Patton couldn’t remember what the 808th TD rode into battle, so asked the question.
“M36’s, Sir.”
“Get ’em rolling, Ben. I’ll leave you to put a burr under Clarke’s arse. But I want your Corps in command of this area, and particularly the junction of Routes 51 and 477 today. No excuses, Ben.”
“Sir.”
Like a whirlwind, Patton swept out of Travers’ headquarters as swiftly as he arrived, leaving only shattered Bakelite to mark that he had ever been there.
His Dodge WC57 car was already hammering across country for his next call to ‘encourage’ Ernie Harmon’s Twenty-second Corps to greater efforts.
“OK you sleeping beauties! Rack ’em up and move ’em out!”
Christensen, Master Sergeant of the HQ Company, 808th Tank Destroyer Battalion, strode amongst the snoozing men, clapping his hands and shouting, occasionally taking a kick at a reluctant body.
The 808th had been on a maintenance run all morning and had stopped for lunch. It seemed to the tired men that it was only two minutes since the order to rest had been given.
Gear was made up and stowed as the roar of V8 engines filled the air.
A jeep containing the commander of the 808th, Lieutenant Colonel McDonald, swept up the road, to join the head of the column.
This move was all about speed.
The M36 Jacksons started to move off as the entire battalion took to Route 51, heading towards Blankenheim.
‘Spectrum’ was already coming apart at the seams, its timetable in tatters as stiff Soviet resistance and Mother Nature combined to make things very difficult for the Allied forces.
There were five schedules in the Spectrum plan.
‘Black’ had actually been too successful and brought down the hounds of hell upon the Legion Corps, inflicting huge casualties on one of the Allies’ prime formations. Whilst that smoothed the way for the US Third Army, the concern now was that the large Soviet forces drawn to Alsace might find other employment, possibly looking westwards once more. The dilemma facing the Allied Generals was that the enemy needed to be kept in place in Alsace, not permitted to return to the north, where George Patton had plans for a change of ownership.
However, the Red Army units left opposing Patton’s advance fought like mad dogs, extracting a heavy price from the attacking US units.
To the north, the German thrust towards Cologne went well at first, not quite the Blitzkrieg, but close enough to make one or two of the German veterans recall happier days.
However, the attack of 101st Korps ran into stiff resistance from the 3rd Guards Tank Army and elements of 5th Guards Army, before being fought to a bloody standstill at Leverkusen and Wipperfürth.
‘Green’, the overall air plan, was proving successful without being dramatically victorious, probably because of the unreliable weather conditions, causing many abandoned missions. Overall, close-support missions were reasonably successful, but losses across the range of the Allied air inventory were more than expected, and the heavy bombers much less successful than hoped.
‘Red’ was still ongoing and due to come to fruition soon, although those in command doubted that it would now contribute to the main attacks in Central Germany as had been hoped. None the less, it was vital to proceed in order to test the viability of Spectrum Indigo, or whatever it would be called when it commenced, scheduled for 1946.
‘White’, the FUSAG style subterfuge based around a fictitious Allied Second Army Group, seemed to be keeping the Soviet 1st Baltic Front in Northern Germany in place and not interfering with the northern side of the Ruhr, which had been a fear of the Allied planners.
Eisenhower teetered on the edge of calling the whole Spectrum Operation off.
His political master, President Harry Truman, had called that very morning to encourage his commander to press home the attack. Almost as if orchestrated, Churchill had contacted Eisenhower to enquire as to the progress of Spectrum.
As always, Ike turned to his closest advisors for guidance.
George Patton had been against aborting Spectrum, as had McCreery and Bedell-Smith.
Devers, understandably, had supported the possibility, if only to free up some assets to make sure he could deal with any Soviet counter threat.
Bradley had sat on the fence, laying out his views on both actions and leaving the decision to Ike.
Tedder had argued the case for a partial halt to Spectrum, permitting the naval and deception plans to proceed whilst curtailing the other parts, perhaps because the RAF and USAAF had spent weeks moving assets in secret for the culmination of Spectrum Red.
In the end, Eisenhower let the whole thing run, turning to Spectrum Red to provide some stimulus to the main assault, albeit by an indirect route.
The tension in SHAEF headquarters was tangible.
It often was before big operations but, somehow, this time it felt different.
‘Spectrum’ was in trouble; certainly as far as the land war was concerned.
Eisenhower, Bedell-Smith, and Bradley sat engaged in small talk, occasionally interrupted by a new report, or a question from one of the staff.
One report concerned Italy and the destruction of a Red Army drive adjacent to the Swiss border. In general, the Italian front had descended quickly into stalemate, more because of the increasingly awful conditions than for reasons of stalwart defence.
Reports from Alexander suggested supply issues for the enemy forces, as did most reports across the board, but the weather across the Alpine region was diabolical, and it seemed that even the winter-hardened Soviet army was having difficulty.
Either way, it was welcome good news.
The coffee kept coming.
Eisenhower smoked and smoked, betraying his nervousness.
If Spectrum Red went according to plan, the Soviets would be chasing shadows for hours, if not days, during which they would lose considerable numbers of their air and naval assets. The opportunity to demonstrate Polish loyalty would prove a winner for later, should the expected opportunity present itself. If the operation ran long enough, then there was even a chance that assets could be drawn northwards, and away from Central Germany, making Patton’s job easier.
If…
It was Bradley who noticed the increase in volume first, a sure indicator that something was amiss.
He nudged Bedell-Smith and pointed at two Colonels and a Brigadier General in animated conversation.
“Something’s put a burr under their collective asses, Walter.”
John Cunningham, the Brigadier General in question, recently returned from his spell in hospital post Frankfurt air raid, took the two reports, and moved towards the three senior men.
Eisenhower had also noted the agitated nature of the staff discussion.
“John, what gives?”
“Sir, we have received two reports from Italy.”
Perhaps understandably, all three men relaxed, so focussed were they on the cold waters of the Baltic.
“Go on, John.”
“Sir, the initial report was from Field Marshal Alexander, indicating an angry communication from the Yugoslavian leadership regarding our armed incursion into their territory, and the deaths of nearly one hundred of their soldiers.”
The three mouths spoke as one.
“What?”
Cunningham was about to confirm what he had just said, but was interrupted.
“And the second report?”
Eisenhower cut to the chase.
“Sir, it’s from General Freyberg reporting a Yugoslavian infiltration and attack in progress at Trieste.”
Things started happening thick and fast from that point, and within thirty seconds, Eisenhower was passed a telephone by a Staff Captain.