One spoke in much the same tones about fighting on the front—only there, inefficiency could be fatal for large numbers of soldiers. Major Frank from the 5th Paratrooper Division, for instance, objected to the conditions under which his battalion had to attack during the Ardennes Offensive:
FRANK: Right on the very first day of the offensive we stormed FÜRDEN, it was a fortified village. We got to within 25 m. of the “Bunker,” were stopped there and my best “Kompaniechefs” were killed. I was stuck fast there for two and a half hours, five of my runners who returned were all shot. Then, for two and a half hours, always on my stomach, I worked my way back, by inches. What a show for young boys, making their way over a plain and without support of heavy weapons! I decided to wait for a forward observation officer. The “Regimentskommandeur” said: “Get going, take that village—there are only a few troops holding it.” “That’s madness,” I said to my “Regimentskommandeur.” “No, no, it’s an order. Get going, we must capture the village before evening.” I said: “We will too. The hour we lose waiting for the forward observation officer I will make up two and three times over afterwards.” Then there were assault guns available. I said to him: “At least give me the assault guns, to come in from the north and destroy their ‘Bunker.’” “No, no, no.” We took the village without any support and scarcely were we in it when our heavy guns began firing into it. I brought out one hundred and eighty-one PW altogether. I rounded up the last sixty and a salvo of mortar shells fell on them from one of our mortar “Brigaden,” right into the midst of the PW and guard troops. After twenty-two hours our own artillery was still firing into the village. Our liaison was a complete failure. We had tanks as well, they were never used in conjunction with the infantry, all the tanks were recklessly thrown away. On the one hand the tanks were thrown away, on the other hand the assault guns were thrown away, and the infantry too, but if there had been a little co-operation, if those one or two hours had been allowed each time to prepare it, then it would have been wonderful.697
Major Frank craved success. He wanted to conquer Fürden as quickly and with as few losses as possible and then press on westward. Bad coordination, he felt, doomed those ambitions. Yet although he characterized the attack on Fürden as “insanity,” Frank followed orders and carried it out. The alternative was simply unthinkable. And he described taking the village, “without any support,” and capturing 181 POWs as a personal triumph. He had successfully carried out his mission, even if the Ardennes Offensive as a whole failed, with German forces suffering heavy casualties. The fault, however, wasn’t Frank’s, but rather that of the “mid-level leadership.” If Frank had been allowed to do things his way, everything would have been “wonderful.”
