky finally penetrated the wire Led by Yatom, teams Alef and Bet stornred into the camp.
Once within the sub-camp the sayeret broke up according to plan.
Ilan and Bolander, who had shot the Ukranians out of the four guard towers covering the sub-camp, occupied the northeast tower, giving them a clear view of the rest of Treblinka, including clear shots at the guard towers on the southeast and southwest corners of the main camp. Yatom, Nir and Feldhandler took the central tower along the fence, while Mofaz seized the forward-most tower in the center of the sub-camp with Itzak. Roskovsky and Ido (joined by Rafi after he destroyed the generator shack,) took the northwest tower. From this last tower the commandos covered the vast burial area and the Himmelgang. These were the most likely areas for a German counter-attack.
Secure in the captured guard towers, and with the camp plunged into darkness, the Israelis were finally able to take advantage of their superior op night optics and infrared laser designators. It was time to Whittle away at Treblinka’s garrison.
Yatom pulled spoke into his Madonna mouthpiece: “Take your suppressors off. Fire at will!” Without the suppressors the rifles were more accurate and powerful. Yatom wagered that it was worth revealing flashes in the towers in return for the benefits. As far as the noise, it didn’t much matter anymore.
From the towers most of the commandos used their MARS/D reflex sights and UNS (universal night sights) in combination with the IR laser designators to pick off the enemy. The MARS/D system allowed for both visible laser and IR laser imaging. The IR lasers were invisible to the Germans but showed up as bright laser lines through the UNS and allowed the Israelis to easily illuminate and engage targets. Ilan and Bolander used these in addition to clip-on thermal optical sights to engage targets under cover.
Yatom quickly identified the mass of Jewish prisoners in the deportation yard, and put the area off limits—but everywhere else in the camp was open season.
The Ukranians in the southwest and southeast towers were first to feel the sting. The Ukranian gunners were easy marks for Ilan and Bolander. Despite Yatom’s order, the two snipers kept their suppressors on, creating a nearly silent and invisible shooting nest. The mass of Germans and Ukranians in the main camp soon enough began falling. The night was no longer a shroud. Moving off into the pitch black shadows unaware of the danger, Nazi squad leaders would suddenly collapse with a bullet in the head or chest.
Their men, unable to accept that they were as exposed as if on a parade ground in daylight, would quickly meet a similar fate, until someone had the presence of mind to run away.
After suffering scores of casualties, the camp garrison simply stopped moving, hiding themselves away in Treblinka’s rickety buildings, or in the alleyways between them. Expecting this, Yatom called on Nir to root them out with 40mm grenades. Nir put these through windows and doors, or lobbed them into the alleys. When the blasted men tried to flee, the commandos cut them down with rifles. It was only a matter of time, hoped Yatom, before the garrison would begin to seek refuge in the forests outside the camp, like their victims.