We left off this replay of Last Hundred Yards here!
Now onto the next stage of play.
Jackson watched the effect of his men’s fire. It was scattered and panicked, shots splattered into snow drifts, and shook icicles from tree limbs way above the German heads. He needed to settle the men quickly.
But he had to get ahead of the flanking force and keep the church in his control, it held food, medical supplies and comms equipment. Once the enemy got in there his whole platoon was at risk, and the Germans would be impossible to root out.
He jumped to his feet and strode from fireteam to fireteam, offering words of encouragement, corrections and advice ignoring the incoming fire. He pulled aside Sergeant Rothberg; “keep the men focused, I’m taking a squad back to cover the Church, they are shooting wildly. You know how to calm them down. Make it happen.”
Rothberg grinned. “Yes Sir I do. ”
He turn to his nearest fireteam. He roared at a cowering Private ” Gawd dang Pvt Ruggiero, did you mamma teach you how to shoot? Are you such a green horn you forgot everything the 99th taught you? What are you some sorta Battle Baby?” … Ruggiero chuckled, took a deep breath and laughed. The tension melted from his shoulders..”Sarge I remember Sarge..”..”Well” Rothberg said loud enough to be heard over the din of gunfire, ” Now is the time to put it to work boy, shoot that damn weapon properly.”
As Jackson as his squad moved out they could see over a dozen Jerry running in the distance towards the Church “On the double, lets go” Feet crunched on hard packed snow, and the men flitted from cover to cover, their breath trailing in clouds behind them. “move, move, move!! Jackson exhorted his men.
Rothberg assessed the situation. He was being fixed and flanked. Classic German move.
The Germans had taken control of a building on his right and were pouring fire in onto his position. His men had forced a slackening off of that fire, but they too were being suppressed from the woods across the road. To his right, the MG section was firing in controlled bursts. That was one good sign.
“Ahh Sarge…Sarge, look at those crazy Jerries” Wootress pointed at the men racing up the road towards them! Rothberg screamed at Wootress “Don’t point you Battle Baby, fire at them for God’s sake if not for mine!!”
Wootress froze. “he mumbled..I do’t wanna die..I don’t wanna die”. Corporal Pitts, placed a calming hand on Wootress’s rifle. ” John, John, look at me… I’d be more afraid of Sarge than those Germans. Use your weapon buddy, here watch. Pitt’s raised up and shouldered his M1 and fired a quick round or two. Blood splattered Wootress in the face, as Pitts spun back to the ground. He fell against the wall, grasping his shoulder. ” Stop looking at me, shoot your rifle! MEDIC” he roared. Rothberg looked around and could see half his men pinned down. Their fire slackening off…Wootress wiped blood from his face and stared at it. Something clicked in his head.
“You see that, we hit two of them!” said Balod as he leaned in against his machine gun firing controlled bursts, keeping the jerry’s heads down.
‘Yeah, I saw, nice shooting, but we need to move. We cant stay here.” Said Krockover. “On my mark lets move to the next building over, …. Go!!”
Krockover used his huge strength to grab three cans of 250 round belted ammo in both hands like they were cupcakes and ran for the door, Balod was right on his heels, slinging the 31 pound browning 1919 to his shoulder. The good news about the cold, was the barrel was barely hot. Bad news was at night the water coolant would freeze. He quickly caught up to Krockover as he lumbered along with his 60 pounds of ammo 7 plus field kit.
“Wootress..Wootress, what the hell are you doing? Get back under cover.” Shouted Rothberg. Wootress looked around with a determined mien . “The hell with hiding Sarge, I am not gunna die today Sarge, come on guys!”
He leapt up, slung a grenade at the advancing Germans, who scattered for cover on the icy ground as shrapnel peppered the air around them.
“Get some… come on get some”. Yelled Wootress, as he quick fired and advanced into the open. The men around he started to stand..paused..looked at Rothberg…waiting for orders.
“Aww hell “Said the Sarge. “FIX bayonets!!!!” Let’s go help Wootress before he gets his ass killed!”
Rothberg and the fireteam nearest him, charged to action. The others followed suit. Soon a hail of bullets from the Battle Babies were peppering the weary, hard looking men of the Wehrmacht.
Stunned the Germans turned tail and ran for the woods.
From the woods, Rolfe lowered his weapon. He thought to himself ‘Americans, always so un predictable. How can we beat them if they don’t do the same thing twice.’ He wondered.
His best men had turned tail for the woods. Now his forces were split, and he was bogged down.
Over on the German left Lang could see a squad of GI’s running towards the Church. Could he beat them to the heavy stone building?
“schnell, schnell, we must beat the GI to the Church!!”
His plan relied on taking the Church and forcing the GI’s to attack him, or better yet to cut and run, as they would feel surrounded. Strangely his squad left to pin those same GI’s running to the Church had stopped shooting. Not good. Nor could he hear the heart warming staccato of his MG’s….He looked at the leaden steel sky, today would be a shitty day to die. “Move, move he roared, get into that fucking Church now!
Jackson and his men skidded to a halt at the front of the Church and entered carefully. Had they beat the Germans there.
‘Tewks as soon as we get in here, re connect to the wire and request fire support from the 370th Arty. And get Col. Riley on the horn. We need back up. ASAP. The rest of you men get ready for those Jerry to break thru the back and try and take us.’ Jackson looked at his watch, just 20 minutes had passed since the first sighting. It was going to be a long day.
