The Soul of the Unbroken

by Derrick Quick

  We were packing our bags, getting ready for the voyage, when Friedrich came up to me and patted me on the back. We had become good friends throughout training, and he was no longer a thorn in my side. “So Eloy, you ready for this! We are finally going to get to see some real action. No more running, no more calisthenics. It’s going to be awesome.” I had a feeling when Friedrich actually saw a real battle, he wouldn’t be so enthusiastic. “I guess I am as ready as I'll ever be,” I said. Friedrich laughed, and walked over to his bag and picked it up, “You are definitely ready Eloy. You are the best soldier we got. Now come on, everyone else is loading into the truck.” I picked up my bag and followed him to the truck.

  We hopped in the back, and the truck roared to life. It pulled away from the training camp, and I hoped I would never see it again. The ride was relatively quiet. Everyone was nervous, so they stayed in their own heads. I thought about Hans. I had sent him a few letters, explaining everything that had happened, but did not hear anything back. I was worried he was angry with me and thought I made the wrong decision. I was even more worried that he was caught and sent to a labor camp.

  Our truck was driving through Berlin, and I looked up and noticed we were passing by the apartment that Hans, Aldo, and I shared. It had only been a few weeks since, I had them seen them, but it felt like much longer. There were no signs of life, coming from the apartment. The window was dark. I scanned the streets looking to catch a glimpse of either of them, but unfortunately, only saw strangers.

  The truck was now leaving Berlin, and all hope that I would see them was lost. Maybe I would find them again when the war was over.

  Many hours, and many miles later, we would come to our destination. I could tell right away, this was not going to be fun. We heard the thunderous booms, of bombs, the rattling of machine-gun fire, the high pitched screech of our Stukas.

  This battle was in full swing, and we were being thrown into the thick of it. We were ordered out of the truck and forced to head as far up in the front as we could make it. The battlefield literally an open field. There was no cover. Some trenches had been built, but they did not make me feel any more secure. Friedrich and I ran alongside one another, with our heads down and our guns pointed forward. We made it to the front line without being shot thankfully, and we jumped in a pit that was dug by the explosion of a bomb. It was risky, but at least it provided us some cover.

  Bullets whizzed by our heads, bombs landed all around us. I had never experienced anything like it. Friedrich was the first to fire. He popped his head up for a few moments and let a few rounds fly. “That was awesome! I think I got one!” I didn’t know how he could be so enthusiastic in a time like this, but it was better than being shell-shocked. Throughout this whole war, I had been fighting against the Nazis and trying to help the Allies win, so it felt counterintuitive for me to shoot at them. I also wanted them to win, but I did not want to get killed. I was forced to make a tough decision. Ultimately I chose to try and live, so I fired shots back, hoping to slow the onslaught of bullets coming our way.

  Friedrich yelled something to me, but the booming of bombs and the whizzing of bullets made it impossible to hear what he said. He grabbed my arm and yanked me away from our position. Right after we got a few feet away, mortar fire smacked the spot we had been standing at. Dirt and debris flew into the air, and then fell down upon us like rain. Friedrich had just saved my life. I never thought that would happen.

  We dropped to our stomachs, to make ourselves smaller targets, and fired back. I made sure as best I could, that my shots did not hit any allied soldiers. I just wanted to get them close enough so they wouldn’t be shooting back at me so fiercely. It worked for the most part, although we were still fired upon pretty heavily.

  The firing back and forth continued until nightfall when there was finally a break in the action. Friedrich and I dug a little foxhole and climbed in. “That was crazy,” I said to Friedrich. “It sure was. My adrenaline is still pumping.” He responded. My adrenaline was still pumping at full force too. I knew I would not be sleeping tonight. We laid in our foxhole staring up at the night sky. It was the clearest night I had ever seen. It was completely full of stars, twinkling their beautiful light down at us. It was amazing something so magical could be seen at a time like this.

