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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Questions

Bundesarchiv
"Well?"

Gefreiter Hans Schreiber set the barrel of the MG 34 down on the wooden crate in front of him and sighed, "You ask too many questions, Manfred."

Sauer shook his head, he expected more from his squad's assistant squad leader. Schreiber was an old hand, he had been with the division since Poland, surely he saw a bad plan when one was presented to him.

"Look, maybe we're not supposed to ask questions, maybe we're just supposed to do as we are told. I'm sure the brass know what they're doing." Schreiber spoke heatedly. He liked Sauer, thought the man a good soldier for such a Neuling,¹ but there were times he pushed a little too hard.

"Like the Light Brigade at Balaclava, eh Hans?"

"Precisely!" Schreiber picked up the MG barrel and began remounting it.

Sauer raised an eyebrow, "I'm not sure what you mean, Hans. Wasn't that a huge f**k up?"

Schreiber sighed and shook his head, "Yes, it was. But there are times that die Bonzen² do know what they're doing and just don't have time to explain it to every Hinz und Kunz³ who might want to know. Maybe they don't know what comes next. But we're out here on the line, things are tough and you know it, if the Ivans punch through to Leningrad things will go to shit in a hurry."

"I get that but ..."

"I don't think you do, Manfred. So the Russians appear to be making ready for a serious push, they've thinned out their line, leaving an inviting soft spot. Maybe they hope we don't notice, maybe they think we'll be too busy fighting off their attack to notice it. But notice it we did. The chiefs want to put a platoon in there, quietly, hoping the Ivans don't notice, and when the Ivans attack, we shoot them in the back."

Schreiber took his helmet off, straightened out his toque, then resettled his helmet. He then turned to look at Sauer.

"It's possible they don't know what they're doing, that's always a possibility. But what if this works, breaks up the Russian attack?"

"What happens to us, Hans? What happens to we Frontschwein up on the line if it doesn't work? Or if the Ivans fall back and overrun us."

Schreiber looked away, his eyes staring into a distant place only he could see, "Then we die, Manfred. We die. We're soldiers, that's our lot."


"So that's it then? We're just f**king pawns?" Schwertfeger was incensed.

"You play chess, Oskar?" Ziegler was amazed, Schwertfeger seemed like such a brute, perhaps he had misjudged the man.

"Perhaps I do, perhaps it's just an expression, it doesn't matter. We're to be sacrificed, maybe, maybe not. But I don't like it."

Sauer looked around, none of the squad's leadership was around, so he felt he needed to calm the men down. "Look guys, I get it. It feels like we're getting thrown away, but what if it works?"

König spoke up, "I don't like the idea that they shove us out there, in the middle of the Russian position, and just sort of hope everything works out. Where's the rest of the plan? This all seems pretty half-ass to me."

König's buddy Schmidt seconded that, "It's bullshit, Manfred. I don't see the point of the entire exercise."

Sauer let the men grumble for a bit, then he spoke.

"Look. we've been sitting here in these freezing f**king trenches for weeks now, we kill a couple of Ivans, take a prisoner here and there, they do the same. We're in a siege, trying to starve out Leningrad. It's classical shit, Männer,⁴ we can't punch into the city, we don't have the strength. They can't punch out, for the same reason. The Russians have to try and break the siege. We get back there, behind them, and when they attack, we bite them in the ass!"

Ziegler spoke up, "It could work."

The squad all looked at him, Schütze Volker Lang, the assistant machine gunner, scoffed, "Kindermund tut Wahrheit kund.⁵"

Sauer stood up, "Ziegler's right, it might work, but not if we go into it doubting everything. You guys know the drill, you've been around, together since France, right?"

Schwertfeger nodded, "You and Ziegler are the newbies, but ..."

"But what?" König snarled.

Schwertfeger stood up, he was big enough that he had to stoop over to stand up in the confined space, reminding everyone again just how big the man was. "But they're right. Ziegler and Sauer. Sauer's the toughest bastard in this squad. If he's willing to give it a shot, then so am I!"

At that very moment, Groß and Schreiber stepped into the dugout, "Give what a shot, Schwertfeger?" Groß demanded. Schreiber stood behind Groß wondering what mischief the men were up to.

"The plan, Herr Unterfeldwebel, some of the guys have doubts, we were discussing ..."

Groß shook his head, "Scheiß egal⁶ what you idiots think. We're moving out an hour after sunset, when the artillery starts. Get your gear together, it's going to be a long night!"


The night was cold and the snow was starting up again. The men had all whitewashed their helmets and all were wearing various items of white cloth, mostly bedsheets, over their greatcoats. In the swirling snow they were hard to see from even a few meters away.

Groß had Sauer and Schwertfeger bring up the rear. His squad was the last in the platoon column as they snaked their way through the trenches towards no-man's-land.

