Rendezvous

Source

"Herr Stabsfeldwebel! Schütze Hahn slid into the slight trench next to Krafft, he was out of breath and very excited.

"Beruhige dich, Junge.¹ Take a deep breath then report."

Hahn did just that, once he got himself under control he told Krafft, "Germans in the next village, I think. Men in Panzer uniforms inspecting a knocked out Soviet assault gun."

"Why do you think they're German, something odd about them? Maybe Ivan dressed up in our kit, trying to infiltrate the lines?"

"No Sir," which got Hahn a frown from the senior NCO, "they're wearing Panzer uniforms but with Luftwaffe insignia."

Krafft chuckled, "That's the Hermann Goering Fallshirm-Panzer-Division. That's what they wear."

Hahn looked confused, "A paratroop armored division? We have planes that can drop Panzers from the sky?"

"Not hardly, lad. Reichsmarschall Goering wanted his own armored division in Italy, so he got one. They drive from point A to point B like every other Panzer division. They just have slightly fancier uniforms."

The Russian infantry battalion, whose mortar company they had destroyed, had noticed that they had lost communication with their mortars. They assumed that the telephone wires had been cut. But when their fire had ceased, the battalion commander had decided to send a patrol back to see what was going on. There were German units wandering all over, some moving to the west, some actively attacking Konev's spearheads trying to loop behind Berlin.

As that commander was putting together a group to head back, his battalion was hit from the flank by a group of tanks, mostly Panthers, from the Hermann Goering division. The battalion was destroyed almost to a man, those few survivors who couldn't get away were taken prisoner. The mortar company was forgotten about when its parent battalion was overrun.

Oster's battalion, while maneuvering to get on the enemy's flank had missed seeing the German tanks and infantry completely destroy the Russian unit. Now it was over and Oster was deciding whether or not to make contact.

Krafft was leery, but Lang was all for it.

"They have Panzers Sir, they're organized. I'm sure they'd rather surrender to the West than to the Ivans. This is our chance."

Oster made his decision.

Oster and his men were very cautious entering the village. They managed to catch the eye of one man on sentry duty. It looked as if the tankers were preparing to move out. The man saw Oster's men and barked ...

"HALT!"

Lang was leading the patrol and he cautiously extended his right hand and yelled back that they were friends.

"What outfit you with?"

"4th Panzer, we got separated from the rest, now we're looking for the 12th."

"You found them. How many?"

"A little under 300."

"Where?"

"Back in the forest."

"Wait here."

The sentry turned and had a runner sent back to their command post. A few moments passed before an officer, of the Hermann Goering came over to Lang.

Lang nodded and said, "Herr Oberst.²"

"No salute? Thank you, Unteroffizier. I have no desire to have my head blown off by a Soviet sniper at this stage of the war. We're heading for Tangermünde, word has it that there is still a bridge over the Elbe there. We're bound and determined to surrender to the Amis, not the Ivans."

Oster had come up behind Lang, "Our intentions as well Herr Oberst, I'm Oster, commanding this circus on foot."

"You've come a long way, out past Vietz as Lang here tells me."

"Yes, we've been trying to stay one step ahead of the Ivans since February."

"I understand it was your lads who hit the mortars supporting the attack on my infantry."

"Yes Sir, I'd rather have gone around them, but time was an issue. So we took them out. The boys needed to draw blood anyway."

"Well, you saved us a lot of trouble by doing that. Care to join us in heading west?"

"Absolutely, best words I've heard in a while."

"Sehr gut, we march at sundown."

¹ Calm down, lad.

² Colonel.