  I stared up at the stars, thinking and daydreaming for hours. My adrenaline was finally wearing down, and I was about to drift off to sleep. BOOM! Mortar firing landed no more than twenty yards away. The rattling of gunfire spit at us. Then we heard the metallic cranking of a tank rolling our way. “Sherman! Grab the Panzerschreck!” Called someone to my left. I looked over and noticed it was right next to me. “Grab it Eloy!” Friedrich yelled at me. They wanted me to blow up the American tank. I didn’t know if I could do it. A thunderous boom came from the tank as it fired its canon our way. I heard the seventy-six millimeter round fly through the air and smack a group of gunners on my right.

  A soldier on my left ran up and grabbed the Panzerschreck. He loaded it up, heaved it onto his shoulder, and aimed. Right before he could unleash its anti-tank power on the Sherman, rifle bullets from the American browning machine gun, tore through the air and ripped the soldier apart. His lifeless body fell to the ground. “We need to take that Sherman out someone yelled. Just then the tank sent another round into our unit. The people it hit were completely blown apart. I saw legs flying, hands flying. A decapitated head flew threw the air and land next to me. I looked at it and saw muscles and tendons dangling wear his neck was supposed to me. The mouth hung open, and the eyes were wide with shock. The scene was forever engraved into my memories. I hadn’t eaten all day but I still managed to throw up, my puke chunks landing on the head. I turned away, unable to look any longer.

  With no other choice, I bent down and picked up the Panzerschreck. It was already loaded so all I had to do was aim. I looked through the square hole and lined it up with the tank. I let the rocket fly. I watched it zoom through the air and smack into the tank. It exploded and sent the tank into flames. I heard the screams and wails, of crew members in the tank as they slowly burned to death. That sound was something I could never forget and would visit me every night.

  I dropped the Panzerschreck and fell to my knees. I felt horrible, but I was just trying to make it out of here alive. Friedrich whooped and smiled when he saw it. “Great job Eloy.” Then he fired off more rounds across the field. The explosion of the Sherman made the Americans very angry. Afterwards, came a barrage of heavy machine-gun fire and mortar rounds. There were explosions all around me. I was becoming disoriented with no idea which direction to try and move in. People all around me were getting cut down by machine-gun bullets. It was chaos. Our numbers were dwindling, and fast. I heard calls for a retreat, so I took off away from the front line, as fast as I could.

  It was weird. When looking one way, all I could see was the sparks of gunfire, and dust from explosions. When we started retreating and I was looking the other direction, the night was a peaceful darkness, with no evidence of war.

  I ran and ran until I heard the orders for us to stop and dig in once again. I started making a foxhole and getting as low as I could. I heard the pitter-patter of running feet, so I pulled out my rifle and was ready to fire when Friedrich popped into my vision. “Did you miss me?” He said with an exhausted smile. I laughed and waved him down into my foxhole. With our retreat, the gunfire ceased and the night was quiet once again. I thought about Friedrich. When I first met him he looked nothing like a soldier. His slight frame, big glasses, and weird personality made me believe he would cower with fear when facing death. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He was fearless. He stood strong when danger was all around him. He saved my life. I was proud to be his friend, even if he was a Nazi.

  Sometime in the night, my tired mind drifted off to sleep. Soon enough though it was morning. I opened my eyes and tried to shake off the nightmare, about the decapitated head I had seen the day before. Friedrich was awake as well.
I gave him a nod, and he nodded back. Peaking my head up just enough to survey the land, a once green pasture was now, brown with dirt, and explosion craters littered the land. I didn’t see any soldiers out there though. It was dead quiet. “That was awesome seeing you take out that tank Eloy. You have a few confirmed kills already. I wonder if I have any.” I wasn’t proud to have any confirmed kills, but out there it was kill or be killed. “I think you probably have a few as well,” I said to Friedrich, making him beam with pride. “How long do you think this battle will last?” I asked him. “It could be awhile. We still have to push back to our original position, and then find a way to drive them back even more, and hope they give a full retreat.” I nodded. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long hopefully I would live to see the end of it.

  We were then ordered to push forward, and go on the offensive. Following the lead of everyone else, we hopped out of our foxhole and started crawling on our bellies. After crawling for a while, there was still no sign of any enemies, and some of the troops were getting tired of crawling. One of them that I didn’t know said, “I am sick of this. I’m making a run for it.” Against our protests, he stood up and started to run towards our original line the day before. He had made good progress, and there were still no signs of the enemy. Seeing that he was making it without any hindrances, we all decided that it would be much easier to run instead of crawling.

