By evening the team was settled into their positions and was as ready for whatever came next as it could be. Everyone was in a quiet, reflective mood, with the men talking to each other only when necessary. For the most part, each man passed the night alone with his own thoughts and fears.
Bannon, too, was overcome with a feeling of despair and fear. As part of his training, he had been taught what nuclear weapons could do. He also knew what national policy was concerning their employment as well as the size of the nuclear arsenals that each side had. In Europe alone, the United States had some 7,000 nuclear devices on hand, capable of being delivered by various means, ranging from artillery delivered 155mm rounds to Pershing II missiles.
It was the intercontinental missiles both the US and Russia had that he feared most as his thoughts kept turning to his family. Nightmare scenario began to play out his mind, threatening his ability to think straight. The stress of the last few days, exhaustion, and now the fears brought on by the thought of an all-out nuclear exchanged were too much for him to handle. With no one with whom he could share his feelings and burden, he sought escape through sleep. Like a child faced with a situation beyond his control, he withdrew from the horrors of the real world and drifted into a fitful sleep.
Stand-to the following morning reminded Bannon of the first day. It was as if the Team had gone full circle and was starting anew. In a sense, this was true. Only the distant rumble of an occasional artillery barrage broke the stillness that smothered the Team like a heavy quilt. As he greeted the men during his morning rounds, they responded in a perfunctory manner. Uncertainty and dread underlined everything they did. The lieutenants looked to Bannon, seeking guidance or inspiration or something. They found nothing. He could see their disappointment when he failed to give them the assurance they were seeking. Even a hot breakfast, the first cooked meal the Team had received in days, did little to raise morale. Something had to be done and done fast, or he feared they would all go crazy.
After the morning meal was over, Bannon called the platoon leaders in for a meeting. In no mood to play cheerleader, he took the “business as usual” approach. When everyone was present, he went down a list of protective measures that should have already been put into effect. These included such things as ensuring every man, including the tank crews, had a foxhole near at hand he could dive into if need be, turning off all but one radio in every platoon, covering all optics when not in use, camouflaging everything, and more. In addition, he warned that the platoons needed to tend to their routine maintenance and personal hygiene.
The platoon leaders either regarded him with blank or puzzled stares. Since the start of the war they had become loose in some of the areas he was now insisting they tighten up on. Rather than explain his rational, he simply returned their stares before telling them they were to inform him when they thought they were ready for inspection. At the conclusion of this meeting, he turned them over to the XO and went to battalion to see if there was any news on the progress of the 25th Armored or intelligence updates.
The news that greeted him at battalion was not at all what he had expected or had prepared himself for. Rather than moregrim tidings, word was there had been no further use of nuclear weapons since the first exchange. “Conventional wisdom,” Major Shell explained, “is that the Soviets had decided to try to intimidate the Europeans by taking out one of their cities with a nuclear device. Birmingham in England was chosen for this exercise in terror. The prompt retaliation by both Britain and the US against the city of Minsk came as a shock to them, demonstrating that NATO remained resolved and united.”
“Even more importantly, the cherished Soviet notion that the US would not risk a nuclear attack on herself to save Europe had been disproved,” Ken Damato added. “Just as the leaders of the NATO nations understood the purpose of the Soviet attack, the Soviets understood the meaning of NATO’s response. NATO is ready and willing to trade blow for blow.”
Major Shell then took to briefing Bannon on the overall situation. “The 25th Armored Division is continuing its attack toward Berlin and is making good progress. So far, the Warsaw Pact units have been unable to slow it down, let along stop it. Furthermore, there are signs the Warsaw Pact is beginning to buckle.”
Ken Damato gave Bannon a copy of the Division’s intelligence summary to read. “There’ve been a rash of armed insurrection in several Warsaw Pact Nations,” he added when Bannon was finished reading the INSUM. “I expect a number of them are being inspired and aided by US Army Special Forces A teams that have been inserted throughout Poland and East Germany.”
The news that Polish units were no longer attacking came as no surprise to Bannon. What did were reports that Soviet units in Northern Germany were beginning to surrender en-masse. Others were on the verge of doing so. Deep strikes by the Air Force were hampering the flow of supplies and the movement of troops. In short, the war was going well for NATO.
“While the loss of Birmingham was a major disaster, it has not interfered with the NATO war effort,” Damato pointed out in a manner that struck Bannon as a wee bit too cold and analytical. “The destruction of Minsk, on the other hand, will hampering the Soviets by severing a major communications center. That, and the destruction of key bridges all along the Vistula River are making it increasingly difficult for the Soviets to sustain forces already in Germany, let along bringing forward fresh units from the interior of the Soviet Union.” As disturbing as the S-2’s manner was, what he was saying about Minsk was welcome.
Buoyed by the news he had gleaned during his visit to battalion, Bannon went about the day’s activities with renewed energy. He kept telling himself maybe things were not as bad as they seemed. As he went from platoon to platoon, he gathered the men around and passed on what news and information he had concerning the outside world. For the most part, the effect on the Team was about the same as it had been on him. This, and the return to a degree of routine served to keep the men busy and oriented on the job at hand.
In the early evening the battalion was ordered to move farther to the east and establish contact with Soviet forces commencing at 0300 hours the following morning. During the initial phase of the operation, Team Yankee was to remain in reserve. To Bannon’s surprise, word of the pending movement to contact was welcomed by just about everyone in the Team he spoke to after he’d issued his own operations order to his platoon leaders. As welcomed and needed as the brief pause had been, to a man his officers and senior NCOs were eager to get on with it. They knew the sooner they got moving, the sooner the issue would be decided. The Team was as Americans have always been, anxious to avoid a war but, when forced to fight, determined to get on with it and finish it.
This new attack began without benefit of prep-fires by the artillery. Not that one was needed, as the battalion’s advance encountered nothing but Soviet recon units and troops that were part of the security screen that fired a few rounds before fleeing. Dawn of the thirteenth day of war found the battalion still moving to the east at a steady pace. After an advance of fifteen kilometers it was ordered to halt. While they had not made contact with the Soviets’ main forces yet, Division did not want units belonging to its flank guard to go too far. The main effort was still aimed for Berlin. With few forces available to protect the flanks of that drive, no one at Division or Corps wanted to find their lead elements cut off and isolated, not with things going as well as they were.