I don't know if I actually need a disclaimer, or if having one really matters. But here's one for any lawyer's out there. I do not own Naruto, Any part of human history, or anything else I might end up using.
Grey. That's the color of Germany now. They sky is grey, the ground is grey, maybe the tree's are grey. That could be my imagination I suppose. Grey fits the mood of the Germans now, it is no longer a jubilant yellow or red like it was in June of 1940. I suppose you're wondering who the hell this pessimist is and why you're listening to me ramble. The name is Dormor, First sergeant of the 3rd company. I would list our regiment and division, but those aren't around anymore.
Thing's have fallen apart since we invaded Poland in 1939. Our mighty military machine is falling apart; our people are being slaughtered by the savage Bolsheviks or being occupied by the Americans. Our last great offensive in Belgium stopped short of it's objective and once again we are retreating. And just two weeks ago, the Americans and the British crossed over the Rhine! That's where I just came from.
So where am I now? Not where I'm supposed to be. My company was reduced to 65 men fit for action, and we were scheduled to move to the eastern front. Our Commander, captain Shaffer, refused to send us to certain death against the Russians. At the time, I had no idea what he could do about it. But he surprised me, and now we're standing in a harbor. I still don't know what we're doing here.
"First Sergeant Dormor!" That would be 1st Lieutenant Strauss.
"Yes sir?" He's not the type that likes delayed replies. It doesn't matter if he's talking to a seventeen-year-old Private or in my case a forty eight-year-old First Sergeant that fought in the last war.
"The commander is gathering up all NCO's and officer's for a briefing. Get your ass in gear! You're the only one that's late!" What a disrespectful piece of shit. Oh well, even if he is half my age, he's my superior. I got up from my crate and jogged over to him and we started walking to the lorry the commander was using for a temporary head quarters. Six months ago, there would have been well over two dozen sergeants and officers for the two hundred and fifty-man company. Now with sixty-five men, there were only 7 sergeants and a corporal.
The captain was a young man from Munich. Though if I'd just met him, I'd peg him at thirty. The war has aged him heavily; he's been our commanding officer since 1941. The other soldiers in attendance were a mix of old timers and lower enlisted that were promoted to fill the holes in the chain of command. One of them, Sergeant Adelheim, is smoking a cigar. I don't know where the hell he got that.
"Gentlemen, I am way too damn tired for a speech. So I'm just going to explain what I want to do and why I want to do it. See that ship?" He motioned to a large freighter moored about two hundred meters away. "That ship belongs to a distant cousin of mine. My cousin isn't a German he's a Spaniard. And since he flies a neutral flag, we might be able to use his ship as a way out of this damn mess. He plans to sale for neutral Spanish Guinea. It's a shitty rat hole in Africa. But it's not crawling with allies and it's certainly not over run with the SS or Gestapo. I want to put our men on that ship and hide there until the war ends. It's either this or the eastern front."
I don't know how I'm supposed to feel at this point, excited maybe? I had just resigned myself to death at the hands of the Russians and now the Captain is offering us a second chance? This man is now my favorite person in the German Army. The expressions of the other noncommissioned officers are a little harder to read. None of them seem disgusted at this obvious act of cowardice and desertion. The goose-stepping hitlerites in our company are mostly gone, the men that remain are just men doing a job. Sergeant Breuer is the first man to speak up. I probably should have voiced my opinion first as the First Sergeant, but Breuer was pretty damn quick
"Sir, if we do this, our families will probably we tortured or killed by the Nazi's. I don't think I could leave my mother and sister behind to save my own skin. I'd rather die at the front." He did raise a good point. My brother had a family in Stuttgart.
"Most of our men come from places that are under allied control at this point. Most of Germany is occupied; the Russians will be attacking Berlin within the month by my guess. By the time the Gestapo realize we're gone, the war may be over. We only need to hide for a few months at the most." The captain raised another good point. Germany was finished; we wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. There are just too many Americans and Russians and equipment and we don't have as much in the way of supplies anymore. The more I thought about it, the more I liked Captain Shaffer's plan. I finally raised my hand. I had to cover some other concerns.
"Sir, how are we going to get food or any other kind of supplies? We won't have the army supply chain and we don't have much in the way on marks. And are we going to be armed when we leave?" Corporal Schultz and Sergeant Voss nodded at this. Neither of them would be going anywhere if they couldn't eat or defend themselves. I would bet most of the soldiers in our company would share this sentiment.
