Upfall

Rafi grabbed the Galil and slipped easily out of the trench and moving forward through the high grass. Yatom left him to his business. The Israeli commander didn't have time to follow every detail of the fight. As he moved back to his command post he could already hear machineguns opening up all around him as the Germans continued to pour down the approach roads.

Lieutenant Kaiser stood erect in the recon half-track as it bounced across the field toward the southern hillock, Hoehe 28. An occasional machinegun bullet pinged off the vehicle armor now and again, but most of the fire missed. The Kubelwagens behind him were having a more difficult time, swerving about to avoid the bullets, but so far none of his men were hit. He was just 100 meters from the critical point where the main road ran between the northern ridge and the southern hillock, splitting the partisan defenses in two. He planned to regain the road at that point and pass right through, into the enemy rear. That would disrupt the enemy defenses, and perhaps even collapse them—an achievement would make up for his losses in the ambush two days before.

As he neared the southern hill Kaiser ordered his driver to turn to the left to regain the road. A burst of machinegun fire struck the halftrack's rear compartment when the vehicle turned, wounding a trooper inside. Kaiser ignored his cry. One of the Kubelwagens was hit badly by another burst of fire and crashed. Still Kaiser pressed on, followed gamely by the second Wagon. He was only fifty meters from the road when he saw a brief flash come from the high grass on the ridge called Hoehe 31 now to his left-front. For a split second his eye caught sight of a dark projectile, then a shattering explosion rocked the halftrack which burst into flames. Kaiser was blown back into the rear space of the vehicle, the screams of his crew ringing in his ears along with echoes of the blast and the roar of the fire. He tried to move, but his legs had been practically severed by the shaped—charge rifle grenade. Fire started to envelop his back as he lay on the floor of the shattered halftrack. Ammunition cooked off around him—bullets flinging themselves off into the morning sky like fireworks. As the shock of the blast wore off, Kaiser registered pain in his severed legs and his roasting back. He hoped he died quickly. He didn‘t.

Kumm watched Kaiser's track burst into flames from his own command halftrack on the Lubin road, over a kilometer away. Up until that point he had shared the excitement of the aggressive lieutenant, recognizing that the brave young officer was attempting to split the enemy's defenses, and reach his rear. The sudden loss of the vehicle surprised him—he did not see an antitank gun. Seconds later the surviving Kubelwagen was riddled with bullets and near the same spot and ground to a halt, its crew dead or fleeing. The recon platoon was destroyed.

Losses didn't bother Kumm, so long as they served a purpose. And Kaiser's sacrifice did just that. It showed Kumm what to do next. He called one of the mortar batteries on a phone line strung from his vehicle, and asked if the battery commander had brought smoke with him. The commander responded affirmatively but cautiously. He had smoke, but not much, the supply situation not having been fully sorted out before the battle group departed that morning. Kumm told the battery commander to lay down all the smoke he had across the entire front. He rang up the second battery commander and told him to start putting some shells onto the enemy ridgeline.

The battery commander asked "where exactly?" Kumm just told the man to shut up and shoot.

Yatom caught the destruction of the German recon platoon out of the corner of his eye, and radioed Rafi congratulations order him back to his trench. In the meantime, Han and Bolander had checked in, having taken their positions on the southern hill. They confirmed that Feldhandler, De J ong and Norit were nearby in their bunker with the MG 42. That good news was balanced when Mofaz reported halftracks moving toward his position from the forester's road. He asked Yatom to either send over Rafi with his anti—tank weapons, or have Roskovsky hit them with his EFPs.

Yatom carried one of the tactical radios—Itzak's—on his own back. He raised Roskovsky and told him to knock out the halftracks moving down the forester's road if he could. Roskovsky had a total of nine EFPs. Three were the high quality radio controlled devices he'd brought from Israel, while the other six pieces were jury rigged devices he'd made out of leftover cans, copper, explosives and wire. Those six were command controlled by detonation wire connected to six detonators manned by six very nervous, newly trained Jewish combat engineers.