The Man in the Mask

19th June 1942,

Steve Trevors,

Regiment 7P

Diary entry no.- 513

The third year of World War 2. I don't know about the enemy trenches, but the soldiers in our trenches are homesick. The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill recently gave a speech about how god was on Britain's side and therefore we would win the war but it doesn't seem like that here. All of us would be dead if it wasn't for a miracle that happened a few days ago.

On 12 June, our battalion was expecting an attack. It wasn't the thunder of tanks, the firing of guns, or the rain of bullets that had given away the attack. It was the silence. We were bothered by the eerie silence because of the saying that there is always silence before the storm. Instead of firing guns and artillery, the enemy troops were passive and seemed like they were conserving their ammunition. Therefore, we had been in firing position, guns loaded since the enemy had stopped firing. Sure enough, we saw two German tanks lumbering towards our positions the next day. Behind the tanks, there were about a thousand soldiers bearing rifles. They also had cover from the machine guns. We were clearly outnumbered five to one! There were only 200 of us and at least 1000 Germans. We couldn't go out of the trenches; else we would be exposed to enemy fire with no cover. Our artillery somehow managed to destroy both tanks and we started firing, but the Germans must have anticipated it because they weren't marching towards our positions. They were crawling. Our bullets soared harmlessly above their heads. We couldn't even stand to fire, due to their machine guns. When we lost hope, we heard an explosion and the enemy fire stopped. We got up and fired. To our left, we saw a masked man with a rifle in his hands.

He was shooting his rifle at the Germans. He had thrown the grenade that had destroyed the enemy cover and helped us so that we could fight back. The Germans were completely taken by surprise and were slow to rise. We defeated them easily.

After the remaining German soldiers had retreated, and we were resting, we asked the stranger's name. None of us knew. When we went to ask him, he just replied, "I am just a well-wisher", and walked away.

Later, when we tried searching for him, all that we found was his rifle. It has now been placed in a museum with a plaque saying 'to the unnamed person who saved a battalion'.

So, you see, it is not as glorious in the trenches as it is made to sound. Our life, the life of a soldier is hard, especially during a war. But we stand here to protect you while you sleep and are proud to do it.