Summary: The second half of Vierville, from Anon's perspective.


Fang finished their-her-no,their- fuck it I was probably going to forget anyways so whatever, her- cigarette, and we got ready to get moving again. An explosion off in the distance and to our east told me that Taggart had blown another Flak gun position. Cool. Progress was being made.

 

I gave Fang another once-over, making sure that she was still steady. Was that how I looked when the mental alarms went off, and I just sort of froze up? Probably. That shit sucked.

 

She seemed stable enough. I gave the pterodactyl another nudge, jarring them out of whatever thoughts were running through her mind. “Come on.” I began, nodding towards our north. “We’ll work our way up this side of the road, and meet back up with Taggart at the last gun site.”

 

“Yeah, okay.” Fang nodded, picking their carbine back up from where they’d dropped it. “I’ll uh, follow you.” With a nod, I began heading north from the burnt out AA gun we’d been stopped beside - only to slip face first directly into the Germans’ firing ditch - and the mud in the bottom of it. Yay.

 

It drew a chuckle out of Fang though, drawing her further away from whatever mood that she’d been in. Fantastic for them. Meanwhile, here I am, covered in fucking mud.

 

Great. Yeah. Feels wonderful.

 

Gag me.

 

I just sighed, and wiped my face off. Re-acquiring my own rifle, I went ahead and checked it for any damage from dropping it on the ground. All good, probably a fair bit more sturdy than a cell phone, thankfully.

 

“Alright then.” I rolled my eyes, and stepped out of the damned firing pit. “Let’s get moving.”

 

“Mmhm.” She replied, stepping deliberately over the gun pit as I just sort of grit my teeth at her, and off we set without further discussion or prodding. Sticking to the treeline, we began creeping our way north, steering clear of the road for the time being. To our northeast, and closer to the road, we could see the last AA position - Taggart’s group was nowhere to be seen yet, and probably still back a ways dealing with the fifth position. The final gun position… definitely wasn’t something the two of us could tackle alone. Aside from the murder-happy flak gun itself, there was a mortar emplacement, a squat, concrete bunker with a machine gun poking out the front, and another couple of squads of German infantry milling about a short concrete trench connecting the bunker and the gun position. This was definitely something meant to watch and block the road.

 

Fang and I just shared a look. “Yeah… that isn’t happening.” They remarked, as I returned the thought with a nod.

 

“Yeah, uh, that’s a lot of Germans.” I agreed, as we looked back at the position. Something behind it though, now that I was looking a bit closer, caught my eye: “Hey, see that there, in the back?”

 

“Huh? No. What do you see?” Fang questioned, as I pointed to the gap I’d spotted out to her with a finger.

 

“There, behind the flak gun. See the gap in the trees?”

 

She squinted her eyes against the darkness, their amber orbs straining momentarily to discern shapes in the dark. "Oh, shit, yeah. I see it back there, nice catch."

 

I blinked. An actual complement? Nice. "Yeah, that is still a lot of Germans, though…"

 

Fang nodded. "Yeah.. Taggart's supposed to be over here soon though, right?" I nodded in affirmative, as the Ptero girl tapped a finger against the bottom of her snout. She nodded, as she visibly thought her way through the issue. "So we'll just wait until he shows up to start shooting."

 

Huh? "Come again?"

 

Fang shrugged. "We'll creep up on the back side where that gap is. Then, whenever Taggaty gets over here -" she paused, as an explosion off in the distance again marked Taggart's progress. "Which should be soon, sounds like - then we hit 'em from the rear while Taggart hits 'em in the front. Easy."

 

"Somehow, this doesn't inspire me with confidence." I hummed, as Fang just gave me an annoyed frown.

 

"Got a better idea then, Caveman?" She prodded, as I surveyed the situation again.

 

"Nn… No. I've got nothing. Around the back it is, then." I shrugged, gesturing for Fang to lead the way.

 

With a quiet nod, Fang slid back into the treeline - myself following her lead - and we began to creep further north, using the western edge of the treeline to provide concealment from the dug-in AA gun.

 

We slunk around the north side, cradling our rifles in our arms and watching for any wandering Germans. We didn't find any, but we did come across more paratroopers ourselves - a cut-off group of four of them led by a Corporal. They quickly fell in line with the two of us. Quickly explaining the situation to them, we continued our slog north and around the flak gun. 

