OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Alabama
DATE: 19 October 2024
PLACE: Neyland Stadium
ATTENDANCE: 101,915
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 24 Alabama 17
While traveling to Neyland Stadium Saturday on an absolutely beautiful Fall day in Knoxville, Your Humble Scribe couldn't help but hear Mr. Charles William Daniels, late of of Mt. Juliet, saying, “Ain't it good to be alive and be in Tennessee!”
Upon entering the stadium the resurgence of the Vols' status under HeadVol Josh Heupel was visually made real. There in the East Stands was the “Million Dollar Band.” I, personally, can't remember the last time the Bammers brought the band with them.
Beyond that it was an admission by our guests in crimson that the Vols are once again back to their proper station as a “Blue Blood” SEC program. As I see it, the Southeastern Conference has a caste system. At the top is the Royalty: Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. LSU can be considered to be the crazy Royal Uncle who gets roaring drunk at state dinners and barfs all over the Foreign Secretary. Next are the “Wannabees”: Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss and Kentucky. They have success but nobody outside the conference really pays too much attention them even when they win titles. Kentucky is there simply because of the horse racing. Next are the Has-Beens such as Ole Miss, and their poor relation, MSU. Finally there are the Interlopers: S. Carolina, Texas, OU, Arkansas, A&M and Mizzou. Vanderbilt is Lazarus, forever condemned to sit at the castle gates wailing and grinding their teeth.
Ergo, Saturday was a battle of SEC Royalty, just like it's supposed to be, on the Third Saturday in October. Our Beloved Vols have been wandering in the wastelands for the last few years, but they have returned and taken their proper place at the table.
And what a Battle Royale it was!
The Vols kicked off and the Tide promptly did nothing.
Tennessee drove to the Bama 28 where Dylan Sampson was stripped of the ball.
There was an exchange of punts then the Bammers got their offense in gear but were thwarted when Tide QB Jalen Milroe threw a perfect strike to Tennessee's Jermod McCoy in the end zone, who returned the ball to the Alabama 46.
Unfortunately, at that point the Vol offense took over. The drive ended when Max Gilbert missed from 54 yards out.
End of 1st Quarter
Score: Tennessee 0 Alabama 0
Aided immeasurably by a couple of Vol miscues, the Tide scored on their first possession.
Tennessee's subsequent possession may well have been the turning point in the contest.
Vol Wunderkind Nico Iamaleava was injured and had to leave the game. The assembled Orange faithful stopped breathing. Gaston Moore came in and promptly threw a strike to Alabama's #13 who got the ball to the Tennessee 36.
Unfortunately for the Tide, their offense took over and committed three penalties in four plays and amassed a staggering minus 23 yards on the drive.
Iamaleava came back into the game and began to show flashes of the Nico of old. However he did throw an Oskie at the Tide 12.
The Tide's woes continued and Bama punted.
The Vols made it to the Tide 32 but Gilbert whiffed on a 50-yarder.
Bama's drive ended with a missed 54-yard field goal attempt.
End of 2nd Quarter
Score:Tennessee 0 Alabama 7
The second half started with an exchange of punts.
Nico then engineered a 91-yard drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown by Dylan Sampson.
The Tide regained the lead on a field goal.
Tennessee's next drive featured a 55-yard dime from Iamaleava to Dont'e Thornton at the Bama 3. Sampson then did the honors for his second touchdown of the day.
End of 3rd Quarter
Score:Tennessee 14 Alabama 10
Bammer had the ball at the Tennessee 48 as the quarter began and drove down for a touchdown, regaining the lead yet again.
After another exchange of punts, the Vols rode Dylan Sampson down to the Tide 16whence Nico found Chris Brazzell in the back of the end zone.
The Bammers were now against the wall. A field goal would do them no good.
Two punts left Bama on their own 18 when they failed on 4th down.
Max Gilbert then nailed a 41-yarder.
Great, but there was still 1:39 on the clock, WAY too time for an All-America quarterback like Milroe.
A new Vol legend was then born when Will Brooks picked off Milroe.
Two kneel-downs and…
PANDEMONIUM REIGNED!!!
Celebrating the superiority of Our Way of Life!
Final Score
Tennessee 24 Alabama 17
*******
The young First Looey (1st Lieutenant) nicknamed “Mac” had just assumed command of his company. They were tasked with occupying a piece of the front given to the 99th Infantry Division, United States Army.It was a “quiet” sector in the sprawling Ardennes Forest which conveniently sits astride the border between France, and Belgium, and covers virtually the whole country of Luxembourg. It was a place where tired divisions, several of whom had been mauled in the recent fighting in the Huertgen Forest, could rest and refit. It was also a place where newly-arrived divisions could be exposed to combat conditions before being entrusted with larger and more important assignments. The 99th was one of the latter. Running roughly southwest of the 99th’s lines were the positions of another “rookie” division: the Golden Lions of the 106th Infantry Division.
