“As you said Admiral, I will have to take your information under advisement. It is politically impossible to slow up the demobilization process at this time, much less stop it. I just hope to Holy God that you are wrong.”
The Company Sergeant Major walked up toward the check point and looked at the pasty-faced newbies manning it, these pitiful excuses for what were, charitably, called “soldiers.”
Dear God, look at these clowns! They don’t even make good policemen, much less soldiers. I bet the guy at the check point can’t even load his rifle properly, much less aim and shoot with any accuracy. Time for me to join the rest of my buddies, get out of the Army and cash in on that G.I. Bill. Hell, I’ve got plenty of points from my time in combat. Man, will you look at that guy? He couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag! Where did they get these guys?
“Hey bud, where you from?”
“Wisconsin.”
“Kill many Krauts there?”
“Screw you, asshole!”
He decided to let that one go for now, but made a point to remember that kid’s face. He’d mete out his own special brand of discipline later, out of school.
He looks down at the Inspector-General’s report in his hands. His boss, the company commander, also a combat veteran like himself thought that he might enjoy a little light reading.
“The replacements coming to Europe were not only unskilled but, in increasing numbers, untrained. In November and December 1945, ninety-five percent of U.S. Forces, European Theater’s personnel requests were for men with technical service specialties. Of those who arrived, only thirteen percent had the required qualifications, and not to any high degree.
Beginning in January, replacements were shipped overseas after only eight weeks’ of basic training, which did not attempt to go beyond qualification with the M-l rifle, personal hygiene and sanitation, and orientation for occupation duty, with an emphasis on discipline.
The Theater Command’s Inspector-General made inspection tours in Paris, Metz, and several areas in the U.S. occupation zone of Germany, and reported the following:
“Discipline is generally poor and at the time of this report, is below desirable standards. Definite responsibility for maintaining discipline where troops of various arms and services are stationed, has not been satisfactorily established.
Incidental to the shortage of personnel, the majority of replacements are not receiving the additional disciplinarybasic training, as required.”
Due to a marked lack of qualified senior command staff in-theater, many junior officers are now assigned command responsibilities far beyond their demonstrated capability for vital installations and units.”[7]
Jesus, this army is a mess! Even I can see that. Most of these guys never saw combat. All of the old hands shipped out long ago. They’re down to guys with 35 points, for God’s sake!
Time to get out. All the good stuff was looted anyway. Sure wish we could have had a crack at Berlin. The Reds got most of the good stuff there.
Untrained troops, and not enough of them. Now was a good time for the Reds to attack. Good thing we’ve got the A-bomb. That’ll stop them in their tracks. Yeah, it’s a good time to get out.
Memo
To: Polar Bear
From: Cyclops
Subject: Troop Strengths
We currently have 22 nominal divisions on occupation duty in Europe. The British have 12 in their zone of occupation and the French have 8. Almost all are at half-strength. Even a relatively small force of 60 full-strength Soviet divisions would cut through our lines, like a hot knife through butter. Our air force is in slightly better shape with 10,000 frontline combat aircraft worldwide.
Our demobilization effort has been wildly successful. Five months after V-J Day, 8.5 million Allied soldiers had been demobilized.
By contrast our estimates are that the Soviets have 66 full-strength divisions, capable of attacking at any time. They have the capability of mobilizing a total of 273 full-strength combat divisions within thirty days, and by D-day+60 they can deploy an estimated 270 divisions to Europe, 42 divisions to the Middle East and 49 divisions to the Far East. They have over 14,000 frontline combat aircraft currently in service.
The Soviet client nations in Eastern Europe are capable of mustering a combined total of 84 of what we would consider “second-line” divisions, in addition to 850 combat aircraft, between them all. Further estimates indicate that they have more than enough combat strength to attack and overwhelm Greece and Italy.
“Jeez, Frank not another one of your “the sky is falling” memos. You know the White House is ignoring all of your Chicken Little crap.”
“I’m just doing my job, Jim, and passing on what information we’ve gathered out in the field. Whether someone takes us seriously or not is not my problem… until the Reds attack, that is. Then they’ll try and pin it on me. That’s why I keep sending the memos that no one reads… CYA, Jim. CYA…[8]
Chapter Three:
War!
Forward Signal Corps Radar Station
Near Fulda, Germany
May 2nd, 1946
05:42 hours
“Sorry to wake you sir, but we have multiple bogies coming in from the east approaching the demarcation line…”
“Yes sir, I agree it probably is the Soviets returning to their duty stations in eastern Germany from the May Day Parade in Moscow. I apologize for bothering you, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have called. Do you remember, sir, the intelligence warnings we received about the threat of a Soviet surprise attack sometime in May? Well, sir, the trouble is that it appears that there is a shit-load of aircraft returning. I’d estimate judging by the radar returns, that there are over ten times more aircraft returning than left for Berlin. They don’t have the landing field capacity for all those planes under normal circumstances…”
“Yes sir we’ve checked the calibration on the SCR-584, and it is working just fine… No sir, I haven’t been drinking… Yes sir I will await further orders.”
U.S. Army Occupation Headquarters
Bonn, Germany
May 2nd, 1946
06:47 hours
A captain with fear in his eyes and shaking hands practically rips a phone out of the wall in his haste to call his HQ commander. He is virtually alone in the HQ. The few others present stop what they are doing and stare at the captain in undisguised astonishment as he screams into the phone.
“SIR! ALL RADIO COMMUNICATIONS HAVE BEEN JAMMED! IT HAPPENED ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO! Yes sir, sorry sir, I’ll calm down…”
“We also have telephoned spotter reports of a massive attack on our forward air bases all over the western occupation zones of Germany. A number of bases appear to have lost telephone contact and we are not receiving any radio signals of any kind.”
“What was that, sir…?”
“Yes sir, I’d estimate, using the scant information coming in, that an overwhelming majority of our forward bases are either currently under attack or have already been destroyed… No sir, I wish to God this was a drill…”
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ARMY DOWNSIZING FOLLOWING WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, VIETNAM, AND A COMPARISON TO RECENT ARMY DOWNSIZING
A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE Military History by GARRY L. THOMPSON, USA B.S., University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Ohio, 1989
THE U.S. ARMY IN THE OCCUPATION OF GERMANY
Page 421-425 ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES 1944-1946 By Earl F. Ziemke.
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Combat ready division in Western Europe 1946 — Page 16 American War Plans 1945-1950 — By Steven T. Ross.