Ike pursed his lips before delivering his reply.
‘I don’t doubt it now, but there were times when…’
‘Times? Times when what? Times when you thought we would lose?’
Eisenhower shook his head wearily.
‘Times when I believed that we could all lose.’
The other inner voice took a moment to think that through.
‘Ah, you mean the bomb, don’t you?’
There was a momentary silence, in recognition of the enormity of the thought.
‘As well you know, General, as well you know.’
Chapter 99 – THE CAMPFIRE
‘It so often happens that, when men are convinced that they have to die, a desire to bear themselves well and to leave life’s stage with dignity, conquers all other sensations.’
“The attacks have succeeded so far, Comrade Marshal. It appears that the Allied reserve is keeping pace with our forces, all moving south as we hoped.”
Bagramyan was pleased, and motioned for his CoS to continue.
“Allied air power is negated by the heavy rain, as we expected.”
Without that piece of luck, the situation would be more ‘fluid’.
“The first attack on Barnstorf is due to commence this morning, the exact timing was left to the local commander.”
Checking his notes, the Chief of Staff made the important announcement.
“If everything goes to schedule, the main thrust by Special Group Obinin will commence at 1000hrs on the 25th.”
As was his nature, the CoS added a note of caution.
“Our meteorologists predict that there could be some clearing of the weather during the afternoon of the 25th, possibly as much as four hours, Comrade Marshal.”
There was nothing that could be usefully said, or done. If it did not happen, then the spearhead would breakthrough, and release the follow-up forces. If it did happen, then it was possible that the enemy ground-attack squadrons would have a small window of opportunity to attack the ground forces.
Bagramyan decided to look positively upon the matter.
“Then we must ensure that our own air regiments and anti-aircraft units are ready to do their duty, Comrade.”
Outside, the rain lashed the window, drawing attention to itself.
Once again, it was Bagramyan’s friend.
Using the cover of the rain, both its power to obscure vision, and the noise of its contact with the ground, the Soviet infantry had got in too close for comfort.
The scratch force at Barnstorf came from US, British and German units, although the Germans were made up of Kommando soldiers from a number of local forces.
Kommando Regiment Friedrich, named for its former regular Army commander, comprised some 350 men, many of them veterans of the Western or Russian fronts, men invalided out, or used in the rear line. The others were either old men or boys, of varying skills and uses.
The battered 116th Regiment of the 29th US Infantry Division formed the bulk of the defences, supplemented by a few tanks in an ad hoc company. The US Army also contributed artillery and mortars to the defence.
It had not been a powerful lunge by the Soviets, but it had still been a close run thing as far as Lieutenant Colonel Willoughby, the 116th’s commander, had been concerned. The evidence of dead Russians, some a hundred yards from the main road bridge, was sufficient for him to seek for reinforcements in Barnstorf itself.
Fortunately, there were some close at hand.
Behind the Hunte River, elements of the destroyed 51st Highland Division had been gathered up and formed into a small brigade, the 154th; a brigade in name, certainly not in numbers.
Companies that had survived the attritional battles in Northern Germany were pulled together into the new infantry brigade. All were placed under the command of the elderly Brigadier Philip Blake, a career soldier, who had done his main soldiering on the South-African veldt, in Picardy, or the sands of Palestine and, for whom, the greatest battle was the daily struggle with haemorrhoids, and the constant presence of malaria.
There were enough Seaforths to make up a full battalion, by far the healthiest unit in the Brigade, especially as it possessed a machine-gun company from the Northumberland Fusiliers.
A second battalion was formed, consisting of three short companies of Gordon Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the two extremely clannish groups tolerating each other in a good-natured way, whilst despising the other two brigades for their inclusions of some sassenachs.
A third battalion was formed around two ravaged companies of the Black Watch. Ramsey’s B Company from 7th Battalion, bolstered by thirty men from the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, men who had been through hell outside of Bremen. A mishmash of survivors from 1st Battalion, The Black Watch, made up two companies that were well down in numbers, and also poorly equipped. There were also two men from 5th Battalion, the rest of the unit cut off somewhere to the north. Two platoons of Royal Engineers made up the numbers, bereft of equipment, to be employed as infantry if needed.
For artillery support, the 154th Brigade was fortunate to call upon the veterans of the 127th Field Artillery, a 51st Division regiment that had survived reasonably intact.
A handful of armoured cars from 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, and anti-tank guns from 61st Royal Artillery completed the Brigade’s order of battle.
Willoughby waited for the British unit to arrive, still hopping mad from the latest supply clusterfuck, when valuable space had been taken up with a large supply of divisional cloth badges and stationery, and the requested maps for his defensive position had not arrived.
He had men working on hand copying from the few maps he possessed, something that grated on him.
‘At least I got the ammo, or I would have been throwing badges and pencils at the commie bastards!’
He snorted at that thought, drawing looks from the surviving officers of the 116th’s headquarters.
Like a number of allied divisions, the 29th had been hit very hard, and Willoughby rose to command the 116th Regiment by filling dead men’s shoes.
The 29th had landed on Omaha, and had stayed in combat throughout the German War, and the price, for them, had been extremely high. The new war was no kinder.
At the last count, the whole division mustered at about seven thousand five hundred men, just over a half of its full strength, and it had been one of the few units that were at peak strength on 6th August.
It was rare that a rear line medical facility did not contain at least one wounded soldier from the ‘Blue and Grey’ Division.
Blake arrived with his second in command, assumed overall command, and immediately set to work on a plan to integrate the two forces as best as possible.
Between the two staffs, it was decided to split the forces in two, allowing Willoughby to form a reasonable reserve behind his front line. This entailed handing over responsibility for the main road and rail bridges to the British, integrating the new arrivals in between the 116th US Infantry and the 3rd British Infantry Division, holding the Hunte river line to the north.
The 116th would then join onto the 154th at the rail bridge, covering southwards through Rechtern and Düste. The main advantage for Willoughby was that he could now find a formation to place in Dreeke, a spot previously only lightly defended.