"Damn Parker! You nailed that som' bitch!" A voice cheered out from the cover of the barn, it was a Sergeant who was watching through his binoculars which had spotted Aaron in the first place.
Hearing the cheer, soldiers began to stand up, thinking that the area was clear of any immediate danger. After all, everyone just heard the First Sergeant call out the kill and with their inexperience. No one was thinking that there'd be a second sniper in the area either.
Baron was seething with anger, and he was drowning in sorrow, the area from where he saw the sniper's scope glint was ingrained into his memory. There was no chance in hell that Baron was going to let that man live, he was going to take revenge for the young German that just started his career in the Wehrmacht just days ago.
Taking aim once more, and adjusting his sights to the correct adjustments, he proceeded to scan the stone wall in search of his prey.
But when he started his search, he was surprised to see everyone was standing up, "Their inexperience will be their demise." He muttered as he scanned the area, observing the infantry squads that were standing around.
He'll make that bastard pay, and he won't rest until that American's dead.
As his angered search carried on, he slowly began calming down enough to start thinking more straighter. He brought his rifle to the left a little and looked around the barn, and he found his target within moments.
"There you are..." Baron growled as he lined his shot up, placing the crosshairs just above his upper lip and got ready.
With a sharp inhale, Baron began to slowly exhale in order to calm his heart rate down. And once it was at the slowest it'd get in it's resting position, he pulled the trigger.
The rifle shot once he squeezed the trigger and the bullet lunged out from the barrel of the weapon. It flew straight and true towards the American holding the bolt action rifle.
Baron wanted that man to suffer, so he took a dastardly shot to do it.
The bullet started to fall and it slammed into the throat of the soldier in his sights, causing blood to splash out behind him and splatter the second soldier standing to his left in blood.
The initial shock of getting shot washed over the squad's designated marksmen before the events of what happened caught up to him, causing him to collapse to the cold, hard earth.
As everyone scrambled back into cover, the dying man was violently shaking as he held onto the front of his throat where blood was gushing out between his fingers, gasping for help.
A medic came to the rescue of the dying man but he wasn't able to stop the bleeding since he was already drowning in his own blood. The suffocated choking noises that the soldier made was a spine numbing horror that'd be haunting a lot of the men here.
His body stopped the violent shaking a minute later and the suffocated gurgling noises ceased to stop as well as the blood flowed from his nose and mouth.
"Doc, get back into cover we can't r-"
Another loud crackle from the rifles report echoed as Baron took his second shot at the newest target.
The soldier that Baron had aimed for slumped forward as he went down, crying out in pain.
He was alive miraculously, so the medical Sergeant ran forward and dragged his wounded comrade into cover behind the barn.
A few men had run over to help the doc get his jacket off and a sigh of relief had escaped the doc's mouth when he saw what he had seen.
"You're one lucky son of a bitch Corporal, look at the entry wound you two, his rib stopped the bullet." Eddie had said.
The wounded man actually owed his life to the journal he carried with him in his jacket pocket. It was that thick book that slowed the bullet down just enough to make the bullet lose the majority of its kinetic energy.
The pained, ragged breathing from the wounded man had turned into laughter, with half of it tears of relief and the other half was the fact that he almost died.
"I nearly died!" He cried out, even though the action is hurting his upper body severely.
"Hey take it easy there Mac, calm down and take some deep breaths for me, we'll get you patched up and squared away to get that bullet out of ya," Eddie said before he got to work with treating the wound.
An emergency meet up with the squad leaders and Jack was quickly called up to form up a plan to neutralize that second sniper.
They've already lost one of the Squad sergeants, the platoon Sharpshooter, and a few others which are wounded. There's the critically wounded man that's already being treated as well.
Jack had laid his map out with the area of where the suspected sharpshooter is most likely to be, and it was circled with an "X" in the middle of it. That was labeled as 'Contact sniper'.
Jack was about to ask someone to contact Sergeant Henderson's squad before he was cut off by distant, large-scale artillery.
Quickly, everyone in the room checked their wrist watches and they all looked up towards Jack, waiting to be told what to do.
