My new story already has some chapter posted. If you want to read it, it's called "Old Bloodlines."
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12-March-1918
''At the officers. If they fall, their offensive loses cohesion'' I said after firing and feeling the kick of my rifle while watching how I had hit an American officer right in the mouth as he was bringing the whistle to his lips to keep order among his men.
''You do not need to say it twice, Karl'' one of my men said, firing more hurriedly than me while working the bolt of his rifle with great speed.
Machine-gun fire could be heard all around us, since there were dozens or perhaps hundreds of weapons that did not stop spitting death at the entire American formation in front of us.
Apparently, what we expected was happening. The Americans were carrying out a rushed maneuver, seeking to surprise us with speed rather than with a stronger attack. These were tactics similar to those the German generals had used in the east, but of course, without the use of artillery, since it seemed the Americans had prioritized mobilizing men to carry out the counteroffensive rather than taking the time to properly prepare the attack.
I began placing rounds into my rifle while watching how the American ranks were being cut down without any rest, and the American troops also did not stop coming out from the hill they were using as cover, which prevented us from being able to observe the true size of their forces.
Finishing reloading my rifle, I again placed my chest against the roof of the house when I began hearing some bullets striking the structure.
''Position compromised'' one of my men shouted and all of us left our firing area, since it seemed they had managed to identify us and were concentrating their rifle fire against us.
Jumping and feeling the weight of my equipment in my knees and ankles, I quickly began running toward another of the houses nearby, which had a window with somewhat decent visibility toward the battlefield.
So, running and striking the door with my shoulder, making it burst open, I saw a family that was terrified while a man covered his children's ears and the mother was audibly sobbing.
''If I were you, I would run away from here'' I said in German, since I did not know much French, and took the table to move it.
Grabbing the tablecloth, I pulled hard. The plates on the table fell, leaving a clean table that I moved toward the window, where I positioned myself to begin firing again.
When I looked through the sight of my weapon again, I noticed there were far more dead, in addition to explosion holes, noting that the French panzers we had brought were already firing their cannons and were using French ammunition to claim American lives.
While my eyes scanned through the sight in search of some officer, I saw someone who had a whistle and seemed important, so I decided to send him a nice decoration to the chest, watching as the bullet traveled through the air and hit him squarely.
I watched the American fall backward, now with a crimson hole in his clothes.
Turning to look and noticing that the French family was still in the same place trying to cover themselves, I looked back at the battlefield and kept firing, since for the moment the American troops were not achieving any notable advances and there was no need to give more orders than to shoot at everything that moved.
Several minutes passed like that while the battlefield filled with American bodies until finally they realized that their attempted offensive was achieving little more than increasing the number of casualties they would have by the end of the day, so they simply stopped sending men, leaving trapped the troops who had been caught in the middle of the combat.
Observing that many wounded and stragglers had been left in the area, hiding in the craters made by the panzers' cannons or in small hills that covered them somewhat from our machine-gun or rifle fire, although the time they had was short because my snipers were finishing off those who remained in the area.
''We bought time. And you, what a lack of survival instinct. Get out of here'' I said, looking at the French family, this time pointing with my finger for them to leave the area, since artillery should fall on us at any moment.
Again, the French father did not know how to react, so I simply approached, took him by his clothes, lifted him and pointed again for him to leave with his family.
The man began speaking to me, but I understood nothing, so I simply left the place, since we had to reconsider what we needed to do.
''Any news from other watch posts?'' I said, looking at the German officer, who was shouting instructions to his men so they would keep digging trenches and move ammunition, and so the wounded from the exchange of fire would be transported to the rear.
''No messenger has arrived with instructions from my superiors or from the OHL, so we have to keep resisting the French advance'' the officer said while passing his forearm over his mouth to wipe away the spit from his shouting.
''Do you not mean American?'' I said with a slight smile while looking at the battlefield and listening to the shots finishing off the stragglers.
''French, Americans, British, they are the same shit. The only thing that matters is that we put a bullet in their heads and they stop bothering us'' the officer said, swallowing after sighing.
''We have to try to obtain artillery or disperse our defenses, because it is only a matter of time before we begin seeing artillery observers so they can unload all the ammunition they have available on us'' I said, pointing toward the American positions.
''Yes, you are right, but we do not have many areas to fall back to that give us advantages in the area. This zone is mostly farmland, some trees and a few small hills, so there are not many areas ideal for falling back or defending, so this is our best place… you know, they probably will not bombard one of their own villages with civilians still inside'' the German officer said, looking at the houses where their inhabitants still were and which, for obvious reasons, he had not been able to evacuate.
