Even with the move several hours off, the leadership and men were kept busy. Bannon spent a great deal of time going over his thoughts on what needed to be done in regards to organization, rearming, refueling, and other such details with Uleski. He also gave him all the information he had on when the Team was to move, its route, and final destination. “I’ll be taking the first sergeant’s track and going to the headquarters of the 1st of the 4th to get additional information and, maybe even an operations order,” he informed his XO. “If I’m not back in time, you’re to start the move without me. Since I expect 1st of the 4th will be part of the final drive to the Saale, so the sooner I find out what the Old Man has in mind for us, the more time I’ll have to plan and the get the Team ready.”
The trip to the 1st of the 4th Armor’s headquarters took him back into the main valley that the Team had advanced into the previous day and through the town of Korberg. The valley had changed overnight. Roads that had previously been barren of any traffic save an occasional tracked vehicle was now crowded with convoys of trucks carrying fuel, munitions, and other supplies forward and empty trucks coming back. There were also numerous grim reminders of the cost the brigade had paid for the progress it had made. Along the way Bannon passed an aid station set up outside Korberg that was drawing ambulances bearing freshly wounded soldiers like a magnet, keeping doctors and its medical staff busy. No doubt, he thought to himself, he would soon be adding more of his own to those already there.
Farther north, he came upon evidence that told him 1st of the 4th had not had an easy time after they had passed through 3rd of the 78th. M-ls, PCs, Soviet tanks, and smashed wheeled vehicles of every type and description attested to the severity of their fight. In the fields on either side of the road maintenance recovery teams were busy retrieving those tanks and personnel carriers they deemed to be repairable in a reasonable amount of time. As he passed a maintenance collection point he recognized several of the mechanics from 1st of the 4th. They were busy piecing together a track and a set of road wheels scavenged from one disabled tank in an effort to get another that looked as if it had hit a mine ready for the next attack. This was no easy task, for each track of an M-1 tank consisted of eighty track blocks, eighty center guides, and one hundred sixty end connectors that, when assembled, weighed two tons. Were it not for the tireless efforts of these people, many of the units that were still in the fight, including Team Yankee, would have ceased to exist a long time ago.
Bannon found both Lieutenant Colonel Hill and Major Shell at the battalion TOC. Along with the battalion intelligence officer, Capt. Ken Damato, they were discussing the upcoming operation in front of the intelligence map. Having no wish to interrupt them, and eager to find out what they would soon be expecting of his Team, Bannon stood in the background and listened.
Apparently Hill already had a plan in mind and was merely getting an update on enemy units recently reported entering the area of operations and their activities. Damato was pointing out several Soviet battalion-sized units northeast of the Saale that had been located and were being tracked. Never one to miss an opportunity to add a bit of levity to a task that was, by its very nature, grim, across the top of the intelligence map in the area north of the river he had printed “HERE BE RUSSIANS” in large red letters in the same way ancient mariners did when charting unknown waters.
Major Shell was the first to take note of Bannon, “Well, prodigal son returns. What happened? Did the infantry finally get tired of putting up with you and turn you out with the cat?”
“Something like that,” Bannon replied as he made his way up to the map where greetings were exchanged. Like Major Jordan and his staff, Hall, Shell and Damato were haggard and tired. Without any further ado, Colonel Hill asked Bannon how much he knew of the upcoming operation.
He informed his colonel that other than the fact that he had been told where and when to report, he knew nothing. Upon hearing this, Hall told Major Shell and Damato to go over the operation with him. When they were finished, he turned back to Bannon and told him he was to see him when the S-2 and S-3 were finished. With that, Colonel Hall headed out to wash up.
The operation that Major Shell laid out before Bannon was nothing more than a continuation of the attack toward the Saale 1st of the 4th had been engaged in since passing through 3rd of the 78th. There were a few new twists to the way 3rd of the 78th had approached the same problem, but basically it was the same. At that time 2nd of the 94th Mech Infantry was hacking its way through a defensive belt the Soviets had hastily thrown up across the brigade’s axis of attack. While it was not nearly as impressive as the Soviet defensive doctrine called for, it was proving to be enough to grind down the 2nd of the 94th. Progress was slow and the brigade commander did not believe that there would be enough of that battalion left to make the final push needed to reach the Saale.
That’s where the 1st of the 4th came in. Since closing up behind the 2nd of the 94th early that morning, 1st of the 4th had been preparing for a river-crossing operation. All available assets were being concentrated in the battalion for this final push. If 2nd of the 94th’s attack stalled by nightfall, brigade’s plan called for the 1st of the 4th to pass through the 2nd of the 94th and continue the attack. Once at the Saale, 1st of the 4th would make an assault crossing and establish a bridgehead. As soon as the engineers had a bridge in place, other elements of the 25th Armored Division, now in reserve, would pass through the battalion and continue the drive on Berlin, leaving the 1st of the 4th to protect the crossing point.
The attack of the 1st of the 4th was not the only effort that would be going on that night. The 2nd Brigade would also be attempting to make an assault crossing of the Saale farther to the west. Their mission was identical to 1st of the 4th’s. They were to establish a bridgehead, allow the 25th Armored to pass, then protect the flank. It was hoped that both efforts would succeed. The 25th Armored, however, was hedging its bets. The first battalion to make it across and secure a viable bridgehead would become the main effort. The other battalion, if it were still combat effective, would make its way to the bridgehead that had been secured.
Ken Damato went over what he knew of current enemy situation. Until that morning, the Soviets had been trying to stop the Division’s drive through counterattacks, head-on and in the flanks. Like 3rd of the 78th, 1st of the 4th had fought the better part of a tank regiment the previous night after a meeting engagement in the valley. While the Soviet tank regiment had been stopped, so had the 1st of the 4th. That is why the 2nd of the 94th had been passed through it. That battalion had been fighting its way through a series of platoon and company sized strong points since midnight. Progress had been steady, but slow and costly. Reconnaissance of the area immediately south and north of the river showed little indication that the Soviet defense had any depth. “Division believes they’ve shot their wad,” Damato informed Bannon. “The new enemy units G-2 has identified moving into the area are believed to be fragments of shattered units being thrown in as a last resort.”
“Kind of like us,” Bannon remarked.
“Yeah, kind of like us,” the S-2 muttered as if to himself before continuing. “If that proves to be the case, the prevailing belief is that once we’re across the Saale, they’ll be little, if anything, that will keep us from pushing to Berlin itself.”
Major Shell took over from Damato at this point. “The plan’s simple, Sean. Once 2nd of the 94th has cleared the last of the Soviet positions, or if it finds it can no longer continue, 1st of the 4th would pass through it and make for the river. No finesse, no grandiose schemes of maneuver, just a mad dash for the river at the best possible speed. The battalion has orders not to stop. The brigade commander wants us to vault across and establish the bridgehead on the run. The idea is to establish a secure bridgehead before the Soviets can do anything about it.”