The Normandy beach assaults have begun, and the Big Red One will be starting their landings on the beaches at once.
"Alrighty then fellas, listen up! The beach assault is commencing and we still haven't fully secured this here bridge, so we're going to flank that Kraut in order to flush him out." Jack said as he and the others began to form up a plan.
The emergency meeting lasted about five minutes before everyone started walking to the entrance of the barn. But a loud, incoming screech became more noticeable as it got closer and closer.
"Incoming!"
The earth shook with force from the shockwave of the explosion as more Kraut mortar rounds began to descend down on the platoons positions.
"Enemy half tracks spotted down the road, mechanized infantry incoming!" Someone had shouted just before the bridge was thrown into chaos.
The eight heavy mounted MG42's on the approaching half tracks opened up, sending a blanket of fire across the bridge, and into the American positions.
The back doors on the vehicles swung open once the half tracks stopped and the assault squads that were being transported into the battle dismounted.
"Keep their heads down as the infantry moves up, show no mercy!" The Oberleutnant yelled as he too dismounted and joined the men on the ground to push for the bridge.
*
German FOB
"Herr, our mechanized Companies have started their attacks to retake the bridges as ordered, there's also word of hostile landing craft approaching the beaches." A Funker said, reporting to Karl once the radio waves became swamped with radio traffic.
"Excellent, it's of the utmost importance that those bridges are retaken before we loose any more ground to the enemy. We must take those bridges back and secure those routes back to the beaches." Karl said once his attention was drawn to the map from what the Funker had reported.
On the enormous map of Normandy, Karl has a double solid line of combined infantry companies and a single tank battalion that formed up his brigade. The Brigade sized force consists of 35,000 total men that he's responsible for. Which is the surrounding sector behind the beaches with plenty of reserves to call upon from the second line if needed.
However, it'd take a while for anyone from the first line to reach here, so Karl would have to time his movements carefully. Because after all, with him between the double lines on his map at Carentan, that just leaves the two infantry companies and the tank platoon here to man these parts of the defenses
"Herr Generalmajor?" A voice asked from behind Karl, which prompted him to turn around and face the man.
"Oberstleutnant Schmidt reporting in herr, my mechanized companies are engaged against the paratroopers as ordered." Schmidt said as he stood to attention in front of the General.
"Wonderful Oberstleutnant and were you the one that helped in replenishing my command in my absence correct?" Karl asked, giving the younger man in front of him his full attention.
"Well, this wasn't entirely my doing, Oberst Prytiz was the one who saw to the replenishment of the brigade herr. I merely helped." Schmidt said as he studied the prestigious figure in front of him.
"I see, but in any case Oberstleutnant, you have my gratitude for seeing to the care of my men along side of Prytiz in my absence." Karl said before he turned back around and placed his hands on the table.
He leaned over the table a little bit as he was deep in thought before he said "The order stands as it was before, keep attacking the bridges and try to get a breakthrough to happen. We need to reestablish a supply route to those beaches as soon as a possible." Karl said while staring at the map in his train of thought.
**
Tracer fire was whipping back and forth between Jack's men and the mechanized German assault squads that were assaulting the bridge.
Heavy casualties were taken by both sides due to the use of the available heavy HMG's the opposing forces have brought with each other.
As the rapid-fire MG42 spat out its bullets downrange and into the stonewall, it was effectively keeping a majority of the squads suppressed as the bullets washed over the top of the stonewall.
"We're being suppressed by that 42, someone shoot the damn thing!" A Sergeant yelled out as he was pressed up against the wall, taking cover from the hail of bullets.
The majority of the half tracks were destroyed by the platoons AT teams before too much damage were caused to the troops, and what is left of the half tracks is nothing but smoldering wrecks from the fire.
One crew did have the sense to pull back far enough in the early beginnings of the engagement to provide suppressive fire from behind the safety of a nearby building. The driver had angled the vehicle just enough so the machine gunner could safely shoot out at the American's without having to expose himself too much.
