Lewis turned his head as he heard the familiar sound of M1-Abrams moving in the distance.
“Is that 68th Regiment, Staff Sergeant?” asked Poole as he clambered alongside his tank commander, handing him a mug of strong black coffee.
“I reckon. Thanks. The boys got some chow?”
“No, they were too tired to eat.”
“Ow.”
“It’s a bit hot.”
“Funny.”
“They’ll make a big difference though, won’t they? A full battalion of these babies, I mean,” Poole said, patting the sides of the armoured turret.
“Oh, they’ll make a difference all right. Blocking the forward part of the Gap will give 3rd Armoured and 8th Mech Division a chance to get into position.”
“They hit us and we pull back again?”
Lewis turned and looked at his driver. “Not this time, Larry. It’s now time to start digging our feet in. Frankfurt’s about 100 klicks from here.”
“That’s still a long way.”
“At twenty-five kilometres a day, providing they can maintain the momentum, they could be at the city in four days.”
“Shit.”
“Yes, shit. So, we’ve got to hold them.”
“Quite right, Troop,” added the voice of Lieutenant Jefferson, the platoon commander, as he clambered onto the tank.
“Coffee sir?” asked Poole. “It’s fresh.”
“Just had one, thanks, Poole.”
“If you’ll excuse me, sir, Staff Sergeant, I’ll take stag at the front of the tank.” With that, the driver slid down the glacis and dropped off the front, turned the corner and rested his back against the tracks of the M1, checking his service pistol was loaded and handy. He should have the tank’s only M16, but he would get it once the platoon commander had gone.
“Your track up to scratch, Troop?”
“Of course it is, LT, you know me well enough by now.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just asking. Make sure your guys are on the ball. The squadron commander reckons they will be here by tonight, if not sooner. I suggest you keep your crew inside the track. There’s going to be a lot of shit coming our way.”
Lewis studied his platoon-commander. His face still had the appearance of being soft-skinned, that even dabs of cammo paint could not hide. But the puppy fat seemed to have disappeared overnight. Their first taste of battle, and twenty-four hours effectively on the run, had transformed the boy into an officer in command of a platoon of tanks and their crews.
“Good point, LT, I’ll call them in shortly. Seems 1st Battalion are getting into position.”
“They’ve had a platoon here since this morning. The rest are manoeuvring into position now.”
“They’ll make a difference.”
“If they, with our help, can screen the Fulda Gap, it will give the 3rd and 8th a good chance to prepare their positions.”
The sound of armoured vehicles moving drew their attention towards the activity behind them and they twisted around to take a look.
“That will be the 533rd MI battalion.”
“Think they’ll be much use, LT?”
An MLQ34 TACJAM of the 533rd Military Intelligence Battalion made its way north, heading for higher ground where it could jam the enemy’s communications. A trailer with a generator onboard was being towed behind, to handle the high electrical demand of the jamming equipment soon to be put to use.
“Hey, Staff Sergeant, I’ll take whatever they’ve got. At worst case, they can pull a gun.”
Lewis laughed. Maybe the youngster had a sense of humour after all.
The military policeman, standing next to his VW 181 Jeep, waved the M1 Abrams of the 1st Battalion, 64th Armoured Regiment, 3rd (US) Armoured Division, the Spearhead Division, past him. The majority of the division had gone this way the previous day. This battalion was following up the rear ensuring the security of the lengthy logistical tail that was growing ever bigger and ever longer as the battle raged further east, and more and more troops and supplies came from the US and Great Britain. He and the rest of 2 Kompanie, Feldjagerbataillon 70 were helping to facilitate the movement of thousands of American troops now piling into Europe.
Under the control of the United States Air Force’s Military Air Command, five Boeing 747s and four C-141 Starlifters had landed at the Frankfurt-main in the last six hours, disembarking over 1,000 men and their personal equipment. At the reactivated Wiesbaden-Erbenheim Air Base, over sixty flights, that had flown non-stop over the Atlantic, including the huge C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft, carrying over 5,000 men and 1,000 tons of supplies, had been landing every couple of minutes, disgorging their loads, refuelling, then taking off again for the return flight. Earlier in the day, ten C-130 Hercules transport aircraft had flown in from Dallas, Texas, and US fighter aircraft were moving to European airfields to be in a better position to defend this vast armada reinforcing NATO forces in West Germany.
Reinforcements weren’t just coming in by air; many of America’s reinforcements were coming by sea. Sea vessels Meteor, Comet, Callaghan and Cygnus had delivered nearly 100,000 tons of equipment to the European continent and were already on their way back to the States to pick up more. The United States Navy Ship, USNS Algol, a roll-on roll-off ship, with the capability to carry and offload the equipment of an entire armoured infantry battalion, had also just docked in Antwerp. The ship had cruised flat out to deliver its load, taking only four days to get from Texas in the US to Antwerp’s port in Belgium. From there, equipment would be transported on railway flat cars to their final assembly areas. One of eight strategic sealift vessels, the cargo hold of the Algol had a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles could be driven out of the storage areas for rapid loading and unloading. With twin cranes aft and amidships, it was capable of lifting fifty tons and thirty-five tons respectively. At 280 metres in length and capable of carrying 700 vehicles, including tanks, trucks and helicopters, it was a much needed asset for Military Sealift Command.
The US Army was on the move. V US Corps, a key force in Central Army Group, was making headway into its preparations to defend West German soil. CENTAG had to cover the ground from just south of Bonn, down to the Austrian border in the south, with the 3rd West German Corps in the north; then V US Corps, VII US Corps and the 2nd West German Corps covering the entire border of Czechoslovakia and butting up against Austria.
The military policeman’s arm was getting weary; the constant flick of his wrist indicating to the convoys that they should keep moving. A new tank battalion started to thunder by. Having received their tanks from the ‘Prepositioning Of Material Configured in Unit Sets’, POMCUS, depot at Kaiserslautern, the 1st Tank Battalion, 77th Armoured Regiment, 4th (US) Mechanised Infantry Division was also on the move east. The first reinforcements to arrive for V Corps, the battalion were being dispatched to the front line immediately. The rest of the division was either offloading, drawing their equipment from a POMCUS site, or still on the water or in the air.