 

Finally, after several tense minutes, we reached the gap. Completely silent, we sat there on the north end of the flak position. Waiting silently, we kept as low and still as possible for another couple tense minutes, as Taggart's troop made their way hopefully in our direction. 

 

Sure enough, Taggart's group - more of a proper Platoon at this point - showed up shortly after, and was almost immediately pinned down by the Germans' firepower. That was our cue.

 

The five of us stood up, starting off with our rifles and smgs blasting away at the heavy quad barrel flak gun - and clearing the Germans off of it with ease. The Kraut mortar team was dealt with next, before we had to duck back into cover as the enemy infantry began to return fire.

 

Taggart's platoon spread themselves out as wide as they could manage, whilst the remaining German machine gun did its best to keep them pinned down from its location within the concrete bunker.

 

We returned fire as well from the treeline, my garand recoiling heavily into my shoulder with each squeeze of the trigger. A bullet whizzed by my ear, as I swore aloud.

 

Fang raised her own carbine again, having been mid-reload, and shot down the offending German. She froze for a second, before shaking her head, and giving me a look over. We shared a nod, and kept up the gunfire.

 

Taggart's platoon meanwhile, having rallied themselves, continued to dump fire into the machine gun bunker and the present Germans, taking the positions but at cost of men - as they took several casualties.

 

The fortified position finally fell silent. Our five regrouped with Taggart's twenty or so remainder, as we looked around the position.

 

"Alright." Taggart began, looking around at us. "We still have work to do." He gestured back to the flak position. "Get those kraut guns - the flak and the MG - up at running again. Ditch the mortar, it's not gonna be super useful for us right now."

 

"Sir?" Fang questioned, as Taggart began dividing us up into combat squads again.

 

"We've got maybe a few minutes before a whole convoy of pissed off Krauts come screaming up this road headed for the beach. It's just after four AM, and that means the bombers that were supposed to fly in behind our planes are starting to plaster the beach defenses. About an hour and some change and the boats will open up, too. So, we'll dig in on the road here to receive whatever first response reinforcements show up."

 

Taggart turned around to face the road again. "Okay. Mous, take two guys and move up-road to be our early warning team. Soon as you see krauts coming up the road, bust your ass back here and get dug in with the rest of us."

 

I nodded, and pulled two men off from the group at random. Taggart continued speaking to the rest as we began moving up the road. "Aaron, take a squad, I want you on the far end of the road with a bazooka team. You'll be our base of fire group, so take Carota and his thirty cal with you."

 

"Understood, Lieutenant." They replied, taking their own squad off across the road as my smaller team continued forwards. We came up to another crook in the roadway, further up said road. I gestured to my two shadows, and we moved into a small stand of trees that could effectively see down the road a good distance.

 

A small four man team crept by us a half minute later, headed for the center of the road. They were lugging some squat metal discs with them, attached to metal handles that they were carrying them by. Their team leader waved to me as his team started putting the discs down in the middle of the road. "We snagged a couple Mines from inside of that concrete bunker, Sarge. Should help slow down any vehicles if they hit 'em or have to roll around them."

 

"Good idea." I nodded, before casting my gaze back down the road. "Work fast."

 

"You got it, Sarge." The private nodded, before he moved off to join his team. They quickly finished their work, taking maybe a minute or so at most - and moved back down the road toward Taggart's position. 

 

The engine noises began entering our hearing from up the road a short time later. Myself and my two shadows shared a look with each other, and collectively the three of us decided that discretion was the better part of valor - no need to stick around and wait to actually see the vehicles - not when we could hear what sounded like several of the things grumbling up the road. "Yep." I decided, after a second. "Time to go." Cradling my rifle as we took off back south through the treeline, the three of us beat feet back to Taggart and the others, calling out the oncoming Germans as we went.

 

Taggart waved us across the road and towards Fang's position as we came into view, down in a drainage ditch running parallel with the road. Waving in return at Taggart so that he'd see that I was responding to his direction, I guided the three of us across the road and into the muddy ditch alongside Fang's squad. Not a moment too soon either, as the engine growling from further up the road came closer - and began to sound more distinctly like one of those halftracks we'd dealt with earlier.

