The Rolling Saint

Chapter III - "Surrounded"

After we crossed the Ludendorff Bridge, we are now at the middle of town, cautious of every side of every building, the soldiers point their guns towards every angle, up and down, left and right. The B-24 bombers I saw on the sky last time, were gone, looks like they've made it on their target. Unexpectedly, bombardment started on our left, Germans, I thought. One soldier lied down on the floor, pointing is rifle everywhere, on my right, shells rained, soldiers flew everywhere, blood and gore, flying guts. The tank moved. I saw dead men, all bloody. I saw one good guy who accidentally stepped on a land mine, his legs flew off his body. It is very brutal. I'm thinking of a possible chance that the Germans might take over the bridge again, but it'll never happen again. What's left of the Germans were just Pocket Armies. Small groups of soldiers scattered everywhere. We fought them off, with only a single fire from the Browning machine gun, every men dead. After 22 hours of fighting, my crew rested well again, Paul, the young kid, was able to have his rank rise up. He's now a corporal. We'd just surrounded the Germans. I saw 15,000 of them, lined up properly, placing their firearms in front of our tank. James was counting the prisoners-of-war. "Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Se-" He counted, "James." I called his attention, "Sorry for distracting, but where you learned counting in German?" I asked, sitting on the side. "My father was German. He was a war veteran since the first world war."he explained, "Ok, then. Continue your counting, your reward: A Pack of Cigarettes."
"Sure why not sir." he said. The counting continued. Poor kids, I thought again. "I saw 5 children yesterday." said Stuart, "they were 5 10 years old down." He grabbed his gun, then cleaned, "Hitler Youth I think." he said, "Maybe they are from the Waffen SS." I said, curiously. Its gonna be another day tomorrow. "Yes sir." Paul said, taking my cigarette box.