Lennart Svensson

BURNING MAGNESIUM

1

Arno Greif

He knew that war was coming. He knew it as early as 1938.

It was a sunny afternoon. Arno Greif was going home from work, accompanied by his younger cousin Gustav. Gustav had just happened to come by. Listening with half an ear to the youngster’s rants, Arno steered his steps towards a football field, a shortcut.

They stopped in the middle of the grass field. The weather was warm, the sky was a hazy blue. The sound of the city was a faint murmur in the distance. A football was sitting in one of the goals. Gustav went off to fetch the ball and begged Arno to take some shots with him, Gustav, as goalie.

“You asked for it!” Arno said, placing the ball some ten metres from the goal as the youngster placed himself in it. Right then, low-flying over the city, a Swedish air force bomber came thundering overhead – a Junkers Ju 86, a plane the Swedish Air Force called the B3. It was Sweden’s first modern bomber, purchased in Germany and introduced into the Swedish Air Force in 1936. Until then the country’s aerial defences mostly involved biplanes. Now came this giant, this archeofuturistic metal bird, one of its breed roaring over Karlstad this day in June 1938. It was a liaison flight between F5 Wing in Skåne and F4 Wing in Östersund.

“Gosh, wow!” Gustav said, forgetting all about playing ball. “Junkers 86! Some monster, eh, this is the best we have. Heavy bomber. German.”

Arno didn’t say anything. He was slightly paralysed by the sight. He knew, of course, that his country had an Air Force. And he knew that he himself would soon do military service. Yet this was something of a revelation: to see a military aircraft in the sky, flying so low so that you could almost touch it.

War was coming. He knew it. There were rumours of wars in Europe and now he grasped it at once: there will be war.

A roaring bomber in the sky doing a fly-past, in itself undramatic, but with the casual appearance of a flying dinosaur – with its grey, green and brown camouflage, the gaping engine nacelles, the glass windshield, the MG in the nose mounting, the radio antenna and everything – it was like a cry from another world – a world of steel and bronze, armol and magnesium, gunpowder and lead. A world calling on Arno Greif where he stood on the football field. A different world, a world apart from café sessions and “Stockholm-Motala” on the radio, Edvard Persson, Ulla Billquist and Levande Livet.

“A fine plane indeed,” Arno eventually said. “Supreme airpower.”

“Yeah,” Gustav said. “The way of the future. No more biplanes.”

“Would you like to be a pilot? In the Air Force?” Arno then asked his cousin.

“Sure would.”

“Flying what, then? Bombers? Fighters?”

The boy thought for a while, then said:

“I think I would like to fly transport planes. More safe.”

“But what if enemy fighters attack you and your transport plane? What then?”

“Then there will be friendly fighters around. I hope.”

“A warrior can’t live on hope. He must be prepared to die.”

“Now you’re scaring me, man,”

Arno for his part had often thought about death. As a Bible reader he knew the expression, “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”. I’m approaching this region now; this he realized intuitively and privately. The Junkers 86 in the sky was a sign of this, a symbol, a portent, an image that told him of another world, a different land. It was a sign of the times, out of time: a character from primeval times, from a timeless, archaic domain. It was a message from a country called War, a herald speaking of elemental forces – of dancing with the god Shiva, of gunpowder and lead and shell casings in a ditch, of bomb lines and air corridors, searchlights and sirens, marching columns and barbed wire, and all in one and one in all.

The bomber in the sky was a portent of total war. So it was a statement against the prevalent Swedish sentiment of “we’ll manage, we won’t be dragged into a conflict, we stayed out of the Great War, we’ve had peace for over a hundred years and this will go on forever, hallelujah”…

+++

Arno was born in Karlstad in 1919. He was 183 centimeters tall, rather slim with the body of a long-distance runner. He had dark blond, short hair and blue eyes. The gaze of those eyes was fixed and steady; wide open. But at the same time the look in those eyes had a slightly dreamy expression. You could say that they were the eyes of a dreamer of the day.

Arno’s father was called Horst. He was a German accountant who had moved to Sweden during the First World War. His firm, Ferrogut AB, which dealt with lathes, had urged this move. The company had an agency in Karlstad, a good investment considering the business it had with Bofors, Nohab, FFVS, Asea and other companies in Central Sweden.

In Sweden Horst had married Tora Bengtsson. And they had their only child Arno in November 1919.

Arno attended elementary school for six years. Then, two years in junior secondary school. He then became an apprentice chef at Karlstad City Hotel – because he felt like it. And he managed this job rather well, he was handy, meticulous and energetic. On finishing basic training he was employed as a cook in 1936. The place had three line cooks, a head chef, a woman handling the cold buffet, a butler and four waiters and waitresses. Arno wasn’t particularly interested in advancing in the profession. He was satisfied if he could go to work, being told that today he would make hamburgers, shape them, fry them and put them on a plate – and then go home and smoke, drink tea and read Nietzsche. He also took up meditation. “Meditation mobilises your inner strength” was his mantra.

Arno rented a room on the outskirts of the centre of town, in the middle zone. In his spare time, he read about Nietzsche’s vitalism, he read Jünger, he read Carl Jung. In Jung he appreciated the idea of the Shadow: we all have a psychological counterpart, a less appealing image of ourselves. If you can accept this shadow, realise that you also have some dark aspects; you can become a more fully rounded person, a more variegated, balanced type. One who isn’t merely governed by the good-bad, right-wrong duality. Instead, by somewhat integrating these and other opposites, life becomes richer.

Arno even read the Bible. As intimated he liked the image of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He also liked the line, “I Am That I Am”. This became his motto. And Christ’s saying that “the kingdom of God is within you” was important to him. That was what even the Old Testament writers had intimated, with words like, “though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me”. And, having God within you, you didn’t have to go to church and worship him. There was no need to pray to an external God if you felt His presence within. You could meditate on your own Divine Nature, illuminated by the light of your own spirit.

Such was Arno’s God-oriented creed. Then, the question might be posed, how could he reconcile this with Nietzsche’s statement, “God is dead”? But to Arno God wasn’t dead. However, the approach to godhead needed to be redefined, maybe worshipping God in church on Sunday wasn’t the optimal way to approach this wonder. So far Arno could accept the critique of old school Christianity. Besides that, Arno acknowledged Nietzsche’s vital side, his worshipping of the elements, his “happy-sad” attitude, his “tragic optimism”.

Arno had also been influenced by the ancient text of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ. He cherished the idea of apateia also known as samatva, facing happiness and unhappiness, success and defeat with equanimity.

Arno acknowledged this apateia, this stoic serenity. He also liked the idea of physical exercise, the concept of shaping your life positively with cross-country running, skiing and football.

He had his companions, he had his girlfriend. She was named Maja Boklöf. They met from time to time. Indeed, the natural way to spend a Friday night was to be with her. This also came to pass this very night in June, 1938, even though nothing of interest happened; the pair met at Arno’s bedsit, had a meal, made love and went to the movies.

+++

So, Arno knew that war was coming. But what about this war, then?

We’ll get to it. First, Arno did his military service later this year, in 1938. For ten months, he trained and served as ration team leader in an infantry regiment, I 14 in Gävle by the north-eastern Swedish coast. As a chef he already knew how to cook; now he had to take responsibility as a team leader, leading two freshmen in the art of bare-bones, military style cooking. Arno quickly adopted his cooking skills to field conditions – and, he even more liked the art of soldiering, learning to shoot, bivouac and fight in the wintry woodland of Sweden.

An anecdote to shed light on Arno’s military service might be this one:

It was a Friday afternoon in February 1939, on Gävle Central Station. Going home on leave, waiting for the Karlstad train, Arno went along the platform, halting at the spot where it bridged a river. He looked at the water flowing between ice floes, he saw mallards sitting around, he saw the stone embankments. He was dressed in grey army uniform and side-cap and before he knew it a man was standing next to him, a man in topcoat and Homburger hat, a decent fellow, so it seemed. The man said:

“You in the Army?”

