Chapter 10: Final Fight
The day had arrived the commander made his last minute talk about the operation. Two snipers were placed at rooftops to take out the first wave of infantry, Jim and Hawkins placed bombs under all the bridges so that when all else fails, the bridges which were the only way the Nazis would advance smoothly would be blown and that could take the Nazis a long time to cross the river as the next bridge was kilometers away unless they could afford to move the heavy tanks across the made up bridges of any kind.
Each soldier took seven petrol bombs made from scavenged cocktail bottles, armed themselves with rifles other than those who were snipers. Jim and Hawkins sneakily laid a total of 15 explosives in the town and covered them with planks of wood that were for demolishing the German tanks. Oliver's bearded looks and with added sunglasses suited the motorcycle and sidecar as his trusted companion, Vincent, sat at the sidecar mounted with a machine gun to take down infantry. Some hid amongst the ruins of houses once bursting with life while others idled behind bunkers built out of sandbags. A soldier was using binoculars to have a lookout for the enemy while squatting on top of a blacksmith's store.
The soldier on lookout suddenly saw a few people dressed in dark uniforms marching in groups and realized that their "Doomsday" has indeed arrived. He was so surprised that he fell down the building and ran across the bridge continuously shouting, "They have come! They have come! Don't sling your guns anymore. Load them! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!"
The soldiers indeed were prepared for the worst; all held their weapons tighter and aimed at the entrance where suddenly, some soldiers came into view. Oliver had already planned when to fire when the soldiers came into a boundary marked with two planks of wood put in a cross formation. The German soldiers did not realize this until the nearby enemy killed the first few rows of infantry. They all fired back wildly, killing two of the resistance forces. Some of the Americans lighted the cloth linked to the petrol bombs and flung them towards the maddened enemy, which blew up.
Oliver and his comrade became trigger-happy after speeding towards the Nazis, spraying blood in every corner. Jim accidentally triggered one of the mines that were within the radius of the German infantry, sending them flying around. After minutes of fighting aimlessly, the Nazis regained their wits and went into the blind spots of each American. Some threw grenades into the building where the snipers were and it collapsed, burying them alive.
One of the Nazis threw a grenade inside the house where Jim and Hawkins were. Hawkins quickly grabbed it and "returned" the grenade, causing the German to be blasted to death. Some other Americans were attacked from behind.
Finally, the German Tiger and Panzer tanks rumbled into the town, one of them fired its first shot, causing another house to collapse. A handful soldiers had retreated to the bridges while others threw the last of their petrol bombs into the tank's funnels, blowing the Nazis inside them to death when the artillery inside had a chain reaction when the petrol bombs exploded. The mines Jim and Hawkins laid were effective in dealing with the tanks. Some Americans had their bodies shattered into pieces when they did have enough time to escape. It was bad for Oliver and his comrade when their motorcycle was smashed along with them when it turned over when making a dangerous turn and was crushed by a Tiger tank, which obviously did not bother about them. By then, all the Americans had already retreated towards the bridges. Some soldiers took shelter behind the bunkers as the others ran across the bridge to do the last resort.
Before Jim and Hawkins could even reach the bridge, a Tiger tank fired at their direction, seriously injuring Jim, Hawkins shouted in disbelief as he had already lost Leonard earlier and would be alone if Jim himself dies too. He ran back, dragged Jim across the bridge and laid him against a parapet. "Jim! Are you all right? Listen to me! Jim! Wake up!" All Jim could respond was to cough out blood at Hawkins' face followed by breathing heavily. He raised his hand to stop Hawkins when he took out his first aid kit to heal him. "It is all useless, Hawkins, there is no need to do so."
"But Jim, I cannot leave you like that, you are dying."
"I am, and I am going up there to join Leonard and that pastor we met during the attack of Omaha Beach." Jim pointed towards the sky with his bleeding hand, "When I leave, I do not expect you to shoot yourself later on, okay? You still got a family while they raised Leonard and me as orphans, when you did not notice once before Leonard died, he gave me two letters, one from Simon, and another from himself. Now I want you to pass on three letters, with mine in it. We all had already written them before we even volunteered just in case any of us dies, remember?
