 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Pursuit Across Germany
I added, "That's going to be a big shift!"
"Yes, sir, it sure is."
"OK. Report when laid and ready to fire."
About half an hour later he had reported ready to fire, and Captain Larrey, the
LnO with the unit making the attack called in that they were about to start across the
river.
"Can you see the village?" I asked.
"Yes, sir. How about me zeroing in on it while the companies cross?"
"Good idea," I told him. "After a big shift like this, the battery needs some kind of
registration. "
We agreed on the location to fire on, and I sent orders to C Battery to fire one
howitzer until we were sure we were on target.
Pretty soon they reported "On the way," and I relayed it to Larrey.
There was a lengthy pause. Then Larrey said, "Lost." That meant he hadn't seen
the burst or the smoke from it.
I looked at the firing chart map. The village didn't look big enough to hide the
smoke from a bursting shell, but funny things happen.
"I'll fire a round of red smoke, " I told Captain Larrey. "You're sure to see that."
And I did. And he said, "Lost."
"Good God! I'll fire a round with a fuze timed to burst about 50 yards in the air. "
"Wait a minute, Major. I just realized that I not only haven't seen either of those
rounds, I haven't even heard either of them, and I'm only a couple of hundred yards from
the target. "
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jones*, the C Battery computor, waving at me.
"It's Captain Fauble, sir! He says, 'Cease firing; I have to check on something!'"
When Lew Fauble, the embarrassed commander of C Battery, called back, he
reported that his exec, despite all my precautions, had fired exactly 180
0
in the wrong
direction: toward the front instead of the rear! "I'm sorry as hell, Bob. I was taking a nap,
and I just now woke up. "
Before we had time to turn the battery around again, our infantry was already in
the village. Fortunately, the enemy troops who had shot at our column had departed, so
our help was not necessary.
And our two rounds had not hit any friendly troops, because they had been fired
forward, well in front of our advance, instead of to the rear.
The 90th Division did not capture major cities very often; we were carefully
routed around them and through the rural areas, so we didn't get as much publicity as we
would have liked. On the other hand, we didn't take the horrendous losses that city
fighting might have entailed. So after Mainz, we didn't take any place one might have
heard of.
215
|
 |
|