“I am,” Arno said.

“Defending the realm?”

“Indeed.”

“But what use is it?” the stranger then said. “We’re all gonna die.”

“Wrong,” Arno said. “We are already dead.”

“Oh, are we?” the stranger said. “Well maybe we are. An unconventional answer, I’ll grant you that.”

Then they boarded separate trains. Arno, riding his train, thought about the encounter. He had come up with a witty answer, the one about already being dead, but he could also admit that this stranger, for his part, was somewhat original in his thought. Now, Arno didn’t endorse defeatism but this was something more than that, some rare existentialism, rare, at least, for a chance remark in the crowd.

Make no mistake about it: Arno was all for national defence and combatting Bolshevism but he could also, to a certain extent, appreciate oddities, oddballs and odd men out. As Arno rode the train west to Karlstad, watching the meadows and copses fading away in the darkening afternoon, he thought: if we all were stern fighters, how boring a place the world would be.

+++

Having completed his military service in the spring of 1939, Arno returned to his job as a cook at the Karlstad City Hotel. Meanwhile, Hitler had occupied Czechoslovakia. In August, Poland met the same fate. Thus war broke out for real, with England and France declaring war on Germany. For Arno this meant no immediate change. However, as a fully trained conscript he was ordered to be prepared to serve again; if the order came he must go to Boden in Norrland, his wartime mobilisation station. The realm was in danger and he was forbidden to leave the country without permission. But besides this, life in Karlstad went on as before. Arno had his chef’s job and he had his Maja.

He had his girl, but the relationship by this time had cooled off. It all ended in October 1939. Maja gave him an ultimatum: marry me or leave me! Arno chose the latter option.

By this time Arno was thinking more about war than women. The ongoing war was getting to him. And later that autumn, in November, he was inducted into War Preparedness Duty, having to put on service uniform again. Sweden wasn’t in the war, it was neutral and not under attack, but it had to have its Field Army, Navy and Air Force mobilised at wartime strength, prepared for anything. This had begun on September 3, 1939, when France and England declared war on Germany. Thus, War Preparedness Duty was Sweden’s way of meeting the challenge of the already raging war.

As for Arno, the Field Regiment he belonged to was grouped in Norrbotten in the far north of the country. They lay quietly at a bend of the Kalix River, near the border with Finland. Living in a sailcloth tent, leading the two ration team cooks and ensuring that the Company had one cooked meal per day – this was Arno’s task. It was a life of grey woolen uniforms, marching boots, field cap and white fur coat, a life of guard duty, catering lists, the quartermaster’s sharp eye on the business, pea soup and meat soup. The meat was dried, government issue meat. One day in January, a welcome change: Arno got hold of an accidentally shot reindeer. It was dismembered and became the base of various stews and soups for a day or two. It made him popular among the Company’s rank and file. Being a chef in an immobile, bivouacked field unit was like being a ship’s cook: the service monotonous and food one of the few highlights of the day.

In December 1939 Soviet Russia attacked Finland, Sweden’s eastern neighbour. There were fears of Sweden too being attacked. Sweden wasn’t a war zone in the proper sense but the Zeitgeist was war and nothing but war. This came through both implicitly and explicitly. This is an anecdote of Arno’s encounter with the war spirit:

One day in late March he stood in the kitchen tent guarding the fire in the cooking stove. The tent was three by four metres, supported at one end by the field-kitchen proper, the floor covered with planks. Arno himself was bare-headed and wore an apron over his grey uniform. At a nearby workbench a Private stood peeling and chopping onions for pea soup. By a mess table a Platoon Leader sat talking with a visiting Sergeant Major who had been in Finland, having taken part in the action of the Winter War. They were drinking warm currant juice and eating flatbread with whey-cheese.

Arno didn’t hear everything the two said but he overheard this line from the Sergeant: “This is no hands up-war.” Arno immediately understood what he meant, condensed into this wisdom: in the combat zone, shoot to kill. That was the reality of the World War II combat zone. Arno made a mental note of this.

Another anecdote of the warlike Zeitgeist is this. At some time during the Preparedness Duty, in February, Arno’s Company had been lined up for inspection. It was before an exercise with live ammunition. The head of the Company, Captain Rapp, had scolded the Company. “What the hell is this?!?” he said. “You look like lambs on the way to the slaughter. Shape up, damn it. You’re soldiers, so look the part!”

After this and a series of attention, at ease and general barking the Captain had whipped up the team spirit. Arno remembered this: when you’re a soldier, at least try to look the part. You have to will to be a soldier, wanting to fight, whenever you fight. You need that fire in your eye – “the Eye of the Tiger”. That was how Swedish battles like Narva, Lund and Holowczyn had been fought and won; the Swedish soldiers going out into these battles hadn’t looked like frightened sheep, they had looked like warriors.

+++

In March 1940 the Finnish Winter War ended. Finland had to cede substantial parts of its eastern regions to Russia. Sweden, for its part, had followed the war closely. It even had a Volunteer Brigade of 10,000 men taking part in the action, the largest volunteer unit any country sent. With the imminent threat seemingly over, the Swedish Army cut down on the level of preparedness. For example, Arno’s Battalion was disbanded at the beginning of April and the men sent home. At virtually the same time the Germans occupied Norway, meaning that war was nearby still. Nonetheless, Arno could return to his chef’s job at the Karlstad hotel. Now he was head chef, a position entailing planning the lunch menu for the week, making purchases for this and for the à la carte, and leading the workforce of one cook, one apprentice and the cold cut lady. The evening menu, that is, the à la carte menu, for its part, was always virtually the same: herring appetiser, various fish from Lake Vänern and beef with parsley butter and red wine sauce, served with pommes gratinés.

+++

In the summer of 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Arno felt the urge to join in the struggle. If there was a chance of defeating and disposing of murderous Bolshevism he was up for it; to defeat the sworn enemy of tradition and faith, this was a noble task to Arno. He had seen the ravages of the red hordes in eastern Finland in a pamphlet. What struck him was the devastation of churches. Arno really wasn’t a church attender, but he liked to have temples around. They must be defended against Bolshevik nihilism, he thought.

This made Arno ready for war in the east. Also, he wanted to test his strength in earnest – to endure hardships, experience hostile fire, see the whites of the enemy’s eyes, “meet the elephant” as they say. Go and see if he could make it through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Arno wanted to go to war.

Around the same time the German Waffen-SS began recruiting in Sweden. Arno heard about acquaintances who joined the German war effort this way. He considered joining up that way, but in the end Arno didn’t choose that path. But he also heard that to enlist in the Waffen-SS you could go to Oslo, Norway and he made a mental note of this way of reaching Das Reich. Arno wanted to go to war.

Then, in September, 1941, a thought came on a whim: maybe he could enlist in the Finnish Army? At this time a Swedish Volunteer Battalion grouped at Hanko, was fighting against the Russian occupation of this peninsula next to the Finnish capital, Helsinki. Nothing came of this either, but Arno still wanted to go to war.

Finally, fate decided the matter for him. One day in early December 1941, Arno received a brown letter, graced with a German eagle gripping a swastika. It was a call-up to the German Army, Deutsches Heer, Standort Hanover, Waterlooplatz 8, reporting date January 29. It was, as he had more or less expected, because of his dual citizenship. Arno’s father hadn’t withdrawn his German citizenship when he moved to Sweden, so his son automatically received German citizenship, running alongside with Swedish citizenship.

