“I have something here,” said the radioman. Joe covered the distance from the control room to the radio room in a heartbeat. “Let’s hear it.” The radioman spun the volume dial, and Joe bent an ear to the Morse code: … Continue reading
The game clock ticks from D4 2359 to D5 0000, and a magical thing happens. Snow! Blanketing the battlefield, slowing down movement. It’s a good turn. By this point, my lines have assumed some semblance of stability. My artillery battalions … Continue reading
Derril McCollough Daniel had commanded one or another of the 26th Infantry’s battalions since the 1st Division’s assault landing in North Africa in 1942 and the 2d Battalion since the landing in Sicily in 1943. At thirty-nine, he was one … Continue reading
The 20th was another relatively quiet day around Bütgenbach in the Ardennes in 1944. On the night of the 19th, the rest of the 12th SS Panzer Division’s tanks, along with some surviving tanks from Krinkelt, under one Colonel Zeiner … Continue reading
MacDonald doesn’t dedicate many pages to the defense of Bütgenbach; in part, I suppose, because it’s a simple story. The Americans stood, they fought, and (spoiler) they won. The German failure at Bütgenbach doomed Kampfgruppe Peiper; as the Americans took … Continue reading
It’s another Command Ops Christmas special! My copy of MacDonald’s excellent history A Time For Trumpets went missing, so I’m going to do my best to set this up with what I remember (and what I can look up) from … Continue reading
Several more of them went by before Masaracchia detoured through the outskirts of Cairo, and then they were on the Cairo-Alexandria road. A few hours more, and Masaracchia opened the window at the back of the cab. I can see … Continue reading
They were back on the road twenty minutes later, with Cannon behind the wheel. The road grew worse, and at times, they slowed to walking speed while Burr or di Giacomo scouted ahead with flashlights. As the sun rose, they … Continue reading
Cannon’s watch read one a.m. A few minutes earlier, the truck had sputtered to a halt. Cannon stood behind it, looking over a map spread out at the back of the bed. Burr, sitting next to it with her legs … Continue reading
Double-timing it, Joe reached the hangar before the deck crew had finished moving Lecocq’s Albatross along the overhead rails to the aircraft park. Joe saw a few jagged holes punched through the aluminum skin of the right wing, perilously close … Continue reading
