Red Army

Tarashvili continued in a rambling, confused manner, prompted now and again by his staff. Bezarin's anger and frustration grew until he was not certain how much longer he could control himself. The situation slowly became clear. The British defense had been ruptured during the night. Some Soviet units were already fighting on the outskirts of Hannover. But in the division's sector, the confusion within the Soviet movement control system had allowed the British to patch together one last defense on the approaches to Hildesheim. The regiment had been intended to exploit, but now, due to a late arrival, they would have to fight through the reorganized British position. Tarashvili assured everyone that the British were fought-out and that they had been thrown into hopeless confusion. But Bezarin remembered the litter of destroyed 213

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vehicles along the approach route. Tarashvili went on about a divisional feint to the north while the regiment struck the weakened British right.

Bezarin quietly gave most of his attention to the map. The traces showed British defensive positions in the vicinity of a ridge between the towns of Wallersheim and Mackendorf. Most of the terrain between his current location and the enemy was open and rolling.

"Will we have a smokescreen going in?" Bezarin asked, hardly caring now if his question seemed to interrupt.

"Absolutely," the commander of the regiment's artillery battalion said. "In any case, the fire strikes on the British positions will be of such intensity that little will remain for the maneuver forces to engage."

"Really, it's very simple," Tarashvili resumed. "A matter of drill. We'll have the opportunity to bring the entire regiment to bear. The effect will be overwhelming."

The plan called for the battalions to move into the attack unencumbered by unnecessary attachments. The artillery would remain under regimental control, and the air-defense subunit would also be centrally managed. Tarashvili talked the assembled officers through the attack, from prebattle deployments to the exploitation phase. Suddenly, Bezarin had the unexpected revelation that Tarashvili was doing his sincere best.

But the lieutenant colonel's best was appalling. The plan, the coordina-tion measures, the assumptions had the sterility and thinness of the scheme for an unimportant bit of field training. There was no imagination or even routine polish to the plan. In essence, it was nothing more than a regimental drill, with the subunits deploying at distances measured back from the estimated British positions. Bezarin realized as he listened to the staff respond to questions that no one had bothered to go forward to conduct a personal reconnaissance.

"Division stresses that no one is to stop. Just keep going, no matter what," Tarashvili said, repeating himself as he sought a firm way to close the briefing. "The intention, remember, is to reach the line of Highway 1, then to wheel left, and to advance along it to the west. Whoever first achieves the breakthrough becomes the regiment's forward detachment.

The initial mission of the forward detachment is to open Highway 1

between Hildesheim, northwest of our present location, and the Weser hill country to the west. Upon reaching this area"—Tarashvili pointed to the map—"the forward detachment then turns'" northwest for Bad Oeynhausen and the Weser River crossing site, which is the objective of the day."

Bezarin evaluated the mission. It was a long way to Bad Oeynhausen.

"The crossing site due west at Hameln is considerably closer," he 214

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observed. "Are there any provisions for seizing it, should the situation appear favorable?"

Tarashvili looked at him in annoyance, eyes nervous. "Division has specifically identified Bad Oeynhausen as being of primary importance.

We are obviously prohibited from moving on the Hameln site. Look here. You can see the control measures on the map. They're self-explanatory."

Bezarin, in a black mood, felt obliged to press the issue. Hameln was the obvious objective on their tactical direction. "Do you have any idea why we're not interested in Hameln, Comrade Commander?"

Tarashvili looked at Bezarin with a semblance of fear in his eyes.

Bezarin figured that the regimental commander had no answer and was embarrassed by the fact. But Tarashvili mastered himself. "Perhaps someone else has the Hameln mission. In any case, division has its reasons. Bad Oeynhausen is the objective of the forward detachment.

Our air assault forces are undoubtedly already on the ground there. But we're wasting time."

"How much time are we allowed to inform our subunits of the mission?" Bezarin asked.

"Until the vehicles are refueled."

That was a matter of minutes. Bezarin felt as though he needed hours to prepare his companies.

"That's barely enough time to locate all of the company commanders."

"There's no time. We're late now. We will proceed according to drill."

"Shouldn't we at least conduct a commander's reconnaissance?"