Night

(Source)

Jäger was restless, the sun had gone down at least an hour ago. The snow had stopped and the moon was appearing fitfully between the scudding clouds. Visibility was very good, which was very bad for them. Anything moving across that snowy landscape would stand out like a sore thumb, white camouflage or no.

"Oberfeldwebel Kroemer," he whispered to his sleeping platoon sergeant, nudging him with the toe of his boot at the same time.

"Huh, what ..." Kroemer snapped awake, momentarily disoriented.

Kroemer crawled closer to his lieutenant, something was off. Then he realized what it was, the firing to their south had died down to a few desultory rifle shots and the occasional burst of machine gun fire into no-man's-land. Kroemer realized that he could actually see the tracers in the air.

"Things have changed, Herr Oberleutnant. Do we wait until later, if we go now ..."

"Ja, going now seems like a bad idea."

It was getting closer to midnight and the men were starting to wonder what was going on. Although it wasn't as cold as the past few days had been, it was still below freezing. Sitting still in a frozen trench wasn't conducive to good morale. Jäger was aware of that and had been around to the positions to let the squad leaders know what was going on.

Upon his return to where the platoon CP¹ was set up (really just a wider section of trench) he noticed that one of the runners² was keeping an eye on the terrain between them and the German lines. That man saw something, or thought he saw something.

"Herr Oberfeldwebel, there's someone, or something out there. I saw movement. There, by that low ridge."

Kroemer looked in the direction Schütze Karl-Heinz Berger had indicated. Not much to be seen with the naked eye. He pulled out his field glasses. Yes, there was someone out there!

"Good eyes, Karl-Heinz."

Noticing that the lieutenant had returned, he reported, "Herr Oberleutnant, there's a man working his way in our direction. It's hard to see him clearly but I caught a glimpse of a helmet."

Jäger glassed the area, just in time to see a man rise up out of the ground and work his way to a pile of junk near one of the abandoned shacks. "He's one of ours, or a Russian wearing one of our helmets. I'd bet my life it's a messenger from company, maybe even battalion."

Kroemer passed the word down the line for the men to hold their fire, a single man posed no threat. But he had one of the machine gun teams track the man all the way in.

Gefreiter Wolfgang Brandt was still shaking, he had thought he was close to where the 3rd platoon was supposed to be, but when Kroemer had seemingly risen up from the earth, MP 40 leveled at Brandt's midsection, he had nearly died of fright. Two men had quickly pulled him down into the trench when they had recognized him.

"Jesus, Wolf. You look like you've seen a ghost." Sauer had managed to find his way to the platoon CP when word had reached him what was going on. As he and Schwertfeger were providing security nearby, it wasn't far. Jäger had given him an annoyed look, but had said nothing.

Brandt shook his head, "I thought you guys were further south, when Kroemer came up out of nowhere he scared the shit out of me."

The two men looked over to where Jäger was conferring with his squad leaders. Sauer had a feeling they were going to be out here a bit longer than the plan had called for.

Portion of Oberleutnant Jäger's map
The blue line to the left is old German line, the red is the Soviet line, the blue line to the
right is the proposed new German line. "X" marks 3rd Platoon's position.

"So you see where I've marked it on the map, this slight bulge, battalion wants us to hold here, the remainder of the company will be moving up shortly to join us."

"Uh, what about the Ivans, Sir?" 1st Squad's Feldwebel Brückner wanted to know. The other squad leaders all nodded.

"According to Brandt, the Russians who were attacking  to our south fell back in some disorder. 6th Company is already moving out to take the trench lines which the Reds abandoned. 4th Company will be moving up to our north. It moves Ivan back a ways. Apparently they lost heavily in their attack. Regiment actually managed to bring an Acht-acht³ into the line, the Ivans weren't expecting that. Supposedly that one gun destroyed seventeen T-34s."

"Won't this little salient near our position attract some unwanted attention from Ivan?" Kroemer asked.

