June 8th, 1944
Sgt. Kieth Hall Age: 19
150th infantry division
Today I heard from one of my men that D-Day has finally arrived, and that allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. I pray for their success, and our survival as well. Our troop is somewhere in Germany, I'm not very sure, but i do know that we are in danger. We have managed to get ourselves into a small area in a town, with only rubble behind us, making impossible to sneak up on us. We have secured a large church with two towers. The only way to get to our position is by a bridge on the road to the church, and we have people watching there for Germans. We've set up defences as best we can, but i fear it's not enough. We have a few rockets for a panzershrek we managed to find, and about 10 mortar shells, but other than that our ammunition and rations are low. Every officer higher than i has died, leaving me in charge of 20 troops, some of which have never seen battle or killed a man before. We have had no news of reinforments for days, and it is not possible to give them our coordinates anyway. Any way you look at it, this will not end well.
As I sat in my position in the north tower, I thought about home. I thought of my mother and my two sisters, and how this was all effecting them. As I looked out the window, I saw a man running towards the church. He was waving his arms wildly, and then he started yelling "Germans!" Everyone took a moment to realize what this meant, then quickly got into positions and waited. One man waited for me to signal how many of what troops were coming. After about a minute, I saw them. There were two tiger tanks, and about 40 footmen, this was no patrol. As i signaled to the man below me, i realized what had happened, the villagers had alerted the military to our presence, and now they were attacking. I clutched my Springfield to my chest, this was going to be a hell of a battle.
Once he Germans realized we were here it took them only a minute to plan their attack. Before i knew it, there were bullets flying everywhere, and the sound was deafening. Our men quickly took action, firing back and responding. As i readied my rifle i head footsteps, and quickly pulled out my magnum .357 I aimed it at the door. When it opened, it was one of the privates, and he was carrying a browning. He realized that he was in the wrong tower and ran back down the steps, which ment no browning cover for at least another 5 minutes. Now i was ready, I quickly looked out the widow through my scope and spotted a few open Germans. I took aim and fired 4 rounds, killing 3, leaing the fourth one to escape and alert the tank of a sniper. Cursing, I quickly reloaded and took aim again, but did not see anyone, and that was when i noticed my position. The tower i was in was more foward than any other part of our position, which was stupid, because this would be one of the first positions they would overtake. Just as i thought this, I heard some soldiers yelling in German below and footsteps coming up the stairs. I quickly hid myself under some wreckage of some shelf and waited with my handgun out.
As i waited i heard a panzershrek fire and the beautiful sound of a tank becoming useless. This ment that at least one of our troops was behind the enemy. I listened and heard another one fire,and again that beautiful sound came. Then the footsteps grew loud and i heard a pound on the door from them trying to get in. I shot 3 rounds into the door and heard a thud, then bullets fly form the other side and nearly hit me. After another moment the door broke down and 2 men came in. I leaped up and unloaded the rest of my 6 round clip into the first, who never knew what hit him, then attacked the second. He was quick to respond though, and we started to fight.
It started out with fists, I would punch him, and he would punch me, but then i pulled out my knife and he did the same. We started some sort of duel and would try to slash each other or stab at each other until one would win. It ended upthat somehow he knocked the knife out of my hand and charged me with his. He lunged and missed butpushed me on the ground. From the he got on me and tried to stab me. In a desperate attempt to stop him, I grabbed his hand which hand the knife, but with him on top, and the force pushing down, i had no chance. I felt the blade of his knife touch my chest, and got a boost of adrenaline, pushing him off momentarily, but then, he tried again, this time more successfully. As the blade pierced my chest, i felt a searing pain, they say getting stabbed or shot hurt, but not liek this. This was unbarable, i thought i would lose my mind. I screamed until blood started to fill my mouth and thats when i heard it, planes, allied planes, they drowned out my screaming, and i knew they were ours, somehow i just knew. I heard cheering outside from our men, but i knew i wouldn't be there to cheer with them. The man turned around, and got multiple bullets his chest. Collapsing next to me, my attacker was dead.
They picked me up and rushed me down the the bottom as fast as they could, all the while i was still in major pain, yelling and twitching until they put something in my mouth to quiet me. When we got to the bottom ,reinforments had arrived, and there were multiple medics. I was quickly brought to one, and he began to work, taking out the knife as painstakingly carefully as possible. The meanwhile, everything was starting to fade to black, he was trying as best as he could, but it was no use. He gave up, and i saw some of my men looking at me. They weren't looking at me like a coward, as i thought they might for reacting so bad, but as a hero. I smiled and lifted my hand to give them a thumbs up, and thats when it all dissapeared.
