Reports of the encirclement at Eggenthal filtered through from 501st’s commander.
One look at the map showed the experienced Major General that his cupboard was nearly bare.
He had amassed bits and pieces of the fractured and virtually destroyed 80th US Infantry Division under his command, but they were not enough to punch through to relieve the 501st by themselves. Looking at the assets available, he factored in the recent arrival of the ravaged A Company and virtually intact B Company of the 702nd Tank Battalion. Adding to the mix some of the 80th’s divisional artillery elements, all Taylor was light was infantry.
Unfortunately, very few of the 80th’s doughboys had escaped, and what had made it through to US lines would need some time to recover and shake out.
Taylor examined the map closely. Drawing his CoS in close, he spoke quietly.
“Route 12 is important to them, quite clearly.”
Brigadier General Gerry Higgins only nodded, knowing his General was in decision making mode.
“I could order to hightail it back to Bayersried, or Obermelden…”
Higgins didn’t think that Taylor intended anything of the sort. Such a manouveure would probably result in the loss of the force.
“Or I could break him out and give Ivan a bloody nose into the bargain.”
As if Taylor could read Higgins’ thoughts, he tapped the map in irritation.
“Light on rifles though, Gerry.”
Closely examining the area around Obermelden, Taylor could see the untasked support elements of the 80th that would be itching to hit back, but he could not see doughboys anywhere, leastways none he could free up to counter-attack Eggenthal.
Higgins consulted his notes at length, referring to the map to get his bearings.
“When do you want to go, Sir?”
Taylor, sitting on a stool, finished his coffee before replying.
“Ideally, by 1900 hrs at the very latest. That will give the boys two hours of daylight to do the job, and offer up the night to get Crisp’s boys outta the hole.”
Higgins nodded, doing some swift maths before floating his idea.
“Our air is good at the moment, so we have no worries about movement. We can firm that up with Penguin Pete of course,” the CoS referring to Major Peter George of the USAAF, the 101st’s air liaison officer, by his accepted nickname.
“Here we have the 100th, less a company. Solid troops with halftracks. If we send them now, they can be to the line here,” Higgins used a pencil to propose a start line for the counter-attack, receiving an instant nod from Taylor, “By 1830 latest, giving time for a brief.”
Taylor ran his finger down the roads from Attenhausen to the start line north-east of Obermelden, calculating the difficulties as he went.
“OK. Give me more, Gerry.”
“We have a platoon of the Brazilian cavalry here at Unteregg, and a company of their engineers somewhere south of Sontheim.”
To the informed listener, such a conversation would be a sure sign of the disarray of the Allied defences, bits and pieces from all units scattered everywhere.
None the less, the line had held so far and the two officers had started to develop a plan to counter-attack and rescue the cut-off force.
“OK Gerry. Get Demario and Smith down here straight away, with a warning order to prepare for a move a-sap. Also, Castelli needs to be in on this, similar warning order for his artillery.”
Taylor squinted at the map, finding the combination of gas light and sunlight insufficient for his needs.
“Orders out to the Brazilians, 2nd/1st Mechanised Cavalry and 1st/9th Combat Engineer Battalion to concentrate on Obermelden immediately.”
Taylor grinned at his CoS.
“Once that is done, we will go through the niceties of letting our fellow Generals know what we are doing with their men.”
Higgins grinned back at his Commanding officer, a small part of him knowing exactly how Taylor would take it if some other General started monkeying around with his boys.
‘Still, needs must,’ he told himself.
General Taylor sought out the information as to who might command.
“Looks like it’s the 100th’s ball, so get me their Colonel on the line once you have all the boys moving.”
Within a minute, the radio started pumping out orders to the various units.
The artillery of the 315th and 522nd Battalions had been working the Soviet positions for twenty minutes precisely, the mix of 105mm, 155mm, and 8” shells altering the landscape in and around the hastily scraped defensive positions.
At 1900 hrs, the lead tanks of the 702nd Tank Battalion, easy-eight Shermans from B Company, pushed forward, the Brazilian Cavalry not yet having taken the field.
Lieutenant Colonel Petersen, commander of the 100th [Nisei] Infantry Battalion, had been given a very specific brief by Maxwell Taylor; one that was unequivocal and simple.
Extract the isolated unit.
Kill everything with a Red Star.
Petersen enjoyed the looseness of the orders, as they permitted him to fight the battle as he chose.
General Taylor had been very specific on one point, which Petersen understood, and he acted to ensure no such thing happened. He had given the artillery strict instructions in order to prevent any friendly fire incidents, with either his task force or the troopers of the trapped Eagles. Such warnings cascaded down to the lowest levels, each and every man made conscious of the fact that there were also friendlies to their front.
Radio contact with the cut-off airborne troopers was sporadic, but the plan had been communicated and he expected the 101st to play its part in full.
With the Meldnerbach stream securing their right flank, infantry from his ‘B’ Company were pushing ahead along a wooded ridge line, mortars from the 100th’s heavy weapons company waiting expectantly behind them, ready to overcome any resistance.
‘C’ Company tucked in behind the lead armored elements, and the rest of his force was stacked up, ready to deploy in line with the hastily devised plan.
‘B’ Company started to come under machine-gun fire and the mortars responded to the call, accurately sending round after round on target until the obstruction was eliminated.
The lead Easy-Eight, so called because of its E8 variant designation, appeared to kick on and swerve off the road, the sound of the explosion reaching his ears shortly after the visual image.
Through his binoculars, Petersen could see the tank crew abandon as tracers sought them out, fired from the Soviet positions to their front. One of the tankers disappeared in an explosion of red, struck by multiple projectiles, but the others made the relative safety of a stone wall, a few yards behind their stricken and now burning tank.
The second Sherman fired as they made it to their safe haven, a flash erupting at the top of the incline to their front.
‘C’ Company of the 100th oriented to the left side, and pushed tentatively forward, immediately coming under more fire from the high ground.
The US tank company brought more tubes to bear and directly engaged the defenders, beating each point down in turn.
‘C’ Company picked up the pace and pushed forward, dropping again when two Soviet tanks declared themselves on the ridgeline, engaging the infantry at first before recognising the presence of the American armour.
The Soviet commander had improvised with his defences, and the weapon that had claimed the lead US tank fired again. The 85mm 52K Anti-Aircraft gun was a large weapon, not normally suited to front line engagements, but the Colonel in charge had installed four on the ridgeline covering the approaches. Two had succumbed to the artillery already, but the survivors now engaged the American tanks with some success, a second E8 falling victim to a direct hit from which the crew did not escape.