Defense of Hill 781 (13 page)

Try as he might to spread his companies over the expanse, he could not adequately cover all of the ground and have any depth. Therefore, he decided to try an unconventional approach,
creating a sixth company by dividing up his existing units, reducing their number of organic platoons, and putting the remainder under the command of Captain Coving, the Headquarters Company commander. He was the most experienced commander in the battalion, having previously commanded a line company. He gave him the S-3’s Bradley for his command vehicle. Major Rogers could operate from the TOC, since this was a defense in sector and movement would be limited.

The defensive area was divided up into three belts. The initial defense was at Phase Line FORWARD, covered in the north by Captain Evans with two antitank platoons (his third platoon had returned from the armored battalion and was now attached to Captain Coving) and in the south by Captain Baker with one tank and one Bradley platoon. The second belt at Phase Line MIDFIELD consisted of Captain Carter in the center and south with one Bradley and two tank platoons, and Captain Archer in the north with one tank and two Bradley platoons. The final belt was in front of STOP, Team Coving in the north with one antitank and one Bradley platoon, and Captain Dilger in the south with one Bradley and two tank platoons.

This much Always had been able to decide from a map reconnaissance, but he was experienced enough to know that all this did was get the companies into general positions with the requisite composition of platoons. It was still dark as the units were moving in, and he would have to order an immediate review at first light so that he could flesh out this simple plan in time to accomplish the immense work load that a defense entails. At that time he would have only twenty-four hours remaining to put in a defense that would have to stop a force three times its size, a force reinforced by artillery that vastly outnumbered his own, and with ample options as to the point of attack. Always knew he would have to develop a defense in depth, and that the only way this could be accomplished with his paucity of resources would be by developing a plan of movement that
allowed the companies to leapfrog backward as the battle unfolded. His appreciation of the complexity of combined arms warfare had grown greatly in the past several days. Now the ground and the anticipated enemy size would put him to his severest test.

Major Walters had done a tremendous job of moving up the broken and disabled vehicles leftover from the last battle. Within minutes of establishment of the unit trains, work commenced on repairing and returning combat vehicles to the line. Simultaneously, the refueling operations ensured that each unit moved into its position with full fuel tanks. A less professional battalion would have waited until dawn to achieve these difficult operations, thereby stealing critical time from the company commanders who needed to be establishing work priorities in their companies. Again Major Walters quietly and efficiently gave the task force the opportunity to focus on the tactical matters at hand by efficiently integrating the details of combat service support.

While Command Sergeant Major Hope retraced the route of march, policing up the pockets of soldiers and vehicles that had become misoriented in the dark and reporting to the maintenance trail party the location of equipment that had broken down on the move, Major Rogers set up the tactical operations center to begin immediate planning for the sector defense. It was to this location that Lieutenant Colonel Always pulled in at 0300 to meet with his staff. Under the lightproof expanse of canvas, the maps were unfolded and the staff assembled to give their initial estimate of the situation.

Always was now fighting fatigue. He had poured cup after cup of black coffee down his throat until his mouth was heavy with the bitter taste, yet he still found it hard to focus. His staff looked as rocky as he felt, and he knew that the exhaustion he was experiencing had permeated throughout the command. The observers had made a point of counseling him on the need for a “sleep plan”; yet he knew that the time to sleep was not
at hand. Modern combat had created a dilemma for the commander that was not to be solved by doctrine on sleep plans. Equipment that could function and allow operations around the clock was operated by men who still had the same biological needs as their prehistoric ancestors. Always reached down into himself for reserves and tried to focus on the matters at hand. He hoped that he could find the energy not only to sustain himself but to pass on to the men around him.

Defense is inherently the stronger form of war (or so Clausewitz said). The defender has the advantage of knowing the terrain better than the enemy (after all, he occupies it), of digging in and selecting the terrain from which he will defend and on which he will bring his weapons systems to bear. It gives him time to alter ground to suit his purposes, to lay in mine fields and obstacles, to register his artillery, and to sight his weapons. Done correctly, the defense will force the attacker to pay dearly for the right of passage over the defended terrain.

But the attacker is not without opportunities. He can choose the point and time of his attack, overcoming the defender who might unwisely stretch his defense (as the saying goes, “… he who would defend everywhere is strong nowhere”). He can concentrate his forces so that even a resolute defense can be overcome at a vital point, unhinging the defensive plan as the attacker erupts through a penetration. His ability to do so can be enhanced by good intelligence as to the dispositions of the defender, intelligence that can best be achieved through an aggressive and thorough reconnaissance effort. This concern was driven home to Always by his intelligence officer, who voiced his suspicions that, even as they spoke, enemy observation posts were set in hiding overlooking their positions. He made a strong appeal for the task force to commit substantial resources to the counterre-connaissance effort.