  One by one, we all got off of our stomachs and began to run. There was still no gunfire, and I felt a huge relief. By now the first runner had almost made it to our original front line, and we were all getting closer by the second. All of a sudden the first runner halted and began to scream, “Ambush!” He turned around to run away and was blasted by hundreds of bullets. Dozens of Americans popped out from behind grass blades and bushes. Before we had a chance to react, they unleashed a fury of gunfire upon us. Everyone around me dropped like flies. We were being shredded apart by their bullets, and we didn’t even have a chance to pull out our own weapons. As quickly as I could, I dropped to the ground and began to crawl away. I looked to my left and saw a field of dead bodies. I looked to my right and saw much of the same. Friedrich was nowhere to be found.

  Crawling away from the gunfire, bullets riddled the dirt all around me, sending dirt into my face. “Friedrich!” I yelled, hoping to hear he was still alive. There was no response. “Friedrich!” Nothing. I continued until I made it back to our foxhole. I dropped in and gathered myself for a moment. Taking a deep breath, I popped my head out and returned a whole clip back. What could I do? Over half of our soldiers were laying dead out there in no man's land. My single rifle was not going to stop the onslaught that was coming our way.

  Pulling out the two grenades that were on me, I launched them as far as I could. Dammit. They exploded just short of where I needed them to be. Something still had to be done otherwise we were all done for. An idea popped into my head. It was absolutely crazy and maybe a death wish, but it was something.

  My hands grabbed at any person that was near me. I searched them and found every grenade they had. Then I climbed out of my safety zone and crawled into no man’s land. I went from body to body, in amongst the barrage of bullets and grabbed every grenade I could find. It took me quite a while to collect a good amount of grenades. Not every soldier had one, and I had to move slowly in order to not be noticed. When it seemed as though there were enough grenades to suffice, I crawled forward as far as I could. Then I pulled the pins and tossed them, one after another, at the enemy line. The grenades went off. The explosions sending bodies flying. The machine-gun fire started to slow down. I kept launching them until there were none left. Each explosion silenced another set of gunners. By the time they all went off, the gunfire had ceased. The Americans had begun to retreat! I did it!

  There was dead silence. The Americans had retreated, and the Germans didn’t know it yet. I ran back to tell them. When I got there, I couldn’t find them. Where was everyone? Looking around, there was nothing but dead bodies. A mass of them. There was nobody else still standing. It was a massacre. Without any idea what to do, I walked through the field and looked at the bodies, to see if any were still alive. None were.

  I spent the next two hours walking through the sea of bodies. I didn’t see Friedrich anywhere. He could have left, but was more than likely dead, like the rest of them. Why I survived when all of the others didn’t, is a mystery to me. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. Seeing their faces, cold and lifeless. I started walking away from the field. Trying to get as far away as possible.

  Chapter 13

  1943

  It didn’t take me very long to find another group of my fellow soldiers. They were set up just a few kilometers back from where I was. When I got there they were surprised to see anyone still alive. “We heard there was an ambush and it was a massacre. We were just about to drop some bombs on that location because we weren’t expecting anyone to be alive.” They said to me when I got there. “Who did you hear that from?” I inquired because we were ambushed so fast, we couldn’t have radioed back. The Oberfuhrer said, “Another young man like you, came running back just as you did. That was only a few minutes ago. Oh, there he is.” Then he pointed over to a soldier, caked in dirt and blood, limping out of the medical tent. It was hard to tell at first who it was. The dirt covered up his facial features and I wasn’t sure. Then I realized who it was. “Friedrich!”

  He looked over at me. When he realized it was me, he ran over. “Eloy, I thought you were dead!”

  “I thought you were dead!” I said back. “I got the Americans to retreat, and when I turned around everyone was dead.”