"Yeah, we'd also put in small tokens in there."
"Make sure you don't disappoint us. Goodbye, friend."
"Goodbye."
And with that, Jim's head jerked forward and his body never moved again, just sitting there. Hawkins shifted Jim's position into a comfortable one, took three steps back and gave a salute.
The soldiers behind the bunkers were nearly eradicated by the German tanks. The remnants of the resistance finally went across the bridges to safety and took cover behind the seemingly endless rows of buildings. Hawkins, with tears flowing down his cheeks like an ever-flowing river, stood behind the bridge facing the German tanks with a remote control with a vengeful look, ready to blast the bridges and see those wretched German tanks fall into the river and sink into the fierce currents. The tanks moved across steadily, as if Hawkins was transparent.
Before Hawkins could move a muscle, the tanks moving across the bridges that were made of stone, exploded in front of Hawkins. He looked up as if god had helped him, but only saw the American "Tank Killers" drone across the wide sky with low humming of engines.
Hawkins lost his senses and began cheering and laughing as if he was supposed to be in an alyssum. The two soldiers sent to warn the Americans had indeed successfully made contact and so was the pilot. Reinforcements were dispatched when the fighting started; the resistance forces peeped out of the houses and went out cheering in cerebration. Hawkins saw Jim's body and went back to his sad self. He carried the lifeless body and ran towards the reinforcements, which arrived by armored carriers. He ran around hopelessly, crying for at least a medic's attention, three medics rushed towards Hawkins, carried Jim to the carrier and tried their best to revive Jim but to no avail. One of them went out of the carrier and shook his head and comforted Hawkins. Hawkins went to sit at a huge chunk of stone with his hands covering his face and cried in the mist of hurrying soldiers while Jim lay in the shelter of the carrier that was shielding from the sun's piercing rays with a face of ultimate peace and silence. .
The day had arrived the commander made his last minute talk about the operation. Two snipers were placed at rooftops to take out the first wave of infantry, Jim and Hawkins placed bombs under all the bridges so that when all else fails, the bridges which were the only way the Nazis would advance smoothly would be blown and that could take the Nazis a long time to cross the river as the next bridge was kilometers away unless they could afford to move the heavy tanks across the made up bridges of any kind.
Each soldier took seven petrol bombs made from scavenged cocktail bottles, armed themselves with rifles other than those who were snipers. Jim and Hawkins sneakily laid a total of 15 explosives in the town and covered them with planks of wood that were for demolishing the German tanks. Oliver's bearded looks and with added sunglasses suited the motorcycle and sidecar as his trusted companion, Vincent, sat at the sidecar mounted with a machine gun to take down infantry. Some hid amongst the ruins of houses once bursting with life while others idled behind bunkers built out of sandbags. A soldier was using binoculars to have a lookout for the enemy while squatting on top of a blacksmith's store.
The soldier on lookout suddenly saw a few people dressed in dark uniforms marching in groups and realized that their "Doomsday" has indeed arrived. He was so surprised that he fell down the building and ran across the bridge continuously shouting, "They have come! They have come! Don't sling your guns anymore. Load them! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!"
The soldiers indeed were prepared for the worst; all held their weapons tighter and aimed at the entrance where suddenly, some soldiers came into view. Oliver had already planned when to fire when the soldiers came into a boundary marked with two planks of wood put in a cross formation. The German soldiers did not realize this until the nearby enemy killed the first few rows of infantry. They all fired back wildly, killing two of the resistance forces. Some of the Americans lighted the cloth linked to the petrol bombs and flung them towards the maddened enemy, which blew up.
Oliver and his comrade became trigger-happy after speeding towards the Nazis, spraying blood in every corner. Jim accidentally triggered one of the mines that were within the radius of the German infantry, sending them flying around. After minutes of fighting aimlessly, the Nazis regained their wits and went into the blind spots of each American. Some threw grenades into the building where the snipers were and it collapsed, burying them alive.
