Berlin blood

“The order has been received to hold the village until reinforcements,” Jens informs the division of the just received order. Everyone looked at him with pleasure, the soldiers’ eyes lit up, they were bored of just sitting and doing nothing. They were eager to fight and that was commendable. — Wait, hold the village with one division? What’s next? “Alfred asked this question so unexpectedly that Jens looked at him reproachfully. He explained to others that there were no further orders and therefore he did not know. He himself understands that this is a lie, but does not want to look like a fool in the eyes of others. He announced that the meeting was over and everyone could leave except his group. “You clearly know more than you told the others.” There’s more in your eyes. — Yes it’s true. We are told to hold the village and stand for a week, and reinforcements will arrive there. So far we have managed to hold our ground. But…” he paused, and everyone understood perfectly well that everything was not so simple. Everyone knew that their ranks were thinning. Fewer and fewer of them are returning from the battlefield. — Wonderful. I don’t understand at all, why didn’t they immediately send us to the front line like cannon fodder? “The Russians intend to recapture the village, our task is to preserve it with all our might.” Local residents can also get involved,” Eris, who was sitting somewhere in the corner, spoke up. Jens shuddered, he remembered how the day before Masha collected her things and went into the forest, quietly leaving the village in the evening. Looking at her, he mentally wished her luck so that she would join her family. — Well, we use them once, and then what? We cannot use these often, and besides, they are of no use. The Russians can kill their own if necessary,” Alfred looked at the commander, he was looking out the window, he was uneasy. Winter was coming, the tanks froze, so we had to pour gasoline on them and set them on fire in order for the equipment to somehow work. “If even more severe frosts hit, we won’t get out of here, Jens.” We’ll be stuck here and die, quietly going crazy. — Erich! Don’t think that everything is so bad and gloomy. Your love for despondency goes beyond boundaries! — Tielike did not want to aggravate the situation and worsen the mood of the entire team. Everyone began to quietly think about the unknown and the fact that they were all soldiers on a land forgotten by God. But you need to be able to think about the good, nothing is absolute in the world, everything has a downside. And it depends only on you which of these sides you will pay more attention to. — He is right. In any case, we go to battle in three days. I’m sure it will be successful. I know you are starting to lose hope, but I ask you to believe in your luck. Everyone went to their corners and began to wait for the hour and day when they would feel the taste of blood and death on their lips. When they go into battle again, and only with their own faith will they decide whether they will win this battle or lose. Tielike was especially worried. He didn’t want to think that it would end in their defeat. But his intuition, which had saved his life more than once, told him the opposite. He was no longer worried about his life, but about Hilda, who, in the event of his death, would not even know where her love was buried. If she ever finds out he’s dead. What if she herself is already dead? No. Thilike, pushing away his thoughts and turning over on his other side, began to remember his hometown in an attempt to fall asleep. Jens still couldn’t sleep. He was worried about Masha and had the idea in his mind that it was possible to save her. Then, deciding that this was nonsense, he looked for a long time at the moon, which flooded the room with its light. *** Four in the morning — the whole division is on its feet. Last night everyone slept with half an eye, if they could sleep at all. The tension in the air struck everyone with its invisible arrows. Everyone is excited, the entire division is lined up near the tanks, and Jens, as the main one, makes a speech in which he does not talk about death, although he himself does not believe in a good outcome. The man does not hide that the battle will be difficult, but he instills hope in the soldiers and raises their morale. Tilike, getting into the tank, feels the same familiar atmosphere. A little light, headphones for communication, a lot of people — everyone relies and depends on each other. Winter is cold and dark. In no other season is death so clearly felt, it is everywhere. You only need to believe in yourself. “Tanks, interval twenty-five meters, march,” Jens’ clear order was heard, and everyone moved into mortal combat. Their tank goes first and the closer they get to the Russians, the worse their situation becomes. You don’t know what to expect from them. They can lie in ambush anywhere. They rarely come out openly, they wait for the right moment when your reaction weakens, and then they strike. “First, we stalled,” the voice of the commander of one of the tanks was heard in the headphones. — What do you mean, stalled? “Jens reacted instantly. — The mechanisms are frozen. We can’t move. “Why the hell didn’t you check this before leaving?!” — Jens cursed, they were easy targets in the open. But before he had time to give feedback, an enemy shot was heard. — Tilike, where did the shot come from? “Gun at eleven o’clock,” Tilika didn’t have time to order before Jens beat him to