their tanks and tracks when they had been hit. Some had, however, and in spite of the machine-gun fire laid down by Team Yankee and D company, some had survived. When a wounded Russian was found the patrol would stop and call for medics. An ambulance track darted from place to place picking up casualties. The patrols even came across a few Russians who had managed to hide or play dead through the night. Those who did not immediately surrender were not given a second chance. There appeared to be no one in a charitable mood on the patrols.
Starting at 1100 hours, word went out to the platoons to roust everyone and start their maintenance routine, including cleaning and boresighting weapons. When Uleski came around, blurry-eyed and rumpled, Bannon instructed him to compile by noon a complete status of the Team on ammo, fuel, other POL needs, maintenance problems, and personnel needs for each vehicle. At that time Bannon intended to have a short meeting with the platoon leaders to cover their current status and give them any news from battalion that he could come up with. Uleski simply sighed, saluted, and gave a 'Roger-Out' as he began to go about his tasks. Kelp and Bannon already had a good head start on the task of cleaning up and preparing for the next battle. While they sat and watched D company's patrols during the morning, they had cleaned 66's three machine guns and their own pistols. Although Kelp had matured into a good soldier, he still was excited by some of the more gruesome aspects of war. Sitting on top of the turret, cleaning weapons, he would occasionally yell out,
'There goes another one!' Grabbing the binoculars, he would watch as a patrol stopped to dispatch a Russian who had been hiding and had chosen to evade rather than surrender.
After each chase was terminated, he would offer his views and critique the patrol's performance, noting that they were using way too much ammunition to bring down the Russians. When Bannon offered to arrange it so that Kelp could go out there and show the infantry how to do it, he lightened up on his remarks, but continued to watch.
It wasn't until well after noon that Bannon was able to meet with Major Jordan, who had been called to brigade headquarters at 0900 and spent several hours there. On his return, he called all the commanders and staff into Langen for a meeting. He had new orders.
While the battalion's mission hadn't changed, its organization had. Team Yankee, with all three tank platoons and one mech platoon, was being returned to 1st of the 4th Armor. The I st of the 78th was to remain at Langen reporting directly to division. Major Jordan explained the reasoning behind all this and the 'Big Picture.'
While the Soviets were busy trying to break into the division's flank through the battalion, they also had thrown other forces directly at the brigade's lead element as they advanced to the Saale River. Despite this, the brigade had been able to continue the advance at a slow, steady, and costly rate. The I st of the 4th was fought out and in its turn had to be replaced by another battalion while it recouped.
The problem facing the division, and the rest of the U.S. Army in Europe, was that it was running out of equipment. Prepositioned war stocks of tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, and all the hardware needed to wage a modern war had run out. Some equipment was arriving from the States but not near enough to replace equipment at the rate at which it was being lost. Even if the Navy could provide the necessary sea lift to carry what was needed, there wasn't enough equipment available in the States anyway. At prewar levels, which most of the factories were still at, the U.S. could only produce a pitifully small number of M- I tanks a month. The Army in Europe was capable of losing the equivalent of one month's production of tanks in a single day.
The solution to this problem was to strip understrength units and concentrate all resources in those units making the main effort. There wasn't enough to go around so units still capable of carrying out offensive operations or holding critical sectors received priority on everything.
The 1st of the 78th was no longer capable of offensive operations. Sitting in Langen, it was now out of the division's main effort. The brigade was still capable of reaching the Saale if all available assets were concentrated to support its two battalions that could still attack. The I st of the 4th was one of those units, and Team Yankee was one of those available assets that could be sent in.
Major Jordan was not at all pleased to lose the Team. Although nobody at division thought the Soviets would try the Langen Gap again, the 1st of the 78th would be hard pressed to stop them if they did. The battalion was now going to be down to two understrength mech companies. The major didn't discuss this, he didn't have to.
