The Crossroads, It's Over...

(Source)

Cpl. Charlie Gammell watched with dull eyes as the first flight of B-26 Marauders came over the German position. If he hadn't been so exhausted he might have been startled at the sudden appearance of the twin-engined bombers. But he was just too tired to care.

Gammell had spent the night in the open, the Germans were patrolling, more to keep the Americans away from their positions than to launch an attack themselves. He was close enough to 2nd Platoon's positions to know that something was up. He could see more men, and tanks, moving up. He had a feeling that Charlie Company had moved up en masse in order to push the Germans back.

Again though, he didn't really care. Jeb McCall had died of his wounds sometime early in the morning, maybe about 3:00 AM, Gammell thought, but he couldn't be sure, his watch had stopped nearly on the stroke of midnight.

He had tried to keep McCall awake and talking, but his friend had lost too much blood and, like Gammell, was exhausted from being out in the open for as long as they had been. McCall had told Gammell that he was sorry, he wished he could keep going, but it was just too much.

So Gammell waited, after Jeb had breathed his last, Gammell had dozed off at some point, waking up with the sunrise. He noticed a lot of activity along the German-held road. They had been trying to repair the track on one of their assault guns and now it seemed they were trying to tow it off the field with another of the squat vehicles.

He had seen the German aircraft go down, chased by the shiny Mustang, he had actually felt sorry for the German pilot when he saw the man fall, his parachute had opened far too late. But when he looked over at Jeb McCall's body, he realized that the German had probably deserved his fate. Gammell was learning to hate.

He looked around, trying to identify some terrain features so he could find Jeb's body later, he couldn't carry him, and he couldn't stay where he was.

When the first bombs fell from the Marauders, Gammell patted McCall on the shoulder, then was off, moving as fast as he could, as low as he could.

Leutnant Manfred Sauer, now acting commander of the 5th Company, looked at his three platoon leaders - Feldwebel Klaus Haasen, Unteroffizier Manfred Klügmann, and Unterfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Landau. Sauer was the only officer left.

"Herr Leutnant, most of the men have withdrawn back into the treeline, leaving only one machine gun team and a few volunteers with Panzerfausts along the road. As soon as they can get that StuG either started or towed away, we can withdraw the men who..."

Haasen was interrupted by the roar of three American twin-engined aircraft flying overhead. Much as they had been surprised by the aircraft blasting overhead the day before, these were doubly surprising, for they were dropping bombs!

The command team dove into the ditch beside the road. Sauer took the risk of looking up, he was just in time to see a bomb explode atop the StuG being towed off the field. The towing cable snapped and he watched as two of the crew members jumped from the smoking vehicle, only the commander and the driver had been aboard. No doubt the StuG was lost at this point, but at least her crew had survived.

"Everybody get ready, point your weapons to the north, just above the trees, open fire as soon as the Amis come over. Aim ahead of the..." Sauer's bellowed commands were drowned out by the roar of six aircraft engines as three more Amis blasted overhead. The roar of automatic weapons fire from the German position could be heard over the sound of the engines.

Then those sounds were drowned out by the roar of exploding bombs.

Captain Bill Winston knew that they were in trouble as soon as he heard the left engine cough and sputter. Over the intercom he told his co-pilot, 1st Lt. Ed Hochstetter, "F**king golden BB Ed, watch the instruments, I'm going to try and get her high enough so the guys can jump if we need to!"

Hochstetter saw that the oil pressure on Number One had dropped to zero, he looked over and saw flames licking from under the cowling. He quickly chopped the throttle, hit the fire extinguisher, and was attempting to feather the propellor when he heard Bill mutter, "Ah, shit."

The crew of Lovely Lisa died shortly after the left wing tip caught one of the tall pines in the area and then cartwheeled into the ground, exploding on impact.

Sauer ducked as the latest string of bombs detonated, one had fallen on the machine gun team they had left in the first line, at least two more of his men dead, he doubted they would find even pieces of them, it had been a direct hit.

Unterfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Landau swore loudly, "Scheiße! That was all that was left of my 1st Squad, I left Pöge there to direct the fire of the gun, Kleinheisterkamp and Lindner were just kids! Rudi Hahn was there as well, he volunteered to man a Panzerfaust. Ah, damn it to Hell!"

Stabsgefreiter Edgar Pöge and Grenadiers Rudi Hahn, Ulrich Kleinheisterkamp, and Waldemar Lindner had all been killed instantly by the explosion of the American bomb, probably one of their 500-pounders, Sauer thought.