The whole thing was a bureaucratic grey area, but the gist of it all was that the German Army considered itself entitled to call him up. So Arno inquired with the Swedish Army authority about what he should do. It was war and he was currently on standby; the Swedish Army was on a war footing and he could at any time be called up into the ranks of his Field Regiment.

Ever since September 3, 1939 the alert level of “Attention” had been operational for armed forces personnel and Arno knew it. So he phoned the Military District HQ in Skövde and asked what he should do regarding his pending German military service. The response from the officer on duty was to forbid him to go to Germany and enlist.

But Arno ignored the order and went anyway. He resigned from his hotel job, quit his lodgings and carried his personal belongings to his parents’ home. Then he took leave of his parents, Tora and Horst. He packed the essentials in a suitcase of pressed cardboard, took his passport and German call-up papers and boarded a train to Norway. By this time, Norway had been occupied by the Germans; there was a German military authority where he could report and get further transport.

The Norway trip took place on January 20, 1942. The border crossing went well. Arno played the “Imperial German” to the customs officer, adopting a haughty attitude, waving his call-up papers and saying that he had orders to report to the German Army. Kommandosache!

This made an impression on the young customs officer, a submissive rookie. Once in Oslo, Arno reported to the office of the local Military Commander. Soon he was lying in a berth in a troop ship bound for Hamburg, and thence to be forwarded inland to Hanover.

2

Stalingrad

Arno travelled to Germany in the bosom of the German Wehrmacht. By this time, January 1942, the fighting on the Eastern Front had been raging for over six months. Germany had tried to conquer Russia with an all-out, armoured drive to the east. But by November and early December the offensive ground to a halt before the gates of Moscow. Hitler’s ambition to crush the Soviet Union in 1941 was thwarted. A Russian counterstrike drove off the German units from the outskirts of Moscow – and the city was never threatened again during the entire war. In 1942, Hitler therefore planned to attack to the south, heading for Stalingrad and the Caucasus.

This had happened in Germany’s war with Russia as Arno Greif began training to be a Deutsches Heer infantryman in Hanover in January 1942. Arno told the Army authorities that he had done Swedish military service, specifically, as Ration Team Leader. They noted this. But for some reason he didn’t continue his career as a supply soldier. And the fact that he had been Team Leader was completely ignored.

The fact was that his spoken German was lousy. He wasn’t used to speaking the language; he could read and understand rather advanced texts but when it came to expressing himself verbally on the spot, he did poorly.

So he became a Private. This he could endure. To serve in an army at war was a momentous task in itself, even though he had long lived with the war sentiment and knew the soldier’s life from his Swedish military service. But now it was more serious. Now it was expressly about life and death, and so a start from scratch could be a good place to begin.

The battle was raging in the East. Arno took part in the fighting soon enough. It was a bitter war, this was no tea party. No quarter was asked or given. Arno acknowledged the realities of the war and acted accordingly: when in the combat zone, combat. This was his motto during the whole war and it kept him alive. This was no hands-up war.

+++

In Hanover Arno was placed in a barracks at Waterloo Platz, a city square completely surrounded by barracks. The different elements of the training essentially offered nothing new to him. But, as already noted, he had to learn the language properly: Gewehr, Maschinenpistole, Granatenwerfer and a thousand other words. And German syntax, to be able to speak the language fluently and form error-free sentences. After a while he got along pretty well, because he was talented. And as a reader he knew the language, having read some German books. And now, on a daily basis, he practiced German by forming sentences, so he eventually got a good grasp of it all. The goal was to master it almost perfectly. Otherwise you could never advance above the level of a Private, a mere Schütze. This he realised. Even the simplest Squad Leader must have a reasonably good command of the language, of the relevant phrases and commands and be able to lecture his troop on the art of shooting, laying mines and so on. Arno’s initially poor mastery of the language became a reason for the others to tease him. For instance, about a week after beginning his military service he was out on the town, he and some friends having some hours leave. In a Kneipp they drank beer and chatted up the girls. One of Arno’s comrades, a certain Ludwig Hofer, in jest said to the two women:

“This is Arno, a half German. But he doesn’t speak any German at all.”

Arno quickly played along, saying:

“Das strimmt, ich kann nicht Deutsch sprechen. Aber Sie vielleicht können es mich lernen…?” (= “That’s right, I can’t speak German. But maybe you can teach me…?”)

“Na ja, warum nicht,” (= “well, why not”) said one of the ladies, a brunette with haggard features. “Aber is will nicht kostenlos sein” (“But it won’t be for free.”)

Then they started haggling over the price. In sum, Arno knew the language and sometimes he got along quite well enough with words, but sometimes he didn’t. That’s why he had to settle being a Private before he could think of advancing.

Arno’s German soldier training was completed in June. Then he was sent East. After a period as a garrison soldier in Kiev, Arno was transferred to his field unit: 3rd Battalion of Battle Group Kossmann. It was at the time – the autumn of 1942 – stationed in Stalingrad.

As intimated above, Hitler decided in the spring of 1942 to attack to the south. AG Süd would take Stalingrad on the Volga. Maybe this, in the long run, could break the backbone of the Red Army. Indeed, the operation went ahead and both Stalingrad and the Caucasus range were reached. But in taking Stalingrad the Germans created a long, exposed north flank. The Russian commander, Zhukov, saw this and planned an envelopment of Stalingrad. The attack was two-pronged: one column advanced from bridgeheads south of the Don and further south, another one swept over the Kalmuck steppe to the west-northwest. Eventually the two pincers met and the encirclement was complete. 6th Army was trapped.

But Arno and his comrades knew nothing about the impending encirclement when they fought in Stalingrad in October and November. 6th Army Command by this time had orders to take the whole city. In the operation was included the capture of an industrial complex in the northern part of the city. The strongpoint of the Russian defence was the so-called Tractor Factory.

Protecting the flank of the Tractor Factory, the Russians held a certain house, a two-story brick building that had been an office. The Company in which Arno was serving was ordered to take it. Arno had no illusions by this time. He was finally at the front, a goal in his life was reached; finally, he would test his strength as a soldier. He was prepared to die. This, he knew, was the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Much can be said about Arno’s integration into the German army, his grey-green woolen tunic, his marching boots, his black lacquered steel helmet M/35, his transportation to the East, his arrival at Stalingrad and so on. Let it suffice to say that he was full of fighting spirit. He knew that Stalingrad was a hard place, he knew that the battle wasn’t yet won and he wasn’t naive. But he had some reserves of willpower in him and he said to himself: I will fight and I will fight well.

He was guided by willpower. This was a lesson from the Swedish Army, the episode during the War Preparedness Duty when the Company Commander had disliked the look of the men, disapproving of their despondent and sad impression. When you’re a soldier, try to look the part. Shape up and evoke that spark in the eye, the Eye of the Tiger. By the time he arrived at the Eastern Front, Arno had internalised this wisdom. He said to himself: I Am. And so he was ready for anything.

+++

The Company was thrown into the push to take the Tractor Factory. Before his first battle Arno listened to the commands of his Squad Leader, kept his head down and made sure not to shoot any stray rounds from his 7.92 mm Kar 98k. At dawn on November 24 they advanced on the target, the two-story house just being 100 metres away. The goal was to break into the west end and clear the ground floor first.

This operation, despite its limited target, was complex. On the day, November 24, Arno was included in the advance patrol, led by Sergeant Lober. His squad would break into the house. This they did. Then another squad, led by Corporal Hofbauer, would follow and assist in the clearing of the house. This also happened. The two squads plus reinforcements cleared the ground floor. Rooms were checked and cleared with hand grenades and automatic fire.

