by Griff Hosker
Gordy pointed to the Germans. “Not yet sir, we still need to slow them down. They are getting quite close.”
Hewitt said, “Sir, the M8 is destroyed but the 50 calibre is still operational and it has ammunition.”
“Right, let’s add that firepower and give the Germans a painful surprise.”
We clambered through the hole the explosion had made. The twisted metal and broken hatch hid us from the Germans. The crew all lay dead. We could do nothing for them now. Hewitt loaded the heavy machine gun and I peered along its sight. The Germans were, again, creeping forward. Gordy was firing short bursts. The other guns on either side of us were also firing but the Germans were camouflaged in white and were hard to see. I saw a German armoured car begin to edge down the road. The M8s which had been there were now destroyed but there was another, two hundred yards to the right of our position and it was still firing. The Germans thought that we were all damaged and he made the cardinal error of presenting his side to us. On the front it was almost two inches of steel. On the sides less than half an inch. The .50 calibre had the chance to punch through it.
I waited until it was just a hundred and fifty yards away and then I opened fire. I fired just above the tyres. I had a bigger target that way. The barrel of the 50 mm cannon began to swing towards us. It was faster than a tank turret. I kept firing. If it fired at us and hit us then we were dead. I would fire all the ammunition we had. Luck was on our side. When the barrel was half way around the whole vehicle exploded as a shell from another M8 struck the ammunition. It was spectacular. Pieces of metal showered down on us. I had used the last of the ammunition and so we clambered out. I opened the petrol tank. It still had petrol in it.
“John, disable the .50 calibre. I am going to make a fuse for the petrol tank.”
Sergeant Major O’Rourke arrived with two men and a box of grenades. “Here are the grenades, sir, what do we do with them?”
The Mark 2 was similar to the Mills bomb. I took one out of the box. “The simplest way is to tie a piece of parachute cord to the pin and jam the grenade so that the handle is held against another object. You put it at ankle height so that someone walks into it, pulls the pin, the handle flies off and five seconds later, boom! Put them on door handles and they work even better. You can use anything which is solid to attach them to. This grenade box is a good example. When they open it to see if we left any then goodbye Fritz.”
“Parachute cord, sir?”
“It is what we use but baling wire, string, anything.” I picked up Hewitt’s Bergen and took out his parachute cord. “Here you are, Sergeant Major.”
He grinned, “I like the way you think, sir. You are sneaky! Right you guys let’s go make some booby traps.”
“One more thing Sergeant Major, make sure you tell your men where they are. We don’t want our chaps setting them off eh?”
He tapped his nose, “Smart sir.”
I had just finished rigging a cloth fuse to the petrol tank when two cooks came with hot food. They were moving like crabs, half crouched. Gordy had long since finished the ammunition for the Browning and he was now firing his Thompson.
“Gordy you and John get some food. Put some in my dixie and I will take over.”
“Right sir. They are getting closer all the time.”
I crept to the sandbags and peered over. He was right. They were just a hundred yards away. Even as I ducked down bullets smacked into the sandbags. I moved a foot to the right, popped my head up and fire a short burst from my Thompson in the direction of the Germans. I ducked down again and took out my Luger. The range was close enough now. I popped my head up just in time to see a coal scuttle helmet rise up behind a rifle. I whipped out the pistol and fired two bullets. There was a cry and the head disappeared. I doubted that I had killed anyone but it would make them wary of moving forward. I glanced at my watch. It was four o’clock. It would soon be getting dark.
“When you have done that disable the jeep and radio. Rig that to burn too.”
Hewitt handed me my dixie and I ate between popping my head up and firing random shots at the Germans. They would now wait for dark. With their white camouflage capes they would be invisible against the snow covered fields. Hewitt and Barker joined me.
“In an hour we are going out there.” They were not surprised and they just nodded. “We take our silenced Colts. I want to take out as many Panzer Grenadiers as we can. We have just thirty minutes to cause as much confusion as we can. If we can get a couple of white camouflage capes then so much the better. Check the bodies to see if we can identify their unit. I want to know if they are S.S. The Colonel said he thought they were. You can’t tell with the white capes.”
