by Harold Coyle
In the Mech Platoon area the men were split up evenly, half of them in the foxholes on alert and the rest back at the tracks. The day was starting cool and overcast. Since the mud in the foxholes hadn't begun to dry and wouldn't do so anytime soon, Polgar sent those men who weren't on duty to the tracks to sleep where it was dry. Bannon found him sitting with his back against a tree, his Ml6 cradled in his arms, asleep. As with Uleski, Bannon didn't bother him but left the same message with the squad leader in charge.
The morning passed quietly. The Team simply remained in position and watched the area to its front for any signs of activity. Patrols from D company had begun to sweep the battlefield after the last of the scatterable mines had selfdestructed. Occasionally there would be a random shot fired, but no one paid much attention. The patrols were stopping at each Soviet vehicle to check it. When they were satisfied that the vehicle was harmless, the patrol leader would mark it with chalk. Those tracks that were still burning were given wide berth.
The bodies strewn about the field were also checked. Not many Soviet crewmen had managed to abandon their tanks and tracks when they had been hit. Some had, however, and in spite of the machine-gun fire laid down by Team Yankee and D company, some had survived. When a wounded Russian was found the patrol would stop and call for medics. An ambulance track darted from place to place picking up casualties. The patrols even came across a few Russians who had managed to hide or play dead through the night. Those who did not immediately surrender were not given a second chance. There appeared to be no one in a charitable mood on the patrols.
Starting at 1100 hours, word went out to the platoons to roust everyone and start their maintenance routine, including cleaning and boresighting weapons. When Uleski came around, blurry-eyed and rumpled, Bannon instructed him to compile by noon a complete status of the Team on ammo, fuel, other POL needs, maintenance problems, and personnel needs for each vehicle. At that time Bannon intended to have a short meeting with the platoon leaders to cover their current status and give them any news from battalion that he could come up with. Uleski simply sighed, saluted, and gave a "Roger-Out" as he began to go about his tasks. Kelp and Bannon already had a good head start on the task of cleaning up and preparing for the next battle. While they sat and watched D company's patrols during the morning, they had cleaned 66's three machine guns and their own pistols. Although Kelp had matured into a good soldier, he still was excited by some of the more gruesome aspects of war. Sitting on top of the turret, cleaning weapons, he would occasionally yell out,
"There goes another one!" Grabbing the binoculars, he would watch as a patrol stopped to dispatch a Russian who had been hiding and had chosen to evade rather than surrender.
After each chase was terminated, he would offer his views and critique the patrol's performance, noting that they were using way too much ammunition to bring down the Russians. When Bannon offered to arrange it so that Kelp could go out there and show the infantry how to do it, he lightened up on his remarks, but continued to watch.
It wasn't until well after noon that Bannon was able to meet with Major Jordan, who had been called to brigade headquarters at 0900 and spent several hours there. On his return, he called all the commanders and staff into Langen for a meeting. He had new orders.
While the battalion's mission hadn't changed, its organization had. Team Yankee, with all three tank platoons and one mech platoon, was being returned to 1st of the 4th Armor. The I st of the 78th was to remain at Langen reporting directly to division. Major Jordan explained the reasoning behind all this and the "Big Picture."
While the Soviets were busy trying to break into the division's flank through the battalion, they also had thrown other forces directly at the brigade's lead element as they advanced to the Saale River. Despite this, the brigade had been able to continue the advance at a slow, steady, and costly rate. The I st of the 4th was fought out and in its turn had to be replaced by another battalion while it recouped.
The problem facing the division, and the rest of the U.S. Army in Europe, was that it was running out of equipment. Prepositioned war stocks of tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, and all the hardware needed to wage a modern war had run out. Some equipment was arriving from the States but not near enough to replace equipment at the rate at which it was being lost. Even if the Navy could provide the necessary sea lift to carry what was needed, there wasn't enough equipment available in the States anyway. At prewar levels, which most of the factories were still at, the U.S. could only produce a pitifully small number of M- I tanks a month. The Army in Europe was capable of losing the equivalent of one month's production of tanks in a single day.
The solution to this problem was to strip understrength units and concentrate all resources in those units making the main effort. There wasn't enough to go around so units still capable of carrying out offensive operations or holding critical sectors received priority on everything.
The 1st of the 78th was no longer capable of offensive operations. Sitting in Langen, it was now out of the division's main effort. The brigade was still capable of reaching the Saale if all available assets were concentrated to support its two battalions that could still attack. The I st of the 4th was one of those units, and Team Yankee was one of those available assets that could be sent in.
Major Jordan was not at all pleased to lose the Team. Although nobody at division thought the Soviets would try the Langen Gap again, the 1st of the 78th would be hard pressed to stop them if they did. The battalion was now going to be down to two understrength mech companies. The major didn't discuss this, he didn't have to.
The commanders and the staff all knew what could and couldn't be done. The mood of the assembled group was depressed. Everyone also knew, however, that if the war was going to be won, risks had to be taken. The division and brigade were risking that the Soviets would not attack at Langen again. If they did, division was willing to risk the chance of a failure there, hoping that a breakthrough at the Saale would cancel the Soviet threat to the flank. It was the job of division and corps commanders to weigh such risks and make decisions. It was the job of the staff and the commanders of 1st of the 78th to accept those risks and carry out orders.
