Wheezing and taking his fill from the oxygen at his side, the Colonel wondered what the hell had gone on that night and couldn’t wait to hear the story of ‘Night Reaper’ in full.
Some of what had happened had been filled in by an excitable Cajun pilot who was in sickbay having his hand stitched after cutting it climbing out of his aircraft, but there was clearly so much more to hear.
When the Colonel eventually learned of the full events of that night from Washington, Mackenzie, and Lassiter, he was amazed and congratulated them all.
On reaching his office later, he firstly composed himself, and then composed his formal recommendations for the Medal of Honor.
Having recovered from their appalling exercise in front of the Russians, the mainly untried personnel of the newly formed 15th US Armored Division had finally regained their haughty swagger. Few had seen action, and most of those that had were the product of their former commanders moving on problem people rather than sending quality personnel to provide example and experience.
Removing the inept Divisional Commander had been a first step and they were also boosted by a sprinkling of talent from the 13th and 20th Armored Divisions, both now back in the States training for the Invasion of Japan.
The inclusion of some ex-POW tank crew made the most difference, as a handful of experienced men from the prime US Armored formations took their place alongside the greenhorns.
Not a moment too soon, as the 15th was handed a difficult mission.
Their task was to attack the Russian 3rd Army to their front and push them back to the Diemel River, relieving the pressure north of Kassel. The Soviets had already been in action for four days and had been badly handled at Hildesheim so were probably ripe for plucking.
Major Nathaniel Parker may have been a prize fool but he was looking forward to the Friday dawn attack, commanding his own company of Pershing Tanks in the 361st Tank Btn, 15th Armored Div.
Clad as he would be in forty-two tons of mobile armour and armed with a devastating 90mm high-velocity gun, his excitement about charging through enemy positions kept his sleep unrewarding for most of the night, dreaming as he was of medals and glory.
Soon he would show that old kraut what it meant to be a tanker.
Elsewhere during the night, British and Commonwealth bomber crews visited a range of locations with varying degrees of success.
The railway junction at Prague was totally obliterated, where as the important junction at Dresden was hardly touched, and both missions cost the British and Commonwealth bomber force six aircraft apiece.
In Vienna, squadrons from North Italy caused great destruction. Once known as the Reichsbrücke, the newly renamed ‘Red Army Bridge’ was dropped into the Donau by a wave of high-explosive that left the city completely cut in two as other bridges, the work of many hours by Soviet engineers, were similarly destroyed.
The world-famous brick built Göltzsch Railway Viaduct was visited by three specially equipped Lancaster’s just as dawn was rising. None of the huge tallboy bombs actually hit but the explosions and shock waves were enough to topple the magnificent structure.
Whilst no military headquarters other than Zhukov’s was directly hit, many a Soviet Marshall and General got little sleep as high-explosive fell from the skies nearby.
The rest of the allied plan went well.
Up and down Europe, a maximum bomber effort put over thirteen-hundred aircraft into the attack, destroying railway lines and bridges, road junctions and bridges, airfields and bridges. All in an attempt to ruin Soviet logistics and to prevent free movement of the Red Army’s superior numbers.
Soviet night bombers passing in the opposite direction were often badly handled by allied night fighters using radar to hunt down their prey, although one notable and unfortunate Soviet success was the destruction again inflicted upon Frankfurt’s main airfield, closing it for the foreseeable future.
Every night fighter the Allies possessed went up and enjoyed remarkable successes, gutting numerous Soviet night fighter units sent up by the enemy. So much so that for that night and the nights that followed, it was the Allied Air forces that owned the skies in darkness.
Having received reinforcements from the disbanding units in the UK and those on their way home, ground attack squadrons threw themselves into one huge attack, one massive effort to claw back the inequality that faced them in daylight operations, mirroring the Soviet effort of 6th August but with less success.
Valuable pilots and aircraft were lost pressing home attacks through intense anti-aircraft fire or swarms of Soviet fighter planes. The savaged allied fighter’s flying escort were occasionally overwhelmed and on three occasions whole squadrons ceased to exist.
Both sides could recover, bringing new pilots and aircraft into action. The question was who could do so faster, and for now, it could only be the Russians.
American bombers then rose to do their work in daylight, repeating many of the targets from the night before.
Escorted by weary Mustangs, the Flying Fortresses and Liberators dropped thousands of pounds of high explosive on communications routes the length and breadth of Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Poland.
American losses were modest in bombers but the mission was yet again heavy on the fighters, whose second mission of the day cost more lives than the first.
When the evaluation was done by intelligence, it was felt that Soviet Night aviation had been dealt a crippling blow for some time to come. Communications and logistics would definitely be disrupted and the effect of that should shortly be felt in a positive way by those facing the Soviet armies in the field. Higher than predicted allied losses, particularly in ground-attack and fighter aircraft, meant there could be no repeats, and as Eisenhower and Tedder firmly believed, should be no repeats.
The purpose had been to hit back, not lose their offensive air capability.
Washington did not receive the Medal of Honor for his actions that night, receiving the Silver Star instead. Lassiter and Mackenzie attended the White House in November that same year, having recovered reasonably well from their wounds, and were the first US aviators to be recommended for and awarded the Medal of Honor in the extended conflict that had become known as World War Three.
Chapter 48 – THE RIPOSTES
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.
Allied Forces – 494th Field Artillery Battalion and B Company, 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion and 2nd Platoon, 152nd Signals Company, all of Combat Command ‘A’, and 495th Field Artillery Battalion of Combat Command ‘B’, all of 12th US Armored Division and 573rd AAA Btn [Mot] temp attached to 12th US Armored Division, all of US Fifteenth Army, US Twelfth Army Group.
Soviet Forces – 3rd Battalion, 912th Rifle Regiment and 2nd Battery, 975th Artillery Regiment, both of 243rd Rifle Division of 34th Guards Rifle Corps of 5th Guards Army, and Special Grouping Nautsev, 1st Regiment of 3rd Guards Rocket Barrage Division, both of 2nd Red Banner Central European Front.