Trench 1915, p.33
Trench 1915, page 33
“You have been spared by the German eagle, but the grey wolf will always be around to end your miserable existence. Believe that, English!” Yusuf spit on the ground before walking away as two K.W.S. soldiers move in with the stretcher.
The objectives of the Third Battle of Krithia had been more realistic than the previous attempts, but it ended in failure; all the same with only small gains for the British. However, that changed when the Ottomans launched a counter attacked so effective to the point of almost breaking the British forces and would stem the attack. The Triple Entente withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsula in January 1916, after eight months of heavy fighting and torturous trench warfare. It was a military disaster for the British that helped strengthen and unite the Ottomans instead of demoralizing or weakening them.
CHAPTER 29
There was Thunder in Artois
June 15, 1915, Artois, France
Maxis sat on his bunk in the underground barracks writing his journal while the rain and artillery was heard from outside. The ground would shake every time a shell hit near the trench knocking items over but for Maxis it was more of an annoyance.
“A couple of interesting things happened after the mission in the Italian Alps. For starters, we stayed for another week to provide support as much as we could before being redeployed to our new assignment, which I’m not at the liberty to say since it is classified. Plus the Geist platoon has been keeping a close eye on me and my journal. Before we were sent to Artois, I heard we launched a combined offensive with the Austro-Hungarians, helping them push the Russians back, which also means K.W.S. had been busy but so was the Tayna Brigade. I have heard rumors that the “Huntress” or what Lothar likes to call her sometimes, either that or hundin (bitch,) has been making strides against our forces and K.W.S.
I heard another rumor that one K.W.S. squad got completely wiped out by her, which normally is rare, since we try to keep casualties to a minimum, however, a wipe-out was a bit shocking to us. The circumstance is that we are marching on the Russians...hard into their territory...so Tayna is getting serious, with Col. Vorshevsky calling the shots and unleashing more prototype weapons against us and worst...Arina is at the far front of it all. The only good news is that we recently liberated Przemyśl Fortress, though a bit late. It would have been nice to work with Colonel Josef and Cpl. Zell had they joined the K.W.S.
It’s been a while since we worked with a whole squad, specifically the now disbanded Grün squad, I wonder how they’re doing right now? I do hope they survive this conflict since Italy joined the Entente and the war is getting bigger every month. Speaking of surviving, I still owe Lothar one for saving me when that pipe fell on me. The harsh lesson is that when you have someone tall and very strong like Lothar around, and someone fast and efficient yet strategically deadly like me, we certainly are a force to be reckoned with...although Lothar has been thinking and planning more effectively, but not fast as I am. Steiner was an interesting character, quiet and deadly with a rifle. He certainly helped a lot in our operation in the mountains. If there was a unit or squad to be formed, I would want him onboard since him and Kruger would be a deadly combination and likely the best of friends.”
Maxis closed his journal and reached for his footlocker but before he put it away, he took one last glance at the scorch marks on the edges of the journal. The ground shook and dirt fell from the ceiling.
“I almost lost you in Italy, but this time you are staying here,” Maxis said to himself.
After putting the journal away, he grabbed his kit, rucksack, two Kugel stick grenades (M1913/15 Poppenberg), and a flare gun. Then he put a small bandolier for flare shells around his right arm, the Bittner pistol, and a Mondragon 1908 self-loading rifle with a painted reflex sight. He walked up the stairs and out the door.
The sky was overcast as rain continued to fall lightly; the artillery fired on a regular continuous schedule. Maxis walked through the cross-sections of the trench lines until he made it to another dugout and walked inside to find Lothar sitting on the crate wearing his Gaede helmet and his new feldgrau colored scarf around his neck. He was analyzing his new rifle that had been issued to him. He looked up to see Maxis descending the stairs.
“Oh, hey Maxis,” greeted Lothar.
“Guten Nachmittag (Good afternoon), Lothar. I see that you’re still working on your new rifle.”
