THE TEN THOUSAND

by Harold Coyle

  The corps G-2 intelligence officer himself presented the briefing that morning. Like the other briefers, he referred to a large map covered with clear plastic sheets that took up the entire wall of the expandable tractor-trailer van which served as the corps briefing area. In his usual clear and unemotional monotone voice, the G-2 presented as clear a picture as possible of the enemy's current situation and what he thought their intent was as he used his retractable pointer to indicate the unit symbols on the map he was talking about. The German units coming from the east and west were depicted in red. All major German maneuver units, down to brigade, were displayed with arrows to show where they were headed. This, of course, was toward Autobahn A7, the Tenth Corps' main axis of advance north. Between those arrows American units, shown in blue, reminded Big Al of a big bubble, a fragile bubble, which he realized was being prodded by ice picks.

  In the west the American 55th Mechanized Infantry Division coming up from Würzburg aimed for Alsfeld. A relatively minor town, Alsfeld had no real strategic or tactical importance other than that was where two mechanized forces brought together by the roads that converged there collided on the morning of the 19th. It was, however, more of a cautious bumping together like bumper cars at a carnival than a head-on collision between two steaming locomotives. The commander of the 10th Panzer Division, Major General Albert Kiebler, unsure of the political situation, had intentionally moved slowly. Troubled by a light turnout of reservists, the 10th Panzer could only muster seven full panzer and panzergrenadier battalions by the 18th of January. And even the determination and combat value of the soldiers in those battalions was open to question as debate amongst the officers raged as to who was the true enemy of the German people. This left Kiebler with the impression that his division was at best a fragile weapon that he feared would shatter under heavy pressure.

  Kiebler's tactics reflected his caution. Instead of the armored juggernaut that Ruff had envisioned, the 10th Panzer Division moved up from Frankfurt toward Alsfeld like a giant caterpillar. The two lead battalions, moving abreast, would stretch out a little and then stop. Once the lead battalions were set, the battalions following would move up behind as if they were providing the necessary boost to propel the lead battalions forward again. The official justification was that this technique was necessary in order to keep the division from being strung out and dispersed, keep supply and support elements up, and the division ready to fight. While this was true, it all but assured that the Americans, and not the 10th Panzer, would reach Alsfeld first. This, of course, suited Kiebler just fine, since in his heart he was willing to do anything to postpone any confrontation with the Americans in the hope that somehow the differences between Berlin and Washington could be resolved without a colliding of arms. Even as his units were clashing in the fields around Alsfeld, Kiebler continued to question the wisdom of his government and walked the fine line between obedience to his duty and following his conscience. Left to their own, the commanders of the 10th Panzer Division's lead battalions followed the example of their commanding general, restricting themselves to light probing actions that were easily parried by the 55th Mechanized Infantry Division.

  The commanding general of the 2nd Panzer Division to the east had no such reservations. The initial confrontations, like the one involving Emerson and Dallas with his lead units, reflected this. A motorized rifle regimental commander in the former East German Army, Major General Erich Dorsch was reinstated with the rank of general in the unified Army under Chancellor Ruff's reforms. Dorsch drove the 2nd Panzer Division into the flank of the Tenth Corps like a lance. In part this was possible because many of his officers and soldiers were, like him, easterners. Having spent their formative years and early adulthood under communism, they had no great love for the Americans. Nor were they troubled by the conflict of duty versus conscience that had been hammered home into the minds of every officer of the old Bundeswehr, a handicap that now hamstrung them at the moment of truth. Even the turnout of reservists reflected this difference, with the 2nd Panzer Division boasting nine ground maneuver battalions, making it the largest German division in the field.

