Chapter 3
I escorted my platoon over to the makeshift ammunition depot behind the communications tent. The depot itself consisted of a stack of ammunition cans in a semi circle, with two guards carrying M1 Garand rifles. I walked to the young Corporal in charge of the detail and said, "My men need ammunition and grenades Corporal, Can you help us?"
"Yes Sir, I'll just need to know how much of each caliber you'll want Sir."
"Right," I replied "We'll need 12 magazines for the BAR, 4 magazines for an M1 Carbine, We'll need about 5 clips for each Garand and I'll need 6, 30 rounders for my Thompson and 2 clips for my pistol. Oh and throw in about 2 pineapples for each man."
"Yes Sir, Private see to the Lieutenant's order."
"Yes Corporal" The young private replied.
"Corporal, I'm also gonna need that deuce and a half." I ordered pointing to the green painted truck sitting about 10 feet to the left of the depot.
"Uh, Yes Sir. I'll clear it with my Sergeant."
"Good, When you do, bring it to me over by that clump of trees" I said pointing towards the outskirts of the forest.
"Right Sir" He obediently replied.
My now re-stored platoon and I made way for the clump or trees I had pointed out to the Corporal. I slung my Thompson over my shoulder and removed my ratty old map from the inside pocket of my M41 field jacket. I looked over the plan again, just to find any flaws. I wasn't sure how this mission was going to work out, but I did know that I wasn't big on dying before I saw age 24. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. I prepared myself however, for a great number of losses.
We weren't sitting by the trees for long before the Corporal I had spoke to earlier came riding up on the deuce and a half I had ordered. I stood up and ordered my platoon to get on the truck while Sergeant Claymore and I made our way to the jeep we had arrived in. I heard a voice call to me as I stepped into the jeep. "Sir, Captain Beckett wants you to have these short wave radios, he says you'll know what to do with them." A young Private explained while handing me 3 of the hand-held radios.
"Alright Will, Make sure the other 2 squad Sergeants get one of these radios." I said to sergeant Claymore.
"Yes Sir" He got out of the jeep and ran over to the truck, Sergeant McGill and Sergeant Flarhety both need one." He said handing 2 of the radios to a soldier sitting in the truck.
"ALRIGHT, LETS MOVE OUT!" I commanded to the small convoy of 2 vehicles.
The vehicle's engines roared as we accelerated down the road towards the heavily defended town of Leduc. Sergeant Claymore and Myself led the way in the jeep, the truck followed closely behind. As we traveled along the road we passed other American Infantry columns either advancing or pulling back to rest. The confusion among the ranks seemed to be dissipating as dead officers were replaced with new ones, and soldiers became hardened veterans resulting from battles fought on the days following June 6 1944. We passed soldiers taking orders from Sergeants and Officers alike. We passed the bleeding and dead soldiers from both sides of the war, either being evacuated as wounded, prisoners or dead.
I took out a Cigar and placed it in my teeth, while I looked for my lighter. I searched through all the pockets in my field jacket and all the pouches on my webbing. Unsuccessful in my search, I turned to the sergeant sitting beside me and asked, "Gotta light?"
"How many of those things do you go through a day?" He questioned, while reaching for his lighter.
"I lost track after 6 a day." I replied while lighting up my cigar.
"I remember when you first got into the war, back at Anzio. You never smoked or drank at all. Now I can roughly compare you to my grandfather, God rest his soul. You must pay the Marlboro peoples checks."
"I'm not too worried about it Will, Chances are the krauts will get me before these damn things ever do."
We came towards a town with about 15 to 20 soldiers taking cover on either side of the road, which ran right through the middle of town. I found this to be rather unusual since the town itself was quiet. As we reached the town a Military Police "Buck" Sergeant stopped our jeep. He couldn't have been much older than 20, which meant that the brass must've really been reaching for 3 stripers. The Sergeant brought his hand up into a snappy military academy type salute. I did what came naturally and saluted back.