A corporal and two privates arrived, “Your relief, sir.”
“We have booby trapped the M8 and jeep. We should be back in an hour. I’ll say ‘Yankee’ and the response will be ‘Doodle’.”
“Right sir.”
I took off my greatcoat and smeared some of the soot from the burned vehicle on the backs of my hands and my face. I took out my Colt and fitted the silencer. The other two did the same. Finally I took out my home made wire cutters.
The corporal looked at me and said, “Are you going out there, sir?”
Gordy nodded, “Put the wind up Jerry eh, Corporal?”
It was dark and the first of the flares was launched. The corporal and his two men opened fire. I waved my hand and the three of us crept towards the wire. We cut a hole big enough for one man and moved it to the side. We had thirteen minutes before the next flare.
I scrambled through. The snow helped for it had built up during the day into a wall three feet high. I had my Colt out and I moved over the snow. I ignored the shock of the cold as my hand touched it. The icy weather was turning the top to solid crust. I kept my hand forward. It was the best way to detect danger. The other two would flank me but I would be the first to fire. I knew we had a hundred yards before we found a German. I was not certain if they would be alive or dead.
I saw one. He was just twenty feet from me. I raised my gun to shoot and then saw the bullet hole where his right eye should have been. He was dead. I crept closer. His body was still warm. The corporal or one of his men must have shot him. I risked taking his white camouflage cape from him. There was no blood on it. I had it half way off, it was just around his shoulders when there was a movement ahead of me. I saw two Germans crawling towards our lines. They were thirty feet from me and heading for the damaged M8. They had not seen me because of the body. I slowly raised the Colt. One was ahead of the other. I squeezed the trigger. There was a phut and the second German slumped. His companion turned and saw me. I fired a second bullet. It went between his eyes. I had just taken the camouflage cape off the dead German when the second flare illuminated the night sky. I pressed my face into the snow.
It seemed an age before it was dark. By keeping my face pressed into the ground I had preserved my night vision. I donned the camouflage cape and then took the four grenades the German was carrying. Stuffing them in my battle dress, I crept forward. I was now the invisible one; at least from the waist up. I heard a soft cry from my left. That was one of my men. I heard Germans as they voiced their concerns. An officer or sergeant told them to stop being women and remain silent. Their numbers meant I could not use my silenced gun. There were too many.
I crept closer. I would soon have to turn around. I knew that there would be another flare soon and I readied a grenade. I pulled the pin. I could hear the Germans. They were thirty yards from me. One of them said, “If the Amis send up another flare now then we will know their plan.”
The Colonel’s flare soared into the sky. I kept my face down. As soon as it was dark again I stood and hurled my grenade. I turned and ran.
“There, someone moving!”
The white camouflage cape saved me. They did not know if I was one of their own running. The slight delay took me half way back to the wire and then the grenade went off. The night was filled wit
h screams. The concussion washed over me. Tiny splinters of deadly shrapnel filled the air like mosquitos. I crawled through the snow. I moved along the wire until I found the gap and slipped through.
“Yankee!”
“Doodle!”
Five faces greeted me. Barker and Hewitt had returned before me. I saw that they had Germans white camouflage capes too. “I take it the grenade was you, sir.”
“Yes, Sergeant.” I looked at my watch. “And now we had better get ready to fire these vehicles. When the next flare goes off it will be time to run.”
Just then I heard, in the distance, the sound of tanks. The ground vibrated. It was the King Tiger column. They had cleared the road. We had run out of time. The Panzers were here!
Chapter 4
I saw the flare and flash as the Colonel set fire to an M8. I put my Bergen on my back. I had already attached my rifle to its straps and I held my Tommy gun. “Right Gordy.”
