Schiefer's Orders
A snippet from my WWII story. In 1945, a platoon of StuGs and their crews join a Kampfgruppe to stop an approaching Russian unit. During the battle, their platoon leader receives bad news.
The StuGs were standing idly at the border of the field that they were standing at since the beginning of the battle. They had hidden themselves in a line of trees and bushes and had a good view on said battle, but orders to not participate for now.
Their platoon leader sat on his tank and watched the events with a disgruntled expression. He grieved for all the kills that he and his comrades missed by just sitting here instead of taking part in the battle actively.
'Schiefer should look after himself …!' he thought.
The wind seemed to become stronger and let the rye fields dance. But it wasn't strong enough to chase away the thick wafts of smoke. The platoon leader tried for a moment longer to make out anything between them. The IS-2s were still where they had been the whole time, supporting their infantry who had reached the Germans and started assaulting. He kept a wary eye on the tanks nevertheless. They would hopefully not come any closer to the StuGs.
His attention was briefly directed at the Panthers, who had appeared from the forest and started pursuing the fleeing T-34-85s.
He snorted and averted his gate before envy could eat him up. As he looked at the IS-2s again, they were … suddenly gone.
'What …??' he thought with shock. "They're gone!" he shouted at his crew while he fell into his tank more than he climbed in. It took a moment until he regained his composure and told his loader – who was playing radioman at the moment – what he had to forward.
"We have to go find them …" the loader said a few moments later.
The platoon leader's jaw dropped.
"Excuse me?!" he hissed. "What does he envision? What will we do when we find them?"
The loader sounded a little intimidated and like he was very uncomfortable with what he was about to say.
"We … have to distract them."
"Distract them?" the platoon leader asked incredulously.
"So the Jagdtiger can deal with them properly. The Stabsfeldwebel thinks that they may be looking for him."
It suddenly sounded much more attractive than before to play Schiefer's guards.
"So we have to find them and then somehow survive long enough until the Jagdtiger comes to help?"
"Exactly …"
"Schiefer, you son of a bitch!!" the platoon leader yelled, added a quick "Don't tell him that!" as the loader was about to do just that. Since they had no choice, he let the driver start the engine and together with the other two StuGs, they drove a big arc towards the forest. The smoke cloud swallowed them before they even reached the road.