by Harald,C. M.
'It all worked out well just now.' Wells said.
'Yes, but I didn't know it would work and I don't want any friendly casualties because I'm not been able to control the new ones. We're really pushing my limits.'
'That's what I'm here for.' Wells patted his, so far unused, light machine gun, 'We've got your back.'
'Let's go then.' Marsh was slightly reassured by the reminder of the presence of his security squad. It was their job to deal with any breakdown in Marsh's ability to command the Tigers. He had no doubt that security squads elsewhere along the line had already put down Tigers when their Handlers fell in battle. Marsh commanded his Tigers out.
There was less distance to the second German line, although this distance was more heavily fortified. Within seconds of the combat group leaving the captured trench, the defending Germans saw the movement and opened fire. The Australians behind the advancing Tigers started cheering the advancing deceased on. Someone conceived the idea to open fire on the Germans to keep their heads down. Before long, the whole Allied line was providing covering fire to the Tigers, aiming at the Germans who were giving away their positions with their defensive fire. Before Marsh had even made it to the first shell-hole, a major duel had opened up between the Australians and the Germans. A couple of Australian Lewis guns opened up, and other than a couple of the German machine gun positions, the German fire slackened as their soldiers took cover.
'Let move quicker!' Marsh shouted, his voice feeble against the fusillade, 'The Aussies are keeping the German's heads down.'
This time there was less wire to slow down the advance. There had been a great deal of the obstacle, but for once the shelling had sufficiently damaged it. Instead of the Tigers being funnelled into machine gun killing zones, they were able to advance unimpeded. The zombies rushed ahead of Marsh and his security squad, the living sprinting to keep up as the Tigers leapt into the German second-line trench. Behind them there rose a roar from the Australians, who had taken the advance of the Tigers as their own signal to advance. The Australian fire slackened to nearly nothing while the mayhem in the German trench grew, directed not at the advancing troops but at the Tigers in their midst.
Wells reached the top of the enemy parapet, pausing to point his Chauchat before firing off a five round burst. Marsh arrived just in time to see a German rifleman crumple to the ground as Wells jumped down next to the lifeless corpse. This second trench line was heavily manned by the Germans, clearly their main line of defence or a gathering counter-attack. Marsh jumped down into the crowded trench before anybody could draw a bead on him. He headed in the opposite direction to Wells, firing his shotgun at a soldier who lunged towards him with a bayonet tipped rifle. The shotgun blast caught the man in the face, his head disappearing in a spray of red. Marsh felt an overwhelming urge to vomit as the sight nearly tipped his fear into terror.
Yet there were more enemy soldiers that Marsh could readily count. The vast majority of them were preoccupied with trying to fight off the single zombie that had entered this part of the trench. The Tiger was one of the ones that Marsh had started the day with and it was showing quite a bit of wear from the hard fighting. Five of the enemy had it cornered, trying to pin it to the parapet with their bayonets. Another group of soldiers were trying to shoot the zombie, but none were aiming for the head. Marsh quickly cycled his lever shotgun, firing into the group of soldiers pinning the zombie. As they fell, the Tiger got free, grabbing at those close enough to reach. Screams of terror and pain came from several mouths.
One of the soldiers who had previously been trying to shoot the Tiger turned, his rifle aimed at Marsh. In that moment they both knew that Marsh would not get his shotgun ready in time. A scream from above drew an end to this common understanding and Marsh saw Davies flying through the air, machete in hand. His fall was broken by the German, the blade slashed through the man's arm. It caught in the wooden rifle stock and Davies tried to pull the blade out as the gun clattered to the floor. Frustrated, he stomped on the rifle and the blade came free. The German fell back in shock, watching the blood spurt from his severed arm. Davies turned, and in a frenzied scream, charged at the nearest unharmed German. The man was hastily readying his weapon but Marsh cycled his shotgun first, before the defender could stop Davies. The gun barked, ending the German, yet Davies still savagely fell upon the man as he slumped back against the trench wall.
