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POV of British corporal
1917-February-3-5
''Man down!'' someone shouted the moment I heard something slam violently against the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust.
''WHAT THE HELL DID I SAY?! NOBODY STICKS THEIR HEAD OUT!'' I screamed at the top of my lungs while watching everyone keep their heads down as they moved closer to look at the newest corpse.
Everything had gone to hell.
Apparently German reinforcements and new equipment had arrived in the area, making our advance nearly impossible. Veterans from the Russian front had arrived.
That alone wouldn't have been terrible since it was only a few thousand men considering Germany's attention was focused on Italy now that troops had started being diverted to defend the Italian front.
But several telegraph messages we had intercepted from the Ottomans claimed that a German elite unit was operating in the area, one that had caused havoc in the Russian lines because the high command at least knew someone was actively hunting Russian generals.
And now it seemed they were on top of us.
For the last several days we'd been dealing with the problem of someone kindly removing the tops of our soldiers' skulls whenever they dared stick their heads out for even a few seconds.
We couldn't move. We couldn't get out.
Every attempt ended with dead squads or entire units wiped out because nobody could see where the hell the enemy was.
The only way we knew where they were positioned was from the occasional glint coming off their weapons or when they opened fire on us with machine guns.
So here we were trapped inside the fortress, without supplies, without water and without communications, trying to get our wireless telegraph messages received so we could get help evacuating because we couldn't continue like this.
Not now that we had no command left.
Our captain died from the wound that tore open his stomach.
Two lieutenants died trying to pull back for supplies.
Three sergeants died trying to spot where the shots were coming from.
And more than seventy men had died while standing watch or trying to join the groups sent to get water.
''Corporal, we got news. They're sending armored cars for the evacuation'' said the soldier handling the telegraph.
''Good. We need to get out of here as fast as possible or we'll keep dropping like flies. This place isn't defensible anymore'' I said while looking at how broken our men looked after everything that had happened.
We immediately started preparing to leave.
The damned Germans were firing from too far away.
Even the best marksmen in our unit couldn't do anything except receive German bullets because we simply couldn't see them.
Several hours passed while I listened to the wind and watched the sand blow across the fortress that had turned into a prison now that we could barely observe anything outside unless it was through a periscope.
Even that wasn't an option anymore because the Germans realized we were using them and started shooting the periscopes until not a single one remained intact.
''How much longer until those damned armored cars get here?'' one of the soldiers asked while drinking the last drops from his canteen.
''I don't know'' I answered dryly.
We remained waiting inside the fortress while one of the remaining sergeants barked orders and tried organizing everything before the withdrawal.
Several more hours passed while some men searched through barrels trying to find something to drink because we'd been cut off from supplies for days to the point that even the most basic things were running out.
While I sat there with my eyes closed waiting, I finally heard the sound of engines approaching and we opened the gate to look since it was literally safer to open the fortress gates than to look over the walls and risk getting a new haircut.
With the gate open several armored vehicles arrived and the drivers climbed out.
''We've got room for fifty soldiers and that's packing them tight. The rest will have to wait until we come back'' one of the drivers said while removing his gloves.
''Good. Then I'll stay here making sure nothing happens. Arthur, you and your men go first. Once you arrive prepare the tents for when we get there. We shouldn't take too long'' said the sergeant while loading several crates onto one of the vehicles and tying them down with ropes.
''Understood... boys, we're leaving'' I said while looking at my squad who looked just as exhausted and half asleep as I felt.
Without wasting a second we squeezed ourselves inside the armored vehicle they'd sent. They were trying to cram the maximum number of soldiers possible into each vehicle since it was the only way to get us out of here without another hole punched through us.
Where four soldiers normally would've sat, they had shoved almost eight inside by force. It didn't take long before the temperature inside the vehicle started rising even though it wasn't that hot outside.
We waited a few minutes and finally after a brief delay the vehicles began moving. I could hear the engine roaring as we started pulling away.
I relaxed considerably once we finally got away from that cursed front because we'd been getting shot at like practice targets.
A few minutes after leaving we started hearing something striking the armor plating.
''Those idiots must think they can penetrate this thing with rifle bullets'' the driver laughed while staring through the small viewing slit he used to see the road.
A few nervous laughs spread among us but those impacts kept coming more and more often until the laughter died completely as we kept hearing the strikes hit the armor again and again.
Then finally the sounds stopped and we were able to breathe easier knowing the damned Germans had finally stopped bothering us.
The trip lasted a long time but I felt much calmer without the constant pressure of wondering whether I would be the next man to die from a German bullet.
Eventually we arrived at El Arish where our commander was issuing orders and we finally climbed out after spending so long packed together inside the vehicles, stretching our limbs the moment we touched the ground again.