"In regards to food, my cousin called in a favor with a very wealthy merchant from Sweden on his way here and secured enough food for us and several hundred other people for six months." The mention of other people piqued my interest. Who the hell could they be? The commander continued. "As for ammunition, I got in touch with a supply officer that didn't want to end up in a Russian POW camp for the rest of his life. His supplies, weapons, and ammunition will be ours. The only catch was that we'd have to let his men and himself tag along with us. The only figure I have is 250,000 rounds for our assorted small arms. As for the rest of what he's bringing, I can't say."
That is a shit load of ammo for our small infantry company. The captain said several hundred other people though. Are they civilians, or maybe soldiers from other units? Sergeant Farber beat me to the punch. I am really slow today.
"Sir, who exactly will be coming with us?" Shaffer didn't waste any time beating around the bush with this one.
"There will be 300 civilians joining us that don't feel like sticking around. There will be about 20 men from the quartermaster's unit, and a final 35 infantryman from another company that feel the same as we do. That's just the people on our little ship. A U-boat will be joining us as an escort. Another distant cousin of mine that wants out of this war." So we have submarine and a rogue freighter fleeing Germany in the closing months of world war two. Someone should write a book about this someday.
"Do any of you feel compelled to stay and serve out your duty to the fatherland? Or will you leave with me?" He was blunt about this. I liked that about the commander. No one seemed to object to his scheme, so we were dismissed with the orders to tell our men only what they needed to know. The privates were not getting a say in this. I put out the order for everyone to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Soldiers needed to have their kits backed and weapons cleaned at all times. I inspected the men twice a day and made them go through three emergency evacuation drills. The days went by and people from out of town began to show up. Most of the civilians were young. I caught a lot of them paying Captain Shaffer in gold. I guess that's how he's repaying his cousin. I figured out why so many of the civilians were young women. They came from respectable families and they didn't want the savage Russians or hillbilly Americans violating their daughters.
Sending them away with a bunch of horny soldiers didn't seem like a great way of accomplishing this mission, but I suppose my boys are still German… Except for Private First Class Gunter, he's an Austrian.
A week came and went. The civilians were staying on the ship while we stayed in the warehouse with the supplies that were starting to show up. The soldiers from the other company made it too. I was going over some supply manifests when I loud knock on the beam I was leaning against startled me from my task. I looked up to see Sergeant Mueller standing over me. The bastard was always a sneaky one. He had to be, he was our only surviving company sniper.
"What're you looking at First Sergeant?" He gave me a confused look when I shot him a glare for startling me.
"I'm going over the supply lists. A very dull task that I wish I could saddle you with." Mueller laughed and sat down next to me using his helmet as a seat. He grabbed some of the papers I hadn't looked at yet and read them.
"What the hell do we need a movie camera for? It says we have 20 camera's and 200 meters of film!" He went on to question why we had farm equipment too. I honestly didn't know why we had those things either.
"Maybe the Commander wants to trade with the locals? Or maybe we may need to permanently plant our roots somewhere. I guess it never hurts to have those things."
"Oh come on First sergeant! I know of four farmers' in our company! I think the Austrian raised chickens if that counts. And I will bet you five marks most of these aristocratic civilians don't have know jack shit about farming!" Mueller was always the eccentric one of the company. I don't know how he made sergeant with the attitude he has. He's the only one that will talk to me this informally too. I guess that's why I like him so much. And he saved my life once by shooting a British sniper that had me pinned.
"It's not our job to question the captain's order's. Besides, I doubt he knew about half of these things before they showed up. We should be thankful that we have plenty of weapons and ammunition."
"We get any antitank weapons?"
"Yes we have one Pak 36 with 150 shells." He raised his eyebrows here comes the sarcasm.
"Oh boy! An Army door-knocking device! Did we liberate an ammo dump from 1941 or something?" I laughed to myself. Most of the weapons heavier weapons were obsolete weapons from 1942. He was close though.
"We have some Panzerschrecks too, if we fight armor we can take them out." He didn't seem convinced though.
"With respect Dormor, if we have to fight armor we're fucked." I didn't say anything to him. He was right about this. I believe the commander would surrender before fighting a force with tanks. We have too many noncombatants. He didn't stick around to finish the conversation. Mueller stood up and left without a word. I don't blame him; the war has taken a heavy toll on all of us. I went back to reading the lists.
Another week passed before I was called before captain Shaffer. I stood at attention as he finished writing something down on a piece of paper. He handed the paper to a soldier and told him to take it to captain Santiago, the owner of the ship we'd be sailing on. He stood up and looked at me.
