Arno clutched his carbine even harder and glanced down the hill. He knew portions of his platoon were taking such cover as they could in pits and behind rocks. Occasionally hostile MG fire washed down over them.
Arno thought about saying “fix bayonets” to his men. But they had no bayonets, the StG having no bayonet mount. It wasn’t designed for this. The burst of fire replaced the bayonet thrust. For this weapon and for the MP 40, this was the guiding principle. The days of the bayonet charge were long gone.
How would they get out of the shell hole without being mown down? Maybe with hand grenades? No sooner said than done. Each soldier took out a stick hand grenade. Throwing them 50 metres was a tall order, especially uphill. So Arno knew that they had to throw far, as far as they could. In addition, one must spread them along the line a little. It wasn’t any good them all landing on the same spot.
It was a difficult position. But Arno felt that it would succeed. His instinct as a soldier told him a few things, like “now we have them”… And even if it goes down the drain we have at least done our best. This he thought for a fraction of a second. But he kept his cool and thought of the follow-up forces as support. He must have more guys along than the three he had nearby. He shouted at Bauer to hang on: “Now’s the time,” Arno said. “Are you with me?”
“Aye,” came the reply from Bauer on the right wing. Deschner was also made aware that this was it. Arno turned to the three and ordered “hand grenades unsafe”. The bottom screws of the sticks were loosened and the porcelain fuses were released. When this was done Arno rasped the order, “hand grenades, fire!”
This meant, “throw” – and the stick hand grenades flew in parallel paths up the slope. When they exploded on the crest the four soldiers rushed up, like one man. Venlo took the lead and left the others behind him, taking great strides towards the crest. The ground was earthy and raked, explosions having thrown dirt around them. There was no sign left of snow at all. Impact craters were everywhere but between them the ground was firm enough for a quick advance.
An MG volley was fired at them. Escher was hit, screamed and dropped his weapon which flew away down the slope. His body was pierced by a whole bunch of unjacketed 7.62 projectiles, blood spurting from the hole in his back. He fell backwards and rolled down the slope.
The rest of the group dashed on towards the crest. The soldiers approached the position with Venlo in the lead, followed by Karnow and Arno last.
Venlo disappeared behind the ridge, followed by Karnow. Once up on the crest in his turn, Arno saw how the pair had gone off to the left side in a jumble of broken concrete walls, slit trenches and impact craters. With fire and movement Karnow and Venlo fought down the anti-tank gun and its crew. Arno grimly nodded approval.
But he needed reinforcements. He looked down the slope and saw the reserves coming. He shouted:
“Come on, Deschner! Pick up the pace!”
A steady stream of German soldiers came rushing up the slope. Once up on the crest, Arno ordered them to the right, to knock out the other anti-tank gun, dug in 100 metres away.
When about ten soldiers had dashed that way, Arno followed, hot on their heels. The main force broke into the anti-tank emplacement as he’d ordered. As he neared it, Arno saw a Russian machine gunner swinging his weapon to open fire at them. A burst from Arno’s assault rifle and the man was hit, dead before he hit the ground.
Arno decided to leave the right wing and return to the left where Karnow and the others had gone. He stopped soldier Lankow, who happened to be nearby, and took him along as a bodyguard. They reached yet another knocked out MG pit. A young, bareheaded Russian soldier was sprawled over the Maxim gun. Arno put a burst into his head. The Russian could have been playing dead. Not playing now.
It was a hard world. But in battle you weren’t allowed to be naive. “In battle the worst mistakes stem from benevolence.” Clausewitz.
The harsh rattle of automatic volleys came again from the right hand anti-tank position, a jumble of sandbags and earth mounds some 30 metres away. Arno and Lankow, for their part, continued to check the MG emplacement they were in. In a corner was yet another Russian soldier, his face a bloody mass and body torn by wounds. Shrapnel from the grenades that had been thrown, from mortar shells, the artillery bombardment…?
Lankow fired a long burst into the corpse, following Arno’s example. It was unnecessary. You could really see that this one was well dead already. But Arno let it pass. Bloodlust. Red mist. Fear. Adrenaline. Survival instinct.
Arno unclipped his canteen and drank. Again, Lankow did the same. Arno leaned out across the slope and shouted down it. If any of the platoon were still down there, they were needed in position with the main force now on the crest of the hill. They would need every last man to be ready to repel any counter-attack.
Arno took out the radio and called Captain Wistinghausen. Arno reported that the height was being cleared. The resistance was broken. Both anti-tank guns on this side of the road were being neutralised.
Arno added that on their way up they had passed wounded Panzer Grenadiers, the unit caught on the flat ground. The Captain acknowledged this, they’d get medics to them straight away. Arno then had a task for Lankow whom he ordered to go back down the slope and check on Escher. Arno guessed that he had died almost at once from the wounds from the MG burst, but he had to be sure. Lankow returned grim-faced after a few minutes and confirmed that he’d bought it.
Tumult was heard from the left side of the road. Shasta was busy clearing his part of the height. Just then Karnow arrived and confirmed that the right-hand anti-tank gun was eliminated. After that a soldier came and said that the left-hand piece was also knocked out. Arno radioed the Captain again and confirmed that the target was taken; all the enemy anti-tank weapons had been destroyed. The Captain acknowledged and broke off contact.
Arno went off past the wreckage of the left-hand emplacement, heading for the road passing by in the cutting through the crest. On the other side of the road the shooting had stopped too. German soldiers were sauntering among the ramparts. One tossed his mate a pack of Russian cigarettes.
Arno, however, was sharply aware that they were soldiers in a breakout, not tourists. He barked orders. He sent Bauer to deploy men to the north, 100 metres in the advance direction, inside the edge of the piece of woodland just beyond the meadow. This outpost would be a safety screen should the enemy try to counterattack. When that had been taken care of Arno sat down by the road in a bomb crater.
He sat on the edge of the pit, pushed on his weapon’s safety catch and slung it on his back. While he drank water from his canteen he heard engines. The noise grew as the lead vehicle in the column came up the crest. Then it drove away over the level ground, the Panzer III going along the road through the snow-covered fields and quickly disappearing into the woods some 100 metres further on. Many more Panzer IIIs came in its wake, rolling on down the road, on the way to exploit the gap they had torn in the Russian line. The vehicles passed him where he sat, Arno Greif, who now took off his helmet, scratched his hair and let out a deep sigh. Relief and satisfaction.
Huge amounts of armour passed by. It seemed endless. Winter-camouflaged tanks and SPWs rolled along the way 8th Company had opened up. This was why Escher had died there. The whole of Kampfgruppe G was getting out along this route.
14
Red Sky
Later that evening. Accompanied by the MG squad and Corporal Deschner, Arno was moving cautiously through a birch wood. The sky was red in the west and the air was laden with the scent of wet hardwood and rotten leaves. The temperature was four degrees below zero. It was dark but the scene was lit by Scheinwerfers in the sky. Company orders were to clear the enemy out of this forest, located just beyond the height they had stormed earlier that day. With the rest of the Battalion as a barrier to the east, the scattered and retreating enemy unit would be destroyed. It wouldn’t be allowed to disrupt Kampfgruppe G’s breakout any more. That was the idea.