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Upstarts
we got ready. It was possible to achieve surprise as to the time we would fire, but
certainly not the place.
We had better luck with the platoon of tanks from the 712th Tank Battalion and
Company C of the 607th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Ray Wright, our survey officer, went
to their locations and showed them how to "lay parallel" and how to point their guns in
accordance with orders from our fire direction center. They could fire much faster than
we could, they seemed to enjoy doing it, and they had ample ammunition. However, they
were limited because their shells traveled so fast and in such a flat trajectory that they had
trouble clearing hills to land in the valleys behind.
There was a change in my lifestyle: now I spent all my time at the CP. No more
excuse to go up and check on FOs and LnOs, no expeditions to the museum at
Gravelotte. I had lost my jeep and Joe B. Davis, who were now at the beck and call of
Capt. Arlo Knowles, the new S-2.
I had one means of escape. The books all said that the S-3 should go on
reconnaissance with the Bn CO, riding in the same vehicle to advise him. So if we ever
got around to moving again, I might get a change of scene.
And then, at long last, we were ordered to reconnoiter for a move! It had been so
long that I was afraid we might have forgotten how. But I located my field glasses and
map case and got ready to climb into the back seat of Eric Peach's jeep.
But it was not to be. We were limited in the number of vehicles that could go, four
per battalion, I think. That meant weeding out everyone not absolutely essential me, for
instance. It also meant that all three firing battery commanders were jammed into one
jeep, so that each of them had to do most of his reconnaissance on foot. There was
substantial grumbling, but the orders were specific and all too clear.
The reason for these painful restrictions was that the whole 90th Division was
slipping sideways, into the Foret de Cattenom, an area which had not been occupied
before, only patrolled now and then by armored cavalry to make sure the Germans were
not infiltrating into it from across the Moselle River. The move must be secret and
unobtrusive, so the enemy would not realize anything was going on until too late. For this
was the position from which the river crossing would be launched.
To make it even harder, the position was to be occupied at night, in blackout. A
night occupation requires a number of men who are familiar with the position to act as
guides, so trucks hauling howitzers won't go careening off in the wrong direction. Or -
horrible thought- the kitchen truck won't get lost.
Anyhow, I stayed behind in a frenzy of curiosity and studied the map. Across the
river from the forest where we were going were the villages of Malling and Petite
Hettange, and behind them the ground sloped upward to the town of Kerling, near the
crest of the first hill. What the map did not show was that the ground between the edge of
the forest and our bank of the river was a soggy marsh.
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