Nothing in amphibious training must be construed to mean that the basic tactical principles of combat of an infantry division are changed in any way. This must be impressed on all concerned throughout the period of amphibious training. This must be clearly understood. The invasion is just the means to an end.”
Blah, blah, blah… Phil’s mind started to wander. He wanted to get out his sketch book and immortalize this scene. The drill sergeant strutting around like a rooster with all the little chicks watching his every move. Blah, blah, blah.
Phil tries to focus like all the rest of the lemmings in the company. The Sergeant drones on
“In general, the arrangement of men is in three files, riflemen along the gunwales, members of crew-served weapons units in the center, the, boat team commander and squad commanders near the bow, and the boat and squad seconds in command near 'the stern. If the boat is not equipped with naval weapons served by naval personnel, automatic riflemen, if any, are placed so that they can fire their weapon toward the beach as the boat approaches the shore. As soon as the boat is beached the men are taught to leave the boat by a prescribed drill. If not equipped with ramps, all debarkation is over both sides of the boat simultaneously. The odd numbered men of the flank files, assisted by the even numbers, are the first over side, followed in turn by the even numbers and by the center file. This results in the arrival of boat and squad commanders first on the beach. In ramp boats the flank files go over the side, and the center file debarks over the ramp.”
Phil starts to drift off again and starts to wonder “Who thinks of this stuff? Do they sit around all day thinking of who should sit where and who should shoot their weapons and at what?” This is beyond bizarre. Two months ago I was trying to get to second base with Melony and now I’m being bored to death by a moronic drill sergeant. How and why did this happen? I was going to be an art teacher and now I’m being trained to get on boats, get off boats and then to shoot people who get in my way. And for what? God and country?
He snaps to and starts to listen again as the soldier next to him jerks awake. This attracts the eye of the corporal who starts to glare at them both.
And the sergeant drones on “(1) As soon as landing boats are beached, boat teams debark rapidly and cross the beach at a run in widely deployed formations resembling skirmish lines. Such formations are difficult to control by boat team commanders and are maintained only until the first available cover or concealment is reached.
(2) Under protection of the first available cover or concealment a brief pause is essential, during which assault boat teams change their formations into those which are more readily controlled. The following are suitable for the purpose. The most suitable is the one which will best fit the terrain and tactical situation existing.
(a) Wedge. An inverted "V", with riflemen forming the sides, and members of the supporting weapons unit marching in rear of the angle.”
This lecture goes on for another hour and Phil remembers absolutely nothing of what the sergeant said except the very first two sentences verbatim. He remembered these sentences because they made perfect sense. You get off the boats to fight the enemy on land. Everything else was irrelevant. You just followed the guy ahead of you, and if he got wacked you followed the next guy. They were a bunch of lemmings in reverse. Instead of following each other off a cliff, we follow each other off a boat in order to climb a cliff.
He sure missed Melony.
Inimitable Nimitz
With the death of Douglas McArthur,[21] Admiral Nimitz finally had uncontested control of all amphibious invasion forces of the NATO coalition. McArthur had been a burr in Nimitz saddle for years, and he was glad to finally have free rein. The irony was the he was going to use his arch rival’s plan. Luckily, it was a good plan and he had no qualms about its implementation.
Since McArthur was dead, Nimitz did not have to justify and argue every detail. All the resources were his to use as he saw fit. He was fit in every sense of the word and ready to do what had to be done.
The first landing was to be in a few days at the port of Trieste. Historically the city had alternately been under Italian and Yugoslavian control. Right now, it was under Tito’s Yugoslavia. Soon, it would be governed by NATO.
