Chapter 20

The following morning the men moved out of Neuville. With nothing and no one there, it was time to carry on to the next destination.

“What if we get to Ramelle and find the same thing?” Brian asked. “What do we do then?”

“Let’s not think like that Brian. Ramelle is quite a way off, we’re bound to find others on the way there” Kevin replied, although he’d been quite shocked by the sight that had greeted them at Neuville, and wondered if the civilians and armed forces had managed to flee before the Germans had destroyed the place.

They’d gathered together all the tinned food and bottles that they could find and had placed them all in their backpacks. At least they wouldn’t starve on the next stage of their journey to reunite with the rest of the division.

“How’s that shoulder James?” asked Kevin, looking the wounded man over as he did so.

“It’s fine, I’ll live” replied James as he slung his backpack over his good shoulder.

“Good, good” Kevin said. “Come on then men, let’s get moving. Eric, have you heard anything on the radio yet?”

“No sir” replied Eric as he tapped the receiver. The radio hadn’t worked properly since they’d come under fire and it had taken a bullet.

“Keep trying” Kevin advised, looking at him with his eyebrows narrowed. He didn’t like the lack of communication, it wasn’t a good sign. How was he supposed to lead his men if he didn’t know what was around the next corner? He could be leading them straight into the hands of the Germans. But there was nothing he could do to resolve it, at least not until they could get their hands on a fully functioning radio. He just had to hope that luck would be with them.

They’d plotted their journey out on the map and estimated that it would take them approximately three days on foot to get there, if they cut through a forest. Although the forest could potentially be a risky move on their part, it would at least provide them some much needed shelter and also keep them out of the path of any stray German vehicles, which was always a danger when walking along the roadside in broad daylight.

They walked for a full day, only stopping briefly when they had to, and felt they’d made good progress.

“Look, there’s a barn up there, maybe we could stay there for the night” Alex said pointing to the wooden building not too far in the distance.

The barn was empty, whatever livestock it had housed previously were now all gone. But it was warm and dry and reasonably clean, with enough bales of hay to make it comfortable enough to sleep. They took off their backpacks and set about making their makeshift beds out of the hay. Twenty minutes later they were sat eating tinned food, passing a wine bottle around and stretching out on their hay beds.

“Y’know, if this is how it’s going to be the whole time we’re here, then it aint so bad” said Alex as he took a long drag from his cigarette.

“If only Alex, if only” replied Nick.

“Do you think we’ll all stay in touch afterwards…y’know, when we get home?” Brian asked. In the time they’d spent together, the men had become close friends, almost as close as family, or in some cases, closer than family.

“Definitely” Howie replied. They may have come from different walks of life, but he couldn’t imagine going home after the war and never seeing them again.

The following morning, things took a turn for the worse.

“Shh” Kevin whispered and urged the men to keep quiet and take cover through various hand gestures, which luckily they understood.

Peeking through a gap in the wooden planks of the barn, Kevin saw that a car was approaching. Not just any car, but an armed vehicle with a machine gun attached to the back of it. It was too late to make a run for it and if they tried, they would certainly be seen and probably gunned down.

“How many men in the car?” Howie whispered as he quietly checked his gun was loaded and ready for action.

“Five” Kevin replied, hoping that no other vehicles were following. They could definitely take on five men, even if they did have a huge machine gun.

“We can take them if we catch them by surprise” Eric crept closer to get a look through the crack.

“As long as they’re away from that gun” Kevin agreed, as he looked at the large machine gun on the back of the approaching vehicle and frowned.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t going to be on their side and shortly after spotting the first vehicle, another smaller one could soon be seen trailing a couple about a hundred feet behind.

“Shit!” Kevin cussed in hushed tones. This was not good, not good at all. Although there were nine of them in the barn, they were evenly matched with approaching Germans; or at a disadvantage when their fire power was taken into consideration.

“They might just drive by” Nick said hopefully. But that was just wishful thinking. He knew they wouldn’t drive all the way out here for nothing.

“And pigs might fly!” Alex retorted.

“Keep your voices down” Kevin warned quietly. If they were about to be faced with the enemy, he wanted to have the surprise element in their favour. “Take your positions and be prepared” he advised them.

The vehicles stopped and the German soldiers got out, guns at the ready. They spoke amongst themselves and then split up. Kevin couldn’t see where they all went, but knew that they were scoping the place. It’s what he would do.

The barn door opened and somebody got a bit trigger happy. Bullets began to fly in all directions and within seconds, the barn was sprayed with blood.

“Fuck!” Alex shouted as he emptied his gun into a couple of Germans before they could do the same to him. It was the first time he’d actually killed a man and it made him feel sick. But he had to push that feeling to one side; he couldn’t start retching his guts up when he might have to kill more.

Kevin took down three of them with bullets accurately aimed to the head. Killing another man would never be something he could get used to, but he knew what had to be done.

“Eric?” Howie called as he spied him slumped on the floor in a small puddle of blood. There was no reply but Howie wasn’t able to get to him and check for a pulse.

“Where’d they go?” Nick asked as the remaining couple of Germans fled.

“Oh god…the fucking machine gun!” James called out at the same moment the others realised what was happening. He ran to the barn door and open fired on the soldiers before they had a chance to get their gun ready. But before he’d been able to shoot them all, a couple of them turned and shot multiple bullets into James’ body. He fell to the ground, dead before he even reached it.

“No!” Brian called out and shot the remaining couple of Germans. He then bent over and puked until there was nothing left.