  With the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Armored Division entering Kassel, and Scott Dixon's 1st Brigade still south of Fulda bringing up the rear, that left the 3rd Brigade the task of covering the division's eastern flank. Unable to cover every possible approach in strength, Colonel Andrew Bowman, commander of the 3rd Brigade, concentrated two of his three battalions to deal with an attack coming down Autobahn E40 running west from Erfurt to Bad Hersfeld, a city situated midway between Fulda and Kassel. The danger of this obvious avenue of approach made sense, for Autobahn E40 was the same road that Kiebler and his 10th Panzer Division were using as the axis for their advance from the southwest. To Dorsch, that approach was too obvious. Even before his own reconnaissance elements confirmed the information provided by the Luftwaffe and national-level intelligence agencies, Dorsch had already decided to use a more difficult but less obvious axis of advance into the flank of Tenth Corps. While holding the attention of the American 3rd Brigade with a supporting attack down the axis that the Americans expected the 2nd Panzer to use, Dorsch launched his main attack down Highway 84, which ran southwest from Eisenach into Highway 27 at Hünfeld. Six kilometers, or four and a half miles, to the west of Hünfeld lay Autobahn A7. In a single stroke Dorsch intended to push aside the Tenth Corps flank guard, inserting his 2nd Panzer Division between the American rear guard and lead elements while cutting both routes running north that the Tenth Corps so heavily depended upon.

  By midmorning the series of sharp engagements that had begun with Sergeant Emerson's fight on Highway 84 just outside of Rasdorf left the tank battalion that Emerson belonged to battered and reeling back away from the relentless advance of the 2nd Panzer Division. Their line of retreat was toward the northwest and the 4th Armored Division's 3rd Brigade's center of mass. While this maneuver made sense to both the commander of the 3rd Brigade and the commander of Emerson's battalion, it opened Highway 84 all the way to Hünfeld.

  Looking at his watch, Big Al decided that he could not wait for the briefing to continue as usual. His division commanders were waiting for orders from him. Although they were already reacting to the situation within their division areas of responsibilities, there was the danger that their decisions and actions, made independently, would handicap the corps' ability to deal with the twin threats effectively. When the G-2 finished his briefing, Big Al leaned over to his chief of staff, Brigadier General Buddy Bolin. "Buddy, I know that this briefing is as much a benefit to the staff as it is to me, but they're just going to have to get it later. We have work to do. Now I want you, the G-2, the G-3, the fire support officer, air liaison officer, and the assistant G-4 to stay behind. We need a plan and we need one right now. Otherwise my two headstrong division commanders are going to go charging off in different directions and tear this corps apart."

  As the other staff officers left the expandable van, the G-2 grabbed a chair, seating himself facing Big Al with his back to the briefing map. Bolin, on Big Al's right, was joined by the corps assistant G-4, who took a seat to Bolin's right. On Big Al's left was Brigadier General Jerry Prentice, the corps G-3, with the corps fire support officer to Prentice's left and Colonel Tim "Big Foot" MacHaffry, the Air Force liaison officer, to his left.

  When everyone else had left and the van was quiet, Big Al looked at the map for a second. He glanced at the somber faces of his battle staff, then back at the map. He already knew what he was going to say about future operations. That was simple. What troubled him was how to say it. He, like his staff officers, was tired, depressed, and deeply concerned to the point of being pessimistic. Placing his hands on his hips, Big Al pretended to study the map while he searched for the right words and prepared himself to deliver them. For he as their senior commander would set the tone. Everyone would watch him, studying how he carried himself and listening for the conviction behind his words. If his presentation was gloom and d
oom, that attitude would be carried over into the corps order and would be parroted by his own staff as they talked to the staff's of the two divisions. Such a negative attitude would in turn be passed on down by the divisions, who, unable to physically see Big Al himself, would assume that they were engaged in a questionable operation. There was no time for Big Al to personally visit each command as he had done a week ago. During this operation he would depend on his staff to convey both his, the commander's, actual and the psychological messages. Big Al, recalling a scene in the movie Patton, when Patton's aide-de-camp commented that Patton's staff didn't know when he was acting, Patton had smiled and informed the concerned aide that they didn't need to know. Only he, Patton, did.

