The Pilot

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The enemy Jabo¹ had appeared like an apparition over the ruins of the village. The sky had been overcast, with intermittent drizzle, the wind was rather strong, out of the east. All of that had led to everyone being a bit lax. Exhaustion played a role as well.

Krafft looked up at the chatter of multiple heavy machine guns firing as the roar of the American P-47's engine drowned out his senses. He looked up from the ruins he had been searching, he knew that Kurt and Liesl were out in the open, carrying useful goods down to the unit's infantry carts.

"NO!!"

Krafft ran into the street and saw debris and sparks coming off the cobbled road, straddling his two best friends in the entire world as they tried to dive for cover. He began running as he heard Liesl scream.

Men were screaming at him to take cover as he dashed up the street. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching Kurt and Liesel.

Automatic weapons fire was streaking into the sky behind Krafft. The Hermann Goering boys had a mobile anti-aircraft gun with them, it was engaging a second Ami Jabo rolling into the attack. The roar of the quad 2 cm cannons firing nearby deafened him.

Source

A P-47 streaked overhead, trailing fire and smoke, the Hermann Goering's Flak wagon had hit its target. Krafft didn't care, he saw the rubble where he'd seen Kurt and Liesl dive into the ditch, he dove in after them.

The first Ami Jabo had flown off to the west, his wingman had climbed for altitude then had been forced to abandon his crippled aircraft not far from the town. Oster immediately ordered a patrol out to snatch the enemy flyer.

Lang was lying at the bottom of the ditch, Liesl was cradling him in her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks, sobbing uncontrollably. Lang was, incredibly, grinning up at Krafft, a thin stream of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. More alarmingly, a splotch of blood on his tunic was spreading rapidly, his hands were there, trying to put pressure on the wound.

In his best parade ground voice, Krafft bellowed, "SANITÄTER!!"

Obergefreiter Schurz came running, jumping into the ditch and shoving Krafft out of the way.

"Jesus Adolf, it's not that bad. Ignore my mouth, I bit my tongue. The belly is just a scratch."

Schurz got Lang's tunic open, he saw that the man had indeed been lucky. A fragment of something had scored a long gash along the side of Lang's abdomen. Schurz cleaned the wound, using the last of his gauze to staunch the bleeding, then bound it with a torn scrap of cloth, wrapping it around Lang's torso.

"You scared me, Kurt." Liesl said softly. Then she looked at Krafft, he was trembling and crying soundlessly.

"Dieter, he's okay."

"Ja genau, snap out of it Dieter." Lang chimed in.

While Lang was okay, Krafft was far from okay.

Schurz told Liesl to get Krafft something to eat, he was in shock according to the Sani. "He just needs to rest a bit."

Schurz began gathering his kit, giving Lang a stern reminder to keep the wound clean. Then he examined Krafft.

The tears continued to stream down Krafft's cheeks. He looked at Schurz, "I'm okay, I think. I'll be okay Adolf, really."

Schurz shook his head and walked off to check on the rest of the men.

Liesl reached out and touched Krafft's hand, "Are you sure you're okay, Dieter."

He looked into those eyes which had stolen his heart the day he met her and said, softly, in almost a whisper, "I saw your death. I saw Kurt's death. The only two people in this world I have left, the two people I," he paused and took a deep breath, "the two people I love more than anything else. I saw you both die. I was convinced."

She took him in her arms and hugged him hard, she glanced at Lang, who nodded and went off.

"Dieter?"

He shuddered then leaned away from her. One hand went to her cheek, he brushed it with the back of his hand. "Dear God, I love you so much, it hurts."

All she could say was, "I know."

The men found the enemy flyer about to be killed by a number of villagers. He was being menaced with a pitchfork, one of the villagers, a farmer by the look of him, turned to the soldiers.

"This bastard strafed us, he killed two boys tending their sheep. We should hang him, now."

