A Promotion

(Source)

Schütze Jürgen von Lüttwitz dropped to the ground with the rest of his squad as a burst of automatic weapons fire swept over the advancing men. He swore when he hit the ground as the back of his helmet dug into his back. Bringing his rifle to a firing position he could see nothing to shoot at. What he did see was the assistant squad leader, Gefreiter Helmut Müller lying on his back, sprawled lifelessly in the road.

Looking around he saw the other men in his squad doing the same as him, lying low and trying not to attract enemy fire. That's when he heard Unteroffizier Hartmann shouting for Müller.

"Müller, get the riflemen into the ditch, I'll set up the MG here!"

"Müller?!"

Finding his voice, von Lüttwitz shouted back, "Herr Unteroffizier, Gefreiter Müller is hit, he's not moving!"

"Von Lüttwitz, is that you?"

"Jawohl!"

"Get the men into the ditch, NOW!"

Without thinking von Lüttwitz started to crawl towards the ditch, seeing two of his mates, Wilfried and Becker, he yelled at them, "Hans! Kurt! Mit mir!¹"

When those two started to follow, von Lüttwitz noticed that Müller wasn't the only casualty. Three other men were down, one of whom, like Müller, wasn't moving.

"Guys, grab the wounded drag them to safety, I'll get the corporal!"

As he moved over, staying as low as he could, and grabbing Müller by the straps of his load-bearing gear, he heard the squad's MG 34 open fire. The Poles now began trading fire with the greater threat of the German machine gun, allowing the section, now under the leadership of von Lüttwitz, to drag all but one casualty off the road and into the ditch which sheltered them from Polish observation.

Von Lüttwitz looked at the men in the ditch with him, two, Krämer and Hase, were wounded,  Hase badly from what von Lüttwitz could tell. He had checked Müller, his corporal was quite dead, shot in the face.

"Hans, where's Walter?"

"He's dead Jürgen, his throat is torn open."

Von Lüttwitz nodded, thinking rapidly, with just three men, there didn't seem to be much he could do. So once again, he barked, "Hans! Kurt! Mit mir!" Then he began moving rapidly away from the road.

Startled, Wilfried and Becker followed him. Becker shouted out, "What the Hell are we doing Jürgen?"

"We're going to flank that MG!"

"Jesu!" was all Wilfried managed to gasp.

The Polish assistant gunner, Bolesław Kowalski, saw movement to his left, he saw Germans running from the ditch and into the small stand of trees near the road. He shouted at his gunner, "Józef, the Niemcy are on the move!"

The gunner, Józef Nowak, hesitated before swinging the Ckm wz. 30² in the direction of the trees near the road, as he triggered the gun two rounds from the German MG 34 he had been dueling with struck the water jacket of the gun. The first ricocheted off harmlessly, the second went through the water jacket and then into Nowak's stomach.

Nowak immediately doubled over, screaming in pain. Kowalski struggled to get Nowak off the gun, but it was hard trying to do that and keep his head down. He needed to get the gun firing again, even if it was only to keep the Niemcy from advancing!

Von Lüttwitz, Wilfried, and Becker were behind and to the left of the Polish machine gun position. Von Lüttwitz could see that one of the gunners was injured, there were no other Poles that he could see. These guys had probably been left behind to delay the German advance.

Von Lüttwitz aimed at the struggling Pole, Wilfried and Becker followed suit. For a moment von Lüttwitz regretted not knowing the Polish phrase for "hands up," so he yelled it in German. The Polish soldier turned in shock at hearing the Germans behind him, his hands went up immediately.

Hartmann watched as the Sanitäter worked on the wounded Polish soldier, turning to the other Pole, who spoke German, he asked, "So just you two? No one else?"

"There were more, they were ordered back, we were supposed to fall back as well, then you Germans showed up, so ..." the Pole shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "What else could we do but fight?"

"Uffz³, this man is dead, he lost too much blood."

"You did the best you could Wolf, we need to get this guy back to battalion," Hartmann gestured at the unwounded Pole, "you're heading back that way, right?"

The Pole's eyebrows went up, they were going to have a medic take him back?

The medic drew his service pistol and gestured at the Pole with it, "Let's go."

Kowalski had had no idea that German medics were issued a sidearm.

Leutnant Wilhelm Dietrich finished speaking with Hartmann, then walked over to von Lüttwitz, "You're now acting deputy squad leader, I'm sure Hauptmann Bormann will approve a promotion to corporal as well. Don't spend the extra pay just yet Jürgen." Dietrich grinned as he said that.

"Danke Herr Leutnant, I'll do my best."

¹ With me!

² Polish-made clone of the American Browning M1917 heavy machine gun.

³ Abbreviation for Unteroffizier.