15 Minutes of Your Time

[Whiterook]

Must be close to a village...I can smell roasted Garlic, I swear! Making my mouth water something horrible. Thank God I brought this chocolate bar with me.....just enough to lift my spirits, as always. Man, I think my balls are in my ears still.....The parachute rig always cinches the boys something fierce; but I swear, if I ever meet the SOB who designed the Dangle Bag, I'll knife him! I can hear dogs barking and soft sounds of what must be the village, waking for a new day. Man, I hope I'm not near a work field...don't want the lads getting hung up making it to the Rally Point 'cause they've got to dodge a bunch of farmers; or worse, their daughters!

[Panzermacher]

"Mein Gott" I say as I awake and grab my aching skull. Too much Chianti last night! I am Gunter Beck, 21 year old Obergefrieter in Hitler's "disarmed Forces" I have done nearly two years in the East already, til an Ivan Popov mortar put 21 metal pieces in my leg and back. Three operations later, and I find myself on convalescence duty in Sicily, guarding some pretty big wigs from the Tommy side of the channel. I am due to go East again, that's for sure. Just as soon as I heal up some. But, my old unit was at Stalingrad......Guess they'll give me a "new unit".
Ach my head! But as you know the old soldier's saying...."Live now, for tomorrow we shall die" Lucky for me, I do not have duty today and can go back and get some rest....and clear the rest of this hangover away!

[razorboy]

....... As he passes I jump up behind him, snag him off of the bike by his collar with my left hand and punch him as hard as I can in his right temple with my right hand. Desired effect. He's out cold and never saw it coming. I drag him into the culvert by his collar and lay him out on my parachute. He'll be out for awhile.
No worries about the chute, I'll be long gone before he comes to or anyone can find him. Besides, with as many RAF Lads that have been shot down over this island during the past two weeks , one more British parachute won't raise any alarm. Picking up the boy's bike and with recovered equipment in hand, I pedal northward through the low trees. It's time find the others.

[Whiterook]

"GET AWAY..."

Damned dog, going to give away my position. Finally able to take a few winks, and this damned mangy mutt comes along! "No, I'm not taking you with me! But if you don't leave soon, I'm going to have to do something very unpleasant...get me, Mister?"

Going to have a little to eat and then head out...damned dog better be gone by the time I'm ready to head out. Ought to give him some of the Army's finest, but that would be just cruel! Who packs this stuff...we ought to drop this stuff out of a thousand bombers, and let the enemy choke on it...

"That's it boy, go home like a good dog!" Finally...he must have got a whiff of this canned crap!

[razorboy]

Peddling up the hill through the grove of Olive Trees I consider my next move. I'm making good time and approaching the rally point, but I didn't consider that 17 year old Wehrmacht guard at the crossroads that I am now rapidly approaching.
Raising his Mauser he shouts "Halt" in as manly a voice as he can summon. Crouching low I tighten my grip upon the handle bar and peddle like mad, heading straight for the German as fast as I can. He shouts "Halt" once again, and fires. I fall off of the bicycle and barrel roll to a stop ....... fatally wounded. Everything slowly fades to black, my chest throbbing, I relax and accept my fate. Expiring in this Sicilian dirt road.

[Whiterook]

Daylight came a little too early for me...I prefer insertion in enemy territory at night, under cover of darkness, but Command just couldn't wait to put our boots on the ground. Fair enough...I want this overwith so I can get that leave that's been cancelled on me three damned times now! All I want to do is get to London, into sweet Olivia's arms once again. I'm gonna marry that girl, and bring her home to New Bruswick when this war is over. She'll feel right at home in the Maritimes...my little cottage on Cassie Cape will be a fine home for us!

There's that mutt again...what's he growling at? Ahhhh, a German sentry at that bridge. Good dog, hee heeee. Damn, looks like I'm going for a dip in the river....

[Panzermacher]

"Schiesse!" I mumble from my pillow. "What Arschloch is shooting off weaponry this early in the morning?" I know now that the last bottle of that sweet wine...should have been left on the counter! Groggily, I pull on my uniform, a small voice tells me where there is shooting, there are enemy. One doesn't stay alive long by dropping one's guard, especially when one has done 2 years on the Ostfront! I find my 98k and make sure its loaded. The other guards look at me strangely, but these pups would crap there drawers if it was Ivan outside. "Ringel!", I holler at my assistant section leader,"Get my section formed, we are going to see what the shooting is about."

[MAGNA]

One of the boys heard a plane last night and now they are all nervous as hell. What is the point in me Don Magnaro, having control of this whole area when I am surrounded by idiots. At least our man in the castle knows his stuff.

This Himmler fellow sounds important. The ransom could be a good set up for the rest of our families lives if we can grab him. I just hope none of these fools I am in charge of has blabbed about the secret tunnel into the castle.

Not long till daylight. just time for a 15 minute snooze.....

[razorboy]

I slowly open my eyes and look around. Not moving my head or any part of my body, just my eyes. I am lying flat on my stomach with my head turned to the left. Four feet away, I see the young soldaten that just "dropped" me, rummaging through my bag. Examining the contents slowly and with great deliberation, he has his back to me and obviously thinks me dead. Explosives and fuses, Sten gun and magazines, maps and forged papers, he methodically empties my bag.
Knowing that shortly he will hit the bottom of the bag and contemplating how long it will take his Kamaraden to investigate the rifle shot, I ponder my next move. The orange piping on his epaulettes indentify him as a Feldgendarm, are there more closeby? I must act now before the odds change. Feeling inside my jacket for the Sykes dagger I realize why I am not dead. The Mauser round has struck the knife sheath mid way up the blade and is actually sticking out of the sheath! That blade isn't coming out! My Browning 9mm was holstered on my waist belt, positioned in the middle of my back. Was it still there? If I were him, I would have "Liberated" that first off of my "Body".
Not knowing wether or not I am still armed, not willing to waste precious seconds ascertaining it's whereabouts, I decide to break his neck. To myself I count 1 ... 2 ..... 3! Half rolling - half leaping I grab him from behind, right arm around his neck in a hammer-lock, left hand covering his mouth should he call out. His unstrapped helmet falling off, I pull upwards on his head and twist, there's the Snap! - he goes rigid, then limp.

[Panzermacher]

I stumble out into the gray dawn with my scared, bewildered section. My mouth tastes like hell, and I can hear the hair grow on my head. Our boots clatter on the cobbles of the village street, causing the more curious Sicilians to poke sleepy heads out windows. (Curious, how gunshots never seem to bother people any more in this world war, but the trample of boots usually gets attention) I see one of Mickelsonn's section, a very young gefreiter holding his rifle awkwardly and stammering to a "Chain Dog" The young Landser points to a tree-top. My bloodshot eyes follow the boy's point.....and I see a dead Fallshirmjager, dangling from his canopy. The upper part of the shroud was tangled in the branches.
I heard the young boy as he told the "Chain Dog", "He fell right into that tree. He went for his pistol, but I got him first......Is he really dead?" I stepped closer under the dead FS. He was Tommy, I could see by the patches and uniform. The Boy had shot him dead center of the body. A Webley lay at my feet where it had fallen from the dead man's hand. This guy looked like a special operations guy, young, tough, and LOADED with gear. A Musette bag hung from one leg and I could see it was full.The warning bells went off....we should go back to the castle.