Chapter 21: Intoxicated Comrade-in-Arms

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  "Come on! Follow me!"

  Rat-a-tat-tat, the fierce crossfire, rang out in a deafening crescendo! But the German tanks were impervious to our automatic weapons' attack, like some monstrous beast, they rolled towards us with impunity. The bullets hitting the tank's armor only produced a series of metallic clangs.

  "Rocket launcher! Get the rocket launcher!"

  Hiding in the corner of the wall, I hadn't even finished shouting this sentence when the German discovered me. The German tank that was slowly moving forward suddenly stopped and aimed its cannon at me!

  "Ensign, get down! Danger!"

  "What?"

  A deafening explosion answered me, and I suddenly lost all sense of awareness. My head felt like it had been struck by a heavy iron hammer, buzzing loudly! At that moment, my first thought was that I was done for!

  "Officer! Are you alright?!"

  A soldier behind me grabbed the collar of my jacket and dragged me to one side. I was stunned for a long time before I came to, opening my mouth to utter a national curse.

  "I'll screw your grandma, damn it, dare to blow me up!"

  Everyone in front of me was stunned, they didn't know why I would say something they couldn't understand, but on the contrary, they also heard that I was scolding people.

  "What now, Lieutenant!" Ensign Sally yelled at me from around the corner of another building.

  "On the roof! On the roof! Take the high ground! Dammit, Jones! Jones! Where's your rocket? Mute now?"

  "Sir, a dozen or so German devils are coming around our right flank!"

  "What! Bruce! Mother's, bring in the machine guns and seal them off! Quick! Take over the rooftop!"

  Street fighting is the most brutal in war, for the defender so, and even more so for the attacker! The German stormtroopers burst into the streets, their strong firepower suddenly greatly discounted.

  After fully entering the city, the German tanks were afraid of being attacked by American troops on both sides of the houses. In order to reduce losses, the tanks' advance speed almost came to a halt, hiding behind German infantry to provide them with increased firepower support. As a result, our casualty rate began to decrease significantly. I couldn't help but secretly blame John Joe for not putting the Germans in the city from the start, where every floor of every house and every intersection would be fiercely contested by both sides.

  This thought was fleeting, Carentan was just a small town, and the defending troops were only John Joe's battalion. If they didn't hold the bridgehead, the German army would have completely occupied Carentan in several waves of attack. Even if they hid in the city, they would be slowly dispersed by the Germans and eaten away bit by bit. Holding the bridgehead was a necessary strategy, and John Joe had originally thought that with the geographical advantage of Carentan's bridgehead position, he could limit the speed of the German attack. However, he hadn't expected the Germans to bring heavy artillery here, so this battle really couldn't be fought. If the Germans didn't want to quickly occupy Carentan, their casualties would probably have been fewer. Now I don't know how John Joe and his men are doing, the battle has become too desperate, and I've lost contact with them! Can only pray that God blesses us!

  "Hurry up, hurry up and bring up the ammunition!"

  "Oh no! That damned tank is coming again! Fall back!"

  Boom! A German hand grenade exploded on the other side of the wall, and the force of the explosion made the wall shudder. Debris from the roof fell down on my head. I looked up at the roof, then turned sideways to peek around the corner of the wall in the direction of the street. I saw two German soldiers crouching with their MP40 submachine guns, moving stealthily along the wall towards me!

  "Salley! Left side! Germans!"

  Lieutenant Sally had a few men at the corner of the wall to my right, forming a crossfire with me. He and I almost simultaneously spotted the Germans, but in real combat, you don't rush out like characters in movies, or you'd be riddled by German bullets. Lieutenant Sally suddenly poked his Thompson submachine gun out and fired a burst of suppressive fire at the approximate position of the Germans without even looking.

  Actually, this burst of bullets didn't cause any harm to the two German soldiers who had been through many battles. On the contrary, one of the German soldiers even fired back at Lieutenant Sally. The MP40 submachine gun bullets hit the corner wall where Sally was hiding, creating holes one after another. This is not an exaggeration, because when I first spotted them, they immediately dropped to the ground, with two soldiers coordinating to guard the direction of Sally's corner, and one aiming his rifle at my hiding place.

  “owo！three！frie！frie！”

  Dadada, no one will stick their head out to see the result, because it's simply not necessary! Whether these two Germans are dead or alive, all we need to do is move immediately. Because the German tanks are right behind their soldiers.

  Boom! The two tank cannons immediately blew up the buildings on both sides where we were hiding just now. It's a pity to look back at the building that was still intact, except for the shadow of German soldiers rushing forward in the flames. Nothing else can be seen!