The Tiger, having quickly finished its tormentors, rushed past Marsh and Davies quickly distracting the remaining Germans in the section of the trench. As they watched a new Tiger arose from the group of Germans that had impaled the Tiger on the bayonets. The man was missing much of his lower face, the bone of his jaw clearly visible. He pushed past Marsh and fell upon the remaining defenders. It was too much for them and they loudly started to surrender to Marsh and Davies.
'Surrender!' A German soldier shouted, throwing his rifle down and raising his hands. The others around him did the same.
'Stop.' Marsh quietly commanded the two Tigers in front of him. They instantly stopped at his command, still hunched over their victims, but no longer attacking. He briefly wondered if all the Tigers under his command had also frozen in mid-action. Marsh summoned them to him so that they would not be frozen targets for the enemy, nor would they cause friendly casualties. By now they would have so disrupted the sections of trench that they had entered, that the closely following Australians would meet no organised resistance. How would other handlers control so many Tigers if they could only send verbal orders? He knew he would have to look at this further after the attack.
'What are these demons you have sent at us?' The German asked. The man was clearly shaken, but still managed to ask in clear English.
'Something that will win the war.' Marsh replied as two more Tigers joined him along with a sweaty Sergeant Wells who had pursued them along the trench, worried that something untoward had occurred. Morgan joined them slightly after, clearly unable to keep up with Wells.
'We are truly in hell,' The German said, 'They are monsters, you have unleashed monsters to fight this war.'
Marsh did not get chance to reply as a dozen, or more, Australians chose this moment to leap into the trench.
'You ain't left any for us to do you greedy buggers.' One of the Australian NCOs complained.
'Prisoners for you lads.' Morgan said to cheers from several of the Australians who insisted on clapping the four Tigers on the backs before securing the prisoners and policing the trench.
'Message for you mate. From the Company Captain.' A runner had jumped into the trench, giving Marsh a folded piece of paper. The man stood puffing, clearly relieved to be back below ground rather than crossing the dangers of no-mans-land.
Marsh unfolded the piece of paper and read the pencilled writing, 'Marsh, hold your current position in the second trench while we try to arrange artillery support to take the final trench. Tigers are to attack the final trench at 11 o'clock.' Marsh glanced at his watch, that would be in three-quarters of an hour, 'Australians present are to advance at same time. Pass these orders to the senior Australian present. Attack progressing successfully across front.'
'What's it say Marsh?' Wells asked. Marsh gave him the note to read.
'Please acknowledge receipt.' Marsh said to the runner who climbed out of the trench to return the message to the Captain. Wells set about finding the senior Australian to pass on the orders.
'What we doing now then Corporal?' Davies asked.
'Waiting for some artillery before attacking.' Marsh answered, 'Can you go and find Matthews? He won't be far away.'
Davies wandered off up the trench, hoping he had picked the right direction. He jumped out of the way when he got to the bend in the trench, four Tigers came around the corner escorted by some more rather cheerful Australians.
'Found these making their way here.' One of the escorts cheerfully shouted when he recognised Marsh.
'Send any more you find this way.' Marsh called back. He had star
ted the attack on the second trench with eleven Tigers. He wondered how many he would have by the time they all responded to his summons. This latest group had not been moving with any real urgency, so clearly any others would be taking their time.
After a few minutes of waiting, from the opposite direction to the one taken by Davies, Matthews appeared along with ten Tigers. The living human looked happy, but tired. The Tigers looked bloody and dead, although still animated.
'You and your bloody silent orders Alfie.' Matthews complained, 'We were in the middle of a scrap with at least a dozen Germans and the bloody Tigers froze and then started walking along the trench away from the enemy. I was just stood there looking at the Germans and they were looking at me. Then all of a sudden, they threw their weapons on the floor. Twelve of them surrendered to us me! Couldn't believe it. The Tigers had them shitting themselves.'
