Other Fan Fiction ❯ A Paratrooper's Experience ❯ The First Casualty ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

030 hours

June 6, 1944

 

 

 

 

We walked away and proceeded on. Surprisingly, we could hear mortars firing.

“ Mortars!” Pvt. Anderson screamed.

“ We're not dumbasses kid,” the Corporal growled.

“ They're too far, we have to flank them!” I suggested.

“ Good idea, you, Willis and Anderson flank `em. The rest of us will provide suppressing fire.” The Corporal ordered. Willis, Anderson, and I nodded. All of the soldiers immediately fired their weapons as we made our way to the right flank. Bullets wheezed past us as the other soldiers mowed down the Krauts hiding in the tall grass. Then all three of us took cover behind a house as we approached the mortar's location. There were three Krauts positioned near it.

“ Let me handle this,” Anderson said confidently as he picked of the three one at a time. By the time I knew it, the three Germans fell to the ground. He grinned as we quickly ran back as fast as we could to our position. Then when we arrived one of the soldiers shouted, “ Damn it sir, I don't have any rounds left for my Garand.” Anderson tossed him a round. I immediately threw another grenade to a couple of soldiers huddled up. I waited for 2 seconds for it to explode.

A moment later, all the enemies were dead. Smoke was trailing from the Corporal's Thompson.

“ Good job, boys.” The Corporal congratulated.

“ But we have little ammo left sir.” Willis responded.

“ Well in that case use your god damn pistol, private.”

“ Yes, sir.” Willis grumbled.

“ C'mon let's get a move on guys.” I said. Everybody understood and followed.

After a few minutes of walking, we heard something. I peeked from a bush and saw that there was a wagon with German soldiers accompanying it. We could hear the German soldiers talking.

“Ich tötete alle wie kleine Kühe.” I heard one say.

“What do we do?” Anderson whispered.

“ Toss all your grenades.” The Corporal advised. We understood and pulled a grenade from our belt. Then we pulled the pin and tossed them at the direction of the Krauts.

“ Granate!” One soldier said as the grenades exploded. Surprisingly, a German managed to cook a grenade and toss it back at us.

“ Grenade!” Willis warned as we ran away as fast we could. Boom! The grenade exploded. Unfortunately, one soldier that Willis took with him didn't get out in time. His body showed a little bit of blood in his stomach. His eyes were closed and his cheeks were covered with dirt.

“ It looks like he got hit by shrapnel.” Willis told us. He held bits of fragment from the grenade.

The Corporal got pissed off because he had just lost his first casualty. He immediately stood up and ran to the German. The German was holding his hands up and was pleading something in German.

“ Fuck you!” The Corporal shouted as he quickly shot the German with his Tommy gun. Blood gushed out of his chest.

“ Sir, you just killed a prisoner!” Anderson reminded him.

“ Shut it, private!” The Corporal replied.

“ Err, yes sir.” Anderson responded softly.

I ran back to the body and pulled out his dog tags. “ Pvt. Jack Welsh” it said. I slid the dog tag in my left pocket.

“ We have to bury the body,” The Corporal stated. I didn't notice him come behind me.

“ Yeah,” I replied.

A while later, they finally completed burying him. There was a cross on top of it made from wood. His helmet slung on the cross. Across his helmet wrote, “ Pvt. Jack Welsh, Able Company, 101st airborne”

We then got our equipment ready and headed out for the path.

“ Hey, where we headed anyway?” Willis asked.

“ Searching for Sgt.Simmons,” Corporal Johnson replied.

“ Hey what's that?” Anderson pointed at a group of dark shapes.

“ Smith, call them.” Corporal Johnson ordered.

I nodded and shouted as loud as I could, “ Flash!” Then I stupidly said,” Answer Thunder dammit!” Then a voice replied, “Zhunder!” All of us laughed. I then got out my telescope and saw that they were German soldiers. According to their uniform, they were German SS.

Luckily, we had a sniper that Willis had brought with him. The sniper picked them off one by one. When the last shot was fired, I heard a scream of pain from a German.

“He's still alive but he's bleeding.” The sniper observed.

“ Let him bleed to death.” The Corporal suggested. The sniper nodded. Then we quietly continued.