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Maps and Other Problems
*****
I don't remember where I had been - possibly on another tour of Gravelotte -
when I returned to find the CP buzzing with excitement. Major Swatosh had been
wounded and evacuated.
"What happened?" I asked our doctor, Lt Davis. "Where was he?"
"He was right here. Remember his saying he'd disassembled the fuze on an AA
shell? Well, he was cleaning out his shack, and he picked up the little booster to throw it
away. It went off in his hand. "
"My God! What did it do to him?"
"Ends of three fingers. I doubt if he'll ever play the piano."
Several days of anxiety ensued. The job of S-3, who ran the fire direction center,
was now open. It was a tempting goal for any ambitious officer, because although a FA
Bn had ten slots for captains, there were only two for majors, and whoever was assigned
to be S-3 would be in a position for promotion, with more prestige. Not to mention more
pay.
As battalion commander, Lt Col Peach had several options. One was to give the
job to the senior captain: me. I was qualified for the job: I had worked next door to the
FDC for many months, knew the procedures and the personnel thoroughly, and had been
night duty officer in it all that time.
On the other hand, was I the best qualified captain available? Among the ten
captains he had, there were other possibilities.
John Klas was junior to me, having been promoted to 1st Lt at the same time I
made captain. However, he had been S-3 a year earlier, when Major Bob Hughes was in
command of the battalion, and had lost the position only after Costain and Swatosh
arrived and upset the status quo. "Bear Tracks" Klas was a splendid officer, forceful,
imaginative, and popular. He now commanded A Battery, where he was thoroughly
reliable and might be hard to replace.
Don Thomson, the Assistant S-3, was undoubtedly the best qualified of all.
Everyone knew he was the brains of the FDC. On the other hand, he was quite junior, and
he had stepped on a few toes. Besides, he would still be there, a competent associate,
even if someone else got the job.
And there was a wild card. Major Bob Hughes, who had been wounded in
Normandy, had returned to duty with the division. Since there was no vacancy for him
when he arrived, he had been assigned as coordinator of all the 90th Division anti-tank
defenses. That was quite a job, since a lot of units had anti-tank weapons, ranging from
bazookas carried by individual infantrymen to 90mm Tank Destroyer guns mounted on
tracked vehicles, which were practically tanks themselves. However, it was not a position
recognized in the Table of Organization, so it had no future. Now that we did have a
vacancy for a major, he might be reassigned to us.
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