Part 3: war council
The following morning Lario was awakened by his internal clock around 0600. First thing he noticed was that it wasn’t raining any more. He peeked out of his tent, to observe a heavily overcast sky in the dark early morning. Lario took a walk to the encampment improvised “bathing” area, where he tried to make himself at least presentable for the morning briefing that Major De Gaetano was supposed to give. Fortunately the previous day’s rain had made water a fairly item for a while at least. He looked around, noticing the dismounting guards quickly getting into their tents or vehicles for their sleeping shift, and the various activities in preparation for the day. He consumed a decent breakfast based hot milk prepared on his camp heater, coffee accompanied by one of his last packages of stale cookies in his food reserve, and then prepared himself for the briefing.
By the time he was ready, it was almost daylight and he could observe the details of the position; a standard defense circle built around the Dardo strongpoint and the Pickup truck anti tank nest. He noticed that the pickup was one of those American huge trucks and undoubtedly looked brand new. Hastily dug in trenches hosted light machineguns nests, and a circular pad almost in the middle of the installation, contained an 81mm mortar at the moment unmanned. The Dardo light tank was well positioned on a slight terrain elevation and his 25mm autogun and its MGs had a good field of fire all around. Offset from the center of the installation there was the enclosed fence Lario saw the day before with a bunch of horses guarded by a couple of soldiers.
After his short inspection of the security of the camp, Lario headed towards the Dardo where Major De Gaetano morning briefing was supposed to begin soon. The two guards at the entrance of the tent saluted him cordially and he entered the tent hoping not to be late. He immediately realized he was not, as the tent was occupied only by two men: a lieutenant and a major sergeant. The lieutenant was spread on a chair and did barely respond to Lario’s salute by telling him to make himself comfortable, and that the old man would be there soon. As for the Sergeant, at least he had the decency of introducing himself. “Sergente Giunta” he said. “I am the commander of the cavalry squadron”. He then sat back on a barrel that he used as a chair. Lario did not have a problem with the cold welcome of the two men, and simply sat on the ground with his backpack between his legs.
The three did not have to wait very long before Major De Gaetano accompanied by a Captain entered in the tent. Sergeant Giunta stood up and saluted the two officers reluctantly, followed by the Lieutenant who clearly was not a happy man.
“Gentlemen” Major De Gaetano began. “I see that you had the opportunity to meet Sergeant Vailatti from the Raider Regiment. He is going to be attached to the battalion for a while and he will be directly under my command, unless detached to any sub units. Like promised, today we are going to discuss about our course of action. Captain Liuzzi, please would you like to recap our present situation for Sergeant Vailatti?
Captain Liuzzi nodded and opened a rolled down a map of the area of operation of COMFOD 1.
“Gentlemen…our situation in the last week is substantially unchanged. The battalion maintains its positions in the eastward portion of the Brooksville salient. We are currently waiting for orders from Brigade HQ about the resuming of the advance eastwards. As you know, our logistic situation does not allow to immediately restarting operations, and Brigade is fully aware of that. In fact, in the lack of more precise orders from COMFOD, our command issued the directive to all units to maintain the positions and to reorganize while we wait for replacements and resupply. This however is old news”.
Captain Liuzzi crossed eyes with the lieutenant looking at him with a very perplexed expression.
“Major De Gaetano and I” continued the Captain, “have conceived an operation that is designed to relieve our situation and to enhance our operational awareness, compatibly with our present unstable position. As you all know, we did not have much of an intelligence report on the general situation since the detonation of nuclear weapons has happened on our theater of operation. Probably COMFOD is still trying to put together all the pieces before deciding on a definite course of action. This has left us in the dark for quite a long time”
The Captain paused to give the time to the listeners to soak in the information.
“Gentlemen”: Captain Liuzzi turned a transparent sheet on the wall map he had on a wooden stand.
“This is operation TORCIA (Flashlight), and it is conceived to give us a minimum of information on what is going on around us, in anticipation of the orders that we will receive from Brigade HQ. The arrival of Sergeant Vailatti is especially welcome in this moment as he will for sure represent a useful asset for this operation”.
Lario observed the map with a series of blue arrows extending south and east of the battalion position, with a series of phase lines and unit designations.
Captain Liuzzi continued: “we plan to develop recon missions based on the most mobile of our units, maintaining at the same time the bulk of the battalion defense centered on the Mechanized infantry assets. Elements of Sgt. Rena recon platoon minus the anti tank section, will perform an armed reconnaissance in direction of Tampa Bay, to investigate the situation in the area. This force will be commanded by Sergeant Vailatti.
Captain Liuzzi tapped with a ruler on the map.
“The direction of the advance will be along State Highway 93, and will have the village of Wesley Chapel as intermediate point”.
Liuzzi turned his head towards Sergeant Giunta.
“Light elements of Sgt. Giunta cavalry squadron, will hit county road 476 with objective the village of Nobleton, and if situation allow, they will proceed through the swampy area west of Orlando. If no resistance is encountered, the final objective is the outskirts of Orlando itself. We need to know what the enemy situation is along that axis, so that we can plan properly when the final advance order will come from Brigade HQ”.
Captain Liuzzi turned another transparent sheet on the map.
“We know for sure that the 274th Florida National Guard Brigade is positioned on the axis of advance of Sgt. Renna force. If this enemy unit discovers the movement and acts to counter it, the order is to disengage and come back home; we do not want any major engagement with the enemy at the moment. Brigade did not authorize it. The same restriction applies to Sgt. Giunta detachment, with the difference that we know nothing about possible enemy units east of us”.
