The Black Panthers by Gina DiNicolo

Author:Gina DiNicolo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594165849
Publisher: Westholme Publishing

It became obvious that no one controlled the tank support. Though Barbour's tanks fired, they had no designated targets and did not fire in support of any specific infantry actions. In the confusion, leaders of the 101st believed such decisions should have come from the 761st unit commanders35—Barbour, Williams, or Bates. Barbour, who had expressed his concerns about the 101st, could not understand why he had no targets from the infantry. He chose to fire as he saw fit to best support the men on the ground.

From Barbour's position north of Bois de Piamont, “as the artillery preparation reached its height their [the tankers'] enthusiasm began to exceed their discretion and they began to fire with their main armament and their machine guns in the general direction of the town.”36 Barbour kept the platoon firing with everything it had on what he determined as the target, ignoring the principles of fire discipline, until after the town fell. During the siege, he turned his guns on Salival Farm to support I Company.37 When the order came from the regimental commander for the tanks to move forward, Barbour realized his error in expending more than his allotted ammunition and ordered an immediate resupply. He fell behind the 101st Infantry. The platoon moved forward once it had its ammunition.38

Despite German resistance, the Americans unknowingly benefited from the element of surprise for which they originally had planned. Major General Friedrich F. von Mellenthin, the chief of staff for Army Group G, wrote, after his capture, that in spite of German intelligence and reconnaissance, “the enemy had made his final preparations with such cleverness and with such excellent deception, that our local forces were taken by surprise.”39

Dave Williams sat exhausted. Maybe he faced poor timing, but it struck him he did not fully control his company, though Rivers and Russell Guthrie saw otherwise. While relieved by Rivers's quick action removing the road block, Williams knew the Oklahoma native well enough to realize that he would act before Williams gave the order. This had been a source of tension between the two men for some time. Rivers's penchant for operating on his own order seemed well-known and Trezzvant Anderson heard of Rivers's tank crews’ “wild escapades.”40 Dave Williams considered this Rivers's flaw and saw that he, no matter how well-meaning, potentially endangered each man in the company. Though Williams understood that as company commander he protected or endangered his men, he allowed Rivers to anticipate his decisions. Somehow Rivers made the correct move each time before Williams barked out the command. Dave Williams envied Ruben Rivers.

The 104th took Vic-sur-Seille in a little more than an hour of fighting, though it seemed much longer to Williams, who agonized with every inch of mine-riddled ground his men's tracks covered. The battle did not end quickly enough. The German's 361st Volksgrenadier Division destroyed two of the three bridges and left the third in ruins, but with enough large debris that the engineers could make it passable by laying timbers.41 Though the town stood in U.

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