The officer had chosen his ground well. You could get a clear view of the plain that stretched away from in front of their hillock as far as the pine forest in the middle distance. From where Dietz had been sitting on look-out you could even see the road that led into the far side of the wood. It was on this patch of the track that the sergeant had first spotted the vehicles.
It would only be a matter of seconds now before the small convoy would be in sight again. Thank God we’re well hidden, the officer thought. At least Ivan won’t have a clue we’re here.
He turned to Dietz.
“As I said, sir. Two vehicles. One of them an APC. One of ours. Thought we must still have some armour left in this area, until I saw the red star on the side. It’s a Hanomag, sir, and it must have had more than a full complement of men on board, because I saw two Ivans sitting on the front. The rear compartment must be full, sir.”
The officer waved a hand impatiently.
“I’ll make the damned judgements around here, Dietz. What about the other vehicle?’
The sound of engines was quite discernible now and growing louder.
“It was a jeep, sir. Two men in the back, plus driver.”
The officer thought fast. The jeep, that was no problem, except for its speed of course. The Hanomag, though, that was different. They were big brutes with drive wheels at the front and tank tracks on the rear six bogeys. There could be ten fully armed troops in the back, if Dietz’s guess as to why the soldiers were sitting on the front proved to be correct. So that means there could be at least sixteen Ivans and only seven of them. Good odds. Christ, it was better than Boskovice. There must have been thousands of them there.
“Get back up to your position and take out the driver of the jeep with the sniping rifle. Wait until he gets to the bend in the track and you can see the Order of Lenin swinging on his bloody tunic and then let him have it. Body shot. With any luck, he’ll roll the car and that’ll take care of the two men in the back.”
The officer got to his feet and picked up his MP40 machine pistol which had been propped against a nearby tree. He turned back to Dietz, who had already concealed himself behind an old tree trunk on the brow of the hill. He had unslung the Mauser and was drawing a bead on the point where the sandy track led out of the forest.
“I’ll take the rest of the men and the panzerfaust and deal with the Hanomag. We’ll hold our fire until you shoot the driver.” Dietz gave the thumbs up signal without looking at the officer. He may be a complete swine, the officer thought, but he was a damn good soldier and was the best shot in the Das Reich Division. For that matter his remaining six men were the best soldiers in the Waffen-SS. They didn’t like him much and Dietz hated him, he knew that, but they had all survived and that bonded them together.
The officer moved fast down the slope towards the boulders that would shield him and his men from the road. As long as the Soviets didn’t leave the track, they’d get a clear shot at the Hanomag as it reached the slight bend fifty metres away from their position. Just don’t get any big ideas about the roads being mined, Ivan.
As he approached the rocks the other five were already there with the panzerfaust. It was just as well they had trained for this over the last two days.
He hit the ground in the middle of the group as the Hanomag came into view. Two seconds later, the jeep followed it out of the wood. The officer watched with satisfaction as the two vehicles continued along the track. Just to his right he heard a faint click as the panzerfaust was armed and out of the corner of his eye he could see the soldier raise the device to his shoulder. The bend in the road was right at the extreme of the rocket launcher’s range, but there was nothing else for it. They would have been spotted a mile off if they left the cover of the rocks and got any closer. Let’s just hope that hothead Dietz doesn’t get an itchy trigger finger.
It was then that the Hanomag stopped.
“Scheisse.” The word was hissed under his breath. He didn’t dare use the powerful Zeiss binoculars for fear the bright March sun might reflect off the lenses and alert the Russians. He squinted into the distance and could see an Ivan standing up in the rear of the Hanomag, flagging down the jeep. The man jumped over the side of the personnel carrier and wandered over to the smaller vehicle. Thirty seconds later he was back at the Hanomag, walked ten metres past it and dropped to his knees.
He’s looking for mines. For God’s sake don’t leave the track. The officer held his breath and felt his stomach knot and twist, until the pain was agony. Nerves and dysentery could incapacitate a man. Then the Russian stood up and beckoned the Hanomag on. He walked, scanning the ground, while the Hanomag inched along the track several metres behind him. Christ, if he carries on at this rate, the bloody war will be over. Worse than the tearing pain in the officer’s stomach was the awful realization that the Russian scout might be able to see Dietz, or even the whole group as he got to the bend in the road. Then it would be all over. The Hanomag’s heavy calibre machine-gun would pin them down amongst the boulders and they would fire back until their ammunition ran out. Without surprise on their side they would never be able to get a clear shot with the panzerfaust. One thing was for sure, he wouldn’t be taken alive by those savages.
The officer’s anxiety faded when he saw the scout jump back in the Hanomag and then both personnel carrier and jeep proceeded swiftly along the track towards them. The scout must have satisfied himself that the patch was free of mines. They reached the bend. The panzerfaust wobbled briefly in the hand of the man on his right. Steady, steady. Come on Dietz. Nothing. Come on, you Bavarian oaf.
Ten metres away, Dietz shifted the centre of the cross on his telescopic sights from the driver’s head to his left shoulder. He was briefly fascinated by the animated discussion which the two officers in the back seemed to be having. Then he fired.
The wheels on the jeep locked hard round to the right and the vehicle slewed over onto the side, catapulting one of the passengers onto the ground ten metres away from the edge of the road. The officer saw one of the Russians on the front of the Hanomag crane his neck round to where the jeep had been behind them. His eyes were wide with terror.
There was a flash and a deafening crack to his right. The rocket shell left the panzerfaust and hit the Hanomag just behind the driver’s cabin. It was no coincidence that it had found the thinnest point of the vehicle’s armour. Anyone who had travelled in the German personnel carrier never sat just behind the driver’s seat. You could use the metal there as cigarette paper it was so thin, had been the old Wehrmacht joke when the Hanomag made its first appearance during the Blitzkrieg in Europe. The corporal with the panzerfaust knew exactly where to aim.
The Hanomag evaporated. Ivan never learnt. Those stupid potato-heads must have stored some ammo in the back of the vehicle.
Now they’d have to move fast before every Russian in Central Czechoslovakia came down on them like a ton of bricks.
When the dust settled seconds later, there was no sign of movement around either the jeep, or what was left of the Hanomag. The SS officer cocked his machine-pistol and walked down the hill to the nearer of the two vehicles. His feet slipped once on the rough scree slope, but he kept his balance by grasping a clump of grass that was growing up through the rocks.
The rear wheels of the upturned jeep were still spinning furiously. The officer looked at the two bodies lying spread-eagled on the ground beside it and then beckoned to the rest of his men who had remained by the boulders. He put a boot under the belly of the driver and rolled him over onto his back. Dietz had done a good job. The old rogue must have used a dum-dum, because the bullet had blown off most of the Russian’s left shoulder. There was no sign of his arm. The officer who had been behind him was also quite dead.