'These are the ones I gathered up when trying to find you.' Matthews said, 'I had to put a couple down who had taken a grenade or something.'
'Where's Davies?' Matthews asked, having patted Wells on the back.
'Alfie sent him off to look for you.' Wells replied, 'He clearly went the wrong way.'
'Bloody typical. So how may Tigers we got then?' Matthews said sitting down and lighting a cigarette.
'Eighteen at the moment.' Wells replied.
'Can you handle that many Alfie?' Matthews asked.
'Don't see why not. It's not like I've got to see them or something. As long as they're in range, I think they'll do what I tell them to.' Marsh replied.
'What are the other handlers going to be doing? How are they going to cope? You're the only one who can do it in your head.' Morgan asked.
'Dunno. I suppose their security squad'll deal with any that they can't control.' Marsh explained.
'But what happens if things get out of the control of the squad?' Morgan looked concerned as if the realising the precariousness of their situation for the first time.
'We don't think that's likely to happen, but if it does, you get every soldier on hand and put down every Tiger you can find until things are under control again.' Morgan looked blankly at him, 'Remember that village? We can't have that happen again.' Marsh said.
'The one where we nearly got wiped out when we first encountered these things.' Matthews said as Morgan looked sick at the memory.
'Remind me later and we'll look into it.' Marsh said.
'Davies!' Matthews shouted at a returning soldier, 'Get over here you lazy bugger. Where've you been.'
'Bumped into Lieutenant Scott up the line.' Davies said as he sat on a broken crate.
'Tell us. How is he?' Morgan asked.
'Furious.' Davies said and took a swig from a silver hip flask before passing it on.
'Don't just leave us hanging. Tell all.' Wells complained, passing around some cigarettes.
'Simpsons' got his zombies well and truly bloody slaughtered. He held the handlers back, the Tigers weren't allowed off ahead of the main advance and the Germans almost wiped them out. They only succeeded because these Aussies are nearly as tough as zombies.' Davies grimaced, 'Very heavy casualties both for the Aussies and our lot.'
'Bloody idiot that man.' Marsh said, 'Stuck in the last century.'
'Not just him though. Those new-fangled tanks also got bogged down in the mud. Absolutely bloody useless. Again, the Aussies broke through there, but no thanks to the tanks.'
'Complete waste of time those things, didn't I tell you.' Matthews said, 'What business have we got driving across a battlefield in a great big clanging bell of metal. Mark my words, nothin will ever come of them.'
'Scott's also annoyed with Corps. The artillery they promised is complete messed up. The Aussies are really pissed off as well. They're not sure they'll be able to hold the gains from today without artillery support. There's loads of messages going back and forth and I wouldn't like to be on the other end of them. Those Aussies really let you know when they ain't happy.'
'Some things don't really change.' Matthews moaned, 'You wouldn't believe the number of times there's a cock-up behind the lines that stops a proper follow up. Either the artillery, the follow-on units, or the cavalry. The worst is when the bloody gas gets blown the wrong way.'
'Time to get ready.' Wells said, ending the complaining session before it began to sap their spirits.
The combat team got into their positions. With eighteen Tigers under their control, the trench was quite crowded. As with the previous assault, the Australians made a big deal out of the Tigers that were about to advance before them. They knew that if the Tigers were successful, the assault would be much easier. A fearsome weapon that is on your side, has a completely different effect from an unstoppable weapon in the hands of the enemy. While everyone would be leaving the trenches at the same time for this attack, the Australians had seen the Tigers in action and know that they would sprint ahead and distract the Germans from the advancing ranks of vulnerable living soldiers.
Eleven o'clock arrived without the fanfare of artillery. Despite the best attempts to arrange the support of heavy guns for the advance on the final German trench, there was silence. A silence that was occasionally punctuated by the rifle fire of increasingly tense soldiers. Both sides knew the attack was inevitable, and on the hour, whistles sounded along the line announcing the final advance.