 

Shifting down the drainage ditch next to my pterodactyl acquaintance, we both flinched before I could get a word off, as the halftrack presumably rolled over one of the stolen German mines - and audibly detonated. One less vehicle to deal with, at least.

 

A motorbike with a sidecar bound passenger came screaming around the corner and into our view shortly after, followed by several trucks. I guess they'd avoided the other Mines, which couldn't be helped. Our stolen German flak gun and machine gun shredded the first couple vehicles though, sending the spearhead of the Convoys shot-out husks careening in several different directions and off the road. A second halftrack trundled forwards and began disgorging infantry out its back as a bazooka rocket flew wide and into the treeline behind it. Shit.

 

The halftrack began laying down suppressive fire as I shoved Fang over - with a squawk from the ptero girl - and dove to the ground myself, narrowly avoiding the both of us receiving a haircut via machinegun.

 

Paratroopers fired back at the Germans as I raised my rifle, took a deep breath…

 

… and shot the halftrack's gunner square in the sternum, as he flopped lifelessly against the machine gun. Raptor fucking Jesus on a pogo stick. I kept firing, as more trucks and another halftrack turned the corner, adding to the nightmare pile-up, bullets flying everywhere and in all directions.

 

A second bazooka rocket impacted the new halftrack squarely at its front and sent it the way of its destroyed duplicates - in a great ball of fire.

 

By that point we'd cleanly taken initiative of the gunfight, and the combat began to slacken off as the rest of the Germans were dealt with. A minute or so later, the road finally fell silent, aside from the burning and smoldering of vehicle wrecks. 

 

I stood up, observing the mess, as the surviving paratroopers - maybe twelve of us total - began to fan out and comb over the wreckage. 

 

Taggart removed his helmet, as Carota and Fang moved to join the two of us in watching down the road. "Hell of a thing." The Lieutenant finally remarked, as he sat down on the fender of one of the several burnt out German trucks. I let my rifle slip down into my right hand, and slid my left into a pocket, retrieving my mostly full pack of smokes. The three others present - Carota, Fang, and Taggart - all bummed one, and we lit the four cigarettes off one match. We then stood around for a few minutes, just catching our breath, and observing the road.

 

"Hope the boys on the beaches appreciate what we did for 'em, Lieutenant." Carota said, as Fang blinked, then slowly and quietly nodded in agreement. She was probably doing like I was and thinking about how we'd been the ones on that beach just a little while ago.

 

It occurred to me now that, during that whole slog across the beach with Fang and Captain Mckay, we'd only really run into already present defenses and accompanying infantry. We hadn't seen a link of reinforcements, from the time we reached the bunkers at the end of the beachhead draw, to the flak guns at the top. Damn.

 

And now here was the reason why - ourselves in a sense. I think. Maybe. This sort of shit makes my head hurt. Whatever the reason, this was why we didn't see any enemy forces reinforcing the beach - which had been hell enough to fight up as it was. 

 

And apparently it could have been much worse.

 

"They will, Corporal Carota." Taggart nodded. "They will. Gather up any weapons and ammo. We'll take a few minutes to rest the men, and round up any stragglers from the second wave of drops before we continue on. We're supposed to be making moves towards Carentan by late morning, and that's still… probably a few hours up the road."

 

"You got it, Lieutenant. We'll rest a few, then off we go." Fang nodded, taking a drag on her cigarette. "This fuckin' Carentan place is gonna be another scrap, isn't it?"

 

"Pretty likely." Taggart grunted, as he reclined against the wrecked truck. "Supposed to be elements of the fifteenth Fallschirmjager - German paratroopers - defending the town. Tough sons of bitches I hear. But we'll clear it out."

 

"Not with twelve men." I warned, frowning deeply.

 

"No, not with twelve men." Taggart agreed. "So we better find some goddamn stragglers between now and then, or we're up shit creek without a paddle."

 

Great. 

 

Here's hoping.

[NOTES]
    Hey all, took a minute to get this out due to college assignments come due. The outline for the story however, is completely finished at this point, and I've begun work on the next chapter! As always, feel free to comment concerns, things you liked, et cetera.

    TOGN, out, until next time.