The Marines would be the first to land. Then, the Army would take over landing 23 divisions ashore in as little time as possible. On D-Day over 130,000 troops had landed the first day. Nimitz’s imminent operation would disembark 250,000 troops on land in two days. These troops were to move at an historic pace towards Vienna. The goal was to reach this celebrated city in 10 days. The distance was about 300 miles and would require an unprecedented rate of thirty miles a day. [22]
Everything possible was being given to the commanders to assist them in moving fast towards their objectives and the digging in once they reached them. The new Patton tanks were ready for the job. Fast as hell, with a gun that could take out any known Soviet tank. The tanks could get to their assigned position before the enemy, dig in and defend until relieved.
The M38A3 Wolfhound armored car fitted with a 17 pounder could handle on all but the heaviest Soviet tanks. The Wolfhound would be towing an armored trailer carrying two squads, as well as supplies for a week’s worth of fighting, from fuel to ammo.
The overreaching strategy was to get to defensive positions that cut off Soviet supply lines. Along the route to Vienna combat units were to capture known airfields and possible sites for new airfields.
The naval forces have the job of defending the airspace over the battlefield for 200 miles in shore. The advanced forces are to establish airbases farther than the 200 miles. The USAAF will use the airbases to provide air cover for the remainder of the advancing forces.
Just like the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific, islands of defenders will cut off the supply lines of the Soviet army. Many will recall when the first P-38 Lightnings landed in the Philippines and were able to establish air superiority in a matter of weeks. Nimitz’s goal was air superiority in days not weeks.
Special construction battalions were trained to setup airstrips in record time. The advanced troops would arrive with stores for the aircraft as an organic part of their supplies. Using combat troops in this role would greatly enhance getting planes over the battlefield.
Nimitz’s job was to get troops safely on shore, defend them for the first 200 miles from air attack, and keep them supplied from the port of Trieste. At the same time, he had to keep his own supply lines open back to the US, and defend his own ships from attack by sea and air.
The Soviet’s mini-subs would be in their element off the coast of Italy and Albania. The Adriatic Sea was surrounded by Soviet territory. The widest point of the sea was 130 miles and Nimitz would have to supply 25 divisions along the entire length. His battleships would pound anything that looked like a launching site for those mini-subs. His fighter bombers would be attacking the mini-subs in the water as well as looking as any being transported.
There was very little doubt that NATO would have massive air superiority for the first couple of weeks. Then it would be a matter of how the Soviets reacted. He has seen estimates that they would respond very rapidly. This was a very similar scenario to Anzio albeit on a massive scale. The key was getting off the ships and moving quickly inland and on to Vienna setting up strong points all along the way. Luckily, there were defensible mountain passes both east and west of the planned advance. They just had to get there first and setup a strong defense and wait for the Reds to respond.
Once the Stavka showed its hand, other invasions were planned to cut off the enemy’s counter attacks and further isolate them before they could breach the dagger that would be trust into their guts.
Line in the Sand
**** Montgomery looked supremely confident as usual. He carried himself with great élan and dash. After all, he had faced almost the exact situation before with the exception that now he was facing east. Against Rommel he had been facing west and quite frankly he was more
worried then.
The object of both Rommel and now Zhukov was to capture the Suez Canal. If Zhukov could take the Suez, and Gibraltar their capture would make the Mediterranean a Soviet lake like the Black Sea and Baltic were now. In this war, seizing the Canal was more of a propaganda goal than a strategic one.
The airfields beyond were another matter. Controlling these airfields was Stalin’s brass ring and would end NATO’s bombing of his oil production facilities in the Caucasus area. The oil and the refineries are strategically vital to the Soviets. Seventy percent of Soviet oil was in the within range of the American B-29s flying from Egypt.
Montgomery had a very defensible position similar to El Alamein in the last war. One of his flanks was secure with the sea on his left. His right flank was more vulnerable than against Rommel but still very defensible. The Americans had spared no expense, for once, to make sure that the Reds would not breach his lines. Montgomery had all the supplies and latest equipment they could offer. He actually did not have to beg, borrow and steal like he did against the Germans. He had virtually everything he needed to defeat the Red Army.
