by
Susan Balnek-Ballard
Stillness broken by gunfire is not an uncommon thing in a war zone, but
somehow this was
different. German
Schmeissers, maybe a small machine gun, a volley and no returning fire.
Odd
indeed.
“What the hell was that?” Kirby hissed to the sergeant, the man closest
to him. Saunders
raised a hand to silence
the rifleman. He was waiting - waiting for returning fire.
All he heard
was a bit of small
arms, rifles now and maybe even a pistol crack.
Lieutenant Hanley broke the silence as Saunders trotted over to the tall
officer.
“Spread out - wide - keep alert. We take a look.”
The blond sergeant nodded, signaled silently to his men. They moved
out, double time.
The barrage had not
been far ahead of the patrol, but it sounded like a goodly number of Krauts.
Another worry for
Hanley.
King 2 was on its way in after a long wearying patrol. The men were
exhausted, but none
had been wounded.
That in itself was very nearly a miracle, and Hanley had been relieved.
He
hoped they’d make
it back without a hitch. Now it seemed that was not to be.
Belgium wasn’t
much different than
France, just a spot on a map too far from home. But the Krauts were
beginning to panic
and a cornered dog is a vicious adversary.
Caje in the lead was the first to spot the Germans. At his signal
the men took cover, belly
down in the long grass,
taking protection where they could find it, creeping forward to see what
the scout had seen.
About fifteen German soldiers, several troop transports, a couple officers.
They were loading
a pair of machine guns and several ammo crates into one of the vehicles.
Before the Americans could figure out what had happened here, they were
spotted.
Kirby, reacting quickly, took out the pair of Krauts trying to bring the
machine guns into
play. Caje,
Littlejohn, Billy Nelson, Braddock, Brockmeyer and the Lieutenant opened
up with
deadly accurate rifle
fire, catching most of the Krauts out in the open.
Saunders, in an attempt to stop a Kraut officer from taking off in one
of the trucks,
opened fire with his
Thompson, riddling the truck and its occupant with .45 caliber slugs.
The battle became a running one with Germans attempting to find cover in
the open
meadow and the GIs
trying to stop them before they did.
Saunders was chasing down the last Kraut who could’ve given up and surrendered,
but
instead chose to run
like a jack rabbit, twisting his body to fire at the pursuing sergeant.
The Kraut had been running parallel to what appeared to be a drop off,
maybe a small
ravine. Whatever,
he was reluctant to go down and cross which left him open and vulnerable
to
the pursuing Saunders.
A burst from the Thompson, and the Kraut teetered at the very edge of
the drop. He
turned his face to Saunders and the look in his eyes was one of abject
horror - his
scream piercing the
air as he fell.
Saunders, out of breath, jogged over to see where the Kraut had fallen.
What he himself
saw turned his ruddy
complexion a pasty white. His jaw dropped and his pale eyes opened
wide.
The Lieutenant, running
up to the non-com, reached out a hand to touch the stunned man’s
shoulder. Instead,
he followed Saunders’ gaze over the slight embankment and down.
“God help us,” he whispered. It was almost a prayer.
Saunders reply was not. “God sure didn’t help them!” The words
were strangled and spit
out with a vengeance.
For a good fifty yards to the north and to the south, the small gully that
bisected the softly
beautiful meadow was
filled with corpses. Not the bodies of soldiers - that would’ve been
bad
enough - but with
the bodies of civilians, women and children, tiny babies, old men.
Hanley
looked at Saunders.
There were no words at first. Words would come later.
Saunders’ breathing was odd, uneven and he was deathly pale, his eyes still
wide and
staring. Hanley
reached out to the sergeant just as Kirby ran up, out of breath but not
observations.
“Hey Sarge, what’d ya do, pee your pants? he chortled, pointing at Saunders’
left leg.
Indeed it was soaking
wet.
Saunders acted as if he hadn’t heard Kirby. He reached a shaking
hand up to push back
his helmet.
Instead he knocked it off where it hit the ground with a hollow empty thunk.
“Sarge! Lieutenant, what’s goin’ on?” Kirby questioned, leaning
over to see what the
other men had obviously
already seen.
Kirby brushed against Saunders, who began to collapse. Hanley grabbed
a fistful of his
field jacket, just
enough to break the fall and ease the sergeant a bit more gently to the
ground.
“Oh shit! Oh shit!” Kirby repeated over and over as he saw
what lay in the gully.
Only Hanley’s “Kirby! Get Doc fast!” snapped the private out of it.
He turned and ran,
not stopping to tell
the others what he’d seen, only pointing. Again there were no words.
