Death Up Close and From Afar

(Source)

Sgt. Otto Walls leaned down from his hatch and yelled to Sgt. Charlie Gammell, "I got movement in that big building over there," he was gesturing frantically at the building in question, "Do you see that three story deal with the hole in the roof?"

Gammell had been watching that very building as it stood out from among the rest. He figured that it would have a good view of the surrounding countryside from that hole in the roof. He would use it, why wouldn't the Krauts?

"Let's make that hole in the roof bigger!" Gammell yelled up, then returned to looking through his rifle scope at the building. He saw what Walls had probably seen, it was someone wearing a Kraut helmet, it was a kid, couldn't be more than 13 or 14, but the kid had a rifle.

A moment later the gun on The Wall (Walls' eponymous tank) barked and the roof of the building was obscured by the explosion of a 75 mm high explosive round. Gammell watched as the dust and the smoke cleared. The hole in the roof was a lot bigger now, he couldn't see anyone up there, but it didn't mean that the kid didn't have friends on the ground floor. Friends with Panzerfausts.

"Frank, take your team up the street, see if you can see the entrance to that building. Posey, Ray, Schultz, and Page you're with me!" Cpl. Frank Barnett's team, the B.A.R. men and the squad's grenadier, Pvt. George Haskell, went up the street to the next corner. Barnett gave Gammell the high sign, they could see the entrance to the three story building.

"Come on guys, follow me." Gammell set out on a side street to the left which he figured had to loop around to connect to the street they were on, at least that's how he interpreted the map he had.

As he dashed forward, crouched low, he heard Barnett's B.A.R. start firing. "Posey, go left, Ray, you go with him. Schultzie, Billy, stay close, we're going right."

When they reached the corner, Pvt. Ross Flowers had his rifle up and pointing to the right, covering that direction, Gammell could see bits of masonry and dust flying off of the opening into the three story building. The door which should have been covering the opening was lying in the street, it was smoldering.

As he watched, someone began to poke their head out of the opening, Barnett's B.A.R. drove whoever it was back inside. Gammell heard a scream, then saw a soldier fall into the street from what must have been the second story. He was an older man, dressed in civilian clothes with some sort of armband on the left sleeve of his overcoat. What the Hell was going on in there?

Pvt. Rick Schultz yelled, "Sarge!" then opened fire as he saw movement inside the building. A moment later, a kid in a uniform of some sort came stumbling out holding a stick with a white rag tied to the end. He had blood all over his front, he coughed and a great gout of blood spilled from his mouth before he collapsed onto the street.

Gammell heard Schultz mutter, "Jesus, it was a f**king kid..."

"Put it behind you Schultzie Follow me guys." Gammell was up and moving.

They moved into the street, rifles trained on the building, Gammell heard Barnett yell, "Sarge, it's clear!"

Cautiously Gammell and his team went into the building, there was another dead kid in there, sprawled across a beat up sofa. Whether he'd been killed just now or earlier, Gammell didn't know, nor did he care, a dead Kraut wasn't a threat.

Moments later, Barnett and his team entered the building. Barnett and his assistant gunner, Pvt. Ken Buchanan, stayed by the door, covering the street. Gammell looked at Pvt. Billy Page and said, "Give me your rifle, you hold mine."

"Schultzie, with me..."

Gammell went up the stairs to the upper floors, weapon at the ready. Schultz stayed close, ready to cover him. When they got to the second floor, it was obvious that that was where the kids were bivouacked, cots were set up and there was a lot of spare gear lying around. There was one kid on a cot, dead and apparently had been for a while. They moved on.

The third floor of the building was mostly attic space, though there were a couple of dormer windows and a large hole in the roof which still had flames licking at the outer edges from the round Walls' tank had hit the building with. Near the hole was a dead kid. Gammell recognized the kid's Hitler Youth uniform and he had one of those armbands like the old guy who had fallen from the second floor had been wearing.

Gammell knelt next to the body and tugged the armband off, it read "Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht." He showed it to Schultz, "Any idea what that says, Schultzie?"

"Yeah, German People's Storm Armed Forces, it's kinda like the Kraut's version of the British Home Guard. Mostly kids, old men, even women, or so I've heard." Schultz was a second generation American, his grandparents had left Germany when his mother and father were kids, so both sides of the family were German. He was ten years old before he had learned to speak English.

