Hale’s words of comfort had an immediate effect on the frightened animal and she began to calm. Satisfied that Liv would still be around to carry his family to safety, Hale pulled his rifle from the floor of the sleigh. As he emerged from the alleyway, he looked down the main street of the village and spotted a group of Finnish soldiers setting up defenses at the edge of town.
As he ran toward them, he heard something in the air above him shrieking. Looking up, he spotted a Russian fighter/bomber in a steep dive toward the village center. Strapped to the under carriage of the plunging aircraft was a large bomb.
Suddenly, the bomb was released from the aircraft which pulled up sharply. The bomb, painted a dull gray, whistled through the air as it plummeted toward the hospital. Hale, fearing the worst, stopped his run and watched as the five-hundred-pound instrument of destruction slowly fell toward the roof of the structure.
Perfectly aimed, the bomb burst through the center of the red cross painted on the hospital’s roof and exploded. The force of the blast blew out the windows of the structure. As flames began to billow out of the broken windows the walls collapsed and the roof crashed to the ground.
“Oh my God! That was the hospital you animal!” Hale raged and shook his fist at the retreating aircraft. Already out of range there was nothing he could do.
Hale’s attention was drawn to the gunfire that suddenly erupted on the edge of town. As he looked in that direction, he saw two platoons of Finnish soldiers, using overturned wagons as cover, firing into the forest. In addition to the riflemen, two groups of three men each worked quickly to set up heavy weapons. One a machine gun, the other, an anti-tank gun.
The roof of the southernmost building of the village suddenly exploded, That wasn’t a bomb, that was a high explosive tank round. The Russians are here! Hale turned back toward the church and ran inside.
The sanctuary was in chaos as both families stood around and argued, “Enough!” Hale bellowed.
Everyone in the church stopped and looked at Hale, “The Russians are attacking the village. Dad, get Mom, Aina and Nea into the sleigh and moving toward the farm now! You should be safe there for tonight. Turning to Nea’s parents he said, do you have transportation?”
Nea’s father Tarmo replied, “Our sleigh was parked out front.”
“Then you don’t have a sleigh anymore.” Turning to his father Hale said, “Can you take Nea’s family too?”
Hale’s father nodded, “Yes, they can ride on the rails.”
“Good that’s settled. The rest of you make your way out of the village to the north. I don’t know how many Russians are out there, but we have maybe two platoons trying to set up a defense on the southside of town. That isn’t going to hold the bastards for long, so get moving!”
Ignoring the tidal wave of questions that erupted from his friends and family, Hale turned and ran out of the church. He made his way back to the family sleigh, spent a moment comforting Liv, and then pulled his PPD 34 from the sleigh floor. I don’t have any ammunition for you, but you might come in handy if I can find some.
Hale left the alleyway and ran toward the south edge of the village. As he ran, he saw the Finnish defenders had finished setting up their heavy weapons. The anti-tank gun one of the precious few 37mm PstK/36’s Finland owned, fired a shot at a target in the forest. A moment later an explosion erupted at the edge of the tree line. They got one of the bastards! Hale thought.
As he approached the make shift barricade of overturned wagons, the defenders had hastily erected in the middle of the street, automatic weapons fire erupted, driving Hale to the ground. He dove to the muddy earth in his Sunday best, ruining the suit. Cursing, at the mud, the cold, and the bullets, he scrambled on all fours until he reached the thin line of soldiers defending Perkjavi.
One of the defenders, a sergeant judging by his stripes, looked down at Hale in disdain, “What good do you think you are going to accomplish boy? You’ll only get in the way of the real soldiers trying to save your ass.”
Hale glared up at the man and said, “I’m a sniper with Er.P3, I was getting married in the church.”
Hearing Hale’s retort the sergeant noticed Hale’s well cared for rifle for the first time. He gestured toward the forest and said, “Then by all means snipe. It’s not going to do much good, but another man might buy the villagers a few more seconds to escape. We’ve been ordered by 5th Division headquarters to fight a delaying action here to buy our people a little time before we continue our retreat toward the Mannerheim Line.”
Hale opened his mouth to ask another question, but the Sergeant, who had been reloading his rifle, stood and fired a shot. Hale, quickly followed suit. He gasped at the sheer number of Soviets charging toward them. Ignoring the bullets snapping around him he carefully took aim and put a bullet in one of the enemy soldiers. Shots fired, the two men were forced to duck back down as a hail of lead whistled around them.
Both men sat down on the muddy road, their backs to the overturned wagon, “Nice shot. I’m Taisto.”
“Hale.”
Taisto turned to a group of men working on setting up a heavy machine gun and yelled, “If you ladies don’t start firing now, we are fucked.”
Heeding Taisto’s words, a large man, Hale couldn’t see his name tag, grabbed the gun, and set it down on the top of a wagon. Using the overturned cart as a stand, he squeezed the trigger as he moved the gun back and forth.
Hale stole a quick glance over the edge of the wagon he hid behind to choose his next target. The targets were quickly disappearing as the heavy machine gun mowed down row after row of charging Russian soldiers. The air was filled with the sounds of screaming Russians and a mist of blood as they were cut to pieces by the dozens.
Hale quickly ducked back down and started to smile. He turned to Taisto to share the good news. As he did so, the heavy machine gunner was blown into messy bits as a high explosive tank round, penetrated the overturned wagon they were using as cover, and detonated on top of him. In an instant, the big man was torn to shreds, along with the crew feeding bullets to the gun, and the wagon they used as cover.
Almost immediately the 37mm PstK/36 anti-tank gun barked in response. The round slammed into the Soviet T-28 tank that had fired the shot, and penetrated the front armor. A fraction of a second later, the turret of the enemy tank was blown into the sky, as the round found the ammunition bunker inside the tank and detonated it.
Taisto, cursing at the loss of the machine gun, stood up to fire a shot. As soon as his head rose above the protection afforded by the wagon, it exploded into a bloody mess.
“Fuck!” Hale exclaimed as he was covered in blood.
He looked around to take stock of the situation. Nearly half of the defenders had been killed in the last sixty seconds. Gazing through the chaotic scene, the young sniper made eye contact with another man. The man, who shook violently as he worked to reload his rifle, had the two stripes of a Finnish corporal on his epaulettes. Hale took a deep breath and peeked around the edge of the wagon. He would not make the same mistake as the former Sergeant. I have no desire for my brains to join Taisto’s all over the ground.
Hale’s eyes widened as they filled with the sight of hundreds of Russians advancing toward them. The Red Army Soldiers were stepping over the corpses of their comrades recently slain by the efforts of the heavy machine gunner. The corporal, separated from Hale by the crater that used to be the unit’s heavy machine gun squad’s position fired a shot, slew a Russian, and yelled, “We can’t hold here, retreat further into town!”