Breakout (Combined Operations Book 7)

by Griff Hosker

  I clambered slowly down, "It looks like they are making a strongpoint of Dreux. We will need to warn our allies. Time to get back."

  We were just heading across the open field towards the road when disaster struck. A pair of Kübelwagens came down the same road we had taken from Bernay. They stopped and it became obvious that they had seen us. We were walking away from a defended town and it would look suspicious. If we ran it would look even more suspicious. They were a hundred yards away and watching us. I said, quietly, "Get ready with your guns but make it look casual. I will try to talk our way out of it. If you two keep behind me they won't notice your hands are on your guns."

  "What about you, sir?"

  "I have a Mills bomb in my greatcoat pocket."

  I saw that one MG 42 was aimed in our direction as we neared them. I decided to play the officer card. When we were ten yards away and before they could speak I snapped, in my best Teutonic German, "What are you doing here? Don't you know that we need every vehicle to defend the town against the Amis?"

  The sergeant said, "I was going to ask you the same thing."

  I used my left hand to tap my collar and pips, "Sir!"

  All of them clicked their heels and said, "Sir!"

  Even as I said, "That's better!" I had taken out the Mills bomb, pulled the pin and thrown it into the Kübelwagen with the machine gunner. Then I ran at the sergeant, drawing my Luger as I did so. Behind me Hay and Beaumont sprayed the two Kübelwagen with the MG 34s. As I fell on the German Sergeant he head butted me. As luck would have it I had landed with my Luger against his stomach and I squeezed the trigger. His body convulsed and his hand came up . I pulled my hand back a little and emptied half the magazine into him. His body jumped as though he was having a fit. I leapt to my feet but the rest were all dead.

  I took the sergeant's Luger and ammunition. "Let's move. Someone will investigate."

  "Should we booby trap them sir?"

  "We haven't got time. Run!"

  We hurried across the road and made the shelter of the trees. We kept going to put as much daylight between us as we could. We were almost at the camp when I heard the sound of an aero engine. I could not see the aircraft but it sounded like a fighter. They should have used a slower Storch. It passed overhead in a heartbeat. We were safe... for a while.

  Everyone had taken cover. When they recognised us they showed themselves. "We heard the firing and expected the worst." Sergeant Poulson looked at my head, "In the wars again sir?"

  I nodded, "A sergeant head butted me."

  Scouse grinned, "The old Scotty Road kiss eh sir?"

  "There were two Kübelwagen. We tried to talk our way out of it but they were suspicious. Have you contacted the column?"

  Fletcher nodded, "Yes sir. They expect to reach Dreux in the morning. They seem to think they can walk through."

  I said, "Then get in touch and tell them that there are tanks, anti tank guns, infantry and aeroplanes waiting for them. Ask them if they have orders for us."

  "Do we leave then, sir?"

  "No. We eat. We check our weapons and we turn the half track around. Then we wait. There is nowhere better than this for us to wait. When they find their Kübelwagen and dead men they might search but I think that they will be more worried about an armoured division supported by a motorized one heading this way but we will be ready."

  After ten minutes Fletcher returned, "Sir, they are going to go for an air strike first thing in the morning. They want us to pop smoke on their positions at 0900."

  My heart sank to my boots. I shook my head, "Tell them that if they can't spot an airfield then they need glasses and the ones in the town are hidden. We will use red smoke and we will place it to the north of their position close to us."

  Scouse grinned, "Right sir. You tell 'em!"

  As he went off I said, "We will take the half track to the road. It is about two miles to their positions. I daresay we could get the half track closer but we would be spotted. Gordy we will leave you, Emerson and Fletcher with the half track. Bill, you can take Beaumont and Shepherd to the east and I will take the rest to the west. We take submachine guns. It only takes one to throw the smoke grenade and the others can provide cover. We can ditch the Jerry uniforms. Tomorrow we fight as Commandos."

  They nodded and Sergeant Poulson asked, "And after the air strike sir?"