'Up we go!' Shouted Wells, more from a need to let off steam than a requirement to issue an order.
The Australians did not stand on ceremony and were out of the trenches as quickly as the Tigers. The protection squad zig-zagged from cover to cover as the Tigers rushed ahead drawing the German defensive fire. The Australians were also using the fire and manoeuvre tactics they had recently trained with. About half of them fired from cover while the other half advanced, the two halves reversing the practice so that each half leapfrogged each other. This kept the enemy under pressure while the Australians rapidly advanced. As before, the Germans trained their machine-guns on the Tigers, most of the bullets wasted, but lucky head-shots still hit three Tigers. These zombies fell to the ground, no longer moving.
With the Tigers advancing across such a broad front, the defenders had no chance of stopping them all. By the time they arrived at the defensive positions, Marsh was barely half-way across the same ground. He had seen another two Tigers go down to what appeared to be aimed shots. One was still moving, but Wells was heading in that direction and would make sure the Tiger was not a threat to their own side. The rest of the Tigers had launched themselves into the final assault with the gusto for flesh that they had already shown twice this morning. Screams and firing came from the trench, a series of small explosions showing that the defenders were using all their weapons in a last-ditch defence. As the advancing Allied soldiers reached the trench, the German defenders broke, some dropping their arms and trying to surrender, while others climbed out of the opposite side of the trench in an attempt to get away. Many of the runners were felled by the Australians who knelt on the parapet taking pot-shots. Yet, a small number of the enemy continued to fight, mainly defending themselves from the attentions of the Tigers.
Marsh called off the Tigers quickly regrouping them. The fight for the final trench had been short and fierce, the enemy quickly overwhelmed by the speed and ferocity of the assault, terrorised by both the Tigers and the Australians. Again, the combat group had come through successfully, with no major injuries, although Matthews had a couple of grazes on his face that he claimed were caused by shell splinters. Morgan, who had been with Matthews most of the time had suggested that the injuries were actually the result of a clumsy fall. The final attack had been so quick that no new Tigers had been created. Nevertheless, Marsh was pleased that he had thirteen, a better number than he had started the day with.
'Marsh!' Lieutenant Scott strode along the trench. The officer had spotted the Tigers, but not yet seen Marsh.
'Over here, Sir' Marsh waved.
'You guys all right?' Scott asked, almost euphor
ic at the successes of the day.
'All fine Sir.' Marsh ran through the details of unit strength and injuries.
'You've faired better than most of us, although the rest of B Company hasn't done bad.' Scott was pleased that his company had performed well, 'Time to pull back now.'
'Already Sir? We're not going to continue the advance? Surely we're on the verge of a breakthrough?' Marsh was unhappy at the news. Now was the time to keep pressing, to send the cavalry through the break they had forced in the German lines. Once the cavalry was in the enemy rear areas, the whole German front in this area would collapse.
'Orders from above. Sounds like the cavalry aren't ready to move. There'll be no more advance and we'll be consolidating the new lines, so I want you to help the Aussies get these prisoners back. We'll drop back to the assembly lines as we'll be no use defending.' Scott was right. Nobody had yet worked out a successful tactic which used the Tigers in defence. They were offensive weapons, pure and simple weapon of shock and terror.
'So that's it Sir?' Marsh asked annoyed at the failure to grasp the opportunity.
'The Aussies don't have the strength to keep moving forward. They've taken heavy casualties elsewhere this morning and the artillery has failed to do its' job and can't be relied on to support a further advance. The follow-on division and cavalry are not yet in place because of the wet conditions. So the orders have come down to hold the ground and we'll continue the advance when the rest of the troops are in position.'
'But Sir, now is the best time, now is the time to attack. We've got the enemy on the run, the only things ahead of us are their supply lines and artillery park.' Marsh insisted.
'But we don't have the strength to take them,' Scott said, 'The Aussies have taken a massive beating elsewhere along the line and we aren't able to go any further. Do you see any cavalry nearby?'