"Stand at ease First Sergeant, the time has come. I want you to brief the squad leaders as soon as you leave here. The men are to sleep in uniform and their kits are to be packed by 1800. I want everyman with the exception of guards to be sleeping by 2000. The men will be roused and formed up by 0230. We will be boarding the ship by 0300 and casting off by 0330. Is this understood?"
"Yes sir!" They were really simple orders essentially a bedtime and a wake up call.
"Good. Any man that causes us to be late will have the shit smoked out of them understood?" Once again, a pretty simple order.
"I think Sergeant Hoffman can handle that with ease sir." Captain Shaffer nodded and dismissed me from his presence. I walked over to my corner and had a private gather up the NCO's. I told them what the captain said and they dispersed to tell their men.
The next morning was rather cold for an April morning. One hundred and twenty men stood in formation in the dark. The dock lights were making their coal scuttle helmets shine.
"Company!" I yelled.
"Platoon!" The platoon sergeants yelled.
"Attention!" The men went from parade rest to attention like machines. Drill and ceremony is always something to behold. "Right…"
"Right…" The platoon sergeants echoed.
"Face!" The entire company moved as one to face right.
"File from the right, forward… March!" Starting from the file on the right the soldiers marched onto the ship. Our journey had begun.
We had been at see for 3 weeks when the massive storm hit us. I don't know where it came from, it was clear the entire day. I don't think it was a hurricane, but what does a former farmer from Bavaria know? I have never seen lightening so loud and vivid in my life. I wasn't scared, but I found myself trembling all the same. The men and civilians were shitting their pants. Captain Santiago said he had never seen a storm that bad before, and he had a legitimate concern whether the ship would capsize or not. But it the end we remained afloat with no loss of life. Or that's what I thought originally. We lost contact with the U-boat. I don't know if it sank or if we were just carried away from it. But in the end it didn't matter; we were on our own.
Things started getting worse. The storm threw us off course, and Santiago admitted we were lost. His crew couldn't navigate by the stars either; they couldn't find any they recognized. We tried to keep this from getting out as long as possible, but the rumor mill works by itself. After a few weeks of just going in whatever direction Santiago thought would work, we ran out of gas and began to drift. We still had enough food for 3 months, but that wouldn't stop people from panicking. Right when things started to look really ugly, a civilian started screaming his head off. I couldn't make out what he was saying and soon more voices were adding to his own. Feeling a riot, I grabbed my Schmeisser and ran onto the deck. It wasn't a riot at all. I couldn't see why people were so jubilant. I began yelling to get people to be quiet but that didn't work. I was about to shoot some rounds into the air when Mueller worked his way from the crowd and came to me.
"Mueller! What the hell is going on?" He smiled a very rare Mueller smile and pointed in the direction the crowd of soldiers and civilians were facing.
"Land!"
While most people were excited to have found land, I wasn't so easily convinced. How were we going to get there? We were out of gas! I brought this up to the captain and we went to Santiago. The Spaniard said that the current may take us in and we might run aground. Only time would tell.
That time only turned out to be four hours. The ship ran aground about one hundred meters from the shore. Orders were given and cargo and personnel were being loaded on lifeboats and taken ashore. The soldiers and the weapons went first for defensive purposes. Half of them dug trenches while the other half stood on watch. We had been digging for several hours when a soldier that was on watch approached me.
"First Sergeant?" I put down my spade and looked up at him.
"What do you need Wilhelm?"
"I don't think we're in Africa First Sergeant. This place is Temperate!" He was right. The area we landed on was a beach of course. And we were digging our defenses about a kilometer inland. We were half a click or so from any trees but when I looked through some binoculars, they didn't look tropical at all. In fact, they reminded him of some pictures he'd seen of main land Japan. And to support the private's claim, it wasn't overly humid or hot.
"Go find Sergeant Mueller and have him report to me with his squad. I want them combat ready." I turned to another soldier and told him to tell Captain Shaffer that I wanted to send a patrol out and requested his permission. Both soldiers moved to their respective objectives.
Mueller and his seven men were standing by fully equipped when the runner returned from the captain.
"First Sergeant! The Captain says you can send the patrol out!" I nodded and the soldier went back to digging. I approached Sergeant Mueller and his squad.
"Alright listen up. We don't have shit for maps so a compass is all you have for land navigation. Don't get your Asses lost! Here's your mission. Scout out the area for a more defensible position. Next, try to find some locals and establish relations with them. Don't be stupid and shoot anyone unless you have too. I want you back before sundown. Am I clear?"
