Upfall

Shapira reached for Chaim's weapon and pulled a random grenade from the grenadier's ravaged vest. Shapira shot the grenade at the Germans. It exploded lamely and let off red colored smoke. He reached for another, hoping that this one would have some explosive in it, when two other grenades struck the German position. They were fired by Itzak and Nir, who had come up with Mofaz and Ido on Shapira's left. Meanwhile, from across the road, Shapira heard the sound of Roi's Negev opening up, followed by the combined racket of Fliegel's men, firing rifles and MG 34s toward the German roadblock. Ido ran over to Chaim. The Israeli medic removed the injured man's vest and calmly attended to the wound as if nothing was going on. Shapira grabbed the vest, pulled out another grenade and fired it at the Germans. Mofaz came up.

"What do you think?" asked the Major, ignoring Chaim's distress and the blasted Kubelwagon.

Shapira raised his head to respond, when a bullet put a hole through his helmet covering. Mofaz fired a burst from his Tavor toward the Germans out of natural aggression, but without much hope of hitting anything important. The two men pressed themselves into the ground.

"These guys mean business" said Shapira. "We've put a lot of fire on them and they are still fighting."

"I agree" said Mofaz. He raised Yatom on the radio.

"Mofaz here. We are at Shapira's position—still under fire. Chaim's hit but we can't evacuate him."

"Acknowledged" said Yatom, still with the vehicles about a hundred meters away. "Any suggestions?"

"Yes. Send in Fliegel's men. We'll cover them. I don't want to risk our own."

Yatom walked over to Ilan and Bolander who were on the right, taking potshots at the Germans without much luck. "They are very well dug in" said Ilan distractedly.

"Their flares and the burning truck fucks our night vision" added Bolander.

"Don't waste ammo. Where's Fliegel?"

Bolander pointed further off to his right. Yatom headed to the right flank. Along the way he ran into Roi, Roskovsky, and Rafi, who had settled into their own little fighting group a few meters from the snipers.

"I can knock that position out" offered Rafi, patting his rocket launcher.

"Not yet" said Yatom, who knew that Rafi only had two rockets left. He hated to waste one on a German roadblock. Finally, Yatom reached Fliegel, who lay prone with his men. They seemed to be frozen.

"What's the matter?" asked Yatom in German. "Why aren't you shooting?"

"Micha is dead" said Fliegel slowly. Yatom looked down the line and saw a man with a neat bullet wound in his forhead laying a few meters away. Fliegel had tears in his eyes, and his men looked terrified.

Yatom had no time for hand-holding. Yatom grabbed Fliegel's hand tightly to get his attention and stared into his frightened eyes.

"Listen—we are going to shoot that plaoe up. They already have their heads down. You are going to attack it. Verstehen?”

"I don't think we can" stammered Fliegel.

Yatom took Fliegel's chin, rough with a thickening beard, in his other hand He pulled the young Jew toward him so that their faces almost touched. ”Machts nicht” said Yatom loud enough for the rest of the men to hear. "You go there. " Yatom pointed at the German position "or I'll leave you here. Alone."

"We can't do it by ourselves" said Fliegel excitedly.

"We will help you. But you have to attack. Now listen carefully because my German is not so good."

Yatom told Fliegel what to do, as outgoing and incoming fire rattled around the position. He made Fliegel repeat the orders, then handed the Bears leader several chemlites. Yatom lightly slapped Fliegel on his face and pushed him out of the position. Waiving for his men to come along, Fliegel set off for the German entrenchments, a ragged line of fighters in tow.

Yatom had no idea whether Fliegel's men would do as he'd or- dered or just head for the woods. As Yatom was neither a spiritual sort, nor a gambling man, he simply lay on his belly and watched the unruly column stumble forward.

Down by the roadway, Mofaz had managed to evacuate Chaim back to the trucks, and reassemble the sayeret. . The German position appeared damaged but intact. Rafi offered again to blast the cottage with his B-300, but Yatom declined.

"Why not?" asked Mofaz. "You are going to sacrifice those boys to save a rocket?"

"You insisted I send them" Yatom said, annoyed but not surprised by Mofaz's sudden moral calculus. "Take your team around the left" continued Yatom. "You can support their attack with Bet”