  With that thought in mind, Big Al forced a scowl on his face and turned to his battle staff. "As I see it, the real danger is the 2nd Panzer." To a man, the assembled staff officers nodded their agreement. This observation was based just as much on Big Al's personal knowledge of the two German division commanders as it was on the current situation. During several joint NATO and American-German command post exercises run while Big Al commanded the Tenth Corps, General Kiebler's 10th Panzer Division had operated as part of the American Tenth Corps. Though these exercises had used computers instead of real soldiers to wargame various scenarios and contingencies to deal with them, Big Al had been able to observe and learn how Kiebler thought and reacted. As a result, Big Al concurred with the G-2's assessment that Kiebler, while being both steady and reliable, was cautious. The movement of the 10th Panzer from Frankfurt am Main through Giessen reinforced this perception. Though Big Al didn't know that Kiebler's normal caution was intensified by his troubled conscience, that didn't matter. What was important at that moment to the assembled men was that they were able to agree that the 10th Panzer Division was of secondary importance. The real danger to the corps for the next forty-eight hours would be the 2nd Panzer Division. Big Al's knowledge of the German commanders gained during both social gatherings and training exercises before this crisis again played a major part in his thinking. During two of the command post exercises that the Tenth Corps had run, Dorsch, the commander of the 2nd Panzer, had played the opposing force. Once, he had been the overall commander, and the other time he had played the role of a Polish armored division commander. In both roles, Big Al had been impressed with the manner with which Dorsch had combined the machinelike tactics of the former Red Army with the Teutonic precision that appeared to come as naturally to him as breathing. During meetings and social events associated with these exercises, Big Al had been equally struck by Dorsch's cold, standoffish manner. Both Big Al and other NATO commanders couldn't help but notice the aloof and cold manner with which he spoke to them. All agreed that this was the result of years of communist indoctrination and his early training, which had instilled into him the idea that the Americans were the real enemy of Germany. This factor, just like the decision to go through Bavaria, where the people viewed the Americans in more favorable terms, was not discounted by Big Al and his assembled staff officers when determining which of the German divisions presented the greatest danger.

  With that issue decided, how best to use this insight and knowledge to deal with the current situation was now discussed. Actually, a discussion per se never took place. The same men who were now assembled had already played out a series of "what if scenarios over the past forty-eight hours collectively and within their own staff sections as soon as the danger posed by the two panzer divisions had been identified. Instead, Big Al stood up, moved over to the map, and looked at it for a moment before speaking, while the G-2 moved his chair around next to the assistant G-4. Turning to his staff officers, Big Al, using his finger as a pointer, began to talk. "With the 4th Armored's 3rd Brigade pulling back to the northwest, we're leaving the door open for the 2nd Panzer. It's too late to stop that maneuver, and even if we did, pressure from the supporting attack coming down Autobahn E40 as well as the main German effort would be too much for that brigade to handle. So for the time being we'll let the 3rd Brigade, 4th Armored, stand fast and cover Bad Hersfeld."

  Big Al paused, turning to the map. When he continued, he remained facing the map, but still used his finger to indicate the units he was talking about, and ran his finger along the map to indicate where he wanted them to go. "Now, that decision leaves a big gap between the 4th Armored's 1st Brigade here, in Fulda, and the 3rd Brigade here, south of Bad Hersfeld. We could encourage the 4th Armored Division to hurry the 1st Brigade north in an effort to close the gap, but I don't think they'd make it. We could order the 1st Brigade to move directly north and hit the 2nd Panzer in the flank, but Dorsch would be expecting that. In this terrain the 1st Brigade would be easily blocked by a couple of German panzergrenadier companies. We would in short order find ourselves engaged in a slugfest here in the south and a standoff in the north, while Dorsch's lead brigade ran riot through our logistic areas. And that, gentlemen, would spell the end to this corps and our great gamble."