  The war has reached a white heat, the entire city's sky is illuminated by flares as if it were daytime, but in those invisible dark corners, the life-and-death struggle between the besieged soldiers continues to unfold! Every house, every street, we are using lives to fill, but we are still being pushed back step by step by the Germans, the front line shrinking bit by bit.

  "We can't hold out here! Everyone retreat to the last line of defense!"

  The main streets and high points in the city have been occupied by the Germans, their MG42 machine guns can be set up to suppress our fire. Now the only place that is still relatively advantageous for us is the church, if it also falls, we will only be captured by the Germans as prisoners of war! However, being a prisoner of war of the Germans seems to be much better than being a prisoner of war of the Japanese, at least they can treat us like humans.

  But it makes me think of the Japanese, I hate them to the core. These bastards are simply a group of beasts in human skin! Throughout World War II, the most despicable ones were the Japanese. On the battlefields of China, every time the Japanese and Nationalist troops clashed in major battles, they used chemical weapons and inhumane biological weapons without exception. This resulted in almost one-third of Chinese soldiers not dying in real combat, but sacrificing their lives to what the Japanese called "special warfare". In fact, it's not just the military that can receive this honor, ordinary civilians were also subjected to this by the Japanese, which is something no other country did during World War II!

  If the above was just the greatest potential to destroy the enemy in war, then as a Japanese prisoner of war, not only did they have to do extreme hard labor, but even if they could get a decent burial, it would be considered a blessing from their ancestors. The Japanese were not only brutal in burning, killing and looting during the war, but also cruelly ripped open people's bellies and dug out their hearts. In the later stages of the war, due to Japan's severe shortage of supplies and food, they even secretly slaughtered prisoners of war in concentration camps, turning them into dried meat and canned meat for Japanese soldiers to enjoy! As for the slaughter and abuse of civilians, it was simply child's play. I really think that the atomic bombs dropped by the US on Japan were too few! They should have just sunk the whole island!

  My men are now down to just over a dozen, and when we retreated back to the church in disarray, everyone was wounded. However, what is meant by "wounded" on the battlefield is not just a scratch, but rather being hit by bullets or shells that at least gouge out a trough or create a hole. As for other injuries such as severed arms and legs, as long as one can still hold a gun, they are only considered lightly wounded.

  What I didn't expect was that John Joe had already retreated to the church. It turned out that when the German attack began to use smoke bombs on a large scale, John Joe had ordered the troops guarding the bridgehead to retreat while fighting, taking advantage of the favorable terrain! The troops had all withdrawn, and it wasn't until they counted their numbers again that they discovered that nearly 900 men from one regiment were left with only 200-300 men, and the casualties had almost reached two-thirds!

  "Judging from the intensity of the German attack, this is a German corps attacking us!" John gazed at Carrington's military map with an unwavering stare.

  "No wonder, we've only held out for two hours and can't hold on any longer! Colonel John Joe, what should we do?" In fact, I could also see that the Germans didn't just mobilize an elite armored division, they must have also mobilized at least one heavy artillery regiment! Otherwise, the intensity of the German firepower wouldn't be so high!

  John Joe smiled wryly and said, "I don't know how much longer we can hold on, but it's definitely impossible to last until dawn! So I've decided that your troops will take the seriously wounded and Miss Anna and leave here to return to the Normandy Allied base for rest!"

  "Sir! My troops can still hold on!" I said.

  John Joe patted me on the shoulder and said, "This is not your fault! You've done a lot already, you must preserve yourself for this troop even if it's not for yourself!"

  "I... I really can't go on, D. Two battles in a row and nearly two hundred men have been reduced to thirty or so. It's safe to say that if we don't pull out of Kasserine now, this unit will be stricken from the rolls of the U.S. Army."

  Yes, if I retreat, I won't have to fight the Germans to the death, and my life will be spared. To preserve this army, I must retreat, leaving behind familiar and unfamiliar soldiers, but a deep pain fills my heart. Suddenly, I think that in this large collective of the military, whether it's foreign comrades or brothers in the same trench, they can entrust their lives to each other, this feeling, whether it's Americans, Germans, or all armies around the world, they all have one name: camaraderie! This is the most intoxicating sentiment!

  "We've got everyone! Load the seriously wounded onto the truck and let's retreat!"

  Thirty-six of us, including me, gave John Joe a heavy military salute. Suddenly, I thought of a song: It's better not to meet, so we won't fall in love. It's better not to know each other, so we won't miss each other. It's better not to be together, so we won't owe each other. Yes, I came here against my will, and in the end, I still owe you! Farewell, American soldiers! Farewell, John Joe!