Hey everybird! What's up!?
Guess who's finally back!?
I have actually just finished my last test and I'm a bit exhausted, but you all have been waiting long enough for my return!
Also the four year anniversary of when I first created my account here has passed, which means the four year anniversary of my very first post is coming up! On January 25th to be exact! And I got something special that's going to come on that day, but that's all I'm saying, I'm keeping that story extremely confidential until that day comes!
Now for this story, which is this year's Christmas story, doing something different from my previous Christmas stories, which is to say that this story isn't going to be as bright as the others. Also, just like the story I written on the American Revolution for the Fourth of July, this story reflects the attitudes and views of the time period and does not reflect my own personal views and opinions!
Lastly, I'm feeling a bit rusty, it's going to take a few days to get back into the swing of things, so my apologies in advance if the story is not good enough!
And without further ado…
Chapter 1: Story around the Fire
The year was 1944 and the Second World War was in its final stages, since the fateful year of 1942, the Allies had been pushing back on all fronts. In Europe, the once invincible German army, which swept through Europe and North Africa from 1939 to early 1942, was now reeling back in defeat. The Western Allies having driven the Germans out of North Africa before invading Italy and knocking Germany's major ally out of the war by mid 1943. Over on the Eastern Front, Germany and the Soviet Union had been battling it out, key battles like Stalingrad and Kursk being fought which would end up in the Soviets' favor before the Soviet Red Army finally began their advance across Eastern Europe in the beginning of 1944.
And on June 6, 1944, the invasion of Normandy, France finally took place as American, British, Canadian, Commonwealth, and Free French forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, liberating Paris within a couple of months and then continuing on to free all of France, as well as the rest of Nazi-occupied Western Europe by early December of that year. Now all that remained was the invasion of the German homeland itself and the war in Europe would be over.
However the Allied advance was much faster than what both the Allied and German command had expected and as such the Allied supply lines was stretched, not having kept up with the front line, also the many weeks of combat had exhausted the Allied troops. Therefore, Allied command put a halt on the advance until these problems could be solved before invading Germany. Meanwhile Adolf Hitler, the ruthless dictator of Germany, decided to use this opportunity to strike a crippling blow against the Western Allies. Hitler decided that if the German army could break through the Ardennes region in Belgium and drive on to capture the Belgian port of Antwerp, he could split the Americans and British and thus seek a separate peace with the Western powers instead of unconditional surrender. Of course this was all unrealistic and based on Hitler's wild fantasy as the plan went ahead.
On December 16th, after a two hour artillery barrage with 1,600 guns, 200,000 German troops supported by a thousand tanks attacked the weakly held American lines in the Ardennes region, which consisted of new recruits and battle weary troops. The Germans quickly overrunning the initial American positions as American soldiers either surrendered or were routed. What intact units remained in the area established what defensive positions they could at strategic sites like road junctions and ridges to hold back the Germans.
Meanwhile word of the attack came to Allied command as they tried to make sense of what was happening and organizing a counteroffensive to drive back the Germans. Until than, Supreme Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower hastily ordered the American 82th and 101st Airborne divisions to rush to the region to reinforce the lines there.
The 101st would be ordered to reinforce and hold the important crosswords town of Bastogne, which the Germans could use to easily move their tanks through. Soon enough as the 101st arrived, they were just as quickly cut off as the Germans surrounded the town and laid siege to its defenders. Outnumbered 5 to 1, low on supplies, and with the weather heavily overcast, Allied air support grounded, the 101st would hold on despite persistent German attacks, becoming known as "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne".
This is a story of some of those "Battered Bastards"…
December 22, 1944, the outskirts of Bastogne…
It was a freezing day in the forests surrounding the town of Bastogne, well if you could call it day as the sky was so heavily overcast one would think it was nighttime. On the ground were the defenders of the town, members of the 101st Airborne division as they were by their foxholes, huddled around fires on logs as they shivered from the extreme cold, rubbing their wings together before blowing on them to warm them up or crossing them and keeping their wings against their chests.
Around one of the fires were several soldiers, a Blue macaw, a toucan, a red crested cardinal, and a yellow canary, all suffering from the wintry cold as they were cooking up what rations they had over a small fire struggling to stay ablaze. Their beaks chattered as they shared a conversation to try to keep their spirits high and forget about the cold.
"I hope all our suffering is worth it." The yellow canary spoke.
"It will Nico, trust me soon enough we'll open up that club we always talked about once we get rid of that f*** face Hitler." The cardinal replied.
"I hope you're right Pedro, but when we do open it up, I say we open it up down in Florida, so we never have to deal with another winter." Nico the canary suggested.
"Agreed." Pedro the cardinal said back as he then blew some of his warm breath on his wings.
"I'm just looking froward to getting back to my sweet wife Eva." The toucan spoke up. "Man, I can't wait to come back home when this goddamn war is over so I can kiss her delicious beak, what about you Tiago?" The toucan asked the blue macaw next to him.
"Me, Rafael?" The blue macaw named Tiago asked.
"Yes you, who else?" The toucan named Rafael replied.
"Well, I do have my own sweetheart to come back to, Lisa." Tiago stated dreamily, feeling warm just thinking about her before taking out something from one of his uniform pockets. "As soon as I come back home, I'm going to make it official." Tiago holding onto a ring.
