“Dear God.”
Apart from the normal analysis post-battle, there was little else to be said that made sense that afternoon.
It would be necessary to know what went wrong so that there were no repeats and early reports suggested some leadership and support failings.
Combat Command ‘B’, 12th Armored had ceased to exist in all but name and regardless of where the blame lay, the loss of life was appalling. As usual, Ike took the weight fully on his own shoulders.
The proposed counter-attack at Fritzlar had gone forward as planned and blunted Soviet efforts, retaking Fritzlar, or more accurately, what was left of the town. However, the drive had only gained one mile beyond the ruins before being halted in turn.
He had spent some of his morning chewing out his officers over the failure of the new 15th Armored to move forward and attack.
Now in his hand he held a report detailing what had happened to one of his formations that had discharged its orders that morning, and it made appalling reading.
‘Perhaps the Almighty had shown his hand and stopped the green division from receiving similar treatment?’
In the main, the air support promised by the USAAF and RAF had proven excellent. Allied fighters had protected the armored columns well, inflicting palpable losses on the Russian air regiments who tried to get through them. This enabled Combat Command’s ‘A’ and ‘R’ of the 12th Armoured to discharge their function and inflict great damage on enemy forces south of Wurzburg, all at a small cost in lives and equipment.
9th US Armored’s more modest attack had also achieved all it set out to do, and at even lower cost in lives, the most valuable of a General’s assets.
The air attacks slated for the cancelled Göttingen operation went ahead, and resulted in modest casualties for Eisenhower’s valuable ground-attack assets as fair exchange for huge disruption to the Soviet drive on and around Göttingen. An overnight RAF bomber raid on Northeim had been confirmed as having wrecked every crossing point on the Rhume River, including the two recently constructed by enemy engineers.
Running north and west from Northeim, every crossing point on the Rhume and Ilme Rivers had now been dropped in an effort to hinder movement and logistics on the northern side of the pocket.
The Russians were doing the same to the bridges to the west of the trapped troops, destroying or damaging every bridge on the River Weser between Reinhardshagen and Gieselwerder.
Fortunately, their efforts to destroy the crossing at Lippoldsburg had failed, partially because of some excellent work by USAAF Mustangs in defence and partially ensured by the presence of two full AAA battalions whose only purpose in life was to shoot down anything in range wearing a red star.
Again, the failure of the 15th Armored could be seen as fortuitous, as the changing situation now meant that a thrust aimed at Beverungen would be more productive. In addition, one of the few successful photo-reconnaissance missions of late had confirmed an absence of significant armored forces on that possible advance axis. A second mission to establish enemy forces around Boffzen and Holminden had similarly turned up nothing of note, making the whole area appear ripe for a more involved counter-thrust when assets permitted.
US Intelligence presently slated only the Soviet 3rd Army in the area, part of which had been given a bloody nose at Hildesheim. Intel also credited the formation with only rifle corps and a single tank regiment, the latter being identified as away from the area of immediate interest.
The news about the radar capability test was excellent and the information was already spreading through his Commanders, cascading down to where it could be employed usefully.
All in all things could be worse, although Eisenhower did not feel that was an appropriate thought for a Commanding officer.
He was comforted by the fact that the units that had broken through at Ingolstadt had halted without moving into contact with the cavalry or the French Armored division rushed to seal the break.
Overnight bombing claimed modest returns, although there was the one report being evaluated as Ike discussed the matter with himself.
‘Fuel? Is that their weakness?’
‘Could it be true?’
More and more he found himself mentally fencing with his thought processes.
‘Maybe the shrinks would have a field day with that one.’
He rapidly looked in his own pile of reports in search of the USAAF general submission for the previous night’s operations.
Eisenhower found and read it to himself, urging impartiality and no pre-judgement.
He found the section he sought and lit up.
‘669th Bombardment Squadron reports state that whilst bombing enemy communications at Höfartsmühle and Oberwöhr they came under anti-aircraft fire and returned fire, causing an explosion and fire on the ground to the south of Oberwöhr.’
The report also stated that one A-26 Invader was lost on the mission but Ike did not read further, his mind working, arguing against himself.
‘This isn’t for you to work out, Give it to your staff.’
A reasonable statement.
‘Yes, you’re right. But what if it’s true?’
‘Then we know how to stop them.’
Eisenhower dragged himself out of his thoughts and beckoned an Air Force staff Major forward.
The man was new and there had been no time to get acquainted informally. The previous incumbent had yet to be recovered from the I.G.Farben building.
“Major, I want you and your team to work this 669th report and anything that ties in with it. I’m looking at enemy fuel supplies, their guarding of them, their response when we attack them and I want to know specifically which enemy areas have been affected by successful attacks on fuel supplies. Tie in with Colonel Wright and Lieutenant Colonel Rossiter on this.”
“Yes Sir,” the young officer given clear directions by his commander saluted and turned.
“Oh and Major, quickly please.”
“Sir.”
The new arrival was now in possession of clear directions and a clearer indication of the importance of his project, and he hurried off to find the two officers in question.
The next report covered action in Denmark; or rather, inaction, as the Germans had the Soviets nicely bottled up. McCreery was content with the two units used and anticipated no problems, especially as they were fully intact divisions from the Danish Occupation.
Preparing to accept more reports from a steadily growing line of staff officers, he noticed his European Marine pushing his way through and noted with an inner laugh that no one disputed his rite of passage.
The Colonel’s report was simple.
“Sir, I can now confirm that Berlin surrendered yesterday at approximately 2100 hrs. I am unable to furnish more detail at this time.”
Not unexpected obviously, and Eisenhower had given the commander of the beleaguered garrison permission to make whatever call he felt was right.
To be frank, militarily its resistance had been of little value, especially as there was no ground attack, just a relentless barrage of artillery shells and bombs to which the defenders had no reply.
Civilian casualties had mounted along with the military losses as the hours went past.
Obviously, the enclave had pinned some enemy assets in place that could now be released, but not many.
Of more concern was the effect on the German people.
“Sam, please ensure this message and any relating to it are passed to the Council immediately and request that we hold a meeting to discuss the effects of it as soon as is possible.”
Rossiter smiled.
“Yes Sir. For your information, Generals Guderian and Von Vietinghoff are in this building as we speak and receiving a brief on the military situation. The rest of the council is on its way already. I have been asked to request a full meeting with you.”