THE TEN THOUSAND

by Harold Coyle

  There was at first no sign of comprehension on the German nurse's face. She just sat there staring at Cole while Cole went about pointing at the wounded and talking. After a pause of several seconds, during which Cole became convinced that she had totally failed to communicate, the German nurse stood up and called for another nurse. A thin young nurse, her long blond hair pulled back and secured in a neat tight bun, who had been standing off to one side watching and listening, came up next to Cole and introduced herself. "I am Marie. The head nurse doesn't speak English, so I will assist you."

  The smile on Marie's face caused Cole to relax. "Where can I take my patients? They are, I'm afraid, in the way where they are, and it's not a good idea to leave them for long near the doors. Drafts and all, you know."

  Marie nodded and smiled. "Yes, yes, we know. If you would have your stretcher bearers pick up the injured, I'll take you to an examination room. Our doctors would like to examine them themselves and have them cleaned up before we send them to the wards and begin treatment."

  Cole blushed slightly in embarrassment. "I am so sorry that they are not in better shape. We're very hard pressed to tend to even the most basic needs. These are hard times for us."

  Marie glanced over at the big German nurse as she leaned, closer to Cole. "Yes, I know," she whispered. "These are hard times for all of us. Her son," Marie said while nodding toward the big German nurse, "is a soldier with the 2nd Panzer Division. But don't worry. She is a good nurse, and your soldiers will be well cared for, just like our own."

  The look in Marie's eyes, her efforts to ease Cole's concern, and the smile on her face told Cole that it would be all right, that she was doing the right thing. After thanking Marie for her kind words, Cole signaled the stretcher bearers to pick up the wounded and follow Marie. For the first time in days, Cole felt that something she was doing made sense. Perhaps, she thought, things weren't as bad as they had seemed. Perhaps, she thought, this would all work out in the end.

  Within easy walking distance of the hospital where Cole was transferring her charges over to the Germans, men and women of the Tenth Corps' G-2 counterintelligence section were doing their part to blind or at least confuse German intelligence. Their current task of keeping German intelligence from gathering all the information that it needed to form a complete and accurate picture of where the Tenth Corps was and what it was up to at first seemed impossible.

  The Tenth Corps was, after all, moving through the heart of Germany. Even in those towns and villages that dotted the corps' route of march with great regularity, where the populace supported the American efforts through noninterference, there were always a few who were outraged by what they called "the rape of our homeland by the foreign invaders." Together with local police officials dedicated to their duties, this network of informers provided the German intelligence agencies, both military and civilian, with a wealth of information. The Tenth Corps policy of noninterference with civilian property and operations seemed to aid this, since no efforts were made to cut the civilian phone system or hinder the movement of German civilian police. Even mail deliveries were still being carried out with great regularity between what was now referred to by Chancellor Ruff as occupied Germany and the rest of the nation.

  Knowing full well that they would be unable to hide even the smallest piece of the corps from German eyes, the corps operations officer and intelligence officer decided that their deception plan would capitalize on this free flow of information. A special corps counterintelligence section formed a detachment manned by American personnel fluent in German as well as some trusted Germans, collectively known as the Valkyrie. This detachment, using a master deception plan drawn up by corps, used the same system and format utilized by the regular German informers to insert volumes of misinformation into the German intelligence system in an effort to both mislead the Germans and to discredit genuine information. By providing information that ranged from very nearly accurate to wild exaggerations, the Valkyrie matched the manner and the nature of the reports coming in from real informers who were zealous but untrained, and thus were indistinguishable from the real German information sources.

  To assist this active program, a passive deception plan was also carried out corpswide. All distinctive unit markings and vehicle identification numbers and patches were removed from vehicles, equipment, and uniforms. In selected cases, however, some numbers were left on, while in other cases some numbers were changed to reflect a different unit. To totally confuse the Germans, and encourage the discounting of reports from real informers, some of the false unit markings placed on vehicles were those of units still stationed in the United States. So even if a real informer reported that a tank company rolled through his village at such and such a time headed in such and such a direction, the intelligence officer in Berlin would have to discount that report when the informer added that two of the vehicles had bumper numbers showing the tanks belonged to 1st Battalion, 32nd Armor, a tank battalion stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.

  Inundated with masses of reports whose reliability was becoming more and more suspect, the German Army began to turn to its own intelligence-gathering efforts. Like tiny tentacles, air and ground reconnaissance elements crept forward in advance of the German combat units. Some of the recon units were very circumspect, relying on stealth and caution to close with and gather information on American forces. The techniques and methods used by German armored reconnaissance or Panzeraufklärung units ranged from the conventional to the artistic. One German cavalry sergeant, finding an ideal spot from which to observe a major north-south highway near Fulda, buried his eight-wheeled Luchs armored reconnaissance vehicle in a farmer's dungheap up to the turret ring and smeared the turret with dung. Only the keen eye of an American soldier who noticed an antenna waving gently in the breeze above the dungheap gave the German away.