+++

The house was taken, both the ground and the upper floor being eventually cleared. The day continued with more battles in the house. For example, a Bolshevik counter-attack came; a welter of automatic fire, muzzle flashes and barked orders. At one point Arno snatched a Maschinenpistole from a fallen soldier, a submachine gun caliber 9 mm with a 32-round magazine, abbreviation MP. In this close quarter combat, it was better than a rifle. But he kept the rifle he had and carried it slung on his back. He thought: you have to be careful with the bureaucratic side of army life. If I just throw the rifle away and go with the MP surely someone will notice this later. Also, you had to have special ammo pouches for the MP and Arno didn’t care to wear such, going with MP magazines tucked under his belt instead.

The counterstrike was thrown back. Soon the entire house was firmly in their hands. For several days they fought over other targets in and around the Tractor Factory. Arno adapted to the whole thing and came to function well as a front-line soldier. Tactically he learned a lot, like keeping your head down and not playing the hero; this is important for telling the story of Arno the soldier.

However, strategically, the whole operation was going awry – for at the same time, the end of November 1942, the whole of Stalingrad was encircled in Operation Uranus, Zhukov’s double envelopment. The German 6th Army ended up in motti as the Finns say – or in a Kessel as the Germans themselves said. However, Arno was flown out of the Kessel after one week. He was to report for duty at the 2nd Battalion of the 50th Regiment, stationed south of Kharkov. This was indeed a narrow escape from the Cauldron.

So on December 3, Arno packed his knapsack, took leave of his superiors and mates of 3rd Battalion and went off through the ravaged cityscape. Dust from the bombardment mingled with the mist and gave the city a ghostly aura: everything was as if shrouded in veils. A pale sun shone on him as he walked along a street lined with heaps of broken brick, rifle slung, backpack on the shoulder and Sturmgepäck with gas mask, ammo pouches and a bread bag. The MP he had given to Sergeant Lober before he left.

3

Kharkov

Arno was flown out of the Stalingrad Kessel, boarding a Junkers 52 at Gumrak, destination Kharkov. Even in his new unit his position would be as a Schütze, a common soldier. The unit was grouped in a forest south of the city.

Arno ended up in the 1st Platoon, led by Lieutenant Tanz. The Platoon had three squads, one of which was an MG Squad, a Maschinengewehr group. With a belt-fed machine gun with a furious rate of fire, it was the very linchpin of the German infantry platoon, its sine qua non. As it happened Arno didn’t get to serve in the MG squad but in one of the two regular rifle squads. Specifically, Arno came to serve in 2nd Squad under Sergeant (= Feldwebel) Kantele. For the moment Arno kept a low profile. It was about surviving, getting used to the combat zone, adapting. Here he was among hardened fighters, so he might learn something from them, he figured.

As for Kharkov, in eastern Ukraine, this was a better place to be in than Stalingrad, but it was by no means a safe place. This was in the wake of the Stalingrad encirclement, a time when the Russians launched a general offensive in Southern Russia and Ukraine. And Kharkov had to be abandoned by the Germans on February 19, 1943. Arno’s unit, the 50th Regiment, regrouped south of the city and was in the process encircled. Now the Russians were between them and their German comrades in western Ukraine, blocking the road west. The regiment’s 2nd Battalion in this scenario got the orders to fend for itself as best as it could. This included the 4th company to which Arno belonged. They had to trudge through the snow to the west.

The Company had to break out. The field kitchen and the supply truck were rigged with explosives and blown up. The ration team had to become a rifle team. The Company’s other units, the three platoons and their men, loaded themselves up with all the rations and munitions they could carry.

At noon on February 20 Sergeant Kantele went to the head of the platoon, advancing through an area of woods and meadows. It was a good distance from the enemy line ahead, from the encirclement; they didn’t expect a hostile presence here. But, right then Kantele was hit in the head by a sniper’s bullet; he staggered and stood for a few seconds, then he tumbled to the ground and was dead. Arno saw at a glance that he was totally mutilated, half of his head having been torn away by an explosive bullet.

So what to do? Since no one took command, Arno decided to do it. He told the others: “I’m in command of the squad,” removed the magazine pouches from Kantele’s Sturmgepäck, took the man’s MP 40 and gave his own rifle to another soldier. Arno broke off the ID tag that Kantele, like all soldiers, wore around his neck. This oval – rather semi-oval after being broken off – piece of metal was then able to definitely tell the authorities and relatives that he had died. It gave no consolation per se but dispelled the uncertainty.

The corpse was left, being carried away a few metres and placed under a birch tree. This wasn’t ideal, but they were clearly encircled and so other laws applied. Soon the squad continued the march in its place in the platoon column.

So, even though he was a newcomer, Arno had taken command of the squad. The others hadn’t acted. And he didn’t hold that against them. But he thought, appearances are deceptive. I wasn’t so tough when I came to this unit but for that matter it isn’t some way-out elite force.

That’s what he thought. And of Arno at this time it can generally be said that he was only an enlisted man, a simple ranker, but he had quickly adapted to the military life. He had learned to speak German fairly well. And in the combat zone he had noted the behaviour of his superiors and realised what was required to be a leader himself. During the training they had instilled in the soldiers, including in Arno, that you must always assume responsibility, for yourself and others. That included being prepared to step up a notch in the hierarchy if, say, your squad leader was killed. It was the concept of Verantwortungsfreude, embracing responsibility, loving it for its own sake. Now Arno assumed responsibility, he took command of the squad when Kantele fell. And the Platoon Leader Tanz soon confirmed it, appointing Arno acting head of 2nd Squad.

+++

On February 21 the Tanz Platoon took point in the advance. They were approaching the encirclement line proper, the main line of resistance between them and their own. They had spent the night in an abandoned village. Now they hurried along a path through a thicket of young birch, the ground covered by a thin layer of snow. Tanz, himself at the head of the column, saw muzzle flames at a forest edge and ordered rifle smoke grenades fired towards the site.

No sooner said than done. The enemy were blinded by the smoke so the Germans could advance some 20 metres across the open, flat ground overgrown with heather. They passed some of their own wounded, men from 3rd Platoon who had somehow got there before them. Blood and screams, mad staring eyes, yellow and green bile, white bone and black wounds. Tanz turned a blind eye to the wounded and shouted at his men to keep going.

Next, they reached a Russian sentry group in a birch wood. They found the main rifle pits abandoned, advanced some 500 metres through the trees and waited there for the rest of the Company.

+++

The others straggled in. When all units had made it the Company Commander, Captain Schwarz, reorganised the force into a combat column, again with 1st Platoon in the lead. The advance continued with a 100-meter distance between the platoons.

Sometime later they were marching across moorland. Contrails from bombers could be seen in the chill February blue sky. A mysterious light shimmered over the snow, the winter greyness soon to give way to the happy glow of spring. But apart from that promise, these were not reassuring surroundings; in the snow drifts, on bare ground and in the thickets you could spot barbed wire, signal wire, grenade fragments, mine shells, iced blood and frozen corpses. What hell is this? Arno thought where he led his squad. This is probably the main Russian line. They had stumbled right into enemy’s positions. They were marching without guides. They had to figure this out themselves, learning it the hard way.

Arno checked the ammo supply of the group and redistributed it more evenly. Then a cry came from Latorre, head of 3rd Squad, calling for a gauze dressing. Not far off clouds of smoke rose and guns rumbled, Russian 7.62 cm pieces shelling the neighbouring company in the battalion, also about to try to break out. There was the sound of automatic fire, MGs and handguns, both hostile and their own.

An orderly arrived from Tanz. He had orders from Schwarz saying that 1st Platoon would protect one of the flanks. 3rd Platoon would instead take the lead. 2nd Platoon had hitherto always gone last, it consisted of more untrained personnel like baggage train soldiers, but now it would follow in the wake of 3rd. When “forward” was ordered again, 1st Platoon would bring up the rear.

Tanz surveyed the land, peering out through the trees. Flank protection was the task so he called out to his Squad Leaders:

“1st Squad by the stone, 2nd by the felled tree, myself and 3rd taking up the centre!”

