The Ferry

Source

They had spent the night in a small wood between the villages of Ihleburg and Parchau, if the entire battalion had been there they would have had no cover. As it was, the tress were mostly deciduous and had yet to leaf out, fortunately there was a stand of evergreens on the edge of the wood where the men could be concealed from the air. One of the radiomen, the younger of the two had opted to go with them. The senior man stayed behind.

"You understand that the outburst of machine gun and rifle fire we heard this afternoon was probably your boys, running into Ivan out in the open," Krafft had told the older radioman, he was all of 19 and had been in the army for a year.

"I understand that, Herr Stabsfeldwebel, but this is my post, he can go," he said, gesturing at his younger colleague, "but I must stay. It is my duty."

Krafft had shaken his head and told the younger man to have his kit ready before darkness, they would leave when night had settled in.

"F**king Hitler Youth, no doubt." Lang had snarled when he'd been told what the radiomen were going to do.

Liesl spoke up, "Kurt, for the young, this is all they know. Hitler and the Nazis were in power when these boys were little. From their earliest memories, it's always been Hitler and his cronies."

Lang shrugged, "Not my problem, just expressing an opinion. Kids never learned to think for themselves."

"Alright, that's enough." Krafft spread his hands, as if calming the waters.

Lang then said, "I sent Heffenbach out with one of his lads, see if he could get eyeballs on that racket we heard this afternoon."

"You did what? Did you think to check with me first?" Krafft's temper grew shorter as they got closer to their goal. Before Lang could answer, Krafft shook his head.

"Never mind, that was uncalled for. Good idea really. Hopefully the boy knows how to sneak."

Lang chuckled, "Well, we've heard no more shooting since he left."

The platoon was ready, they were still waiting for Heffenbach to return. Krafft checked his watch, it was the 1st of May and the light was fading fast. Both in this small wood near the Elbe and for Germany as a country. He wondered what would happen when, if, they contacted the Amis. Would they shoot first? Or would they honor the white rag Krafft had stuffed in his tunic to affix to a rifle when the time came.

Two men entered the area in front of the barn, Heffenbach had returned. Krafft had nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw them.

"Jesus, I guess Lang was right, you are good at sneaking. Didn't see you until you popped up. Good thing I didn't have my weapon ready."

Heffenbach grinned, "I learned a few things in the East, Herr Stabsfeldwebel, staying alive was my best skill. We found the location of the firefight ..."

"Firefight?"

"Yes, a small group, perhaps fifteen, it was hard to count all of them, had been ambushed. Couldn't tell by who, Russians if I had to guess. We saw a couple of their scout cars running up and down the roads."

The older radioman lowered his head and stared forlornly at the ground. Krafft grabbed his sleeve, "Might not be them, Junge."

"I don't think it was them, Staber." Heffenbach continued.

"Why not?"

"One of the bodies I could identify, it was Hauptmann Oster. So this group was from our battalion."

"Scheiße."

"So Oster's dead?" Lang said, shaking his head.

"Appears so, Heffenbach figures they were following the road, trying to make time. It was just bad luck that a couple of Russian scout cars probably came on them in the open and just opened fire." Krafft said, looking around, he wanted to be off, but Heffenbach had brought back further bad news.

"Look here on the map, the terrain between here and Rogätz is completely open. Nothing but farm fields. If the Russians have their scouts out ..."

"We'll need to be very alert. They won't drive with no lights at all, but they will be using lights taped up to just present a slit. We can see them, but only if we're really paying attention. More importantly, as long as it isn't raining, we should be able to hear them coming." Krafft then redirected his attention to the map.

"It's nine kilometers if we go straight through Parchau and then over the fields. We don't have to follow the roads, I'd prefer to stay out in the fields. We'd have more of a chance of going to ground before being spotted by a scout car. It's a risk but ..."

"It's our only chance." Liesl chimed in.

The men all looked at her and nodded. It would be a stress-filled night, of that they were sure.

The night was cloudy so there wasn't much light. As there was also not much wind, it was comfortable. Other than the need to be on the lookout constantly for the Russians. One of the men said he could "smell the river ahead," which Lang scoffed at, but Krafft believed the man. People who lived near water knew those sorts of things and the man claimed to have grown up on the banks of the Weichsel¹, so he might know what he was talking about.

Krafft was having trouble staying awake, so when Lang threw him to the ground it startled him. Then he heard it, engine noises.

Not far away, perhaps 300 meters, was a farm track. On that track were two Soviet scout cars. Krafft would have stumbled along without even noticing them had Lang not thrown him to the ground.

The platoon watched as the two cars stopped for a bit, then they heard laughter. Lang hissed in his ear, "Probably stopped for a piss."

Lang was probably right, after a few minutes the vehicles moved on and the platoon could hurry onwards.

They arrived at the bank of the Elbe about two hours before dawn. They found the ferry landing, but no ferry.

"If it was me, I'd tie up on the western side of the river." Liesl offered.

"And why is that?" Krafft asked, knowing that she had a reason for saying that, but it was Lang who answered.

"Russians are on this side. Would you want to deal with them, if you owned a ferry on the Elbe?"

"A fair point. But how do we get the ferry to come over here?"

"We have to wait until it's lighter. It's too dark to see if the ferry actually exists, if it does is another question. Then we figure out how to get the boat to our side."

"Someone could swim?" Liesl offered.

Lang shook his head, "She's a big river, wide and fast enough that anyone swimming across, provided they didn't drown in the attempt, would arrive on the opposite bank well downstream. You're crazy if you fight the current, crazier still to attempt such a crossing without having trained for it."

Krafft was using his field glasses to study the other bank of the river. "There are lights in Rogätz, probably oil lamps by the way they flicker. So there are people there. I think the ferry is intact, there's something that looks like a boat near the water's edge."

"Just because it looks like a boat doesn't mean it's intact. Might be holed, lying in the shallows."

"You're an incurable optimist aren't you, Kurt?" Liesl teased him.

"Well, sure, but you have to be realistic. Now how do we get across?"

"Let's find a place to hide, the bank seems to have lots of brush and a few trees. Let's get everyone under cover for now. In the morning, we'll see what we can see. We're almost there, I can almost taste it." Krafft said.

Lang muttered, "And she thinks I'm an optimist."

¹ The German name for the Vistula River.