When they reached the jump-off point, Oberfeldwebel Kroemer was there to direct the squads to their positions. He pointed to his left, Groß' right, indicating that his squad was to be on the right flank of the advance.

Groß held his hand up, making the men wait as Sauer and Schwertfeger made their way to the front of the column.

He hissed at the two men, "You guys are on the flank, nearest the Russians, Manfred you go out first, Oskar, you keep an eye on the rest of the squad. Slow and easy, the artillery should be starting ..."

He was interrupted by the sound of German artillery projectiles overhead. When the first shots exploded, Groß gestured at the men to deploy. Moments later, the platoon was over the lip of the trench and moving into no-man's-land.


Oberleutnant Albert Jäger had a clear picture of where they were supposed to be in his head. Now if he could only match what he had seen on the map to what he was seeing in the dark. Kroemer hissed in his ear.

"Sir, bear slightly right."

Jäger paused briefly, then he saw it, the rusted out hulk of a Panzerkampfwagen III, knocked out by the Russians in the late fall. That and the small depression next to it, a pond in warmer times, and he recognized where he was. Just another two hundred meters and they'd be there.

Hopefully the intel from regiment was good and the Russian position ahead of them was empty.

 

Schwertfeger stumbled and fell into a hole, two startled Russians were staring back at him. He could barely see them, but their eyes shown in the dim light from a nearby fire lit by the barrage.

One of the Russians muttered, "Kakogo cherta?⁷"

The Russian who spoke began to gasp and writhe in pain as he was grabbed from behind, his mouth covered as a fighting knife slid into his brain.

Schwertfeger had already kicked the other Russian in the crotch, hard. That man rolled into the fetal position as the pain of his crushed testicles overwhelmed him. Schwertfeger's knife ended his agony in short order.

"What the f**k, Oskar?" Sauer hissed at the big man.

"Listening post I guess, stupid f**ks were half-asleep when I dropped in on them."

"You scared the shit out of me, watch your step."

After that brief exchange, the two men were on the move once more. Slipping like wraiths through no-man's-land.


Jäger saw the trench at the last minute, barely escaping from tumbling into it head over heels. Kroemer was right behind him. The trench was deserted. The intel had proven correct!

"Oberfeldwebel Kroemer, get the men set-up, make sure the machine guns have good fields of fire. I want to sweep the area to our left front. I also don't want any stray bursts going into our own lines."

"Jawohl, Herr Oberleutnant, may I suggest we use the runners and the Pferdehalter⁸ to cover our rear? I'll take charge of them."

"Excellent idea, Erwin. Do it!"


Jäger's platoon was set up and ready as they could possibly be. There was still the chance of Russian reserves further to the rear which might come up and hit them from behind. But so far the intelligence gleaned from a captured Russian political officer had proven good.

Now they waited for daylight, when the reported Russian attack would commence.

Then they would discover if there was any hope of coming out of this alive.




¹ Newbie.
² Fat cats, big shots, generic term for "the brass"
³ Hinz and Kunz (short forms of the names Heinrich and Konrad) is a German idiom and synonym for everyone. (Source) The English equivalent is "every Tom, Dick, and Harry."
⁴ Men.
⁵ Out of the mouths of babes, i.e. children tell the truth.
⁶ Don't give a shit.
⁷ What the heck? (Какого черта?)
⁸ Horse holder. Each platoon had one or more horses for the carts they were issued to carry extra ammunition and gear. Remember, the German Army wasn't all Panzers and Halftracks!
Editor's Note: Sorry for the excessive footnotes, but I like throwing German idioms into the mix. Makes it more authentic, I think.

42 comments:

  1. "Ist mir egal, ich habe ein schlechtes Gefühl dabei." unknown quote.

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    1. "I don't care, I have a bad feeling about it" & "Agree"

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    2. Rex

      Just a Fan/Follower that can use Google Translate. Appreciate the translations in the Footnotes and wanted to pass on to others Michael's quote.

      Looking forward to getting the 'Book' when it comes out.

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    3. Excellent, thanks for the assist, Rex!

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  2. Going to be a long time for the platoon until dawn, a looong time to think......

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  3. Sigh. I have been through plenty of business plans that get up to a certain point and "things will just work out". They seldom do.

    I have often benefitted by good leaders letting us blow off some steam before doing what had to be done. Managed to get some sense of buy-in as well as preventing muttering in the midst of doing the work that needed to be done.

    Pretty much on the edge of my seat for the next post, Sarge.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, somewhere in the middle of a bad plan there is the "then magic happens." It seldom does.

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    2. Reminds me of a sticky math problem, TB....

      "I'm sorry, this is not a valid proof. After A=B=C, "A MIRACLE HAPPENS" is not going to cut it Mr STxAR....."