3rd Squad was the MG Squad, the ultima ratio regnum of the platoon leader. The MG Squad was headed by Unterfeldwebel Latorre.

They sprinted into position then hit the deck in the snow, spread out over a 300-metre stretch and looking out over the deserted forest while gunfire echoed in the background. 300 metres was in theory way too long a front for a single platoon to hold.

The forward-command was given once more. The advance seemed to be a mix gunfire, slush, murmuring trees, bare branches and scudding clouds. A hole had been torn in the Russian line by 3rd Platoon. Arno and the rest, in the wake of 2nd Platoon, could slip through as well. The Battalion’s other two Companies broke through at another point.

As time moved on, things became a little calmer. It became shânti, peace and Stille in the context of the battle, a paradox fitting the current mood of “movement as a state”. It was about advancing through the birch forest on the heels of the rest, marching in the Company’s rear. For a while automatic fire was heard from the head of the column. Soon they passed raided enemy supply units, saw corpses on the ground and empty brass cartridges en masse, 7.62 projectiles of the short variety, Russian issue. Forward in single file.

The shooting eventually ceased completely. They moved cautiously across fields, through copses and thickets and then realised that they really had made it through. At nightfall the platoon made camp. They had been up and moving since this morning, February 21, and they just had to rest. Tanz posted guards and the men threw themselves on the ground, on such bare and reasonably dry patches as they could find. Arno slept under a spruce tree.

They rested for about an hour. When they continued the march they had lost contact with the rest of the Company. But they didn’t really mind, they just forged ahead through the night, heading for friendly troops to the west.

+++

The Tanz Platoon had broken out of the encirclement together with the Company, this in turn with the Battalion. Then the Platoon had been separated from the Company, had lost contact. So it made the remaining hefty 10 km home as an individual 14-man unit, marching through the wilderness.

As mentioned above Arno was now head of 2nd Squad of Tanz’ Platoon. Indeed, right there in the wilds he was appointed Private First Class, Gefreiter, by Lieutenant Tanz. Formalities such as salary and insignia would follow later, Tanz said, when the Platoon came back to their own lines. They were isolated in limbo right now, a mobile 360-degree defensive position advancing through enemy country.

Arno’s Squad only consisted of five men, Koch, König, Lange, Schulz and Nishinsky. The two other groups of the Platoon consisted of three and five men each. With Tanz as Platoon Leader that made 14 men. On the evening of the 21st they spent the night in a barn. Tanz himself for some reason chose to sleep on spruce branches in the open, the needles of the branches making this a soft and warm bedding. He said it was as it should be. A soldier gave him his Russian padded coat for extra protection against the cold. Sentries weren’t posted. In this respect Tanz lived on hope, which was unusual for a soldier.

+++

The day dawned on February 22. A champagne-coloured sky arched over the forest. Arno rose from his sleeping spot in the barn, went out to find Tanz and eventually spotted the man, covered by his topcoat and with scarf and field cap M/43 on his head. Newly awakened Tanz said:

“I dreamed that I was a hero in an archaic world. I dreamed that I sought an emerald with a bright red centre.”

“You’re not alone,” Arno said truthfully. “I also dream fairytale dreams.”

Arno glanced at his Platoon Leader: a scarred face beneath the peak of his cap. His eyes betrayed a certain resignation. Arno understood that Tanz and the others in the Platoon were dissatisfied with the course of the war. The Red Army hadn’t been defeated despite the massive ambitions of Unternehmen Barbarossa. But Arno himself was still in fighting spirits. Not that he believed in ultimate victory; staunch anti-Bolshevik as he was, he also was a realist as for the outcome of the war. But he liked being at the front. He liked being at war. Some of his other comrades felt the same way: while in the battle zone, battle. Doubts have to wait until later.

They returned to the barn. The men drank water and ate the slices of bread they had. Then they moved out to an embankment, a railroad track running through the forest. As they followed the track, the men spotted around them in every direction for signs of enemy activity. They intended to make it through enemy territory and return to their own lines.

Tanz and Arno took the lead. Tanz said, apropos of nothing:

“I see cities floating in the sky, I see the blue flowers, I see dwarves and gnomes enter a frisky dance. I see my mother and my father, I see the Rhine floating away in the twilight between green hills. I see vineyards, I see grapes, I see roses. I see the beginning and the end, one and zero, black and white, right and wrong, and then back to zero again.”

Unmoved Arno listened and said:

“Have you gone mad?”

“Probably,” Tanz said. “I see a horse on a road, I hear the leaves of the linden sighing. I see a jerry can, a ribbon tie, the Iron Cross. I see myself, I know myself: I am God.”

Rambles from a shell shocked…? Not necessarily. Combat zone existence could put a man in a sort of trance.

The soldiers moved along the embankment, through a leafless deciduous forest, under a red sky, with the scent of earth acids in the thawing, humid land.

The men were apprehensively trudging along through No Man’s Land. Their plan was to avoid trouble, hope for the best and sing a happy refrain if they made it through. They migrated as a combat ready organism: it was an armed amoeba oozing across the wasteland, a wandering Kessel circumventing the obstacles as best it could, moving through the landscape with saurian instinct. In one place – a blue forest with sickly, bile green grass on the ground – the platoon ran into the enemy. It ended with a melee, during which Arno got a hand grenade shrapnel wound to his forehead. It bled all over the place, but that’s normal for facial wounds even if they’re not serious; it’s much worse if you’re injured in a vital organ or in the abdomen or the chest.

In any case, he had little time to think about it. Seconds later, Arno was attacked by an enemy jumping out from the bushes. At once he drew his melee knife and killed the Russian. Hand-to-hand.

Platoon Leader Tanz got them by firing rifle grenades at a stand of trees, throwing smoke grenades in another direction and slipping out through a third. Once they were in the clear, Arno’s wounds were dressed. He didn’t look beautiful. He looked downright awful, with all the blood that had poured down the face. But it was all cleaned up by a first aider in the platoon who also wrapped bandages round Arno’s head. The fragments were picked out later.

+++

They were still out in No Man’s Land. Then, after moving without incident along trails and through hardwood copses, past ridges and over a brook, they reached their own front. They sent liaison men in advance, a line of approach was agreed on and the unit was then able to cross a snow-covered field and reach a friendly sentry post. That’s how they seeped through the front. They were home, and they could rest.

They had made it through the hostile cordon, out of the encirclement, the Kessel. 4th Company in general, led by Schwarz, had also come through as well as another company of the battalion, the 5th. The third Company, 6th, was never heard of again; in the process it had encountered resistance, been fought to a standstill and taken captive.

As for Tanz’ Platoon it got replacements, soon brought up to strength with 24 men and three Squads. Arno was allowed to continue as squad leader. He was now formally promoted to Obergefreiter. He was, within reasonable limits, proud of that. He was at the front and he had withstood the hardships. The days of Stalingrad, he felt, was the pre-school while his effort in the Kharkov breakout was the graduation. True, there was still much to learn, this Arno realised. In the German Army leadership spirit of “up, ever up,” he thought: now, I have to be prepared to be platoon leader, should the current one fall. But one thing at a time. It’s all hunky dory, I can do what I can do, know what I know and hallelujah. I’m humbled by my fate but I also know that I have the ability to lead people in battle, affecting Reality with my Will. The time back home spent playing football and working as a chef has paid off. Leading people, taking charge.

Such was Arno’s train of thought on those days in late February, 1943. He eventually got the shrapnel in his forehead taken out at the Battalion Medical Station. He was not hospitalised. He was only ordered to take it easy for a few days. That is to say, everything as usual.

