25 Monte Cassino Nightmare (1/2)

Thomas awoke to the feeling of fine, gritty, and sharp pieces of dirt with rocks embedded in it smacking him in the face. An explosion happened not too far away from him in which a hand grenade went off. There was a soldier who got caught in the explosion. He was missing half a leg and screaming in utter pain, his shrill screams were drowned out by the sound of machine gun fire and mortar explosions which promptly interrupted his screams for all of eternity when some machine gun fire stitched his face into swiss cheese. The dirt around him got splattered with bits of blood, bone, and metal fragments turning the area around him into a sort of shattered glass look, befitting of the fallen soldier.

Thomas looked around, he recognized where he was, the hills to both sides, the long narrow road between. This was the valley pass at Monte Cassino, the fighting was hard here and he almost didn't make it. Back then the fighting was just as fierce, they were pushed back three times by the Germans. The artillery the Germans fielded turned this pass into a kill zone, no one could pass without tremendous losses, on top of that, anyone who made it through ended up at the mercy of MG-42s.

Thomas quickly looked around and took stock of his overall situation. Things were pretty grim, they were at the beginning of the valley, but they were already being pushed back a couple of yards at a time. It was a gruesome scene, tens of bodies falling by the minute, retreating backward in shame. Thomas had to turn this situation around, but first, he had to figure out which failed assault this is.

The problem is, he only gets one chance to determine which of three failed assaults this was. He, after all, had only participated in the final push for victory on the fourth assault, the French had done their jobs by eliminating the artillery and machine gun nests on one of the mountainsides, allowing a pincer action between French and American forces which quickly rolled over the defending Germans.

Well he needed a weapon first, he looked around, not twenty feet away there was a dead soldier with M1 Carbine. Thomas moved over and he had to pry the rifle out of the young soldier's dead hands, even in death he still valued the tool of his survival. Load of good it did him though, the sniper round through the back of his head says otherwise. Thomas quickly searched the young man's body, he also remembered to shut his eyes, he found enough ammunition to last a few magazines. He would need another gun very soon.

He was armed now, that was one less thing to worry about. He quickly looked at his rank patch, he is a sergeant, that's good, he can lead a squad. Two things down, quick equipment check, he had two frags, a couple of magazines for a pistol he didn't have, seems like he lost most of his equipment somehow. He took the fallen soldier's pistol, it was a Colt 1911, decent pistol, very reliable. Magazines match, he is set. Time to get the show on the road.

Thomas looked around for the nearest squad through all of the flying bullets and dirt haze, he really hated fighting in these conditions. He ran with the retreat through the bullets and haze, dirt being stitched through the air by machine gun fire, or tossed like a salad by artillery before lingering about in the air. The screams of anguish and pain still filled the air, lingering like phantoms on the wind, it was a very surreal scene. Thomas finally found what he was looking for, a squad without any sort of command. It consisted of two private and a corporal, he addressed the highest ranking soldier there, a Corporal Shelland.

”You there, Corporal!” Thomas had to shout above all of the noise. Shelland whipped his head in Thomas direction before saluting for a brief moment against regulations.

”Sir! Didn't see you there sir!”

”At ease men, who's your commanding officer?” Thomas needed to know, in case they were still alive. It is really frowned upon to take command of someone else's men.

”Sergeant Calhoun sir! He took a hit awhile back and bled out. We've been retreating since then! We need to find some cover sir!” Shelland was correct, they were out in the open, the whole group quickly found and ducked behind some cover, it was just a bunch of rocks that formed a natural boulder-like wall. Bullets followed them up until they hunkered down behind the rock wall, where they instead tried to drill through the rock to no avail.

”Alright, no more retreating, we need to get out on that ridge and assist our allies in taking out those artillery! They're chewing up our men!” Thomas laid out his plan, it was not well recieved.

”Sir!” One of the privates complained, ”There are just four of us! How are we supposed to do that without a substantial force or any explosives?”

”We'll pick all of it up on the way, search dead bodies, anyone who can walk and hold a gun. We are not dying here today boys!” Thomas said. He was firm in his reply, his faith and conviction seemed rock solid and pulled the other soldiers together.