"Everyone, make for the treeline, f**k the crossroads. If I know the Amis, there is more coming. More aircraft with artillery to follow. Everybody, TO THE TREES!!!"

Sgt, Woodrow Sherman was watching the B-26s beat up the German position. He thought he saw the Germans starting to fall back, before he could report that, he saw a figure come around a slight rise to his left.

"Hold your fire!! That's Gammell!!" Sherman bellowed.

Gammell stumbled into the foxhole occupied by Sherman and Pvt. Anthony Duke, he looked like he was on his last legs.

"Water..." Gammell managed to gasp.

Duke handed over his canteen, he started to ask where McCall was when a glance from Sherman made him stop.

Gammell drank long and deep, then handed Duke's canteen back and said, "Thanks Tony. Woody, where's the L.T.? I think the Krauts are falling back to the treeline, nobody's holding the crossroads."

Sherman looked briefly at Gammell, then got on his walkie talkie. "L.T., Gammell's back, he says the Krauts are running." When he saw Gammell shake his head, he corrected himself, "Check that, Charlie says they're falling back in good order."

Sherman listened for a moment, then he said, "Copy, out."

Looking at Gammell, he said, "L.T.'s on his way up. McCall?"

Charlie Gammell shook his head, that was enough, Sherman figured that Charlie would talk when he was ready.

Captain Tony Palminteri was on the radio with battalion, trying to either move the artillery strike further to the east or, failing that, cancelling it altogether. The staff puke on the other end of the connection was unwilling to make the decision to call off the strike. The battalion commander was 'unavailable.' Palminteri severed the connection with a curse.

Shortly thereafter, two batteries of 105mm howitzers shelled the empty positions along the road. Later the artillery would claim that they had destroyed the assault gun. As no one in the airstrike had seen that vehicle hit, the artillery's claim stood.

The men of Charlie Company knew better.

(Source)

The tanks and the infantry moved through the snow as the sun started to go down. The sunset was obscured by a fast moving snow squall which decreased visibility to zero. When the tanks supporting Charlie Company reached the crossroads, they could see nothing. Everything was covered in new fallen snow.

Off to the left, S/Sgt Bradley Woodstock saw a StuG, it looked burnt out, but he had his gunner, Sgt. Jerry Parsons, fire an armor-piercing round into the beast just to make sure. They got a solid hit, he could see the sparks from the projectile's impact. But that was all, no explosions, no crew bailing out, nothing.

"Give him another round, I think he's dead but..."

"On the way!" Parsons yelled over the intercom.

Nothing. Woodstock ordered his platoon to take up positions along the road as he glassed the treeline, which was only intermittently visible in the falling snow.

"Shit, I think the Krauts are gone." Woodstock muttered.

Indeed the survivors of the 5th Company were falling back, hoping to put as much room between them and the Americans as they could before it got fully dark.

"That's correct, Herr Oberstleutnant, at least one company of infantry and perhaps a company of tanks as well. They came on after an artillery bombardment on our old positions. They shelled corpses and empty foxholes." Sauer listened as his battalion commander gave him the coordinates of where he wanted the 5th Company by morning.

Checking his map, he saw that they only had five kilometers to go. Turning to the StuG platoon commander, Sauer said, "Anton, position your vehicles here, you've got a good field of fire to that bend in the road, any Amis that come around there should be easy meat. Kill them, then fall back to the next position..." Sauer searched his map, then pointed, "...here. Any questions?"

Obergefreiter Anton Krausse checked his own map, marked the positions on his overlay, then nodded. "Got it, Herr Leutnant. Are you boys continuing the march?"

"We've got five kilometers to cover, what would take you minutes will take us hours in this weather, so yes, we're continuing." Sauer paused, looking back down the road. He realized that they were lucky to still have a force capable of fighting after the losses and mishaps of the past few days. Then he looked at Krausse.

"Hals- und Beinbruch, Junge¹! See you in the morning!"

Krausse nodded, then snapped to attention and saluted Sauer, "Danke, Herr Leutnant."

Sauer returned the lad's salute then turned and barked, "Let's go boys, we've got ein kleiner spaziergang² ahead of us!"

The 5th Company marched on into the gloom of the forest, slowly they disappeared into the darkness and gently falling snow. Sauer realized that the only reasonable defensive position remaining for Germany in the West was the Rhine. Would the fools in Berlin let them fall back that far? Better yet, would they see the writing on the wall and surrender?

Sauer doubted it, he had a gut feeling that the war would continue until nothing was left of Germany.

Not even the German people...

¹ Break a leg, lad! (Literally "break your neck and leg.")

² A little walk.

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