To the East

(Source)

Jan Kołodziej sat in the ruins of the destroyed village, many of the wrecked buildings were still smoldering. It was a scene of utter devastation. His little band of three - himself, Kornel Jabłoński, and Patryk Kalinowski - had been joined by eight other men, only one of whom had a weapon: Olaf Mazur, Michał Włodarczyk, Leonard Witkowski, Ignacy Grabowski, Cezary Król, Stanisław Nowak, Konstanty Jasiński (who still had his rifle and a few rounds of ammunition), and Jerzy Urbański.

The men were all draftees who were on the verge of finishing their training and then becoming part of the reserve when the Germans attacked Poland. None of them had expected to be caught up in a war and had been separated from their units early in the attack. Jan had found them sheltering in the remains of this village, he was surprised that they had, to a man, volunteered to follow him in an attempt to rejoin the Kraków Army, which was somewhere to the east.

"Sir, how far are we from our lines?" Michał Włodarczyk asked.

"I'm not sure, I can still hear artillery fire to the east, so someone is fighting there, whether it's our boys or the Niemcy shelling our boys, I couldn't say." Jan answered.

"Perhaps a few miles, I just don't know."

Unteroffizier Hartmann had scoffed at von Lüttwitz's promotion to Gefreiter,¹ skipping over the rank of Oberschütze.² "Harrumph, in my day it took a good two years to make Gefreiter, after being an Oberschütze, what is this army coming to?"

Hans Wilfried chuckled and said, "Well, in all fairness to the Herr Gefreiter, in your day Uffz,  Napoléon Bonaparte was still Emperor of France!"

Kurt Becker burst out laughing until Hartmann looked at him and said, "Volunteering for kitchen duty are we Becker?"

"No Sir, sorry Sir." Becker stammered.

"It's all right Junge³, I'm kidding. Jürgen, come with me, we have replacements for the men we lost, I want you to meet them."

Von Lüttwitz followed his sergeant, not sure if he really cared for this new role as deputy squad leader. But then again, he knew he could learn a lot from Hartmann, the man had been in the army since 1935, he was an old hand.

"Make sure your boys get fed. I expect we'll be marching all night." Hartmann remarked.

Von Lüttwitz looked at Hartmann in shock, the men were exhausted, before he could say a word, Hartmann said, "I know, I know, but the officers tell me we have to keep marching to keep up with the panzers. While the Propaganda Ministry tells the world how mechanized the mighty Wehrmacht is, most of us still get to the battle the same way our great-grandfathers did, on foot."

As the two men walked past an army wagon, von Lüttwitz commented, "With most of our vehicles pulled by horses, Frederick the Great would recognize these wagons."

Hartmann laughed, "No he wouldn't Jürgen, many of our wagons have pneumatic tires now! We're very modern that way."

Von Lüttwitz couldn't help but notice that the field kitchen they were passing by most certainly did not have pneumatic tires. But a good many of them did, so that was progress, he supposed.

Jan had chosen Nowak and Jasiński to go with him to scout the nearby road. They could hear the occasional vehicle passing by from their position in the village and Jan thought it a good idea to get a feel for the German presence in this area.

Both Nowak and Jasiński were big farm boys, used to having to kill their meat for supper. The other lads were all city boys, mostly from Kraków. Having lived on a farm with his grandparents for a few years, he knew the ways of the farmer.

Jabłoński and Kalinowski had protested at having to give their rifles to the newcomers, but Jan assured them that it was temporary. "If the Niemcy are on the road, and we can ambush a stray, they'll need those rifles. Unless you'd prefer to come along yourselves?"

Which had stilled their protests.

It was dark now, Jan and his little patrol were positioned near the road in a clump of brush, they had seen two trucks go past, loaded with infantry, and one staff car. They could hear a motorcycle approaching in the distance when Nowak spoke.

"Sir, I have a length of rope in my pack ..."

Jan looked at him in the dim light from the stars, "And?"

"We could string it across the road, take out the motorcyclist."

Jan thought about it for only a second, then said, "Quickly!"

Werner Brückner was struggling to stay awake, his sergeant, Horst Schumer, was fast asleep in the sidecar. "Lucky bastard," he mumbled.

Brückner had a brief glimpse of something in front of him, but he wasn't sure what it was, then he drove straight into the rope which snatched him off the motorcycle as neat as you please. He hadn't been going fast enough to be seriously injured, but when he fell onto the road he had had the wind knocked out of him.

As he struggled to catch his breath, a figure approached from the darkness along the verge of the road. He hoped it was someone who could help him.

After Jasiński had crushed the skull of the man lying in the road, he returned to the motorcycle, which had veered off the road and thrown the occupant of the sidecar into the ditch. He had been dispatched by Nowak in the same way Jasiński had killed his Niemcy, rifle butt  to the head.

"Let's get these bodies off the road, leave the motorcycle where it is but cover it with brush, no one should notice that before morning." Jan turned to tell the men to search the bodies then realized he didn't have to as Nowak handed him a German machine pistol and two ammunition pouches.

Jasiński had collected a rifle and a pistol from the man who had been driving the motorcycle, also a bread bag loaded with food. He was covering the motorcycle with brush, he had a look in the side car, he hissed over at the other two Poles, "More rations!"

Leaving the dead Germans behind, the three men returned to the others. They would move out, now that they had more weapons and some food to sustain their march. Jan had the satisfying thought that while their unit had had to retreat, at least some Poles were still killing Germans!

As the column of weary troops from the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 30th Division marched down the road, Gefreiter Jürgen von Lüttwitz was with his squad in the midst of the 3rd Platoon of the 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, of that regiment. The men were asleep on their feet, he didn't think they could march much longer when their company commander called a halt. Jürgen stepped out to see what was going on.

Ahead on the road were a party of SS men, on the ground nearby were two blanket covered bodies, Jürgen could see from their boots that they were German soldiers. He caught Unteroffizier Hartmann's eye, nodding towards the men on the side of the road. Hartmann just shook his head.

As he watched, the company commander came down the column and stopped at 1st Platoon. He picked a party of ten men and led them back to the head of the column. It was only then that Jürgen noticed the Polish civilians lined up in the ditch beside the road.

Moments later gunshots rang out, within moments the civilians were all sprawled in the ditch, one of the SS men was walking among them, firing his pistol into any who still showed signs of life. Jürgen was appalled, what the Hell was going on?

At that night's bivouac the rumors were spreading, Jürgen had heard two different stories. One was that the civilians had been partisans who had ambushed and murdered two German soldiers on a motorcycle. The other was that the SS had simply rounded up anyone they could and had them shot. There were still Polish soldiers in the forests, trying to make their way east to where the fighting still continued. It was more than likely the motorcyclists had been killed by those men, not the civilians. The SS men didn't care, they were sending a message to the populace, resist the Germans and die.

These SS men were members of Einsatzgruppe II, one of the SS units following the main army, rounding up civilians and killing them, especially those who were teachers, lawyers, doctors, civilian leaders, and the like. It was the first experience Jürgen, and many of the other soldiers, had had with these units.

It would not be the last.

¹ Lance corporal (Gefreiter)

² Private first class(Oberschütze)

³ Lad