The young pilot, he couldn't have been more than 20 looked terrified. He had seen movement on the road, his brain had said, "Soldiers in dirty winter camouflage." After pulling the trigger, he'd seen that they were indeed sheep.

His lead had radioed him that there were tanks further back, "Come on back and give me a hand, Shorty."

He had banked around and as he saw his lead pull off the target, he rolled in. He could see soldiers scrambling for cover on the street of the ruined village. Shorty (his call sign, he was well over six feet tall) had aimed the nose of his aircraft only to see, at the last minute, one of those Kraut four-barreled AA guns mounted on a tank body.

He pulled up but a little too late, at least ten 20 mm rounds had punched through his aircraft, one in the engine, another hitting the armor he was sitting on, the rest shredding the tail of his aircraft.

As he struggled for altitude, desperate to make it back over the Elbe to friendly territory, he realized he wasn't going to make it. When he had enough altitude, he jumped. He swore as he saw he was near the village where he'd strafed the sheep. Damn it, those folks are probably pissed, he thought.

"Leave him be, we'll take him," the sergeant commanding the patrol ordered.

One of the farmers thought to protest until one of the soldiers raised his K98k and aimed it at him. He raised his hands and muttered, "He's yours."

"Thank God you boys ..."

The man who had threatened the farmer broke the pilot's jaw with the butt of his rifle, "Halt die Klappe, amerikanisches Schwein.²"

The sergeant barked, "That's enough, let's get him back to battalion."

Krafft was huddled in the ruins of a house, he was still shivering. He was definitely in shock, even though Liesl kept telling him that she was okay, she wasn't hurt.

"What about next time? I can't bear to lose you, now that I've found you."

"Did you love your wife, Dieter?"

"Yes, of course, very much, but ..."

"I know this is different, Liebling.³ We have been thrown together by circumstance, you don't love me, as a person, you love me for what I represent."

Krafft looked at her, into those eyes, his shivering stopped. "I know that, Liebling, I know that very well. You represent everything I have lost. You represent, I don't know, a second chance at happiness. At love."

She shook her head and went to him, "You're an idiot, you know that, ja?"

He sighed and muttered, "Ich weiß.⁴"

"How far is the Elbe from here?" Oster asked the pilot. Though the Sani had treated him, he was in a lot of pain. The medic was out of painkillers.

Shorty grimaced, "'About thirty miles, give or take."

Oster looked at Unteroffizier Müller, a Hermann Goering soldier who spoke English.

"He says thirty miles, Herr Hauptmann, about 47 kilometers."

Oster looked at his map, then took the map his men had taken from the pilot. Looking at his map, he figured that the village they were in was Groß Briesen. He compared that to the pilot's map. Orienting himself to that, he showed that map to the pilot, "Wir sind hier, um we are here, yes?" his finger stabbed at the map.

Shorty hesitated then realized, it wouldn't hurt to confirm the Kraut's question. Stupid bastards had lost the war, didn't they know that? In a few days at worst, he'd be liberated and these Nazi assholes would be in a prison camp, or worse.

"Yup, that's where we're at, northeast of here is Tangermoonde (as he pronounced it), we'll be over that bridge in a day or so, sweep up all you bastards."

Oster raised an eyebrow and looked at Müller, who said, "I think he means Tangermünde, on the Elbe. If there's a bridge there?"

"We move tonight, Müller please notify our commander, if he cares to join us?"

"Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann."

The Hermann Goering colonel found Oster at his command post, "Hauptmann Oster, a word?"

"Certainly, Herr Oberst."

"You believe this terror flyer? About the bridge I mean."

"Yes, I do. If we can get there, we can get across the Elbe and ..."

"Surrender to the Americans?"

"Well, yes Sir, isn't that your objective as well? Otherwise you'd be in Berlin, fighting Ivan, nicht wahr?"

Oberst Hermann von Balck grinned, "You see right through me, Oster."

¹ Jagdbomber = fighter bomber

² Shut up, American pig.

³ Love

⁴ I know