“sigh This thing is a pain,” Lothar signed. “The Madsen M1896 (self-loading) rifle is interesting but I can’t seem to get this last screw in...I keep dropping it!” Lothar struggled to put the last piece in its place.
“Here let me help,” Maxis walked over and Lothar handed him the rifle.
“It’s a bit odd that Lothar is using a self-loading rifle though without proper training. Then again, we are in the middle of another French offensive which means weapon shortages. The only reason he chose this model is because he’s familiar with the company’s work. Even if he’s an MG specialist that doesn’t normally play with self-loading rifles. He should have taken advanced riflemen class,” Maxis thought as he put the last screw in its hole, then grabbed the screwdriver. After tightening it, he cocked the rifle and pulled the trigger only to hear a click.
“There.”
“Pfft, like I said, a pain,” Lothar retorted.
“Welcome to my world. At least you can use magazines while I’m stuck with stripper clips for this thing. Anyway, did you survey the area like I ask?” Maxis asked.
“Yep, took a lift in the observation balloon and managed to doodle a small map for our infiltration tonight,” said Lothar, loading bullets into his Mauser “Zigzag” revolver.
“Good. That means you’re taking point on this one.”
“I can’t wait. I’ll be sure not to guide us through a machine gun nest,” Lothar said with a bit of sarcasm and a smile.
“Ok, now I’m worried.”
Lothar laughed a bit before speaking.
“Heh, I managed to get in contact with...oh, before I forget. Here are your wire cutters. I have mine already.” Lothar tossed the pair of heavy-duty wire cutters to Maxis. He caught it and attached it to his belt.
“Hey, I forgot to ask. Do you have that special barrel extension you received from R&D?” Lothar asked as he got up.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about it. Hold on,” Maxis reached into his pocket and pulled out a black barrel.
“This is an exact working replica of the Maxim Silencer, but R&D made some improvements to this device.”
“Did you manage to test it out yet?”
“Not yet, though I’m about to find out. Come on,” Maxis put the silencer in his pocket and walked out of the dugout. Lothar holstered his revolver, grabbed his rifle, along with four stick grenades, three kugel ball grenades, handheld flares, tornister, and a compact trench knife with a knuckle duster.
They both walked outside of the dugout and made their way to the jump-off trench. When they arrived, Maxis put the silencer on to his pistol. It was specially threaded for such, and fired a few shots to their amazement. They heard very little besides the shells hitting the wooden board. After the test fire, they sat down in the jump-off trench and waited for night fall.
“Hey Maxis, do you mind recapping the mission to me again; that Lieutenant was a bit too short with us during our briefing. Hate to admit it, but Reinhard did a better presentation than his stand in,” said Lothar as he held his rifle close.
“Certainly. We are about to commence Operation: Donnerschlag (Thunder strike). Air recon spotted the Regiment of Britannia setting up base camp in the Artois region. Since the French are in the middle of their offensive it seems the Regiment of Britannia is willing to lend support to the battered French. From what our phone interceptors, you know, those field phones of the earth return variety, and photos from air recon have provided, base camp King George is serving as a launching point for their little shock operation that will be coming soon.”
“Little? The number of armored cars, big guns, and anti-air that was in the photo says otherwise!” Lothar interrupted.
“You’re telling me! Anyway, our objective is to infiltrate through no man’s land, pass the French trench lines undetected, then do nine kilometer (five mile) march through the countryside, and find the base camp. Once we locate it, we need to clear out the pom-pom guns and anyone else, then mark the target zones such as ammo depots, command center, barracks, and artillery. The Prussian Blue Tails will be flying in at noon which will give us enough time to clear out any resistance. They will be flying with a new prototype, a modified Siemens-Schuckert Gleiter (Flying Torpedo or Flying Bomb) that is radio controlled!” Maxis explained with excitement.
“Radio controlled!? Boy, I would like to see that baby fly!”
“R&D took an existing prototype and gave it more add-ons. It seems there is nothing lab boys, military inventors, and intellectuals cannot do when they work together. It’s almost frightening,” Maxis said with sincerity.
