Free March Battalion by Sven Hassel Page B

who guided us on the last stage of our journey through the front line of Russian trenches. 'I just hope the saints are looking out for you!'
    'Spassibo pan,' replied Porta, unctuously.
    Then we were in no-man's land, crawling rapidly across it; towards the German lines. A hail of machine gun bullets ploughed up the ground all about us and we fell in a huddle into a shell hole. We leapfrogged from shell hole to shell hole, until at length Alte insisted on leaving us behind and going it alone. We hardly dared to watch his progress. We just lay chewing our finger nails and waiting for the fun to start. And then, after what seemed an eternity, an unknown voice yelled at us in German.
    'O.K., you can start moving across, but don't try any funny business. I'll have one man at a time, a minute between each man.'
    They were evidently fearful of a trap, for as each one of us jumped down into the trench we were met by the sharp end of a bayonet pricking our chests. A young infantry lieutenant questioned us and remained highly sceptical - as who could blame him? German soldiers dressed in Russian uniforms? German soldiers appearing in no-man's land from behind the Russian lines? Now that we were back, we could hardly believe it ourselves.
    'You'd be amazed at the things that go on in the German Army,' said Barcelona, cheerfully.
    The Lieutenant turned on him.
    'Hold your tongue, Feldwebel! You may have been racketing round the country enjoying yourselves for the past few weeks, but you're back in the army now and you'll do well to remember it.'
    'We're back all right,' muttered Steiner. 'Who else would give us such a nice warm welcome? Red carpets and all! I tell you, Lieutenant, it's a real treat to get back home again.'
    Captain Lander was, if anything, even less welcoming. We had the odd feeling that he was not really pleased to see us. However, three days later his body was found riddled with bullets in a thicket, and it hardly seemed respectful to the dead to go on doubting him.
    As usual, it was the partisans who were held responsible for the murder, although some people did, indeed, raise their eyebrows in the direction of Porta and Little John. In the end they had to take the extreme measure of attending the Captain's funeral in order to prove their innocence.
    He came to us from the military prison at Glatz. The court martial had sentenced him to serve ten years in a disciplinary regiment for having dared to say that war was the means by which a second-class housepainter had come to be called a genius.
    From lieutenant-general, he was demoted to major. In Africa he lost his left eye, in Finland he left behind a part of his stomach. He was an excellent tank commander, capable of leading a whole division, but he had never learnt to guard his tongue against what he believed to be the truth.
    Major Mercedes was the best officer we had ever had. Standing upright before us on an old packing case, bareheaded and in his shirt sleeves, he introduced himself .
    'O.K. I'm your new officer. Karl Ulrich Mercedes. Like you, I'm in the shit right up to my neck. I'm thirty-five years old and I weigh 151/2 stone. Any questions? No. I've nothing else to say to you, except this: you pull your weight and I'll pull mine and we'll all get along fine.'
    At Lugansk he was wounded in the belly and had half his jaw shot away. He was one of the very few officers we ever respected.

CHAPTER FIVE
    L UGANSK was a sea of flames when we drove through in the tanks. Bodies spilled across the streets and lay in the gutters like so much rubbish tipped out of the dustbins. Columns of soldiers, torn and bleeding, dived for the illusory safety of turning houses and crumbling piles of masonry.
    A shot. And then another, and then more. Shells, hand grenades, anti-tank guns, incendiary bombs. A whole barrage aimed at destruction and death.
    The interior of our tank, a 52-ton Tiger, resounded with the harsh noise of metal on metal: mess tins, water containers, tin mugs,