"What's up Sergeant?" I asked
"Oh," he replied, as if astounded by the fact that anyone would address him as Sergeant. "There's about 3 snipers that need to be cleared out of this town before we can let anyone through."
"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING SALUTING ME, YOU WANNA GET MY DAMN HEAD BLOWN OFF?" I yelled angrily
"Sorry Sir" he said in a nervous tone
"Is there anything we can do?" I asked as my anger subsided.
"Uh, if you want to, you can help out the rest of the MP's clear out the buildings Sir."
"Alright Sergeant, We'll do that"
I stepped out of the jeep, Sergeant Claymore followed. I walked towards the truck. The 2 other squad Sergeants, McGill and Flarhety stood up, knowing that I was about to call on them.
"McGill, Flarhety, form up on me" I commanded
"Yes Sir!" McGill responded on both their behalfs
"We're gonna find these damn snipers, so lets get the squads together and show these MPs how to fight a war. McGill you take the right flank, Flarhety, take the left. I'll go with you. Claymore, stay here with your squad and watch for snipers up the center of the road." "Lets Go!"
I led the way for Flarhety's squad. Flarhety himself was new to the war and was learning the ropes. We ran towards the corner of a nearby building and took cover behind it. I peeked around the corner to see what awaited us. The road came to a dead end where the side of a building had literally fallen off onto the road. I scanned the upper floors of some houses and shops to find what could possibly be a good sniping position.
"See anything Sir?" Flarhety asked.
"No, but there could be a Kraut sharpshooter in the third shop down the road."
Flarhety was just about to poke his head around the corner when I grabbed him and threw him back to the ground. "Don't poke your head out, your just gonna give the bastard a target!"
I reached over to a dead GI lying on the ground about 3 feet away. His body was still warm indicating that he had been shot recently. I rolled the soldier over and removed his helmet.
"Flarhety, Get me that stick." I said pointing to a long piece of rubble. Flarhety did as he was told.
I placed the cold steel standard issue GI helmet on the stick.
"Ok," I said, "When I stick the helmet out, the sniper will shoot it. When he works the bolt on his rifle it'll take about 3 seconds. That'll give us 3 seconds to take cover behind that stair case." "Get Ready."
I stuck the helmet out slowly. Suddenly a round ripped right through the thin steel.
"GO, GO!" I yelled.
The 6-man squad made a beeline for the staircase. I slid into the stone structure as if I were in a baseball game. The remaining 5 men stumbled in behind me. I scanned the area for a way to get into the building that I had seen the sharpshooter in earlier. I saw cellar entrance that was covered by what looked like a broken park bench. I figured it would lead to the basement of the shop that the sniper was in hiding.
"Alright Sergeant," I said to Flarhety "Lets get into that cellar."
"Right." He replied.
"Lets see how cocky this guy is with 20 pounds of lead in his ass!"
"Alright lets move!" Flarhety commanded to his men.
We moved down the stairs, weapons ready, and made way up a small staircase leading to a door. As I eased the door open, it fell clean off its hinges. We climbed a second set of stairs directly to the right of the doorway we had just come through. Our footsteps fell loudly upon the old wooden structure. I was sure our presence in the building was no longer a secret. We saw a closed door on the right side of the hallway. Suddenly I heard a loud gunshot come from within the room.
"He's in there" He's in there." I whispered.
The young Sergeant Kicked the old door square in the center, it broke right in half and fell off the rusted hinges that grasped it so poorly. The whole squad burst into the room, aiming their rifles at the small man by the window.
"GET DOWN" I yelled to the sniper.
The sniper threw his KAR 98 to the floor and raised his hands in the air. This sniper would have to sit out the war in a POW camp.
"Good job Flarhety. You got a lot to learn, but you'll make a damn good squad Sergeant." I commended, not taking my sights off the kraut.
"Thank you Sir, now maybe my father will be proud of me. I can't wait to write to him about this." He replied excitedly.
