Johann Huber Speech At DX'05 Friday Night Dinner

Part 2 (After Dinner)

To be or not to be - Page 4

© 2005 by Johann Huber

Flugblatt zeigen

My first shot is well aimed as I can see by the tracer. Immediately his head with the red ribbon at the cap disappears. My commander confirms "You got him! He is killed!"

I take a deep breath of relief. Within seconds we can see the Russians flapping. They run back and forth from foxhole to foxhole while we observe them. Then they bring a stretcher from the rear lines, fix him with straps and bring him to the rear. Lieutenant Meier says "This has saved us from the Russian’s assault! Now their entire chain of command is confused as the General would have certainly led the attack."

He is dammed right! Now we don’t have to fight close combat, man against man. Our position would have been hopeless against the superior strength of the Russians with their many tanks and soldiers. Now I am aware "We removed a huge threat for our Division and all comrades of the bridgehead!".

Now we are dominating the battle field, not our enemies! The very dangerous fire superiority of the opponents of the morning is gone. Therefore I go on as a sniper, with my simple carbine. We frighten one Rotarmisten after another in the foxholes. Because of this we force them to keep their heads down. They don't dare to fire at us anymore and sit in their little foxholes.

The last 15 minutes were quieter, only the enemy artillery impacting behind us in the empty field.

I am still looking for red infantrymen. A single Russian jumps from his forward foxhole over there - and runs across the street directly to our position. Grenadiers located to our left side immediately fire at him and wound him in the upper arm. He loses his machine pistol, runs forward and jumps into our shelter, a 6 ft deep artillery shell crater, while holding his upper arm. The crater is located just 20 feet next to us. This one has been from a 172 mm shell which exploded yesterday very close in front of our track. An Oberfeldwebel of the Recon troop lies in the same crater searching for cover.

The Russian is a very young guy, perhaps only 15 or 16 years old. The Oberfeldwebel takes care of him with his rifle. As a precaution I also point my carbine at him too. The Oberfeldwebel yells to us "What should I do with him, he doesn’t want to surrender? I cannot kill him!"

But what should we do now with a prisoner? I feverishly think about what to do now. The Oberfeldwebel sits in the crater and points the weapon at the Russian soldier on at distance of just 3 feet! Big Question: What should we do with this Russian shivering because of fear who doesn’t want to surrender? He cant stay here. But we also cannot kill him. What should we do now? I tell the company commander "We send him back!". Meier immediately agrees with me. We shout this to our Oberfeldwebel. He is very happy with this advice and sends him back.

With gestures he tries telling the young guy to go back. This one eventually understands our idea and the Oberfeldwebel shows him with his hands the direction to go. Then the boy with the shaved head starts running still holding the wounded upper arm with his hand. He manages to cross the street and searches for cover 30 yards to the rear. We all comment "We got rid of him". The Oberfeldwebel crawls back into his crater and Meier and I both take a seat at our stations again. The afternoon has turned out well for both our infantry and us so far. We had luck, the expected Russian assault didn’t occur afterall.

Now Feldwebel Sattler has been wounded in his tank No. 428 over there on the right of the windmill. We hear this over the radio and also learn that his crew destroyed five Stalin tanks earlier. Because of the constant Russian artillery fire onto our position we didn’t hear anything. We have enough to care for ourselves right now. Sattler’s Panzerjäger stands completely alone somewhere on our right side close to the windmill. Shortly after the first call his crew reports once more that they destroyed another T-34.

In the late afternoon around 4 pm we have another serious problem. We had arranged with the commander of the Panzerjäger located at our left side to alternately provide perimeter security. But his crew fell asleep because of being over fatigued.

They don’t hear us over radio. We try to get in touch with them again and again for 15 minutes. How can we wake them up? Its very dangerous as they are in a deep sleep. I sit turned around on my gunners seat. Lieutenant Meier leans out of the hatch above me. He yells to the other commander, once, twice.

I just wanted to tell him to get back into the tank but then I heard a short whistle and then a "Bang" on his belly. He immediately bends over.

Shot in the stomach -- damn! There we are! Continue...

Huber's Speech at DX'05 Friday Night Dinner

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