"Which is why the rest of 5th Company is moving up to reinforce this section of the line." Jäger told the group. "We need to let the men know that we've got friendly company coming up and to hold their fire if they see something to our rear."

"Brandt!"

"Sir?"

"You can head back now, let Oberleutnant Busch know that we're expecting him."

"Jawohl, Herr Oberleutnant! Oh, before I forget, the password is Balken, the countersign is Kreuz⁴."

As Brandt scrambled out of the trench, the snow was starting up again. Jäger commented, "Excellent, at least the battalion won't be moving up in the moonlight."

The he turned to where he had seen Sauer and Schwertfeger eavesdropping, "Schütze Sauer, a word."

"Heh, you're in trouble Manfred." Schwertfeger muttered.

"Halt die Klappe, go babysit Ziegler or something." Sauer countered as he moved to join the lieutenant, who had moved a short distance away from the CP.

"Sir?"

"I've been watching you Sauer, how long have you been in the army?"

Sauer thought for a moment, "Since May of last year."

That answer surprised Jäger, "Really, you seem old for a new recruit."

"Older than most, yes. It's a long story, Sir. I'd rather not get into it." Sauer looked off into the distance.

"It involves the Party, doesn't it?"

"I really can't say, Sir."

"I see. You are a very good soldier, Sauer. I would like to see you promoted and ..."

"With all due respect, Herr Oberleutnant, I've already turned down a promotion, the Iron Cross as well. There are reasons, but ..."

"You don't want the responsibility, is that it?"

"No Sir, well, yes. My goal is to survive, I know I can't do that alone. I just want to be part of this platoon. We have some good men, if I can help them stay alive ..."

"Your chance of surviving increases, yes?"

"I hope so. I just want to go home to my farm."

Jäger abruptly changed the subject, "How is Ziegler doing. You and Schwertfeger seemed to have taken an interest in him. Is he a mascot of some kind, being so young?"

"No Sir, absolutely not. Ziegler is a good kid, very bright. If we can keep him alive, he might make a good officer."

"What would you know about good officers, Schütze?" Jäger's voice took on a colder, more formal form.

"I have two very good examples here in the battalion, Sir. Oberleutnant Busch and Major Hassel. They give me hope that we might get out of this alive."

"You have no interest in defeating Communism?" Jäger asked, pressing Sauer.

"Not really, Sir. If defeating the Reds gets me home, yes. If not?" Sauer waved a hand in dismissal, seemingly of all politics.

Jäger grinned. "Thank you for being honest with me, Sauer. Let's keep an eye on each other and all of our platoon, Ja?"

Sauer returned the grin, Jäger seemed like a decent sort. "Aber natürlich, Herr Oberleutnant."

They were interrupted by Oberfeldwebel Kroemer, "2nd Platoon coming in, Sir. 1st has already tied in on our left."

"Danke, Oberfeldwebel, see to the MG teams placement. When the Russians wake up to what has happened, they may crash this little party." Jäger got up to speak with his counterparts in the other two platoons. He could see them both waiting at his CP.

"Oh, Sauer, you may return to your squad. And thank you again."

Sauer simply nodded before joining Schwertfeger, who had been waiting not too far away. From the look on Schwertfeger's face, he knew he'd be taking crap for spending time chatting with the platoon commander.

He wasn't disappointed.

¹ Command post

² Each platoon was assigned three Melder, these men were used as runners to carry messages for the platoon commander.

³ Literally "eight-eight" in German, which is what German troops called the 8.8 cm Flak gun which excelled in both antiaircraft and antitank roles in WWII. (There ya go Beans, it was an 88!)

⁴ The pronunciation of "Balken" is similar in Russian and German, though the Russians tend to draw out the "l" and the "k," in German it's more abrupt. "Kreuz" however is very different between the two languages. In Russian it sounds like "cruise" in German it is  roughly "Kroyts" the finial "z" sounding like "ts" as in "its." Also a German would think of the insignia painted on most German vehicles, including aircraft, the "Balkenkreuz."