PART II: Closing The Gap

The morning cold reluctantly passed from the earth, and amidst the retreating fog I cast my eyes upon the now amber-tinted field. An oddly calming glow of burnt-out tank hulls dimly lit the early hours of the day, revealing the remnants of what the forge-like roar of battle had left behind.

Though the woods surrounding where quiet now, the echoes of fierce and rapid gunfire was audible in the far distance.. poor bastards . I rubbed my eyes, brushed the frost off of my wool blanket and lit up a lucky strike. I didn't smoke much before the war, but bearing witness to the horrors of everyday battle changed that quite fast. I took a deep drag, gazing over at the black, scorched hole where two men had been turned into nothing.. "better them not me" , "better them not me" , "not me." I felt sick to my stomach.

I finished my smoke, and lit another as I clambered out of my hole, doing a sort of crouch run down the line. Passing foxholes, my eyes canvased the ground covered with shell casings, and bloody gauze but I was relieved to see the men intact. mostly. I slid down into Jameson's hole, and my rifle tapped his helmet startling him awake into a wide eyed frenzy. "Good mornin' sweetheart" I said as I took a puff and passed him my cigarette.

"Jesus Christ! you're lucky I didn't put two in your fucking chest, you asshole" he said angrily exhaling the smoke. I laughed at the fact that if indeed I had wanted it so, I could have bayoneted him in his sleep. "We gave them Hun's a chunk of hell last night" I said to him as I took back the ciggarette, had another drag, and and pressed it into the ground. With bitter remorse gritting in our teeth we talked a while about the men lost in the firefight the evening prior.

The smell of coffee had me up and out, moving down the line further toward the CP. Falling back through the hedgerows, I came up to the makeshift tent that our Captain had been running command out of. There where many higher-ups surrounding a table, drinking coffee, all talking at once; the general ambiance was hopeful, and decisive. I saluted as I bee-lined for the coffee, filled my canteen cup and took a harsh burning sip. Standing there sipping that burning oil-like sludge, overhearing their conversation, is when it finally hit me that the Falaise Gap was coming to a close.

"We've got the Fallschirmjäger and 2nd and 12th SS Panzer Divisions retreating." In the northern sector alone, German material losses included 344 tanks, self-propelled guns and other light armoured vehicles as well as 2,447 soft-skinned vehicles and 252 guns abandoned or destroyed.

Hitler's personal involvement had been damaging from the first, with his insistence on hopelessly optimistic counter-offensives, his micro-management of his generals, and his refusal to countenance a withdrawal when his armies were threatened with annihilation..

..We where pushing on.