Bump in the Night: Polish Campaign, Story 5

Sir Richard

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Story 05 of the Polish Campaign

Bump in the Night
Played as German

As I approached the town of Pruszkow, I was more than a little nervous about my nation's involvement in this war. I had included a full account of Colonel Fiedler's actions at Sobota in my report, as the Colonel requested. He received no reprimand; no action was taken against him, no formal charges were filed. He was simply doing what he deemed necessary to secure the safety of the troops under his command, or so it was said.

I had heard reports like this from all along the battle front. With each new atrocity, those on whom the veneer of civilization was particularly thin became bolder. As they became bolder, the veneer of civilization wore thinner on others. It was a cancer, feeding on itself, growing throughout the German ranks.

If a person has a cancer, it is not a crime to remove the cancer so that the rest of the body can be returned to health.

I shuddered as the thought passed through my mind. These are the same words Hitler was saying about the Jews. I was saying them about Hitler.

How do I know which is the cancer, and which represents a part of the healthy tissue of a society? If I sought the removal of what I saw as cancerous, was I any different than Hitler and his henchmen?

When I reported in, I received my new orders. When I looked at the roster for the battle, I found many familiar names.

General Dietrich was in overall command of the operation. This was the same General Dietrich that I had met at on the road to Pabianice; the man who felt that Hitler's success in this war was proof that God was on the side of the German people. Under him served Lieutenant Colonel von Oberkamp, the hero who took over the troops at Pabianice and fought off Polish attempt to retake the road. At least, I considered him a hero at the time.

I recognized the name of Captain Mohnke, the head of 5th Company who stopped his retreat when he learned that he was being chased by some Polish tanks, and spent most of his time on the radio screaming for reinforcements.

Once again, Dietrich stayed far away from the fighting, commanding the battle from a secure post deep in the heart of Pruszkow.

When I told Mitzer that I needed him to drive to General Dietrich's headquarters, he smiled broadly. These were old friends of his. These were the people he had gone to battle with, before he was assigned to be my driver and radio operator.

On the way, I read found myself reading through the roster repeatedly. In this attack, there would be only one engineer platoon. It was to be expected that we would find blockades and minefields everywhere; only one engineer platoon to remove them all? That would be very slow work.

I was starting to have other concerns about the battle. As the Poles were being backed into a smaller and smaller corner, they were becoming angrier and more vicious. Certainly stories, such as those from Sobota, were doing a lot to fuel the determination of the Polish soldiers. Everybody acknowledged that the fighting was getting tougher.

This attack would be at night, against prepared defenses. I just had an uneasy feeling that, this time, I would not be witnessing the uneven victories that I had seen since the start of the war.

When we reached General Dietrich's office, I was ready with my obligatory Heil Hitler. I saw his 'Got mitt uns" button prominently displayed on his uniform. He was not the officer who had offered me one earlier, so I was not nervous about the fact that I had thrown mine away.

He knew the drill, and he had his map ready. "Our objective is to secure our left flank as we approach on Moscow. We have had troops out there all day, and they got themselves bloodied. Now, we're going out again.

4TH Panzer Division will be leading the charge. One possible approach is to send the troops out and have them fan out to all possible destinations. I think that's stupid. We will focus on one target at a time, with all of the forces we have available. Our first target will be Domaniew -- the 7th Recon Battalion will have that objective. My regiment will follow the 7th onto the field of battle and secure the right flank. Then, we and the 7th Recon will advance side by side into the city of Oltarzew from the southwest. This will gut the enemy defenses. We can then take out Moszna and Ozaru at our leisure.

I was not in the mood for asking a lot of questions this time. I had seen what I needed to see, and was ready to move on. I had decided which group I wanted to travel with; whoever was heading through Zbikow to Domaniew. They would be at the heart of the fight.

I had no idea what to expect on the Polish side of the fight.

General Dietrich was happy to get rid of me so quickly. When I got outside, Mitzer was with the motor pool with his friends, telling war stories. He told them how he and I hid way out in front among some rocks while fighting went on in all directions. They were soaking up the stories.

I felt bad breaking up his reunion, but I had little time left before the attack started.

Major Hederich, was going to take his 7th Recon Battalion on the northern route. He would leave the southern route for the Liebstandarte Regiment, in order to prevent their lines of communication from getting crossed.
 
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I have never seen a place so dark. It was the night of the new moon, so we only had the stars to help us navigate the city streets. Military orders prohibited the use of light this close to the front. Signs of movement would certainly be transmitted to the enemy, and allow them to prepare for what was coming. We could, at most, use small flashlights, but even they were dangerous. They were a perfect invitation to snipers.

