1949 WAR GAMES AND THE ASA
("ASA Alpiner", 4th Qrtr, 2001)
James W. Lynn 114th Signal Service Company Erlangen-Herzo Base, Germany
I was a green High Speed Radio Operator out of Ft. Monmouth by only a couple of months. The ASA, in an effort to shorten up the pipe line for 0766s to begin producing as 0799s (HS Radio Intercept Operators), had asked for ten volunteers for Germany and the same number for Japan. These volunteers would ship directly to field units, bypassing specialized school at Vint Hill Farm Station (VHFS).
Living up to one of my nicknames, "Lucky", I drew a number in the group of ten for Germany. So, at the inception of the War Games of 1949, I had very little experience in the business of radio signals interception for intelligence purposes.
The briefing of the duties of the intercept operators designated "Aggressor Forces" and "Friendly Forces" was very short. The briefing was given by, I believe, Lt. William F. Stage (could have been by a WO, whose name I cannot recall). The idea of listening to the radio traffic of the respective units belonging to either Aggressor or Friendly seeped in however. The operators designated "Friendly" were supposed to listen to the radio traffic of the Aggressor, The Circle (C) Cowboys - a conglomeration of miscellaneous U.S. Military units of various equipage such as Border Patrol "Rat Pack" units, etc. Conversely, the operators designated as "Aggressor" were to monitor the Friendly’s who were the US First Infantry Division - the Big Red 1.
Both groups of intercept operators worked in the converted German Luftwaffe hanger identified as OPERATIONS - all in the same radio room. For this particular story, the trick to which I was assigned was just starting its three days of day shifts. The M/M Trick chief was Cpl. Hornick, a WW2 vet from Wisconsin who had re-enlisted after completing his WW2 draftee commitment.
Along about ten o’clock in the morning, I came across radio telephone traffic on the HF band that was, after listening a few minutes, American GI’s chattering like a group of Jaybirds. Listening, it became obvious that they were a Friendly Forces Tank detachment on the road between their base camp, somewhere in the "Black Forrest", to join a force being constituted to attack Aggressor units staging in the Bamberg area.
As I listened, one of the tankers talked enough to tell me that the column was approaching Erlangen from the south. The tanker began telling the detachment leader about a "great Gasthaus" in Erlangen, where he had spent some happy hours and where he knew the proprietor and his "pretty young Fräulein daughter". As the spellbinding tanker continued, his detachment leader became more interested. The informative tanker said the Gasthaus had a large courtyard in back sufficient to "stash" their baggage (the tanks). Very helpfully he continued, in plain English, to give the street and number for the Gasthaus.
I made notes of what was being said and yelled up to Cpl. Hornick to come look at what I had. We did not have Ampex recorders yet, and the old Dictaphone belt recorders did not work too well.
Cpl. Hornick (A good NCO - several years senior to most of us - had also been one of the ten to get a lucky number for Germany, at Ft Monmouth) plugged his cans into my radio jack at the console. As he listened, the tanker said, "good, we can leave these snorting monsters here for awhile, get a couple Tuborgs, and be back on the road feeling much better".
Cpl. Hornick went out of the room (to the Watch Officer as I learned later), with the intelligence of the location of a force of tanks, spotted stationary for a period of time.
As the sequence of events became evident later- Aggressor Forces were notified and laid on a long distance Artillery barrage with the Gasthaus as the delivery address.
A War Games umpire team was working in the Erlangen area. They went to the Gasthaus, red-tagged each of the tanks as destroyed, went inside, informed each of the tankers they were KIA and were to report to the games disposition area for detail assignment for the remainder of the games term.
Next day, Cpl. Hornick and I were told to report to the Operations Officer. I had no idea what was transpiring - scared spitless that I had done something wrong. Hornick and I were informed that the Aggressor Force commander was very happy to have "one up" on Friendly Forces - that we, Hornick and I, could have the next day off for an "Attaboy". Since the next day would be the third day of our three day shift, that would give us a four day break - we could sleep in the next morning.
The 114th Mess had excellent German cooks, particularly breakfast. The next day I slept in but not long enough to miss that meal. My room at the time was on the second floor of the Northwest wing of the 114th Barracks. I got out of bed and looked out the window (my view from it was the German farm area just across the perimeter fence). What I saw just about relieved me of the need to go to the latrine - except that I would then miss the daily ration of 5 sheets of paper. Looking out the window I saw the business end of the biggest cannon muzzle I had ever looked into (not many, but enough that I knew what I was seeing) and it was bore-sighted directly on my window. At the other end of the cannon was a tank and perched on top of that tank was a tanker, grinning at me. Man, I did not consider whether they were friends or not. Turns out, it was a tank from the same unit that had been wiped out at the Erlangen Gasthaus the previous day.
I never learned how they found out who had caused their embarrassment of being wiped out. No doubt, some of the other 114th Intercept Operators who worked in the same radio room as me tipped them off - some of the operators that were assigned to Friendly forces.
Somewhere on this old earth ball is a former Big Red One tanker (be he blessed with sufficiently long life) that remembers bore sighting an ASA dididaher and scaring the crap out of him.
Hopefully this story will jog some memories. There are a number of great stories with ASAE troops being central characters - seems like a half century of mouth closed debriefing requirement should loosen a bit.
Editors note: Appropriately enough Jim Lynn retired from the Texas National Guard as a Master Sargent with the 124th Armored Cavalry Squadron of the 49th "Lone Star" Armored Division.