Life and Death

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"I understand, Stabsfeldwebel Krafft, and your idea makes perfect sense. But I have a, shall we say, moral problem with this." Hauptmann Oster was not angry, simply non-committal at this point in time.

"Sir, I get it, we'd be leaving fellow Germans in the lurch, I know you promised to ..."

"I promised nothing, Staber."

"Well, yes, however, isn't the promise of your assistance implied when a senior officer gives you an order? Besides which, isn't our first loyalty to these men ..."

"And one woman."

"No Sir, I haven't forgotten that. But as I was trying to say, isn't our first loyalty to our unit, and then to whatever higher unit is controlling us? And are those Hermann Goering boys above us in the hierarchy. After all, they're Luftwaffe, not army." Krafft did not want to hang their hats on Oberst von Balck's unit, or his abilities as an officer.

Oster sighed, "We were ordered deeper into the wood, upon hearing a Panzer battle start up, then we were to advance and hit those Ivans in the arse. Assuming of course that things were going well for the Goering lads. I tell you what we are going to do, and I'll brook no argument."

"Very well, Sir."

"We will take most of the battalion back into the forest, deep enough where it's pretty obvious vehicles won't be able to get through. However, I am going to leave a small party at the edge of the forest, well-concealed and in a position where the Russians would not think to enter. A guess, yes, but an educated one I think. Do you think Unteroffizier Lang could handle that assignment? Him and perhaps two other men, one to act as a runner to bring us word when it's time."

"Kurt, that is, Unteroffizier Lang, is the only one I would trust to not screw this up. He's perfect for this sort of thing."

"Very well, have him choose two other men to go with him, men he would trust with his life, because he is doing exactly that."

"Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann."

The Russian colonel was furious, he had gotten nothing from those illiterate German farmers and housewives. His men had beaten two of them to death, all that the remainder would admit to is that the dead woman his patrol had found on the road, was their representative to the local worker's Soviet. As good Communists they resented the implication that they were anything but happy to see the glorious Red Army in their land.

"Chertovy naglyye ublyudki!¹" he cursed, slamming his hand down on the hood of his command car.

"Comrade Colonel?" The commissar was nearby and obviously didn't like what the colonel said.

"What, tovarishch kommissar²? You believe those Nazis? Do you really think they are Communists, like you and I?"

"No, of course not, tovarishch polkovnik.³ But we are going to have to assimilate these people into the Communist International once we are done with the Hitlerites. If they are not part of the Soviet, they will be soon."

The commissar's smugness made the colonel want to draw his pistol and shoot the man. But he knew that that would not be career-enhancing.

"Very well tovarisch, then we assume that a random German sniper shot that woman?"

"Of course not, aerial reconnaissance spotted German armor in the area. We saw tracks a few kilometers back but the rain washed out whatever traces were left here. Which tells me that the bastards are waiting somewhere, somewhere to ambush us I have to assume. Do you have your map handy?"

Lang and his two runners watched from concealment as the Soviet reconnaissance unit went past, hell for leather, they were in a hurry to get somewhere.

"What do you think, Johannes, was that all of them? I counted three T-34s, seven halftracks and ten motorcycle/sidecar combinations. I seem to remember there being more motorcycles."

Schütze Ackermann spoke, "Johannes and I counted them when they first arrived. There were twelve motorcycle/sidecar combinations. The rest of the numbers match."

Lang nodded, "Okay Klaus, Johannes you agree?"

Schütze Johannes Becker agreed, "Klaus has the right of it. We're missing two motorcycle/sidecar combinations. Everything else matches up."

"Very well, Klaus go back and inform Hauptmann Oster."

"Hhmm, I wonder what that could mean." Oster was thinking that those missing men could be trouble.

Krafft answered, "Six men, Sir. No more. We have a platoon watch our backs and we stick to the trees. My guess is that those men went back to report to higher, perhaps their radio is out of order, or their commander wants to make damned sure his boss knows what he's up to."

Oster nodded, "Alright then, 1st Company, 2nd Platoon, what do they have now, 12 men?"

Krafft nodded, "They also still have ammunition for their MG-42."