There was not much fanfare over the Team's departure. The major gave Bannon his instructions on when he was to link up with the 1st of the 4th, where, and route of march.
Bannon coordinated with the battalion S-4 for rearming and refueling before the Team departed that evening. He talked to the Team Bravo commander and told him where the 1 st Tank Platoon was to go when it was released back to the Team. Then, with no further business in Langen and much to tend to, he returned to the Team.
News of their return to I st of the 4th was universally hailed by the Team with the exception of Sergeant Polgar. He said it really didn't matter to him where his platoon went so long as it stayed with Team Yankee. When Bannon thanked him for his vote of confidence he replied that confidence had nothing to do with it. The chow in Team Yankee had always been good, and good food meant he had fewer complaints to listen to from his men. Second Lieutenant Murray Weiss, the leader of I st Platoon, was particularly happy to be coming back to the Team. He had the honor of being the company's only Jew, a fact that left him open to a great deal of ethnic humor. Like Bob Uleski, he had an almost infinite capacity to absorb incoming jokes and return them, as he had learned to do from an early age. Weiss's decision to make the military his career was a shock to his family. The U.S. Army was not normally something that college-educated Jewish boys were taught to aspire to. But Murray had deep convictions. The Israeli tankers who had fought in the Sinai and on the Golan had been his childhood heroes. While his friends aspired to be doctors or lawyers, he dreamed of being a tanker like Gen. Mordecai Tal. Weiss's performance before and during the war showed he was well on his way. The Team had much to do. It could not leave before dark.
To do so would telegraph to the Soviets the weakness of the Langen Gap. They would find out soon enough that the
tanks were gone and there were only two weak companies there.
But the Team did not have to help them by flaunting the move in broad daylight. Even with the move several hours off, the leadership and men were busy. Bannon gave Uleski his instructions on organization, rearming, refueling, and other such details. He also gave him all the information, on when the Team was to move, its route, and final destination. Bannon would be taking the first sergeant's track and going to the headquarters of the I st of 4th to get additional information and, he hoped, an operations order. If he wasn't back in time, the XO was to start the move without him. They were, no doubt, going to be attacking again. The sooner he found out the how and where, the more time he had to plan and get the Team ready.
The trip to the 1 st of the 4th's headquarters took him back into the main valley that the Team had advanced into the previous day and through the town of Korberg. The valley had changed overnight. Its emptiness and lack of activity were replaced with the hustle of the division's combat service support elements. Convoys of trucks carrying fuel, munitions, and other supplies forward were passed by empty trucks coming back. There were the grim reminders of the cost of progress. A field hospital was set up outside Korberg, receiving new material in a never-ending flow. Bannon had no doubt that some of the people there were his. Commanders kept doctors busy. He also knew that soon he would be contributing to the flow again. As he moved farther north he saw more than enough evidence that 1 st of the 4th had had no easy time after they had passed through 1st of the 78th. M-Is, PCs, Soviet tanks, and smashed trucks attested to the severity of their fight. Maintenance recovery teams were busy retrieving those tanks that could be repaired. As he passed a maintenance collection point he recognized several of the mechanics from I st of the 4th.
They were trying to piece together recovered tracks in an effort to get tanks and PCs ready for the next attack.
Were it not for the efforts of these people, many of the units still in the fight, including Team Yankee, would have ceased to exist a long time ago.
Bannon found both Lieutenant Colonel Hill, the battalion commander, and Major Shell at the battalion TOG. Along with the battalion intelligence officer, Capt. Ken Damato, they were discussing the upcoming operation in front of the intelligence map. Bannon stood in the background for a moment and listened. Apparently, they had already developed the plan and were merely getting an update on enemy units recently reported entering the area of operations and their activities. Damato was pointing out several Soviet battalion-sized units northeast of the Saale that had been located and were being tracked. Across the top of the intelligence map in the area north of the river someone had put in large red letters "HERE BE RUSSIANS." Major Shell saw Bannon first, "Well, here's the hero himself now. Glad to see the infantry finally let you go."
Bannon went up to the map where greetings were exchanged. The three officers were haggard and tired. Without any further ado, Colonel Hill asked how much he knew of the upcoming operation. Bannon informed him that other than the fact that he had been told where and when to report, nothing. The colonel told Major Shell and Damato to go over the operation with him. When they were finished, Bannon was then to report to him. The colonel was going to wash up in the meantime.
The operation that Major Shell laid out before Bannon was nothing more than a continuation of the attack toward the Saale. There were a few new twists, but basically it was the same.
