Taking Initiative (Brooks)

[Cpl. Robert Anderson]

Country: Poland
Time: October 15, 1943 2000 hours
Weather: Cold, but sunny with a light breeze. Rained the night before.

The mud squished under Robert's boots as he moved with his head down. The sound of the five men follwing Robert was masked by the dampness. The clank of bullets would sometime make their noise seeing as Heavy Gunner Edward "Babe" Heffron and Assistant Gunner John Julian both had long machine gun feeds across their necks. They all came to a small incline and Robert signaled the men to stay put. He crouched as low as he could get and peeked over the hill. On the other side he spotted what made his heart beat slightly faster. His objective. About fifty yards away was a downed plane that was meant for recoinassaince, was shot in the wings and eventually went down. He and five privates were sent on a mission to extract a downed pilot and his navigator. It was nearing dusk and Robert knew he needed to get those men out of their before the Germans got to them.

Robert came back to his soldiers and spoke to them in a whisper. "Ok, Babe and John I need you both here to cover us if anything goes wrong." They responded by bith nodding and saying yes sir. "Brooks, Ennis, and McCal on me." He said as he turned and started moving over and then down the hill. They went about forty yards before Robert heard a loud rumble. He sprinted the last ten feet and slid next to the plane onto his butt. He heard three other thuds next to him. He looked up to the machine gunners and saw John signaling with his hands. Eight infantry. One Halftrack. Robert found it odd that they only brought eight men, but it was still more than they had. "What is it, sir?" McCal asked. "Eight infantry and a halftrack." Robert answered in a whisper. "Ennis, get into the plane and see who made it." Ennis nodded then crawled into it. "How're we gonna fight them Corporal? We don't have enough men to defend this position!"[/b] McCal said in a frantic whisper. Robert looked at him with piercing eyes. "Keep your head Private. Germans will break if you hit 'em with surprise." Robert looked away and at Brooks who seemed to be quiet. Before he could say anything Ennis came back out of the plane and spoke. "Their both dead, sir." He said in a whisper. "Crap!" Robert said lowly. He then signaled to the gunners not to open fire until he did so himself. "Get ready for hell boys." John acknowledged and sent back the Germans' position one hundred yards out.

[Michael Brooks]

"Oh I'm ready for it!" Brooks said as he raised his M1 Garand to his left shoulder. "Their getting closer.... closer..... almost at optimum range..... Ennis, fire out of a broken window, McCal, On the right." Michael dropped into a prone position on the left side of the plane. sweat began coming down his face. Michael looked over at Cpl. Anderson and nodded. When he looked back the Germans were in optimum firing range, he turned back again to Anderson "You wan'a tell the gunners to fire now Corporal?" Michael turned back, took aim at a German and fired in a line all the way down his body BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG CLICK The empty cartridge fell to the ground and Michael hurried to re-load as the German fell down dead. By now the rest of the Germans were taking cover or dropping to the ground and returning fire.

A few bullets impacted the dirt around Michael, but nothing hit him. He aimed at another German, but before he could fire at him an MG on the half-track started firing at them. Michael rolled out of the way just in time as bullets hit the ground around him.

[Franz Albrecht]

Poland 1943.....

The sky was cloudless, the sun shone out bright and warm before it was about to set. The songs of birds were a pleasant sound on this breezy autumn day in Poland. Rain had come the previous evening causing the ground to be muddy and soft. The leaves were starting to turn from the luscious green they had been during the summer to different shades of orange, red and purple. At a abandoned farm house somewhere in the countryside a KFZ.15 staff car along with two LKW Opel Blitz troop transports sat idle as their occupants dismounted from the vehicles. The men wore field grey SS uniforms, fully equipped with rifles and sub machine guns. Their mission on this day was to hunt for Jews who were known to be in the area hiding out. The reason this group was so well equipped with both weapons and manpower was because these Jews were not your average every day runners, no these terrorists were responsible for the murder of two SS officers the night before.

Franz Albrecht stepped from the Horch directly into a muddy mess, “My god”, he looked down at his jackboots that were now dirty and wet. Shaking his head he walked to the side looking down the road they had just come up. There were no vehicles using this road, everything seemed dead and the leaves were dying. The SS Strumscharfuhrer turned to one of his subordinates, a Hauptscharfuhrer by the name of Kundar, Walter Kundar. “Walter where is Peter and the others?”, Franz lifted his leather greatcoats wrist so that his watch was visible, “They are taking too long”, The Hauptscharfuhrer replied, “Herr Sturmscharfuhrer, they may have made the right instead of a left awhile back there. The fork in the road sir”. Albrecht sighed, “We have timings to make and it don’t look like we will be successful in that. Headquarters gave me this mission out of confidence, for the level of enthusiasm I show. This reflects poorly on me but I will not be the one to suffer for this”. Franz looked towards the men and shouted, “TAKE TEN!, Mueller get that radio set up”. The SS radio operator replied, “Yes sir”, he quickly reached into the Horch and removed the Torn.Fu.d2 two way field radio. Franz lit a cigarette then stood behind the radioman, “Send HQ this message, Checking in. One vehicle unaccounted for. SDKFZ. 251. Expecting shortly. Position co-ordinates (Insert here). Will continue with current objective. Out.

The operator nodded then proceeded to heat up the system. “I’m going for a piss”. Albrecht walked around the side of the farmhouse. During this time the radio man sent his message to headquarters, suddenly something came back, “Cease all operations. Re-route to (Insert co-ordinates here). Allied plane shot down. Proceed to position and secure the wreck. Mueller jotted the orders down on a note pad, Franz came around the corner, “Herr Sturmscharfuhrer! New orders from HQ”. Franz scanned the note pad, nodded to Kundar then shouted to the SS men, “We have shot down an allied plane in the area, reconnaissance class.”, The men cheered, their spirits lifted, “Our new objective is to secure the crash site until headquarters can get someone out there to properly take care of it, so LOAD UP!”. The soldiers climbed into the Opels as their engines roared to life, the drivers were already inside the cab ready to go. “We have no time to wait for Peter, lets go schnell”. The SS senior NCOs’ loaded in the Horch and sped off down the road in the direction they came from, the Opels close behind.