War of the Damned (Relic Hunters) by Martin Ferguson

Author:Martin Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

We march quickly, keeping watch for any patrols or counter attacks to retake the beach. Apart from a dozen men retreating from a shelled-out pillbox, we see nothing until the gun battery is in sight. We take positions to the east near a burnt out barn, and once we are ready, a runner is sent to Major McCaffrey of B Company. A message is returned and spread along the line. We are just waiting on the engineers to blow clear the barriers of barbed wire with explosives.

‘Stay ready, lads,’ Lieutenant Long commands. ‘As soon as the wire blows, the Bren crews will lay down fire and the assault teams will advance.’

I check my rifle again. I reloaded it after taking the pillbox on the beach, but I don’t want to take any chances. The rest of my section does the same, either copying me or just by force of habit drilled in by our training.

‘Corporal?’ Myhill calls to me as he looks down the scope of his modified rifle. ‘You seeing this?’

White flags rise from the four gun battery before we have even fired a shot. I cannot quite believe it but the German gunners slowly rise up with hands high in the air.

‘Stay focussed,’ I tell my lads, not taking any risks. This might be a trick or a diversion.

To our surprise, it isn’t. When the outer and inner lines of barbed wire are cleared, we advance into the gun emplacements. The concrete defences have been torn apart by the earlier bombardments and there are scores of dead Germans in every direction.

‘The navy and air force sure pounded this place,’ Wilson says in astonishment.

‘Look at the state of Jerry,’ Thompson says, peering at our prisoners.

‘Sorry looking bunch, aren’t they!’ Lathbury adds.

The prisoners look like hell. Filthy, dazed, and utterly shocked with many wounded and even more dead.

‘They look like regular guys,’ Smithy utters quietly.

‘Did you expect demons?’ I joke, trying to reassure the lad. ‘Devils with horns, spitting flames?’

He’s right though; this is my first time seeing German soldiers up close, and apart from the uniforms, they look no different to us.

‘Bloody Nazis deserve all they get,’ spits Wilson.

‘How many prisoners?’ Captain Grayburn asks, my lads falling silent with the officer near.

‘At last count there were sixty-seven, Sir,’ I reply. ‘A platoon of B Company are keeping them under guard.’

‘Good, because the rest of F and B Company are needed elsewhere,’ he says.

‘More business already, Sir?’ Lieutenant Long asks.

‘We’ve received a runner from A Company,’ the captain explains. ‘They’ve met heavy resistance at the Hillman fortress from an entire German Grenadier Regiment. Captain Ryley’s been killed.’

‘Who’s leading A Company now?’ Lieutenant Long asks.

‘Unknown, but Lieutenant Tooley’s been badly wounded, too and they’ve taken heavy casualties under intense machine gun fire.’

‘Get ready to move lads,’ I instruct my section.

‘F Company!’ Captain Grayburn shouts out. ‘Form up and prepare to move!’

‘Thought we were done for the day,’ Wilson moans.

‘You should know better than that,’ I say, loud enough for the rest of my lads to hear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.