At 0530 on the morning of 16 December1944, Mac was in his Command Post when a hurricane of German artillery fire swept his position. Even though it all seemed directed at him personally, it was a much bigger event. Everything in the Kraut arsenal from 81mm mortars to 170mm field guns had opened up and begun pounding the American lines from Diekirch to Monschau.
After twenty minutes, which seemed like a life-span to the young lieutenant, the German guns quieted and a much more ominous sound came from the snow-and-fog cloaked woods: the squeak and rattle of tracks and the heavy thrumming of tank engines. Firing erupted along the line, but other than a few 2.36” bazookas, (which required incredible courage to use against heavier German tanks) the Americans lacked any meaningful anti-tank weapons, the collapse was but moments away.
Tanks are an infantryman’s nightmare. Everything on a tank can kill infantry. They mount cannons and machine guns and the crew sits behind steel armor proof against small arms fire, and they move. A tank is literally tons of death heading right for you. The green troops of the 99th had never seen anything like this. Cries of, “Krauts! Krauts coming! Kraut tanks!” went up along the company front. The lieutenant rallied his men, they took up positions guarding a small road, but they couldn’t hold. Hitler’s Panzers were too much. The infantry broke before the oncoming tanks and fled for the rear. The lieutenant could not rally them again, and after a few rounds fired in the general direction of the advancing Herrenvolk, took to his heels with a few stalwarts.
Mac and a few of his men took shelter in a barn that evening after avoiding German patrols. They were determined to find their regimental headquarters. There, Mac knew, he would face yet another nightmare: he would have to tell his regimental commander he had lost the battle, lost control of his unit and failed as a leader of men. It was a prospect worse than facing an oncoming Panzer.
Hitler had begun planning the battle our lieutenant fought in September of 1944. The Allied Armies had swept across France after breaking out of Normandy and were closing on the German borders. Hitler figured that the Allies would have to slow down as supply lines were stretched and great natural barriers,rivers and mountains would have to be crossed before reaching the Siegfried Line of fortifications along the border itself. He ordered his generals to begin preparations for “Die Wacht am Rein” (The Watch on the Rhine).
Hitler’s plan was daring and had lofty goals. The Wehrmacht would launch an assault led by the Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies through the Ardennes Forest – precisely the spot where the Panzers had flung themselves against the French flank in 1940 and destroyed the French and British forces in a 5-week campaign. The attack would go through a weak spot in the front and then shoot West by North and seize the great port of Antwerp which by this time was handling most of the cargo used by the Allied armies. As an added attraction, the attack would travel more or less along the line separating the British XXI Army Group in the north from the American XII Army Group. This held the potential to split the western allies and open the door for a negotiated settlement.
The Germans pulled out all the stops for this. Tanks and equipment were gathered and troops shuttled from all over and assembled near the Ardennes. Panzer units were pulled from the Eastern Front. All this was done in the greatest secrecy. One of the Allied advantages in WWII was their ability to crack German codes. The Germans used a complicated encryption machine called the “Enigma” to generate codes which they considered unbreakable. The Allies had captured an Enigma early on and used it to read German radio messages throughout the war. Hitler, ever suspicious, insisted that all messages regarding this attack be sent either by telephone or by courier. There were virtually no radio messages. Enigma intercepts had become the backbone of Allied intelligence. No radio traffic blinded them.
The main attack fell on US VIII Corps, part of Courtney Hodges First Army. VIII Corps consisted of the aforementioned 99th and 106th Infantry Divisions and also the 9th Armored and 28th Infantry divisions which were resting after hard fighting in the Huertgen Forest. All of them fell back under the onslaught of a full Panzer Army. The green 106th, near the center of VIII Corps line, was sliced to ribbons and within a week was finished as a fighting unit. Between December 16 and 23 the 106th suffered 8504 casualties out of a total of 13,000 available at the beginning.
Elsewhere, though, the Americans fought back ferociously. Small scratch units of tanks, infantry and artillery contested small towns, crossroads and ridge lines throughout the Ardennes. Places like Kinkelt, St. Vith, Elsenborn Ridge and Houffalize would enter the lore of the US Army to be invoked whenever the going got tough.
All of these places fell to the Germans but by defending them to the bitter end, the Americans cost the Germans the one thing they could not afford – time. The Germans had to move fast, once the weather cleared, they knew, the dreaded Jabos– American fighter bombers – would strike their tank columns and supply convoys. Movement by day would be nearly impossible.
