From: CinC, 101st Airborne Division, US Army
To: CinC, XVIII Airborne Corps, US Army
Re: After-action reports - operations in Netherlands and Poland.
Matt: as requested, here's the summary from our latest dust-ups you wanted to give to Higher. Sorry for the delay - it seems like convalescence just gives the staff pukes an excuse to throw more paperwork my way. I'd reassign them to KP duty, but I'd like to eat sometime this week.
I tried to keep it formal, but I'm too tired to edit out some of the color - if you'd like, go ahead and clean it up before you send it to the First Allied Airborne HQ or SHAEF.
- Max
=== CONFIDENTIAL ===
This document contains information affecting the national defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Act, 50 U.S.C., 31 and 32, as amended. Its transmission or the revelation of its contents in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
=== CONFIDENTIAL ===
:: Defensive Operations in the Netherlands ::
Elements of the 101st Airborne were transported to Allied-controlled portions of the Netherlands ahead of an anticipated German offensive. My Brigadier General was unavailable - he had returned to London to convince the Quartermaster Corps to send us more medical supplies. I thought his experience as a medic during the Great War might give his words some weight.
Our unit set up a perimeter within Defense Zone HARRINGTON, preparing to fend off attacks by light German infantry. In his absence, the Brig's squad was led by his XO, "Mini" (I don't know how he got past the draft board, but I don't care - he's proven to be a crack shot). They took up forward positions in damaged buildings along the west side of the village. The second squad dug in behind them in the south-west - General Boyle had found some good defensive terrain to cover our MG squads. I had my squad cover the eastern flank, but left the bulk of the job there to my XO. The poor guy's given up smoking the garbage cigs we get over here - I've seen him chewing on a Q-tip to keep his mouth busy.
The first Axis push focused mostly on our west-side defense. Mini's forward team took the brunt of the attack, trading rifle fire and grenades with the enemy assault team. Most of them were rendered combat-ineffective by the end of the attack - they only one left standing was a young kid. He was a bit shell-shocked, though, yelling that we were all "nucking futs" to be fighting here. Losing that many men in one place hurt, but they did a hell of a job - after-action reports show that they eliminated half the opposing force by themselves. The remainder of the west-side attack was stopped by Gen. Boyle's machine-gun squad with light losses.
The Germans also sent a squad through the east side of the town; I don't know if they were a diversion or a serious attack but they didn't make it far. My Q-tip chewing XO and his point man took most of them out before they crossed the creek; they suffered minimal casualties.
Axis forces wisely fell back after their first push failed to unseat us, but they managed to regroup and try again. We were all feeling pretty confident, but the Nazis decided to announce their attack by sniping one of our men straight through the center of town. A British soldier on loan from their 1st Airborne took a bullet a yard or so from my position. Lord knows I've seen enough boys die in my day, but things like that still shake me. Seeing a comrade taken out before you even know the enemy's there? That's a good way to shake a company's morale.
The Germans followed this up with a full-on push through the central courtyard. Gen. Boyle's team took managed to slow them down some, but lost a few men doing it. The General himself took a bullet in the knee and was dragged back to a medic station. The Germans made the mistake of breaking towards the west side after that, though. They ran into the remnants of the General's team - including their emplaced MG position. The man behind the Browning cut down a whole squad by himself. (Note - get that boy a promotion when I get out of here. Not only was he cool under fire, but he made a heck of a chili out of field rations.) Mini's team turned back a feint on their position, then assisted the MG team with clearing out the enemy remnants.
The initial sniping incident did manage to shake us up some - we suffered a few friendly-fire incidents during this second attack. One man on my squad actually shot a former Dutch resistance operative that had linked up with us; the poor kid hit him as he came out of a doorway. He didn't know the resistance fighter had ducked through looking for Krauts in known hiding places. It was unfortunate, but I'm not going to recommend any disciplinary action - the boy just reacted on instinct, and our east-side sector was so quiet that I was a bit jumpy myself.
I was, of course, pleased with the unit's performance - they held their assigned defense zone through both Axis attacks, and sustained a better than 2-to-1 kill ratio (even including the friendly fire losses). I was also impressed by the soldiers' discipline under fire and good communication during combat. My only concern was their tendency to hunt out enemy remnants rather than wait in their prepared positions, and that was fixed with nothing more than a gentle reminder. To be honest, I'd rather have soldiers that were a bit too aggressive than ones who were afraid to seek out contact with the enemy.
