Brass Fields

As I lay in the tall grass on the outskirts of the forest, the rain spat down from above the treetops and pattered down onto my helmet. We were deep into german territory, on a mission which was almost suicidal. My platoon led by Corporal Denver, had lost about 8 men and our numbers were still falling. We were pinned down by a lightly armed German tank squad and a small Italian infantry unit. I had to keep a weary eye and watch for any movement, suddenly I saw a man jump up and try to flea in the opposite direction. We were low on ammunition so we had to make every bullet count, time slowed down, I held my breath and aimed at the man, my shivering finger pressed firmly onto the trigger and I let a bullet off, I missed and the man ducked down into the tall grass. Almost instantly more shots were fired from everywhere and the tank unit appeared through the grass, I stood and grabbed one of the younger soldiers and pushed him towards the forest, "Fall back into the forest!" I shouted to him as I ran. We could hear the mechanisms working as one of the tanks turned to aim at us, a shot was fired which exploded beside me, the young soldier's limp body flew through the air and hit he ground like a fish out of water, I lay unconscious in a small crater.

I woke around 3 hours later, as I leaned up I noticed some of my platoon members sat down with their backs to the surrounding walls. The concrete was cold, the walls shook and dust flew into the air whenever a bomb landed somewhere outside. I turned around as I heard a German guard speak in very poor english, "You are no soldier anymore, you stupid britain's. You now prisoner of Hitler!" The guard started roaring in laughter then walked away whilst clanking his rifle against the metal bars and singing a song loudly in German. "where is Corporal Denver" I asked as I looked back around to Pvt. James McDunn, Pvt. Sam Smith and Lcp. Robert Finnegan, they all shrugged. "I've not seen him since we were separated and put into different cells." Stated Lcp. Finnegan. I looked up at him, we had been good friends since we had met each other 4 years ago, "We all need to get out of here." I whispered in case one of the guards overheard us, they all looked at me in their mutual feelings. Three guards arrived, this time they opened the cell door, two of them handcuffed me and started shoving me down the hallway as the other locked back the cell. They took me past a cell and I couldn't help but notice Cpl. Denver lying on a bed beaten and bruised, slowly the realisation of what was about to happen crept up on me and I could only put on a brave face. After sitting tied to a chair in the dark for what seemed to be an hour, the door to the room cracked open and in stepped a heavily built German man. The light which peirced the door shone into my eyes sending my head into a twist to avoid the brightness, the man had a rough voice but spoke english fluently with an off accent, "I am Captain Lars Schalke of Hitler's 3rd Reich." He took a step closer to me and pulled up a chair in front of me, "I have come to understand that among you and your fellow soldiers, you are of some importance, am I correct?" A man stepped into the room and pulled the door shut, for a brief moment we descended into complete darkness until the man clicked on the string to turn on the dangling light above my head. I shrugged and looked at Cpt. Schalke and he instantly knew that he wasn't getting anything out of me. Slowly Cpt. Schalke turned and made a hand signal to the man by the door who then walked over and stood behind me...

i opened my eyes, my vision was blurry and my head was banging. i attempted to lean upwards but it was in vein as a excruciating pain rose around my ribs. i surveyed the room, every breath i drew hurt more and more, the dust choked me when i inhaled. looking around the at the empty room i realised the severity of the situation i was in, i had to escape be any means nessesary.

A month had passed since i had been beaten to within an inch of my life, and the germans had been boasting telling us how they had pushed the english back to paris. in the month since we were taken captive, at least 25 more men had joined the prison, some english, french and russian. We sat on benches in the courtyard under the watchful eye of the german guards. "were going to be here for the rest of our lives unless the war ends soon enough", stated smith.

"yeah we need to get out of here, i have my wife and my son back home",McDunn exclaimed.

"keep your voice down lad, unless you want to get thrown into a gas chamber like some of these good for nothing german criminals",Finnegan said.