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Upstarts
General Bixby arrived, wearing a grave frown. Placing his face so close to mine
that I could smell the anti-freeze on his breath, he said, "Moore, I want you to know that
this little two-bit, two-battalion attack tonight represents the major effort of the entire US
Third Army." He paused a moment to let this astounding news soak in, and went on, "If it
falls short, God forbid, a lot of heads are going to roll, and I want to make it clear that it
better not be for lack of artillery support! Now you know what needs to be done to see
that those people get what they need, and you'll by God do it, or I'll know the reason
why! Any questions?"
"No, sir," I said. "You've made everything quite clear."
So at 2300 (eleven p.m.), when the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 359th Infantry
were to jump off, our entire fire direction center, including both me and Capt Thomson,
were wide awake, with a stock-pot of coffee keeping warm on the heating stove of the
house we occupied. Outside the night was dark black, with neither moon nor stars
showing through the cloud cover. I hoped our infantry could see what they were doing.
On the other hand, I hoped the enemy infantry couldn't.
The plan of attack was unorthodox, to say the least. Modern infantry habitually
attacks on a wide front called a skirmish line, with several yards of distance between the
skirmishers. [You may have seen pictures of attacks in the Napoleonic Wars or even the
Civil War with a long line of men moving forward shoulder to shoulder, but that was
before the development of the modern machine gun, which would mow down tightly
packed men like a combination reaper.] The looser formation now in use works better,
but it is harder for commanders to keep control of their men. Especially in the dark.
Some time later I heard a story, possibly true, about how the plan for this attack
was worked out. According to it, the two battalion commanders, Booth of the 2nd Bn and
Smith of the 3rd, got the order with no details, only an objective, and were told to operate
together. They called on their S-3s [an infantry S-3 is the officer who works out tactical
plans] and told them to figure out a coordinated plan. I don't remember the names of
these S-3's, so will call them Captain White* and Captain Blue* in the following
reconstructed dialogue:
White: Well, I guess the road will have to be the boundary between battalions.
Blue: Right. It's the only line we can see on the ground, what with the snow and
all. And it goes where we're going.
White: The problem is going to be control, out there in the dark.
Blue: Yeah. I think I'll recommend a narrow front, one company wide, with the
other two companies in column behind them.
White: Sounds good to me. Even so, it'll be slow going, wading through all that
goddam snow.
180
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