Heimatfront Episode Two - Baptism of Fire

Metal Crüe

II

METAL CRÜE

Bärenstein was a rather small village set on the lower part of an uneven plane, where the hills around Baderberg started to give way to the open spaces of Central Germany. It was also close to an important road heading north. Because of the lack of space in the village proper and the proximity of the important lane, the police station had been built closer to the road itself.

Its location helped the mission of the Baderberg girls in several ways. First, it had its own fuel depot, a large metal cylinder, containing what were probably the last remains of petrol in the entire region, the farming complex notwithstanding, as well as a small reserve of diesel in metal cans. Secondly, it was far enough from the village to avoid any undesired looks.

With the trails around Baderberg in the sorry state they were and due to some slight delays the girls took a little more than planned to get to the station. The eventide was drawing long and a wide cold shadow had fallen over the whole landscape as the sun nestled behind the distant mountains. As she approached the building Anja could see the police chief standing in the middle of the road, waiting impatiently while his men leaned against the nearby walls.

More surprising for her, though, were the four teenagers standing with their bicycles near the station. Erwin and Caesar had brought two more friends with them and they watched as the tanks rolled past them and halted in front of the building. Why were they there at all she could only start to guess.

But there were more pressing matters at the moment, as Anja realized when she saw the incredulous look in the police chief’s face.

“Good morning, Herr Steiner.” Anja told him, trying to look and sound as solemn as possible from her vantage point in the 38(t)’s command hatch. “Do you have our fuel ready?”

The man didn’t reply immediately, looking down the column of armored vehicles and back at the girl commanding all those tons of deadly metal.

“But, you’re all girls…” Steiner murmured, still in disbelief.

“Herr Steiner, as you were most certainly informed the local BDM grouping was tasked with recovering these tanks.” Anja patted the top of the turret to underline her words. “Now the Army needs them and time is of the essence. We don’t have the luxury to wait for crews to come by nor to waste time questioning the orders we were given, sir.”

“I know of my orders, Fräulein.” Finding no more words to tackle that specific theme Steiner decided to move directly into the job at hand. “We will spare you all the fuel we have left. There isn’t much more to go around in the damned country anyhow. Hope it serves you well.”

From her vantage point Anja nodded at him. “It will. The Wehrmacht and the Party thank you and your men.”

Steiner snorted and mumbled something before turning back and issuing orders to his men. They started moving around, dragging their equipment along. There was a certain tension and urgency in their movements, the men feeling ashamed that they couldn’t, or wanted to, take the initiative to do the same thing those girls were doing. Most of them managed to evade being dragged into the fighting due to their position as policemen, and truly preferred the option of returning home every night to their families.

But now that they saw with their own eyes how deep their country had fallen, how desperate things were and who was actually doing the fighting and the dying, the shame became almost too much to bear. They would prefer to simply finish that task as quickly as possible and never see those tanks and their crews ever again.