Eventually, we came across sentries. Finding them gave us an opportunity to ask for directions. After clearing us to pass, they told us that Major Hederich was with the 1st Company, on the west flank of the 7th Recon Battalion.

We found ourselves on a road filled with elements of 3rd Company, a motorcycle battalion belonging to 7th Recon. Whoever we asked simply pointed us further down the road.

We were at the edge of the city when we finally reached Major Hederich. He had placed a PSW222 so that it blocked the road coming into town, and placed another one on each flank. He sat on its hood, smoking a cigarette that glowed in the night, staring out into the darkness. Around him, a small army of servants stood ready. He looked like a queen bee being taken care of by his hive.

The crew looked dazed and tired. They had already been in this fight once, earlier in the day, and been driven back. An armored car platoon typically had four or five cars in it, this one had three. Chances are, these people saw some of their friends die earlier in the day.

"I know they are out there," Hederich was saying as I approached. "If we go around, it will leave this route into the city unguarded. We should not be putting all of our attention on that northern bank."

He stopped talking when he noticed Mitzer and I approaching. Mitzer stopped and saluted. "What's your business, private?" Hederich asked, staring at me.

"This is Mr. Schmidt."

Hederich smiled. "My good luck charm. Colonel von Obermann said that you would be assigned to me as an observer. The Colonel said that you were his good luck charm at the battle for the road for Pabianice. You have observed four battles, and they were all four very substantial victories."

"I have seen nothing for the General Staff to complain about," I answered. Then I hesitated. "Nothing on the battlefield, anyway."

"I don't understand," said Hederich.

I waved off the subject. "You're going to Domaniew."

"Those are my orders."

"Is there anything I should watch out for?"

"Watch out for the enemy on my left flank," Hederich said. "I know the enemy are dug in at Moszna, and it would be no trouble at all for them to come across the valley and pay us an unwelcome visit. They can hit us right in the butt when we turn against Oltarzew. I could leave 3rd Company behind to watch our backs, but I would rather have them watching our front."

"What's your plan, then?"

"We'll play it by ear."

He tossed is cigarette aside and said, "Let's get this show started." He started barking orders at his radio operators. "Tell 2nd Company to move out. Remind them to stop at the west end of Zbikow and stay there until the they hear from me." He then turned to a nearby lieutenant. "Get these beasts fired up. we have work to do."

The lieutenant sent NCOs into their vehicles and started them up.

Back to the east, I heard the distant engines of 2nd Company. A bit closer, I heard the motorcycles of 3rd Company.

I signaled Mitzer that we should go.

We headed up the street.

While the 7th Recon Battalion got itself organized, Mitzer and I went back along the road, feeling our way through the darkness to find the road to Zbikow. When we got onto the major through-street, Mitzer gunned the engine.

Sentries stationed throughout the city challenged us for identification and guided us along the way. The turnoff to Zbikow was particularly well guarded, with a full platoon of infantry guarding this approach to the town.

After identifying ourselves to the soldiers, I had Mitzer pull off the road and turn off the engine, and I listened.

I was getting used to the sound of armored cars, and could tell that a herd of them were approaching from our right. Unless I missed my guess, these were the cars of 2nd Company.

I did not want to be the first person down the road, particularly after the action along the Bzura where Mitzer and I got caught in the center of the fight. We stopped and waited.

Nine armored cars drove by in single file. Nine cars was half as much as I would have expected to see in an armored car company.

As the last of the cars drove by, I had Mitzer restart the engine. We followed the last of the cars out of town.

Off in the distance, I could still see a few fires burning as a result of the earlier fights, but they were too far away, and too often lost behind buildings and hedgerows to help drive back any of the darkness that surrounded us.

Zbikow looked completely deserted. It was a small town, basically consisting of little more than a string of houses on each side of the road. It had no side streets; there were fields right behind the buildings on the right. On the left, there was a drop off into a narrow stream valley. So far, it had been spared the scars of battle.

We continued through town to a crossroads, with one road going north and ours continuing west. 2nd Company took the westward option. However, I had Mitzer stop at the crossroads, so that I could see what was happening with the rest of the battalion. 2nd Company did not have far to go anyway; when they reached the edge of the trees on the west side of town, they stopped.

1st Company came up next. Major Hederich came with them, but while 1st Company continued north, Hederich pulled off and joined 2nd Company. It was not difficult to see why; 1st Company only had six armored cars remaining.