As in all things, however, such a decision was not easily
made, for the engineer briefed just as convincingly a need for the obstacle work to be performed by the maneuver elements. He had a good point in that his own thin forces could not accomplish, without help, the extensive work that would have to be done. A single platoon could hardly move to the many positions to be defended, prepare tank ditches, dig in multiton machines, improve routes for the mobile phase of the defense, lay and record mine fields, and stretch wire over the miles and miles of ground from which the enemy could pick and choose for his point of concentration. Any forces committed to the reconnaissance battle would be taken away from the engineer effort, which would ultimately determine the viability of the battalion’s defense. The companies also had a need for their men. Ammunition would be coming up shortly after dawn, necessitating distribution and reloading. Extra stocks would have to be dug in with overhead cover and situated where they could be reached easily in a fight, which meant that not only the initial fighting positions would have to be prepared but supplemental ones as well. Infantrymen would have to dig in overhead cover, sight their weapons, walk their sectors, and rehearse their movements. Equipment would have to be maintained and weapons stripped and cleaned, rezeroed, and bore sighted. Patrols were necessary to keep the enemy from getting a foothold in the defensive lines, particularly under cover of darkness. Obstacles would not only have to be put in, they would have to be guarded lest the enemy undo them. Time and time again it had been shown that an uncovered obstacle was no obstacle at all. Vehicles would have to reconnoiter their routes of movement from primary to alternate positions, and rehearse their maneuver during hours of light and darkness. Leaders would be involved in the preparation of orders and the reconnaissance and supervision that they involved. In short, there were more jobs than could be accomplished in the short amount of time allotted. Always would have to designate priorities and
then entrust them to proper supervision by his subordinate commanders.

Through the predawn hours the staff members offered their views. The task force commander heard them through, gave his initial guidance, then departed for a first-light visit to his elements and a drive over the terrain he would have to defend.

The intelligence officer had been correct. Six enemy patrols had set themselves in place more than twenty-four hours before Always had arrived, selecting high ground that would be virtually impossible to reach by anything but the most determined foot patrols, but which afforded excellent observation throughout the depth of the sector. Their positions also afforded excellent communications back to the motorized rifle regiment already under receipt of its orders to conduct an attack. Reinforced with mobile reconnaissance teams from its division, the regiment had developed a plan to infiltrate scouts the next night into the defenders’ positions, giving final confirmation of the defensive plan of its enemy. Armed with such knowledge, the regimental commander, a longtime resident of Purgatory, could modify his plan at the last minute to exploit any obvious weaknesses in the defense. He rested the majority of his men while he waited for the intelligence to be developed.

“We gave them a pretty good fight yesterday, didn’t we, sir?” Specialist Sharp was as exuberant as ever.

“Yeah, we sure did.” Always answered distractedly, his mind on the terrain he was studying.

Always envied Sharp his youth. The man never seemed to get tired, while he himself felt like he had been drugged. “Pull on over here for a minute. I need to shave before it gets much lighter.” He resolved to look alert, even if he felt like death itself.

Sharp pulled the jeep to a stop beside a small hillock of lava rock and sand, immediately offering his commander his canteen for shaving water. He admired the older man’s resilience.
He had felt that surely he himself would fall asleep at the wheel during the previous night’s movement. It had been a struggle to stay awake at every stop along the route. Dawn had been a reprieve from his stupor, but he knew that shortly the sun would be baking into him, lulling him back toward his terrible craving for sleep. He wished he could be as alert as his battalion commander.

Unbeknownst to one another, each man quietly resolved to follow the example of the other, forcing a concentration on the mission at hand, stiffening their personal struggle with the elements pressing in on their biological needs for rest and recuperation.

Always learned much from his visits to the units. The company commanders learned from him his intentions for the defense while he learned from them how they would contribute to those intentions. Units were readjusted to take advantage of the terrain now revealed in the brilliant morning sun. Each made a case for access to the limited resources available for the mission. Baker got Always to commit the mortars directly to his company for the opening phase of the battle. Archer requested and received first priority on the bulldozers, already at work under the supervision of the bulldozer section sergeant. Evans was able to pass much of his concertina wire to Team Alpha, since the terrain Echo was overlooking did not offer much of an opportunity to lay in effective wire obstacles.

Carter extended his position farther to the south, tying in a platoon on Hill 899. Each company commander argued against committing any part of his unit to the effort of finding the suspected enemy outposts (OPs) in the surrounding mountains. There was too much work to be done in the immediate area of the defense. In his empathy for their concerns, a compassion perhaps intensified by his own fatigue, Always compromised his demands, limiting the counterreconnaissance requirement to a single platoon of infantry effort per maneuver company/team in the immediate
vicinity of each battle position. This decision greatly perturbed the S-2 when he learned of it later in the morning.

At 1000 the orders group met at the TOC for ninety minutes while the plan was briefed and discussed. Always had found his second wind by then, and did a creditable job of inspiring his men for a vigorous defense. The essence of the plan lay in the details. Every subordinate would have to understand his role. More importantly, every man would have to execute it properly.