Gordy had his petrol lighter and he lit one end of the fuel soaked cotton waste hanging from the petrol tank of the jeep. Hewitt and I ran as Gordy did the same to the M8. There was a crack from the direction of the German lines as the leading tank open fired. It was a Panzer Mark IV and not a Tiger or a Panther. It was still deadly but at least you could stop a Mark IV. Behind me there was a whoosh as the Jeep exploded in a fiery fireball. Sergeant Ford might be in trouble with Colonel Harding; if he still lived. All along the edge of the defences vehicles exploded. There was still some ammunition in some of the armoured cars and they began to send rounds into the air.
I saw the Colonel waiting for us, “Good job, Major. Now let’s get the hell out of here!”
We had twelve miles to go across country, at night and on foot. The Germans would soon follow. Our booby traps would not delay them long. In fact, if they sent their tanks through first, then the hand grenades would not suffer much damage at all. Our grenades could not hurt a tank. As we passed the headquarters I saw the bodies of the dead cavalrymen covered in their greatcoats. The Americans had lost men and they would be angry that they couldn’t bury them. We were running for we were on the road. Once we hit virgin snow the going would be even slower. The slush and wet snow would not slow us down much.
The three of us found ourselves at the back. Sergeant Major O’Rourke was with us. We had just struck the road, which ran east, when we heard the first of the grenades explode behind us. There was a ripple of explosions as others were tripped. The Sergeant Major laughed as he ran alongside me, “I sure would like to see the look on the faces of those Krauts.”
“They will be more than annoyed, Sergeant Major.”
“Good! I hated destroying our vehicles. We are cavalry sir! We are not infantry! No offence!”
“None taken. My dad was in the cavalry in the Great War.”
“You mean he rode horses into battle?”
“He did.”
“Damn! I would like to have seen that.”
Just then there was a crack behind us followed almost immediately by a shell striking the field to our left. If it had not been for the wall we might have been hit by flying splinters but the snow and the wall saved us. The German armoured cars and Mark IV tanks were firing at us.
“I think we had better hurry up, Sergeant Major.”
The huge American shouted to the men ahead of us, “You guys, get the lead out!”
I had been through this before and in almost the same place. When we had retreated in 1940 there had been German tanks behind us. The difference then was the Stukas which dive bombed us. At least we were spared the screaming dive bombers. This was slightly easier. And I had learned a great deal in the intervening years.
When we reached Auw the Colonel ordered a rest. The men did look tired and were out of breath. As the Sergeant Major had said, they were cavalry and not infantry. I thought it was a mistake but he was in command. I went back down the road to look for the enemy. The tanks we would hear but the Panzer Grenadiers would be invisible with their camouflaged tops. Three hundred yards from the village I knelt and listened. I could hear the tank. It appeared to be in the distance, at least a mile away. They must have struggled to get through our booby traps and burning armoured cars. There was a glow from the burning village but I could hear something else. I struggled to make sense of it and then I realised what it was. It was the sound of feet stepping through the crust of ice on top of snow. They were coming through the woods to the left and right of me. I took out a grenade. Peering into the woods I saw nothing. I was glad that I had a camouflage cape on too for I would be just as hard to see as the Germans coming towards us. If anything, I would be harder for I was not moving.
It was the movement which caught my eye. The German I saw had a camouflage cape on but his face was visible against it. When he moved I saw it. He was forty feet from me. Once I had seen him I saw the rest of his section. There were six of them. I pulled the pin and threw the grenade high into the air. I ducked down behind the wall. The grenade and shrapnel scythed through the trees and the men. The explosion lit up the night and I saw others further back. They were taking cover. I sprayed my Tommy gun and was rewarded by a cry. I turned and ran.
Hewitt and Barker were waiting for me. I waved them north. “Panzer Grenadiers! Run. They are just a couple of hundred yards away.”
Hewitt and Barker both fired a burst and then we ran. The rest had almost cost us. I had just turned the corner when the building behind me was hit by a 75 mm shell. The tanks were closer than I had thought. We had to reach Andler as soon as possible. There would be anti-tank guns there as well as armour. I did not think we could stop the Germans, that would have to be at St. Vith but we could buy time for us to make the stronghold. I hoped that General Jones had ringed the town with tanks and wire. I knew why the armour had caught us. The German tanks had simply trundled down the empty road. Our feet had compacted it making a better surface for their tracks Their machine guns spat out as they advanced. They were firing blindly but they had a long range and I saw two of the cavalrymen fall with bullet holes in their backs.