The 50th Regiment for its part was incorporated in the defence of central Ukraine. By this time Field Marshal von Manstein had stabilised the front which had been disrupted by the Vatutin offensive. Further, Manstein planned a counterstrike.

4

Kursk

As previously told, the Russians had encircled Stalingrad, then they had obliterated and eradicated the huge pocket of trapped men. This was in January 1943. The broken remnants of the German 6th Army, 91,000 men, trudged off in endless, freezing columns to the prison camps.

As we have seen, February 1943 continued with a Russian offensive in Ukraine. It went well and the Red Army advanced many miles. Kharkov was retaken and it was there that Arno’s unit, as we saw, had to break out of an encirclement. But then the Germans, with Manstein in the forefront, launched a counterstrike. The timing was perfect. Just as Vatutin’s columns had stretched themselves too far and begun to spread out, Manstein threw his reinforcements into the fray and the Russian advance was halted in late February and early March. Once again, everything was turned around. Soon Manstein’s forces were advancing; Kharkov and Belgorod were retaken. The main job was done by the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. The 50th Regiment, to which Arno belonged, supported the renewed offensive, coming to the front by rail.

It was dramatic. As advance company to an advance battalion, Arno’s unit arrived in Kharkov on March 10, just as the SS armour reached the suburbs. Arno and his comrades disembarked and dashed straight into position outside the railway station, blasting MG fire down the streets. Then they advanced into the devastated city, driving out the Soviets and finally establishing contact with the panzers. They celebrated victory in the joyful springtime.

During these battles a remarkable thing happened. They fought over a park. The Russians retreated from it. The park was a chaos of armour, debris and fallen trees. Leading his rifle squad forward, Arno was hit by a 7.62 mm bullet.

An enemy had got him in his sights and shot him. Arno was hit on the left side of the chest. He was knocked to the muddy ground. But the bullet was stopped by a remarkable combination of things that he was carrying: a rifle sling, the shoulder strap to his Sturmgepäck and a wallet with a lot of coins. He was hit but he survived, only getting a vivid bruise on the chest where he had been struck.

After a first aider had checked that Arno was unhurt, he was able to continue to lead his squad in combat. He pondered the meaning of what had happened. He realised that it was a close shave. The bullet could easily have killed him. But he survived. He wouldn’t die in this war, this he now realised. It was such an insight that soldiers sometimes get.

He wouldn’t die. This realization disappointed him a tad. Because, to die in battle, this was surely the highlight of a warrior’s life, wasn’t it…? Few soldiers admitted it openly – but unspoken, this was a feeling many elite soldiers nourished. Knowing that they would do their utmost and then fall, in the midst of the most intense battle: O höchste Lust, O Seeligkeit…! By contrast, to fight, to live to see the peace and then go home just to fade away – this was nothing in comparison. It was like an insult.

He wouldn’t die. But the eureka moment didn’t tell him whether he would completely avoid getting hurt. He felt invulnerable after this encounter with death, but how do you go through a war without even being wounded…?

This he wondered. But he reached equilibrium later that day, the day when he was shot and survived unscathed. Resting with the squad in a backyard, waiting for orders, Arno looked up at the overcast sky, so dark it was almost purple, and said to himself: I Am.

It was the same mantra he had utilised in his pre-war existence and the one he had said before going into the combat zone in 1942. This saying always brought clarity; it always brought peace of mind: I Am.

The town was cleared and the Russians were driven out. And Manstein’s counter-offensive had succeeded. Kharkov was once more a German Stützpunkt in eastern Ukraine. The city was completely mopped up by March 15.

+++

In the summer of this year, 1943, a further German offensive was planned. AG Süd and AG Mitte were planning a joint operation to wipe out the Russian bulge centred on the Ukrainian town of Kursk. Manstein’s plan was to attack from the south and north and to cut off the bulge. The SS Panzer Corps from AG Süd would be the southern spearhead, a Battle Group of AG Mitte the northern.

The offensive, named Unternehmen Zitadelle, began on July 5. Initially the Germans advanced some distance, especially in the South: about 30-40 km. But before the attack the Russians had taken time to strengthen the defences of the Kursk bulge. It was relatively open terrain where Russian anti-tank measures in all their forms, such as armour-demolishing patrols equipped with mines and bundle charges, anti-tank gun strongpoints, artillery and armour, were brought to bear against the attacking German armoured spearheads.

Despite the stiff opposition, the German advance continued. The 50th Regiment, for its part, was part of the German attack. It went forward as flank protection on the left flank of the southern Combat Group. Here follows Arno’s doings in the Kursk operation, a depiction of the moods, terrain and emotions, which sum up this part of his war.

+++

July 15, 1943. The southern part of the Kursk salient, on the left flank, in the far west of the combat zone. The mission this day for Arno and his comrades was to clear a forest that lay in front of them.

The 4th Company of the 50th Regiment, 2nd battalion, had been under fire since the start of the offensive on July 5. It had forged ahead, waited, lived on the edge of villages containing corpses, booby traps and snipers, and been fed about every other day – in every way existing in the heightened awareness of combat zone reality. On July 15 this meant the same thing, the same glorified never-never-land existence, the phenomenon of Movement as a State. At ten o’clock in the morning until midday the Company moved forward in “combat triangle” formation.

They covered a kilometre, crossing successive meadows bordered by thickets of trees. It all seemed to go on forever; the soldiers moved like zombies over the unfamiliar, uneasy terrain. The sun on their necks, the moral law within and the conclusion of the war in the hazy distances ahead of them.

The advance rolled on. Arno went up in the lead, approached a thicket and found a squad of German soldiers, standing perplexed. These led him to another company commander, defender of the edge of a wood. Arno’s company took over and saw the other unit piling into trucks to be moved on to another task: taking an enemy stronghold in another piece of woodland nearby.

Arno was still head of 2nd Squad of 1st Platoon. It belonged to 4th Company of 2nd Battalion. The Company was led by a Captain Schwartz. He now grouped the Company for defence, took a sip of water from his water bottle, reported upward through his fire control radio what he had done and went into a concrete reinforced trench that happened to be there. Standing in the trench, in an observation post, he looked out over a torrid plain where operational activity was in full swing. Explosive fumes drifted over the land and Stukas made a sweep away to the west. And high up in the sky appeared the shadows of a squadron of Dornier 17s on a bombing mission, with Russian industries beyond the Urals as their target.

The ground shook with artillery impacts. Black clouds rose and drifted off in a lazy breeze. Sturmoviks appeared in the north and flew low over the plain. Anti-aircraft fire struck up from a birch grove. The Russian planes in turn fired their rockets. The woodland began to boil and smoke.

Arno watched the same scene. He was grouped with his rifle squad in scrubland overlooking the plain. What, then, did Arno know about the background to all this, about “what actually happens in what appears to happen”? Actually little; the battle rages, that was all he was thinking. He let the spectacle play itself. He concentrated on his allotted task: to protect 50 metres of this flanking position.

+++

The sun shone intensely, throats were dry and eyes strained under the shade of helmet edges. Heat haze flickered over the ground and they heard howling armour and distant battle noise. A few crows came flapping at low altitude, lost souls in this harsh environment.

Their own howitzers fired barrages: the shells landed in a wood 5 km away, tearing up trees by the roots. Mortars joined in with suppressive fire while Battalion Wünsdorf, the Regiment’s 1st Battalion, attacked nearby. Stukas in the sky accompanied the ground force; one company attacked frontally while two other companies moved around the flank.

Soon Arno’s Company received new orders. The general theme was advance Beyond the Beyond. Trucks weren’t available so they had to advance by foot as the regular Infantry they were. On the way to the goal a soldier was wounded by shrapnel from a Russian artillery shell. Arno was right beside the man; he looked around for the medic, found him and ordered him to act. The medic took out a dressing from his bag and put it on the wound on the man’s thigh. The wounded man’s name was Phoenix, 3rd Platoon.