The baby-faced kid medic of King 2 had seen a lot since Normandy and Omaha
Beach,
but the one thing
he hadn’t seen was Kirby speechless. That scared Jim Walton to his
very soul.
Kirby couldn’t even
get out the words that Lieutenant Hanley needed him. He could only
point,
but by the expression
on Kirby’s face, the medic knew he’d better hurry.
Doc knelt at Saunders’ side. “What happened, Lieutenant?” he questioned
as he unzipped
the sergeant’s jacket.
“He passed out. It’s shock, isn’t it? What he saw.” Hanley
crouched down near the two,
his own complexion
pale, his face haggard.
“It’s shock all right, Lieutenant...I don’t know what he saw, but it’s
from this.” And the
medic showed the officer
the blood on the hand he withdrew from Saunders’ thigh.
Carefully Doc unbuckled Saunders’ web belt and kneeling over the sergeant,
he tried to
pull the canteen away
from his side.
“Damn!” The young man swore, most out of character. “A bullet punched
through his
canteen and into his
hip and the metal is pushed into the wound. If I pull too much, I’ll
cause
more damage, but if
I don’t get the canteen free, he could bleed to death.”
“No choice then, Doc,” Hanley soberly observed.
“No choice, sir. None.”
Keeping the pressure smooth and even, the medic pulled gently. The
canteen came free.
The metal edges with
the bullet damage were jagged, but not lengthy. The bullet would
remain
where it was until
a surgeon could remove, it, but with luck, the medic could get the bleeding
stopped.
Sweat ran into the young man’s eyes as he worked and stuck his shirt stickily
to his skin,
but he didn’t seem
to notice until he was finished with his patient. He pulled a handkerchief
from
an inside pocket and
with a shaking hand, ran it over his face and retrieving his canteen, took
a
deep swig from it.
“He’s a good kid,” Hanley thought. But to the medic, there was a
wordless, grateful pat
on the shoulder before
the officer rose to his feet.
“Caje, Littlejohn...help Doc mover Saunders over to those Kraut trucks.”
“Yes, sir.” Both men turned from where they stood at the edge of
the gully, staring down
at the horror.
Both were glad to be pulled away from having to look at, being forced to
see and
to bear witness to
man’s ultimate inhumanity.
Littlejohn kept shaking his head, repeating in a whisper to the slender
Cajun as they
walked over to where
the medic still knelt by Saunders.
“But why? Why would somebody do that? Why?”
Caje had no answers. So Littlejohn posed the question Hanley was
to hear again and
again. “Why,
Lieutenant?”
“I don’t have any answers for you, Littlejohn. I’m sorry,” Hanley
replied, then to Doc and
Caje, his voice soft,
“I’d ask for volunteers for this job, but I doubt I’d get any, so Caje...after
you
help get Saunders
moved, I want you and Doc to come with me. We’re going to check for
survivors.”
“Survivors?” The medic’s face showed his confusion. He had yet to
see what the others
had seen.
Hanley appeared reluctant to voice what had happened here in those moments
before King
2 had arrived.
To actually say it out loud would make it all the more real.
He lit a cigarette,
inhaling the smoke
deeply into his lungs, blowing it out, up and away from the men.
“A massacre, Doc. A massacre happened here... civilians.”
Doc looked up at Hanley. He was only a medic but the closest thing
to a doctor the squad
possessed. He
would go. It was his job.
“Yes, sir,” he replied, “I’ll go.”
Caje too would answer in the affirmative. Few things caused the stoic
scout from
Louisiana to turn
pale, but this order did. To his credit though, the amber-eyed Cajun
only
nodded, his “Yes,
sir,” barely audible.
“Braddock! Bring that radio over here on the double!”
Hanley’s voice broke through to the stocky company runner. He’d seen
the murdered
women and kids and
of all the men, he alone was loudly vocal. He cursed the Krauts,
Hitler and
the war in general
and each and every one of the Germans in particular who lay dead and
scattered within the
meadow. He heard the Lieutenant and stopped what he was doing - checking
through the piles
of cast-off clothing the Krauts had begin loading into one of the transports
that
had very recently
held the owners of those items.
Braddock knew why these innocent civilians had been murdered. With
the radio, he
brought to the Lieutenant
a woman’s wool coat, worn thin, its once lively color dulled. On
the
left breast was sewn
a yellow Star of David.
“Jews, Lieutenant. All of ‘em. Goddamned Kraut bastards!”
In the brash private’s voice
was something Hanley
had never heard - hate; in his eyes - tears. Braddock himself was
Jewish.
In the dead he saw
his mother, sisters, aunts and cousins, his elderly grandfather.
