Opening Moves

The 4th and 6th Companies that had fought in Rottenbauer were finished as effective formations. Of the two hundred and eleven officers and men alive that morning, barely a third responded to roll call that afternoon, and those seventy-two shattered men and women included walking wounded and those upon whom the deeper wounds were not apparent.

2nd Battalion of 179th Guards Rifle Regiment was effectively finished as a fighting force, given that 5th Company, already badly handled in fighting north of Würzburg on the 8th August, had been dealt heavy blows by the US cavalry troopers in the wood line skirmish, adding just another fifty-eight effectives to the roster. They were formed into some sort of order as a single entity, albeit unusable for the foreseeable future.

^{Fig#20 – Reichenberg – The End}

Artem’yev gathered the living in Rottenbauer where the medics had converted the Schloss into a hospital. He moved amongst his men, tears falling for their pain and sacrifice, not caring to celebrate his complete victory bought at the cost of their blood.

For the Americans, the reaper’s bill was immense.

Whole tactical units had disappeared from the order of battle.

Of the four tank companies comprising 23rd Tank Battalion, only D Company, the light tanks, existed as a useful fighting force, having lost only one of their number during the days combat, and that being an M8HMC abandoned due to engine failure on the retreat back to Goßmannsdorf.

Each of the medium companies had been at decent strength, with 12 M4A3 [76]’s and 1 M4A3 [105] close-support tank. Four C Company tanks escaped the field, as did one each from A and B, although the B Company vehicle broke down south of Sommershausen and was abandoned.

Astonished US staff officers assembling as news of possible tragedy spread firstly refused to believe and then surrendered to despair as a tank battalion that had mustered forty-one running tanks at the start of the day now could bring just five to the field, and those manned by men who were exhausted and shocked beyond measure.

17th Armoured Infantry Battalion, support elements and all, had gone into action with precisely one thousand and one personnel to its name.

It now could muster only two hundred and twelve equally exhausted and shocked men, although that number swelled to three hundred and two in the night, as stragglers made their way back to the relative safety of the front line.

C Company, 92nd Cavalry was gone, its sole living representatives occupying six beds in the divisional aid station. Three men survived the night and by the next time the sun rose, one more had succumbed.

573rd’s Battery had lost all its vehicles but eighteen men had escaped the Devil’s cauldron that had been created in the fields before Reichenberg.

As a fuller picture of events was assembled, it rapidly became convenient to blame a long dead Colonel for the defeat, much to the disgust of those who fought in the action.

Amidst the horror and the suffering, tales surfaced of the two tanks ‘Belinda’s Bus’ and ‘The Berlin Express’ and their valiant stand in the face of overwhelming odds. Reliable information from the AAA Lieutenant and a Captain from the armored-infantry filled in most of the blanks. Both men had escaped because the brave tankers had sacrificed themselves. Other witness testimony embellished the submission to the Army Commander.

The family of eight crewmembers from the two tanks, both ‘B’ Company, 23rd Tank Battalion, attended the White House in November 1945 to receive posthumous DSC’s for their loved ones. Alongside them were the proud but emotionally wrecked parents of 2nd Lieutenant Jurgen Knapp, German-American commander of ‘The Berlin Express’, and Belinda Montoya, grieving wife of Tech5 Antonio Montoya and mother of the young son he never saw, and for whom the Medal of Honor was a poor substitute for a loving son, husband and father.

For the family of Charley Bluebear there was no prouder moment than that when President Truman requested permission to hold the legendary weapons, which had accompanied them to the presentation ceremony. Except possibly the moment when their son had to dip his huge form slightly to enable the President to slip that most precious of medals over their son’s head. That being the moment Tsali Sagonegi Yona of the Aniyunwiya Tribe, named as Cherokee by the Creek Indians, named as 2nd Lieutenant Charley Bluebear by the US Army, and known both jokingly and seriously as Moose by his friends, became the holder of a Medal of Honor, earned as a brave warrior of the Great European War, and a legend and example to his people to be spoken of for generations to come.

The tank regiment, supported by rider infantry supplied by Artem’yev closed on Winterhausen, securing the town and taking up defensive positions whilst replenishment of fuel and ammunition was organised.