“The longer this war keeps going, we are going to see more wonderous and yet bizarre or even terrifying weapons of war on the battlefields, either from us or from Triple Entente. That is the same thing you told me once after that incident in Bochnia,” Lothar slowly peered over the parapet.
“Too right.”
“So, when do we start our infiltration, Max?”
“At midnight. We are going in to do our job and get out. We’re supposed to meet at the rear trench line with Geist agents when we finish our mission. Hopefully, they don’t forget our things,” Maxis shifted and made himself comfortable while maintaining watch.
They sat there and waited, all while keeping a lookout toward no man’s land. As day turned to night, it was now time to begin the operation. Maxis pulled out his black cover for his pickelhaube and puts it on then pulled up his blue scarf over his nose. Lothar grabbed some dirt to coat his new Gaede helmet and pulled his feldgrau scarf over his nose.
He went first, Maxis following right behind him as they went over the top. The two crouched down, then sprinted across the desolate landscape passing through the mud, shell holes, and puddles, some as big as miniature lakes. They moved quickly and carefully.
The area was under cover of complete darkness, for the only source of light was flashes from the artillery impacting the ground or illuminating the sky with tracers; the leftover fire was still burning off dead trees, wagons, and destroyed buildings.
Time and time again they came across the fallen, the stench of death fresh in the air and sound of flies buzzing about; either that or the coppery odor of fresh blood. In a bright flash, the rotting corpses could be seen, badly decomposed or near a skeletal state. The sights were all too familiar for the daring two, but still they pressed on. Lothar immediately dropped to the ground; Maxis did the same.
“Stay down, we’ve got incoming! Trench raiders. Just act like a corpse,” Lothar whispered. They heard distant voices coming toward them; the sound grew louder.
“Keep moving, men,” whispered one French soldier as he passed by.
“We’re gonna take the Germans by surprise!” whispered another French soldier.
“Keep quiet!”
The trench raiding team moved past Maxis and Lothar, paying them no mind. The French did their best not to trip over the bodies, except for one. A French soldier bumped into Lothar and Lothar held his breath, his heart racing.
“Merde (Shit)! A corpse. What waste,” complained the soldier, sounding annoyed.
The soldier walked over Lothar but then immediately fell, tripping over another body. The other soldiers try to contain their laughs.
“Damn it! They are like cats who are always in the way!” The Frenchmen kicked Maxis’ side out of frustration.
Maxis tried not to let out peep after getting kicked; the pain was present but was quickly replaced with anger.
“Ok, now I’m mad!” Maxis thought.
After the trench raiding party passed, Lothar turned to Maxis.
“Maxis, what’s the game plan?” he asked.
“One grenade!” replied Maxis as he turned over on his back and pulled out kugel stick grenade. He pulled the pin, counted to three ,then threw it hard as he could; it twirled in the air. The grenade struck the back of the Frenchmen’s head and he jerked around.
“My god! What just hit me?...Grenade!” the Frenchmen shouted as the grenade exploded taking out five others along with him.
The remaining ten were confused and in a panic; now are making too much noise. This attracted the German sentry’s attention who then fired a flare into the sky, lighting the whole area. Maxis and Lothar kept their eyes closed, blocking the flare’s blinding light.
The gunners of the MG08s opened fire on the trench raiders, ripping them to shreds; even the riflemen joined in. The raiders died in mere seconds. After the flare died out and the screams of Frenchmen ceased, they moved on.
“Geez, I’ll remember not to get you mad,” said Lothar.
“Let’s just keep moving,” said Maxis.
They slowly got up, now covered in mud as they proceeded a little bit further to the French trench line. Lothar stopped the moment his rifle rattles the barbwire. He quickly quieted the rattle.
“Hey, we made it. Get over here, so we can cut it together, Maxis.”
Maxis moved slowly, dropped prone, and then pulled out the wire cutters.