“There were rumors about this...this happening, mass murders, death camps....I
never
really believed it.
Not even the Krauts were capable of such cruelty. I was wrong.”
Hanley took
the radio from Braddock
and added, “Go keep an eye on Saunders while Doc comes with me. Go
on.”
In his beefy fist, the private kneaded the thin wool. “Lousy Kraut
bastards,” he spat
before adding, “Yeah,
Lieutenant, sure.”
“King 6, this is King 2, over. King 6, this is King 2, over.”
“Go ahead King 2, over.”
Hanley related, in clipped sentences, using code words whenever possible,
what the squad
had discovered and
where. Captain Jampel radioed back to say G-2 would be arriving at
their
position by 0800 the
following morning. King 2 was to check for survivors, stay put and
nothing
else.
“Do you believe in God, Sarge?”
The medic’s voice was a close whisper. It was almost as if he really
didn’t want to rouse
Saunders from his
semi-sleep. He didn’t and yet he very much did.
Saunders was unwilling to be roused. He knew what he had to say was
not what Doc
wanted to hear - or
needed to. But it was Saunders’ truth and he had to be truthful,
didn’t he? It
was one thing to lie
to a soldier who lay dying. “It’s okay, you’ll be all right.”
Was it okay to lie
when a person’s spiritual
life was at stake? Doc was young, but he was not gullible and he
had his
own mind. Saunders
would tell him the true answer to the question.
“Do I believe in God?” Saunders’ voice was weak, but the conviction
behind the words
was strong.
“If you would’ve asked me this morning, I still would’ve said yes...but
after what
I...what we saw this
afternoon...my answer is no. I don’t believe in God. No God
could be so
unmerciful, so cruel.
No God could cause men to do the thing I saw today, or allow it to
happen.” Saunders
stopped a moment to catch his breath and wipe a grimy hand back across
his
eyes.
“Men are responsible for their own acts. No puppet is pulling their
strings - no God - and
no devil either.
No Doc, I don’t believe. Not anymore.”
Saunders half thought the young man would argue with him, say something
at least. But
Doc said nothing.
The steel gray of the medic’s eyes seemed harder, grayer, cold where there
had
been only gentleness
and warmth before. Saunders needed no verbal answer to his own question.
The expression in
Doc’s eyes and the set of his jaw showed him his answer. Doc too had lost
his
faith and this saddened
Saunders terribly.
Night drew on and the sky turned dark and foreboding even before the sun
set. A storm
was coming.
Already thunder rumbled in the east and lightening tore ragged lines across
the sky.
Lieutenant Hanley, lost in thoughts of his own, was brought back to the
present by a
severe crack of thunder.
The storm was closing in on their position.
“Caje!”
The scout turned toward the lieutenant at the shout of his name.
He ground out the
cigarette he’d been
enjoying, and rifle slung, trotted over.
“I want you to make sure Billy and Braddock get everything out of that
first truck and
stored in the other
two. Then tell Doc I want Saunders moved into the empty truck.
Got it?”
Caje nodded, flinching at the sudden bright flash of lightening, now nearly
over their
position. “Yes
sir, Lieutenant.”
Saunders was momentarily untended. Doc had gone to refill his canteen
and look through
the cast off possessions
for anything he could use to make Saunders more comfortable. There
was nothing at all
of warmth or usefulness among the murdered victims’ things. Even
if there had
been, the medic doubted
he could’ve brought himself to use it. There had been no survivors
among the many dead
and the soldiers’ melancholy had only deepened at the news.
A crash of thunder brought the sergeant awake - not wide awake, but sort
of a dreamy
half state.
He had dreamt of his mother and sister, home alone, waiting for his return.
At first they were all smiles and laughter, but as Saunders came more to
wakefulness, the
smiles changed to
frowns and the laughter to tears.
They were in rags, being prodded and pushed by gray coated Nazis along
with a large
group of other women
and children. All were crying. Thunder and lightening crackled
around
them. Terror
in the air was as palpable as the lightening. They were made to line
up along a
small ditch in a clearing,
the women clinging desperately to one another and to their children.
Saunders’ mother and
sister turned their eyes to him, silently pleading for help.
Another clap of thunder and Saunders sat bolt upright. Sweat ran
into his eyes and his
breath came in deep
gasps.
To his left stood two men, neatly silhouetted against the ever darkening
sky. Soldiers!
Krauts!
The sergeant grabbed for the Thompson lying close by and with difficulty,
pulled it over
and into his grasp.
He tried to rise, but his hip injury effectively crippled him. Biting
back a
groan, the sergeant
brought the Tommy gun up. He slowly pulled back the bolt.
