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The men of 2nd Platoon were by the road outside of the little village of Alstädten. They were tired and demoralized, one of the most popular men in the platoon lay dead, his body bundled in a poncho, waiting to be evacuated by Graves Registration.
The men had their mess kits out but they were just picking at their food, the Charlie Company field kitchen was set up nearby, the mess sergeant, S/Sgt. Preston Santos, wondered if the men didn't like his food. He was new to Charlie Company, having been assigned in the States at one of the large training camps. He had volunteered to come overseas back in June, only in late February had he gotten the assignment to Charlie Company.
"Sir, is there something wrong with the food? We do our best with the stuff the Army issues, but sometimes the quality just isn't there." He was with 2nd Lt. Stephen Hernandez and some of the other men in the command group. He couldn't help noticed the shrouded corpse nearby, he kept glancing in that direction.
"No, S/Sgt Santos, the food is actually really good, it's just that no one really has an appetite. You see..." Before he could finish, his platoon sergeant, S/Sgt Jack Wilson nudged him.
"Looks like Cap'n Palminteri, L.T., Mort's with him."
Hernandez looked, it was the Captain and the First Sergeant, 1st Sgt. Morton Saeger. Pfc. Clay Newton, officially the company bugler but in reality Palminteri's radioman, was driving the jeep. The men in the jeep looked pretty grim.
"Not good news I'm guessing." Hernandez said.
"Well, I guess I'll get back to the kitchen, Sir, I..." Santos had begun to walk away, Hernandez stopped him.
"Stick around Preston, let's see what the Captain wants."
The jeep rolled to a stop, Palminteri saw the body and seemed to shrink, his face seemed to turn more sad than grim. As he stepped out of the jeep, he said, "So it's true, Stump's dead."
"Yes Sir, his squad, Hell, the whole platoon, is pretty torn up over it. Which, as I was about to explain to S/Sgt Santos, is why my men don't have much of an appetite." As he said this, he saw Santos cross himself.
"Dios mío, lo siento teniente, mi más sentido pésame.¹" Santos said, then, "My condolences Lieutenant." for the benefit of those present who didn't speak Spanish.
"Está bien Preston, no podrías haberlo sabido." Hernandez answered in Spanish.
The men watched in silence as Cpt. Tony Palminteri, C Company's commander, walked over to the body of Sgt. Gentile. He pulled the poncho back and looked at Gentile's face. He reached out and smoothed the hair on the dead sergeant. The men nearby said later that a single tear had coursed through the grime on Palminteri's face as he murmured, "See you on the other side Stump." Then he had covered Gentile's face again and walked back to where the others were.
"He was a damned good man and a fine soldier, Stephen. We've lost too many good men in the past few days. Has Mort told you anything?" Palminteri asked.
S/Sgt Saeger answered, "No Sir, I was waiting for you." Looking at Hernandez he said, "It's one of those good news/bad news kinda days, Sir."
Puzzled, Hernandez looked at his commanding officer.
"Yeah, the bad news is that my exec was killed in action this morning."
"No..."
"Yeah, 1st Platoon lost their platoon sergeant, they had three other men killed and three wounded."
"Man, S/Sgt. Hudson's dead?" Sgt. Woody Sherman couldn't believe it, he and Calvin Hudson had enlisted together in 1943.
"Yeah, sorry Woody. We also lost one of your tanks, Stephen. Bob Horner's tank was hit by a Panzer IV about a half mile beyond here. Only one man survived." Palminteri then got up and looked around, "You got an extra stretcher?"
"Just the one that Stump's laid out on."
"If it's okay with you, I'd like to take him back to the Graves Registration folks myself. I mean, I knew him in Africa, and..." Palminteri took a deep breath, the lowered his face for a moment.
"Sure thing Cap'n, Duke, Cortez, nah, never mind, I'll do it." Hernandez got up and walked over to the stretcher, when he turned to ask for another man, Palminteri was with him.
"What was the good news, Cap'n?" He asked as he and Palminteri lifted the stretcher.
"Oh yeah, change those bars, you're a 1st Lieutenant now."
Hernandez nodded then said. "Let's get Stump home, Cap'n."
"The entire squad is missing?" Leutnant Manfred Sauer looked at the commander of his 1st Platoon, Feldwebel Klaus Haasen.
"Jawohl, Herr Leutnant. They were manning the outpost below Knapsack. When I hadn't heard from them, I sent a patrol to try and make contact, the Americans were holding the position. I lost two men, Klugman and Blumentritt, seems the Amis were manning the 42 on 3rd Squad's 251. My men walked right into a trap." Haasen was distraught, he'd lost 12 of his 46 men in the American attack last night.
Before Sauer could continue, his radioman, Grenadier Christof Schmidt, interrupted, "Sir, that was battalion on the radio, the Amis have a bridge across the Rhine. We are to withdraw over the river, then move south to attack the bridgehead in the vicinity of Remagen!"
