Read Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) Online
Authors: Colin Gee
Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) (63 page)
Eisenhower nodded, agreeing with an assessment he had already arrived at himself.
“What did the Germans call the method? Reinforce success in force with the OMG? Operation Manoeuvre Group wasn’t it?”
Bradley sniggered.
“I believe Von Mellenthin said OMG stood for ‘Oh Mein Gott’.”
“I can understand that Brad, I sure can understand that.”
Eisenhower studied the map closely. He turned his head and whispered.
“Tell you what I think. This is contemptuous, almost like they have no respect for us, pushing everywhere at once, expecting us to fold and retreat.”
Bradley nodded his agreement and whispered back.
“Well they are right about one thing.”
He looked at Eisenhower.
“Retreat is something we simply have to do if we are going to preserve our capabilities, sort out this mess, and get organised to roll them back.”
Eisenhower nodded slightly.
“Amen General.”
He snorted as a thought crossed his mind.
“You know something. I just thought, they never attacked us here. Why was that I wonder?”
Bradley narrowed his eyes in thought. Eisenhower continued.
“D’you reckon it’s like we were with Rommel and they think they have the measure of us and don’t want replacements they don’t know?”
His general looked at his commander with a set in his eyes that Ike had rarely seen.
“Ain’t they in for a big goddamned surprise then.”
Eisenhower laughed and patted Bradley on the back.
What neither knew at that time was that Soviet units had tried to attack the headquarters but faulty intelligence led them to attack the wrong I.G.Farben building and things did not go well for them.
The interlude over, strategic appraisal recommenced as a report on aircraft losses was handed to Eisenhower.
“Bad losses in air across the board but some good news that a number of tac-air units, mainly Brits, had recently moved back ready to stand down. Unless I’m mistaken, they will get back online soon but air command structure has taken some serious hits. So too radar.”
Bradley acknowledged that but, whilst it was a help, what was needed was men in the field.
“Ike, we need to get our units back to Europe quickly.”
Eisenhower nodded and beckoned a lurking signalman forward.
Swiftly dictating a general order to be sent to commands preparing to return to their homelands or already at sea, Eisenhower initiated the first stages of a return.
“That will get the ball rolling. We will get the details sorted out later. Now, let’s see what we can do to sort out this mess and then we better let our leaders know that the world has changed overnight.”
Both Bradley and Eisenhower strode forward and began the process of getting order back.
A full briefing on the situation was not possible for some time so the allied commanders strove to make decisions as best they could. Finally, a formal time was arranged for a delivery of all that was known before Eisenhower sent all his commanders on their way to their parent formations, hopefully with definite orders and a general plan.
At 1030 hrs precisely the large map was ready, a map that on the previous quiet evening had been solely appointed with corps zones, army locations and indications of the demarcation lines in Europe but now staggered under the weight of the intelligence garnered from a thousand reports from across Europe.
An American Brigadier-General started his work from notes.
Soviet attacking forces seemed to have penetrated the allied line at will, sometimes with subterfuge, using allied tanks sent to help the effort in the war against Germany to bluff their way through, sometimes using silent massed infantry to overwhelm defensive positions. Often no artillery was employed so surprise was pretty much complete. Where the god of war did thunder, defenders reported barrages the like of which they had never experienced.
Working from top to bottom, there seemed to be little by the way of good news.
Reports from Danish authorities indicated Soviet troops had landed on some of the eastern islands. Combined with news of the sinking of three British vessels, it seemed the Russians wanted the Baltic door firmly closed.
Reliable reports from Lubeck stated that Soviet artillery was falling all over the city and infantry were already in the suburbs, attacking on two fronts.
More red arrows ran almost to Trittau, a short distance east of Hamburg.
Better news emanated from elements of the 82nd US Airborne division, who seemed to have held their ground in the face of waves of Soviet infantry south of that route.
More disturbing was the combination of action reports at Melbeck and Grünhagen, south of Luneberg, where Russian paratroopers were reported in control of the road bridges and in contact with elements of the 84th US Infantry division’s 309th Engineer Battalion. Soviet tanks and infantry were hammering on the southern edge of Uelzen and the lack of response to any messages aimed at the 335th Regimental Combat Team of the 84th, known to be stationed in Uelzen and Bodenteich, meant that the divisional cavalry was having a hard time of it. 11th Guards Army had blasted its way through with artillery and rockets before the tanks of the 1st Tank Corps relieved paratrooper units who had taken the canal bridge east of Uelzen. If this report was true then Soviet units were already nearly ten miles beyond first point of contact, and that report was timed at 0840 hrs.
Confusion reigned in the sector of the 102nd US Infantry division. Elements in and around Wolfsburg reported distant artillery fire but nothing more. Other units spoke of tanks in large numbers hammering their way through, possibly already in Königslutter and Lehre.
British Guards near Wolfenbuttal reported Soviet tanks and infantry approaching from the south.
The 30th Cavalry Recon troops, who were positioned on that axis, were off the grid. 30th US Infantry Division, their parent formation, was holding Goslar and its environs and, by all accounts, inflicting heavy casualties on its attackers.