"Well, good luck buddy." Rafael smiled. "Remember happy wife, happy life."
"Why don't you tell us more about her and how you met each other?" Nico suggested.
"I'm not so sure you guys want to hear that…" Tiago blushed as he felt a little embarrassed.
"We got the time and what else are we going to do?" Pedro reminded Tiago.
"Well okay, it was before the war, about four years ago…
About four years ago, in Rockland County, New York…
It was the last day of school before Christmas vacation and to celebrate the upcoming holiday, schools had Christmas balls in which students could dance and mingle with each other. At one of the high schools, Tiago was closing up his locker, looking froward to the ball as he was talking to one of his friends.
"Aren't you excited Tiago?" Tiago's friend asked the blue macaw. "Two whole weeks without school and a celebration here to kick it off.
"Yeah, I can't wait." Tiago smiled in return.
As the two were talking, rushed, loud whispers were heard nearby from other students as Tiago and his friend turned their heads to see what was up. Coming down the hallway was a Scarlet macaw girl, in a beautiful school dress, with her head hung down and holding onto her school books tightly against her chest, she was trying her best to ignore everyone else and avoid eye contact as she walked down the hall, past Tiago and his friend.
"It's just that Lisa girl." Tiago's friend said as Tiago's gaze was fixed on her. "Earth to Tiago."
"Huh? What?" Tiago replied as he snapped out of it. "Sorry, I was thinking about something else."
"So anyway, I'm done here I'm going to go ahead to the ball, see you there?" Tiago's friend asked him.
"Yeah sure." Tiago replied.
Lisa was one of those non-social girls, kept to herself and sat down alone during lunch, the girl everyone talked about behind her back, making comments about how weird she was. However Tiago felt something different, he couldn't place it but well he wanted to ask her out, only every time he was afraid to do so because he was afraid what everyone else would think about him. Tiago felt he might never get the opportunity as he sighed before going to the gymnasium where the ball was being held for the students.
The gymnasium was decorated with festive colors as music played and students either danced together or enjoyed refreshments and chatted with each other. Tiago joined and mingled around, enjoying himself with his friends as the time went by.
Soon enough the students by the gymnasium's entrance stopped what they were doing as Tiago took notice and looked to see that Lisa came, most likely she hesitated in joining before finally deciding to take the chance. Only her welcome was not very good.
As Tiago watched, he saw some tough looking boys come up and ridicule her, he couldn't make out what they were saying, but it certainly had an impact as after a few minutes Lisa just run back out, with tears streaming down. No one comforted her or came to her defense as she ran out of the school, Tiago felt his heart sink as he watched her go.
"Well, that's over with, lets get back to our conversation Tiago." One of Tiago's friends told him. "Tiago?"
"Sorry, excuse me." Tiago answered, paying attention to his friend for a second before making his way through the crowd of students, exiting the gymnasium and walking through the school hallways before finding Lisa sitting outside on a bench. "I can't believe I'm doing this." Tiago told himself as he went outside to Lisa.
There was recently a snowstorm and fresh snow still blanketed the ground and everything above, so Lisa just sat down on a layer of snow on the bench, ignoring the wet, cold substance that she cried. Tiago silently came up and before sitting down wiped off the snow from part of the bench before taking a seat.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Tiago asked softly.
Lisa became alerted to Tiago's presence as she let an eye to see him.
"Go away." Lisa sobbed.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm not here to make fun of you, I just came to see if you were alright." Tiago replied, to reassure Lisa.
"Why?" Lisa asked. "No one likes me, why should you?"
That question hit Tiago hard and he didn't have a clear answer, so well he decided to tell the truth.
"Well because I like you." Tiago said. "I can't really explain it, but I do."
"Really?" Lisa asked, a bit confused. "Aren't you worried about what your friends might think?"
"Not really, I just hang out with them so I'm not alone, plus they're just friends…" Tiago started and then said the thing that he felt stupid saying. "I never had a girlfriend, so I don't know what that's…" Tiago stopping as he realized what he was implying. "Not that I'm saying I would treat her the same way or you becoming my…" Tiago rambling on as he couldn't control himself, but luckily Lisa thought it was rather cute and funny to see Tiago like this.
Eventually Lisa thought Tiago had enough torture and decided to end Tiago's rambling as she came froward and gave Tiago a hug and kiss on the cheek, Tiago feeling his cheeks glow bright red.
"I like you too." Lisa saying after the kiss.
Back to the present…
"And we started dating, I lost my friends, but I gained something more." Tiago continuing the story to his squadmates. "When the war started, I had to wait a year before I was old enough to enlist, but when that birthday came I signed up and I had a long talk with Lisa."
"I bet it was tough." Rafael commented.
"It was, but it will be all worth it when I get to come back home and share a really special night with…" Tiago stopped as a new voice joined in.
"That's my little sister you're talking about Private Tiago." The voice said from behind Tiago he, along with Rafael, Nico, and Pedro stood up to attention.
The voice belonged to none other than our captain, Alex, a slightly older Scarlet macaw.
He was also going to be my future brother in law…
Man, this first chapter came out much longer than I expected! However I guess it's because I added all the narration and such!
I hope you all enjoyed and…
See everybird later!