  “I saw everyone dropping like flies, and I heard someone call for us to retreat. As I was running, I turned around and saw everyone was dead, so I ran back here for support. Wait...did you say you got them to retreat?” He asked. “Yeah I threw as many grenades as I could find at them and, I guess it worked.”

  “See Eloy, I knew you would be an amazing soldier. I could tell from the first time I met you. Remember?” He said.

  “Haha, yeah I remember,” I responded.

  We walked over to the Oberfuhrer, gave the straight arm salute, that has become customary in the German army, and waited for orders. “You two will be my scouts! You have given me contradicting stories, so you will go back to the front line, and see where the Americans are. Then with that information, I will decide what to do next.” He said to us. Friedrich and I nodded and started to march back to the front lines. We past rows and rows of tents, with soldiers that were beaten and bloodied. It was a wonder that our army was still standing.

  As we got to the outskirts of our camp I could hear a buzzing noise. “Friedrich, do you hear that?” I asked, and he looked into the sky with a perplexed look on his face. “Yea, I do hear that. What is it?” Now we were both looking into the sky, trying to figure out what the noise was. Then, I caught a glimpse of what it was.

  An American plane! Friedrich noticed it too. “Get the anti-aircraft guns going!” He yelled back to the camp. Nobody was listening. I was split on the inside. I wanted the Americans to unleash a reckoning of bombs on all of these Nazi soldiers, but I also didn’t want to see so much death or get killed myself.

  Friedrich made a run for one of the anti-aircraft pits and I followed. “Get on the gun Eloy! I will supply the ammo!” He yelled to me. The other soldiers had noticed the plane now and were hopping into action, grabbing guns, taking cover, and bringing the AA guns ammo. The AA gun was a giant weapon, with two long barrels. It looked like two extremely oversized rifles stuck together, perched on a big swiveling base. It had a seat on the side of it that the gunner would sit in, and sights to aim through.

  My butt plopped down into the seat, my eyes peered through the sights, and I scanned the sky. The plane flew into my vision. My hands were ready to start firing rounds into it. Looking at the American plane though, I saw a savior for Eliza. Someone that was coming to stop all the evil that the Nazis were doing
, and that I was now helping them do. There was no way it was getting shot down.

  I aimed just behind the plane and started firing. It had to look like I was trying to shoot it down at least. The bullets zoomed right past the tail of the plane, almost nicking the rudder. “Come on Eloy, lead it a little bit more!” Friedrich yelled to me, as he fed strands of ammo through the gun. I cranked the gun to the right and started firing some more rounds at it. They narrowly missed the propellers. The plane was getting dangerously close now. The gun was firing constantly until it jammed. “Dammit!” Friedrich yelled. He started working frantically to unjam it. The plane was just about over our heads. “We need to get to cover!” I screamed to Friedrich, breaking him from his transfixed state of unjamming the gun. We dove behind sandbags and took cover.

  The hatch of the plane opened up and started dropping bombs one after another. Explosions battered the camp. Trucks were decimated, tents were obliterated. The soldiers were in a frenzy, trying to find a safe place to go. Friedrich and I curled up as small as we could make ourselves, waiting for the onslaught to be over. “Help!” We heard someone cry, from the middle of the bombing barrage. “That’s Oberfuhrer Bollenbach! We have to help him!” Friedrich yelled to me. Despite the bombs blasting all around us, we got up from our safe spot and ran forward to help him.

  My legs could not run fast enough. Friedrich was just a step behind me to my left. A bomb exploded my right, the shockwave almost taking me off my feet. The dirt from the blast flew into my eyes, blinding me. I kept running anyway. Running towards the sound of cries for help. Another bomb exploded on my left. The force hit Friedrich, sending him into me. We both fell to the ground, rolled and got back up and ran, all in one motion. We were afraid if we stopped for one second we would be turned to dust by the bombs exploding everywhere. “HELP ME!” The Oberfuhrer yelled again, this time much closer than before. The dust in my eyes was slowly being flushed out by my blinking, and I could make out where I was going once again. The shadow of Oberfuhrer Bollenbach was just starting to appear. He was ahead of me just a few meters. I slowed down, as I got to him. Friedrich was right alongside of me. “Oh no.” We each said at the same time.