Rivalry

Mission two: hello, totenkopf

An indistinct shout broke maria out of her unconscious state. She felt awful, and her head was pounding like she had been hit by a train. As her sensations returned to her, Maria found herself shackled to some kind of beam, but she would have to open her eyes to know for sure. And considering her current predicament, she knew that it would be a very bad idea. More shouting permeated the air through other sounds, such as the clank of equipment being moved, and the squelch of jackboots in the mud.

As the kommandant of the Waffen-SS totenkopf division, fritz knöechlein had been put in charge of herding the numerous British prisoners they had taken unawares. An entire three companies worth of tank crews, artillery men and assorted infantry were lining up with their hands on their heads, and kneeling on the sodden ground. Filth kneeling on filth, knoechlein thought as he surveyed the scene from under the black brim of his hat. By his feet lay chained a Lieutenant, who had become somewhat infamous in the ranks of german panzer divisions. Rommel of the Wehrmacht had a grudge, Guderian was intrigued, but Fritz simply didn't care. With nonchalance, he brutally kicked the girl in the stomach. Maria groaned as the polished boot buried itself in the large gash in her side. And she finally opened her eyes to find a man in an SS uniform crouching down to meet her gaze. He had piercing pale grey eyes, and light brown hair, and an indifferent expression which suggested nothing. Maria found herself speechless, which was just as well, as she had the feeling that words would only cause her injuries. She settled for a glare of satanic calibre. 

"You are pathetic." He said. Maria wanted to reply, but somewhere deep inside, she knew it was true. Before her, a hundred men stood prisoner, most of them her own. They looked defeated. So she remained silent, struggling to prevent herself from crying.

"They told me you had spine. Answer me!" Knöechlein raised his voice angrily, but there was still no response. Abruptly he stood up, and walked away from the wretched girl, back to where his deputies waited for new orders. Maria sullenly watched the man in the grey uniform walk away. At least I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply.

The image of the silver skull on his hat was burned into her memory, beautiful craftsmanship that conveyed nothing but terror to Maria and her men. That emblem, they knew, meant only one thing. It meant death. They had watched the exchange between the SS officer and the Lieutenant anxiously, knowing that she had not and would not surrender. Which meant that the germans could all but kill her if they wanted. Suddenly they were told to move by their captors, forced roughly to their knees in front of a low stone wall. They still had their hands behind their heads.

"Why don't you just kill me? I wouldn't surrender even if you did!" Maria finally broke her silence, shouting at the grey eyed man from her post. Some of the British soldiers groaned, and others shook their heads, until they were silenced by a German lieutenant. Knöchlein stopped in his tracks, and slowly turned around. From where she was sitting Maria couldn't see the look on Fritz's face, but her men could. Even some of the waffen SS grimaced at the sadistic look of their commander's but were not paralysed by the same foreboding as the British were.

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The British were in full retreat now. To Erwin's surprise, they had suddenly stopped attacking. Even as his men advanced through the fields, they came across abandoned and burnt out shells of tanks, and artillery strikes were few and far between. The RAF had made a speedy getaway as soon as the Luftwaffe had shown up, which was a shame, as the infantry battle had slowly ground to a standstill, and the dogfight had made for excellent entertainment. They had captured a few prisoners on their way, one such man had been hiding behind the wreckage of a Mathilda, and had shot two of his men before he had been apprehended. Erwin had recognised this man. He had been with Crosse in the ardennes. He had fought viciously as he was captured, but had stopped as soon as Erwin had arrived, and the two nodded curtly at each other.