“Raus!”
The two platoons rushed forward, leaving behind a section to support the machine-guns set up behind as cover.
Von Scharf screamed loudly, partially because his wounded foot cannoned off a lump of brick, and partially because the muzzles of a lorry-mounted twin-DShK swung in his direction.
His brain quickly calculated that he was a dead man, but his heart drove his legs forward and worked his right hand, the index finger pulling the Gewehr-43’s trigger in a futile attempt to preserve his life.
The muzzles stayed silent, despite the efforts of the gunner.
The loaders ran as the grey-green tide swept over them.
Eyes wide open in terror, the gunner evacuated both bladder and bowels as one of Scharf’s men dragged him from the gunner’s position.
“Prisoners, Herr Oberleutnant?”
“Ja…”, Scharf took in the surroundings and pointed to a large bomb hole off to one side.
“There… put the boy in there… stand guard and no risks. Alles klar?”
The foul-smelling gunner was pushed along by the muzzle of a rifle, taking refuge in the hole where he was subsequently joined by two more prisoners, each equally young and equally scared.
Keller appeared, his cheek streaked with blood.
“Just a scratch… grenade splinter I think.”
He nodded at the prisoners.
“They’re just boys, Herr Oberleutnant. All of this lot were just boys… fifteen at best I reckon.”
Von Scharf automatically checked his weapon as he spoke, his face altered by a wry smile.
“Then maybe this war’ll be over quicker than we thought eh, Keller?”
The low laugh betrayed the NCO’s views on such stupid thoughts.
“Right… I’ll get this lot organised and we’ll attack immediately.”
Soviet mortar rounds started to arrive, clearly called in to keep the assault force away from their target.
“Let’s move, Keller!”
A dull swooping sound and one German soldier dropped to the ground as his stomach started to spill from his riven belly.
The three Soviet prisoners on whom it had dropped barely resembled human beings.
“Sani!”
The orderly was already on his way to the stricken guard, knowing all he would achieve would be to ease the veteran into the afterlife with morphine.
The mortars’ rate of fire increased, which in turn spurred the platoons to greater efforts.
A small firefight developed when an unseen trench, near the base of the tower, burst into life, its five occupants opening fire prematurely and failing to register a single hit on the attackers.
The location was quickly flanked and two grenades silenced resistance.
First platoon swept either side of the church, leaving third to go up the centre and assault the main entrance.
The first pair through the tall rounded double doors had spilt either side, but it hadn’t saved either of them, as both PPSh and DP-28 poured fire into the narrow confines of the entrance.
A runner from Keller arrived.
“Herr Ober… leutnant…”
“Catch your breath, kamerad… steady now.”
“Sir, Unteroffizier Keller… reports growing numbers of enemy… coming through the marketplace… like a counter-attack is developing…”
Growing sounds of small arms fire supported Keller’s view.
“Alarm! Panzer!”
The call came from the AlterHof side of the church grounds, and was quickly followed by the detonation of one of their few panzerfausts.
Von Scharf realised instantly that it was too late to pull back, as Soviet infantry came into view in AlterHof, and yet others emerged from Südenmauer.
The radio operator called urgently, adding to his officer’s mental load.
“Sir, headquarters, Oberstleutnant Bremer himself, Sir.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Von Scharf spoke quickly to Keller’s runner.
“Can you make entrance to the church your side there?”
“Yes, Herr Oberleutnant. Windows and a door.”
“Tell Keller that we’re stuck here. It’s up to him to gain entrance… and do it fucking quickly!”
The man was instantly on his way.
“Scharf.”
The radio crackled into life and the commander of the Kampfgruppe broke the news of the enemy counter-attack.
“Ah Scharf…it seems we’ve driven straight into the 513th Motorised Rifle Division’s centre. A new division, not on our intelligence sheet. Probably just arrived, as it’s not on that map. It has an integral tank battalion, so watch out for tanks, over.”
“Already encountered some at the bridge, and now near Bartholomäus church. We’re already nearly surrounded by the enemy surge. I’m going to barricade myself inside the church until the attack is beaten back. These new troops, Sir, they’re boys and old men, low quality, over.”
“That may well be, Scharf, but air reconnaissance reported a column moving up. We’ve checked it with your map and it’s coming from a position marked for a Guards Engineer Brigade, so don’t expect children and geriatrics when they arrive, over.”
Firing from inside the church revealed that Keller had made an entrance.
Scharf waved one section forward, to try the main entrance again.
“Sir, do we have any air support, over”
“Not yet. It appears that our 1st Panzer-Grenadieres have run into a tank unit and are having a time of it, over.”
Von Scharf dropped the handset and put two rounds a piece into the pair of Soviet infantrymen who loomed up behind his radio operator.
The funker went white as a sheet but stuck to his radio.
Retrieving the handset, Scharf was eager to get moving.
“Sir, I must sign off, It’s getting hot here. I’ll contact you once we’re in our strongpoint, over.”
“Keep your heads down, Scharf. Our artillery took a beating from some counter-fire, but we do have more artillery coming soon, so if you can provide some fire control, it will help. Hals-und beinbrach. Out.”
A single bullet whizzed past his ear as he passed the handset back.
“Raus, Schneider.”
The radio operator needed no second invitation.
Inside the church, the firing had stopped and Keller was already making it into a fortress.
“Then fix the shitty thing, Schneider. It’s vital.”
The radio had simply decided that enough was enough. Whilst it seemed undamaged, there was no spark of life in it.
Spotting from the tower proved to be a hazardous duty, and one Gefreiter had already been shot dead trying to look around.
The Soviet OP had been disposed of, mainly by the sniper, the remaining two men quickly cut down by the first landser to reach the top of the tower.
Across the way, Von Scharf had spotted his sniper, safely concealed in a gorgeous spot adjacent to the chimney stack in a ruined attic. How he had got there, Scharf had no idea, but it was a perfect place from which to shoot and feel safe from interference.
Three Soviet rushes had faltered around the church, as the heavy structure performed like a fortress for the defenders.
For the last twenty minutes, the Guardsmen Engineers, for that was what they clearly were, had satisfied themselves with containing the bottled-up Germans, whilst the rest of what was probably a reinforced battalion pushed hard against the bridgehead.
Scharf’s men at the bridge were having a very hard time, but the STUG was holding the tanks at bay superbly, having added three more to the tally of metal hulks in front of the German line.
Von Scharf found a hole in the stonework and used it to observe enemy preparations for another bridge attack.