They quickly began refueling the vehicles and before long they sent them back to evacuate the rest of the troops who had stayed behind.
Without wasting time I started organizing our equipment inside our assigned operations area, using one of the empty houses they had given us while waiting for our sergeant to arrive so we could reorganize the camel unit.
As soon as we finished we prepared to collect our rations, but we quickly noticed something was wrong.
We could see some men moving around nervously and little by little the tension spread through the entire camp because apparently the Ottomans had launched an offensive against the fortifications we had just evacuated.
Luckily we weren't forced to participate in the defense, but several thousand men immediately started moving to stop the Ottoman advance while we waited for the rest of our comrades.
They never came back.
No vehicles returned that day.
We waited until nightfall for the others from our group, but only we had survived.
The next day they reorganized us into another unit.
Apparently we weren't the only ones. The same thing had happened across the entire front where the Germans had been slowly killing us and all of us had barely survived the attacks they'd launched over the last few days.
We were assigned a new captain, new lieutenants and I was promoted to sergeant to fill gaps in the chain of command since the Germans always targeted the officers first and that was making them the men dying most often at the front.
''Alright boys, we need to organize ourselves properly. Tomorrow we'll start conducting patrols in large groups to try to find the Germans harassing us. Once we deal with them we'll have to stay alert because supposedly there are several of them, and then we'll try to retake the Rafah fortresses'' said the new captain with a smile while looking at all of us.
Everyone nodded although I already knew that would expose us far too much.
So while we ate and I watched my subordinates sitting there with their heads lowered while eating.
''So tomorrow they're sending us out to die'' Edward said while eating legumes with his spoon.
''We have to patrol. If nobody goes out looking for them they'll keep doing what they're doing, trapping us in place until we're forced to retreat again and again'' I said while drinking from my canteen.
''Why the hell do we have to be the ones fighting those Eastern Front veterans?'' Tom muttered while eating from his tin.
''I don't know. This war started because of Russia and now they're gone. I don't know what's going to happen. They'll probably negotiate eventually because Serbia surrendered, Russia surrendered and now we just have to see what happens next'' I said while standing up from the group.
While I watched everyone grumbling about being sent outside where we'd become easy targets, I tried filling my canteen but when I opened the tap nothing came out.
''What the hell...'' I muttered while walking toward another tap.
I checked several taps connected to the water reserves but none of them worked.
And immediately the memories came back.
The moment the Germans cut our water supply they'd attacked us with everything they had.
''They cut the water'' I said while looking at my men who instantly stopped looking resigned and became alert.
The message confirming the sabotage of the water pipelines arrived quickly and at the same time we started seeing guards in the watchtowers dying almost silently.
The Germans started attacking us again with the Ottomans while they themselves mostly stayed at long range harassing us.
The commander, trying not to fall into the same trap that had forced us to abandon the fortress and lose our gains against the Ottomans, sent nearly a thousand mounted troops toward the direction the shots were coming from.
Meanwhile we positioned ourselves inside several buildings to protect ourselves from the German snipers.
As we watched the cavalry ride toward the edge of our visible range we started hearing a storm of gunfire.
All across the city endless shots echoed through the streets and before long we saw survivors returning.
Out of the hundreds who had ridden out only a few dozen came back because apparently the Germans had machine guns positioned among the dunes waiting for a counterattack.
Almost immediately the exact situation we had tried to avoid was repeating itself, except this time we weren't trapped inside a fortress with only a few hundred men.
There were thousands of us here.
It didn't take long before more shots rang out and men started dropping while we tried to stay behind the buildings.
According to the information arriving through the wireless telegraph, the Ottomans had started advancing with large numbers of horses and camels and had already surrounded several sectors where the expeditionary forces had been divided.
The Germans supposedly had checkpoints established in multiple areas preventing reinforcements from getting through.
Nobody understood how they had managed to remain unnoticed for so long.
But troops were quickly deployed trying to stop the encirclement of the city before we became trapped by the Ottoman advance.
''We escaped the fortress just for the same thing to happen here'' Tom said bitterly.
''Relax. Reinforcements should arrive from the rear soon. That's what the telegraph reports say at least, so we just have to avoid getting trapped by the Ottoman forces and we'll get through this'' I said while looking at the night slowly descending around us.
Even though we needed sleep, the water we had left was immediately rationed because nobody knew how long it would take to repair the pipelines and the city's wells were located near the outer edges, meaning you'd risk a bullet through the skull just trying to get a drink.
So we simply stored the barrels of water we still had and focused on trying to sleep before the next day.
Night had fully settled by the time I started walking back toward the house where we slept when suddenly the sky lit up.
Three massive bright lights illuminated the city followed by a huge burst of gunfire.
''Shit, the Huns are attacking us!'' I shouted while running to wake my men.
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