  Other German reconnaissance units were quite open and bold in their efforts. Taking advantage of the ambiguousness of the confrontation and the fact that no one had yet fired a shot, it was not unusual to see German Luchs armored cars parked on hilltops or right in the middle of a road, their crews sitting up on the turret roof as they counted the American vehicles that went by. In these cases, American vehicles with smoke generators, when available, were dispatched to pull up close to the German vehicles and then turn on their smoke generators. Depending on the mood of the American sergeant commanding the smoke-generating vehicle, the smokescreen was used to block the Germans' view or actually blow right across the German reconnaissance vehicle. This, of course, made it necessary for the German vehicle to move, which in turn caused the American smoke-generating vehicle to follow. Hal Cerro, watching one such pursuit with Scott Dixon, commented that it was like watching a cat run around with a can of rocks tied to its tail. Dixon, ever the realist, pointed out that this cat had big claws and sharp teeth that eventually it would use when it tired of these antics.

  In support of the ground and air reconnaissance effort, units of the German Army responsible for gathering signal intelligence, called "sigint'' for short, scanned the airwaves in search of units of the Tenth Corps. When a Tenth Corps radio was activated and its signal detected by a German Army signal intelligence unit, the Germans could eavesdrop on the conversation if it was not encrypted in an effort to find out what type of unit was making the transmission, what their situation was, and who they were talking to. If the signal was encrypted, then the Germans could at least locate the transmitter through a technique known as "resection" and, with this information available, create a picture of unit locations to confirm or deny information provided by informers. If all else failed, the Germans always had the option of jamming the American radio frequencies in use or recording the transmitters' locations for targeting at a later date.

  To further hinder the reconnaissance efforts of the German Army, the Tenth Corps operations plan called for the bulk of the corps' movement to take place during periods of limited visibility. Since the son set in central Germany before f
ive in the afternoon during January and didn't come up again until after seven in the morning, the corps had plenty of darkness to operate with. Use of multiple routes, including countless logging and farm trails that ran through Germany like tiny capillaries through the human body, aided in confusing the Germans.

  Darkness and fog, however, could not hide radio signals. In an effort similar to that of the Valkyrie informers, dummy headquarters were set up to simulate radio traffic of real headquarters. Consisting of three or four vehicles equipped with the same type of radios used by the real headquarters, these dummy headquarters moved about the Tenth Corps area in accordance with the Tenth Corps deception plan, the same used by the Valkyrie. While the real headquarters continued to move in radio-listening silence, using messengers or the German telephone system for communications, their dummy counterparts operated radio nets that normally would be used by the real headquarters. As they passed information back and forth, German signal intelligence units would track the dummy units, feeding that information into the German intelligence system. Of course, eventually most dummy headquarters were discovered for what they were. When the Americans were able to detect that a dummy headquarters had been compromised, those dummy headquarters were shut down and sent elsewhere to assume the identity of another headquarters, but not always. As an added twist, when everyone at Tenth Corps was sure that a dummy headquarters was in fact identified as one, the dummy headquarters was co-located with the real one. In this way, information provided by the German Army signal intelligence units claiming that a unit was a dummy actually discredited good solid information from other sources that identified the real headquarters and its associated units.

  This war for information and intelligence that was being waged on the ground and in the airwaves over central Germany was not without its risks and costs. While flying back from the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment's forward command post in Fulda to the air squadron's command post, Major Bob Messinger, the squadron operations officer, noticed movement that he thought was a helicopter off to his left. He ordered his pilot, Warrant Officer Three Larry Perkins, to come around so that he could get a better look. After searching the area for several seconds, Messinger saw what he was looking for. "See 'em? Do you see them over there to the left?"

  Perkins, watching his altitude and speed with one eye, glanced over to where Messinger was pointing. Finally, in the failing late-afternoon light, Perkins caught a glimpse of two German scout helicopters flying low and slow toward the west, side by side. "Oh, yeah. I see." Then as an afterthought he added, "Tryin' to be sneaky little devils, aren't they?"

  Without taking his eyes from the German helicopters, Messinger mused, "Well, they're not being very good at it, are they? Look at 'em. Damn. There isn't more than a hundred meters between them. And I don't think they've seen us."

  While bringing their helicopter around in a circle behind the German helicopters, Perkins continued to watch his instruments, where he was going, and the Germans. "Bad case of tunnel vision. You don't suppose they have someone flying cover, do you?"

  Understanding Perkins's comment for the warning it was, Messinger began to look about for any sign of other German helicopters or aircraft. When he was sure there weren't any, he turned back to the two German helicopters. By this time Perkins had brought their own helicopter behind the Germans, slowing almost to a hover. Deciding that this was a good time to report, Messinger submitted a sighting report, called a spot report, back to the squadron command post. After providing his assistant operations officer at the command post with the location, number of helicopters sighted, their type, and their activity, Messinger turned to Perkins. "You feel like having a little fun?"

  Knowing what Messinger was hinting at, Perkins looked at his fuel gauge, his other instruments, and the amount of daylight left, and thought for a second. When he was sure that they could afford to deviate from their flight plan, Perkins turned to Messinger and smiled. "Sure. You're the boss. Do we sneak up or dig our spurs in and charge home?"