  "Yes sir. Jerry will either be after us or heading east. You may not have noticed it but we are smack bang in their line of retreat."

  "You are right. We head up the Bernay road and come back here. This is as good a spot as any. In fact let's booby trap it now. We leave one way in and one way out." Pleased that they had something to do they set about with a will.

  Fletcher came towards me, grinning, "What is so funny Fletcher?"

  "Your dad, sir! After I passed the message on he spoke to me. He said, 'Tell my son I am pleased he knows how to question a damn fool order!' He sounds like a good bloke sir."

  "He is, Scouse, he is." I knew I had done the right thing but it felt good to have it confirmed by my father.

  As darkness fell the men returned. We did not risk a fire. We had heard vehicles travelling up and down the road but none ventured close to us. We ate cold rations with no tea and we kept watch. No one minded the poor fare and lack of sleep. We had ridden our luck of late and fate had a habit of jumping up and biting you on the bum when you least expected it.

  I had taken the midnight shift. Bill Hay woke me at five thirty with a cup of tea. "You lit a fire, Bill?" I was not criticising but it had been risky.

  "It was quiet as the grave sir and we shielded the fire. It seemed safe enough. Anyway the lads fight better with a brew inside them and we will be fighting today won't we sir?"

  "I think so." I sipped the hot sweet tea and felt immediately better.

  "What do you reckon they would have done if we hadn't warned them sir? I mean it was pure luck we found them."

  I could have taken offence at his words. I had always planned on scouting out the area but I knew what he meant. "In the long run it wouldn't have made a difference, Bill, the Germans could not have held out for long but it would have slowed up the advance and the people of Paris have risen. We need speed. The airstrikes should achieve success. It will be a double victory for if they knock out the airfield then we will have dented the German's ability to attack our fighters."

  Just then I heard a dull rumble in the distance. A civilian would have said it was thunder. We knew better. This was a heavy bomber raid. Although we could see nothing when I heard the twin Merlin engines my heart soared. They were using a Mosquito fighter bomber as a pathfinder. Dad had told me about them. Incredibly fast and light, they would drop an incendiary to mark the target for the Handley Page bombers which followed. Sure enough when the Merlin engines began to fade the sky was lit up by a fireball as it dropped an incendiary right in the middle of the airfield and then the bombers arrived. We were a couple of miles away and the bombs all must have fallen on the airfield but we felt the wall of concussion as the airfield was destroyed. No one slept. We all looked west and south as the raid demolished any airpower the Germans had in the area..

  Afterwards there was silence until I said, "Right lads. Time for us to do our bit. Let's go."

  It took some time to travel slowly through the woods, in the dark and without lights. We had time. When we reached the ambush site I saw that they had removed both the bodies and the Kübelwagens. All that remained was a charred patch of tarmac.

  "Emerson, turn the half track around. We may need a speedy retreat. Fletcher, when you see the smoke tell the column."

  "Good luck sir."

  "Good luck lads!"

  "We'll be waiting here for you."

  We separated and I led Hewitt and Poulson towards the western side of the German defences. It was light by the time we neared them and I used my glasses to see how much work they had done. The tanks and self propelled guns were hull down. They were going nowhere. The sandbags ar
ound the mortars would stop small arms fire. If the air strike did not do its job then a lot of French and American mothers would be wearing black in the near future. I pointed to the ground and Poulson and Hewitt set up the MG 42. I had insisted that I be the one to deploy the smoke. It was not heroics. I knew that I had to get it just right or the whole effort would have been a waste.