"They have a bridge? How is this possible? Verdammt nochmal!² Klaus, get back to your men. Not only have the Amis penetrated our lines around Alstädten, which leaves our arses in the breeze, but now the bastards are over the river. Pack everything up, we need to get moving!" Sauer began to gather up his maps and personal gear as the rest of the headquarters staff did the same.
Sauer wondered just how far the German Army could run. Could they make a stand anywhere? As he thought that and began to run out of the shelter they had been using, a small barn, a string of bombs landed not far away. Moments later four American twin-engine bombers flew over at low altitude, escorted by at least eight fighters. More bombs went off in the distance.
Briefly Sauer thought about just staying in place and letting the Americans overrun them, surely they would take prisoners, wouldn't they? Then he shook his head and bellowed at the staff to load the halftracks, he ordered one the motorcyclists to head to battalion. "Tell the Major that we'll make for Marienburg, we should be able to cross on the Rheinbrücke Köln-Rodenkirchen, provided it's still up!"
"Jawohl Herr Leutnant!" Grenadier Ernst Schottenstein yelled as he steered his big Zündapp bike through the rubble. Grenadier Peter Meyer rode the sidecar, his G 43 ready.
Yes, make for Marienburg, if the bridge is up, we'll cross. If it isn't...
Well, then maybe the war will end for us there.
¹ Santos: My God, I'm sorry Lieutenant, my condolences.
Hernandez: It's okay Preston, you couldn't have known.
² Damn it all!
It just gets worse, for both sides.
ReplyDeleteUntil it goes completely south for the Germans...
DeleteThe Rheinbrucken Koln was blown by German engineers on the Sixth.
ReplyDeleteWrong bridge (you're thinking of the Hohenzollernbrücke), the Rheinbrücke Köln-Rodenkirchen was destroyed by an air attack in January. but I'm not sure if Sauer would have known that. Makes for an interesting story twist!
DeleteWorthy of note, currently there are seven bridges in the vicinity of Köln: Hohenzollernbrücke, Deutzer Brücke, Südbrücke, Rheinbrücke Köln-Rodenkirchen, and the Mülheimer Brücke were built before the war, sixth and seventh bridges, the Zoobrücke and the Severinsbrücke are post-war, didn't exist in 1945.
Looks like the men of 5th Company are trapped on the wrong bank of the Rhine
A much loved comrade gone, story-wise and real life.....condolences to you Sarge, juvat, Tuna and all the rest that knew him from this Johnny come lately.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of the story and the anniversary of the loss of a friend in real life wasn't intentional. It just happened that way.
DeleteI try to keep my fictional world away from the real one as much as possible.
Thanks Nylon12.
Yet your Muse seems to work in dark and myserious ways. Sadness does color the world around this time every year.
DeleteI lost my father 11 years ago on the 28th of February, we buried him on the 5th of March. Spring is coming, but the darkness seems to linger...
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteThere was a phrase that an old German soldier taught me when I was in Germany and I used it since when A soldier that I had known has crossed over. "Ich Had Eine Kamaraden Gehabt, Do gibt Keine Bessern". Translation was "I had a good comrade, there was no better". I figured it was appropriate here.
It's from an old song, Ich hatt' einen Kameraden. You can find the music here, and the lyrics and story behind the words here. Still used in the Bundeswehr, Austrian Army, Chilean Army and other.
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
DeleteI figured you would know it, LOL. I never knew the backstory, just the quote while in a gasthaus drinking bier in a town near Geoppingen during my first tour.
It's a sad song, but a good one for remembering one's comrades-in-arms.
DeleteThank you for not showing us Stump's death. Bad enough reading about the aftermath.
ReplyDeleteAnd that bridge thingy? I remember reading in a book about combat engineers in Europe (and another one in the Pacific, but this particular one was in Europe) that the general sentiment as the German prisoners passed westwardly to their new camp homes that they were astounded and quite peeved at all the bridge and pontoon segments that were just behind the lines, ready to bridge another obstacle. And then they saw the LVTs and DUKWs and it was kind of "How can we not lose?"
The material war was definitely won by us. But, as the saying goes, it's all over but the dying. And the dying continued wholescale till May.
The Nazis had no idea what they were in for. Yamamoto had some idea, and tried to convince the Japanese government that attacking the U.S. was a very bad idea, but those leading the Japanese in that time period had their own idiot theories about the way things were, the Nazis did as well. Neither of those entities knew what horrors they were facing.
DeleteSeems analogous to modern times, doesn't it?
At the end of the movie The Enemy Below, the German U Boat crew sing that over their lost comrades. That movie with Robert Mitchum and Curt Juergens was a favorite in Germany.
DeleteThe film was balanced, showed the U-Boat crews in an honorable light.