In the brief lull between thunder cracks, Hanley and Caje heard the snap
of the Thompson
being cocked.
They spun simultaneously.
Saunders sat, Thompson braced to fire across his knees, eyes burning in
a pale face.
“Kraut bastards,” he growled.
“No! Saunders!” Hanley brought up his own rifle, but whether
he could’ve fired it
became a moot point.
The Thompson was kicked out of Saunders’ shaking hands by Kirby, who made
a grab for
the weapon before
Saunders could recover it. He needn’t have bothered.
Saunders was incapable of any further action. He lay exhausted, disoriented,
again
bleeding heavily from
his wound.
As Kirby knelt by his side, the BAR man saw something he wished he hadn’t
- Saunders
crying. He wanted
to help, but didn’t know how. In seconds, Doc was there, edging the
Irishman out of the
way.
“Thanks, Kirby.” It was Hanley’s voice and looking up, Kirby nodded
at the tall officer as
he stood over the
little group.
“That’s okay, Lieutenant...but what the hell? Sarge thought you and
Caje was Krauts, I
guess.”
“Delirious. He’s losing too much blood, Lieutenant. We’ve gotta
get the bleeding
stopped or he’s not
gonna make it till help comes.” The medic was using a towel and pressure
to
try and staunch the
flow. The bandages were soaked through; the towel soon would be.
The rain began in earnest, and Saunders was lifted into the back of the
German transport.
He was barely conscious,
so far out of it that for the moment, there were no more bad dreams.
Childlike, he clung
tightly to Doc’s hand, hampering the medic as he tried to work.
The worst of the storm had come and gone. But the rain itself remained
- steady and
soaking.
The men on guard, Littlejohn and Billy, walked the perimeter in silence,
both lost in
thought, lost, sad,
depressed.
Luckily there was no moon to light the final resting place of the murdered
women and
children. They
were there, Littlejohn knew, but he was very glad he couldn’t actually
see them.
He hated the fact
that they were uncovered against the chill and wet. Of course he
realized,
blessedly, that they
could no longer feel, but it would’ve comforted the big soldier if they
could
have been covered
somehow.
As he walked the perimeter, his mind began to play tricks on him in subtle,
insinuating
ways. He thought
he heard voices whispering, calling, crying; the shaking of leaves on the
nearby
bushes, in the trees,
were eerie and frightening.
“Only the wind,” he told himself. “Only the wind.”
Then there were footsteps. Littlejohn turned to see Billy Nelson
coming up on his
position.
“Hey, Billy, you aren’t supposed to be here! The lieutenant’ll be
mad...but boy I’m glad
to see you!
I been hearin’ the darndest things. I...”
“Littlejohn - shut up, will ya?! I heard somethin’ too! First
I thought it was just the wind
and rain, but it ain’t!
It’s voices and once...once I heard a baby cry!”
The youngster’s eyes were wide. Rain dripped off his helmet in a
steady patter. And
between sentences
he sniffled and paused to wipe his runny nose.
“Where, Billy? Where’d you hear a baby?”
Billy pointed with a shaky finger towards the sector he’d been patrolling.
To Littlejohn,
the only thing visible
in the deep gloom was a thick black copse of bushes at the beginning of
the
woods.
“Let’s check it out, huh, Littlejohn? Let’s!”
“No, Billy. One of us had better go for the lieutenant. We
can’t both be leavin’ our posts.
You go and I’ll wait
here...listen and see if I don’t hear anything else.”
Nelson was scared green, but nodded once and trotted off to find Hanley
within the cluster
of captured German
trucks.
Littlejohn heard nothing else, but the next gust of wet wind sent a shiver
up his spine the
likes of which he’d
never felt before.
Hanley returned with Billy and Braddock, both trying to keep up with the
lieutenant’s long
strides. Littlejohn
couldn’t see Hanley’s face to figure if he was angry about being called
out.
But his voice held
no anger.
“Billy, show us where you heard, uh...voices.” Hanley gestured forward
and the young
man nodded, leading
the way, the beam of his flashlight barely illuminating a path before him.
Hanley had the men spread out. Could be a trap. Could be they
hadn’t wiped out all the
Krauts. Could
be....
Billy stopped and played his flashlight on the bushes directly in front
of him. Hanley did
the same.
A sudden mewing sound made the men catch their breaths and strain to hear.
“Come out of there!” Hanley commanded. “Come out now!”
A rustle of brush and suddenly a young man crawled out from beneath the
bracken.
Clutched against his
chest was a bundle of dirty rags and within that bundle mewled a tiny baby.
“Schiessen sie nicht!!” The youngster pleaded, climbing slowly, painfully
to his feet, the
bundle now squirming
against the dirty dampness of the German soldier’s chest.