  I crawled on all fours. I had my comforter on and only carried my two automatics. I had four smoke grenades while Bill Hay had another four. We would take no chances. They had few sentries on this side. They were all facing west but there were small camps with Germans soldiers cooking breakfast and brewing coffee made from acorns. I stopped fifty yards from them. I was confident that I could remain hidden. There were folds in the ground and I had chosen a hollow, a piece of dead ground below their eye line, if they turned around. We had all mastered the technique of lying still and not moving. I suspected that it was too close but I wanted to be sure that the air strike was effective. I took out the grenades and laid them before me. I checked my watch. It was 0845. Bill and the other team should have had an easier task. I was closest to the tanks. They were closer to the ammunition and the transport. If the Germans had to flee they had the means to do so. We needed the aeroplanes to destroy their escape route.

  It was 0855 when I heard the sound of small arms fire to my left. That had to be Hay's team and they had been spotted. The men camped before me looked east. Luckily they did not look north and I held my nerve and kept to my position. I turned my head left and saw the red smoke. They had popped it early. If they had been discovered then it was understandable. It might still be there when the air strike came in but I could not hear any aeroplanes. I had to wait. An officer shouted for a squad to investigate and the men closest to me stood, grabbed their rifles and headed east. I prayed that Sergeant Poulson would hold his nerve. The second hand edged around really slowly. There was a great temptation to just throw the smoke bombs but that would have been a mistake. Finally it was 0900. I pulled the pins on two of the grenades and threw them. While they were in the air I pulled the pins on the other two and threw them. Even as the smoke began to climb to the skies I heard the sound of Typhoons as a squadron roared in.

  As I ran up the hill I had my Luger out ready. The Germans fired bullets blindly into the smoke. I was lucky; they missed. I did not return fire for that would have identified my position. I ran for my two men. Sergeant Poulson shouted, "To your left sir and drop!"

  I did as ordered and the chain saw of a machine gun spat death above my head. I heard shouts, cries and screams as men were hit.

  "Up, sir, and run. We have your back!"

  I ran and threw myself into the forest. I rose and turned. Raising my Luger I fired at the half dozen Germans who had survived the machine gun. Sergeant Poulson's burst ended their chase as the first Typhoon rockets slammed into the tanks and artillery. They might have been hull down and dug in but a pair of rockets could do serious damage to them. The camp erupted into huge explosions and we were forgotten as a great threat brought death from the skies.

  "Right Sergeant! Time to go home!"

  Chapter 18

  We reached the half track but there was no sign of Bill Hay's section. "Get the MG 42 up in the half track. Emerson, be ready to move as soon as they get aboard. Fletcher, tell them we have set the smoke." I watched the Typhoons as they peeled off, their attack finished, to head west. Palls of smoke rose from the camp. The airfield in the distance was also wreathed in flames. In the distance I heard the crack of tanks guns as the French and American columns began their advance into Dreux.

  Lance Sergeant Hewitt shouted, "I can see them, sir. Ken Shepherd is hurt." He grabbed his bag and, jumping down from the half track ran towards the three men who were hastening towards us.

  I climbed up to join Sergeant Poulson. The road below us disappeared around a corner and behind some trees. We were close to the junction with the main Paris road. I pointed. "There will be Germans coming up that road soon enough. I will act as loader."

  "Right sir." The MG 42 just rested on the rear of the half track but it would allow Poulson to traverse if he needed to.

  While Hay and Beaumont carried Shepherd to the half track I saw Hewitt working on his leg. Gordy Barker opened the rear doors of the half track and, as the wounded man was dragged on board, Gordy shouted, "Right Fred, drive!"

  Just then a German lorry appeared at the bottom of the road some hundred and fifty yards from us. Sergeant Poulson gave a burst. He hit the truck without doing too much damage and then Emerson gunned the engine and we were climbing the hill. As we twisted around the bend the Germans disappeared from sight.

  "Sir."

  "Yes Fletcher."

  "The Yanks say to keep our heads down. They are in the outskirts of Dreux."

  We made the bend and Emerson turned down the track towards our camp. We had made the ground into a deadly trap for any Germans who tried to pass through it. The Germans were all around us. "Turn it around, Fred so that we are facing the right direction. We stay inside this and make it our fort. With any luck Jerry will just take the road east to Paris and we will be safe here."

