The Kid Brother

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"Writing another letter, Klaus? Do you think she actually reads them?"

Leutnant Klaus Oster looked up at his older brother, "Ja, Herr Hauptmann, I think she actually reads them. Unlike you, I am actually attractive to women."

Hauptmann Gerd Oster laughed at that, "I'm sure you think so, baby brother. But the woman is three years older than you!"

"You make it sound as though she is a spinster, she's twenty one, still young."

Hauptmann Oster shook his head and looked off into the distance, there was something there which hovered at the edge of his consciousness, something out of place. "Do you hear that?"

Leutnant Oster put away his notepad and pen, he listened intently. "Yes, sounds like ..."

"Panzers! Not ours ..."

"They're a ways off yet," the younger Oster pointed out.

"True, but we need to get the men into cover."

It happened just to the southeast of Zossen, in the old Wünsdorf training area along the highway running from Mückendorf to Berlin. A Soviet tank platoon, with infantry riding the tanks, had strayed from the main line of advance and wound up in the woods. The highway running through the area was a major one but it was not on the path of Marshal Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front, at least not one of the paths he'd laid out for this particular unit.

The Germans hiding in the forest along the road didn't know that, all they knew was that there were five Soviet T-34s running down the road, each carrying an infantry squad. While it would have been easy to slaughter the tank-riding infantry, killing the tanks was a harder proposition with only Panzerfausts available to the men.

As the Soviet platoon rolled past, Hauptmann Oster noticed that the last tank was having problems, the engine was running roughly and the vehicle was bucking as the engine caught, then misfired. Lots of oily smoke was issuing from the vehicle's exhausts as well.

That tank rolled to a stop while the rest of its platoon kept going down the track. Oster wondered whether or not the platoon leader knew that one of his vehicles was having problems. It didn't seem like it as the first four vehicles kept going until they were out of sight. Which left the last tank stalled in the middle of Oster's understrength battalion.

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Krafft watched with some concern as the men riding on the back of the T-34 dismounted, but rather than take up defensive positions around the vehicle, they milled around and watched as two of the crew opened the engine covers and began poking around.

"They think they've won the war, don't they?" Lang hissed at Krafft.

Krafft nodded, and hissed back, "Well, they have, for the most part. Just no one's told us to stop fighting, have they?"

Krafft held his hand out, letting the men know that they would let Oster's boys make any moves here. They were to remain still. Krafft saw movement to his right, he turned to look. It was Leutnant Oster, and he had a Panzerfaust in his hands.

One of the tank riders noticed the young German officer step into the road and cried out to his fellows. He wasn't exactly sure what he was seeing, but he knew it wasn't good. As he brought his submachine gun up, a German MG 42 opened fire from up the road.

Krafft watched as the Ivans spun around to face this new threat, most of them died where they stood. At that moment, Leutnant Oster fired his Panzerfaust, it flew straight and true, directly into the rear end of the stalled T-34.

The two men on the engine deck stood no chance at all as the weapon's shaped charge detonated and sprayed it's high velocity jet of molten metal into the tank's engine compartment. This immediately caused the oil and spilled excess fuel in the engine compartment to burn. Which also set alight the two crewmen standing on the vehicle. Those two jumped to the ground, screaming.

The fighting compartment of the tank was still viable, for the moment, and Krafft saw that the turret was starting to move, looking for the threat to the crew's survival. The men inside had no idea that they stood no chance at all as another German stepped into the road holding a Panzerfaust.

Hauptmann Oster screamed at his man to hold fire, realizing that his brother was close enough to the damaged vehicle that if it was hit again, and the onboard ammunition detonated, Klaus Oster might become the latest casualty in the battalion.

Too late, Gerd Oster saw the weapon hit the stalled, and starting to burn, T-34 and penetrate into the crew compartment. He screamed as he saw Gerd throw his hands up, as if he could stop the resulting explosion from harming him.

When the dust and smoke had dissipated somewhat, Klaus looked out at the road. His brother, his uniform torn and smoking, was trying to crawl away from the fiercely burning T-34, which was being wracked by further internal explosions as small arms ammunition inside cooked off.