I never saw 3rd Company; their motorcycles pulled off into the fields at Zbikow. I could only hear the shouts as platoon sergeants struggled to get their men organized in the darkness. This told me that Hederich expected the fighting to be starting near here.

However, 4th Company continued along the road. A half dozen trucks carried engineers and towed anti-tank guns. They stopped at the crossroads, where they could take either route depending on the orders that they received.

I was making my way back to 2nd Company when the fireworks started. Explosions erupted in Demoniew. German artillery started blasting the town.

"That should wake them up," Mitzer said.

The German army had a habit of lobbing a few shells at the enemy late at night. It kept them from sleeping soundly and confused them as to our intentions. Chances are, they would not think give these shells a second thought. They had no way of knowing that this was the signal for the attack.
 

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1 Company moved out first. Its orders were to take the road north out of Zbikow, take the first turn to the left, and enter the western portion of Domaniew from the northeast. Major Hederich would take 2nd Company straight in from the west, with 3rd Company following close behind.

Hederich sat still while 1st Company got into position. But, immediately, 1st Company got into trouble. Its 3rd Platoon, which had taken point, found the road blocked by ditches and tank traps. When it tried to go around, it found itself embedded in a maze of obstacles. It told 2nd Platoon to go around while it struggled to find its way out.

Hederich ordered the engineers from 4th Company forward to clear the road.

2nd Platoon started to get near the edge of town, Hederich ordered 2nd Company forward. Mitzer and I followed.

Near the edge of town, the lead cars opened fire with their 20mm cannons. Immediately, we were rewarded with shouts and the occasional flicker of a flashlight. When a light came on, one of the 20mm cannons aimed for it. When there were no lights, the cannons aimed for the black silhouettes of buildings.

With their cannons still firing, Hederich ordered the cars to move across the open fields to the right.

Firing into town became more difficult from this vantage point, since the buildings here were protected by a hedge row. This made it more difficult to see.

However, 3rd Company was coming up behind us, and they would be taking the road into the fight. 1st Company was on our right.

3rd Company had found to distract them near the center of town. They had made it into town, but they encountered resistance. I could see the muzzle blasts of their cannons illuminating the faces of nearby trees and buildings.

From the enemy's positions, I could not hear anything heavier than a light machine gun. It did not sound as if the heavy vehicles had anything to fear.

Hederich was on the radio, ordering 1st Company against having a gap between them and 2nd Company, then ordering artillery to hit the Polish defenders on this edge of town. He was also giving orders to the units I had met on the road to Pabianice. Two companies were making their way onto the battlefield. He ordered them out onto the right flank, warning them of the engineers that had been ordered forward to clear the road..

I could hear the artillery coming in.

The radio calls from 3rd Platoon of 1st Company then became frantic. The Poles were using the buildings as cover to try to get in close to the armored cars. I did not know what the Poles had available for anti-tank weapons, but I knew that a determined group of infantry was not helpless against an AFV if they made up their mind to destroy one.

3rd Platoon backed up slowly, blasting the nearest buildings from point blank range.

Then, I lost my ability to track 3rd Platoon as the artillery shells started to land. The shells from the 150mm howitzers packed tremendous power; I felt the concussion from each blast pass through my body. I could only imagine how the shelling felt to the Polish soldiers holding on to the edge of the city. Meanwhile, Hederich continued to hit them with the 20mm guns.
 

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"Cut off their retreat," Major Hederich shouted at the radio operator. The operator translated the order into code and communicated it into the radio. Battlefield codes were not complex, so that orders could be translated quickly. Less than a minute after Hederich had given the order,

1st Company sent its armored cars in to the road behind the Polish platoon and took up positions there. 2nd Company spread out to block any hope for escape north.

When 3rd Company said it was ready to move in, Hederich called an end to the shelling.

Faced with such an overwhelming force, the Polish lost their will to fight. The first sign of German soldiers in close combat, they started to surrender. A few die-hard soldiers had to be dug out, but for the most part there was very little fight.

"Great," said Hederich as the Polish prisoners were being marched out. Let's do the same thing to the next platoon.

Hederich's next target was the platoon that 1st Company had first encountered. 1st Company now had the inside track, so Hederich moved his own 2nd Company around to block the possible exits. He had to spread them out quite a bit. He stopped with one of the platoons, then sent the two remaining platoons out.

I traveled ahead with them.

I heard the gun, and the explosion that followed almost blew me out of the bike as it turned the section of town into daylight.

