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Our Bloody Nose
flank of the division, which was only relatively open now. A regiment of armored cavalry
was out there, a big help, even though it was not a unit suitable for extended resistance to
attack. It was supported by Col Theimer's artillery group. And now by us.
When we were convinced that we had not heard wrong, we were flabbergasted. When
we got over being flabbergasted, we were outraged. Supporting the 359th was our job; we
were as intimate with them as a husband with a wife. We understood each other as well as
any units from different branches of the service can understand each other. Our observers
knew their company commanders by their first names. Our liaison officers had been constant
companions of their battalion commanders.
Bob Hughes went to the Div Arty CP and protested until Bixby offered to relieve him
unless he shut up and obeyed orders. I don't know how Col Bell, CO of the 359th Inf, felt
about it, but I expect he had other problems on his mind.
I do know that the commander of the FA Bn that took over our job was as aghast as
we were. He and his S-3 came over to visit us and ask what a direct support battalion was
supposed to do.
As we tried to condense what we had learned in two years of training and five months
of combat into a half-hour briefing, their faces got longer and longer. Their Table of
Organization was different from ours: they had only one liaison officer, not three, as we did,
and he had experience only at "liaising" with other artillery units. They also had fewer
forward observers, and those they had had never worked closely with infantry either.
Obviously they needed help, and we did what we could. We lent them our liaison
officers and most of our forward observers. That meant that the infantry would be in contact
with someone they knew and trusted.
Regrettably, the relationship between our representatives and their adoptive artillery
battalion was less fortunate. They did not know each other, had never worked together, and
came from different backgrounds. There were misunderstandings resulting in delayed fire
missions or even failure to fire them at all. The infantry was unhappy, our LnOs and FOs
were frustrated at being helplessly in the middle. We got complaints second hand, but there
was not much we could do about them. And the 359th Infantry didn't quit bitching about it
for months.
When I got through telling this sad story to Colonel Bixby at Camp Hood after the
war, he leaned back and looked at me quizzically. "Did it ever occur to you," he asked, "that I
might have wanted a battalion I could trust out on our open flank?"
"I don't know why us," I said. "Colonel Theimer's Group was there."
Bixby's eyes twinkled. "Well, maybe the Group was all right."
[Note: Colonel Bixby eventually became a brigadier general (one star) again, and retired at
that rank. Theimer, on the other hand, was wearing the two stars of a major general when I
last saw him. And I never met anyone who could explain why.]
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