Given a choice, the ground attack was the more inviting prospect to Bannon and the bulk of Team Yankee. At least they could do something to the attacking troops. The enemy would in the open where he could be seen, hit, and destroyed. That wasn’t true of artillery. Of course friendly artillery could direct counterbattery fires against the Soviet guns. But that wasn’t the same. The Team, if it were the target, would not be able to do anything but hunker down and pray.
As it turned out, neither occurred. As the day finally came to a close, the Team began to prepare to move out. While the rest of the crew readied 66, Bannon pondered the meaning of the prolonged artillery attack. Had the Soviets somehow gotten wind of the battalion’s planned move? Had they destroyed the roads and bridges to the rear? Had Team Bravo been hit again, or had it been the turn of the battalion CP to see the elephant? Would Soviet artillery strike again while they were moving? He, of course, did not have the answers to those questions, and radio listening silence on the battalion radio net remained in force and unbroken. He therefore turned his efforts to a more useful pursuit, dinner.
At 2345 hours the Team started their engines and revved them up to as near normal operating RPMs as possible. As they were not going to have friendly artillery fire cover the noise of the movement, they hoped that by running the engines all together, the Soviets might not notice any change in the Team’s established habits. Chances of that working for long were slim, however, for the high-pitched squeak of a tank’s sprockets and the crunching noise of tracks in motion could not be covered by anything less than an artillery barrage. But in Bannon’s mind, it was worth a try.
The cavalry troop began to arrive on schedule. They came up along a small trail that ran west to east to the rear of the 2nd Platoon. That platoon began the Team’s relief in place by pulling back from the tree line and moving south along the trail. As soon as the 2nd was out of its position and cleared the trail junction, the first cavalry platoon moved in where 2nd Platoon had been. As the 2nd moved along the trail, Bannon counted the tanks passing 66’s position. When the fourth one had passed, he gave Ortelli the order to fall in behind the last of 2nd Platoon’s tank. The movement of 66, followed by Unger’s FIST track passing it was the signal for the 3rd Platoon to begin its move. As with 2nd Platoon, as soon as the last 3rd Platoon tank pulled out, the second cavalry platoon began to move into 3rd Platoon’s vacated positions. The process was repeated with the Mech Platoon, which followed the 3rd. In this way, two company-sized units changed places in the dark without a single word other than that between the track commanders and their drivers.
Uleski, leading the Team, hugged the tree line on the northern side of the small valley that the Soviets had tried so hard to reach. When he reached a point about three kilometers west of the village, he moved onto the road and slowly began to pick up speed at a predetermined rate. Had he gone too fast at the beginning, the Mech Platoon at the tail of the column would have been left behind, as they were still hugging the tree line. Only when the column finally reached the designated march speed and were about to hit the first checkpoint along it on time did Bannon began to relax. The relief had gone off without a hitch and the Team had gotten out of the line without drawing fire. Now, he thought, if the rest of the operation went off this well, it would be a piece of cake.
The drive through the dark countryside was quiet and eerie. The only lights visible were the small pinpricks from the taillights of the tank in front and the blackout drive lights of the tank behind. The steady whine of the tank’s turbine engine along with the rhythmic vibrations caused by the tracks had a hypnotic effect, forcing Bannon to make an effort to stay awake and pay attention to where they were as the column moved along. Reading a map with a red filtered flashlight on a moving tank while trying to pick out terrain features on the darkened countryside was difficult but not impossible. Although Uleski was leading, Bannon needed to monitor exactly where they were at all times as a check on Uleski’s navigation and in case something unexpected popped up. The platoon leaders and platoon sergeants were expected to do the same.
On board the tank all was quiet. Both the Team and the battalion radio nets were on radio listening silence. If the radios were used freely, Soviet radio direction finding units would be able to keep track of where they were going and, if passed to their intel officers in sufficient time, figure out what they were up to. In the loader’s hatch next to Bannon, Kelp was standing on his seat, halfway out of the turret and facing to the rear of the tank. He was the air guard. It was SOP that the loader would watch to the rear for air attack and any surprises from that quarter. Folk was like Bannon, fighting to stay awake. He was having little success. During a road march the gunner was supposed to cover his assigned sector of observation at all times. But when there is a whole column in front and little prospect of imminent action, it is difficult to maintain a high state of vigilance. Only Bannon’s knowledge that he would be ready when he was needed allowed the gunner to doze off and remain undisturbed.
The only chatter that took place over 66’s intercom was between — Bannon and Ortelli. Marching in column at night, after a long day is worst for the driver. Not only does he have to fight the hypnotic effects of the steady engine noise and vibration the rest of the crew labored under, he had to be ever vigilant least the vehicle to his front suddenly stopped or changed directions. Drivers moving in column had a tendency to stare at the taillights of the tank in their front and become mesmerized by them. When that happens, they are slow to notice a sudden change that would result in a collision. Therefore, tank commanders tried to ensure that even if no one else was fully awake and alert, the driver was.
As they moved deeper into the rear area, other traffic and friendly units began to appear. The farther back the Team went, the more numerous these run-in became. The first formed units they came across were the combat support troops and the artillery units. At one point Team Yankee went past a self-propelled artillery battery lined up but pulled off to the side of the road as if waiting for the battalion to pass. Every now and then a single vehicle or a group of three or four trucks would pass headed in the opposite direction toward the front carrying fuel, munitions, supplies and other badly needed commodities units still there needed in order to stay in the fight. At one road junction MPs were directing traffic, alternately letting one vehicle from the battalion column proceed, then one from another column on the intersecting road go through. Occasionally the Team would come across lone vehicles on the side of the road. Some were broken down. Others had been destroyed by artillery or air attacks. A few were filled with sleeping men who, having grown too tired to continue or had become separated from their unit, decided the best thing they could do was to pull over, get some sleep, and wait for daylight before going on.
The villages the Team passed were now populated with a new class of inhabitants. Signal units, headquarters units, and support troops of every description had moved in and set up housekeeping. Night was the time when many of these units came to life and went about carrying out their assigned tasks. This was especially true of supply units. All were in a hurry to resupply the units they were supporting before the new day brought out the Soviet birds of prey that feed on supply convoys.
It was just after passing through one of these busy little hubs of nocturnal activity that the Team hit its first snag. Alpha 66 lurched to an abrupt halt without warning. At first Bannon thought they had hit something. Without waiting for Bannon to ask, Ortelli informed him that they were all right, but that the tank in front had stopped. Bannon watched its dark form for a few minutes, expecting it to move and continue the march any minute. When it didn’t, he decided to dismount and walk up to the head of the column. Whatever was wrong, it wasn’t serious enough to break radio listening silence. In his place Folk, wakened by the jarring stop, moved up into the commander’s position.