Opening Moves

The new numbers on Ground-Attack aircraft were encouraging, with disbanded and dispersing squadrons pulled back together in record time. Nothing like the power he had at his disposal a few months back but better than it was last Monday and getting better every day.

McCreery’s brief call told Ike all he needed to know about the ongoing assault on Hamburg and he knew it would be a close run thing, despite the heroic efforts of the allied forces defending the city.

Eisenhower took advantage of the quiet and made himself presentable, following his ablutions with a proper breakfast.

The last information he had been given the night before was a definitive intelligence estimate on the Soviet Fuel situation. He had been wrong. That was not their Achilles heel.

“Damn!”

Ike remembered his curse faintly echoed around his bedchamber, almost taunting him but after a reasonable sleep, he had put the disappointment behind him.

Relaxing back into his chair, he received the first written reports from the night’s actions. Ground attacks up and down the front line, one where the air force continued its good work in interdicting enemy fighters and bombers, and another in which the bomber force reported being on target on all of its objectives. That was nothing unusual as the Bombers always claimed that. An erosion of his photo-recon capability was of great concern to the General, as so much that was claimed went unconfirmed.

As a resolution, more Mosquitoes were being temporarily converted and allocated to air-recon work but their losses were great too.

Sucking greedily on his cigarette, Ike looked at a passing orderly and gave her the universal hand signal for coffee.

The smile that came back made Ike’s morning nearly as much as the coffee when it arrived.

Perfect.

Bringing his mind back to the problems at hand he started at the top of the map as usual.

As he examined the British positions, he received a brief note from McCreery’s headquarters. Hamburg had been held by a thread but, by all accounts, the commies had pushed very hard. Reinforcements were being moved in but such levels of combat could not be sustained indefinitely and withdrawal was an increasing possibility to preserve his force.

Ike nodded to himself, understanding that if such a decision had to be made it was McCreery’s to make.

As he put down the British report, he decided on another cigarette and a general appreciation of the front before the rescheduled main briefing, or rather the second main briefing of the day.

Across the towns and villages of Germany, the Red flags flew, more now than earlier, showing the successful advances of the Soviet Army.

Eisenhower’s first decision had been a preservation of his force, something that had been reasonably successful to date. He winced as he reflected on Gottingen and the events that resulted from the issues there, and hoped above hope that his units could escape. Gottingen was a mistake, an error of judgement by both himself and Bradley, for which historians would criticise them well into the next millennium.

The relative failure of the spoiling attacks had wasted some valuable assets and that lesson was learned.

Ike leant forward and examined a one page listing on major ground units on their way to Europe.

Outwardly, he exuded confidence that the Allied line would hold until the new forces arrived, at which time they would start rolling back the enemy.

Politically, the US Government appeared totally committed and had swung its industry back fully into wartime production, or at least had stopped the process that was converting factories back to peacetime production.

Materiel wise, he did not expect shortages, nor were problems anticipated with the very necessary liquids of war, although Soviet sabotage had caused a blip for two days.

It was in manpower, and more specifically trained manpower where his problems would come.

A man can be trained to hold and fire a rifle quite quickly, but to understand military manoeuvre and tactics was a longer process. Specialist troops took even longer, and losses in those had been quite high in the last few days.

Without a doubt, there would be an issue with pilots for a while but the training programmes had not been reduced as many others had, something that Ike hoped would prove advantageous.

Lighting up another cigarette, a new line of thought developed

‘Specialists?’

If it was going to be a problem for the allies, would it be a problem for the Reds?

His brain sought an example. The Red Army was full of artillery troops, but it was known that literacy levels were low and that the units were run by officers who understood the mechanics of war. The soldiers were there just to discharge their orders and not perform technical duties over and above those learned by rote and performed like automatons, or at least that was the belief.

‘So, is that the same for others units?’

An interesting thought.