The 26th to the Front!

US Army Signal Corps Photo

1st Lt. Nate Paddock woke up and looked around. His first thought was wondering why he was flat on his back at the battalion aid station, he didn't recall being wounded. Then it struck him, he had become violently ill after what had seemed to be a great Thanksgiving meal that regiment had laid on for the troops. What the heck had happened to him?

"Glad to see you're awake lieutenant, you were pretty sick. We were a bit worried about you."

Paddock looked to see who was speaking, as he did so it struck him that it was a female voice. A woman, dear Lord when's the last time he had heard a woman speaking English? He tried to sit up.

"Easy GI, don't want you pulling that IV out. The doctor says it can come out now anyway, but better I do it, less messy that way."

With that the army nurse, for Paddock saw the uniform now, and the captain's bars, began to remove the IV from Paddock's arm. Paddock couldn't help but notice that the captain was quite attractive, she smelled pretty good too!

"There, that should do it for you." She bandaged the spot where the IV had been, then began to tidy up and move on to her next patient.

"How long have I been here Ma'am? And where is here?" Paddock was disorientated. But he noticed that he was clean and, though it was a simple Army cot, he was awfully comfortable.

"Just a couple of days, you were pretty sick, in fact most of your platoon was sick as well. Seems that one of your battalion cooks wasn't as fastidious as he should have been. That food you got for Thanksgiving was contaminated, some of you boys were really sick, but I think you'll all be okay now. The doctor says you can return to your unit today, maybe tomorrow, depends on transport availability. Oh, you're in a field hospital outside Aachen. Any more questions?" She smiled as she said that and Paddock felt better just seeing that smile.

"I'll be back soon with your discharge papers, you can get dressed now if you feel up to it." With that she moved on to her next patient.

"Hey L.T., you gonna lay in bed all day and flirt with nurses or what?"

Paddock turned at the familiar voice and saw his platoon sergeant, Sgt. Stephen Hernandez, coming down the aisle. Even in the dim light of the hospital tent, Paddock could see that the man looked pale as a ghost.

"You get sick too, Top?"

"Coming out both ends L.T., thought I was gonna die, there were points where I kinda wished I would. Most of the platoon got sick, just the guys on sentry duty didn't, they missed out on the big turkey dinner. They're kinda happy they did."

"I hear one of the cooks f**ked up."

"Yessir, he ain't a cook anymore, he now gets to carry a rifle like the rest of us, not in our battalion though, regiment was afraid someone would shoot the bastard. You never know, fellow pops his head up on the line, bad things can happen."

Paddock finished getting dressed, all the clothing was new issue. After he laced up his boots he looked at Hernandez and asked, "Did all the guys get new uniforms, Top?"

"Yessir. Even the guys who didn't get sick, they brought the whole platoon back, Major Josephson wanted to keep us all together rather than attach the guys who were well to another outfit."

"Major Josephson?"

"Yessir, he got promoted, his command of the battalion was confirmed by division as well."

"That's great, now where are..." Before Paddock could ask about his rifle and his other gear, he heard his name called.

"Lieutenant Paddock?"

Hearing that female voice again, Paddock turned, there she was with a number of documents in her hands.

"Here are the discharge papers for you and the rest of your men. All of your weapons and other field gear are over at the armory. There's a couple of trucks waiting over there to take you back up to the line."

Paddock blushed and said, "Thank you, Ma'am. For getting my men back on their feet."

"The name's Edith Parsons, lieutenant. I didn't do it all by myself, there are quite a few other nurses and a couple of doctors you could thank. Not to mention all of the orderlies, your own medic pitched in as well."

"Really, Doc Milbury didn't get sick?" Paddock looked at Hernandez as he asked that question.

"No Sir, remember, Doc was up at regiment getting medical supplies for the battalion. He ate there, said the chow was pretty damned good. Bastard." Hernandez chuckled as he said that.

"Great, so let's round up the guys and get going." Turning to Captain Parsons he said, "Thanks again Ma'am, anything we can do for you, ya know, souvenirs, that kind of thing?"

"Yes, lieutenant, end the damned war so we can all go home." Though she smiled when she said that, Paddock could sense the bitterness lying underneath. He didn't know that Parsons had been a nurse on a pediatric ward in Milwaukee before the war. Dealing with sick kids was a sadness unique to the human condition, but dealing with young men torn and dying from the weapons of war was quite another. She was sick of it all and couldn't wait for the war to end.

"That's what we want too, Ma'am. As fast as is humanly possible, I'm sure you've seen things, but enough of that, thanks Captain, we'll be off now." Paddock couldn't understand why he was so tongue-tied at the moment, and why did Hernandez have that stupid grin on his face?

"Take care of yourself Lieutenant, take care of your boys. I don't want to see you here again, understood?" She smiled as she said that, Paddock thought her smile was pretty special.

"Yes Ma'am, I'll try. Let's go, Top, we have a war to finish."

As they left the hospital tent Paddock turned to his sergeant and said, "You can lose the shit-eating grin now Top."

"Yes Sir, no disrespect Sir, but that Captain Parsons was pretty, real pretty."

"Yeah Top, I noticed. Now the lady said 'end the war,' let's go do that."

"Roger that, L.T."

Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz was exhausted, his unit had just traveled by rail nearly a hundred and twenty-five kilometers. With delays and Allied bombing raids, it had taken his Kampfgruppe four days to travel that distance. After all that, they were only 30 kilometers from where they had started their journey in the Hürtgenwald.

