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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, February 6, 2021

The Crossroads, Part Five

National Archives

Unterfeldwebel Arnold Fischer and Obergefreiter Dietrich Horn were sitting in their foxhole discussing who they thought might get the platoon, now that their platoon commander, Feldwebel Adolf Hase, was missing in action.

"Aren't you senior to both Landau and Münch?" Horn was interested in becoming a squad leader, if Fischer moved up, so would he. Horn felt that he was overdue for a promotion.

"Landau? Sure, he's been in the Army less than I have, but Münch? I don't know. Now if you ask me..."

At that point Fischer's voice was drowned out by a Focke Wulf 190 which came booming down the road, just clearing the tree tops to the company's left flank.

Some of the men began to cheer, they hadn't seen any friendly aircraft overhead in months. But that cheer died in their throats as another aircraft, a silvery P-51 Mustang, came booming overhead in hot pursuit of the German aircraft.

Some of the men thought to open fire, but their leaders told them not to bother, besides, they might hit the Fw 190 instead!

As the American flew overhead, the men on the ground could hear the chatter of the aircraft's six machine guns, they also noted the brass casings from those guns dropping to the ground around them.

The German aircraft pulled sharply up and to the left, a groan came from the men when they saw smoke trailing from the German. Moments later the canopy came off as the aircraft began to burn. The pilot jumped a moment later, but his parachute never had the chance to open, he was just too low. His body landed somewhere behind the American lines.


It was the day after the Germans had driven them from the crossroads and 2nd Platoon was itching to attack the Germans, to take back what they had lost. Well, not all the men were that enthusiastic about attacking.

"I tell ya guys, there are a lot more Krauts over there than we've got men. I'd bet that's a whole battalion, maybe even a regiment." Pvt. Donald Adkins was still shaken from his experience yesterday morning. He had turned tail and run when the Germans had hit them. Seeing his buddies killed, then seeing his sergeant go down, he had panicked.

Pvt. Frank Genovese, who had been riding with Sgt. Gentile's squad, his best friend was in that squad, had been on his way back to the squad that very morning, just before the attack. He had seen Adkins run, as he didn't know what was happening, he ran too. He was sick about that, especially when he'd later discovered that the halftrack he'd been riding in had been blown up by the Kraut assault guns. His buddy Pvt. Joe Gray had been manning the .50 in that track. He was missing in action, everyone figured that he'd died in the halftrack. Genovese wasn't so sure, Joe was a tough bastard, a real survivor.

As the men talked, they heard two aircraft fly over, not too far away. They caught a glimpse of a dark aircraft trailing smoke, then a very shiny aircraft on the dark one's tail. Moments later there was an explosion, then the shiny aircraft came back.

The bird was very low, flying down the road where the Germans were positioned. Genovese swore that the aircraft, Cpl. Chapman said it was a P-51, was strafing the Germans. He could hear the guns chattering and see thin wisps of smoke trailing back. He also noticed the glitter of expended brass catching the sunlight as it fell from the aircraft.

A cheer went up from the Americans as the shiny Mustang arched up into the sky then headed west. The pilot performed a roll as he climbed.


"Sanitäter!!" The cries went up from down the line as the American aircraft flew off to the west. It was a brief strafing pass, but it had caught two men of 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, out in the open.

Unteroffizier Peter Krause abruptly broke off his conversation with the acting company commander, Leutnant Manfred Sauer, and sprinted towards the shouts. As he ran he felt the holster containing his P 38¹ pistol bouncing on his hip. He had the odd thought that he should probably clean the weapon, he'd had it for a year and a half and had never fired it. Only rarely did he even draw it from its holster.

When he arrived he noticed two things, one was the pathetic sight of an Obergefreiter he didn't know (it was Dietrich Horn) cradling the body of an Unterfeldwebel. Arnold Fischer, the Unterfeldwebel, was quite dead, he was missing parts of his torso and one leg was nearly severed, he must have died in great agony, Krause thought.

The second thing he noticed was a wounded man being tended to by another infantryman.

"Where did you learn that?" Krause asked as he knelt down to check the wounded man, one Grenadier Arno Hänel.

"Medical school, Herr Unteroffizier. My studies ended when I was drafted last April. I was in my first year. My father is a country doctor, I learned many things from him. I am Fleischhacker, by the way." As he said this, young Grenadier Erhard Fleischhacker checked the job he had done binding up Hänel's left calf, a piece of rock from the road and been blasted into it from the American's machine guns. Hänel's calf was a mess, he would need surgery.

Krause stifled a chuckle, it would be unseemly to laugh when one of his comrades was lying dead nearby and another would need to be evacuated, but a man with a name like Fleischhacker² becoming a doctor? What were the odds of that?


