Hiro's War by Rebecca Taniguchi

Author:Rebecca Taniguchi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gaman Publishing LLC
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

16

The Vosges, France

October 19-24, 1944

“Good God, how are we going to make it?” I muttered to Poi and Kat the next day. We crouched as we looked up at the tower atop Hill D, the next objective of the 2nd and 3rd battalions. We were fighting at the front of the regiment, just east of Bruyères, with the 100th in reserve.

“Hill’s full of Germans,” Kat said. “I don’t care what Bristol says.” We’d all seen what that asshole had done not just to us, but to “his boys.”

“Fodder, that’s what we are,” Poi said.

Just days into this campaign, the cold, wet forest was eating us up. I had lost count of the killed and wounded, and our own squad was short Happi and Mak now, plus another man. I worried about them in the hospital, and I worried about the men in the field, our numbers depleted and ailing. My throat was sore, my body achy and chilled.

I blew on my fingers for warmth as we assessed the situation. Not only did the Germans infest the hill, but the tower gave them a commanding view of the territory immediately below and of the entire region.

We took off with Ando and the rest of our men, battling with all our might up, up, up the hill through a storm of bullets and artillery and mortar.

The Germans threw everything they had at us. Our infantry fired and the 522nd Artillery blasted away.

We amazed even ourselves.

Two hours of German pounding and pummeling is all it took.

We made our way to the top.

But then, without a moment’s rest, Bristol ordered us to leave. He didn’t give us a second to consolidate our position to insure we held the hill.

Now we had to clear a railroad embankment a couple of thousand yards more toward Belmont. Yet another mound, Hill 505, loomed just across from the rails, giving the enemy easy view of our movements.

“What’s the bastard doing to us?” I cried to Ando.

“Is the guy nuts?” Poi asked.

“The man doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Kat scowled. Even before we left Shelby, every one of us had learned that things had to be fluid in war, that soldiers had to change course on a dime to respond to whatever was happening. But men shouldn’t give up the ground they’d just gained. “Bastard didn’t keep a single reserve unit on the hill,” Kat spat. “Not one man.”

The Jerries infiltrated the rear of Hill D at night and grabbed it back. Their comrades increased pressure on the rear and front elements of the 2nd and 3rd battalions. We battled a counterattack of tanks and artillery while soldiers from other companies struggled to win the hill again. Fighting grew dirty. Some German soldiers were young teenagers, others, men in their 40s, and many weren’t even Germans, but Poles and Danes and men from who knew what other nations the Nazis had occupied. The Geneva Convention was tossed aside. Germans fired at one of our medics waving the Red Cross flag while he tried to save his buddy.

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