He stood up, aimed and fired his MP40 machine pistol at the first thing that moved among the trees ahead, and then he ran through the glistening ferns towards Schütze Hartmann. Behind him the buzz of the MG34 began to decimate the woodland at a rate of over 800 rounds per minute.
Two dead Kameraden greeted Johann’s eyes as he stepped out from the ferns. One was the medic he had called for when the shooting began. Across the clearing where these men had fallen, he could see the young Schütze. He was crouching behind a broad tree trunk that had been splintered time and again by enemy fire. Hartmann, armed with a Gewehr 98 bolt-action rifle, stopped shooting and turned to Johann with cold fear in his eyes. At that same instant a heavy-set enemy soldier came screaming from the trees to Johann’s left with his bayonet fixed. He had flanked Hartmann’s position and was now charging straight at him.
The Gewehr 98 was a long rifle with a five-round clip. It was well suited to the typically taller men of the Leibstandarte, and it was undeniably a useful weapon in the hands of a marksman, but it was less effective in close-range combat, especially as Schütze Hartmann had not thought to fix his bayonet. Fortunately, Johann’s MP40 was very effective at such close-quarter fighting. By the time the charging ‘Ivan’ saw him, it was too late. Johann had unleashed a hail of bullets into the man’s chest, and he fell just a few feet in front of Hartmann.
‘Fall back!’ Johann ordered. ‘Schnell!’
It was plain to see that they were heavily outnumbered. They had perhaps encountered a small reconnaissance unit much like their own, but being more used to the conditions, he doubted that their main division was far behind. He knew their position would soon be overrun.
Hartmann arrived beside Johann, bent double to keep low. ‘The rest of the unit are pinned down.’
‘Where?’
Hartmann pointed off into the tangle of branches and the dripping, rain-soaked leaves. Johann grabbed him by his webbing and pulled him back through the ferns to the machine gun crew and the MG34 that had now fallen silent in the absence of any soldiers left in the immediate area to shoot. He took the MG34 from the hands of the Schütze whose white-knuckled fingers were still clenched tightly around the handle.
‘Sturmmann Sachs, follow me. The rest of you fall back to the farmhouse we passed before we reached the wood.’
Hartmann nodded. ‘Jawohl, Obersturmführer.’
‘If we don’t make it back,’ Johann said, ‘try to hold out there until support arrives. It will give you cover and provide good visibility of the surrounding countryside.’
Johann and the Sturmmann, another old hare like himself, who had been with Johann since Operation Barbarossa began, headed off with the MG34 to the sound of the gunfire that was now constant. When they drew close enough to see what remained of his unit, and the whites of the enemy’s eyes, he dropped behind a tree stump and sat with the MG34 resting between his legs on its bipod. Sachs readied the ammunition, connecting another belt of bullets for sustained firing, and Johann pulled back the bolt, ready to fire. A Soviet bullet disturbed the woodland debris beside him, spitting up twigs. He opened fire and the man fell, but he was soon replaced by another until it seemed that every tree in the woodland had an enemy soldier hiding behind it.
‘Fall back!’ Johann called to his Kameraden. ‘Stay low.’
Beside him, Sturmmann Sachs opened fire with his P08, the pistol issued to the soldiers of the Leibstandarte known as the Luger. An ‘Ivan’ had tried to charge their position from the cover of the trees, but he had fallen before he reached half way.
Johann’s assessment of the situation was dire. He had counted two more of his Kameraden, lying lifeless on the woodland’s wet undergrowth. Only three now held the position they had been forced to defend when the encounter with the Soviets began, and the enemy, with their increasing numbers, now appeared to be growing more confident. Johann unleashed another burst of bullets as the first of his men crawled towards him. The second man followed soon after, and the third, clearly in a hurry now to join his Kameraden, panicked and ran.
It was to his end.