No one raised their hands so I took it as understanding. They marched past the trenches in formation and disappeared into the trees. Several days went by and still no sign of Mueller and his squad. We had dug trenches and dugouts to live in. You wouldn't know we were there unless you walked on top of us. All of the cargo was ashore and secured in the parameter. In all, our position had had 435 souls inside. This is including the 15-man crew from the freighter and Mueller's squad. After 3 more days of sitting around and nothing happening. Three men burst from the tree line in a dead run. I had eyes on them in seconds. Through my binoculars I could tell it was Mueller and two of his men. They still had all of their equipment, but I noticed right away he was missing five men. The men were on alert in minutes and rifles and machine guns covered the entire parameter. We even had 3 mortars in the center of the complex. Mueller and what was left of his squad jumped into the trench and I made my way over to them.
"What the hell happened? Where are your men?" He waited to catch his breath and looked me in the eyes when he spoke.
"We made it about 2 hours past the tree line when we were jumped. We didn't even get to shoot; they were all over us. I broke one's skull with my rifle and Albert stabbed one with his bayonet, but we didn't stick around. We ran as fast as we could and got lost. Two of my men are still out there somewhere and I know three were killed in the fighting." Mueller wasn't happy over the loss of his men. None of the company would be happy over it. But this is war, and men die.
"Were they Americans? British? French Foreign Legion maybe? Why'd they attack you without using firearms?" I didn't want to interrogate Mueller, but I needed to know the details so we could better face the enemy. Mueller was a good and experienced soldier; he understood this.
"They weren't wearing uniforms that I could tell First Sergeant. Though they were wearing armor. And they didn't use guns because they didn't have any. Not that I saw anyway." No guns and Armor? What kind of enemy are we facing? "They had swords and spears too. Their leader was so fast it was beyond my understanding. He was just on top of my point man with a knife and then he was on my second man. The only reason we escaped was he didn't have the time to get all of us before we disappeared." I was about to say something when I soldier cried out. I looked over the trench and saw a large group of people standing at the edge of the tree line. Looking through my Bino's I could see exactly what Mueller was talking about. Their armor was oriental and so were their weapons. I could see fifty of them and they were standing by the five hundred meter marker!
"Where's my Artillery Observer?" I yelled over my shoulder. We were lucky to have someone who knew how to call for fire.
"Right here First Sergeant!" I handed him my binoculars.
"Blow those fuckers straight to hell!" The soldier nodded and looked down range and then got of the radio.
"Stove Pipe this is Eagle eyes, direction 6321 distance 500, fire for effect, over!" He waited for a second and then we turned to me. "12 rounds incoming First Sergeant!" I nodded and watched the enemy with a pair of binoculars I stole from sergeant Breuer. The enemy was just standing there. The probably didn't see us. The sun was to our backs so it wouldn't reflect off of our lenses. They might even be trying to figure out what happened to Mueller and his men. A few second later, the first three mortar rounds landed amongst the warriors. The observer was dead on with his fire mission. Shrapnel tore into the warriors as they stood in the open. Blood and limbs flew through the air as the mortars rounds cut down men. As soon as it started it was over. The band of brigands had been reduced to a handful of wounded survivors. They tried to scramble away and most of them succeeded. A lone shot rang out from the trench and a warrior fell. I looked to my left to see Mueller aiming down his scope.
"I got to kill two more of these bastards before their debt is paid." I looked down range and nodded at the carnage we had wrought.
"All in due time Sergeant. All in due time."
I had to explain to the commander what had happened later that day. He wasn't happy over the three men we had lost but was happy about the way I had handled the problem. I had sent out Sergeant Farber's squad to see if any of the warriors had survived, and they brought back two. They appeared to be a race that we had never seen before. They were human, but didn't follow any of they racial norms. They seemed to be a blend of Asian and Caucasian. One had silver hair and the other bad black. They both seemed rather young. We tried to talk with them, but they spoke some language no one in the entire fort understood. It sounded sort of like Japanese but it wasn't the same. We had their hands and feet bound and stuck them in a 3-meter deep hole with a metal fence cover that was used as a bullet casing collection point. I was observing them when a corporal from the quartermaster unit approached me.
"First Sergeant, my I offer you a suggestion?" It wasn't very often a corporal offered me suggestions, but he looked older then a normal corporal. He was probably one of the later draftee's.
"Go ahead Corporal."
"I was doing some thinking. These people don't use guns they use swords right? Well trenches seem kind of pointless against swords and spears."
