Summer Offense

Chapter Five

When we made it to the town, Ivanovich started barking orders right away. He ordered snipers and grenadiers on a sloped ridge not very far from the town. Katrina and Alexei were a sniper team, so they followed the Major's orders and went up the ridge. The rest of us were ordered to start digging trenches and get ready for the oncoming slaughter. Ivanovich decides to hop in our trench while Oscar and I are still digging. "What'cha doin' here, Major?" Oscar says, purposly using the American accent for who knows what. Ivanovich smirks at him and looks over to me. "Im staying at the front, give my friends some spirit." He says, holding up his Degtyaryov machine gun. "Figured the best place up front would be with you two." I stop digging the trench and look at Ivanovich. "The front is a hell-zone. I have lost many friends here, I'm not ready to lose another."

He sits down, looking over the trench. He then ducks his head back down in frustration. "Damn, they aren't here yet." He says, trying to change the subject. I just grab my shovel wand keep digging. Oscar turns to face Ivanovich. He then throws his shovel to Ivanovich, almost hitting him. Ivanovich catches it just in time and gives out a laugh. "You trying to kill me, American?" He says, chuckling under his breath. "We need to be ready, and the more people the better." Oscar says, digging dirt with a trowel. Ivanovich scowels at him for a few seconds, but then realizes what he meant and starts digging. "Sorry, my friend." Ivanovich says while digging. Oscar smiles at him. "Its fine, I just don't like it when people harrass me because I am American." He says. I turn to Ivanovich and start to talk.

"Think this will be enough?" I say, showing him how deep the trench was. "Perfect..." He says. "Now we wait for the rats." He says, using his machine gun to sit down. I rest the shovel on the ground and sit down, Oscar doing the same. "So we sit and wait?" Oscar says while sitting down. Ivanovich turns to face him. "Da, there is nothing else we can do." He says, looking over the trench. He gets back down quickly, panting. "Something wrong, Major?" I say. "They're already here!" He says grabbing his machine gun. I open my eyes wide open and stare over the edge. There were at least three tanks, including some I have never seen before. "Major!" I yell. "Tell the others before they spot us!" Ivanovich nods and jumps out of the trench, leaving behind his gun.

"Mount the gun to the trench! We'll try to hold them off!" I say, pointing to the machine gun on the floor. Oscar nods, then picks up the gun and mounts it to the side of the trench. He flips the stand and rests it on the ground. I pick up an ammunition belt and start feeding it into the gun, Oscar ready to press the trigger at any moment to unload bullets into the Germans. The Germans started coming closer, luckily they haven't noticed us yet. They were about twenty yards away when I heard a shot fire, a German falling to the ground. Blood spurted from his head when the bullet hit its mark. The Germans, surprised, looked for the shoot. "Did you fire that?" I say, turning to look at him. Oscar shakes his head. I look back out into the field.
A large explosion shook the ground. Dirt flew into the air and landed onto Oscar and I. "We've been spotted!" I say, ducking behind the trench. Oscar starts opening fire on the Germans, many of them running to cover. Bullets started flying all over the place, some landing in dirt, others into people. A German ran out of cover and started running up to us, firing his MP40. Another shot hit him in the shoulder. He falls, gripping his shoulder. The tanks fired another shot, hitting a nearby building. Peices of the building fell everywhere. Oscar continues firing and pinning down Germans in cover.

Finally, Soviet soldiers ran up to our position. They started opening fire on the Germans. Ivanovich jumped into our trench and took his gun away from Oscar. "Sorry, this is mine." He says as he opens fire on a tank. The tank's turret turns toward us, but didn't fire. A commander stepped out of his hatch, only to get shot off the the tank. A stream of smoke flew past our head's and into the tank. The tank explodes, fire raging throughout it. Our troops get hit by another shot from a tank, bodies flying towards and away from us. "Fall back!" Ivanovich yells. The soldiers slowly start falling back to the town.

Ivanovich pats me on the shoulder. "Better get moving." He says, jumping out of the trench. Oscar helps me out of the trench and then gets out himself. We run back into the town just before a tank shell hits a building and pieces fall into the trench. "That was close." I says. "I know right?" Oscar says. Ivanovich motions for us to keep following him, so we do. We ran for a few blocks until we made it to a small apartment building about four stories tall. We follow Ivanovich into the apartment, running up the stairs all the way to the top. Ivanovich ran to a window and mounted his machine gun.

"We need to support our troops below, this should do the trick!" Ivanovich says as he loads another ammo belt into the gun. Oscar runs up to a window to see the oncoming battle. "They have reached the perimeter!" He says, pointing at German tanks crushing soldiers in it's path. Anpther stream of smoke flies towards the tank, only to be set offcoarse by the wind. The rocket hits a nearby building, spraying debris all over the tank. Another stream of smoke starts flying towards the tank, and it explodes. Ivanovich starts opening fire on the crew. Moments later, the whole crew is dead. Oscar points out the last tank aiming towards the hill where the snipers and grenadiers are. "Major! They're firing on our snipers!" Ocsar says.

Ivanovich starts opening fire on the tank to get it's attention. The tank's turret turns toward our building. "Oh, shit." I say. The turret adjusted it's aim toward us. "Stop firing! Its aiming at us!" I yell as I push Ivanovich out of the way. I could hear the tank loading a shell all the way from up here. Ivanovich, still surprised I pushed him, uses the wall to help himself up. He then punches me across the face, but I stay standing up. "What the fuck was that for?" Ivanovich says. I motion to the tank. Ivanovich looks out the window and sees the tank aiming right where we stand. "Get out, get out now!" He yells. The tanks fires one shot into the building, and the apartment starts giving way. The roof fell on top of us, and I saw Oscar fall onto the next floor. "Oscar!" I yell. Then the building started tipping forward and fell to the ground.