Krafft dashed into the road, grabbed the lieutenant's load bearing straps and pulled the man into the cover of the roadside ditch. He heard the captain yelling for the rest of the men to set up a roadblock in the direction the remainder of the Soviet platoon had traveled in case they returned.

When Hauptmann Oster reached Krafft and his brother, he skidded across the pavement and into the ditch.

"Is he?"

Krafft shook his head. "Your brother is dead, Herr Hauptmann. I'm so sorry."

The march continued, they had buried Klaus Oster in the forest away from the road. The captain had marked the location on his map, but they had left the grave unmarked. He was concerned about the grave being disturbed.

Oster had said little since burying his brother, the one thing he had said was that he wanted to make the village of Riesen before sunrise. Krafft had checked the map, that was a solid eight hour march in daylight, along roads. They were in the forests west of Wünsdorf following an old game trail. he thought they'd be lucky to make half of the forty kilometers by daybreak. But he said nothing, Oster wasn't in the mood for talk.

They stopped well before sunrise, the men were exhausted. They had cut directly through the village of Sperenberg rather than go around it. There wasn't much left of the village to worry about someone being in it. All they saw were chimneys, standing out of the rubble to mark what used to be. There were no signs of life.

A man came up to Krafft, whose platoon was leading the march, and indicated that they were to halt. "Hauptmann Oster wishes to speak with you," was all the man said.

He made his way back to the captain and squatted down near the man, who seemed to have shrunk over the past few hours. The man looked haggard and lost.

"Herr Hauptmann?"

Oster turned and looked at Krafft, "Ah Stabsfeldwebel, we need to figure out our next move. With Klaus dead, you're now my second in command, if something were to happen to me ..."

"I understand, Sir. But that Russian Panzer that was a fluke, I doubt we'll encounter any  situations like that again. I mean, the guy's engine craps out right in front of us ..."

Oster placed a hand on Krafft's shoulder, "And my brother decided to play the hero, perhaps he wanted the Panzervernichtungsabzeichen¹ to go with an Iron Cross for bravery. The boy was a competitor, always trying to prove himself to me."

"Sir, I think he was more concerned about the battalion. His only mistake was not seeking cover after firing the Panzerfaust, perhaps he was a bit overexcited over destroying that T-34." Krafft wanted to comfort his officer while at the same time complementing his brother's bravery.

"Perhaps. I remember my first kill, in France. After firing my rifle I just stood there, like an idiot. If my Unteroffizier hadn't knocked me to the ground I would probably have died right then and there."

"We learn, Herr Hauptmann, or ..."

"We die, like my brother did, like so many of us have. Help me keep these boys alive long enough to surrender to the Amis. Please."

"I will try, you have my word."

"And keep your lovely lady close, I haven't forgotten her."

"Understood, Sir."

Later, shortly after the sun had come up and burnt off the morning mist, Liesl woke him.

"Dieter, how badly is Gerd taking his brother's death?"

"Badly, but he's seen a lot in this war, and this isn't the first of his family to be killed in this war, just the first he has witnessed first hand."

"His parents?"

"Just his father, his mother and two sisters are still alive, in the Rhineland. His father was on the General Staff, he died in a raid on Berlin last year."

"His father was in the Army as well?"

"Yes, for many of the officers it's like the family business."

Liesl thought for a moment, "I guess that's over with now."

"How so?"

"Do you think our enemies will allow Germany to have an army after all of this?"

"I think that they will, when this is over the western Allies will fall out with their Communist ally. It was only a marriage of convenience, as the Arabs say, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' At least until the common enemy is no more." Krafft sighed, he had to wonder if the human race would ever learn.

"Have you ever read any Santayana?" Liesl asked.

Krafft shook his head, "Can't say I have, who is he?"

"A Spanish philosopher, lived in America for a time, he wrote Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, published in 1922, I read it in 1938, he had a number of things to say about war, and about history. The one quote I remember clearly, to this day is 'Only the dead are safe; only the dead have seen the end of war.' And he's right you know. I don't think we Germans will survive this war. So perhaps we have seen the end."

Krafft slipped an arm around Liesl's shoulders as the tears began to stream down her cheeks. He rather hoped she was wrong.

¹ Tank destruction badge, made of cloth, sewn to the right sleeve of the tunic to denote the wearer destroying a tank with hand held weapons.