It seemed like a good idea. Yeah sure, sneak out of camp….go to town and have a nice night. Just us guys, meine Kameraden. Our Kommandant won’t find out. Unless one of us doesn’t make it back of course. Well let’s just say…… I’m the only one left. My name is Sergeant Claus von Haufenberg and this is my story.
“So Claus, how’s life treating you?”My good friend Tresco asked slinging his rifle over his shoulder. “Well, the war I taking its toll…I’m bored of this post, there is nothing to shoot, our Kommandant is an a**…anything else you need to know?”I asked. Tresco laughed “Nope, sounds like we are in the same boat ja?”He grinned. Tresco, always trying to make a boring or bad situation funny. I guess he keeps the squads moral running high. Our Kommandant, Lieutenant von Graffden is kind of a stuck up, by-the-book kind of guy. Then there is the Rookie, Private Wilhelm. Poor kid is rather small for his age, and by small I mean short….really short. His head comes to about the tip of my shoulder. Wilhelm and Tresco are cousins, one had light blond hair, and the other has a bit darker blond hair. Both have blue eyes, like the rest of us in the Squad. Corporal Alfonse is the only one with brown hair; well it’s more or less a very, very light brown. Almost blond even! He usually stays quiet. Probably feels like an out sider with his brown hair. Our happy little squad ‘Fox Trot’ is stationed in Russia. Near a tiny town in which I cannot pronounce the name. So far, no guns have been shot, no one’s dead. Yet…
Midnight. Tresco walked into my tent and kicked my side lightly “Claus get up man!”He whispered. Wilhelm yawns and sits up “what’s up?’He asked. “Help me wake Claus” Tresco said, and proceeded to kick me again, I grabbed his leg and he staggered backwards falling over. “What is it now Tresco?’I asked sitting up. Alfonse was up too. “Let’s go to town Claus! See the night life! We command that town, why not live it up for one night before we move out and risk our lives” Tresco said. He had that ‘Not going to give up on this idea’ look in his eyes. Determined to get me to say ‘Yes’ I sighed “But our Kommandant…” “Screw von Graffden! He won’t know! None of us will tell right boys?’Tresco asked. “Ja! My lips are sealed!”Wilhelm also grinned that mischievous grin. Alfonse simply nodded with a small smile. “Fine, fine. If I get chewed out, you will all regret it” I said standing up. We got into our uniforms, and grabbed our rifles slinging them onto our back, and set out for town.
A nice little town. One hotel, a few restaurants, one bar, neighborhoods, not much really. “Look! A bar! Let’s go, come on!”Tresco said eagerly and walked faster. I yawned, and lagged behind. Wilhelm caught up to his brother, with Alfonse right behind them. I didn’t care for drinking, Tresco….usually got out of hand, Wilhelm cheering him on when ever he chugged a large Beer mug. The Bar was half full with Russian civilians. (Or so we thought) Tresco was already buying a beer, Wilhelm too. Alfonse didn’t say a word, just watched. Hours passed, and we left the bar, with a Drunken Tresco and a half drunken Wilhelm. Alfonse still hadn’t said anything. “Whoa guys you know…der Fuhrer needs like….a new hair cut….”Tresco said “And a shave…. *hic*” Wilhelm giggled and almost fell over on our way back to camp. We hadn’t left the town yet.
“Alfonse help Wilhelm up” I said. Alfonse nodded and grabbed Wilhelm’s shirt and pulled him up, he had fallen a few seconds after Tresco threw up in a bush. Boy didn’t we look professional! I wiped my face with the palm of my hand. It was still dark out, the moon shown bright. 12:30AM it was. That’s when hell broke loose. A shot in the dark. A distinct “Bang, click” of a rifle. Tresco went down, a bullet in his left temple, blood spilling all over the white ground. Wilhelm sobered up right then and there “Tresco no….AAARRRGGGG” Wilhelm screamed and also hit the floor with a “Bang click” I spun around seeing the rifle in a near by second story house, I pulled my rifle out and fired. Alfonse was taking cover behind a mail box; there was nothing else around us. The enemy sniper disappeared. “Bang click” I went down bullet in my leg. I cringed and held the wound. “Alfonse! Get back to camp…tell…the Komamndant” I said through gritted teeth. He nodded and waited for a few seconds before bolting for the forest “Bang Click” and he went down hard, never said a word, never screamed. Silenced for ever. His blood ran down the hill. ”No! Alfonse!”I screamed. “No, no, no! This is my fault damn it!”I screamed again. I awaited that last ‘Bang Click’ but it never came. I heard foot steps, stomping their way through the snow tward me. Talking…voices a language I didn’t understand. “German, you are safe now. Come with us or you die like them” I heard in a strong accent. I blacked out.
I wake up in a Russian P.o.W. camp medical room. My wound had been bandaged. I still could hear the screaming of Wilhelm loosing his Cousin. I could Tresco asking if we could go to town for the night. I see Tresco’s sly smile, that crazy determined Grin. Wilhelm doing the same. And Poor quiet Alfonse never said a word, died silent. A soldier…nurse…someone comes in and injects something into my arm. I black out. When I wake I’m in an interrogation room. They scream questions at me, I say nothing. Alfonse’s silence has infected me. I cannot speak. I think I know why he never said anything. Seeing the horrors of his squads killed him the last man standing. He transferred to our squad….and he died in our squad. Fox Trot…. I am beaten, and thrown into a holding cell with another soldier who has been here since the start of the war. He is on his cot…mumbling things to him self in German. I realize he is reciting the ‘SS Oath’ I say nothing.
I spent two years in that P.O.W. camp, escaped in 1943. I made my way, hopping on trains till I was at the border of Poland when I was captured again by Russians. I was released from the camp by an inside spy. Good man. Two years later I am living in West Germany. My country has been split. Just another way to disgrace this already beaten country. No one knows of my past with the SS and the Wermacht. I later found out that the Spy that had saved my life had been killed by a Russian Firing Squad and his body hanged afterwards. Unforgiving I will fight to get him a proper burial. I just wish I could have seen that my fallen Squad’s bodies had been returned to Germany. Lt. Von Graffden had been killed; the Russian’s found our camp and made short work of him. He never knew what happened to us. I will apply to be in the new Germany Army as an officer, maybe I can redeem my self, and I know my soul will never rest peacefully after all that has happened. But…at least my Squad is in a better place now. I get to name my new Squad… I shall call them ‘Fox Trot’ in Honor of my fallen Kameraden.
-Signed
Sergeant (Soon to be Lieutenant) Claus von Haufenberg
‘Fox Trot’ Squad Leader and Veteran
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