Here's the map battle for the Moselle Heights:
General Robert Lee* Bullard's 2nd Army is occupying the map from the middle south as General Hunter Liggett's 1st Army is coalescing around Briey in the north.
That's a line of low, wooded hills in front of Metz. Those yellow pins represent high ground of 100-150 feet. A good position but not insurmountable. Not as bad as the Romagne and Cunel Heights, anyway.
At center-right is a gap in the hill line. Rushing that would be suicidal, which would be just what Pershing would want Bullard to do. I think Liggett is going to turn the Bosch's right flank though. He already proved himself capable of such action in the Argonne. Turn the flank, get behind the hills and then march on Metz from the north. Then Bullard can rush the gap.
The Bosch will be defending with five divisions on a 15 mile front + whatever's at Metz.
We think we'll be telling this battle from Jerry's POV.
*You're welcome, Harris.
As alert reader(s) know, when we write we like to bounce around from place to place. One minute the reader is in Prague, the next Jerusalem.
Dear Tom Clancy (PBUH) we learned it by watching you!
We've been going through Pershing's War: 1919 and completely forgot that Part II follows General Robert Lee Bullard, commander of the American 2nd Army.
The chapter is like one long tracking shot as Bullard goes from his Post Command in Toul to the front line, deals with problems of command, gets briefed, heads back to his PC, etc, etc. In this way the reader experiences the 2nd Army's offensive across the Woevre Plain toward Metz and the Moselle Heights.
Writing this way presents challenges, but it feels good to do something different.
Robert Lee Bullard was an interesting man. He was born in Alabama just after the war and grew up with the children of his families' former slaves. He had a deep southern accent and picked up the linguistic mannerisms of his black friends. Bullard had a habit of cutting off the endings of words and could never pronounce the 'g' at the end of words like 'getting'. His attitude toward blacks was a mixture of realism, condescension and paternalism. As it happened the 92nd 'Buffalo' Division was in the 2nd Army. Bullard felt the division was dysfunctional and urged Pershing to send it home.