  Bill Hay joined me and Sergeant Poulson. "I'll take over as loader sir. Sorry about that."

  "What happened, Bill?"

  "A couple of Germans came to have a pee I guess. Anyway they saw us and we had to shoot them. Then all hell broke loose. I knew that we were close to the time for the smoke and I popped mine. Then Shepherd was hit. We lost a machine gun. Sorry, sir."

  "It can't be helped and, apart from Shepherd's leg, no damage was done."

  We looked up as the Lightnings of the 370th fighter group swooped down. They disappeared behind the trees and I heard their four Brownings as they opened fire. I presumed they were strafing the road. Dad had told me that these twin boomed aircraft were almost as good as the Mosquito. As smoke rose to the south of us this seemed to be confirmed. Our camouflage netting hid us from our friends who would just see a German half track.

  "How is Shepherd?"

  "He will live sir but he won't be moving so well for a while."

  "Right, well see that he is comfortable. This could be a long day." Driving a German vehicle meant that we had to stay put until dark. There would be an air umbrella up to ensure that the Germans did not dig in and any German vehicle would be seen as fair game. The P-38s stayed just twenty minutes and then disappeared west. I knew that more aircraft would be sent over. If Eisenhower and De Gaulle had sanctioned this race for Paris then it was important. For the French this was not just a military target, it was a symbolic target. It was their capital. Hitler had made much of its conquest when it had been captured intact. Would we find it intact now or would the Germans destroy it? That was the reason for the urgency.

  An hour after the aeroplanes had left one of the booby traps was triggered, it was more than two hundred yards from our camp. My men had made a deadly circle around us. With weapons cocked we were ready to sell our lives dearly.

  "Stand to!"

  I picked up my Mauser and peered through the sights. Moving in the trees were German soldiers. They did not appear to be in skirmish order. It looked to me as though they were the survivors of the P-38 attack and were taking a way home that avoided the road.

  "Hold your fire. If they avoid us then we don't open fire. They are just trying to get home." I daresay I might be criticised for this but the men who were in the woods were not S.S. They were ordinary soldiers. Little would be gained in their death. If they were old soldiers then they would find a different route. If they meant us harm then they would come for the half track.

  A second and a third booby trap were triggered. These were not old soldiers. I decided to warn them off. I aimed at an officer who was standing next to a tree. I fired a bullet at the tree and he was showered in splinters. If they had any sense they would now avoid the danger which was patently to their front. The way home lay east. I saw, through the sights, a sergeant, who waved his men
in that direction. I thanked God for the man's intelligence.

  Then there were explosions to our right and bullets clanged off the half track. "Sir, there are men in the woods. They are wearing black!"

  That meant they were either S.S. or tank crew. "Open fire!"

  I scanned the ground to the south. I could see grey uniforms, in the distance, hurrying east. As our machine guns opened fire I turned and placed my Mauser between Beaumont's machine gun and Hewitt's rifle. I saw that they were the crews of damaged or destroyed tanks. An officer raised his pistol and my bullet smacked into his head. I switched to the man on his left and my bullet hit him in the shoulder and he spun around. It was the MG 42 which ended the attack. Two of the Germans managed to get to within thirty yards of the half track before they fell. Then there was silence. One or two of the wounded in the forest moaned for a while. When there was the sound of a booby trap exploding we knew that men still lived.

  By afternoon we had heard no more from the forest and the Typhoons returned. They flew overhead and disappeared east. We heard their guns a little later.

  "Beaumont, come with me. The rest of you prepare the half track. We will leave when we return. I think this will be the last sortie of the day. We should be safe."

  I took Beaumont in case there were any more booby traps. He had set most of them. When we turned over the first of the dead I saw that although they were tank men they were the 1st S.S. They were the ones we had fought at Trun. They were fanatical until the end. I found an officer and took the papers from his tunic. Beaumont picked up a couple more S.S. daggers. "Not you too Beaumont!"