Hello everyone! As always, I'd like to thank you guys for reading and reviewing. I'm so happy that you enjoy the story.
Sorry for the short chapter, I hope you like it anyways. :)
They snuck towards the German battery through a garden. The cabbages were arranged in neat rows, Louise noted with that absent-minded, mild interest that sometimes came about when one couldn't help but notice odd, completely irrelevant details in situations where there really were far more important things to worry about.
The cannon blasts were loud enough to make her teeth ache and her stomach flip. They took cover behind a row of overgrown shrubbery and crooked trees, near a rusted, cannibalised car.
Lieutenant Winters covertly scanned the scene before joining them where they were crouched in the shadow of the thick foliage. "Petty, Liebgott, enfilading fire", he whispered, sending them off with a brisk gesture.
After briefly conferring with Buck, he beckoned Lipton over. Giving him his orders, Winters also dismissed him with a nod, turning to the British sniper who was studying the enemy position, frowning in concentration. "Fields, envelop left. Don't give away your position until you have to", he ordered. Even though he knew that it didn't need to be said, he added: "Make it count."
She nodded, briefly acknowledging with a "Yes sir" before disappearing.
.
The machine gun opening fire on them took the Germans by surprise. Although they quickly reacted and returned fire, the moment of confusion was enough for the second squad to move closer undetected.
From her perch up in one of the more densely leaved trees, Louise watched the Germans' effort to counter the attack while forcing her pulse down. The ground shock under the force of the blasts. "88s my left butt cheek", she muttered sourly. "Those are 105s."
Shots from two M-1s rang out and were answered by German machine gun fire. The trees that she'd seen Lipton and Ranney climb started to lose twigs and branches. She bit her lip as her friends took fire, the hedges peppered by bullets. Come on, come on, she urged Buck and his squad on in her mind, keeping one eye on them and one on the enemy.
Three explosions in rapid succession sent up fountains of dirt.
Buck and his squad moved in.
The tow-headed lieutenant's rifle jammed and he hurriedly yanked back the slide of his carbine.
Through her scope, Louise spotted the enemy soldier reaching for his gun. Without hesitation, she adjusted her aim and squeezed the trigger. The recoil pushed against her shoulder, butt plate against bone.
Then, Winters gave the signal for the attack, bursting out into the open with his squad of four behind him. Mortar rounds blew up around them, but it didn't' stop them.
.
Louise followed their progress along the sights of her rifle, each shot she fired felling one enemy. In the hail of bullets coming from seemingly all sides at once, the Germans hadn't managed to pin down her location. From her vantage point, the Brit had almost a bird's eye view of the battle.
She saw Popeye tumble into the trench in an uncoordinated heap. She watched Buck lob a grenade at a fleeing soldier as if he were on the baseball pitch. The grenade sailed through the air in one straight line and blew up on impact. Adjusting her stance slightly, Louise joined in on stopping the Germans from retreating to their other trenches, falling into a rhythm of breathing, aiming and squeezing the trigger between pulse beats.
Her heart skipped several beats when an explosion rocked the part of the trench where Winters and his squad were. All she had seen was a blurred figure when somebody – it might have been Toye – flung himself forward. Internally shaking her head to clear her mind, Louise refocused on her task.
A few moments later, she was reassured that the potato masher hadn't done any damage since all the guys (apart from Popeye, who had been injured) were still up and moving.
.
Louise was too preoccupied with taking out German soldiers to see Popeye being boosted out of the trench and crawling away on his stomach, but it was impossible to miss the mad scramble that followed less than five seconds later.
A grenade blew up and she grimaced as Toye was knocked back into the trench. Twice in a row. That's got to hurt.
The first thing that clued Louise in on the fact that the enemy had pinpointed her position was one of them gesturing in her direction while frantically talking to a machine gunner. Putting two and two together, the Brit grabbed her rifle and scooted backwards, intent on getting out of the firing line.
It was unmistakably clear that she'd been made when the tree started disintegrating around her, wood and leaves riddled with holes.
A continuous stream of colourful words spilled from her lips as she clambered down from her now exposed position, muttering curses that would have scandalised her mother and impressed her cousins. On the ground, the blonde sniper quickly picked out a new spot for herself. Evaluating her possibilities, she ignored the stinging pain on her face and neck where ricocheting wooden splinters had nicked her skin. She had bigger fish to fry.