“Well,” said Arno who was kneeling next to him, “now we’ll see how this goes. The first time you’ve been hit?” Phoenix nodded, teeth clenched. As mentioned above Arno himself had been wounded by shrapnel in the face during the breakout in February. That was his first real wound.

A whizzing sound was heard overhead, followed by loud engine noise. It was a Junkers 88, coming in to land in a field nearby. The machine was painted in jagged patterns of black and green, with a light blue underside. As soon as it halted, members hastily unloaded boxes of MG ammunition. The MG Squads present rushed to the spot, took the deliveries and went off to fill their ammo belts. Metal belts of 50 rounds were assembled into 250 round belts. The belts were carried in belt boxes.

When the ammo had been unloaded Phoenix was helped inside the plane to be transported to the Battalion’s Medical Platoon. The Junkers plane took off, almost clipping a line of trees before it rose through the hazy sunlight and disappeared into the mist.

+++

Schwartz positioned the Company along a row of poplars. Some hour later the unit was ordered forward again. The Platoons were advancing by instinct with support requested and provided, all part of the advance of the entire Battalion’s. The vegetation was sparse with shrubs, stunted trees and ferns.

Dusk began to fall. It was eight o’clock in the evening. They entered a birch forest. The Battalion was given a section to defend, a line in the forest that would be held together with Battalion Wünsdorf.

The Company defensive line ran through the middle of the murky wood. Company HQ was situated in a hut 500 metres behind the line. Additionally, 2 km behind the line the Ration Team and its field kitchen, transported by a truck, got to work. Pea soup was eventually brought up and Arno had his fill.

A restless night followed. Arno slept on a bed of bracken in a pit; he was awakened by gunfire and explosions every fifteen minutes, caught in the syndrome of micro-sleep.

+++

Morning came, July 16. The lush foliage of the birches was silhouetted against the pink-coloured sky. Schwarz called his Recon Team Leader. He told him to go out and scout, probe the surroundings. The Corporal nodded and went away in a flanking movement, disappearing with his two soldiers between some hazel bushes and a line of trembling poplar.

Arno, for his part, drank some water and ate a crust. He devoted himself to his favourite activity, looking up in the sky searching for portents. He saw pale blue skies, red clouds and a flock of lazily flapping rooks. Arno sent an orderly to report to Tanz: “All quiet.” The other squads reported the same.

30 minutes later the Recon Team Leader returned with the news that the enemy had evacuated the nearest piece of ground. Schwarz nodded and ordered forward. The Company moved in a triangle, with two Platoons at the head, in parallel columns, and a third Platoon behind in reserve. Arno was at the head of his squad, placed in the middle of the forward left column.

+++

Small clouds sailed overhead, but the sun beat down. The sky was almost dark blue at its zenith. Soon they reached a large clearing, littered with the wrecks of Russian tanks and trucks. Dead Russians lay randomly broken and plumes of acrid black smoke drifted over the land. Aircraft droned somewhere in the distance.

Some of the German soldiers began to walk among the corpses and poke, pillaging. Arno yelled at them to stop it. They were advancing and didn’t have time for this.

A few hundred metres were logged without anything happening. They advanced by rushes in the birch forest, glided through greenish yellow high grass. Dramatic thunder clouds now rose on the horizon.

+++

Once during the day it was the turn of Arno’s squad to be advance patrol. And at one point he and his Team waited for his deputy, Zanten, to come by. Zanten was newly attached to the squad. When Zanten had advanced enough he would wave Arno forward. While he waited Arno stood and juggled with a fir cone, a dry, brown thing with a grid pattern reminiscent of the British hand grenades they had learned about in basic training. A lifetime away.

He asked himself whether they would encounter the enemy soon; there could be a Russian unit lying in ambush here somewhere. This you always had to count on when venturing into the unknown.

Arno stood waiting for the other guy to catch up. And while waiting he also asked himself how the attack was going, the operation in general. They had been advancing for over a week, across grassy plains and through dense forests. They had stormed machine gun nests, cleared mines and led Sturmgeschütze against armour. But wasn’t it the case that the Russians, against all odds, persevered…? Moscow in December 1941 had failed, Stalingrad as well. And now this Operation Zitadelle, how indeed would it fare…?

Zanten’s men passed them by. After 150 metres they too halted in fire positions and Zanten waved Arno forward to leapfrog them in turn. Arno rose and got his men going. The rifle team picked their way through the forest, the soldiers walking in line abreast, each soldier constantly looking from side to side to discover anything suspicious.

The sun played through the foliage. Arno ventured into a stand of high grass, seeing nothing but greenery, sky and his feet below him. He stood still and listened. Not a sound was heard, just the rustle of the foliage of the trees.

5

Ukraine

Arno heard the rustling of the branches. He saw the blue sky, he saw reflections of the sun in strange patterns. And there, on the right, he eventually glimpsed Zanten. Green light and forward again.

Wouldn’t they encounter some enemies soon? Maybe, maybe not.

Forward with caution, prepared for anything.

Open meadow, glade, dry grass. Arno led his squad with loose reins. It was so well trained by now that much went by automatically, the battle fought itself.

Arno looked up into the sky. He thought of the words of wisdom he once heard: don’t go to heaven, instead realise heaven on earth…! But this – to create a paradise – was hardly what he did as a soldier at war. Or was it, trying to defeat Godless Bolshevism…? Anyhow, it’s safe to say that Arno wasn’t unhappy right now. He appreciated life in the combat zone, savouring the heightened senses the tension produced.

He served in his people’s army as a German. His father was a German subject, his mother a Swede, but ethnically both were Germanic and thus Arno was a pure German. He was ready to fight in any army, as long as it was Germanic.

He was prepared to lead fire now here, now there, coordinating fire in time and space and fighting the enemy at each coordinate. He pointed with his whole hand and stormed and seized, always ready to support and advance further, Beyond the Beyond. He gave orders and obeyed orders. He had forsaken life and was ready to die. He knew bushido, he was bushido. He was like Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ: indifferent to luck or misfortune and, having dharma within himself, he was prepared to fight devotedly.

He was a soldier in the world, an unrivaled warrior. He was a fighter, a seasoned pro – and he knew it. He was an elite soldier on the Eastern Front. He knew there and then, in the Ukrainian forest, that he had achieved some of his ambitions regarding the warrior life. He had grasped the basics of the profession and acquired a fund of skills, drills and intuitive abilities that enabled him to grasp the big picture of soldiering, in the process seeking rest in action.

Although he had only been a soldier for a few months, he now felt somewhat at ease. He had graduated as a front-line soldier. He wasn’t a beginner any more. The apprenticeship phase was over. He was a soldier and he grasped the strength of this fact. “Elite Soldier” he thought in the light of the sun filtering through the branches. I have a foundation as a professional.

The war might not be won, he thought. But it’s still going on and the Russians are up and running. And then you have no choice but to continue the fight. He remembered an old Swedish proverb: “If you’ve put Old Nick in the boat you have to row him ashore.” And, Arno thought, as of now I really have nothing against this Journey Through Hell.

He operated, solved tasks. He lived on the edge in order to raise himself mentally. Win or lose, success or failure aside; his goal was to do everything possible to solve the tasks he received as a soldier and a leader. He lived on the edge, he was the edge. As a soldier he was prepared to operate, willing to shape his life with the battle as a tool.

+++

Later that day the orders came to halt. The Company, indeed the whole Battalion, the 50th Regiment and everyone else, would stop the advance. It was Army orders, even Army Group orders. Manstein had said that it was enough. And this Manstein in turn said on the orders of the German leader, Adolf Hitler. It was Hitler who decided to cancel the attack, terminating Operation Zitadelle completely. The whole thing had gone forward too slowly, only wasting resources. Hitler realised that it would never succeed. They would never reach the goal of cutting off the Kursk salient. The Russians in the region were too strong. Also, at the same time, the Allies had landed in Sicily so German reinforcements must be sent to the Italian peninsula.

