Opening Moves

To be honest, he thought, there is little opportunity for finesse here, but the tanks will help.

“Comrades, nothing complicated here.”

An appraisal of the map confirmed that.

 “These are good troops here. American paratroopers who know how to fight. I have lost a full company so far and they haven’t moved one bit. So don’t believe everything you have been told about easily walking over the allies.”

There were a couple of haws but it was not really a joking matter.

 “There are no mines but they do have artillery support which is very accurate, so we must close with them quickly, no stopping to engage from safe distance.”

The others were all experienced officers and NCO’s and understood perfectly. Men would die.

“We have found two small boats, which I will use to get a platoon across the river here,” he tapped his finger on the glacis plate, south of the bridge where the trees met the water [B].

“That is our best chance of getting men on the other side. I will have another platoon in reserve if the boats can be used to reinforce but they are flimsy craft comrades.”

What he left unsaid was that they were flimsy craft that would likely be riddled with bullets by the enemy on the opposite bank.

“I can’t support them with mortars as my main plan is to drop a smoke screen on the positions north and south of the bridge,” his hands described the dropping areas, the pain in his arm reminding him of the price of failure.

“I will position my heavy machine guns here [C] to bring fire upon the defenders south of the bridge, with Grabin’s remaining men as a reserve force[D],” the position he indicted in the wood line already contained spots of his blood from his soaked sleeve.

“My main force [E] will be gathered here”, indicating the woods to the east of the bridge as he spoke, “And we will focus all our attention on swimming across on the bend of the river here [F]”, he smudged the chalk on the point of O’Malley’s foxhole position.

“That may seem a long way to move my troops but, from what I can see, it’s better screened from fire out of Heiligenthal than south of the bridge.”

He indicated the newly arrived company commander.

“Your men will accompany the tanks in their dash up the road, straight for and over the bridge, dropping off men at the bridge and check for charges immediately, the others establishing a position here in the village facing front. Release at least one platoon to return to the river to take any defenders left in the rear where I am attacking.”

The infantry and tank leaders had exchanged looks and grimaced at the nature of their orders.

Deniken continued.

“Yours is not an easy task comrades,” he smiled, “But then today there are no easy tasks.”

Pressing on quickly, Deniken selected the mortar officer, detailing the fire pattern, and where to switch fire to once the bridge had been crossed, but stressing the importance of dropping the smoke ON the enemy positions and switching fire precisely at the right moment.

“The tanks will be concealed at first, no further forward than here [G], and will remain so until Leytenant Grabin”, he nodded at the hard-bitten old officer in whom he was entrusting so much, “Fires a green flare, which will be when my assault has commenced and made the river line, or earlier if something unexpected occurs. Your tanks will then swiftly move up to this line [H],” he chopped a palm across the drawing, “And briefly take the bank south of the bridge and the mill under direct fire, as much to announce yourselves and confuse the enemy as anything. That should be without risk as I have seen no anti-tank guns, but move fast once you have fired a few rounds. There is no shortage of their infantry tank killing weapons plus I don’t want you caught in a barrage.”

The tank commanders nodded their understanding, never having heard of or seen a bazooka but retaining painful memories of what a panzerfaust could do to a tank.

“What I want here is far too much happening for the defenders to respond to properly, lots of noise and lots of firing.”

“Bravo Deniken,” accompanied by a slow handclap.

The Regimental Commander and his entourage had arrived silently and caught most of the brief. Everyone stiffened to attention as the four officers strode into the heart of the briefing.

“Good plan Comrade Captain.”

Deniken saluted and the rest followed suit.

“Comrade Colonel, I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Well, we are stalled everywhere by these damned Amerikanisti and you are furthest west so it falls to you to lead the army, so I came to support you as needed.”

Deniken also knew that the more sinister purpose was to relive him on the spot if the assault failed for a third time.

“Indeed, Comrade Colonel.”

He resumed the final part of his brief.

“Reserve formations will be committed as required, either on my command or the initiative of the Reserve commander.”

He took in Grabin with another look and he always trusted what he saw.