Crack of Doom (21 page)

"And
I'd
like to know whether they've got any more. Think what would have happened if we hadn't seen the guy."

With a listless gesture Kolodzi wiped the shock off his face. "God almighty!"

After that they did not take their eyes off the street for a second, until a sub-machine gun started up behind the house. "You go to the Fat One," said Kolodzi. "I'll deal with things here on my own." He went to the other side of the window, and waited. It was beginning to get dark. If only I'd stayed with Maria, Kolodzi thought.

CHAPTER

11

Soon after Kolmel had gone, the medical officer of a dressing station came to General Stiller, complaining that there weren't enough vehicles to take the wounded back. "There are sixty stretcher cases left in the houses," he told the general, who was busy working out plans for the counter-attack.

"Wait a moment," Stiller told him, and turned to Kreisel. "How high were your casualties?"

"About a hundred. Half of them are at Rozhanovce."

"Dead?"

"I hope so, sir."

Stiller looked at him for a moment, and then understood. "How do things look with you?" he asked Wieland.

"Appalling, sir. Not counting the battalion the division took away from me, I had three hundred men on my strength. I've got a hundred here, two hundred are missing."

"Perhaps some are stragglers."

"Possibly," said Wieland.

Stiller took out his fountain pen. "Let's see what we've got altogether." He considered the numbers given him, then said: "Right, we'll attack as soon as Herr Wieland engages with the Russians."

"Then the Russians will slash me to pieces," cried Wieland indignantly. "With a mere hundred men I’ll never get into Rozhanovce."

"You're not meant to. On the contrary, you must draw the Russians out of there. As soon as your attack bogs down, they'll make a counter-attack."

"And drive right through to Kosice!"

"That won't hurt. If I can cut their lines of communication, I don't mind their going even further. The main thing is to get them out of Rozhanovce."

"And me into it, I imagine," said Kreisel.

"That's right, you and the reserve battalion. And you," he told Wieland, "will go back to the road fork. Send the reserve battalion off at once, to attack Rozhanovce from the north with the battalion Scheper has covering the flank."

"Does Herr Scheper know about it?" asked Wieland.

"He's getting a radio signal. Now for the distances and times."

When they had finished, Kreisel asked: "And what happens afterward?"

"Straight to the pass," said Stiller. "The Russians mustn't be given any time to establish themselves up there. You'll push forward with your regiment into the old positions, while Scheper and the reserve battalion stay in Rozhanovce covering the flank to the west."

"What about the pioneer battalion, sir?"

"I need that for Slancik, to establish contact with Hopper. He'll be attacking in the direction of Durkov. As soon as he connects with the pioneer battalion, he'll wheel eastward and climb to the pass with you." Stiller's eyes fell on the medical officer, who had been standing in the background all the time. "I'll send you some trucks," he said. The officer thanked him and left. Stiller turned back to Wieland. "Off you go."

"This business will cost me all my men," muttered Wieland. "Why don't you let the reserve lot do it, sir?"

"The mock attack must look genuine enough for the Russians to believe in it, and that's a job for which I don't consider the reserve unit sufficiently reliable."

"I've lost two-thirds of my regiment."

"You should have trained your men to stay in their holes instead of running away. Have you still got officers?"

"Six," Wieland admitted reluctantly.

"Send forward all you can spare from your staff. Only you must leave your signal platoon here with me, and two or three officers also. You'll probably have to launch your attack in an hour from now." He looked at Kreisel. "Now for the artillery. What have we got here?"

Wieland regarded him angrily, and turned to leave the room. "No salute?" asked Stiller.

Wieland swung around, his face scarlet. "I didn't think you considered it important, sir."

"As a point of good manners, certainly—unless you don't think those important."

Wieland saluted and went out. When the door had closed behind him, Stiller resumed in a normal voice: "How many artillery men did you say?"

Kreisel suppressed a laugh. "Altogether, sir, or only on my own?"

"Altogether."

"I can't tell you that, sir. But we have two artillery officers here."

"Have them sent for," Stiller ordered.

They arrived just after the regimental signals office reported that Captain Hepp was on the phone. He told the general that he had three hundred and twenty men with him in the new reserve battalion.