''Let us try not to reach that point. In any case, I will disperse my men for the next offensive, since we do not know what could happen when the Americans attack again or if they have already learned their lesson and simply wait until they have heavy equipment that can challenge our defenses'' I said, giving instructions with my hand to one of my men, who nodded and took his soldiers to extend the defensive line.
We quickly began to disperse, offering a wider defensive line and becoming more difficult targets for artillery, while I observed that the German officer was sending riders back to the rear, surely asking for reinforcements or ammunition.
So while time passed, we reloaded and reorganized, in addition to trying to install the radios we had for short-distance communications and not depend on messengers to give the instructions necessary to avoid some kind of error in the maneuvers.
Several minutes passed where the only thing that broke the silence were the screams that could be heard from the battle area, since there were still some Americans alive who had not stopped shouting for help, although nobody was listening to them.
While we waited, some reinforcements arrived from the rear, which meant they still had not surrounded us or cut our supply lines.
But while that was happening, we began noticing people with binoculars starting to peek out.
''Kill the observers quickly. They cannot deliver the information on our positions'' I said to my men and to the radio operator, who began transmitting to my officers, and it did not take even 10 seconds before I heard the first sniper shot that ended the exposed head of one of the artillery observers.
More and more shots continued to be heard, and I saw that all the American artillery observers we could see with relative ease were being cut down.
After killing several dozen observers, they apparently gave up on the idea, since they stopped appearing, and although we were checking the whole area to verify that none of them delivered information on our coordinates, we could not spot anyone who put our position at risk.
We kept waiting, but nothing happened. An hour passed like that, with more reinforcements arriving, and we were already around ten thousand men in this area, but who knew how many Americans we would be fighting.
Finally, we managed to see movement, and it was not the kind I liked, since it did not take long before we saw a lot of horses in the area.
''Do not tell me they are going to make a charge to break the line'' I said, looking through my sight and starting to shoot at those trying to organize the cavalry charge.
Although we managed to shoot down those who seemed to be the officers of the group, it did not take long before we saw thousands of horses launching themselves against our lines.
In addition, they were followed by dense groups of infantry.
The machine guns began to roar while the semi-automatic rifles and sniper rifles fired as quickly as they could secure a shot.
In addition to the multiple weapons being used by the German units, which varied between their Gewehr 98 rifles and my submachine guns.
As expected, many of the riders and their horses died in the first seconds, but some small groups advanced at dizzying speed across the battlefield, managing to dodge a large part of the many bullets fired at them every second while the infantry also began to suffer in their advance.
''Damn it, someone shoot one of those riders'' I said, watching as a few dozen riders were about to reach our lines.
Several of my men began leaning out to get a better firing position and try to shoot down the riders, managing to bring down some of them, but finally, after that long charge, some riders arrived.
The mounted Americans began firing their rifles, although with difficulty, in many cases managing to hit nothing before we filled them with bullets.
But that was repeating itself everywhere, where we were stopping our fire against the large troop concentrations to shoot down those who had actually made it.
The Americans were managing to kill some Germans, but they were quickly reduced, shot or even beaten to pieces with a trench weapon to the face by some Sturmtruppen too enthusiastic about entering personal combat with the Americans.
''They are on top of us. Have the vehicles begin falling back a little. We cannot risk losing them'' I shouted to my men, and the radio operator began operating while he also started preparing his equipment to withdraw.
More Americans on horseback and the later infantry coming behind them continued advancing, in addition to me noticing that more infantry was on the way.
''What the hell? Are we fighting a damned army or what?'' I said, noticing that more Americans kept arriving across the battlefield.
The sound of gunfire was incessant and I kept firing whenever I could while we tried to fall back slowly, since it was only a matter of time before they overwhelmed this small village and we had to enter urban combat.
The other German troops had also begun to fall back, slowly giving ground while we tried to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Americans.
While the combat continued, we noticed that something was falling in the original combat zone.
''Gas, gas, gas!'' a Sturmtruppen shouted, putting on his mask like everyone else.
''Shit, the masks'' I shouted and brought my hand to the mask hanging from my cartridge pouch.
Putting on the mask, in addition to considerably reducing my vision, I began firing my rifle again while I could hear my breathing throughout the mask.
But the American reinforcements had begun to retreat or simply began dying from the gas.
The American vanguard troops had been trapped between the gas and us, and the gas, because of the wind, was moving toward their camps if they were nearby.
Several minutes passed until we managed to advance again, retaking the battlefield and observing the level of massacre we had achieved. Although we had considerable casualties on our side, the Americans left a field scattered with dead, and the gas was also moving toward them.
''Do we have fuel? If we have more than half, we advance and see if we can assault their camp'' I shouted as loudly as I could with the fucking mask on.
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