Toy Soldier » Band of Brothers

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝟷𝟾

𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟼𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟿𝟺𝟺

"The 88s we've been hearing have been spotted in a field, down the road aways. Major Strayer wants us to take them out. There are two guns that we know of firing on Utah Beach and plan on a third and a fourth here and here." Winters said, marking the locations on a spare piece of paper spread out over the map , with little X's, "The Germans are in the trenches with access to the entire battery and with machine-gun cover in the rear. We'll establish a base of fire and move under it hard and fast with two squads of three."

"How many Krauts they think we're facing?" Tommy asked, peering under Liebgott's arm to try and look at the hastily sketched diagram.

Winters measured her with a look, before his eyes flitted to the side, "No idea."

"No idea?" She repeated slowly, before nodding. It's not like that would change anything. Of course, knowing would make the assault much easier, but not knowing didn't change the fact that they still had to obey their orders. 

"We'll take some TNT along with us to spike the guns. Lipton, your responsibility. Reller, you're with Lipton."

"Yes, Sir." Lip and Tommy nodded.

"Liebgott, you'll take the first machine gun with Petty, A gunner. Plesha, Hendrix, you take the other." Winters glanced around, taking stock of Easy companies meager numbers, "Who does that leave?"

Everyone who hadn't been listed raised their fingers, "Compton, Malarkey, Toye, Guarnere. Okay."

Tommy noticed that Cowboy, who's true name she had yet to learn also raised his hand as well. Huh.

"We'll be making the main assault. Understood?"

A chorus of disjointed "Yes, Sir." rang through the dilapidated barn, everyone collecting their gear to leave.

"Okay, just weapons and ammo, drop everything else. Got any spare ammo in a pack or a musette bag bring it along." Winters called.

Tommy quickly deposited what little useless things she had left on her form, stuffing her pockets full of extra ammo, and making sure to replenish her grenade supplies. 

"Alright! You heard the word. Let's move! Let's move!" Lipton called, and soon enough they were in formation, slightly hunched over and weaving through low hedgerows and open fields.

The field in which the cannons were located was irregular in shape, with seven acute angles in the hedgerow surrounding it. This gave them the opportunity to hit the Germans from different directions. 

Winters placed his machine-guns, manned by  Plesha and Hendrix on one gun, Petty and Liebgott on the other, along the hedge leading up to the objective, with instructions to lay down covering fire. 

Tommy was crawling her way towards the jump-off position, keeping her head down, and trying to tune out the constant boom of the cannon. Then to her right, she spotted a German helmet. The man was moving down the trench, crouched over, with only his head above ground. Tommy stilled for a second, bringing her Springfield close to her face, and resting her left finger on the trigger, waiting.

She felt as if there was a moment of silence, her ears feeling as if they were packed with cotton.

"Trois, Deux, Un—"

Boom!

Right as the cannon went off she squeezed the trigger, and like clockwork, the man was down. It was far enough down the trench that the others wouldn't notice the fresh corpse, and having lined the shot up with the cannon fire, the shot had been practically silent.