One small town stood out. If as in in Italy all roads lead to Rome, in the Ardennes all roads lead to Bastogne. It was at Bastogne that legends would be made. The Germans had to have it. They could not move very far unless that vital road junction fell. By the 19th, Bastogne was virtually cutoff. They threw everything they could spare against it. The Americans moved the 101st Airborne Division in to defend the town. The 101st was moved without its commanding officer, Major General Maxwell Taylor, who was in Washington. Divisional command fell on the division’s artillery commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe. They were joined by a Tank Destroyer battalion, CombatCommand B of the 10th Armored Division and Combat Command R of the 9th Armored Division with about 40 M-4 Shermans between them. By the 21st of December, the Germans had encircled the place with two full divisions and elements of several others. They pounded it with artillery and probed and attacked with infantry and armor for seven long days.
Three days into the fight, four Germans emerged from the fog and snow under a flag of truce. They carried a message from General Heinrich von Luttwitz of the XLVII Panzer Corps:
To the U.S.A. Commander in the encircled town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing.This time, the U.S. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert, by passing through Hompre’-Sillet-Tillet.; Libremont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility of saving the encircled U.S.A. troops from annihilation. That is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over, a term of two hours shall be granted, beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal is rejected one German artillery corps and six heavy anti-aircraft batteries are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after the two hours’ term.
All serious civilian casualties caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with well-known American humanity.
/signed/ the German Commander
When his chief-of-staff, Col. Ned Moore, informed McAuliffe of the German demand the General said, “Aw,nuts!” McAuliffe then asked Moore how he should word a formal reply rejecting the German demands. Moore said something to the effect of, “Well I think your first answer was pretty good.” So McAuliffe sat down and wrote out his reply:
To the German Commander
Nuts!
The American Commander.
One of the German party spoke English but had never seen this phrase before. He asked Col. Joseph Harper of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment what it meant. Col. Harper was unequivocal, “ in plain English it is the same thing as ‘Go to Hell!’ And I will tell you something else. If you continue to attack we will kill every go**amn German who tries to break into this city!”
Word of this passed all along the perimeter and the beleaguered Americans chuckled and readied themselves for the next assault with the full confidence their superiors would not let them down.
Bastogne held out for four more days until finally Sherman tanks of the 37th Tank Battalion under future MAC-V commander and Chief of Staff Creighton Abrams, spearheading the 4th Armored Division of Patton’s Third Army broke through on December 26.
The Ardennes Offensive, better known to Americans as the Battle of the Bulge would go on until mid-January when the original lines were finally regained. Hitler’s great gamble had failed and disastrously so. The Germans had lost 100,000 men and close to 1000 armored vehicles. American casualties were also heavy, 81000 men (19,000+ KIA) and 800 tanks. The difference was the Americans could replace their losses in a few weeks. The Germans could not.
It had been a victory, not of generals and commanders but of the GI.
… And what of our young lieutenant whose harsh introduction to combat we started with? Well, he finally did make it back to regimental HQ where, far from being reprimanded, he was commended because his unit had held out longer than others and had gained valuable time for the regiment and the division to respond and organize a more coherent defense. Charlie would regain his company and would lead infantrymen in battle, and do so very well, until the end of the war.
After the war, the young lieutenant, now an experienced and skilled combat leader would join the Army’s Center for Military History. Charles B. MacDonald would go on to write several of the Army’s official histories of the war and then wrote his own combat memoir, Company Commander, which is one of the best ever written.
In his later book, A Time for Trumpets, about the battle of the Bulge, Charlie MacDonald penned this honor to his comrades:
Hitler saw the American soldier as the weak component (“the Italians”) of the Western Alliance, the product of a society too heterogeneous to field a capable fighting force. The heterogeneity was indeed there, but at many a place - at Kinkelt-Rocherath, at Dom, atop the skyline drive, at the Parc Hotel, Echternach, Malmedy, Stavelot, Stoumont, Bastogne, Verdenne, Baraquede Fraiture, Hotton, Noville - the American soldier put the lie to Hitler’s theory. His was a story to be told to the sound of trumpets.
*******
So, how did the Vols do against The Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
As with Tennessee at Arkansas the Bammers apparently never practiced against crowd noise.That said, they also committed some absolutely stupid penalties.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
It's weird, but Iamaleava's injury may have been the break the Vols needed since it seemed to reset his brain and he remembered he can be a Heistman-level player.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up… PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Tennessee's defense never wavered and held the Tide to seven points in the first half while the offense sorted itself.
4. Protectour kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Once Nico started to play “his” game, the Vol offense got going.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Jalen Milroe was harassed, hurried, and sacked all day. Beyond that the Bama rushing game was throttled and held to but 75 net yards. Dylan Sampson had nearly twice that BY HIMSELF! Well done, lads, well done!
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
The Tide returners were a non-factor. Well done, lads, well done! Max Gilbert's 4th quarter FG settled theBammer's hash.
7. Carry the fight to Ala-effing-bama and keep it there for sixty minutes.
Will Brooks! 'Nuff said!!
Suggested Reading
Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers
Hugh M. Cole, The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge, The U.S. Army in World War II
Charles B. MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets
Charles B. MacDonald, Company Commander
American infantrymen in the Ardennes. (US Army)
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