On the defense, he had no equal. His skill at moving units around and plugging holes was amply demonstrated numerous times against Rommel and the Africa Corps during the last war. Zhukov would be in a similar situation as Rommel. The Reds would be forced to attack a well dug in and supplied enemy with troops that were weak from months of fighting and low supplies. Zhukov would have one shot and then it was Montgomery’s turn. The Soviets had pushed their troops to the breaking point and he was going to break them here in the Sinai Desert.
Ike had assured him that whatever he needed was his for the asking. He had asked for it all and had gotten it. The only thing missing was the navy. He had suggested a contingent of aircraft carriers and battleships would be a welcome addition to his force structure. He was told that the naval forces would be occupied elsewhere. When he inquired where was “elsewhere” he was given the old Ike run around. He knew exactly how to tell you nothing yet was never insulting.
Just as he had always done, he followed orders, despite his reputation. Montgomery played the good soldier. In his opinion, he deferred to an obviously inferior commander in the persona of Eisenhower. He mused and not for the first time, that Ike was a nice chap but no soldier. Eisenhower was just lucky he commanded some good soldiers who were able to lead.
***** Ike had just gotten off the phone with Montgomery and thought …He was a good soldier but not a nice chap. He hated to talk to the man over the phone. Monty seemed to become even more arrogant when he wasn’t physically confronted. He was very confident in Monty’s abilities to hold off the weakened Red Army that had spent its strength just getting to the Sinai. Zhukov’s men were running out of supplies. From all reports, Soviet soldiers did not like being so far from home. Also homesickness was starting to take its toll on some of the soldiers from the more uneducated regions. To the Soviet citizen at large invading all but a neighboring country was a very foreign concept. As crazy as it seemed, this attitude was a great advantage to NATO.
The Russian, Ukrainian etc., history was not rife with invasion scenarios. They tended to be invaded and then fight like hell to get their homeland back. They did not perform well when faced with being the aggressor.
Most of Western Europe was very well acquainted and sought out expeditions in foreign lands. Even America now had an empire consisting of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba. The British, French, Spanish and even the Dutch enthusiastically invaded foreign lands. Not the Russians.
What was it about certain societies that makes them want to explore and others stay insular?
Back to the matter at hand. Monty had pressed him on using the navy and he had deflected the request. He had given the old maid everything he asked for and he was still not happy. Ike could not confide in Monty about the impending invasions. Only a handful knew the full extent of what was planned and Montgomery was not privy to that information. Montgomery would have wanted to be leading the charge and he was not the man to lead anything but a stubborn defense. Ike had let him have his way in Operation Market Garden[23] and history knows the results of that defeat.
Eisenhower needed aggressive commanders for the four invading armies. The short list included…
Lucian Truscott[24]
Mathew Ridgeway[25]
Oscar Griswold[26]
Walton Walker[27]
Wade Haslip[28]
Charles Corlett[29]
Edward Brooks[30]
Terry Allen[31]
William Simpson[32]
Joseph Collins[33]
Troy Middleton[34]
Leonard Gerow[35]
Walker, Ridgeway, Truscott and Halslip were in training now as Army Commanders. Collins, Allen, Middleton, Gerow and Corlett were taking the Lead Corps positions. The Lead Corps units are the key to moving fast and these commanders were even more valuable than Ike was, and their Army Commanders. If the Lead Corps made their objectives, the war was won. If not, then NATO was in for trouble.
Having seen all these commanders in action in World War Two, he was confident in his choices. He missed Patton and MacArthur. However, this new generation of hands-on commanders would do quite nicely in their stead. He didn’t need strategic thinkers, he needed doers. These men could get the job done. They were proven and tested.
Walker would lead off at Trieste.