"Well, go tag him Flarhety. He's your prisoner."
The young Sergeant walked over to the sniper with an exited look in his eye. Every soldier is exited when they take their first prisoner. To kill someone is easy. All you do is pull the trigger. But to have someone surrender to you, that's power. Flarhety kicked the Kraut's rifle away and pushed him down to the floor with a heavy boot. Flarhety turned towards me and smiled. I smiled back, but my smile soon turned to a look of utter dismay as I saw the sniper draw his P38 pistol and let loose two rounds interrupting Flarhety's smile into his back. Blood came spewing fourth from the two nickel sized exit wounds on his chest. Flarhety stumbled forward and fell into me. I held him up by his arms as the rest of the squad let loose with a volley of 30.06 ammunition into the kraut sniper. The rounds punctured the soft flesh of the sniper with ease. He fell bleeding to the ground.
"I DIDN'T KNOW THE COULD BLEED RED!" One of the soldiers said putting three more rounds into the dead German.
"Hold it down Taber, He's not worth the ammo" I ordered.
"You okay Flarhety?" I asked the bleeding Sergeant. I knew he was gonna die
"H-He shot me in the b-back Sir!" He replied coughing warm blood up onto my hands.
"Use this Sir" Private Howland said handing me his field jacket.
I knelt down, removed Flarhety's Helmet and slid the field jacket underneath his head. He was tense and was sweating profusely
"Am I g-gonna die Sir?" he asked nervously.
"You did a good job Flarhety." I said ignoring the question. Still being bled upon by the dying man
"Sir t-tell my d-dad that I d-dint cry wh-when I d-died." He asked.
"Okay."
I looked down at the dying Sergeant expecting him to say something gallant before he died, but all he could come up with was an un-easy sigh and some sickly coughing. He didn't go quietly, His coughing got louder and his hands and feet started to twitch frantically. He bled out more and more blood until he was completely drained of the red liquid, and he slipped into darkness. His eyes remained open after he died. I wasn't at all an honorable sight. Not like in the John Wayne movies that we were all so fond of. It was another pathetic tribute to the behavior of the human race. I moved my blood soaked hand to his eyelids and forced them shut.
I grabbed Flarhety's dog tags and ripped off one of the small metal tags. I stood up and headed towards the doorway. As I lead the squad back to the rest of the platoon I briefly looked back trying to remember Flarhety in a good way. He always talked about his father. He really looked up to him. I always overheard him talking to his friends about how his father was the one who forced him into the army, and his father who was so proud when Flarhety rose to the rank of Sergeant so quickly. I wondered how proud his father would be of his son, who died in the Second World War. His son's gallant fall from life, out in a blaze of the so-called glorious fire that was expected from a soldier in war. To me it was just another kid that I had sent to his death.
"What was his first name?" I asked in shame, "I didn't even know his first name."
"It was Dale, Sir" Taber replied.
"Dale?" I repeated
"Yes Sir." He confirmed
We arrived back at the gate. The platoon Medic, Tom McAllen and Sergeant Claymore ran up to greet us.
"You okay Sir?" McAllen asked
"I'm fine, but Flarhety's dead." I replied
I walked over to the MP Sergeant that I had the pleasure of encountering earlier.
"There's a dead man in the shop over there, there's a dead sniper there too." I explained. "Go get the American, mark and cover his body for grave detail."
"Yes Sir, and may I say Sir, by the amount of blood on your hands, I'd say ya got him good." He replied
I stared the Sergeant down and strongly debated punching him right in his bucked teeth.
"Sergeant, Shut up, get your ass over to that shop and CLEAR THOSE BODIES!" I yelled.
I walked back to the truck. I had noticed that Sergeant McGill's squad was back untouched by enemy fire. I ordered the rest of the platoon into the truck and climbed into my jeep.
"Lets go Will." I said unenthusiastically.
The trucks started off through the cleared out town.
"Well then Will, I guess were off to Leduc."