(Source)

"So these guys are legal combatants?" Gammell asked.

"Yup, that's how I understand it, Sarge. Even though a lot of them are in civilian clothes, with this armband they are to be treated as soldiers if captured." Schultz explained.

"How do you know all this stuff, Schultzie?"

"Some judge advocate guy briefed us in the repple depple, just before I got assigned to you guys. There was some big deal over shooting civilians after capture if they were caught shooting at us. I guess that's legal, but the armband makes them legal combatants, can't shoot 'em if they surrender."

"This is a crazy world Schultzie when you have to fight old guys and kids." Gammell shook his head as they moved downstairs to continue clearing the small German village.

On the way out, Gammell noticed that the dead kid on the cot was a girl. He shook his head, what a f**ked up war this is, he thought.

Leutnant Manfred Sauer was updating the overlay on his map, using a grease pencil, with the latest intelligence information from battalion. When he was done he looked up at the commander of his 2nd Platoon, Unteroffizier Manfred Klügmann, and said, "So the Amis are in Rommersdorf, here..." he pointed to the map, "and we're here in Rhöndorf. Division wants us to hit the Amis, but the Major says to stay on the defensive for now. We're not ready to attack anybody just yet."

In truth, the remnants of the 2nd Battalion were footsore and weary. After escaping from Köln, they had laid low for a day in a small village upstream from Köln on the eastern bank of the Rhine. At dusk they had set off to reinforce the troops who were trying to eliminate the American bridgehead around Remagen. They had marched all night, thirty kilometers, in rain and sleet.

Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz had tasked his staff with finding rations for the men, they had been unsuccessful so far. So the men were wet, tired, and hungry.

Klügmann said, "I have my men dug in along the southern edge of the village. We've got good protection and really good fields of fire. But if the Amis hit us with tanks..."

"I know Manfred, I know. I'm trying to find some Panzerfausts but no luck yet. Maybe the staff will find some of those and rations. The Major is having them scour the area." Sauer grunted with disgust, he didn't like staff men, felt that they didn't understand what it was like in the field. With the battalion reduced to the size of two weak companies, the staff men would have to fight alongside the rest of them. That should be interesting, he thought.

"Sir, some of my men are openly talking about surrendering the first chance they get..." Klügmann seemed reluctant to bring the topic up, almost as if he felt the same way as his men.

"I understand. I don't want you to take any unnecessary risks, but remember, the authorities can still get to your families, make sure your boys know this. Hold your positions as best you can, we just have to handle the situation as it happens." Sauer explained.

Klügmann nodded, "Understood Herr Leutnant, wouldn't want to have Vati and Mutti¹ get shot because little Klaus decided that he didn't want to fight anymore. I'll make sure the lads understand."

"Good. Take this map with you," Sauer said as he pulled a copy of the map he was using from his map case. "Now tomorrow we shall have to see what the Amis have in mind. I don't intend to move before then, the Major might have other plans, we shall see."

Klügmann stood up and stretched, he spread his arms wide, the map in his left hand. He was exhausted.

Across the river, in a church steeple, a sniper was watching. He had just climbed up into his high perch when he had seen movement in the ruins across the way.

He had noticed troops digging in along the southern edge of the ruins but he didn't want to waste ammunition on a bunch of privates, he was looking for someone in charge.

He saw movement behind where the Krauts were digging in. He looked through his scope, a man with braided epaulettes holding a map was stretching. A sergeant?

The man looked at the map for a moment, he was obviously speaking to someone in the shell hole below him, just out of the sniper's field of view. He pointed to the south then stretched again, he was yawning now.

A guy with a map, pointing, gotta be someone in charge. So he settled himself, breathed out, then squeezed the trigger.

Klügmann was starting to speak when Sauer heard a hard thump from behind his 2nd Platoon leader. He knew that sound, the sound of a bullet hitting flesh.

"Klügmann? Are you..."

Unteroffizier Klügmann looked puzzled, as if he couldn't process what was happening to him. They were behind the lines, how could this be?

"Herr Leutnant..." he managed to say before a trickle of blood entered his mouth. He was having trouble breathing. He dropped to his knees, he was patting his tunic pockets as if he were looking for something. He looked once more at his lieutenant, then he fell, spinning onto his back in the mud of a small ruined German village.

Sauer looked on helplessly as another of his men died.

(Source)

¹ Dad and Mom

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