"Being below ground level hides us from them." He nodded and then continued.
"Yes it does First Sergeant, but as soon as they find us that advantage is lost. I think we need to construct a wall." A wall? Like a castle? Is this guy for real?
He must have guessed what I was thinking because he quickly explained. "We can make a wooden palisade out of the trees nearby. It won't take very long and we have plenty of labor and tools for the job. It will allow us to see further and they won't be able to simply run into our base or sneak in. On an unrelated note, we need to start farming and fast! We only have enough supplies for two and a half more months. It may already be to late." He was right about the food situation. The commander had already started working on that with the civilian leader and the quartermaster. But he did have a point on the wall.
"I'll bring your suggestions to the commander. Anything else?" He shook his head and walked away. When I told captain Shaffer about the wall, he thought it was a great idea. I really didn't think he would. Officers will never cease to amaze me.
2 weeks later we had a wooden wall with a walkway on it surrounding our position. We had 2 gates on it, one at the front and one facing the beach. We also had plowed and sewn 10 acres of farmland. In these weeks we didn't see any more locals. We have had a few of the civilians working with the prisoners. They've been teaching them German and trying to communicate with them. As you'd expect, not a whole lot of progress had been made. Something must have happened though, because I heard one swearing in clear German one day as I was walking by the pen. That gave me a good laugh. Nothing happened for days, and then weeks, and then months. After month three, we were living off of our own crops and whatever game wondered into our kill zone. We weren't eating like kings but we were surviving. Some of the men remarked that we were probably eating more then the soldiers did in the last war. I shuddered at the memory, if only they knew. One month later I heard that the captives were speaking decent German. I don't know how the civilians did it, but they must have been teachers back in Germany.
The silver haired prisoner was brought before the captain, Lt. Strauss, Santiago, and myself later that day. According to the teachers, he was the better speaker. We still had to speak slowly and clearly, but he understood us. The first question we asked was simple.
"Why did you attack our men?" Shaffer figured it was a simple question. He was right, slowly the local answered.
"You are trespassing on our land." I worried that this would be his answer. Especially since we can't fix this problem short of buying the land from them, but with what?
"Why didn't you try talking to us first?" This was the LT. I figured this question wasn't relevant.
"Warriors don't talk. We are warriors and so were the people we met in the woods. Talking is for leaders." I grimaced at his answer. Did we really land in a tribal area? There had to be some kind of civilization around here somewhere. I asked my first question.
"Who is your leader? We may want to talk to him and make peace." Shaffer nodded in agreement.
"Our leader is Shogun Minamoto. He has ruled our lands for thirty years and is a just ruler. If you want to talk with him, let me go and I will bring him here." I raised an eyebrow at that. How dumb does he think we are? We can't trust him.
"How can we trust you? And even if you are honest with us, how can you be sure he will come?" Asked Shaffer. The young man seemed like he was ready for this question.
"He is my father. I am his heir. He will listen to me when I tell him that you desire peace. And he will look favorably upon you when I tell him of the reasonable conditions you've kept me in." If the little shit isn't selling us a sack of lies, this might be worth trying. I asked another question. This one was military based.
"What is the name of your country? And those men that we killed, were they great warriors or were they regulars?" He grinned a nasty grin at this question.
"We are the Land of Fire. It is a small nation now, but it will be strong! And as for the warriors you killed, they were militia. Farmers called to arms. Nothing more then that, the elite soldiers have yet to take to the field. I would send me to my father so we can discuss peace before it's too late!" He was going to say more I believe but Shaffer held up his hand.
"It's been over three months since you attacked us and no offensive has taken place. Why is that?" I figured the kid would be hard pressed to answer this one. But I guess not.
"We attack when the time is right. That doesn't always mean right away. You killed so many men in such a short time; he may be gathering large numbers of men. He can't do that during harvest season." The little shit has a point. We're trapped between a rock and a hard place on this one. The captain motion to the two soldiers and they took the prisoner away.
"So what's the plan gentlemen? We take him at his word and attempt to parley for peace or hold him and try to call his bluff?"
"If we kick him out of the fort with a blindfold on he won't be able to give defensive details. So how would it hurt us? We'd still have another captive." Said LT. Strauss. I was inclined to agree. We didn't have the manpower to fight a war against anybody. If we can sue for peace, it might be a really good idea. This is what I told the commander. We talked about it for a good two hours before we came to the conclusion. In the end we decided to let the kid go. We put a hood over his head and dropped him outside with 3 days worth of food and water and a knife and told him to make good on what he promised.