The commanders and the staff all knew what could and couldn't be done. The mood of the assembled group was depressed. Everyone also knew, however, that if the war was going to be won, risks had to be taken. The division and brigade were risking that the Soviets would not attack at Langen again. If they did, division was willing to risk the chance of a failure there, hoping that a breakthrough at the Saale would cancel the Soviet threat to the flank. It was the job of division and corps commanders to weigh such risks and make decisions. It was the job of the staff and the commanders of 1st of the 78th to accept those risks and carry out orders.
There was not much fanfare over the Team's departure. The major gave Bannon his instructions on when he was to link up with the 1st of the 4th, where, and route of march.
Bannon coordinated with the battalion S-4 for rearming and refueling before the Team departed that evening. He talked to the Team Bravo commander and told him where the 1 st Tank Platoon was to go when it was released back to the Team. Then, with no further business in Langen and much to tend to, he returned to the Team.
News of their return to I st of the 4th was universally hailed by the Team with the exception of Sergeant Polgar. He said it really didn't matter to him where his platoon went so long as it stayed with Team Yankee. When Bannon thanked him for his vote of confidence he replied that confidence had nothing to do with it. The chow in Team Yankee had always been good, and good food meant he had fewer complaints to listen to from his men. Second Lieutenant Murray Weiss, the leader of I st Platoon, was particularly happy to be coming back to the Team. He had the honor of being the company's only Jew, a fact that left him open to a great deal of ethnic humor. Like Bob Uleski, he had an almost infinite capacity to absorb incoming jokes and return them, as he had learned to do from an early age. Weiss's decision to make the military his career was a shock to his family. The U.S. Army was not normally something that college-educated Jewish boys were taught to aspire to. But Murray had deep convictions. The Israeli tankers who had fought in the Sinai and on the Golan had been his childhood heroes. While his friends aspired to be doctors or lawyers, he dreamed of being a tanker like Gen. Mordecai Tal. Weiss's performance before and during the war showed he was well on his way. The Team had much to do. It could not leave before dark.
To do so would telegraph to the Soviets the weakness of the Langen Gap. They would find out soon enough that the tanks were gone and there were only two weak companies there.
But the Team did not have to help them by flaunting the move in broad daylight. Even with the move several hours off, the leadership and men were busy. Bannon gave Uleski his instructions on organization, rearming, refueling, and other such details. He also gave him all the information, on when the Team was to move, its route, and final destination. Bannon would be taking the first sergeant's track and going to the headquarters of the I st of 4th to get additional information and, he hoped, an operations order. If he wasn't back in time, the XO was to start the move without him. They were, no doubt, going to be attacking again. The sooner he found out the how and where, the more time he had to plan and get the Team ready.
The trip to the 1 st of the 4th's headquarters took him back into the main valley that the Team had advanced into the previous day and through the town of Korberg. The valley had changed overnight. Its emptiness and lack of activity were replaced with the hustle of the division's combat service support elements. Convoys of trucks carrying fuel, munitions, and other supplies forward were passed by empty trucks coming back. There were the grim reminders of the cost of progress. A field hospital was set up outside Korberg, receiving new material in a never- ending flow. Bannon had no doubt that some of the people there were his. Commanders kept doctors busy. He also knew that soon he would be contributing to the flow again. As he moved farther north he saw more than enough evidence that 1 st of the 4th had had no easy time after they had passed through 1st of the 78th. M-Is, PCs, Soviet tanks, and smashed trucks attested to the severity of their fight. Maintenance recovery teams were busy retrieving those tanks that could be repaired. As he passed a maintenance collection point he recognized several of the mechanics from I st of the 4th.
They were trying to piece together recovered tracks in an effort to get tanks and PCs ready for the next attack.
Were it not for the efforts of these people, many of the units still in the fight, including Team Yankee, would have ceased to exist a long time ago.
Bannon found both Lieutenant Colonel Hill, the battalion commander, and Major Shell at the battalion TOG. Along with the battalion intelligence officer, Capt. Ken Damato, they were discussing the upcoming operation in front of the intelligence map. Bannon stood in the background for a moment and listened. Apparently, they had
