“So, Bäumer, want some beer?”
“Sure, Katczynski.”
“Let’s drink beer and let the frenchies be drowned! Haha!”
I’ve met a soldier that has just one letter difference from my mentor in WWI-Katcsynsky.
Just like Kat, Katczynski (his nickname is Kaski) has blue eyes, face of the soil, and a remarkable nose. Everything Kaski does make me think of Kat.
On a Sunday, we start to attack a village occupied by Frenchmen. They throw poison bombs at us. We have to wear the gas mask. It is improved by German scientists to make you feel better unlike the soggy gas mask we’ve wore in WWI. Suddenly I see a bomb explodes just behind us. Many people are injured; including Muller’s brother-Mullestren (everyone calls him Mullen). I run toward him. He is moaning and growling. His right leg is bleeding, and his arm is broken. We can see the pain on his face.
“Stretcher!” I shouted.
Some people quickly took Mullen away. He should be okay, if he is in WWI, he will be dead in 3 hours.
Almost every day is the same. We attack and they retreat, we are now only 30 km Away from Paris, but the casualties is getting higher and higher, and every time I order my soldiers to advance, I think of my officer telling me to advance. I feel the officer is cruel and mean telling us to attack the hard part. Now I am the officer, and I found out that this is necessary. Now I’ve known that being an officer is not as easy as we think when we are soldiers. You have to obey the command from a higher rank officer, and you have to deserve the vile eyes from soldiers looking at you as they are going to burn you. Being an officer is not easy and I find it is harder to be an officer than a soldier is. When I think I’m good-hearted enough, the soldiers still think me as cruel. Even if we have a perfect report on the war, the officer above me always nitpicks and tells me to do better.
Now we are in Paris, many people cheers for us, and we feel very proud. Actually the casualties are lower than expectations: 150 died, 249 wounded for a 16,000 men’s army. We decided to visit Mullen. When we arrive at the hospital, we are shocked. The hospital is so huge and magnificent and the decoration is luxurious. We went to his bed. The doctor says he will be out of the hospital in two weeks.
“Mullen, how is the hospital?” We are trying to make fun of him.
“Are there any angels here?” We all laughed.
Mullen replied: “Nope. The hospital is quite good, and the food is good. We get to eat steak every day.”
We are jealous. Although the food is improving, we still get to eat canned food if we are on the battlefield.
Actually Mullen comes back in about one week. We cannot see any pain on his eyes, or on his leg or arm.
Chapter fourteen
It is now 1943. Moreover, the war on the western front is over. It is all quiet. I’ve been sent to another frontline, which I think the attack is stupid-Russia. Russia is cold and harsh, also there isn’t much reason to attack it because Russia didn’t attack us, not like in WWI, and Russia attacked us first. The soldiers are not ready for this cold and harsh weather, we only have a sweater and a thin coat. That is way not enough to survive in the harsh weather. The moral is high when we started, but when we are 100 km away from Moscow, the temperature goes down rapidly by 10 degrees Celsius. We try to advance, but the soldiers are tired and most of them are injured because of this cold weather. When we finally “crawled” into Stalingrad, the Russians have already had 1.1 million men and thousands of weapons. In addition, another bad news comes. The other troops that are attacking Moscow lost and retreated.
Now the battle has come, the Russians attacked many times in many waves a day, and soon our defense line is weak. In February 1943, we retreated for 100 km. The supply for the frontline is getting smaller and poor, on the other side the Russians are getting more men, and much more tanks.
On a peaceful day, Mullen goes out to catch a goose, suddenly we here a gun shooting. When we arrived there, Mullen is already dead. This let me think of the end of WWI, I was drawing a butterfly and I got shot by a sniper. Poor Mullen! My friends are leaving me one by one in WWI, and now, my soldiers are leaving much quickly one by one.
Things have turned around. When Russians attack, we have to retreat. And for not very long, we are out of Russia`s border. On the other side, some code breakers say that the British and Americans are going to attack along the French coastlines. This made us retreat even faster because we are afraid to be attacked by two sides.
In few weeks, Russians swept over Poland and other countries we have been conquered, and I see my friends and my officers die or commit suicide. Everyone in the headquarters is terrified by the things we are seeing. Just two months ago, we are seeking to capture Moscow, and now the enemies are attacking only 400 km away from Germany.
Hitler is getting more and more insane. He tells us to defense the line under any cause. He even sent soldiers under 15 years old. They are only children, they shouldn’t be responsible for what they’ve become. I had a 16,000 men army, and now I only have 7800 men left. I don’t want to see the soldiers die one by one, so I attended the group who wants to kill Hitler and have an agreement with the Russians. We planned our revolt in July, and just before our plan takes out, the Allied army landed in Normandy. We have to change the plan. We decided to make an agreement with Allies so that we can have a chance to defeat the Russians. On July 20, 1944, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg takes two bombs into the Castle Wolfenstein where Hitler is going to have a meeting there. However, unfortunately Stauffenberg only finished putting one bomb, and the bomb is moved. Actually, when Stauffenberg comes out of the Castle Wolfenstein, he is confirmed Hitler is dead. Therefore, we start to take over the government. However, when Hitler shows up in the headquarters, and ask what you are doing, we are horrified. We all look at Stauffenberg, so our revolt is demolished. Afterwards, Hitler investigated everyone who was in the headquarters, trying to find out who planned the revolt. I say I don’t even know about this thing, but when the evidence comes out, I have to admit I attended the revolt. Unlike Stauffenberg, I was not killed. At a night of complete peace, I was lying on the bed, somebody knocked on the door, and my wife went to open to door. Suddenly, I felt strange, and dizzy.
Then I know nothing more.
Chapter fifteen
He fell in August 1944, on a day that the western side of the war was so quiet, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.
He had fallen on his bed and slept forever in his warm bed. Everybody sees him that he is not suffered long, and has an expression of calm, as though almost delight the end has come.