DeleteThere was a story about the big air attack the Luftwaffe launched during the Bulge. They destroyed most of the airplanes at a P-47 base; but one of the German pilots was shot down and captured. They held him at the base for a week. As the story goes, he was first baffled as to why the attitude of the Americans to the loss of the airplanes was basically "oh, well". By the time he was taken to the rear, the airplanes had been replaced and the airfield was humming again. That was when he knew the war was over, for he knew that the Luftwaffe would have been crippled by such a loss.
DeleteThere's a video about uncrating and assembling a P-47. all it takes are fifty guys and hand tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noqms4AhTJA
Logistically the West had it all over their enemies.
DeleteOnce Germans were stopped at gates of Moscow, and Japanese triggered the Sleeping Giant it was all matter of time. Kinda like once detonator is triggered, all there is to explosion is distribution of physical forces...
DeleteBingo!
DeleteAnd what you wrote, the American part? That right there shows what the emotional toll of war is. I mean, yeah, harden your heart over a buncha newbies until they show they can survive, but to lose a key man like Stump? That can break a unit.
ReplyDeleteRead this sci-fi story about a low key farming world, almost a new colony, being invaded. And the leader of the 'militia' defenders goes to one loner's house. Seems the loner was basically an assassin and not proud of it. His particular skill set wasn't assassinating the leaders, nope. His skill set was assassinating the key people that make an organization run. Like the favorite sergeant. Or the good mess cook. Or the equipment maintainer that keeps everything running. Take out the key people, and morale and fighting ability drops immensely.
Which is what just happened. The Amis lose one guy, the world ends. The Germans lose, what, one whole squad and 2 other men and it didn't break them? But what if, God forbid, Sauer had gotten shot or captured, how would that have affected the rest of his company, or Herr Major himself? What if the Saniter who's been keeping, well, everyone alive, suddenly disappeared or died in front of everyone? Talk about taking the wind out of their sails.
And you portray that so well. Determined Sauer is almost at the breaking point. He's seen the end, knows it's coming, been fighting against it, and yet the loss of 12 men and having to do yet another run to plug a hole has put him on the tipping point of just stopping.
Morale is a funny thing.
And you portray it very very well, both the good aspects of morale that can make a unit perform so much better, and the bad aspects of it, that just, well, kills ambition, kills hope, kills the ability to move and think.
Only a fine wordsmith can do this. And you, Sir, are one.
But... Stump? Gotta process that one. Man....
The next few weeks should prove interesting.
DeleteAnd thanks.
Well put, Beans!
DeleteYes.
DeleteGermans just might end up being forced to take their decision by state of the bridges.
DeleteIf they are cut off on the wrong side of river, with no way to get even meagre resupply, it is last stand for them. And when they run out of ammo, white flag time.
It certainly looks dire for the 5. Kompanie.
Deleteit could be worse though, like defending Berlin vis-a-vis Zhukov's and Konev's vengeful armies...
DeleteI would not have wanted to be a Berliner in 1945.
DeleteIt is true, to a much lesser extent, of any organization. The loss of a critical person - and quite often not a leader - can cripple a department or even a company.
ReplyDeleteWell written Sarge.
Very true, thanks.
DeleteI reckon that Captain Palminteri wouldn't drive over to 2nd Platoon just to speak 'pleasantaries'. So it must be that 2nd Platoon is at the CP. For some reason I felt knowing their location was important.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet he did.
DeleteBear in mind, Palminteri knew Gentile from Africa, they had served together before. Also, the Captain needed to check on how his best platoon was doing. So he went to 2nd Platoon, leaders do that.
Every time I read a section in a book or story like this, I always think of "Beau Geste". Thanks for writing a nice close to Stump's departure.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think things will be heating up again....
The war is definitely coming to its final, violent, conclusion.
DeleteDamn I need to rewatch The Bridge at Remagen...
ReplyDeleteI watched it a couple of months ago, a pretty good movie.
DeleteAlso the entire fighting around Koln reminds me one of the of the most famous ww2 tank duels:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/cologne-cathedral-tank-duel.html
Pershing vs. Panther.
DeleteThere's a great book about that Pershing crew titled "Spearhead" highly recommend it.
DeleteBoat Guy
Been meaning to...
DeleteA bit about the Cologne Cathedral. Years ago, I saw an eerie picture. That of Cologne, completely flattened with rubble as far as the eye could see, except for the Cathedral, which rose majestically a mile away. Bomber crews were given explicit instructions to avoid the cathedral.
ReplyDeleteI've seen my father's pictures of Berlin, he was there 1945-1948 as part of the Occupation Forces, shells of buildings, streets with piles of masonry and brick all along the side. Trashed.
Delete(Don McCollor)...Considering Cologne suffered more than two hundred sixty bombing raids by the British dropping more than thirty four thousand tons of bombs, at night, with rudimentary navigation aids, dodging searchlights, flak, and night fighters, it was a miracle that the Cathedral remained standing (although damaged)...
DeleteIt was miraculous.
Delete