Upfall

The halftrack‘s sudden turn threw off Ilan's aim, but the sniper quickly reacquired the target in his sight, a figure hunched at the forward end of the open truck's bay. it was a difficult shot at five hundred meters, against a moving target heading for cover. There was only time for a single shot. Ilan made an automatic calculation of the the target‘s motion, his position on the height, and the drop of the bullet. He waited a moment for the halftrack driver carry the German leader into the shot—and squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit dead center of the helmeted figure in the halftrack, who collapsed in a spray of blood and rended steel. Ilan watched the halftrack stop, back up and drive away.

On the little ridge that the Germans called Hoehe 19 the murderous fighting raged on desperately and at close range. Fliegel feared that he'd lose the ridge in the first violent German rush, but although a few positions had fallen and a dozen of so of his men gave up, the line stiffened as the Germans clawed their way up the hill, slipping and sliding on the difficult ground. The extra twenty men Perchansky delivered, along with their two Russian machineguns, went straight into the line, and helped to stabilize his shaken force. Now the two sides were merely blasting away at one another, with Fliegel‘s men, ensconced in trenches and bunkers, getting the best of it Fliegel reckoned he'd lost thirty or forty men, but the lower slopes were covered with German dead and screaming wounded. His surviving fighters knew that surrendered Jews were as good as dead, and understood that they would have to hold or die.

From his command halftrack Stadler tried to make sense of the savage battle for the Hoehe 19, while his sergeant major tried to assemble scattered and separated SS trooper into an ad hoc group that could retake the forester's settlement. That place had somehow had swallowed an entire platoon of men, and reverted to a no-man‘s land of weeds and corpses. His men had brought prisoners back from both the forester‘s settlement and Hoehe 19 which was some good news. Stadler ordered that the captured partisans be treated according to the Geneva Conventions — for the time being — until Mueller could examine them, per Globocnik‘s order.

On Stadler's left his telephone operator gently shook his arm to get his attention: Friedhelm, the commander of 1st Company — attacking Hoehe 19—with a report. The man who had confidently gone up the hill some minutes before now sounded almost hysterical. The first line of enemy positions was in German hands, prisoners taken, but he'd lost almost half his men. His platoon leaders were all dead or wounded. The enemy had been reinforced. Should he press on?

Stadler was about to order the cracking lieutenant to do just that, when on his right his radioman interrupted him. The German signalers had largely managed to work around the enemy jamming, though the transmission was still full of static. It was Holzer. Holzer told Stadler that Kumm was dead. Stadler was now in command. What did he want to do?

Stadler had fought in France and survived six months in Russia, but the death of Kumm crushed him. He‘d loved the regimental commander, with the fanatic, fanciful, school-boy kind of crush that wielded so much of the SS officer corps together. Stadler tried to collect himself. Holzer insisted that Stadler come and immediately take command of the Kampfgruppe. The telephone operator nudged Stadler again—the 1st Company commander was screaming into the signalman's ear.

It didn't seem to Stadler that he had a choice, either emotionally or professionally. He bit down on his grief. The Kampfgruppe, bereft of its beloved commander, and most of its line officers, could do no more. Stadler picked up the phone to Friedhelm and told the 1st Company commander to withdraw. The lieutenant acknowledged the order like he'd received a death sentence reprieve. Stadler retook the radio handset and told Holzer he was pulling back to take command of the battle-group—and oversee its withdrawal. The battle of Biali was over.

Chapter 40

Yatom joined Roi in the bunker atop the main ridge and watched the Germans retreat. Relief washed over him, like he'd never quite experienced in a long military career. He remembered something from staff college about the Duke of Wellington commenting on the Battle of Waterloo—a close run thing. That had certainly been the case today.