Liuzzi looked at Major De Gaetano to indicate that he terminated his briefing.
“Gentlemen” De Gaetano intervened, “these two missions are extremely important for us. Like Lieutenant Lerner has suggested some days ago”, the Major gave a stare to the Lieutenant who had listened to the entire briefing in complete silence, “we need to generate some activity. Our logistic situation becomes worse every day, and we need to do something. The recon forces are tasked with two precise objectives: first, finding any possible sources of sustainment for the battalion, even a provisional one; and second provide us with information about the operational situation on the territory that surrounds us”.
“With that said” continued De Gaetano; these are reconnaissance missions will be conducted by light forces. They are, however, going to put a big dent in our stockpile of fuel, and grain. The hope is that the recon parties can find some kind of supply source that justifies the investment. Preservation of force is vital to both missions. Do not engage or let the enemy engage you, unless you enjoy tactical and numerical superiority”
Then De Gaetano looked at Lario and at Sgt. Giunta.
“Sergeant Vailatti, you will command the southern recon force. Touch base with Sgt. Rena, the commander of the recon platoon. Have him help you choose the best men for the mission. You have all day to prepare the operation. I also leave to you to decide if you want to include a vehicle in your force or not. I have of course total trust in your skills in preparing and conducting a mission of this kind. You do not need to report to me again. Just plan and execute your mission; reports and debriefings are postponed to when you come back”.
“Sergeant Giunta, the same applies to you. Your mission is exactly what you have been trained for. Explore and report. It’s a long range mission. Do not get caught behind the enemy lines, if there is any enemy east of here, and do not get any of your men killed”.
Lieutenant Lerner, who did not move a muscle during the entire briefing, suddenly broke into the commander monologue.
“These missions are a bullock Major. You will get the battalion crippled, your combat force diminished, and you will not have improved our situation by an inch”.
Lario turned to Lerner horrified; then he looked at Major De Gaetano. He expected to have to draw his pistol, which he finally managed to fix before sleep the night before, and shoot the Lieutenant. Insubordination in time of war ensued death penalty on the spot may be after a summary court martial if the commanding officer felt generous that day.
Instead, Major De Gaetano looked at Lerner with a resigned expression.
“What do you suggest instead, Sir Lerner of Augusta, may be you want to go all the way back and bring your complaints to COMFOD, or may be to Rome”?
Lerner looked at the Major, making no effort to conceal his disgust. “COMFOD is in the dark exactly like we are Major, and as far as we know, we might be the last efficient force existing in the Brooksville salient. And Rome might be a pile of radioactive junk by now. You continue to give briefings, and to think like if there were still normal operations going on…sir, but I think that you did not understand that this war has gone through dramatic changes. Why do you think the Americans are not harassing us anymore? Well I’ll tell you why. They are clueless, like we are. There has been a generalized nuclear exchange Major, even though for some reasons with intermediate weaponry instead of strategic ones. We are still alive for two reasons: one; the attacks were counterstrike and not counter forces. And two, thanks God, we are in the middle of this s%$#ty swamp that they call Florida and the detonations did not involve us directly”.
The Lieutenant paused to take his breath, and then looked at all the presents.
“We have to bring the entire battalion to a port; this is what to have to do. The entire battalion, I say. We have to avoid splitting our forces and having them overwhelmed piecemeal. If the attacks that have taken place here, have been replicated all over this Go&%$#ed United States, we will soon see the effect of that. It will be general chaos, we will be eaten alive by the locals, civilian and not. We don’t have any supply, scarce ammunition, almost no medical supplies. Tampa Bay was supposed to become our supply port. I say let’s go there with the entire battalion and see what the situation is. May be there are still some ships going out of here. In that case we embark the personnel and get the h%$ll out of here. If Tampa is barren, like it might very well be, then we will seize all the supply we can, and head to Miami. See if the Russians still have a base of operation there, and if the port is still open. Whatever we do, we have to keep our forces together. It’s the only way to have a shot at surviving in this mess”.
De Gaetano left the tent and went into his command Dardo without answering to Lerner. Captain Liuzzi, limited himself to stare at Lieutenant Lerner for a while; then he snapped: “Lieutenant. I don’t care what your name is, where you are from or what the color of your family barony emblem is. I told you many times that we are not in the Rome officers circle here, but in the middle of a war. You will follow the orders that you are given, and without discussing them. I am tired of your insubordinate behavior. If you think you are a brilliant strategist, you can get out of here, and go wherever you want. I won’t even file a report for desertion that can stain the spotless military tradition of your family; I am pretty sure I can find someone else capable of commanding your unit. On the other hand, I can guarantee you that I will personally shoot you in the head at the next act of insubordination of yours and then gladly fill a report of friendly fire accident for the overall command”.
Liuzzi looked intensely at Lieutenant Lerner to see if his words actually soaked in. The he concluded: “I believe you have duties to fulfill today Mr. Lerner. You are dismissed. Focus your energies on the management of your company, for as long as you have one
Lerner gave a prolonged meditative stare at his superior. Then he went on the attention with a slight bow in the manner of the cavalry, and without a word he turned around and left.
Liuzzi looked at Lario: “go prepare your men sergeant. We are very glad that you made it here in one piece. We really count on your expertise in conducting an operation like the one you have been assigned to. We’ll meet again just before you are ready to go”.
Continues…
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