Gunslinger

The night was no longer peaceful. Both sides fired everything they had, and fires blazed up and down the river. Tracers criss-crossed over the water. Whenever there was a lull, the men at OP 2 could hear a wheezing, choking, gurgling sound from across the river. The wounded German soldier abandoned by the patrol had been shot in the lungs. Brian, O’Shea and Delinsky debated about what to do. Should they kill him to put him out of his misery, or should they let him die in piece? Delinsky favoured killing him, because if he was left alone the Germans would send a patrol to fetch him, and he could report on all the activity around OP 2.
“They’ll shell us even more, though”, O’Shea pondered. Delinsky volunteered to haul himself across the river, using the rope, and knife the man. Brian vetoed the idea, because the Germans could use the wounded man as bait for a trap. Delinsky decided that Brian was right, and a hand grenade would be better.

Accompanied by Private Hobbs, Delinsky moved cautiously down to the river bank. He could hear the German gasping and slobbering in ghastly wheezes. Delinsky and Hobbs pulled the pins on the grenades and threw them beside the German. One exploded, however one was a dud. The wheezing continued. The Americans returned to the outpost, got more grenades and tried again. The wheezing continued, so they gave it up and left him to die in his own time.

When the shelling finally ceased, just before dawn, the wheezing went on and was getting on everyone’s nerves. Brian finally decided he could take it no more. He grabbed a grenade, went to the river bank, heaved it over and finally killed the German.

On February 16th, Somerville called Richland to battalion HQ to present him with his Honourable Discharge as an enlisted man, effective 15th February, and a copy of the orders awarding him a battlefield commission as a 2nd lieutenant, effective 16th February.
“Congratulations, Clifford”, Dana said with a smile, giving him a hug. “You totally deserve this.”

***************

Lieutenant Mortimer, by all accounts, performed well on his first patrol, meaning, apparently that he wisely let Dana, the more experienced soldier, make the decisions. Within a week, Mortimer was gone, having been promoted to 1st lieutenant. He moved on to a staff job at regiment.

**************

Colonel Harper was so delighted with the successful patrol, he ordered another one for the next night. In the meantime, however, it had snowed and then turned colder. The snow was frozen on top, crunchy and noisy. The cold air had cleared out the sky and the moon was shining. Somerville thought a patrol under such circumstances was suicidal, so he decided to disobey orders.

Harper and a couple of staff officers came to 2nd Battalion CP to observe. They had a bottle of whiskey with them. Somerville said he was going down to the riverbank to supervise the patrol. When he got to the outpost, he told the men to just say still. With the whiskey working on is system, Harper would soon be ready for bed.
“Just report in the morning that the patrol got across the river and into German lines but weren’t able to get a live prisoner.”

Some of the men wanted liquor too, so Delinsky and Sharkey went on a scrounging mission, even though orders were never to show yourself in daylight. They found a cellar filled with schnapps and grabbed two bottles each. Dodging snipers on the way back, Sharkey slipped and stumbled and dropped his bottles however Delinsky held on to his. Once they got into a cellar they drank a bottle each. When they got back to 1st platoon HQ, roaring drunk, Delinsky got in a fight with Church. Lieutenant Higgins separated the men, and chewed out Delinsky for being off-limits, disobeying orders, being drunk and disorderly and so on. Delinsky became enraged and began mouthing off. He ignored Higgins’ direct order to shut up, and instead, he charged at Higgins. Brian and O’Shea grabbed him and threw him down. Dana pulled out her pistol, however Higgins told her to holster her weapon, ordered Delinsky arrested and had him taken back to regiment for lockup. Higgins got the platoon settled down, then went to regimental HQ to write up court-martial papers for Delinsky which took him several hours. He took the papers to Colonel Harper and told him the details. As Higgins was leaving, Harper spoke up.
“Higgins, you could have saved us all a lot of trouble and just let Vandenberg shoot him.”

**************

On 20th February, E Company went into reserve, as the 3rd Battalion of the 50th took over its position. Within hours of E Company’s departure the Germans scored a direct hit on OP 2. Somerville was promoted to Major. On 23rd February, the 36th Division relieved the 101st and the airborne division was moved to Saverne, in the rear in preparation for returning to Mourmelon.

Colonel Harper sent down orders to follow a rigorous training schedule while in reserve. Dunn thought this was an idiotic proposal and made no effort to conceal his sentiments. He told the men of E Company that he believed in training hard and sensibly back in base camp and in taking it easy in a reserve area. Everybody grinned like loons when he told them this.

However, Dunn could not get the company out of two compulsory formations. The first was to hold a drawing for rotation back to the States. One man from every company would go home for a thirty day leave, and would be chosen in a company lottery. The winner had to have been in Normandy, Holland, Bastogne and a total absence of black marks on their service record. Only 23 men and Dana from E Company were eligible. Dunn shook up the names in a steel helmet and pulled out Private Reynolds slip. There was a polite cheer and some of the men shook his hand, however the remainder walked sadly away.

The second formation was a battalion review. Dunn’s philosophy was to avoid the unnecessary but to do properly and with snap the required. He told the men he wanted them to look sharp, and rifles had to be cleaned and combat suits had to be washed. A huge boiler was set up and the men cooked their clothing with chunks of soap. This took a long time, and Brian’s inner slob came out. He decided to skip the clothes washing as he hadn’t done his own laundry in years and wasn’t about to start now. When he showed up for the formation in his filthy combat suit, Dunn berated him furiously. Higgins also jumped on him. Dana tried to be angry, but her twitching lips gave her away as she tried not to giggle. Brian grinned sheepishly.
“Why is everybody picking on me?”, he asked, trying to hide his mirth.

General Ripley came for the battalion review, trailed by a division PR photographer. As luck would have it, he stopped before Brian and talked with him. The photographer took their picture together, and asked for Brian’s home address. Not knowing what else to say, Brian gave out his grandparent’s address. The photographer told him he would send a copy to the local newspaper, and one to Brian’s parents. Of course, the general looked great talking to a battle hardened solider just off the front lines, rather than a bunch of rear echelon parade ground troopers.
“Gotta love that”, Dana said later. “The only man in E Company with a dirty combat suit is the only man the General wants a picture with.”
“What can I say, the camera loves me”, Brian smirked. “I’m Synyster Fucking Gates baby.”
“You’re who?”, O’Shea asked in confusion.
“Uh, never mind”, Brian sighed.