"Wait till Colonel Wieland arrives," Stiller instructed him. "Hell give you full details. Meanwhile get your men to take up positions near the anti-tank gun. Send the empty trucks up here, they're to pick up casualties. Is there anything else?" He listened to what Hepp said, then turned to the artillery officers. "There are four trucks with ammunition for you down there."

"At last." One of the lieutenants took the receiver eagerly. While he was telephoning, Stiller told Kreisel: "You can start too now. Make sure that...." He broke off. Shells were exploding quite close. Through the window he could see everyone running for the houses.

"Now it's beginning here as well," said Kreisel. "If we don't hurry, they'll smash up my men."

"Then hurry up. You can take the assault gun with you at once. Who's the signals officer here?"

One of the officers came forward, clicking his heels. "Lieutenant Schleippen, sir."

Stiller told him: "I need continuous contact with Colonel Kreisel." He looked toward the window. Shells were again bursting on the street.

"Russian mortars," said Kreisel.

The artillery lieutenant was still on the phone. Stiller gave him an impatient glance. At last he hung up, remarking with satisfaction: "We've got enough now to make things hot for the Russians."

"Then it's time you got started," said Stiller.

After Kreisel and his officers left, the Russian fire became increasingly fierce. One of the remaining officers expressed a fear that the Russians had an observer somewhere, following movements in Durkov.

"Don't talk nonsense," said Stiller crossly. "How could an observer have got in here?"

Ten minutes later Wieland was on the phone. "I'm at the road fork," he reported. "I've just sent Captain Hepp off."

"Good. Then start your attack in a quarter of an hour. Any sign of the Russians?"

"Not their infantry. There's been some firing from their anti-tank guns."

"Send the assault guns ahead," ordered Stiller. "The Russian tanks are bound to be west of Rozhanovce by now. Are you getting artillery fire?"

"Not here, sir. Further behind us, somewhere round the battery position."

"All right. Now listen," said Stiller, "when the Russians counter-attack, withdraw slowly back to the road fork and from there to the main Durkov road. In case I shouldn't be here any more, take up positions at the outskirts and cover westward."

"What with, sir?" Wieland asked scornfully.

For a moment Stiller was taken aback, then he said sharply: "With your staff, if that's all you have left."

He hung up, and went out into the street. The Russian mortar fire was landing all over the place. He saw the snow rising high between the trees in the direction of Rozhanovce. A Russian battery must be ranged directly on the street. Heavy fire could also be heard inside the wood, and further right came muffled explosions near the last houses on the road to Slancik. There was nobody left outside the houses. Stiller looked at his watch. When he went back into his headquarters Kreisel was on the telephone, reporting that he had reached his starting line. Stiller asked where the artillery fire was landing.

"Behind us luckily," replied Kreisel. "It's high time we got away from here."

"You must wait another half hour. Wieland is just getting ready to attack." He looked at his watch again. "It's now one-thirty. You'll attack at two. Can you see anything of the Russians?"

"Not see them, sir, but I can hear them all right. They're banging away pretty hard."

"Tanks too?"

"Not so far."

"Right, in half an hour then." Stiller replaced the receiver with a sigh of relief and dismissed the officers who had stayed in his room, including Giesinger who had kept himself silently in a corner. Then he went to the window to look out. Two women and an old man were herding some sheep across the street. The women's faces were full of fear and it occurred to Stiller that these were the first civilians he had seen in Durkov. He summoned an officer, who explained that the place had not been evacuated; the people were sitting in their cellars.

"They should have been sent away," said Stiller.

The officer closed the door behind him: a second later a heavy shell exploded in the vicinity. Stiller, who had ducked instinctively, straightened up and looked into the street again. The women and the sheep had disappeared but the man was lying in the snow, not moving. Near him was a huge crater. The snow all around was black and strewn with wooden shingles torn off the roofs by the blast. Stiller recognized the old man by the thin, patched coat; the trousers had a long tear at the side, perhaps from a shell splinter. Regarding him, Stiller registered the increasing frequency with which shells were now raining on Durkov. He glanced at the ceiling: one of them would be quite enough to blow up this wretched hovel.