There were no reports of any ground activity for a distance of almost thirty miles south of Goslar but allied troops were dying as Soviet artillery took them under fire.
The 4th US Cavalry Group had virtually ceased to exist, buried under an avalanche of fire and massive assaults, its few survivors falling back to new positions as a very serious Soviet attack drove from Rittmannshausen towards Kassel.
Most surprisingly, 5th US Armored Division units seemed to be falling back before an attack aimed at Bad Hersfeld. No reports had been received from the divisions command units but the 5th was a prime formation and would have been expected to hold on for much longer. Eisenhower had already dispatched a Brigadier-General to assess the situation and do whatever was necessary to restore the divisions ‘spine’. Ike was not to know that Major-General Oliver and most his staff lay dead in their command post, victims of a clandestine assault by Siberian infantrymen well equipped for stealthy attack. The 5th was leaderless and it showed.
An adjacent formation, the 6th US Armored Division, was faring no better for its command structure had also fallen victim to ground assault, although this time the attackers were beaten off with heavy casualties. Whilst the Divisional Commander was still breathing, he was in no fit state to issue orders, concussed as he was by a grenade and in any case, his ability to control his division had been destroyed with his main radio equipment. General George Windle Read Jr was a tough and decorated soldier but he was out of the fight for some time and so his senior surviving officer took control, trying to ease the 6th into some sort of defensive order using runners and short-range radios but instead caused a major gap to open in the lines.
Although still in possession of parts of North Fulda the 6th had over adjusted and Soviet forces were already well on the road to the south-west. Their target was obvious and of pressing concern to those in the very headquarters tasked with stopping them.
It was Frankfurt.
Further along the line, 89th US Infantry had been badly handled and was falling back to the south-west. No news of the 355th RCT had been heard since the intensive artillery barrage commenced. Some garbled reports of paratroops on the Säale Bridge northeast of Bad Neustadt had come from a unit of the 340th Field Artillery stationed nearby. They were unconfirmed and no further contact had been made.
One recent unconfirmed report placed units of 76th US Infantry Division in heavy fighting in Ebern, north of Bamberg, other divisional units being forced back towards Hofheim, threatening the flanks of the 89th.
6th Cavalry in Coburg reported nothing save the distant noises of combat, and neither did any of the formations in the curved defensive front from Coburg round to Weiden.
South of Weiden the story was very different.
16th US Armored Division was an untested unit that had heard a few angry shots in Czechoslovakia at the war’s end, and the fury of the Soviet assault was more than many could stand. Some units just ran away, others just raised their hands as waves of Russian infantry swept forward. According to a bewildered Brigadier General Pierce, cohesion was lost and although some of his units were showing signs of resistance, he could not hold.
Information pieced together suggested that 64th Armored Infantry, with some tanks and artillery, was trying to retain a foothold on Wernberg but with little success.
To Eisenhower and his Generals there seemed to be a major breakthrough in the making east of Nurnberg and, combined with the issues north of the city, made this the most dangerous area of their front at the moment. The line from Coburg to Weiden including Bayreuth seemed to be in danger of being nipped off around the flanks.
This was compounded by the withdrawal of the 102nd US Cavalry Group from its blocking positions northeast of Cham. It was already heading back as fast as it could in the direction of Regensburg closely pursued by what the reports described as hundreds of Soviet tanks. Not that anyone there or in the SHAEF Headquarters knew the Soviet units by name as yet but as the major in charge of 102nd had quaintly put it when asked for more information on the enemy units and why he was retreating, ‘a tank is a tank, and hundreds of the fuckers painted green with red stars on coming at you at speed are to be avoided at all costs so we bugged out.’ 102nd Cavalry had in fact been sitting astride the main route of advance of the huge 5th Guards Tank Army so their resistance would have been extremely brief had they stood their ground.
At Bayerische Eisenstein, units of the 29th Tank Corps equipped with American Sherman Tanks had bluffed their way through the lines of the 90th US Infantry Division, driving hard for Regen and Deggendorf. Either side of the route of advance Soviet artillery harassed the confused American troops.
Reports from the 26th US Infantry Division Commander indicated Soviet formations approaching Passau on the Donau, already having penetrated nearly 20 miles behind that morning’s lines without any reported fighting.
Mixed news came from Kefermarkt, north of Linz in Austria. Soviet troops had again plunged deep into allied lines without any real combat but had stumbled into the early morning exercise of the 63rd Armored Infantry and 41st Tank Battalions of 11th US Armored Division, being supervised by their commander Major-General Dager. Casualties in tanks had been high due to a surprise air strike. The Soviet 49th Army was tasked with this assault and its lead formation, 70th Rifle Corps, suffered grievous casualties as the unsupported infantry were faced with alert and well-equipped experienced infantry. Dager’s men had successfully executed a set-piece ambush and the assault was bloodily handled.
That action was ongoing but it seemed the red arrows there had been stopped.