We needed to do something. There were trees to our left and right. I knew, from our journey down, that we did not have far to run to get to Andler but the Germans would catch the Americans. We were the three back markers now. “In here!”
Barker and Hewitt followed me blindly as I plunged into the woods on the left. I knew that we could reach the river through the trees and make our escape that way but first I wanted to slow down the pursuit. I headed directly in and then turned to head back south. After ten yards I stopped by a large tree and took out my silenced Colt. The other two did the same. With our white camouflage capes we were able to hide. As I had expected four Panzer Grenadiers followed us into the wood. They looked down, trying to follow our tracks. My little loop meant that they were to the north of us. I knelt and took aim at the last in the line. My gun bucked and he fell. As he did the others turned. Five bullets later and all of them were dead. They had assumed we would head to Andler and not double back. That was the peril of fighting Commandos. They did the unexpected.
We ran to them and I grabbed one of the field caps. I jammed it on my head and headed back to the road. Barker and Hewitt each took a hat and followed me. I saw that the Germans were leaving the road for the tanks. There were three of them. It was a narrow road with trees close by. If we could stop the first tank then the pursuit would be halted, at least temporarily. We hurried up the side of the trees. I said quietly, “Stay in the trees and cover me. After we have slowed them down we head for the river.”
They moved deeper into the woods. I stayed by the edge. I would not be noticed as other Panzer Grenadiers were in the woods too, taking advantage of their cover. I stayed as close to the road as I could. The tank fired its main gun again and I saw the officer with his body half out of the turret. He had binoculars. I took out a hand grenade and pulled the pin. This would take timing. The driver on the Mark IV peered out through a visor. I intended to shoot through the visor an
d at the commander. Then I would disable the tank. The Mark IV makes a great deal of noise. Keeping the grenade in my left hand I hurried forward and when I saw the commander was still looking ahead I fired at him with the Colt. I guessed that the driver and commander of the next tank would see me but the noise would mean they could not raise the alarm. As the commander fell I aimed at the visor and fired four shots, blindly into it. Then I put the grenade between the driving sprocket and the track and ran as fast as I could into the safety of the snow covered forest. I hurtled after my two comrades whom I hoped were deeper into the forest. Bullets from the second tank zipped into the trees but it had a limited traverse.
When the grenade exploded all of the power was increased by the confined space of the track and the wheel. The main force of the explosion was born by the track and the body of the tank. The track was split. The damage was compounded by the driver. I must have hit or frightened him because the tank veered to the right and the track came away. It was then that all hell broke loose. Barker and Hewitt had prepared an ambush for the men they knew would be pursuing me and they sprayed the infantry with Thompsons. The tanks behind the damaged panzer fired where I had been. The bullets tore into the trees. I ran in a zig zag fashion with Barker and Hewitt behind me. Bullets hit the trees as the infantry raced to catch us. We were wearing white in a white world and we were moving quickly. Suddenly I heard the crump of a grenade behind us and the bullets ceased. I did not stop running. I heard Gordy shout, “Sir, for the love of God stop! They aren’t behind us anymore!”
I saw him bent double, “Are you hit?”
“No, sir, just buggered!” between catching his breath he said, “Nice throw, John. That grenade stopped them in their tracks.”
Hewitt nodded, “Well I couldn’t let the Major be the only mad one around here!”
“It worked didn’t it?”
“Yes sir but you were lucky that the tanks couldn’t fire for fear of hitting their own men.”
I reloaded my Colt and we headed down towards the river. We made sure, when we reached the river, that no one was following us. We could have risked fording the river but it seemed too dangerous. Ice cold water could kill just as quickly as a bullet and there was little point in taking the risk. We could make Andler by following the river. I jammed the field cap in my camouflage cape and donned my beret again. It would not do to be shot by our American allies. They would be nervous of camouflaged men wearing German field caps.