In a panic, the driver of the remaining vehicle did not pause to put his comments into code. "It's behind us! It's behind us! Turn around. Turn it! Turn it! Turn it!"

I saw two gun flashes in the west. The next moment, the remaining armored car blew apart.

That was it. There was nothing left for the enemy to shoot at but Mitzer and me.

"Back out!" I shouted at Mitzer.

A motorcycle and side car do not back up easily. Mitzer spun the bike on a tight axis.

Behind us, members of the Polish platoon that we were trying to surround had launched a counterattack against the other set of armored cars. Those cars fired rapidly at the Polish soldiers closing with anti-tank weapons, and backed up to the north. The cars were soon in full reverse, backing up as quickly as they could in the darkness.

This left Mitzer and I in territory controlled by enemy forces. "East," I commanded Mitzer. "Don't spare the horse power."

It was dark. Even with the light of the growing fires, it was difficult to navigate. We took the most open route available at the highest speed we could muster until, once again, we were lost among a herd of 7th Recon armored cars.

Fortunately, the Polish army used very few motorcycles. Nobody challenged us or shot at us.
 

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The stories about the Poles determination to fight were proving to be true. We continued to drive through Domaniew toward the center of the town, and we were fought every step of the way.

I remember the advance at the battle of Mokra where we moved ahead so quickly I could not keep up except on motorcycle. Here, the advance was slower than a walk, and much more deadly, particularly as we neared the center of town.

I was traveling with 3rd Company, which had temporarily become the forward unit. It's job was to take out the anti-tank guns that had obliterated a third of 2nd Company. I had never seen anti-tank guns do well against infantry. These Polish crews decided to be innovated. They loaded their anti-tank guns like shotguns and fired.. A half-dozen German soldiers fell; some screaming, some lying still.

The rest of the platoon did not hesitate. It takes a little while to reload an anti-tank gun, and in that time 3rd Company closed, and tossed grenades at the encampment. While the gun crews struggled with the grenades, the soldiers rushed forward.

The soldiers did not wait to see which of the Poles had lived through the assault and which were merely wounded. They fired rounds into the bodies, and moved on.

Just past the anti-tank guns was the city center of Domaniew. 3rd Company approached slowly. All seemed quiet.

We had been keeping the Poles on the run since the start of the war. It was possible that they had simply decided to flee in the face of overwhelming odds.

Not this time. The Poles had been well hidden, and held their fire for the last. A single shot came from the Polish side of the street, and then a burst of rifle and automatic weapons fire came at us. It seems that each Polish soldier had picked its own target. A private, not thirty meters from me, spun around and fell to the ground. His partner stopped to offer assistance, and took a bullet in the back.

A machine gun fired at a squad hugging the wall. It's bullets sprayed a line about waist high, and fell three soldiers. The rest scampered in through doors and windows. Then, they faced the problem of rescuing their friends. At least one German soldier took a bullet in the head during an attempt.

With the anti-tank guns out of commission, the armored cars were moving up. Infantrymen scampered on the cars, and directed return fire at the enemy positions. The machine gun that had taken out half a squad came first. 20mm shells ripped apart its defenses and silenced the gun. Then the cars focused on the other defenders.

In the midst of this battle I heard a distant pop, a sound of mortars. I knew from what I had seed of the orders that we had brought no mortars with us. I left the battle and traveled north. Mitzer was close behind me.

Off to the right, I heard our own armored cars. In the darkness, there was a very real chance of getting run over. I told Mitzer to hurry.

We stopped on the north end of the field. There, I had Mitzer turn off the engine.

At about the time, 2nd Company was approaching the Polish defenders in the heart of Domaniew and was opening up as well, adding to the noise.

I expected to be able to see II Battalion involved in its own firefight to our northwest. Surprisingly, everything there was quiet. I could faintly hear the sounds of engines along the road from Zbikow to Oltarzew, but that was it.

Then the popping sound emerged. It came from ahead of us, to the northwest.

"Report this," I told Mitzer. "We have a mortar crew or two at the south edge of Domanavek, coordinates 14 by 15." I turned my binoculars to the northeast. "If II Battalion doesn't have anybody better to fight, they may want to send a company to look into this."

Mitzer coded my request and sent it off to command.
 

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The quiet to the northwest, in the direction of II Battalion, did not last long. Whoever command had sent to take out the mortars found something else of interest along the way. From over a kilometer away, all I could make out was the flare of vehicles exploding in the field. Whatever the vehicles were, they were not large. They looked much like the armored roller skates we had encountered at other battles. However, these would not concern us any more. II Battalion dispatched them soon enough.