  "Let's shake these guys' trees a little. Kick her in the ass and overfly 'em. And, Larry, I want to see what color eyes the pilot of the right helicopter has."

  Lining up his ancient OH-58 with the Germans, Perkins set himself like a sprinter in the starting blocks. Messinger, taking one last glance around to make sure there weren't any other Germans trailing or covering the two German scouts that they were about to pounce on, called out that the coast was clear. When all was ready, Perkins simply said, "Here we go," and began their run in.

  Easing the joy stick forward with his right hand, Perkins tilted the main rotor forward by twisting the collective on his side with his left hand while manipulating the pedals with his feet to keep the tail boom straight. All these actions, done with the ease and grace of an experienced aviator who flew almost exclusively by feel and touch, put the helicopter in a nose-down position as the main rotor bit into the air and pulled the helicopter forward at ever increasing speeds.

  By the time they were within one hundred meters of the two German scouts, Perkins and Messinger's helicopter had just about maxed out their airspeed. With a final quick jerk up on the cyclic, Perkins pulled their helicopter up and over the two Germans. Once he was sure that they had cleared the German helicopters, Perkins eased the collective down, causing the helicopter to drop right in front of the Germans. After holding this for a couple of seconds to ensure that the Germans got a chance to see who he was, Perkins made a hard left bank in order to get out of the Germans' line of fire.

  Shooting, however, was the last thing the two German pilots were thinking of at that moment. They had been, as Messinger observed, totally oblivious to everything except where they were going. The sudden appearance of another helicopter overflying them at a high rate of speed and then dropping right in front of them just meters away caused both pilots to panic and overreact. The German to the left pulled up and made a sharp bank to the left in order to avoid a collision with the unknown intruder. He sought safety in altitude and speed. The other German attempted to do the same, but didn't quite gain enough altitude before he began his bank to the right. The result was that as his helicopter began to tilt to the right its rotors bit into the branches of a pine tree off to his side. Though the branches didn't shatter or break the rotors, the sudden blade strike, coupled with the shock of Perkins's overflight, totally unnerved the German pilot. At a loss as to what to do and unable to comprehend everything that was happening, the German flared out and crash-landed his helicopter.

  While they were still coming around and slowing some, Messinger saw the effects of their maneuver. When he saw the blade strike and the crash landing of the German helicopter that had been on the right, he held his breath as he waited to see if the German helicopter caught fire. Perkins, also watching, said nothing. Instead he brought his own helicopter around in a tighter bank and headed for the crashed helicopter. As they approached, both men experienced a sinking feeling while they watched to see if their fellow aviators were able to make it clear of the wreckage. When they saw one, then the other, free himself from the downed aircraft, both men felt great relief. Messinger broke the silence by instructing Perkins to set down near the two downed aviators.

  While approaching the crash site, two thoughts kept running through Messinger's mind. The first was a fear that their actions would be viewed in the worst possible light by the German government and serve as the pretext that it was so desperately looking for in order to start a real shooting war. Everyone in the Tenth Corps had been warned on a daily basis to avoid doing anything within reason that would give the Germans the excuse to start firing. Messinger himself had mouthed those words to the troop commanders in his squadron. It was because of this that the second thought or, more correctly, feeling kept gnawing at him. He felt, as Perkins prepared to land, the same feeling that he had when as a child he had broken something by accident and was trying to see if he could fix it before his mom and dad found out.

  Once on the ground, Messi
nger was out of his helicopter before Perkins shut it down. Running over to the first German aviator, Messinger yelled, "Are you all right? Are you hurt?" The German was sitting in the snow, resting his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands. When Messinger finally reached him without getting any response, he bent over and reached out with his right hand, resting it on the German's shoulder before asking again, "Are you all right?"

  The German aviator, finally recovered enough from the shock of the crash landing, looked up. Still too dazed to think clearly or be angry, he just nodded. "Ja, yes. I think so." Then looking over to the helicopter, he asked, "Otto! Wo ist—, where is Otto?"

  Messinger, still with his hand on the German's shoulder, looked about for the other German aviator. He saw Otto on the other side of the helicopter standing next to a tree. Supporting himself with one hand, Otto was bending over, either trying to catch his breath or throwing up. When Perkins, carrying a first aid kit, came up next to Messinger, Messinger pointed over to where Otto was and told Perkins to head over there and see how he was doing. Perkins had no sooner left when Messinger heard two voices behind him. "Erich, Otto! Erich, Otto! Wo sind sie?"

  Turning around, Messinger saw two Germans in flight suits approaching at a run. The other helicopter had, he decided, also landed to check on their comrades. As he watched them approach, Messinger noticed that the lead aviator had a drawn pistol in his right hand while the other one carried a submachine gun at the ready. Suddenly for the first time it dawned upon Messinger that landing might have been a bigger mistake than just flying away. Realizing that it was too late to do anything, Messinger stood up and waved to the approaching Germans. Having decided that bluffing it out was the best solution, he called out, "Erich is here. He's shook up but okay. Otto is over there with my pilot."