One of the Nazis threw a grenade inside the house where Jim and Hawkins were. Hawkins quickly grabbed it and "returned" the grenade, causing the German to be blasted to death. Some other Americans were attacked from behind.
Finally, the German Tiger and Panzer tanks rumbled into the town, one of them fired its first shot, causing another house to collapse. A handful soldiers had retreated to the bridges while others threw the last of their petrol bombs into the tank's funnels, blowing the Nazis inside them to death when the artillery inside had a chain reaction when the petrol bombs exploded. The mines Jim and Hawkins laid were effective in dealing with the tanks. Some Americans had their bodies shattered into pieces when they did have enough time to escape. It was bad for Oliver and his comrade when their motorcycle was smashed along with them when it turned over when making a dangerous turn and was crushed by a Tiger tank, which obviously did not bother about them. By then, all the Americans had already retreated towards the bridges. Some soldiers took shelter behind the bunkers as the others ran across the bridge to do the last resort.
Before Jim and Hawkins could even reach the bridge, a Tiger tank fired at their direction, seriously injuring Jim, Hawkins shouted in disbelief as he had already lost Leonard earlier and would be alone if Jim himself dies too. He ran back, dragged Jim across the bridge and laid him against a parapet. "Jim! Are you all right? Listen to me! Jim! Wake up!" All Jim could respond was to cough out blood at Hawkins' face followed by breathing heavily. He raised his hand to stop Hawkins when he took out his first aid kit to heal him. "It is all useless, Hawkins, there is no need to do so."
"But Jim, I cannot leave you like that, you are dying."
"I am, and I am going up there to join Leonard and that pastor we met during the attack of Omaha Beach." Jim pointed towards the sky with his bleeding hand, "When I leave, I do not expect you to shoot yourself later on, okay? You still got a family while they raised Leonard and me as orphans, when you did not notice once before Leonard died, he gave me two letters, one from Simon, and another from himself. Now I want you to pass on three letters, with mine in it. We all had already written them before we even volunteered just in case any of us dies, remember?
"Yeah, we'd also put in small tokens in there."
"Make sure you don't disappoint us. Goodbye, friend."
"Goodbye."
And with that, Jim's head jerked forward and his body never moved again, just sitting there. Hawkins shifted Jim's position into a comfortable one, took three steps back and gave a salute.
The soldiers behind the bunkers were nearly eradicated by the German tanks. The remnants of the resistance finally went across the bridges to safety and took cover behind the seemingly endless rows of buildings. Hawkins, with tears flowing down his cheeks like an ever-flowing river, stood behind the bridge facing the German tanks with a remote control with a vengeful look, ready to blast the bridges and see those wretched German tanks fall into the river and sink into the fierce currents. The tanks moved across steadily, as if Hawkins was transparent.
Before Hawkins could move a muscle, the tanks moving across the bridges that were made of stone, exploded in front of Hawkins. He looked up as if god had helped him, but only saw the American "Tank Killers" drone across the wide sky with low humming of engines.
Hawkins lost his senses and began cheering and laughing as if he was supposed to be in an alyssum. The two soldiers sent to warn the Americans had indeed successfully made contact and so was the pilot. Reinforcements were dispatched when the fighting started; the resistance forces peeped out of the houses and went out cheering in cerebration. Hawkins saw Jim's body and went back to his sad self. He carried the lifeless body and ran towards the reinforcements, which arrived by armored carriers. He ran around hopelessly, crying for at least a medic's attention, three medics rushed towards Hawkins, carried Jim to the carrier and tried their best to revive Jim but to no avail. One of them went out of the carrier and shook his head and comforted Hawkins. Hawkins went to sit at a huge chunk of stone with his hands covering his face and cried in the mist of hurrying soldiers while Jim lay in the shelter of the carrier that was shielding from the sun's piercing rays with a face of ultimate peace and silence. .