2nd Lt. Stephen Hernandez heard the distinctive sound of a jeep approaching. He and Cpl. John Myerson had managed to get one of the spare radios working, so they were back in touch with the world. Hernandez looked up to see his company commander, Cpt. Tony Palminteri. The Captain dismounted from the jeep nearly before it had stopped moving.

"Stephen, heard you had a pretty rough time yesterday morning."

"Yessir, Krauts hit us in company strength, with armored support, with nearly perfect timing. There was no way we were going to make a stand, half the men were withdrawing, a lot of guys were down, and when that Sherman blew itself apart, I ordered the withdrawal. I take full responsibility, Cap'n." Hernandez still felt that he could have done more to get the men ready.

"Don't beat yourself up, Stephen, I wouldn't expect a platoon in a hasty defensive position to stop an entire German company. That's why I've got the rest of Charlie Company coming up behind me. We've also got a second tank platoon coming. We're going to hit the Krauts tomorrow at dusk, hit them with the sun at our backs."

"Seems dicey, Sir. Out in the open, that's a grenadier company over there, nearly every swinging dick is carrying an automatic weapon."

"Which is why we're going to shell the shit out of the bastards right after the air show." Palminteri said that with a huge grin on his face.

"Air show, Cap'n?"

"Yup, in about an hour, the flyboys are coming over with two squadrons of Marauders to bomb those bastards. When the dust ain't quite settled, we start hitting them with artillery until tomorrow afternoon. Just when they think it's over, the tanks go in with us in close support. Sound good?" Palminteri asked.

"Sounds great, I'm going to get my guys to lay out air recognition panels, I'm guessing those B-26s are with 9th Air Force³, right?" Hernandez was already setting things in motion, sending his messengers and basic duty privates to spread the word. Every man in the platoon carried one of the big orange squares folded in his pack which they used to mark their positions for the flyboys, though it didn't always work out.

Palminteri shook his head as he watched Hernandez go to work. No point in mentioning that the 9th had again hit friendlies back in December near Malmedy. Palminteri had classmates who were with the Army Air Force, they'd told him how hard it was to distinguish friend from foe from the air.

He just hoped the guys that were supporting them could read a map!


The Major's Kübelwagen had returned, over his vociferous objections Major von Lüttwitz had been bundled off to the battalion aid station to have his arm treated properly. Grenadier Gustav Ullmer had driven the Major to the rear and had been ordered to scrounge batteries for the company radios.

Ullmer had succeeded and had also brought orders for the company. They were to pull back to the next defensive line. There they would be with the remainder of their parent battalion.

"When are we moving, Herr Leutnant?" Sauer chuckled, Ullmer was a good soldier, but young, rather like an overexcited puppy at times.

"Tomorrow, Gustav, after sunset. We pull back and let the Amis have their damned crossroads back. For now, I want to get all of our excess equipment on the wagons. We'll send them back tonight. Schmidt!!" Sauer yelled for his radioman.

"Herr Leutnant?"

"There are new batteries for our three surviving radios, make sure they get distributed. Off with you now!" Sauer watched as the young Grenadier ran off. They were all so damned young and eager, he thought.

"Now it's my job to keep them alive." He said aloud. "What are you grinning about Keller?" He had noticed the Spieß nearby, with a foolish grin on his face.

"I remember when you were still a Feldwebel, Herr Leutnant. From squad leader to company commander in just a few short weeks. You're starting to sound like an old man, begging your pardon. Sir."

"Run along Spieß, don't you have bullets to count or something?"

"Zu befehl, Herr Leutnant. We move tomorrow night?"

"Yes, and I too am worried about the Americans coming back before then, make sure the men stay alert tonight!"

"Absolutely, Manfred. I'll make sure of it."







¹ Oddly enough, German medics carried a sidearm, whereas their American counterparts did not. At least, not officially.
² The name "Fleischhacker" literally translates to "meat chopper."
³ The 9th Air Force had been given the nickname "America's Luftwaffe" after a number of accidental bombings of their own forces. In Normandy and later in the Ardennes. (Source)

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54 comments:

  1. In the Pacific, on the third hand, US Navy Corpsmen were loaded for bear, by that time of the war.

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    1. Other than carrying an M1911, wouldn't think a Corpsman had room to be "loaded for bear." They carried a lot of life saving stuff, wouldn't think they'd be lugging around a rifle and ammo as well. Got any pictures?

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    2. Have never seen a published photo of a Corpsman with anything but their issue 1911; and they were "issue". I do have a private photo of a dear family friend who was a Corpsman with a Carbine instead.
      Boat Guy

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    3. Not uncommon in the Pacific for the Medic to not have a 'Hey, Shoot Me!' helmet or arm badge, either. And, yes, carbines were preferred (better range, easy to shoot.)

      Sad. Very sad.

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    4. The Germans learned to shed their Red Cross markings in the East. Same mindset on that front as in the Pacific.

