Morning

(Source)

"URRAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Sauer lifted his head when he heard the Russian battle cry in the near distance. He had the sense that something was wrong, very wrong. He looked over at Ziegler, the kid was fast asleep.

"Kid, wake up. It's beginning." Sauer had to shake the kid a couple of times before he opened his eyes.

"What ... what is happening?" Ziegler was confused, he had been dreaming about home, wondering why his father had turned off the heat on such a cold winter's day.

"The Russians are attacking, but they're too far away. We can't even see them from here."

As Ziegler looked around, clearly frightened, Schwertfeger came down the trench, in a hurry.

"We're in the shit now, Männer. Do you hear that?" Sauer listened, he heard nothing at first. Then there it was, tank engines, Russian tank engines.

Oberleutnant Jäger was momentarily stunned. The intel about this section of trench being deserted was good, the location of the Russian attack was bad, very bad. The Russian infantry seemed to be about 500 meters to the south of what he had been told. Now the men were reporting vehicle noises, to their rear!

"Kroemer!"

His platoon sergeant turned, "Herr Oberleutnant?"

"Get everyone in, this position, we need to move, quickly!"

As Kroemer headed off to get the left flank men in, Jäger sent his senior runner, Gefreiter Willi Manfredi to bring in the men on the right flank. He began to wish he had something more than a pistol to fight with. He had been offered an MP 40 but had turned it down, "My job is to lead, not fight."

The Spieß had shaken his head and muttered, "Your funeral, Sir."

Now he understood.

Unbeknownst to the Germans, the intel regarding the location of the Russian attack had been good. The commanders on the ground had changed the plan, worried that their missing political officer may have spilled his guts.

The Russians had jumped off 750 meters to the south of the original jump off point. Unfortunately the tanks supporting the attack were adhering to the original plan. They were also a good 30 minutes behind schedule.

Jäger looked behind Kroemer and went pale as a sheet, "Where the hell is Groß and his squad?"

"They'll be along shortly, Bernd wanted to check out those Soviet Panzers. Schütze Sauer said they 'sounded funny'." Kroemer explained.

Kroemer, angry with Groß, had asked him if he had any control over his squad at all. Groß had simply replied, "If Sauer says something is off, it pays to listen, the man has instincts."

Jäger was looking at him, pointedly.

"Groß says he trusts Sauer."

Before Jäger could say anything, Groß and his men arrived.

"The Russian Panzers are moving off to our left. Looks like their whole attack is out of kilter." Groß reported to his platoon leader.

"Which one of you is Sauer?" Jäger asked with a certain amount of anger in his voice.

"Herr Oberleutnant?"

The man who stepped forward seemed completely ordinary, until you looked at his eyes. Jäger was reminded of a lion he had seen in the Berlin Zoo. Calm, but ready to do violence at the drop of a hat. Jäger shivered.

"Report man, don't make us all stand here in the f**king cold longer than we have to!"

Sauer grinned, "Schwertfeger, Ziegler, and I went out on a reconnaissance mission. The Panzers were getting closer, but the way the sound seemed to be moving, from left to right as we faced in their direction, it felt like they weren't coming our way. We advanced until we could spot them. They are moving to the south, to support the Russian attack. They are no threat to us, but we're doing no good in this position. We're out of range and we have nothing to stop a Panzer."

Jäger looked at Kroemer, "The man has a point, Herr Oberleutnant, if what he says is true."

Schwertfeger started to bristle, was the platoon sergeant calling Sauer, and by extension him, a liar?

"Would you like to see for yourself, Herr Oberfeldwebel?" Sauer asked, his voice sounding rather ominous, Jäger thought.

"There is no time for that, Sauer. Do we head back and reinforce the line?" Jäger snapped at Sauer, he was getting frazzled and it showed.

Before anyone could speak, Ziegler spoke up. "We're behind the Russians. Once the Panzers pass by, we can still hit the infantry in the rear. Can't we?"

All of the NCOs nodded, Feldwebel Jens Voormann, 2nd Squad leader, spoke up, 'He's right you know. If we head back to our lines, we'll be in the open most of the way. How will our boys know who we are if we head back the way we came? We're in white camo, just like the Ivans. If we do as the kid says, we're in trenches most of the way. We stand a fair chance of carrying out the original plan, just in a different spot."

Jäger nodded, looking at Sauer he said, "Apologies Sauer, things are getting a bit out of hand."

Sauer nodded and said, "I'll follow where you lead, Herr Oberleutnant, no apology necessary."

"Gut." Looking at the other squad leaders he said, "Well then, let's get behind the Ivans and see what sort of mischief we can create. Unteroffizier Richter, I want your squad on point."

Richter nodded and said, "Jawohl, Herr Oberleutnant."

Everyone could see that Richter would much rather be anywhere but on point. But he was a soldier, and a good one at that, so he turned to his squad and said, "Let's go lads, nice and easy now."

4th Squad made good time, they were getting closer to the fighting. They saw where the Russian tanks had crossed the trench line. They could hear the tank cannon barking not that far away. They also heard the deeper bark of a German 88.

It sounded like their line was holding, the platoon's intervention in the Soviet rear might turn the tide.

Richter saw the remains of a village ahead, though the buildings were mostly intact, it was obvious that the original inhabitants were long gone. No doubt the Russian infantry would have taken up residence if the village wasn't right on the line.

"Hold up lads." he signaled for the squad to go to ground. Something up ahead seemed out of place. It was man-made, but the snow was kicking up again and he couldn't really see what it was, but it was straddling the trench. So it wasn't a building.

Jäger came up, wondering what the hold-up was, before he could ask, Richter turned to send someone back to tell the lieutenant what was blocking their way. He nearly jumped out of his skin to see his platoon commander right behind him.

"Was is los?" Jäger hissed as quietly as he could.

Richter shook his head and motioned for silence. He leaned in close to Jäger's ear and whispered, "T-34, looks like it threw a track. I can see one of the crew up on the turret. The others might be inside that shack."

"What do we do now, Herr Oberleutnant?"

All Jäger could say was, "Scheiße."

(Source)