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The 5th Company had been ordered to head for Euskirchen from Bonn. However, they couldn't go by rail, the Allied Air Forces had bombed the railyards at Euskirchen and for the moment nothing was going into or out of that town by rail. So they would travel by road, at night. There was little point in attempting a move during the daylight hours, even with the bad weather which was typical at this time of year, all it took was a break in that weather and the Allied Jabos would be in the air and killing anything moving on the roads.

"That's the bigger question, Herr Major, do we have enough fuel to move the vehicles we have from here to Euskirchen, that's roughly 35 kilometers. Given the stop and go nature of a convoy on these roads, in this weather, we might not even make it in one night!" Leutnant Manfred Sauer, commanding the 5th Company, was discussing the unit's impending move.

"Manfred, battalion staff is, oddly enough, at full strength, I have to move 154 men and 45 vehicles over those same roads. With your company and Herman Schmitz's company that's another 300 men and close to 80 vehicles. That's a long column, probably close to a kilometer if we march bumper to bumper, which we shouldn't. My quartermaster has the fuel, I'm worried about keeping the sub-units together so that, if we have to, we can go straight into battle at the end of the march." Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Panzergrenadier Regiment, shook his head as he checked his orders.

Von Lüttwitz continued, "It was easier as infantry, we simply formed up by platoons and marched. Now?" 

"Rougher on the feet though, Sir." Sauer commented.

"True, but you have to admit, the logistics were far simpler."

"At least there are no horses to take care of, I still remember Falaise, the dead and dying horses, their death throes affected me greatly. I can still hear the screams of the men and the horses in my nightmares." Sauer took a deep breath, then said, "Sorry, Sir, I'm not sure where that came from, it's been a long time since then, but in my nightmares, it was yesterday."

"Yes, the horses, they don't understand why we fight wars, they go where they are told and do what we ask of them, for the most part. I too remember seeing the dead teams in the road, along the road, everywhere. It saddened me, so we are relieved of that at least. I'm still not used to commanding a motorized unit, but I have a good staff." von Lüttwitz checked his watch, then said, "Officers' call at 1900, bring your platoon leaders. My staff should have all this sorted out by then, we're supposed to move the day after tomorrow. I think regiment keeps delaying things hoping we can get rail transport to Euskirchen. But between you and me, that's not going to happen."

"Sir, most of my vehicles have a coat of whitewash on them, but I've got the men cutting branches and things to tie on and break up the outline of the vehicles. A white vehicle doesn't stand out in a field of snow, as long as it didn't move. On a muddy road, it will stand out, so..." Sauer shook his head, as an infantryman he could hide in a ditch, or dig a hole, but a vehicle, how does one hide an 8 ton vehicle?

"I know, Manfred, camouflage them as best you can, I want to stick to the roads, if we go across fields, with the snow on the ground the tracks will lead the Jabos right to us. We saw that in the Ardennes, I don't want to repeat that mistake."

"Certainly, Sir, 1900 then." Sauer snapped a salute and headed back to his company. He was not looking forward to this move.

Motorcycles, Kettenkrads, cars, trucks, and multiple halftracks to take the men to Euskirchen and then into battle. At least, Sauer thought, we have twelve anti-aircraft vehicles, each mounting triple 1.5 cm or 2 cm machine guns, the M.G. 151. The smaller version didn't pack as big a punch as the 2 cm guns, but both were useful against air and ground targets.

SdKfz 251/21 Drilling¹ anti-aircraft vehicle.

From what the Spieß had told him, there was even an armor piercing round available for the gun. He'd have to check the ammunition loadouts for them, after all he "owned" six of the beasts. He'd have to ask the commander of his 4th Platoon what the loadout was. He also needed to check the weapons mounted, hopefully the battalion fielded twelve of the same variant, otherwise ammunition supply could be difficult.

Along with the need to provide the various ammunition types for the men's individual weapons, from submachine guns to rifles, there were at least three different calibers of bullet! Fortunately he had an experienced Weapons Sergeant to help him keep track of that.

Being a platoon commander was one thing, but to command a company? Sauer almost wished he was a simple Landser² again, just following orders and bitching about Army life. What Opa might have called the "good old days." He wondered how his old sergeant, Köhler, was faring as a POW. He had written Opa's wife but had yet to hear anything in return. Which worried him.

"Herr Leutnant?" One of Sauer's radiomen was standing in front of him.

"What is it Christof?"

Grenadier Christof Schmidt took a deep breath and said, "The Americans and the British, they've destroyed Dresden."

That took a moment to register, surely Schmidt was exaggerating. "You mean the city was bombed, right? Surely it hasn't been destroyed?"

"According to the Propaganda Ministry, the center of the city has been completely destroyed, 200,000 people dead, many thousands more still unaccounted for, it sounds to me, begging the Leutnant's pardon, like the city has been destroyed. Isn't the Major from Dresden?"

"Yes, he is, how many of the men know of this?" Sauer was concerned for the men's morale, many of whom were Saxons. Sauer himself had a certain fondness for Dresden, he'd once had an encounter with a pretty young college student there in August of 1939. He often wondered what had become of lovely, blonde Margarethe. Now he had to wonder if she was even still alive.

"Keep this news quiet for now Schmidt, I don't want to worry the men from that area."

"They know, Sir. Word spreads fast, Dr. Goebbels himself is making this big news, he claims that the enemy wants to destroy all of Germany, this is a perfect example." Schmidt seemed almost offended that Sauer would not want the men to know.

"All right, see if you can find out more, I'll talk to the Major. Now go, run along, remember, Lügen haben kurze Beine!³ We should learn more before we lose our minds over this."

Here they were, about to go into battle, now this. As if the men didn't have enough to worry about. He was starting to realize that all of Germany was now a battlefield, there was no front, there was no rear. Even the civilians back home were suffering. He was starting to understand why the Poles hated the Germans so much. Not to mention the Belgians, the Dutch, the French, the Russians, Hell, most of Europe had good reason to hate the Reich.

"Scheiße!" Sauer hissed under his breath, "Dieser verdammte Krieg!⁴"

¹ Triplet

² German slang for an infantryman

³ Lies have short legs! (Source)

⁴This damned war!

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