“Alright, we’ll cut the wire when the artillery hits. That will conceal the noise. Wait for the impact,” instructed Maxis.
“Got it.”
They waited until they could hear the whistle of an incoming shell before making an impact. Maxis and Lothar cut the first layer of barb wire before stopping. Another whistle was coming, and the result was the same...they cut through. They continued the process through the first, second, and third rolls of barbed wire as they slowly crawled under.
While they were cutting the second wire, Maxis failed to notice the corpse hanging from the barbed wire above them. Shortly after cutting through, the corpse fell on top of Maxis literally making him gasp as the flash of the artillery impact revealed the badly decomposed corpse of a German soldier’s face, riddled with maggots, missing an eyeball, and his jaw wide open. Maxis gingerly laid the rotting corpse aside.
After cutting through the third roll of wire, they holstered their wire cutters and crawled forward. Ten feet in front of them was the trench line. The faint lantern lights could be seen and there was small pile of sandbags in the middle, with a small opening and sticking above that was a periscope. Maxis moved closer to Lothar and spoke quietly.
“French sentry. You flank right, I got left. Move silently, no need to draw attention.”
Lothar crawled slowly and carefully to the right as Maxis moved to the left. The sentry was standing still looking through the small opening in the sandbags but he was slowly dosing off and struggling to stay awake. The sentry started to mutter to himself as Lothar crawled near him.
“I must stay awake. The Germans could be anywhere. Oh man, I’m so tired. I’m glad I’m not in the meat grinder unlike the others,” mumbled the French sentry, keeping himself awake.
Lothar grabbed the sentry by the head, keeping his mouth shut as he muffled him. He held the sentry’s neck until he passed out. As the body went limp, Lothar gently lowered him down to the ground then jumped into the trench and made some adjustments to make it look like he was sleeping.
“Rest soldier, for you deserve it,” said Lothar, as the soldier was sound asleep.
“You knocked him out without making a sound or killing him. Impressive,” said Maxis as he jumped into the trench carefully. He pulled out his Bittner pistol.
“The only thing that I didn’t tell Lothar is that these silencers are sensitive to heat if fired too much. Though that shouldn’t be a problem if I was using a machine gun, but I must display restraint and only fire as a last a resort, if there are no other alternatives,.” Maxis thought as he attached the silencer then pulled out the blade from the inside of his boot.
Maxis moved forward but with Lothar still taking point. The trench line was less active as the French were seen sitting in a row sleeping and snoring, now accustomed to the sound of constant artillery. Some slept with their rifles while others had their pistols.
Not even one soldier was awake, even the officer was resting comfortably in his chair while everyone else was on the ground. Maxis and Lothar moved about carefully over the soldiers so as not to alert them. They were almost past the first trench line when Lothar accidentally tripped over a soldier’s boot. The French soldier moved slightly and groaned.
“Uh, it’s already my turn?” stammered the French soldier, stretching. Lothar acted fast and he pulled down his scarf and spoke.
“No, soldier. Sorry, it’s not time yet. Go back to sleep.”
“Oh, okay,” he responded, and without even opening his eyes went back to sleep. Maxis lowered his pistol, breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately gave Lothar a thumbs up.
They moved past the first trench and as they entered the second, continued navigating through the network. Lothar passed a wooden door and paid it no mind until the door swung wide open behind him. A French soldier stepped out of the built-in out-house.
“Ugh, no more onion on bread and…” Before he finished his sentence, Maxis sprung into action and plunged his blade into the soldier’s neck, then pressed the silenced pistol into his chest and fired three rounds.
He caught the body and quickly put him back into the stall in a sitting position, then closed the door. Maxis reloaded his Bittner and placed another en-bloc clip into the pistol.
“He died as he lived...in the shitter,” Maxis thought jokingly.
After traversing the second trench line, narrowly avoiding patrols by either knocking them out or silencing them permanently, they tried to find creative ways to hide the bodies. Eventually they reached the rear trench line. Lothar moved across it just before he heard someone singing, coming from the path on the left.
