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The Glamour War
Captain Klas considered turning the howitzers on them to get them to move, but
decided not to create an international incident. They remained with A Battery, in
mutually resentful togetherness.
Operating with allies is always difficult. With enemies, you at least expect them
to be hostile.
The 359th CP which we were to join turned out to be in a fine chateau with a
number of barns, stables, and other outbuildings. Plenty of roofs to put over everybody's
heads.
Before we occupied it, I heard Col Peach instruct Capt Jacobs, our
Communications Officer and Hq Btry Commander. "Jake, I want you to put in the most
elaborate CP you know how. I want wire lines strung all over, to everyone we could
possibly want to talk to. Better make that two lines, in case one should be shot out. Let's
show these doughboys what a real CP looks like."
By the time we finished occupying our position, our CP had taken up far more
room than Col Bacon's, and there were artillery wire trucks all over the courtyard of the
chateau, their crews erecting temporary poles and stringing wire overhead, off the
ground. The radio operators took their sets up into the attics to get maximum reception.
The infantrymen were looking at us funny.
The fire direction center and my S-2 section set up in a huge room of the chateau
which must have been the ballroom, but had a few decorative tables and chairs in it. The
ceiling was about twelve feet high, with a crystal chandelier and tall windows we had a
hard time covering with blankets to prevent light from escaping. I think it had a parquet
hardwood floor, too.
By the time we were settled, Col Bacon was already having second thoughts. "My
God, Peach, what's all this wire and stuff? Do you really need it just for a CP?"
"Well, sir, I have to have communications between the fire direction center and
the firing batteries. And between the forward observers and the fire direction Center."
"Why did you bring your fire direction center, whatever that is? All I wanted was
your CP."
Peach spread his hands. "But my CP is the fire direction center."
"Oh." Bacon hesitated. "All I really wanted was you and a clerk, with your
operations map. "
"But, sir, my operations map is the firing chart - and the fire direction center can't
work without it. "
Bacon went away talking to himself.
As I mentioned earlier, the German Air Force did not operate in our area in the
daytime, but that night they made up for it. I don't know if their pilots could see us by the
reflections of the French 2nd Armored's campfires, or if they got our location from spies
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