The Special Delivery Raid

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 1

"Welcome to North Africa Lieutenant." Captain Hans Dietrich studied the young officer standing in front of his desk. The young man had arrived with the latest group of replacements and had immediately gotten into a quarrel with another officer. The resulting fight had drawn a large crowd of enlisted men to cheer on the combatants. Oddly enough, the youthful officer before him seemed more belligerent than contrite on being called into his commanders office. "You know Lieutenant, I had the pleasure of serving under your father in Poland."

The young soldier starred at his commanding officer without speaking.

"Your father was a fine officer."

This finally got a response from the young man. "He still is Captain."

With a dip of his head, Dietrich acknowledged the correction. "It was an honor to serve under him. I hope that our future relationship will turn out to be as pleasant."

The lieutenant snorted at the remark. "We both know why I'm here Captain, don't try to pretend that we're going to be friends."

"Perhaps not friends Lieutenant, but I do hope that we can find a way to work together. For your fathers sake, I think we should at least try to be professional."

An emotion crossed the youthful face before the Lieutenant lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry Captain, for my fathers' sake, I will try."

Dietrich nodded, "Then perhaps you could try to avoid the types of situations that brought you to my attention. Fighting among officers is bad for morale."

"Yes Captain." The Lieutenant answered sullenly.

"You're new here Lieutenant so I will overlook it this time," he paused, waiting for the Lieutenant to meet his eyes, " but it must not happen again. I won't overlook it twice, not even for your father. He would never allow such behavior in his command, and I don't usually tolerate it either." The Captain issued the warning in a stern tone.

The young officer kept his head down.

"Dismissed Lieutenant." Dietrich watched as the young officer gave him a quick salute and rushed from his office. He noticed with a frown that the Lieutenant did not bother to return the salutes of the enlisted men he passed on his way out. Pushing his way past the guard on duty, he continued to ignore everyone he met. The Captain sighed heavily and returned his attention to the latest patrol reports on his desk.

The reports took most of the afternoon to finish reading and coding to send to headquarters. He noted with trepidation that the jeeps of the Rat Patrol had been seen by two separate patrols in the area. The last report gave him something else to concern him; an inspection of his base was scheduled for the following week.

The Captain paused in his reading to consider the inspection. Normally he wouldn't have given it a second thought, but the recently dismissed Lieutenant posed a new challenge. If he kept disrupting the usual smooth flow of command on the base, morale would suffer, and efficiency would be lost. Knowing he could lose his command over a bad inspection report, Dietrich made the decision to get to the bottom of the lieutenants unhealthy attitude. Calling to an aide, he sent for another of his junior officers.

Lieutenant Otto Reitter answered the summons at a run. He entered the Captains office and came stiffly to attention; his perfect salute seemed to crack with precision.

"At ease Lieutenant." The Captain returned the salute and motioned the young officer to a chair. The lieutenant sat stiffly, still looking like he was at attention. Dietrich couldn't help but marvel at the differences in the young officers. While he had not appreciated the lax attitude of his earlier visitor, the stiff formality of this one made him uncomfortable. "Relax Lieutenant, it is just you and I here, we can forego some of the stringent formalities."

The Lieutenant nodded but remained stiff.

Dietrich sighed in resignation and walked around his desk to stand in front of the young soldier. Clasping his hands behind his back, he paused to organize his thoughts.

The Lieutenant watched him warily, his shoulders back, his spine as straight as the back of the chair.

"For petes' sake Lieutenant, I don't bite!" Dietrich snapped in exasperation.

The young officer jumped before he smiled. "Sorry Sir, just trying to be respectful."

Relaxing his own posture, the Captain smiled at the nervous youth. "And I thank you Lieutenant, but when we are alone, we can relax a bit. Respect is fine, but there are times, like this, when we can just be fellow officers. Save the rigid posturing for in front of the troops." He tried to soften his criticism so he wouldn't make the youth any more nervous than he appeared to be already. "Do you understand Lieutenant?"

Lt. Reitter nodded and let his body relax as the Captain smiled at him. "Thank you Sir."

Dietrich nodded and walked across the room to look out the window over the compound. With his back to the lieutenant he felt more at ease, less self-conscious about what he was about to ask. "Have you met Lieutenant von Strom?"

"Yes Sir." Lt. Reitter answered cautiously. We met right after his arrival." The youth lowered his head, "I was one of those who broke up the fight Sir." He sounded reluctant to voice an opinion.

"What did you think of him?" The Captain turned to watch the junior officer as he answered.

A blush crept up the face of Lt. Reitter at the question. "I don't like to speak ill of another officer Sir."

"Then you don't like him?"

"I only met him the one time Sir. I don't really know him." Lt. Reitter stammered.

"But you must have formed some sort of opinion, a first impression, so to speak."

The Lieutenant eyed his commander uneasily. "Yes Sir."

"Well?"

"He acts like he has a huge chip on his shoulder Captain. He shows no respect for either the enlisted men or other officers." The Lieutenant hesitated until Dietrich nodded at him to continue. "The men already resent his attitude and the other officers don't want to work with him. All this and he has only just arrived on the base; perhaps I should consider that an accomplishment in itself." The Lieutenant eyed his commander, afraid that he may have gone too far. He sighed with relief when the Captain only nodded thoughtfully.

"Thank you Lieutenant, I suspected as much, but it's best to have it confirmed." The Captain paced his small office, deep in thought. "I would like you to keep an eye on him Lieutenant. Keep me informed as to his behavior. If he gets into another fight, I want to know about it immediately."

"Yes Sir."

"I hate to ask you to inform on another officer Lieutenant, but we have an inspection coming up, I need to know if there is going to be a problem."

"I understand Sir." Lt. Reitter responded.

With a wave of his hand Dietrich dismissed the other officer. "Thank you Lieutenant. I will expect a daily report from you on Lt. von Strom."

"Yes Sir." The Lieutenant stood and saluted. As soon as the Captain returned his salute he spun on his heel smartly and exited the office, leaving Dietrich to his own thoughts.