He looked at his watch again, and at that moment the windows began to rattle. The batteries behind Durkov had opened fire—so things had started. Now the assault regiment must be going into attack too, and with it the reserve unit and Scheper's covering battalion. And on the other side the pioneer battalion, which was marching toward Slancik, where at the same time Colonel Hopper and his regiment were pushing north. Three-quarters of the division were now on the move.

With his eyes closed Stiller heard the other batteries opening up. Forty-eight heavy and fight howitzers were firing all they had, and then there were the assault guns, heavy and light artillery guns and several dozen mortars of all calibres. The general felt he could hear them all. He stood at the window, leaning forward, abandoning himself to the oppressive feeling which always came over him when an attack was beginning. He never found the power which lay in his hands more overwhelming than in such moments. An order from him set in motion two thousand men, who at this second were climbing out of their snowdrifts and running into the fire of the Russian tank- and machine-guns.

Then he noticed the two women in the street. They stood by the body of the old man, now almost covered with snow, and screamed. He thought he heard the screams through the closed windows and in spite of the booming of the heavy howitzers on the edge of the wood. Staring at the women, he thought again of the two thousand men who were now running for their lives: two thousand men whom he'd set in motion. Outside the two women still stood and screamed.

He pressed his hands against his temples, and forced his mind away from the sight and back to all the things he had to attend to. The attack demanded precision. There were a hundred things that had to happen almost simultaneously, beginning with the reserve unit, which mustn't start marching through the valley a minute before the assault regiment reached the southern edge of Rozhanovce—because otherwise they'd be running into German artillery fire; going on to Wieland and his hundred men, who must be rolled back by the Russians so that Kreisel could get to Rozhanovce. Then there was Hopper, who must break out of Slancik, and the pioneer battalion, which had to open the way for him before the Russians noticed that there were only two companies left in Durkov. And a whole host of other decisions besides, which no one could take off his shoulders. . . .

The officers in the next room jumped from their places as Stiller flung open the door, shouting at them. In response to his command they rushed out into the street, caught hold of the dead civilian's arms and legs and flung him headlong into the nearest house, driving the women after him with curses. When they returned to Stiller, he was sitting at the table with a relaxed expression on his face, reading the first reports about the attack.

So far things were going according to plan. Kreisel had only met weak enemy forces, which had no tanks with them. The assault regiment had overrun them, and Kreisel reported a swift advance toward Rozhanovce. The reserve unit had joined Scheper's covering battalion without making contact with the enemy, and was also on the way to Rozhanovce. In fact there was news in from everyone but Wieland.

For a while Stiller stared at the reports, sunk in thought; then he reached for the phone and ordered the artillery to move its fire up to Rozhanovce. He sent a radio signal to the reserve unit, telling it to dig in with Scheper's battalion five hundred yards north of Rozhanovce and there await fresh orders. Lieutenant Schleippen brought him a report that the pioneer battalion had met strong enemy forces about a mile south of Durkov and could not go on.

"They
must
go on," said Stiller. "What about Hopper?"

"Colonel Hoppers making good progress, sir," said Schleippen cheerfully, handing him a radio signal.

Stiller gave a satisfied nod. "The pioneer battalion can dig in. If Hopper goes on at this rate, he'll be at the pass in an hour."

"There's only one thing I'm worried about, sir."

"What's that?"

"That instead of going back to the pass the Russians will break through to Durkov."

"We've always got the pioneer battalion to stop them."

"But suppose the Russians attack in great strength."

"I doubt if they will. They haven't any heavy guns on this side, so they're bound to choose the way where there's least resistance—in this case no apparent resistance at all. Only Hopper must swing east with his left wing in good time, so that they'll be driven back to the pass. Send him another signal."

Schleippen ran off. Stiller turned to the other staff officers. There were five with Giesinger, two from the assault regiment and two from Wieland's staff. Stiller sent one of them to the pioneer battalion. "I want to know the battalion's exact position. Tell the officer commanding that he mustn't give a single yard, however strongly the Russians attack." He turned to the next officer. "Go to the road fork and see what's happened to Colonel Wieland and the assault guns. He should be making direct for Durkov." He noticed Giesinger, who was standing by the window. Waving him over, he took him into the other room. "I hope you're beginning to see what you've done."