“Bitte...Ich habe keine waffe! Bitte!” He begged again.
“Kraut sonofabitch usin’ a baby to protect himself,” Littlejohn growled.
Hanley held up a hand for silence. He beckoned the German forward
and motioned for
him to hand over the
child. This the German did, reluctantly.
Hanley took the infant, peeled back the rags and gazed into the child’s
face. Even in the
dimness he could tell
it was new to this world - still red and blotchy, its skin peeling, minute
hands
clenched into fists.
To Billy Hanley ordered, “Get Brockmeyer - fast!”
Billy nodded, turned and ran.
Through Brockmeyer’s translation, the squad heard the young man’s story.
One had only
to look at him while
he spoke to know it was the truth he was telling. His words, as well
as his
voice, trembled with
the remembering. More than once his eyes filled with tears.
The group sat around the small fire built between the trucks, sipping at
the coffee
Braddock had brewed.
Inside the nearest truck, Doc held the baby as he kept watch near Saunders.
He listened
intently to the story
as related, haltingly, by Brockmeyer.
The interpreter held his coffee between both hands, the steam rising to
encircle the broad
face. His blue
eyes were focused on the young German’s lips as if to not miss a word.
He told
the story as accurately
as possible.
“Yes, Lieutenant, I knew what was going to happen to those people.
I knew...but I am a
coward. I did
nothing to stop it. Maybe I did not believe in my heart we would
actually kill
women and children
- murder them. Please...I did not want to believe.”
At this, the German broke down into sniffling tears. Hanley realized
he was little more
than a child, no more
than 16 or 17. In silence, the men waited for him to continue, watching
his
lips as intently as
Brockmeyer; switching interest from him to Brockmeyer as the GI translated.
“I stood at the end of the row, nearest the woods. There was a girl...a
young woman and
her baby. She
begged me in whispers...save my baby. Please! Please save him!
She had no
clothes and it was
so cold. Even the baby had only rags. I could not look at her
- only at her face
- her eyes.
They burned me. They did not accuse - did not blame - only pleaded
for her child!
The order to shoot
was given. In all the confusion, I grabbed the baby from her and
ran into the
brush. I crawled
as quickly as I could, all the while knowing I must have been seen, that
I too
would be shot.
“I held the baby tightly against my chest. If it cried, we would both die.
In only moments
the shooting was over.
I heard some moans and crying - a few more shots and then nothing, until
I heard your gunfire.
Still I was afraid to come out, afraid you would also shoot me.”
The
youngster began to
sob in earnest now. “I was so very afraid!” He buried his face
in his hands.
His body shook.
When he raised his face, it was wet with tears. “But she begged me!
What was
I to do?! It
was wrong!”
The only sound was the boy’s hiccoughing sobs.
Hanley rose to his feet, walked over to the German and patted his shoulder.
“You did
right, boy.
You did right.”
Inside the truck, the tiny baby shivered from cold. Doc had wrapped
him in the cleanest
bit of cloth he could
find, then in a shirt one of the GIs had offered. Still the tiny
boy shivered.
In contrast, Sergeant Saunders burned with fever. His mind filled
with more insidious
nightmares and all
Doc’s comforting words had no effect. He was restless and uneasy.
The
medic would’ve prayed,
but hadn’t he forgone all that? There was no God, right? Right?!
In desperation, Doc laid the baby in the crook of Saunders’ arm, beneath
his jacket,
against his chest.
The sergeant was too weak to move much so the child was safe. His
feverish
body soon warmed the
infant and it slept against the injured man. .
Outside, voices had returned. The men spoke in hushed whispers.
Often their words were
lost in the soft sighs
of the breeze that heralded the end of the rain and the beginning of another
day.
Doc dozed, waking fitfully. He was being watched by the young German
who sat in the
far corner of the
truck, back against the wall, knees drawn up protectively to his chest.
Kirby also
watched, but the German,
his BAR resting across his lap. He was at ease and considered this
Kraut no threat.
Kirby flashed a smile at Doc and motioned to Saunders and the baby.
Doc reached over and lay a cool palm against Saunders’ forehead.
The fever was still
there. The bleeding
had stopped though, and Saunders seemed to be resting easier. The
baby too
was comfortable, warm
and cradled. Doc Walton looked over at the German, nodding his head
in
approval. Shyly,
the boy smiled.
The medic leaned down close to Saunders, checking his pulse. Quietly,
he confided, “you
were wrong, Sarge...this
once...you were wrong. There is a God.
Copyright October 1997, Susan Balnek-Ballard. All rights reserved.