At that time 2nd of the 94th Mech Infantry was attacking through the Soviets' main defensive belt, which was not nearly as impressive as the Soviet defensive doctrine called for but was enough to grind up the 2nd of the 94th. Progress was slow and the commander and brigade did not believe that battalion would make it to the Saale. That's where the 1st of the 4th came in. Since being bypassed by the 2nd of the 94th early that morning, 1st of the 4th had been preparing for a river-crossing operation. All available assets were being concentrated in the battalion for this final push. If 2nd of the 94th did not make it to the Saale by nightfall, the plan called for the 1st of the 4th to pass through the 2nd of the 94th and continue the attack. Once at the Saale, I st of the 4th would make an assault crossing and establish a bridgehead. As soon as the engineers had a bridge in place, the lead elements of the 25th Armored Division, now in reserve, would pass through the battalion and continue the drive on Berlin. The 1st of the 4th would then assume the role of holding the flanks.
The attack of the I st of the 4th was not the only effort that would be going on that night. The 2nd Brigade would also be attempting to make an assault crossing of the Saale farther to the west. Their mission was identical to I st of the 4th1s; establish a bridgehead, allow the 25th Armored to pass, then protect the flank. It was hoped that both efforts would succeed.
The 25th Armored, however, was hedging its bets. They had one brigade following each of the river-crossing efforts. The first one across would become the main effort.
Ken Damato went over the current enemy situation. Until that morning, the Soviets had been trying to stop the division's drive through counterattacks, head-on and in the flanks. The 1 st of the 4th had fought the better part of a tank regiment the previous night after a meeting engagement in the valley. While the Soviet tank regiment had been stopped, so had the st of the 4th. That is why the 2nd of the 94th was passed through. That battalion had been fighting its way through a series of platoon and company-sized strong points since midnight.
Progress had been steady but slow and costly. Reconnaissance of the area immediately south and north of the river showed little indication that the Soviet defense had any depth.
The new enemy units identified moving into the area were believed to be fragments of shattered units being thrown in as a last resort. Therefore, the prevailing belief was that, once across the Saale, a clean breakout could be made and there would be little to stop a push to Berlin itself.
Major Shell then got drown to the details. The plan was simple. Once 2nd of the 94th had cleared the last of the Soviet positions or could no longer continue, 1 st of the 4th would pass through and charge for the river. There would be no finesse, no grandiose schemes of maneuver, just a mad dash for the river at the best possible speed. Once at the river, the battalion was not to stop but was to vault across and establish the bridgehead. The idea was to make it to the river and across before the Soviets could do anything about it.
The problem with such a simple plan was that once the battalion started rolling, the Soviets would be able to figure out where it was going and what it intended to do. While they could not keep the Soviets from figuring out its plan, they could confuse and deceive them as to where the main effort was going. The plan called for a reinforced company team to create a diversion and deceive the Soviets as to where the main effort was going to be. Major Shell stopped for a moment, looked at Bannon, and with a blank expression told him that was where Team Yankee came in.
Team Yankee, with three tank platoons, the Mech Platoon and the battalion Scout Platoon attached, would conduct a supporting attack on the battalion's right. It would be the Team's task to give the appearance that Team Yankee was the battalion's main effort by driving for a highway bridge on the Saale. While the Soviets would drop the span before the Team got there, the area near the bridge offered several excellent crossing points. A threat to that area could not be ignored. It was hoped that Team Yankee's attack would draw the Soviets' attention and reserves while the true main effort went on farther to the west. With the exception of the point on the map where Bannon was to orient the Team's effort and instructions to make as much noise as possible, he had a free hand as to how he could go about accomplishing the mission.
Shell stopped for a moment while Bannon looked at the map and considered the task.
Bannon asked where they anticipated passing through the 2nd of the 94th. The major showed him a point about twenty kilometers south of the Saale. Bannon asked about fire support and close air support. The major pointed to several target areas that would be hit near the
bridge by the Air Force at first light in order to support the deception plan. He also told him that the Team would be supported by the better part of an artillery battalion until the battalion began to cross the river. At that time, Team Yankee would lose most of its support and would have to fend for itself.
Bannon looked at the major, then the map, then back to the major. "You brought me all the way here to give me this nightmare?"
"Hey, Sean, what are friends for? We're giving you a chance to excel." Bannonfs reserve of humor was exhausted; he found nothing funny about what the Team was being asked to do.
Again, Team Yankee was going to be on its own, rolling into the unknown. He began to believe that the Light Brigade during the Crimean War had it easy. They only had to do the impossible once. Team Yankee had to do it over and over again. "If you want to give me something, give me four tanks, a dozen trained infantry replacements, fuel, ammunition, and a four-day rest in the rear. Do you know what kind of shape the Team is in?"
Major Shell sensed the change in mood and became deadly serious, "Sean, you saw, I'm sure, the burned-out tracks along the battalion's route of advance. We're all in bad shape, and we aren't going to get any stronger. Our war reserves in Europe have been used up and there are no more. It will be another month before the Guard and Reserve units get over here. If we wait for them, the war will be over. We either do it now with what we have or we lose. It's that simple. "
Bannon bent his head down for a moment, looked at his boots, and considered what Major Shell had said before answering, "I know, I know. Major Jordan went over the same thing with me before I came here. It's just that since the war broke out, the Team has been getting the smelly end of the stick every time we turn around. Everyone, including me, is getting tired of putting his nuts out on the chopping block whenever a new mission comes up. So far we have been lucky, damned lucky. That luck isn't going to last, though.