I went back toward the center of Domaniew to see what was happening there. Both companies of armored cars, though they had less than a company's worth of cars between them, were firing on the Polish defenses in the center of town. The Poles also had to contend with a battery of artillery dropping explosives amongst them.

The Poles were putting up a determined fight, but against the type of firepower they were forced to contend with, I did not see them as having a chance.

While the Poles were busy ducking armored car cannon, rifle, machine-gun, and artillery rounds, engineers made preparations to break the Polish defenses. They picked the strongest building, the building that appeared to anchor the defenders, and laid out their plans.

The shelling stopped, and on Major Hederich's orders, the armored cars shifted their focus over to the flanks of the Polish defenses. The Engineers charged pretty much straight up the middle. At the building that anchored the Polish defenses, they tossed in explosives.

The blasts felt and looked strong enough to bring the building down. They ripped through the interior of the building, climbing the stairs blowing out through the windows on both floors. However, the walls kept the explosion largely contained to the inside.

Those Polish defenders that survived the blast fled as quickly as they could. When the anchor gave ground, the flanks followed, and the engineers moved into the center of the town. At their signal, the armored cars advanced to provide cover and support.
 
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The original plan called for the 7th Recon Battalion to capture Domaniew, and then turn north to help II Battalion against Oltarzew.

This was one of those plans that would not survive contact with the enemy. If 7th Recon pulled out of Domaniew, it would leave the left flank of the attack on Oltarzew wide open. The enemy would have a free route to the all of the vehicles, headquarters, and artillery involved in the attack.

Major Hederich was making his mind up to stay. He was calling in artillery to lay a security belt around his defenses. II Battalion had not yet met serious resistance, so they had no use for the artillery just yet.

The lone exception, in II Battalion, was the company sent after the Polish mortars. Mitzer head learned from the radio traffic that this was 6th Company. After taking out a platoon of miniature tanks, they approached the southern edge of Domanavek.

One should have known that the Poles would not have mortars sitting around without some form of protection. Indeed, the Poles had defended the southern approach to the city. 6th Company was running into resistance, and they were taking casualties.

Meanwhile, 5th Company, which was moving north toward Oltarzew, reported an obstacle of his own. The Poles had blocked the road, and this was slowing his advance.

General Dietrich, from his headquarters far from the fighting, commanded our own engineers up onto the road to clear the obstacles. Since it looked like 7th Recon was setting itself up for a defensive battle, I decided to go with the engineers.
 

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II Battalion was making its move to cut off the railroad to Warsaw, and still I heard nothing from silence coming from that corner of the front.

I was surprised that road that General Dietrich had selected to Oltarzew was so free of enemy combatants. To the best of my recollection, the only problems the battalion had encountered was a couple of roadblocks and anti-tank guns. The guns had done their share of damage, but they did not exist any more.

6th Company, off to our left, was still in the middle of a fight. They were chasing the mortar group and its defending infantry platoon. The fighting seemed fierce, but one-sided. I heard far more fire from German guns than Polish guns, and I had not heard a morter for several minutes.

Behind us, at Domaniew, things were all but quiet. Major Hederich was still commanding all of the available artillery to build a safety zone around his front lines. In spite of the safety zone, he was having to deal with enemy soldiers. The 20mm cannons of the armored cars were mixed in with the sound of Polish rifles and other weapons.

I Battalion was on its way onto the battlefield as well. They had been given orders to follow II Battalion's route onto the battlefield, and then move off to Ozaruw. The capture of the two towns will guarantee control of the road and cut off any more reinforcements to the capital.

As Mitzer and I continued on to II Battalion's front line, I discovered that I had spoken too soon about the quiet.

It started off as a couple of rifle shots off to the northeast. Then a machine gun opened up. More rifle-fire followed. Guns started going off to the north of us, and slightly west of north. All along the northern front, there were shots being exchanged.

It was not heavy, at first; it was not as fierce as much of the fighting I heard. But it was a prelude. I had every expectation that it would build. I thought of Bzura. This would be a night for dying.
 
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We left the engineers to take care of the obstacles placed along the road, and continued north to the edge of town. There was a firefight going on directly head of us at the railroad crossing.

As was typically the case where roads and tracks met, this was a region of granaries and warehouses. 5th Company had made its way into the city. With the light of some distant tankettes that 6th Company had taken out, a burning car, and the flash of grenades, rifles, artillery, and star shells, I saw the bullet holes and blast damage of the buildings we passed.

