Harold Coyle
Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knocked-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And toward our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the boots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire lime. — Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watched the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Bitten as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, — My friend, you would not tell with such high zest The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.[1]
FOREWORD
Since the end of World War II, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union has dominated world affairs. While it can be argued that the issue is one of freedom versus dictatorship, capitalism versus communism, NATO versus the Warsaw Pact, in the end, the confrontation is between the two main antagonists. Issues change, locations change, supporting players change, the means of warfare change. The only fixed constant is the two main players, the United States and the Soviet Union.
There is much debate on what the final outcome of this confrontation will be. At one end of the spectrum there are the optimists who believe that the two great nations will learn to coexist and find peaceful means of resolving their disputes. At the other end are the cynics who believe that the two superpowers will destroy not only themselves, but the rest of the world as well in a nuclear holocaust. Both nations possess the means to accomplish either.
It is not the purpose of this book to debate the great issues, nor to predict how the confrontation will end. My goal is simple: to tell a story.
The story is of the men who would be called upon by the United States to decide the issue if the United States and the Soviet Union sought resolution of their difference by force of arms. More specifically, it is about one company, or team, in such a war. It is called Team Yankee, a tank-heavy combat team in West Germany. At the start of the story the Team consists of eighty-four men and a mix of modern, high-tech weaponry as well as tried and true, if somewhat outdated, equipment. Although the Team is a tank-heavy company team, it is attached to a mechanized infantry battalion.
The main character is Capt. Sean Bannon, commander of Team Yankee, a tank company which, at the start of the story, is attached to 3rd Battalion, 78th Infantry (Mechanized). Through his eyes, and those of his subordinates, a view of what modern war would look like in Europe from the standpoint of the American combat soldier is created.
Bannon is a typical American officer of the mid-1980s. Having graduated from college and having obtained a commission through the ROTC program, he has served as a tank platoon leader, a tank company executive officer and a battalion staff officer. His military education has consisted of the Armor Officer’s Basic Course and the Armor Officer’s Advanced Course, both at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He is married, 27 years old, has three children, and a degree in history. He probably will never be promoted above the grade of lieutenant colonel.
The men in Team Yankee are products of the society from which they came. It was said many years ago that the soldiers of an army can only be as good as the society that produces them. This holds true in today’s army. The American soldier today is a product of his society. In the next war, as in past, he will be forced to exist in a nightmare environment of mud and extremes of temperature, subsisting on cold, dehydrated meals and little sleep, faced always with the possibility of death from any quarter. These are the people who will, in war, decide its outcome and the shape of the world tomorrow.
The scenario for this fictitious war is borrowed from General Sir John Hackett’s books, The Third World War and The Third World War: The Untold Story. It is the scenario of a conventional war fought in the mid-1980s. In General Sir John Hackett’s books, the emphasis is on world politics and strategy. This book concerns itself with life at the other end of the spectrum as seen from the tank commander’s hatch and the soldier’s foxhole.
The characters are likewise fictitious. Any resemblance they have to real people is purely coincidental. The events and units involved are, of course, fictitious. Most geographical locations, towns, and areas mentioned are fictional and are not meant to resemble real places or locations. The exceptions to this are the Thüringer Wald and the Saale River, located in the southern portion of East Germany, and Berlin.
This book does not and is not meant to represent current US Army doctrine, policy, plans, or philosophy.
When this book was written in 1985, the US military was undergoing the force modernization program initiated by President Ronald Reagan. New weapons systems, such as the M-1 Abrams tank were being fielded as quickly as they had completed their trails and were type-classified. The M-2/3 Bradley came later, as did certain support equipment such as an armored recovery vehicle that could keep pace with the faster M-1 tank. The result was a period when commanders in the field had to carry out their assigned missions using a mishmash of old and new equipment.
In writing Team Yankee, I used this to my advantage since I had commanded a company in which an M-113 equipped Infantry platoon was attached and was, at the time, unfamiliar with the M-2. It was not until I became the Task Force operations officer for 1-32 Armor at Fort Hood in 1988 that I had a chance to see up close and personal just what a Bradley could do.
HW Coyle
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In writing this book, I owe a great deal to three soldiers and their books. The first and most influential is Charles MacDonald and his book, Company Commander. MacDonald was an infantry company commander in the 23rd Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, during World War Two. After the war he wrote of his experiences as a small unit commander in that war. This excellent book has served me well in my military career and in my efforts to write this book. His assistance, kind words, and guidance have made this book possible.
The next two books, both written by Gen. Sir John Hackett, are The Third World War and The Third World War: The Untold Story. From these books I received the impetus to write Team Yankee and a scenario into which I could place it. The most interesting part of both books to me, as a junior officer, was Sir John’s description of the war from the soldier’s viewpoint. I have, with Sir John’s permission, expanded upon his books, telling the story of one company team from the beginning to the end of the war. I also owe General Sir John Hackett my everlasting gratitude for reviewing the manuscript, providing me guidance, and giving me encouragement to carry on.
The fourth book, Heights Of Glory, written by Brig. Gen. Avigdor Kahalani, provided me with an excellent description of modern armored warfare as experienced by a tank unit commander. General Kahalani commanded the 77th tank Battalion, Israeli Defense Forces, during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. This battalion held a portion of the Golan Heights overlooking the Valley of Tears during the first critical days of that war.