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    3. I see you've "been there, done that."

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  4. Excessive footnotes? If you get to the point where the page is 3 lines of story and then the rest is footnotes then it would be excessive.

    DANG! I thought that the party would start when Schwertferger fell into the hole. Even without anyone saying anything the preternatural quiet of a winter night would be shattered by the sound of him hitting the ground. Part of me is thinking that a hundred metres away Ефре́йторТрофи́м Дени́сович, after thinking he almost heard something, is straining his eyes, trying to pierce the darkness and asking himself, "Что это?" and will let "daddy" start shouting as soon as he thinks he sees something.

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    1. WOW! I have no idea what happened to the formatting! Those accent marks and odd spaces didn't show when I pasted the Cyrillic text. Sorry.

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    2. Joe #1 - Remember, the wind is blowing and it's snowing. Also that section of the Russian line was empty, the only thing there was the listening post. Once they got past those guys, it was clear sailing.

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    3. Joe #2 - Google will do strange things to Cyrillic text.

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    4. I will assume the Rus were smart enough to have the listening posts check in a on a regular basis, having them miss their next scheduled call should alert the rear something is up. Now, with cold, snow, and a possible impending assault maybe nobody was paying attention.. Maybe. Fog of war

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  5. Footnotes for the Kraut (and other) speak are much appreciated, and do add a lot.
    Wraith- a new word for me. One of the things I really appreciated about Lex's writing was the occasional unfamiliar word which I would look up and invariably find it was perfect for that context. Lex really would (perhaps does) approve of your storytelling.
    John Blackshoe

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  6. I'm waiting for the next edition with a new part of the story! Dickens used to publish like this I heard....
    I blow over the footnotes/translation generally and look at them later (I make a guess as I go), otherwise I'm scrolling up & down.

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    Replies
    1. I don't mind footnotes in books, it's the end notes which drive me crazy. But yes, the scrolling up and down can be laborious!

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    2. I also read the story, then look at the footnotes. Usually, the gist of the German is clear from the context. "Pferdehalter" threw me though. Were the handlers just along as part of the platoon, or did they drag their horses with as well?

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    3. Each platoon had a single horse used to pull their two infantry carts. On the march the Pferdehalter tended the horse, when in the trenches or in other fixed positions, they were just another member of the platoon staff which could be used as the platoon leader saw fit. Of course, there were more horses at company level so the guy probably rotated with the others to tend all the horses in the company. (Of which there were 18 in an infantry company at full establishment. Which in Russia they usually weren't.)

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  7. Death, paying an unexpected visit when it's not looked for.

    I remember Mom teaching me to look up strange words in a magic book called a "dictionary". I was astonished at how many words there were! I don't remember the word, but it wasn't in the dictionary -- and Mom didn't know it, either. When Dad got home to watch my siblings, we went to the giant library, and she introduced me to the OED. All the words in the world, it seemed, but it wasn't there. "Here it is, in the second Supplement." Someone made up a word? "All the time, in English; if it's used, it's collected. That does not mean you are to make up new words and expect others to understand you!"

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  8. Okay... "Hey, let's go out into the back beyond because high ups say so and it will all work out." Yeah, right.

    I can hear the foreboding music with the speakers unplugged...

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    Replies
    1. There are times when a unit is sent off to do a task which the higher ups realize might mean the loss of the unit. The Spartans at Thermopylae spring to mind.

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  9. Footnotes, endnotes, parentheses, or ellipses, they're all helpful, but most times ya get the gist from the context.
    What the Gargle does to posts and comments is distressing. Mostly because the folk who oversee things are most likely the very people who are also working on AI.
    I keep thinking that I'm gonna write a blog post, but it turns out that I'm just mulling it over. I guess there might be something working its way to the surface, like a festering splinter. It has me back on the PC, and that's one step.
    Anyhow, I'm on the edge of my chair waiting for the next installment.

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    1. Gargle people don't seem to have any noticeable plan for their activities. They do seem keen on social justice though, which concerns me.

      Looking forward to a post from you!

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    2. I'd be OK with gulag seeking "social justice" if it wasn't subterfuge and obfuscation for what they're really seeking -and if me and mine weren't to be both funding it and subject to their twisted idea of the term; which I find to be anything but "just"
      Boat Guy

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    3. It ain't just and it ain't right.

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  10. I like the footnotes. They add realism (and expand my extremely limited German or other language). Thank you for them.

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    1. That's what I was hoping. I would put the Russian lines in Cyrillic, but then no one would read them. So I use the phonetic spelling for their lines.

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    2. Also, I open a second tab, scroll to the footnotes, easier to toggle between tabs than up and down and lose place.

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    3. I like that! (Might have to do that myself!)

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  11. Alles gut mein Sarge. Ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen ist ausgetzeichnet.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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