Kicking the Dogs Into Shape [Luther]

[William Luther]

The gentle chirping off the birds was one of the few noises in the trees. Others included the sound of Luther's watch, an almost deafening cacaphony in his mind, although he knew it was in fact barely audiable. He carefulyl peered around the corner of the tree, and scanned the area, and lo and behold, Schneider was stood scribbling on paper. Luther brought himself back around the tree, and resumed waiting, watching the second hand slowly tick past at an almost agonsing pace.

Within a few minutes, he heard scrambling in the woods, and a response was good from a few guys, bringing rifles to bear on the sound. He nodded appreciatively as the recon pair came around. Snatching back his binoculars, he whispered a quick lecture. "Next time, be a bit louder. I don't quite think Winston Churchill heard you then." They tried mumbling apologies, but Luther just knocked them on their helmets, before pushing them back to their places. He grabbed one half a second later. "What did you see?"
"Entire Blue Team about fifteen meters ahead. They're still digging."
Luther nodded appreciatively before turning to the platoon leader, raising his eyebrows in an inquisitive manner, the Sergeant just spoke quietl. "We'll do the flanks, and place down smoke."

Luther just nodded, and started helping to spread the message. Smoke grenades were unhooked from belts, as people prepared for the go. He spotted a squad starting to move off from the corner of his eye, and Luther himself got low ready to sprint off. He didn't have a weapon, so he'd wait a few seconds before moving and try and grab a weapon. He flinched as the MG42 was cocked in his ear, he was sure the enemy would here. He turned to the squad leader, indicating it was under his command.

[∬: Erik Schneider]

It was confirmed. Luther and his men were snooping around the edge of the forest. A few of the men under his command were making cock-ups and exposing themselves right before his very eyes, but the rest of the Blue Platoon was left unaware. Schneider cussed under his breath, hoping it wouldn't have to come to this. He had higher expectations in a lot of the men left in charge, but apparently they thought the exercise wasn't worth the effort. They didn't know Schneider very well than and yet... they still hadn't approved since his presence.

"Erhalten Sie Ihren Esel hierhin!" he roared to the platoon leader who seemed to be blending in with his men by the trenches. Gulping the man approached cautiously, fully aware that his commanding officer was making a public display out of him. The men in the trenches stopped to turn and face the two men and watch the events unfold from below. The attack from Red Platoon paused to watch as well, feeling they should allow the Obersturmfuhrer to verbally thrash the man in front of everyone.

"Was denken Sie Sie tun?" Schneider's voice was consumed with fury. He made a fool out of a man who should have never even made it into the SS. He wouldn't flinch or back down as he stood before all and berated the man like he was a child to be punished."Befehlen meiner Männer, Herr Oberstumfuhrer." Schneider's face twisted into a scowl as glared at the incompetent leader.

"Befehlen Ihrer Männer? Wohles you' Re, eine schändliche Arbeit erledigend! Möchten Sie Ihre Männer erhalten getötet oder sind Sie gerade inkompetent. Formen Sie oben jetzt oder sonst. Das geht für jeder in dieser Nähe. Einschließlich roten Zug. Ich erlaube niemand unter meinem Befehl sterbe wegen another' s-Unfähigkeit. Entlassen!" He made damn well sure everyone on the training exercise could hear him as he waved his hand to allow them all to get back to the task at hand. Too many unnecessary cock ups had been made that day that put lives at stake. And that was unacceptable to Schneider.


- "Get your ass over here!"

- "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

- "Commanding my men, Herr Oberstumfuhrer."

- "Commanding your men? Well you're doing a despicable job! Do you want to get your men killed or are you just incompetent. Shape up now or else. That goes for everyone in this vicinity. Including Red Platoon. I will not allow anyone under my command die due to another's incompetence. Dismissed!"

[William Luther]

Luther just let a wide grin come over his smile as Schneider started screaming. He signalled for everybody to halt for a second, but to keep low as he talked, and he saw a few other flashes of pearlies. He waited until he heard silence, before signalling.

In one movement, half a dozen smoke grenades went in an arc towards the enemy trench. Within a second, fire began coming down across the trench. He heard scrambling from it as men reached for rifles, and after a few clumsy seconds, they began firing too. The Sergeant at Luther's right stood up, and began moving, signalling for the rest of the wave to join in. The MG42 joined in, and Luther saw the first man fall. He took a few long steps before diving next to him - it was a bloody corporal!

Stripping the man of weapons, he began shouting. "What was that? Double back to the field, and start excercises. If they're harsh enough I won't demote you."
"Sir," was the only response, with a lightly scared nod. Luther pocketed the final few magazines of the MP40 before joining in the assault. Weapon in shoulder, he moved steadily from cover to cover, letting out bursts. After clearing the open ground, he leapt in to the trench, almost squeezing the trigger at a team mate. Signalling for others to follow, he started working down the trench, eager for another target, but they all appeared dead. He noticed Schneider, and lowered his weapon, all the Blue was dead, but from a glance there seemed to be 80% red casualties. He just walked to the Officer, and greeted him with an almost cheery "Guten tag."

[∬: Erik Schneider]

The men in the Blue trench dug hastily to recover from the lull in work to impress their CO. Schneider knew most, if not all, were a trembling bit in their boots, because when he had chewed out the leader, he had chewed out all of the men gathered in the muddy clearing. Schneider grunted a little before adjusting his field cap over his greasy blond hair while he waited for the fireworks to start. Hesitantly, he raised his binoculars to the trees and almost immediately spotted several figures coming forward with smoke grenades in their hands. As their arms arced upwards and extended all the way down, the grenades burst out smoke and rocketed towards the trench.

The Obersturmfuhrer stood in the midst of battle, unfazed by the sounds of rifles erupting all around him. His binoculars slipped down from his grasp as the battle turned to close combat. The blue soldiers were shocked at the sight of smoke clouding their view and finally realized what Schneider was talking about only seconds before. They threw their shovels down and dove for their rifles, some had to dig their hands through layers of mud that had caked onto the bottom of the trench to pull out their rifles only to find they weren't able to fire. Curses echoed throughout the trench as men fell and played dead.

Leather glove met glove as he folded his arms behind his back, observantly watching the final phase of the exercise. Death and defeat, for both sides. Luther was charging ahead with a newly obtained MP40, with a look of pride on his face as he dove into the trench. He helped finish off the last of the blues with ease, but hadn't realized yet that red had still managed to take at least 80% casualties. It was neither true victory for either side, but in the end Red had prevailed with a veteran Sturmscharfuhrer holding the reigns.

"Guten Tag, Sturmscharfuhrer. Freundlich erfolgter Angriff, aber beide Seiten benötigen ein wenig mehr Bohrung, bevor sie bereit sind, Hölle durchzulaufen. Nehmen Sie die Männer zurück zu Lager und lassen Sie die normalen Übungen laufen," Schneider murmured, dismissing the Sturmscharfuhrer who vanished into the woods with the rest of the men. He tossed his orange jacket into the trench which would be picked up later as punishment for any troublemakers. He turned back to the motorbike, this time driving it himself.

- "Good day, Sturmscharfuhrer. Nicely done assault, but both sides are in need of a little more drilling before they are ready to go through hell. Take the men back to camp and run the normal exercises."

[Daniel Brennan]

Moderation Post

Good posts, here.

CP:
Erik: 15CP

Luther: 14CP


~Dan