Over the Hell Holes of Trieste
Billy love his plane. He was doing exactly what he had dreamed of doing since he was sixteen. He was flying so high and the sun was so bright, he was thinking about that story of the guy and his kid who flew too close to the sun. Only, he did not intend to experience their same fate. God, this was beautiful. He wondered if he would see the day when man went into space. They said that the V2 got to the edge before it plunged down and destroyed lives and cities.
He was at the absolute performance envelope for his converted P-38 Lightning. The model was designated the F-5 and it was a plane designed to take pictures. That’s right, pictures…pretty pictures of things on the ground from very high up, very, very high up, as high as you could get. He was what was called a “Photo Joe” or officially a Reconnaissance Pilot. [36]
Later during an interview Billy recalled, “We did everything a fighter pilot did but without any guns except for the 45 caliber in my holster. Sometimes I didn’t bother with that (don’t tell my commander). We would fly so high and fast that in theory the enemy couldn’t catch us…in theory. I was “caught” a few times and had to out fly my attacker.
On this mission I didn’t expect any opposition and I’m not going to keep you in suspense about that. I was not intercepted probably because of where I was. I was flying over Trieste on the border of Italy and Yugoslavia at the very top of the Adriatic Sea. It had changed hands many times, but now was firmly in the hands of the Yugoslavian military lead by Tito. What a name, Tito. Many a joke was made on that one, but it would be no joke if I got shot down and was captured by Tito.
The F-5 was performing beautifully and the camera was rolling. The sky was clear as clear can be and I just knew I was getting some great shots. I have no idea what the top brass wants with this sea port in the middle of nowhere but mine was not to question why…”
Billy Howe had actually heard about Trieste before this flight. It was a city of continual contention between the Italians and whoever was in charge of the neighboring country. Good port, valuable land and a rare flat spot in that part of the world. Before the last war, Mussolini had poured lots of money on the port in the 30’s. Trieste once was one of the best ports in the world for about ten years. Then, Allied bombers destroyed the docks and such, but the overall favorable terrain was still there and someone in NATO command was interested.
The reason Billy had heard of Trieste had nothing to do with the port, but with massacres that had occurred over the centuries and burial sites called foibe, a type of giant sinkhole prevalent in the area. A mecha
nic in his unit was originally from Trieste and would tell stories about the area that would make Billy’s blood run cold. The most recent massacres were perpetrated by the Yugoslavians after the last war. Thousands of Italian fascists were killed and dumped in these sinkholes as retribution for what they had done to the Slovenian population after the first Great War. Also, Trieste was the site of Italy’s only concentration camp with a crematorium where thousands died.
The foibe were sometimes as deep as 600 meters and made for conveniently disposing of bodies. The term Hell Hole came to mind. All too often they were not bodies but the living including former partisans, citizens, Jews, political prisoners, innocent men women and children who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There has been so much death and torture in Trieste, it was a wonder why anyone lived there anymore. How could you come back to or move to a place where you knew tens of thousands had been killed over politics or for retribution of former atrocities carried out by the different ethnic groups on their enemies. One atrocity led to another yet the foibes did not fill up and were still being used for all he knew. Whoever was in charge of the area, claimed the mouths of the foibe. The current rulers of the area have continued to use these natural formations to dispose of body after body, with no end in sight. [37]
Figure 25- Foibe near Trieste
Billy had to stay sharp even though he doubted very much that there would be any other planes in the air that could fly as high or as fast. A jet could easily reach and catch him. He was counting on this area being such a remote part of the war zone that even if there was another plane, it would be a couple of hundred miles away and not a jet.
He was scheduled to move over to an FP-80 or the photo recon version of the Shooting Star. It was of great satisfaction for him to note that the Shooting Star was designed by the same man who designed the Lightning. The guy’s name was Kelly Johnson as he remembered. The only bad part about the Shooting Star was that it had killed America’s top Ace Richard Bong and if that guy had trouble flying anything but a witch’s broom, then they were all in trouble. He had heard that the bugs were now worked out, so he figured that soon he would be a jet jockey.
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