Guns At Cassino by Leo Kessler Read Free Book Online Page A

(2)
    `You don't, Schulze,' Metzger snapped flicking his stick across the rump of one of the black pigs, which was busily engaged in eating most of the entrants for the next race. 'These pigs are intended as our iron ration if we get cut off up here. It was Colonel Geier's idea.'
    `So that you lads up at Twin Tits can fill yer guts on the sly, eh, Sergeant Metzger?'
    Metzger opened his mouth to bellow an angry retort, but another, softer voice beat him to it.
    `That is a dangerous accusation - a very dangerous accusation to make, soldier,' it said. The Saxon accent was unmistakable.
    Schulze and the rest swung round and stiffened to attention the next instant. The man who had spoken wore the stars of a second-lieutenant on his black collar patch, and the silver SS runes gleamed bright and new on his unwrinkled grey tunic, bare of any decorations save the War Service Cross, Third Class. For the first time since any of them had joined the Armed SS, they were facing an officer of that elite formation, who actually wore glasses.
    `I didn't mean anything, sir,' Schulze said surprised, taking in the officer's pudgy face and the cunning eyes magnified by the thick lenses of the gold-rimmed spectacles.
    `Everybody here knows that Sergeant Metzger was a butcher in civvie street. It's a bit, of a standing joke among the men,' he ended lamely, disconcerted by the new officer's fixed unwinking stare.
    Finally the second-lieutenant lowered his gaze. Taking a notebook and a silver pencil from his breast pocket, he asked:
    ‘ What's your name, soldier?'
    `Schulze, Hans,' Schulze snapped, 'SS man!'
    The officer made a note.
    `I shall be keeping my eye on you, Schulze,' he said softly in his ugly Saxon accent. 'You'd better watch your step.'
    ‘Y essir!'
    And with that, he tugged at his mule's bridle and kicking one of the rooting black pigs out of his way with a polished boot, plodded up the slope towards the Twin Tits' CP.
    ‘ Who the hell's that when he's at home?' Schulze breathed when the strange officer was out of earshot.
    The burly NCO grinned maliciously.
    `That's our new National Socialist Leadership Officer, sent here from the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin. He's been sent to show you Bolshevik shits what it means to belong to the National Socialist elite.'
    Schulze absorbed the information with a long face.
    `And what is the National Socialist paragon's worthy name?' he asked.
    `Second Lieutenant Kriecher.'
    `Kriecher,' Schulze echoed the name thoughtfully. 'The name just fits the cunning little bastard.'
    `Perhaps,' Metzger said and flicked his switch across the plump rump of the nearest pig. 'But you'd better watch your step, Schulze. He's got his eye on you, believe you me.'
    Thus the 'Creeper' (3) entered the lives of the men of SS Assault Group Wotan. He was not sent out to one of the companies but was retained at Geier's CP, yet none of the rank-and-file seemed able to ascertain his true function, not even Sergeant Metzger. Most of his day he spent creeping around their positions, suddenly appearing behind a working party or in the midst of a stand-down group, head bent over his little black notebook, scribbling furiously with his silver pencil. The men grew to hate him, especially Schulze who took to spreading malicious jokes about him.
    `Of course they'll take anybody in the SS these days,' he would crack to someone who had not heard the story before. `Even little creep's like that. Why, didn't you hear the tale of the lad who went to see the medics with no arms and they still signed him up. And when he got to his unit, the adjutant said: "What, you've got no arms! Don't worry, there's a place for you in this battalion. Go over there and help those two soldiers pumping water in buckets." "But I can't help 'em, sir," the chap protested, "I've no arms." "Don't worry," the Adj answered. "Just tell 'em when to stop filling the buckets. You see they're both blind!” ’
    And he would follow up the joke with his own