The guys had captured the first gun and were well on their way to the second, but Lipton and Ranney still needed to cross that first field to get the TNT to Winters. And with all the bullets and mortar shells whizzing around, the best she could do was to continue confusing the Germans and protecting her comrades. A grim smirk ghosted over Louise's lips as she settled into the new perch a few trees over, watching with a twisted sense of vindicated satisfaction as the Germans began firing at their third gun, at their own people.
Seeing one man reaching for the radio, she quickly took aim. The shot rang out and a split-second later, the communication device was blown apart, pieces flying in all directions. The next shot knocked the soldier off his feet.
.
The first pair of machine gunners – Liebgott and Petty, judging by their statures – relocated to the first of the 105s they had captured.
Another slew of words unsuitable for polite company escaped the British woman when all of a sudden, Malarkey broke cover and dashed out into the open.
"What on Earth-?", she muttered. "Are you suddenly a medic now or what?"
While seriously questioning the state of her comrade's mental faculties under her breath, Louise did her best to ensure he survived his idiotic stunt so she could shout at him later. The gunfire stopped and she could clearly hear Liebgott call: "Now you stop firing? Beautiful."
She broke the brief cease-fire by taking out a soldier who had been about to shoot at Malarkey. The single crack of her sniper rifle shattered the bubble of confused silence and the rattling gunfire picked up again, leaving Malarkey to hightail it back to their line.
"Jesus Christ on a goddamn crutch", Louise swore fervently, not taking her eyes off the battle to watch the M-1's en bloc clip get ejected with a distinct chink!
She could field strip her weapon blindfolded, reloading without looking was no problem at all. She jammed a full clip in, let the slide snap shut and took aim again. God above.
Through sheer dumb luck, Malarkey made it back completely unscathed, despite the hail of bullets nipping at his heels.
.
Two metallic explosions later, the first two guns were disabled. Bursts of gunfire along with muzzle flashes from under the camouflage nets informed the sniper that part of their small assault team had managed to secure the third of the 105s as well.
But the fight wasn't over yet.
Louise saw Lieutenant Speirs and a group of D company soldiers rush to the second gun, carrying supplies of ammo. A minute later, the members of Dog broke cover and took off towards the last gun. Even from the distance, the Brit could make out Speirs leaving the relative safety of the trench to gain the advantage of higher ground.
"Bloody hell, another lunatic", she murmured as she watched him take the last gun almost single-handedly while losing only two men.
After another resounding bang, the entire artillery battery was destroyed and the paratroopers fell back, returning to battalion.
By nightfall, they had secured Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. Another handful of Easy Company's members had found their way to them, but there were still so many unaccounted for. Among those who had joined them were Docs Pepping and Roe, and Lieutenant Nixon.
Louise had heard all about Nix's exciting day, chuckling even at the memory of his narrative.
During their assault on the battery at Brécourt Manor, Lt Winters had discovered some German maps, which he had promptly handed off to the intelligence officer. Recognising the importance of the documents – apparently, the maps had detailed the positions of every single German artillery gun in France – Nix had run the whole three miles down to the beach to relay them to command before returning to Easy via tank.
Dragging a hand through her hair and pointedly ignoring the dirt and sweat crusting the short blonde strands, Louise took a drag from her cigarette and sat down, tilting her head back and blowing a wisp of smoke up into the night air.
.
The distinctive footfalls of jump boots against cobblestone pavement made her turn her head. Liebgott was walking over to her, his stride purposeful.
He plopped himself down next to her with the grace of a sack of potatoes, digging a cigarette from one of the thousand pockets on his ODs. When he noticed the amused smirk and questioningly arched eyebrow of the British sniper, he rolled his eyes and asked: "You eaten yet?"
Louise nodded. "You?"
"Yeah", he replied. "Those rations taste like shit."
She snorted and offered: "I would have gone for fried cardboard and soggy newspaper, but that works as well."
Liebgott laughed and lit his smoke. "Got experience with that then?", he questioned, grinning when his friend deadpanned without delay: "Of course, haven't you?"
They sat together in companionable silence, each dwelling on their own thoughts. In an hour, they would be heading out for Culoville. But for now, they chose not to think about that, preferring to distract themselves by bantering and snarking back and forth.
.
Across the Cotentin peninsula, a dozen female paratroopers were trying to return to their companies. Some had grouped together with fellow troopers from the 506, others had come across men from the 502, or even their sister division, the 82nd Airborne. And a few were on their own, all alone behind enemy lines.