With a fight going on, I did not want to suddenly appear to the soldiers of 5th Company, so I huddled up in the darkness of a nearby building and asked Mitzar to go ahead and announce my presence. While he was gone, I waited.

The fighting here had grown silent. While the platoons directly ahead along the road stayed put. To my right and left, there were platoons moving up along our flanks.

I ducked at the sudden sound of rifle and machinegun fire too close to the northeast. It was a reflex action, that instantly made me feel ashamed. I was glad that nobody had seen me. Still, the fighting was near enough that I could hear the hiss of the occasional stray bullet.

I crossed to the east side of the street, just in time to see a squad of German soldiers coming toward me. They ducked into a nearby building. I could hear their orders as they set up a hurried defense. The problem is, try as I might, I could not hear any signs of pursuit.

They had wounded with them. Soldiers placed their comrades on the ground, and medics began the task of caring for them. Buddies waited around for the news. These had to be the soldiers of 7th Company, who was moving up on 5th Company's right flank.

Just beyond these buildings, there was an open field and, beyond that, one of the major intersections in the town of Oltarzew. II Battalion was making its first effort to cut the highway, and the Poles were resisting. But, the Poles were up against superior numbers. They did as much damage as they could, before the Germans overwhelmed them. Quickly, the fighting moved on, closer to the heart of the city. Then, it ended entirely. The Poles had pulled out of this part of the town, leaving us in peace.

Off to the east, I would guess at a range of maybe a kilometer, there was another firefight going on. There, I not only heard the sounds of guns from the motorized infantry, but some heavy machineguns firing into the fray. Where this battle had been a quick burst of energy that quickly ended, the fighting to the east was sustained.

I watched for Mitzer, knowing that he would have some trouble finding me since I had moved. He strolled casually down the street. I shouted at him, before I risked stepping out of the shadows.

A platoon sergeant had found the wayward squads with its wounded soldiers, and was screaming at them to get back into the fight. He organized the survivors and prepared them to return to the front. The fighting, here, had all but ended.

I met a Lieutenant Lukas, who was resting with a couple of his platoon sergeants on the far side of the tracks.

The radio operator mimicked what the voice on the other end was telling him. "Captain Mohnke says to be ready to move up. We're to cut the main highway."

The lieutenant shrugged and told his platoon sergeants, "Get you men ready, we're moving up. We don't have any cover ahead of us but wheat fields and darkness, so we'll be crawling on our bellies."

I had recognized the name. This was the same Captain Mohnke from Pabianice. 5th Company was covering the retreat to Kosobudy when some Polish tanks overcame them from behind. Not only did they defeat the Polish tanks but, by themselves, they reversed the retreat and regained almost all of the ground they had lost. These people were fighters.

As the platoon sergeants left, Lukas took out a cigarette.

"How goes the war?"

"I expected more fighting," Lukas answered. "They seem to be giving this town to us."

"I know some people from 7th Company who would disagree with that."

"They are a bunch of babies. Just ahead of us lies the main road to Warsaw. We will be sitting on it in just a few minutes. But, listen."

I was listening, and other than the continuing fight off to our right, and the roar of artillery landing in support of 7th Recon four or five kilometers away, the front was silent. This part of the front was deadly silent.

"There are probably a few diehards out there waiting to ambush us, but they are not going to keep us from capturing that road."

I suspected that he was right.
 

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The real fighting was to the east of our position, so that is where Mitzer and I went. Just as we were leaving, 5th Company and 7th Company received their orders to cut the road. Both groups pushed forward as a line, cautiously. I waited for the sound of combat to tell me whether the Poles were putting up any resistance. The west of the town remained silent.

While we were on our way to the east end of town, Mitzer stopped. He crouched down, holding the radio close to one ear and drowning out the sounds of battle by holding his hand over the other. Ahead of us, 5th Company was still involved in a sustained firefight, so there was a lot of noise.

I saw the worried look on his face. "What's up?"

"Major Hederich is ordering an artillery barrage on his own positions," Mitzer answered. I waited as Mitzer continued to listen. "He is pulling back from the center of Domaniew. He expects that the Poles will move back into the buildings. As they do, he wants them shelled."

I thought about the squad, lined up against a stone wall, getting drilled by a machine gun. I thought of the engineers crossing the road to take out the anchor of the Polish defenses and forcing the rest of the units to retreat. Now, Hederich was giving the buildings back to the enemy.

"Dietrich is fuming," Mitzer said. "Hederich says that he will have the territory back in a few minutes, he just wants to get rid of a few Polish soldiers."

