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✲꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏✲
I covered my face with my hands and curled into a fetal position, as though that could somehow protect me from the exploding shells that had once again begun raining down upon us from every direction.
Only one thing became clear to me.
Everything that had happened in the mess hall had been nothing more than a diversion.
The Germans had never intended to retreat.
They had been preparing an ambush all along, and our intelligence officers had failed to uncover the full extent of their plan.
Once again, I realized that Private James's death had been utterly meaningless.
The Germans attacked us not only in retaliation for the Americans defending the British, but also because we had allied ourselves with the French.
And because, only days earlier, our own battalion commander—in a display of breathtaking stupidity—had sent several privates into enemy territory on some secret mission.
Most likely those soldiers had killed several German troops during the operation, and now the enemy had come to settle the score.
I burned with anger toward our commander, a man so incompetent that he understood nothing about warfare.
Neither did I.
But I would never have sent a single soldier on such a reckless mission.
Mistakes like that cost lives.
I despised our military leadership because our commanding officer had done nothing more than graduate from a military academy.
He had never held a weapon in battle.
Never aimed one at an enemy.
Nor had anyone ever aimed one at him.
He had never fought in a war.
The only thing he did during wartime was hide in bunkers, terrified that someone might kill him.
Yet we were all afraid of dying.
And still we fought, day after day.
Ever since becoming an army medic, I had tried to have him removed from command.
I wanted to report him to higher authorities for issuing reckless orders that cost far more soldiers their lives than necessary.
I longed to see him replaced by someone truly experienced—a commander who had fought in battle and knew how to make rational decisions, someone who would strive not only to save himself but also to stop sacrificing his men in foolish, ill-conceived operations.
James's meaningless death weighed heavily on my heart.
And with every passing minute, more soldiers were dying just as pointlessly.