"Gut, have Krämer and his boys watch the back door, we're moving up to Lang's position. I'll send a runner back when he can follow. Klar?"

Krafft nodded, "Aber natürlich, Herr Hauptmann."

"Well, I'll be a son of a bitch." Lang muttered as he watched two Russian motorcycle/sidecar combinations head up the track to where the Soviet reconnaissance had gone.

"Break down maybe?" Becker whispered.

"Possibly, or they stayed behind to rape and pillage. At any rate, Johannes, those were our missing people. I think we've accounted for all of Ivan's recce lads in the area."

Lang turned as he heard movement behind him, he was expecting Ackermann, he was surprised to see the captain and the rest of the battalion, or so he assumed.

"Herr Hauptmann, the missing reconnaissance boys just passed us by. All of them are chasing up the track after the Hermann Goering lads."

"Ausgezeichnet!⁴" Oster said, clenching his fist.

Then in the distance, they all heard the distinctive sound of a German 7.5 cm tank cannon. Followed immediately by an insane amount of small arms fire, interspersed with the thumping of the Wirbelwind's four 2 cm cannon.

The men started to get up, Oster signaled them to wait.

Shortly the firing ceased and Oster stood up, "Come on, let's go!"

Keeping to the forest, Oster's battalion hurried along the route that von Balck had suggested. At one point they heard a motorcycle approaching, Krafft had an MG-42 set up in short order. Turns out there were two. The 42 engaged the Russians, spilling all of the men on the ground. One got up as if to fight back, the 42 knocked him back into the ditch.

"Let's go! Skirmish order!" Oster commanded.

As the men advanced up the track they found a knocked out T-34. Then another, then a third. It appeared as if von Balck's Panthers had accounted for all three reconnaissance tanks. Then as they advanced further, they saw this ...

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Oster hissed as he recognized von Balck's personal vehicle, around her were a number of men, some digging, some pulling bodies from the wreck.

Krafft turned to Liesl, "You won't want to see this Liebling." As he said this, the men were pulling charred remains from the Panther's commander's hatch.

"Dear God ..." Liesl murmured.

"A Panzer man's end is never pretty. You don't have to ..."

"I've seen worse, Dieter. That must be Oberst von Balck, may the Lord have mercy on his soul."

It was indeed the body of von Balck. When the Soviets had come up the track, one of the T-34s had spotted von Balck's vehicle, the two had fired at nearly the same time. But as the T-34 was moving, his shot missed. von Balck's had not. But both of the other T-34s had come to a full stop and fired. One of them hit the Panther in a deadly place. Von Balck and his crew all died when the onboard ammunition, what was left of it, went off.

One of the Hermann Goering sergeants approached Oster.

"We belong to you now, Herr Hauptmann. You are the only officer remaining."

"We came as soon as we heard ..."

"Nothing you could have done, Sir. Ivan got in a lucky shot, hopefully the Oberst and his lads didn't feel a thing. Hatches were open so the turret didn't fly off. Not much left to burn inside so the fire was fierce but short-lived. Only the boys in the turret burned."

"Es tut mir Leid,⁵ Oberfeldwebel, but we must be off ..."

"Two of the motorcycles got away ..."

"They didn't get far. Bury your dead, what do we have left?"

"Just the men, the last two Panthers aren't much use, neither has the fuel to move more than a kilometer, and one threw a track which we can't repair, it would take far too long. I'm sure Ivan got off a radio message."

"What about the Wirbelwind?" Oster asked, he had seen the devastation meted out to the Soviet halftracks and the infantry in them.

"No more ammunition, and she's about out of fuel."

"So we all walk to the Elbe. Let's get things sorted, Oberfeldwebel ...?"

"Hartmann, Sir. Rolf Hartmann."

"Good, let's get busy Oberfeldwebel Hartmann, we've got a long ways to go yet. I feel we'll have company soon."

¹ Проклятые наглые мужики = Damned impudent bastards.

² Товарищ полковник = comrade commissar

³ полковник = Colonel

⁴ Outstanding/excellent.

⁵ I'm sorry, Sergeant