:: REPORT CONTINUES ::
To: CinC, XVIII Airborne Corps, US Army
Re: After-action reports - operations in Netherlands and Poland.
Matt: as requested, here's the summary from our latest dust-ups you wanted to give to Higher. Sorry for the delay - it seems like convalescence just gives the staff pukes an excuse to throw more paperwork my way. I'd reassign them to KP duty, but I'd like to eat sometime this week.
I tried to keep it formal, but I'm too tired to edit out some of the color - if you'd like, go ahead and clean it up before you send it to the First Allied Airborne HQ or SHAEF.
- Max
=== CONFIDENTIAL ===
This document contains information affecting the national defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Act, 50 U.S.C., 31 and 32, as amended. Its transmission or the revelation of its contents in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
=== CONFIDENTIAL ===
:: Defensive Operations in the Netherlands ::
Elements of the 101st Airborne were transported to Allied-controlled portions of the Netherlands ahead of an anticipated German offensive. My Brigadier General was unavailable - he had returned to London to convince the Quartermaster Corps to send us more medical supplies. I thought his experience as a medic during the Great War might give his words some weight.
Our unit set up a perimeter within Defense Zone HARRINGTON, preparing to fend off attacks by light German infantry. In his absence, the Brig's squad was led by his XO, "Mini" (I don't know how he got past the draft board, but I don't care - he's proven to be a crack shot). They took up forward positions in damaged buildings along the west side of the village. The second squad dug in behind them in the south-west - General Boyle had found some good defensive terrain to cover our MG squads. I had my squad cover the eastern flank, but left the bulk of the job there to my XO. The poor guy's given up smoking the garbage cigs we get over here - I've seen him chewing on a Q-tip to keep his mouth busy.
The first Axis push focused mostly on our west-side defense. Mini's forward team took the brunt of the attack, trading rifle fire and grenades with the enemy assault team. Most of them were rendered combat-ineffective by the end of the attack - they only one left standing was a young kid. He was a bit shell-shocked, though, yelling that we were all "nucking futs" to be fighting here. Losing that many men in one place hurt, but they did a hell of a job - after-action reports show that they eliminated half the opposing force by themselves. The remainder of the west-side attack was stopped by Gen. Boyle's machine-gun squad with light losses.
The Germans also sent a squad through the east side of the town; I don't know if they were a diversion or a serious attack but they didn't make it far. My Q-tip chewing XO and his point man took most of them out before they crossed the creek; they suffered minimal casualties.
Axis forces wisely fell back after their first push failed to unseat us, but they managed to regroup and try again. We were all feeling pretty confident, but the Nazis decided to announce their attack by sniping one of our men straight through the center of town. A British soldier on loan from their 1st Airborne took a bullet a yard or so from my position. Lord knows I've seen enough boys die in my day, but things like that still shake me. Seeing a comrade taken out before you even know the enemy's there? That's a good way to shake a company's morale.
The Germans followed this up with a full-on push through the central courtyard. Gen. Boyle's team took managed to slow them down some, but lost a few men doing it. The General himself took a bullet in the knee and was dragged back to a medic station. The Germans made the mistake of breaking towards the west side after that, though. They ran into the remnants of the General's team - including their emplaced MG position. The man behind the Browning cut down a whole squad by himself. (Note - get that boy a promotion when I get out of here. Not only was he cool under fire, but he made a heck of a chili out of field rations.) Mini's team turned back a feint on their position, then assisted the MG team with clearing out the enemy remnants.
The initial sniping incident did manage to shake us up some - we suffered a few friendly-fire incidents during this second attack. One man on my squad actually shot a former Dutch resistance operative that had linked up with us; the poor kid hit him as he came out of a doorway. He didn't know the resistance fighter had ducked through looking for Krauts in known hiding places. It was unfortunate, but I'm not going to recommend any disciplinary action - the boy just reacted on instinct, and our east-side sector was so quiet that I was a bit jumpy myself.
I was, of course, pleased with the unit's performance - they held their assigned defense zone through both Axis attacks, and sustained a better than 2-to-1 kill ratio (even including the friendly fire losses). I was also impressed by the soldiers' discipline under fire and good communication during combat. My only concern was their tendency to hunt out enemy remnants rather than wait in their prepared positions, and that was fixed with nothing more than a gentle reminder. To be honest, I'd rather have soldiers that were a bit too aggressive than ones who were afraid to seek out contact with the enemy.
:: REPORT CONTINUES ::
