Bayonets and Barbed Wire

Chapter 1

Otto Schneider sat hunched over his desk in the office of his family's home in Lansing, Michigan. The elderly man was spending the night of his sixty-first birthday locked away from his family, and instead of celebrating, he was grieving. Although the small black-and-white photograph he held in his two worn hands had been through more than one battle, it was still as fresh to him as the day it had been taken. Quickly, he blinked away the tears welling up in his eyes, allowing the photograph of his brother Ralf to become clear to him again. His brother's muscular, square jaw, short, blonde hair, shiny, pastel blue eyes, bright, white teeth, and large, proud smile had been the same as his own at the time, but his brother had never been able to stay the same as Otto. Ralf had been murdered by a British rifleman during the Battle of Les Quesnoy in 1918. Trying his best to not remember the death of his beloved brother, Otto instead focused on the photo he was holding. He and Ralf had been standing in front of a fence in the German countryside, their arms wrapped around each other and their faces alight with the triumph of having passed basic training. For the ten weeks prior to the photograph being taken, the two had worked hard for ten weeks to master combat, but, looking back, Otto realized that what they had learned had done nothing to prepare them for the road ahead. Nonetheless, the two brothers had passed their training with exceptional marks the day of their twentieth birthday, December 23, 1914. They had both been wearing their crisp gray and red uniforms with gold buttons on the wrists, black rubber boots, cartridge belts, and cloth caps. They both toted a satchel of standard infantry equipment on their backs. The background of the shot was beautiful, and it dragged Otto back to a day very long ago, whether he wanted it to or not.

Essen, Germany

December 24, 1914

7:00 A.M.

Otto and Ralf's smiles gleamed in the morning air of Christmas Eve 1914, and all the flash from the camera did was illuminated their already shining teeth even more. Quickly, the two German brothers dropped their pose and ran over to their friend Anton, the gigantic soldier who had taken the picture for them.

"How'd it turn out Ant?" Ralf asked excitedly.

The ever-so-silent Anton, a soldier of the German army for four months, responded in a flat tone, "It won't be ready for quite some time. Do either of you know how cameras work?"

"Oh, well, I guess just get it back to us whenever it's ready?" Otto said, somewhat embarrassed by his lack of photography knowledge.

"Landser!" an Unteroffizier yelled from the back of a transport vehicle, "Form lines in front of each of these vehicles and weapons will be distributed to you," he gestured to a line of five transport trucks, hopped off the back of his, and climbed into the cab.

"Looks like it's time to get going," Otto muttered before grabbing Ralf's arm and walking him up to the slowly-forming line of German soldiers in front of the third transport. Anton trailed behind them. As they slowly moved forward in the line, Otto turned around to speak with Ralf, only to find him staring passionately at a photograph, a sad smile tugging at his lips. Without any warning whatsoever, he swiped the photograph from his brother's hands and inspected the subjects of it. From the looks of it, the two subjects were Ralf and a raven-haired girl Otto did not recognise.

"Who's this?" Otto asked, turning the image around to face his brother and pointing his finger at the girl.

"That is- um- well that is my girlfriend you see. Her name is Nadja, I have been with her for a year now." he responded awkwardly.

"And you never bothered to introduce me to her? How inconsiderate! I introduced you to Leni." Otto shoved the photograph back into his brother's hands and jokingly hit his shoulder before turning around and striding calmly up to where the soldier distributing the weapons stood. The soldier quickly handed him a Mauser Model 1898 with a bayonet already affixed to it. Otto climbed onto the bed of the vehicle and took note of his comrades' weapons as they joined him on the bench. Ralf carried a Bergmann MP18/I while Anton hefted a Maschinengewehr. It surprised Otto that Anton, a man nearly as young as himself, could carry such a large weapon and wear a full suit of metal armour at the same time and not crumple under the weight. Suddenly, he felt the truck lurch forward and begin trudging across the muddy ground.