The German's were determined to reclaim their stolen bridge, and in doing so. They've thrown smoke grenades to both cover their retreat and signal the bigger artillery emplacements to open fire on the bridge instead. Because if they were unsuccessful in retaking the bridge, they've had orders to destroy or render it useless instead.
"Requesting fire support west of the red smoke, four salvos, standby for adjustment. Fire for effect over." The Funker who was relaying the coordinates into the receiver with his one hand, while holding onto the map in the other. Preparing to begin calling out corrections with map coordinates if need be.
The reply was staticky, but it was enough for the radioman to hear the acknowledgment come through.
Soon enough after a minute passed, there were four consecutive booms that followed each other one after the other far off in the distance. It was loud and the distinctive rolling thunder made it clear that they just fired.
In the meantime, the mechanized assault squads have pulled back 80 yards to continue their engagement at medium range.
The .50 caliber gun crew never faired so well halfway through the begin gin of the engagements. The hidden sniper had dispatched the crew immediately and without hesitation.
The gunner was critically wounded with a shot to the chest and the assistant gunner was dead from a vitals shot to his lungs. So they were down considerably by means of firepower, but that was the least of Jack's worry.
When the loud thundering booms crackled in the distance, it immediately had torn Jack's attention off of the main fight.
A loud, high-pitched screech that sounded like a giant tea kettle was growing louder and louder in volume before it collided with the earth. Exploding and ferociously shaking everyone to their bones as the earth trembled.
Jack's skin got all goosebumps as the another high pitched scream plunging its way down into the earth before it too exploded.
The noise was deafening, terrifying even as the now fully committed bombardment of the bridge rained down on Jack's platoon.
"We've got kraut artillery!" Someone had yelled at the top of his lungs, more out of panic than trying to notify everyone else around him.
"NO FUCKING SHIT Samuel!" Someone had snapped back in response before he raised his rifle to fire at the Germans.
*
Baron had just fired his last bullet in his final magazine, and he was confused for a moment about why he didn't pack enough with him. But then he remembered.
In his rush to get out into the field to repel the attackers, it didn't dawn on him to completely rearm himself with ammunition before leaving.
So he was sitting there in his spider hole, mad at himself for making such a rookie mistake and not resupplying.
Then, the death of Aaron flashed back through his head which caused him to sigh a little bit. He stood up and placed his rifle outside of the spider hole before lifting himself out of it.
Baron then picked his weapon up and made his way over to Aaron's spider hole, he slung his weapon so it'll rest on his back and he reached down, pushing the bush out of the way to look into the hole.
"This isn't your final resting place Aaron, you belong back home in Germany, buried in your hometown..." Baron said as he bent down and grabbed hold of Aaron's limp arms, and with a heave, lifted the body up and out of the hole before he laid the body over his shoulder to carry.
With Aaron's corpse slouched over Baron's shoulders, he knelt down once more to pick up Aaron's rifle before he slowly began to make his way over the hill and to safety.
With the battle to his back, hence said. Baron began the long trek back to the nearby outpost to deliver the body.
*
"The Kraut's are on the run, cease fire! Conserve your ammo!" Jack called out after breathing in a sigh of relief.
"Sergeant, get me a casualty report. I want all the wounded sheltered in the barn or someplace safe." Jack said as he collected himself and stood up from his crouched stance.
"Yes, sir." The man that Jack addressed said before quickly making his way out to carry out the order.
Jack took a moment to calm his racing heart rate as he listened to the offshore artillery bombardments take place. It was about time too, Jack had a feeling the Germans weren't just going to leave them here without putting up a fight.
"Standby to repel all further attacks fellas, the Krauts are most likely regrouping for another push against the bridge!" Jack hollered as he leaned against the wall and pinched the side of nose closest to his eyes with his forefinger and thumb.
They have to hold this bridge, the invasion forces should hopefully be here anytime now before the Germans try attacking the bridge again.
***
That's the end of this chapter everyone, hope you enjoyed it!
Again I got nothing much to say or add at the end here, so if you do have any questions, ask away!
Also, don't forget to bayonet that vote button! :)
Cherri-o