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    5. In the Pacific, they tended to carry carbines.

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  2. Both sides planning, now we'll see how long God laughs. Nice use of the bailout Sarge.

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    1. Exactly, man proposes, God disposes...

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    2. It will be interesting to watch the race to see who moves first. And see if Sauer gets twitchy and jumps the gun.

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    3. Hopefully you will be surprised.

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  3. In no way does this end well without bombardment unless something unexpected happens.

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    1. Both sides have a few tricks up their sleeves.

      Ending well? Probably not.

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  4. TB: yes sir. Unexpected like all the ordinance hits the proper target and no short rounds.

    Side note: our medics don't HAVE to have a Red Cross card. If they choose not to, they can carry a rifle. At least they could from 2009 to 2012-ish. I know a medic what didn't have the card so he could carry a rifle in 'Stan.

    That name, Fleishhacker, reminded of a girl I knew. Sally Snot. She hated her name and when she could she changed it. The judge saw her name on the paper work, understood, and asked what she wanted to change it to. She answered, "Dot, Dot Snot."

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    1. Seriously? It was "Sally" she had a problem with?

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    2. One way to avoid shorts is to make the runs parallel to friendlies. Spell check is dicking you; it's "ordnance" in this case.
      Boat Guy

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    3. Seriously Sarge. That joke in its various iterations has been around probably longer than you have. In fact, I haven't heard it in quite a while so you might be young enough to not have heard it unless you are as forgetful as I am (just kidding, you can't be that young or that forgetful.) By the way, thank you very much for your engrossing tale. It gives me something to read instead of the daily news from any source which seems to be all terrible and/or insane or otherwise flawed and anything but engrossing. Please keep up the good work.

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    4. Boat Guy - Aye, parallel to the lines. Flyers don't care for that as it leaves them exposed to AAA all along the bomb run. Had some issues in the airstrikes just before Cobra for precisely that reason.

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    5. Mark - Wow, no, I've never heard that one. I guess I've led a sheltered life... 🙄

      I write this so I don't have to read that other crap as well. Depressing, innit?

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    6. I glad I put my drink down. Mark, you magnificent Bastige!! Well done. OAFS, really? I mean, really? I have a bushel basket of old garbage jokes like that. Sorting through the slightly profane does take time...

      And Boat Guy, thanks for the spell check. Since I bashed my head, my hands type on their own at times. Sometimes correctly, and sometimes not. (I just typed coreectly four times in a row) It can be maddening. Thanks for the heads up, tho. I don't offend easily, I held the trouble light for dad, until he held it for me.

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  5. Well remember one of the earlier Nam novels talking about a Corpsman carrying two weapons; a 1911 and an M16 (with dressings in his bandolier) so he wouldn't stand out from the grunts
    Boat Guy

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    1. In Vietnam it makes sense. In the ETO the TO&E shows no weapons for U.S. medics, German Sanitäters were supposed to carry either a P08 or a P38. (Usually the latter.)

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  6. German medical personnel were (and still are) issued side-arms for self-defence and for defending the lives of their patients and their wards. This was and still is in full accordance with the Geneva Convention and the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOC).
    In recent wars (Afghanistan comes to mind) German medical personnel removed Red Cross patches and signs from their uniforms and vehicles because the enemy regarded medics and their vehicles as high-value targets. This practice was and is entirely lawful and IAW the LOC.
    -----
    This little snippet in your story proves again that you have researched the whole era extremely well; down to the most minute details of the story-line. This indicates an incredibly high subject-matter expertise: my greatest respects on your historical knowledge.
    (My advice: start teaching Military History at any military academy - they will gladly take you!)

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    1. If the enemy uses the Red Cross as an aiming point, it is logical to remove them. Medics should have a sidearm for exactly the reasons you state.

      I have been reading military history since I learned how to read. So well over fifty years of reading and careful research. Without the Internet I could probably spend a lifetime going through the various national archives.

      Reminds me of my visit to Paris, my wife had to drag me, kicking and screaming - not literally, from the Museé de l'Armée. My protests that I was only up to the exhibits for the 17th Century fell on deaf ears.

      (I can understand, I mean, we were in Paris...)

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  7. I would have thought that the name "Fleischhacker" would literally translate as "flesh hacker." But what do I know? As the only real German I have is in my stocky physique and my ability to get sunburned on a cloudy day...

    Good story.

    But... Did Gammell get McCall back alive? Or was he carrying a dead body? Dangit, you left us with that cliff-hanger yesterday.

    Close Air Support in a wooded environment has always been a tricky thing. Hope the 9th doesn't screw the pooch.

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    1. One of the problems with translating German into English is that the two languages have many words in common, though having evolved along different paths, meanings change. "Fleisch" is a very common word in German, the equivalent in English is "meat," though it also means "flesh," which in English we typically don't use to mean meat consumable by humans. (Orcs use the term though...)