  Big Al paused, stepped back slightly, moved his head about as he looked at the entire map, then turned to his staff officers. With his hands on his hips and a firm, determined expression on his face, Big Al made it known in his indomitable style that he intended to throw caution to the winds. "We knew from the beginning that this was a great gamble, one crapshoot after another. Well, people, it's time to roll the dice again." Without waiting for a response, Big Al began rattling off his concept for the corps counterattack. "Effective immediately, the 55th Infantry's 3rd Brigade, with no less than four maneuver battalions, is attached to the 4th Armored Division. That brigade will move due east, cross country if possible, and take up blocking positions at or west of Hünfeld. We'll lose the use of Highway 27 if Hünfeld falls, but we can live with that so long as the autobahn stays open. To do this, the 55th Infantry's 3rd Brigade will link up with the 4th Armored's 3rd Brigade. When and where possible, I want both brigades to conduct local counterattacks to stop or disrupt the German advance. In addition to the 55th Infantry's 3rd Brigade, the commander of the 4th Armored will have priority on the 10th Aviation Brigade's attack helicopter battalions. With a little luck we should be able to check the 2nd Panzer." Pointing to the symbol that represented the 4th Armored Division's 1st Brigade, still south of Fulda, Big Al continued. "Our main effort to eliminate the threat posed by the 2nd Panzer will be made by the 1st Brigade. From Fulda, I want that brigade to strike northeast paralleling Highway 27 and head toward Highway 19. Just short of Highway 19, this brigade will turn north and cut behind the 2nd Panzer. Their mission is to tear up the 2nd Panzer's support elements and cause Dorsch to hesitate, maybe even turn around and go after the 1st Brigade. While all this is going on, we continue to push north. It is not my intent to fight a battle of annihilation here. Our goal is to get to the coast, not kill Germans. Now, having said that, I do want to make sure that everyone in this corps understands that does not mean holding back."

  From where they sat, Big Al's staff officers could see the fire in his eyes as he balled his hand up into a fist. Pounding his fist on the map board to emphasize each point of his next announcement, Big Al drove home how he wanted his corps to fight. "Throughout this operation, I want every commander at every level to move fast, strike true, and hit hard. Our target is the German Army, not the German people. They are to avoid collateral damage whenever possible and heap terror and destruction on the German Army every time it comes to a fight. I want to serve notice to those gentlemen in Berlin that, while we may be running, we're not helpless." Toning down his enthusiasm, Big Al pointed out that if they succeeded here other German commanders not yet engaged might pause and think twice before striking.

  Before turning his attention to the 10th Panzer, Big Al looked at MacHaffry. "Big Foot, talk to me about the Luftwaffe."

  An F-22 fighter pilot by training, MacHaffry was labeled Big Foot because his six-foot-four frame was supported by feet that required size 13 1/2 double-E boots. Leaning forward in his seat, MacHaffry placed h
is hands on his knees and looked up at Big Al. "Although rumors concerning the Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe have yet to be confirmed, the fact is that there is a great deal of confusion at every level. We do know that pilots have refused to fly, sabotage is widespread, and base commanders have denied fuel to squadron commanders on their own base. Although we can expect some air activity, it will be limited."

  After nodding a few times, Big Al turned to the map again and spoke without looking at MacHaffry. "Is Boomer ready for Operation Whirlwind?"

  Boomer, the call sign for Colonel Wilber Smith, commander of the 79th Air Wing that had supported the Tenth Corps in Slovakia, was prepared to use Czech bases for as long as possible to support the Tenth Corps breakout efforts. Whirlwind was the name for what everyone believed would be a one-shot air offensive against selected Luftwaffe bases. The targets of Valkyrie would be those bases and Luftwaffe facilities that posed the greatest threat to the Tenth Corps. Though there was lively debate about whether Whirlwind would cause those in the Luftwaffe who were undecided about the wisdom of opposing the Americans to throw their lot behind Chancellor Ruff's government, it was agreed by every staff officer and pilot of the 79th Wing that they would support the Tenth Corps regardless of consequences. The worst that could happen was that each plane would fly one mission and then be interned by the Czech government upon its return. The best, the removal of the stain on the Air Force's name as a result of the capitulation at Sembach.