it. “Fourteenth, fifteenth, destroy,” the tanks moved towards the target, firing shells. — Target destroyed! — was heard in the headphones. — Keep your eyes open! Thilike, looking into the device, noticed several tanks crawling out of the forest. There are not many of them, but Thielicke suspected that this was not all, but only half. And I was not mistaken. They were the first to blow up a stuck tank and it instantly took off into the air. Everyone else moved into battle. The team worked harmoniously and they destroyed the enemy quite quickly, but there were a lot of Russians. Too much. German tanks were burning one after another. The infantry also lay down dead. — We retreat! — Jens understands that they have no choice but to fight in the village. He hopes the locals have left. He recalls that the day before he saw how one of the partisans, pretending to be a local, entered the village. “Are we going to fight right in the village?” — Alfred is dumbfounded. “We have no choice, damn it,” Jens replies angrily and tries to give Eris the command: “Keep in touch with other tanks.” They are hiding behind the stables. Thielicke looks into the device and monitors the situation as best he can, while simultaneously taking the drug. Now there is no way to give up, and my eyes are trying to get blind from lack of sleep. — Tower at eleven o’clock. “Erich, fragmentation,” commands Tielike. It turns out to be an excellent shot — right in the forehead, the tank catches fire. Tielicke quickly turns the turret and sees another one behind him, about to fire. The enemy does not have time, the guy is ahead of him. “We’re changing position,” Alfred taxis as quickly as he can. They are surrounded by three tanks. There are four shells left. The tension is rising. Jens contacts the two remaining tanks and realizes that their situation is dire. One is surrounded and fired from two cannons at once, the other has no shells left at all. Jens exhaled quietly and took off his headphones, the whole team turned around, awaiting an order. — We will fight until our last breath! — He offers to do the same to the surviving tank crews, they agree, saying that it was an honor for them to serve him and the German people. They move further and further into the village and defend themselves more than they attack. “Commander,” Erich raises his voice for the first time in a long time. “The last one,” having said this, he refills the projectile. “Shoot,” this command acted on Tilika like another drug. He points the turret at the enemy tank and fires. The happiest moments flash through my head. A shell flies into the right side, blinding. The last thing Thielike remembers is their commander’s words: “I’m proud of you.” *** He opened his eyes to Tilika, lying on the bed. The gaze did not want to focus for a long time. From the pain all over his body, it became clear that he had miraculously survived! All the ribs are wound, my left hand is burning unbearably. He wants to turn his head, but his neck also hurts. After lying down for about ten minutes, Thielike was still able to get up and see where he was. An ordinary hut. He lived in the same one when he stayed in the village. — You’ve finally woken up! — a voice belonging to a woman gave hope that everything was not so bad. — Where is everyone? — he asked in a half-whisper with blue lips. “You didn’t wait a bit for reinforcements.” You are with yours. Of your team, only you and your commander survived. My name is Jens. — How? “Tilike couldn’t believe it. - So like this. You lie down, rest,” Thilike lay back on the bed, falling into the darkness. A couple of days later, when he was able to walk and the wounds had healed a little, he met Jens. Together with another division, they buried the remains. He sees the bodies of Eris, Erich, Alfred and many others with whom he communicated. He watches them being buried in the cold Russian soil, and his soul becomes more and more painful. As soon as the last of his comrades is buried, unable to bear it, he goes away. Tielike doesn’t know how long he walked, but he collapses from powerlessness under the destroyed tank and sobs like a little boy. He sobs at the top of his lungs, realizing that he will never be able to talk to them again. That there would be no more Alfred, who, sitting in the evenings, told his stories, and Eris said that it was all a lie. She will never see Erich’s smile again, nor will she hear his rare, but in its own way, beautiful laughter. How will Alfred’s wife, Joanna, take this news? Will she cry in the same way, suffer in the same way from the fact that her husband is buried on someone else’s land? She won’t even be able to come to him. Everything mixed into one big lump of pain, so black and so big. He, like a knife, stuck into his heart and did not allow him to calm down his emotions and even collect his thoughts a little. Thielick realized that all his dreams and all the fantasies that the war would give him a lot were stupid and naive. War gives nothing, it only takes away. Awards and titles can never compare with human life. Hilda. There was so much he didn’t have time to tell her. There was so much I wanted to say right now, on my knees. But he couldn’t. All he can do now is, sitting under a collapsed tank, look into the eyes of the same young boy and cry from hopelessness and his own stupidity. He was a fool when he agreed to this war. It was sinking like the damn Titanic. It began to snow and the cold gripped him. But Tilika was of little interest in this. He wanted to die.