Cross Country

Source

Krafft called a halt shortly after the company had bypassed Müncheberg and turned south, for what his map said was the town of Fürstenwalde. He turned to Frau Schmitz and asked her if she was familiar with the area.

"Yes, Fürstenwalde is a sizeable town, we should avoid it I would think. It will be defended I'm sure. We could leave the road and cut through the forest here around the Grünheide."

"What about roads? Are there many? The map shows one."

"That's the only real road, though there are many paths through the woods. The only problem is that the trees are deciduous, so there won't be as much cover as in a pine forest."

"Cover, Liesl? You've been hanging out with soldiers for too long, I think."

"When in Rome ..."

The men nearby chuckled. Though the leaves wouldn't be there to hide them from the air completely, Krafft doubted that the Russians would pay too much attention to the forest. Their goal was Berlin and everything they had would be pushed forward as fast as possible. His worry was the follow up elements of the Red Army. They would be the ones to mop up pockets of resistance.

But as they had no plan to set up positions and resist anybody, that wasn't their immediate problem. Avoiding any military units, theirs and the enemies, was the goal. The Army and the Waffen SS were more of a problem for them now than the Russians. The Ivans weren't blocking the road to safety.

They camped for the night in the depths of the heath, surrounded by trees in a small vale. The weather was overcast and it was cold, fortunately it was dry. As they couldn't risk any fires, they ate their rations, such as they were, cold. They slept cold as well.

Krafft was sitting away from the encampment, wondering how much longer the war could go on. He was missing his wife something terribly these last few days. Liesl Schmitz was a constant reminder of what he had lost. In peaceful times the feelings he had for her may have led to a hope for the future. No such hope comforted him that night. She came to him in the small hours before the dawn.

"What are you thinking about, my love?" she had whispered.

"What happens tomorrow, then the day after, I'm taking this one day at a time. I can see no happy outcome, no matter how hard I try."

"Do you believe in God, Dieter?" She took his arm and cuddled up next to him, as much for warmth as out of affection.

He said nothing at first, he merely sighed. His thoughts were filled with the memories of all he had seen since the morning of September 1st, 1939.

It was a Friday, he had been deployed with his unit on the front lines. Polish resistance to their immediate front was non-existent, the Luftwaffe had seen to that. But once they had advanced past the first lines they had met resistance, heavy resistance.

The Poles had fought fiercely, casualties were heavy in his unit. His best friend since boyhood had died advancing into Polish machine gun fire. He had had a narrow escape himself.

On that day he had seen his first dead man, on that day he had killed for the first time.

They had cleared a line of bunkers along a river bank, where he was in Poland he had no idea, nor did he care. He followed his officers and NCOs and went where he was told, did what he was told.

He and another man, a Gefreiter whose name he couldn't remember, had been moving down a trench connecting two bunkers when a Polish soldier jumped out in front of them. he had killed the Gefreiter and in trying to feed another round into the chamber, his rifle had jammed. At least that's the way Krafft seemed to remember things.

Bottom line was that the man had killed his comrade. Without thinking he had brought his weapon to bear and pulled the trigger. He well remembered the look of utter surprise on the man's face when the 7.92 mm round had hit him in the chest. He also remembered the way dust sprang up from the man's tunic at the moment of impact.

He saw that man's face in his dreams many times since then, he'd killed others but their faces were a blur. The first one, that one he remembered.

"Dieter?" Liesl had pulled at his arm, interrupting his waking nightmare. Then he remembered her question.

"Believe? I don't know what to believe anymore, schatzi. God, I'm not sure he cares about any of us anymore, regardless of what it says on our belt buckles."

Source¹

"Alright Kinder,² up and at 'em. We need to make another 12 kilometers before we get close to the Autobahn which runs from Frankfurt an der Oder to Potsdam. We'll be crossing the Spree at some point as well. So we're going to get wet. Any bridges will no doubt be blown or guarded, so we'll be moving cautiously today. Questions?"

One of the men stepped forward, "Will we be looking to link up with the defenders of Berlin at some point?"

Now that the question was out in the open, something which Krafft had been avoiding thinking about had to be thought about.

"Of course, if we link up with combat troops looking to defend the capital we'll join them."

Unteroffizier Lang chimed in, "If we see Feldgendarmerie or SS troops we should probably avoid them, yes?"

"Why is that?" the same young soldier asked.

"They want to hang us, boy, not help us. You've seen their work, have you not?" Krafft answered the question in a harsh tone.

The youth blushed, "Jawohl, Herr Stabsfeldwebel, you lead, we'll follow."

"As it should be. Now let's move out."

Pointing at the kid who had asked the question, he said, "You and Dorfmann take the point. You see anybody, anybody, you go to ground and let us figure out what to do about them. Klar?³"

The kid nervously gripped his rifle and swallowed, "Jawohl, Herr Stabsfeldwebel."

Having to be out in front, he was less enthused about "linking up with friendly forces" than he had been before.

¹ GOTT MIT UNS = God is with us. German belt buckles had the same motto in World War One. It is clear that that was not the case in either war.

² Children

³ Is that clear?