Mitzer stood and put the radio away. "He sounds worried. Apparently, he has caught glimpses of some heavy enemy activity ahead of him."

"We've got some heavy enemy activity ahead of us. Let's get going."

The battle for the East end of Oltarzew was being fought by a mixed assembly of elements. The right flank of II Battalion, the left flank of I Battalion, and the detached 15th Company were all in this together.

The main assault was just getting started when we arrived. The Polish defenders were well dug in. 8th Company splintered the buildings with fire from its heavy machine guns straight down the street, while the assault platoons moved into position. Rather than charging down the street and giving the Poles a clear line of fire, the assault came through the buildings on the right.

As these Polish defenders fell back, the assault platoon found itself facing a wall of bullets from the next block. The Poles were going to make sure that they had to fight for every block. The retreating soldiers added their power to the defense, and the assault stalled.

Off to our right, 1st Company moved up into the fields to help take the next piece of road. However, the Poles were ready for this maneuver the second time. They found the fields raked with machine-gun fire. The Polish flank was well secured.

Behind us, where we had left 5th Company, another firefight had broken out. Enough time had passed that I knew that the 5th and 7th Companies had captured their section of the road. The route to Warsaw was now closed. The city would be getting no more defenders.

That, and our quest to secure the left flank of the German advance on our city, were our two main objectives. We had accomplished, though at a much higher cost than I was accustomed to seeing the German army pay.

Taking a position and holding it were two different matters. The task of securing the town itself remained.
 

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In order to watch 1st Company enter the field on our right, I climbed up into the attic of a house on the south side of town. From it, I could barely make out the forms of the units crossing the field. Tracer rounds streaked across the field from machine gun nests on the other side.

Beyond the machine guns sat the town of Ozaruw, which was I Battalion's target until it got distracted into this fight.

Part of I Battalion still seemed to be interested in what was going on. From my vantage point, I could see a lot of gun flashes on the south side of town. Unlike previous battles, this one seemed to be dominated by the Poles.

While I was trying to make out what was happening in that firefight, noise erupted all around me. I heard grenade blasts and rifle fire as if it came from the very building I was in. There were angry and anxious shouts in Polish.

I started to speak, but Mitzer put his hand over my mouth.

The wave of noise passed by us, heading west.

Gesturing for my silence, we crept along the attic to the other side of the building, the side facing the road we were trying to capture. The attic had a grate on the side of the building that allowed us to look down onto the street below.

Polish soldiers were rounding up German prisoners and forcing them to kneel on the pavement.

"We're behind enemy lines!" I whispered.

There were nearly a dozen soldiers laying on the ground in front of me. The guards stood watch as German medics tended to the wounded.

The counter-attack had caught the Germans entirely by surprise. I tried to recall, through the 10 days of war that I had seen, any other instance where the Poles had turned so swiftly and decisively against their invaders. I tried to recall any other time when they had captured German soldiers.

If the Poles secured this area, they would undoubtedly start to sweep the buildings. I never had any doubts what they would do if they ever found me. I was a civilian, denied permission to wear a German uniform. Yet, I clearly acted in service to the German army. This made my situation if I should be captured quite precarious.

I motioned Mitzer back into the darkness, and the attic floor crept underneath me. I closed my eyes and listened.

"Can you still talk to headquarters?" I asked Mitzer.

"I think so."

"Okay, here's what I want you to tell them. From what I saw earlier, this has to be the core of their defense in this part of the city. They could not have left much behind. If 1st Company comes north and cuts off the road behind us, and 8th Company moves around to our north, we should be able to cut off their retreat. Then, 15th Company can take this place back."

The soldiers below were still hyped up from the action. They were shouting back and forth, gathering their prisoners under the light, while they listened to the nearby fighting.

Mitzer got on the radio.

I started to crawl back to the south side of the house, but the protest from the ceiling caused me to change my mind.

Then, there was artillery. It was landing just up the road from us, a couple hundred meters away and closer, right where I suggested that the 1st Company should target its attack.

Under the cover of its noise, I returned to the south side of the house.

1st Company was advancing north. The Poles still had somebody guarding the road, but it did not have the strength to stand up against 1st Company, and 8th Company was coming along itself across the north.

The Poles retreated. 1st Company kept half of its soldiers in the field in case the enemy decided to try to run across it, and moved other units ahead to block the road.

I heard heavy machine guns to the north. The attackers now had nowhere to run.

Then the assault began.

Moving back to the north end of the building, I watched as the Polish soldiers grew nervous at the sounds they were hearing. Polish soldiers came running by, talking about German squads coming.

