Second Chance War - 33 MCN

Thomas gathered a few squads around himself, they were currently standing outside the captured German bunker, in the freezing cold rain. The sky overhead was dark and moody, flashes of thunder and lightning could be seen, casting a web of purple cracks in the sky. The soldiers who were gathered were wet and miserable, although morale wasn’t really low considering how far they’ve pushed, they were actually rather happy about the forthcoming battle. The sky got darker, it was going from day to night, pretty soon, no one would be able to see a thing.

“All right men, listen up!” Thomas began his epic morale raising speech, his leadership skills were getting better. “This is it, the final push. You know what that means. Jerry is going to be desperate, they will use any means possible, they will try their damnedest to hold out. They will not succeed! We will not let them! Now, let’s go and kick some ass the American way!”

Thomas charged down the trench line, his figure rapidly disappearing in the dark and the rain, briefly illuminated by flashes of lightning or thunder. The rest of the company charged after him, their faces filled with the savagery of a bloodied determination tainted by the promise of freedom and justice. It painted a fearsome image among the backdrop of the thunder and rain, akin to something out of a horror film more than a wartime battle. The thunder and sloshing of their boots repeatedly hitting the muddy ground beneath them gave rise to a terrifying sound to the Germans guarding the next bunker.

Thomas tossed a couple of frag grenades ahead of him as he held his Thompson close, he waited for the explosion which briefly illuminated the rainy night in a blinding flash of orange, painted with mud and blood. He turned the corner and he quickly spied a couple of Germans getting to their feet, he shot them both with a couple of quick bursts, ammunition conservation was important. After all, he only had five magazines plus what he had already in the gun. The Germans quickly fell to the ground in bloody heaps, blood oozing out of the bullet holes, slowly mixing with the mud and rain.

Thomas’s boot splashed down on the mixture, dispersing it as he surveyed the trenches before him. There was only one path before him, who knows what was down that path, but they had to go. Thomas waved forward his company, he took the lead because he believed like so many other greats before him that a leader should always lead from the front and by example. He charged down the trench, jumping over barely concealed tripwires briefly illuminated by the flashes of lightning and thunder. A few of the men behind him were not so lucky and with an audible twang, the trenches shook as an explosion rocked the area behind Thomas, throwing him forward, though he did manage to keep his balance and stay on his feet.

Thomas finally cleared the trench area and came to an open sort of flat plateau, there were two bunkers and two sets of Pak-38s. Spotlights illuminated patches of the area, and all Thomas had to do was stay out of the light and he’d be able to get to the bunkers undetected. He raised his fist up for the men behind him, signaling them to come to a halt. He waved two fingers at the spotlights and motioned for them to follow his lead. The Pak-38s were going at full bore, their thunderous booms covering the sound of the men advancing in the dark and stormy night. There were some obstacles to take cover behind, such as crate stacks and barrels. For the most part, they managed to stay hidden, getting all the way to the bunker entrances, Thomas could practically hear the nervous breathing of the German manning the machine gun in front of the door, he couldn’t see him because he was underneath the port and out of sight. Thomas looked and the door was closed, they had to figure out how to get the door open. A sudden idea hit him, he motioned for smoke grenades and he had three other people, as well as himself, toss eight of them through the machine gun port.

The German soldier looked down at his feet as the smoke grenades came bouncing through the port, he was shocked silly. Then the bunker began filling with smoke, so much smoke that you couldn’t see anywhere inside and it poured to the outside as if something was burning inside. The door to the bunker came open and a few Germans stumbled out coughing and trying to clear their eyes. Thomas and the troops unloaded on them, they quickly fell and the whole company rushed into the bunkers, hoping they were the last. They quickly moved room to room, clearing them of German infantry. Blood splashed the walls and the floors, dead bodies hit the ground with a dull thud, everything was chaos, and amidst it all, surprisingly, there were no American or French casualties. The smell of gunpowder and the iron stench of blood was heavy in the air as they finished clearing both bunkers. Luck would have it that the Germans connected both of them, overall they had fought about a company-sized element of German soldiers. On top of that, mopping up the Germans manning the last two Pak-38s outside also proved to be of little to no difficulty. One of the French soldiers got shot in the shoulder, it broke his bone and disabled him probably for the next few months.

Thomas surveyed the ridge, they had done a fine job. They started out with a little over a hundred troops, they finally ended up with sixty-three functional troops with twelve wounded and twenty-five dead. It wasn’t a bad trade, especially with Thomas’s leadership guiding the men. They had an overwhelming advantage since Thomas could utilize his past life and all of the tricks he had learned, especially some of the more unorthodox tactics they had employed. Thomas motioned for a radioman, it was time to let command know.

“Command, this is Master Sergeant Thomas Conlin reporting in, we have the ridge. I repeat, we have the ridge.” Thomas reported.

“Good work, do you still have any functional PAK-38s on the ridge?” Command appeared to have some sort of strategy in mind.

“Sir, we have two undestroyed fields guns, a small number of mortars found in an armory.”

“Excellent, begin a fire support mission to cover the advance of the Seventy-Sixth, and the One-Oh-Five as they advanced on Monte Cassino. The other ridge has already been cleared by American and British forces. Over.”

“Acknowledged, Command. Conlin over and out.” Thomas called the company over after handing the radio back to the radioman.

“Alright men, listen up, I want the most experienced men to man those two Pak-38s, we have a fire support mission for the Seventy-Sixth and the One-Oh-Five. Everyone else, mortars and ammunition, let’s go. Radioman stays with me, we’ll call the big guns as needed, this may not turn into an infantry only battle.”

The company got to work, this was it, the final battle. God willing they would be victorious and live to see another day.