Chapter 2

It fell to me to clean Hank's minor wound and dust it with sulfa. I tied it up with his emergency bandage and told him to pick up his M1. We both laughed and Hank said, "Well, you can't blame me for trying."

The Panzer IV was still burning, so we weren't worried about it, but the Kraut troops might be a different story. If just one of them was a Nazi fanatic and not quite dead, he could give us a hard time and maybe even kill somebody, so it behooved us to look at every body to be sure that he was really dead. Chester, Sam, and I stayed back with our automatic weapons to keep an eye on things while the other four guys made a physical check to be sure we were safe from dirty tricks. All was OK, so we looked around to see what we might find useful.

We found two more P38s and another burpgun, plus some extra ammunition for them. I gave these weapons out to the appropriate people, and I did have some jealous non-recipients, but I told them that they were on the list. That quieted them down, but I knew that I had better come through pretty quickly.

That burning Panzer IV looked to me like too much of a beacon, so I moved us up to the next hedgerow. None of us saw any sign of Germans, or anybody else, for that matter. The funny thing was that none of us had seen a Frenchman since we landed. We wondered where they had gone. We looked for a way through the hedge and finally found one about 100 yards away. We crossed the lane separating the fields and jerked back just in time to miss being seen by a squad of Krauts who were setting up an ambush with an MG42 on the lane we had just crossed. My map showed that we were very close to a highway bridge, and the Germans were probably expecting some GIs to come along the road anytime in the next hour or so. They even had a Panzershrek, the German equivalent to the bazooka, but much more powerful.

No question about it, this ambush had to be neutralized ASAP (As Soon As Possible). There were enough troops there at the ambush to spell big trouble for us unless we could get lucky. This was where I thought our WP bazooka rockets could do a lot of good. Harley and Sam set up to fire when I ordered it, and to keep on firing as long as either the MG42 or the Panzershrek were useable.

There was no ditch for us to hide in, but the lane's berm had a high bank leading up to the hedge. The hedge was thin enough in this area for us to see and shoot through, so we were better protected than we really deserved. The Germans were also using the bank for a breastwork, but we had the angle on them. I just hoped that the bazooka could do the job we needed; otherwise, we could be in bad trouble. Well, there was only one way to find out.

I had my men strung out along the embankment, with preference given to the bazooka. The backblast from that thing was going to be a problem, but we would just have to live with it. Each man was told to cover his face when the rocket was fired so that he would not be hurt by hot gasses or flying debris. Once everything was ready, I gave the high sign to Harley.

Very sensibly, he had chosen the MG42 as his first target. He decided to use the machine gun ammunition boxes as his aiming point. His first shot missed, of course, but the rocket went off anyway and threw white phosphorus all over the machine gun nest. There was quite a show as the men tried to run away from the WP and the MG42 ammunition started to cook off.

Sam quickly reloaded another WP rocket and Harley tried to line up on the Panzershrek. Meanwhile, Chester was shooting his BAR at the people around the Panzershrek, so they had a lot to worry about. They all bailed out to try to escape the BAR rounds, and they forgot the Panzershrek in the process. All of the riflemen were also shooting for all they were worth, and three M1s could put out a lot of lead if nobody cared about wasted ammunition. Well, we didn't care. I was also shooting whenever I had time away from directing the battle, so we were able to hurt some of the Kraut riflemen. I yelled at Harley and Sam to forget the bazooka and to use their rifles.

We were outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise on our side. Not only that, with the MG42 out of action, we had a firepower advantage with the BAR. The fury of the battle slowed down after the MG42 and Panzershrek were put out of action. The enemy just could not maintain a rate of fire equal to us because of their bolt-action rifles, but they had more of the rifles to use, so it was kind of a standoff.

Once they got over their surprise, they put up a damned good fight. They had a well-prepared position with protection on both flanks, so we were not in a position to put a quick end to the battle as long as things stayed as they were. Every one of us, me included, had picked up nicks and scratches from German bullets, but we had no fatalities, yet. The trouble was, I didn't know how much longer that good fortune was going to last.

I was afraid that the Kraut squad leader was going to send some men to try to flank us, which they could easily do if they had access to the lane. Our best counter was to flank them first. I didn't have enough men to split the squad the way I would have liked, but I figured that I had to do something to keep the pressure on the enemy before he had a chance to turn the tables.

I considered the alternatives and came up with a course of action that I was not happy with, but I could not think of anything better. I called Charley Winslow and Joe Connolly to bring burpguns and all of the available ammunition with them as they came with me in a flanking maneuver. That gave us three automatic weapons and our best hand grenade chunker, so I felt pretty good about our chances.

My plan was to move down the hedge until I got just opposite were the MG42 had been spotted. I hoped that we would again catch the Germans by surprise and be able to hit them with automatic weapons fire from their side, which had formerly been their front. If the conditions were right, I also planned for Charley to heave grenades into their position. The biggest problem with my plan was that it had to work; otherwise, we were going to have to run like hell, leaving the bridge over the small river to the Germans.

The three of us pulled back after I told everybody else what was going on. I wanted to make sure that nobody shot us by mistake. We trotted along the lane until we came to where the WP rocket had hit. There was a big hole burned in the hedge and we had no trouble seeing through the bushes and trees. There was even room for Charley to perform his magic with the hand grenades. Most of the Germans were out of range of the hand grenades, but we hoped that Charley could do some good to those who were closer to us.

It seemed to us that it was going to be better to throw the grenades first and follow up with the automatic weapons. If Charley's aim was on, he could do all of his damage with two grenades, so he got out three in order to have a spare. Charley threw the first grenade, and it landed exactly where he wanted it. Meanwhile, he had lobbed the second grenade while the first one was still in the air. Man, that guy was good! We all ducked behind the berm so that we would not be hit by stray grenade fragments, and we stayed there until both grenades had gone off.

The Germans had not seen the grenades coming in, so they were at a loss as to their source. However, we all three leaned against the berm bank and began shooting, so they had no trouble finding their new tormenters. Those 9mm slugs from the MP40s were not as damaging as the .45 slugs from my Thompson, but there were more of them flying, so it kind of evened out.

As soon as we began shooting, the rest of the guys in our squad resumed shooting as much lead as they could pour at the Germans. The Germans were now caught in what amounted to a practical crossfire, and they were knocked out of the fight in reasonably short order. That was a good thing, because we were starting to run low on ammunition, both for our weapons and for the captured German guns.