There was a quick discussion about what to do with the prisoners. The soldiers ultimately left the Germans alone and headed east. There, they ran into 1st Company, and retreated back to where the prisoners were. From the north, Germans continued to press down on them.

The Polish soldiers took cover. I heard lots of shouts about the fact that they were surrounded, cut off, with no hope of escape. One by one, Polish soldiers surrendered.

Roles were then reversed. The Germans who had been tied and bound in the middle of the street were released and their weapons were returned to them. Polish soldiers, now, occupied the prisoner's square.

The fighting ended.

I suggested to Mitzer that we should leave. He took the lead. With his pistol at the ready, he climbed down the stairs, then motioned for me to follow. Thee was still a chance of a Polish soldier doing what we had done, hiding and waiting for rescue.

I was half way down the ladder when I heard gunfire just outside the building. It nearly stopped my heart. I froze, wondering whether I should climb back up and hide while I still had a chance. But I only heard German guns, and the gunfire ended quickly enough. Before I had even made up my mind, all was silent again.

When Mitzer and I left the building, we discovered what had happened. About twenty Polish soldiers lay on the street, their hands tied behind them. One of them moaned and started to move; a German lieutenant fired a bullet into his head, and he joined the others in silence.

"Come on, we have some fighting to do," said the Lieutenant.

His soldiers instantly obeyed.
 

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15th Company, after killing the Polish prisoners, continued west to help participate in the fight. However, it had difficulty finding space in the crowded front that I Battalion established. I Battalion went on from the battle to surround and destroy the members of the Polish counter-attack to turn against the machine gunners. After forcing them out of their defenses, I Battalion, with 15th Company in support, began its attack on the city of Ozaruw.

Standing among the bodies, I had lost my interest in monitoring the fight. I had my own hand in this atrocity. I was the one who phoned in the information that these soldiers could be cut off. I sealed their fate, without knowing that their fate was to be executed.

I am well aware that war may require desperate and unpleasant acts. But the Germans were no longer in a desperate situation. They had a full battalion heading west to take over the town of Ozaruw. Other than that fight, I heard very little gunfire, and what I heard was quite some distance to the north. This was not an act of desperation, it was an act of brutality.

The Poles had more of a cause to execute their German prisoners, than these Germans had cause to execute the Poles.

As if to belie my assessment, Mitzer reported, "7th Recon is under pressure. They are pulling back, trying to create a new line."

"What are they up against?" I asked.

"Tanks. A machine-gun company. Infantry. It sounds like they're facing something like a battalion."

7th Recon was in bad shape before the fight started. They had taken more casualties as the battle continued. If I had to guess, I would have said that it was at half strength. A full battalion could push through that front, and then it would have a clear road to the headquarters, trucks, and artillery that sat at the rear of the German lines.

Immediately, I began to worry about the Germans that would be lost, if the Poles could launch that kind of attack. Then, I once again saw the bodies at my feet.

Then, again, I thought at my countrymen under threat from a Polish attack.

For a moment, I stood there.
 

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Mitzer shook his head in frustration. "Too many people are talking over the top of each other," he said.

"What happened?"

"There was an ambush on the road between here and Domaniew. A battery of 75mm guns was just wiped out."

He listened somemore. "Everybody is in a panic. The ambush was just a half kilometer away from battalion headquarters. 6th Company is being ordered south, and the armored car companies from 7th Recon are giving up on holding Domaniew and heading north. Apparently, there are some Polish tanks in the area as well. There's been a hole in the lines between 6th Company and 7th Recon since the start of the battle, and the Poles decided to take advantage of it."

I turned my head quickly, so that Mitzer would not see my smile. Shame wiped it from my face quickly thereafter. I strolled up beside Mitzer, sighed, and sat. "Let me know what's going on."

"You are the observer," Mitzer answered.

"What I have observed today . . .," I looked back at the bodies. "Today, I learned things I never wanted to know. I have learned more today than I have ever sought to learn."

I saw Mitzer's puzzled look.

"There’s nothing left to observe," I said. "II Battalion has conquered Oltarzew. I Battalion will have Ozaruw fully within its control in just a few minutes."

"What about this ambush?"

"A platoon of tanks and a platoon of soldiers. They got themselves in a good position, true. They might do some damage, but a company of infantry and two companies of armored cars are racing to close the breech, they'll have the situation well in hand before we could get there. The only thing we would be able to observe. . ."

I looked again at the bodies across the street.

"Well, I don't think it will be very useful. This battle is over."
 
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