“For the Shogun!” yelled SS. He had been yelling it all tour, nobody knew what it meant but it certainly carried well through the shattering air. We each tossed two smoke bombs and tour into the three story house with a couple of rounds from our rifles. We fired in bursts two to three shots, fall back behind the wooden fences and fire again. Young Donny and Biggy T were hopefully lighting the place on fire from behind. No way to tell from here.

SS’s gun jammed so I fired a few rounds and ran to his position to fire a few more. “Get a move on. Your going to ruin it,” I said.

“Dammit, Hank. Gun’s jammed. Filthy Germans must piss in the street or something. This mud is vile.”

“Cram it SS, just get the damn thing working before you get us all killed.” I fired another few and rand back to my position. I reloaded and fired again, relieved to hear the report from SS’s gun echoing along with mine. The smoke from our bombs was starting to clear and I could see Germans streaming out the front to take cover amongst debris. They opened fire from the roof and forward windows as well. “Keep your head down!” I called to SS.

It was too late. He poked up from cover to fire and got cut down by three shots. Duck opened fire from the hill and I made a break for SS. He didn’t even have time for last words. I took his ammo and his slung his rifle over my shoulder. I could see gunfire ripping up the side of the hill and fired another salvo to cover Duck.

I didn’t know where Young Donny and Biggy T were, but something seemed wrong. The Germans should have been more panicked, scattered. I fired several bursts from SS’s rifle and it jammed again. “Pissing German mud!” I dove for the ground and wallowed in that sallow slop. The smoke had all but cleared but it was a dreary day and everything was the same dull gray. Maybe they wouldn’t see me.

Duck stopped firing from the hill. Reloading, retreating? Dead? I couldn’t tell. I crawled on my belly to the side of the barracks and cut down two more Germans as they pointed at the hill. I ran around the back and saw two more standing over the bodies of Young Donny and Biggy T. I cut them down as well.

I grabbed the fire packs and lit the damn place up. I watched the front door and shot every last bastard that tried to escape.

Long after the structure was nothing but embers our backup finally drove in. Three jeeps and a compliment of twenty men.

“You’re late,” I replied bitterly.