"Herr Major, you'll be pleased to know that the StuG we managed to drag to the rail head and bring with us has been repaired. Somehow the StuG troops 'found' an engine they could use. They just finished installing it and testing it. That beast runs better than it did with the old engine according to Hornbach." Sauer looked nervous as he reported that.

"What's wrong Manfred? You're usually not this skittish. Something bothering you?"

"Jawohl Herr Major, we need to get away from this railyard, the things attract Allied Jabos wie Fliegen auf einen Scheißhaufen."¹

"Yes, I know Manfred, but we must be patient. I've been told to expect new orders and soon. We can move the men away from the yard into Kall² itself, but don't let them disperse too far apart. Where the Hell is the Spieß? He should be making these arrangements, not you."

"Keller is over at the yardmaster's office, paperwork, you know how the Army is. We can't get enough men, bullets, and rations to the front, but the damned paperwork always has to get done." Sauer spat in the mud when he said that.

Von Lüttwitz looked at the commander of his 1st Company's 1st Platoon (the unit was now carried on Army rolls as an independent battle group and no longer attached to the 983rd Grenadier Regiment) and said, "Get Krüger to take care of that, he's been a Spieß far longer than Keller. He should know what to do."

"Jawohl Herr Major, I'll go see him now, he's already got the 2nd Company men bivouacked just outside the town. It's not far, I'll get the rest of the men headed that way in the meantime."

"Very well, also you need to update your uniform."

"Sir?" Sauer looked at his commander in some confusion, what was the man talking about?

"Your promotion to Feldwebel has been approved, division had the paperwork before we left the Hürtgenwald, it went up to Corps and finally made it back to me. Get those new epaulettes on your tunic, until I can find another officer, you have 1st Company. Oh, put these on those epaulettes while you're at it. I couldn't get that approved right away, but it made sense to do so, seeing as how you were jumped over the rank of Unterfeldwebel."

Sauer looked at the two strips of lace, meant to go on his sergeant's epaulettes, they signified that he was now an Offiziersanwärter, an officer candidate.

Sauer's new epaulettes.
(Source)

In peacetime there would be more to becoming an officer, but Sauer knew, this was definitely not peacetime. If he survived the next few weeks, he figured he would be a lieutenant by Christmas, maybe even before. Not bad for a pig farmer, he thought.

(Source)

After collecting his rifle and other gear, 1st Lt. Paddock, accompanied by Sgt. Hernandez, headed over to where the trucks were waiting to take them back to the front. He was surprised to see newly promoted Major Alphonse Josephson, commanding the 1st Battalion of the 26th Infantry, standing by a jeep driven by the battalion sergeant major, M/Sgt. Brad Powers.

Paddock walked over to the major, not saluting by force of habit, and extended his hand, "Congratulations on the oak leaves Sir, 'bout time!"

Josephson laughed and said, "I guess so Nate, being a battalion commander is sometimes more trouble than it's worth, but hey, the pay's better! Now, are your guys fit and ready to head out?"

"Absolutely Sir, the docs here cleared us for return to duty. I, for one, am feeling much better, though Sgt. Hernandez looks a might peaked, he says he's ready." Before Paddock could continue, Josephson interrupted him.

"You mean S/Sgt. Hernandez, right?"

Paddock's grin spread over his face, his platoon sergeant now had a rank commensurate with his position. "Really Sir? That's out-f**king-standing!"

"Overdue as well. Now we're going back into the Hürtgen, I'm sure you're as unhappy about that as I am. But we're damned near on the edge of those f**king woods now. The entire battalion is being moved up to an actual castle, Burg Laufenburg according to my S2, who's a bit of a history nut. Built in the 12th Century, pretty much intact. At any rate, we'll muster there and then see what we have to do."

"Damn, an actual castle huh?" Paddock wondered what the bad news would be.

"Yup, according to the G2 up at division, they want the 26th to move up to the line Langerwehe-Juengersdorg-Merode. That'll get us out of the woods and poised to take Düren, which will f**k up the Kraut's logistics a great deal, then push on to Cologne, then across the Rhine. G2 says we'll be facing Kraut paratroops again, but these are mostly kids..."

"And old men?" Paddock asked, he'd heard that line before.

"Negative Nate, this is our old buddies the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division. We destroyed 'em at Falaise, apparently they've been rebuilt with new recruits. So we can destroy 'em again I guess. Last word I had was that the battalion will be used as a flank guard for the regiment as we have so many new recruits in the ranks."

"Hell Sir, we're starting to be made up of kids and old men ourselves." Paddock observed.

"Seems that way, but our kids are mostly 18-year-olds, our 'old' men are in their 30s, you know the Krauts are fielding a lot of 14-year-olds and guys as old as sixty. Big difference."

"Copy that Sir. When do we move out?"

"Right now Nate, let's get this show on the road."

"Yes Sir! Hey Top, you heard the man, load 'em up, move 'em out!"

Next stop...

Merode, Germany
US Army Signal Corps Photo

¹ Like flies to a dung heap

² The town of Kall is located in the Eifel hills, approximatively 20 km south-west of Euskirchen. Not to be confused with the Kall River in the Hürtgenwald.

Author's Note: Yes, I'm back in the saddle again, feeling much better, thank you. I used the excuse of food poisoning to explain Paddock's absence from the field and the redeployment of von Lüttwitz's outfit in preparation for Die Wacht am Rhein, or the Battle of the Bulge as we knew it. Diverticulitis didn't fit the story line, food poisoning did. Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving, mine, while less than optimal, was still a time of thanking the Lord for my many blessings.

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