      Gammell's and McCall's fates still hang in the balance.

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    2. Ah...the time I was taking a German language course prior to deploying overseas to Germany. The instructor (German spouse of a US serviceman) asked me to translate a sentence from English to German. I was doing great until I reached the end of the sentence and I just locked up looking blank. The instructor asked me what was wrong and I blurted out, "I don't remember the German word for sauerkraut"! Yep, about one second later I realized what I'd said and just looked chagrined while everyone else had a good laugh... :-) -Barry

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    3. One of my German buddies in NATO was describing a project he had worked on over the weekend, said it involved a transparent material but he couldn't remember the English word for it, on a hunch, thinking I might learn a new word in German, I asked him what the German word was...

      Wait for it...

      The German word was "Plexiglas." Same as English, spelled a little differently (one less "s") and pronounced with a broader "a," but yeah, virtually the same as in English.

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  8. Hey AFSarge;

    The Germans respected the "Medics" markings whereas the Japanese didn't and any non western enemy we faced viewed our medics as "HVT's". We plan, and they plan, General Patton had a phrase, "A good plan violently executed now works better than a perfect plan next week." Another excellent post.

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    1. Asians have a far more pragmatic view of warfare than Westerners. We think there should be rules, they don't. Their view is more realistic.

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  9. Beans - I was wondering the same thing about Gammell and McCall
    STxAR - thanks for the good laugh! I had also not heard that one before ...

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  10. I wonder why the later P-51s (and other fighters presumably) didn't have camouflaged paint? Were they cranking them out too fast? By the time of your story there were so many German pilots rushed to the front after very little hours in training. They were almost cannon fodder. I was surprised at how much training an American pilot got - by the time they were in Europe, 600-700 hours.

    Martin - I didn't realize that about the Russian Front - the Russians fought like the Japanese.

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    1. Staying with polished natural finish actually improved the aircraft's speed. Also by this stage of the war, there was no opposition to speak of, better to have a faster aircraft I suppose then a stealthy one, nothing to hide from really.

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    2. When you own the skies, you want everyone, especially your own side, to see you.

      Thus, the invasion stripes.

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    3. Anti-aircraft gunners don't see any friendlies in the sky. They had huge problems in Sicily with Navy AAA firing at anything with wings.

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    4. Including things made by Grumman. The USN were the AA Specialists Supreme of WWII. By the end of the war, even 40mm was capable of blind firing by radar.

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    5. Don't see your point, what am I missing?

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  11. BTW Sarge - a portion of a YouTube video I saw last night - on a Dr at a hospice talking about his patients and what they experienced just before they died - a haunting section from a man who was haunted by an experience 67 years earlier - as a 17 year old crewman on a D-Day landing craft.

    He was haunted not by the landing but going back to the ship - with all of the dead and dying. When they had off loaded they would put the dead and dying on the craft.

    He was haunted by the fact that he could not save them.

    Just before he died he had a vision of a dead soldier on the beach telling him that "we are coming for you now - it's OK"

    What a thing to carry around all your life.

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    1. PTSD has been around probably since Cain slew Abel, but it's only been recognized fairly recently as a very real thing. Most combat veterans carry those memories around.

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    2. And, the Reaper comes in a form that you can handle, or deserve.

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  12. Quality of aircrew was THE decisive edge. Germans, and to even greater extent Japanese, just did not have good enough training system to churn out quality pilots en masse. One reason is lack of fuel, another keeping veterans on the front until dead or war end, when they could be more useful in long term by training rookies.

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  13. One other thing - on the pilot bailing. Those were high performance aircraft - with performance just below jet aircraft. Yet they were still supposed to just slide the canopy back (if you could get it open - and didn't the Spitfire have a design deficiency in the cockpit locking mechanism? Sometimes trapping pilots? Anyway just stand up - and jump. Or roll the airplane and fall. Hope the wing or empennage doesn't hit you. The advent of Martin-Baker and the Russian ejection systems is really an unrecognized advancement in aircraft safety.

    A man who could have been Germany's greatest ace, Hans-Joachim Marseille, was killed not in combat, but in an engine failure of a newly introduced Daimler-Benz DB-600 derivative. Hit by the vertical stabilizer.

    In 1 day alone, he shot down 17 fighters.

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    1. First operational aircraft to have ejection seats was the Heinkel He-219 night fighter. German, WWII.

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    2. It would be interesting to read the specs on that ejection system, because I know in the 50s there was a lot of trial and error in designing a system that didn't kill the pilot in saving him ;-)

      You are a repository of WW2 information, Sarge!

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    3. Best I can do for now is refer you to this version of the He-219 manual.

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  14. the story gets better sarge. just saying.

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