Zitadelle was cancelled. The Germans retreated in fairly good order, both south and north of the Kursk salient but – in strategic terms – Kursk was a German defeat. In the wake of the Zitadelle debacle the Red Army could go on the offensive across a major part of the Eastern Front.

+++

They started in the south, against AG Süd. Eastern Ukraine and Kiev was cleared by late 1943. In 1944 the rest of Ukraine was retaken. A Communist offensive beyond the borders of the USSR was looming:

Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans. And Poland and Germany.

But we’re getting ahead. Through the rest of 1943 Arno fought in the south, in the AG Süd territory in the Ukraine. In the autumn he was transferred to a unit called Battalion Wolf, to serve there as a platoon leader. He became acting Feldwebel, a non-commissioned officer rank. He hadn’t attended NCO school but what he had learned on the Eastern Front and in his Swedish military service was considered a sufficient basis for allowing him to take this shortcut. Losses had been great in the German Army of late and they needed every leader they could get. So Arno was promoted to Feldwebel and Platoon Leader, commanding 3rd Platoon of 8th Company in Battalion Wolf, part of mechanised Battle Group G.

Arno was a bit surprised at his promotion. But as already seen, he had learned on the job. Leading three squads, how hard can it be? Two in front and one in reserve, a pattern you can use both in attack and defense. Bring the MG’s into action, the solid core of the platoon. This he could manage. He led by instinct and drove on intuition. That plus some common sense, a healthy dose of “memento mori” and some tricks he had seen Tanz employ.

“Being an officer” is a holistic phenomenon, not possible to summarise in a formula. Well, maybe this is the formula: I Am. And, expect your men to manage everything that you yourself are capable of, the gnôthi seautón of leadership. By this time Arno had grasped the big picture of how to lead. So he was suitable for the post of platoon leader.

+++

His arrival at the new unit took place on November 17, 1943. Battalion Wolf by then deployed behind the front in the village Tysjatsaja Stakan, some kilometres west of the Dnieper. With knapsack on his back, helmet on head and MP in slung arms, Arno got there, hitching a lift in an Army truck. He got some food in the company baggage train and then went to the company headquarters, located in a one-story, unpainted log house in the village in question. The village was a collection of houses lined up along a country road crossing a plain. Frozen, snow-free, late autumn fields.

Arno reached the HQ and stepped inside. A corporal led him to the living room. There was a large fireplace with a fire burning, the floor was of rough boards, the windows panes were still intact. At the table in the room sat a slim, fierce, weathered type with narrow eyes, unruly hair and a captain’s insignia on the shoulder straps. Next to him was a shorter, priestly figure with back-combed hair and round glasses.

The Corporal introduced Arno. The Captain stood up. Having shaken hands with Arno the Captain said “Gut” and reviewed our hero. The Captain himself was slightly taller than Arno, though his athletic build was similar. The Captain’s face had a hawk nose and prominent cheekbones, narrow mouth and hard, brown eyes.

He said nothing; he just looked Arno in the eyes. Arno surmised that this was a test to probe him, the newcomer in this elite unit, seeing if the freshman would cast down his eyes.

But this Arno didn’t do. So the Captain stopped glaring and sat down again. He told the Corporal to dismiss and then said, with address Arno:

“I am Captain Wistinghausen. This is Sergeant Pankow. We lead the 8th Company of Battalion Wolf. It’s a Battalion belonging to Panzer Grenadier Kampfgruppe G. An elite unit. As for the Battalion we have three manoeuvre Companies and a Supply Company. We have armoured vehicles. We’re armoured infantry. Panzer Followers. And you Mr. Greif, who are you? What can you do?”

“I can lead men in battle,” Arno said. “I have been in Stalingrad, I was on the retreat from Kharkov, I retook Kharkov. And I was at Kursk.”

“Well, alright,” the Captain said neutrally. “What about the operations of a Rifle Platoon then? What can you contribute as a leader? Just following the book and administering a bunch of men isn’t the thing here. You have to stand on your toes and lead, going Beyond the Beyond. You know that a Platoon is usually led by an officer, a Second Lieutenant or Lieutenant. And you’re only a Feldwebel.”

“I know that,” Arno said. “But I’ll do my best and more. I live for this. I have no family. I mean, I know that family life also has its value. But personally, I’m at home here in the combat zone. I’m where I want to be. And I can lead soldiers. I know what I personally can endure and what I can demand of others.”

“Good,” the Captain said with a hint of a smile. “Maybe we’ll get along.”

Arno received a folder of documents, listing the men he would have under him and what the Squad Leaders were called: Unterfeldwebel Bauer, the top man and his Deputy, plus the Obergefreiters Karnow and Deschner. The two former led rifle squads, the latter the MG squad.

Thus went Arno’s first meeting with his new Company Commander. Then they went to visit the Platoon.

“So you’re Swedish?” the Captain said while wandering in the mud between trucks and SPW’s, parked in the village street.

“Indeed,” Arno said. “My father was German and my mother Swedish. I was born in Sweden with dual citizenship. “

“Why aren’t you in the Swedish Army, then?”

“I’ve been there,” Arno said, “I served in the ranks in 1938 and 1940. But when I got called up for German military service I wanted to perform this one too. Das Vaterland called. And here I am.”

Wistinghausen gave Arno an approving glance, which he met with a heartfelt “Deutschland über alles!” The Captain patted him on the shoulder.

They came to a backyard where Arno had to wait. There was a grey house with a stable and a barn at an angle. The Captain ordered the men of the Platoon that Arno would lead to fall in. The men were led by a slightly roundish giant, Bauer. Bauer got the unit in order and reported to Wistinghausen. The Captain then said:

“3rd Platoon! This is your new Platoon Leader, Sergeant Greif. He’s a Swede but he knows the language well. He’s half-German by birth. Sergeant!”

Arno placed himself before the line. He said:

“Thank you, Captain. I’m Sergeant Greif. I have received orders to lead this Platoon. And this I will do. I have previously fought at Stalingrad, in Kharkov and at Kursk.”

Pause. The two ranks, a total of 25 men, looked at him steadily. Scarred faces in grey-green garbs and with forage caps and field caps alternately. They were currently in quarters behind the front, it was relatively quiet, but generally the German Army by this time, November 1943, was in retreat.

What would Arno say? He chose to speak freely, from the heart:

“What about my experience, then, to lead this Platoon? Let me say this: when I came to Stalingrad in 1942 I gave up the hope of returning alive. I had no illusions. I was a soldier who would do his duty, natürlich, but I realised that this was the Valley of the Shadow of Death. And this gave me peace of mind, giving me strength to cope with the challenges.”

Arno felt the inspiration to elaborate on this, speaking about Death and Night and Blood. Then he thought better of it and decided to tone down the excesses, merely saying:

“I guess you all have had your fair share of life in the combat zone. We all know that death is stalking us. Well, hopefully you know it. My philosophy is, in any case, not to live on hope, not frivolously hoping that you can come out of this alive. Now, I’m not trying to be some death-worshipping fire-eater. But a healthy respect for death you must have.”

The eyes of the men stayed firmly on him. Finally Arno said:

“I have told you a few things. This is my philosophy. I can do more than talk. I can lead. But in any case, now you know something about me. And generally I can say: if you, as soldiers and individuals need help with something, need advice in any matter, I’ll help you as best I can. And as the head of the Platoon I will of course listen to my Squad Leaders. So we’ll talk after this. Captain?”

The Captain said: “Sergeant Greif takes command of 3rd Platoon!”

“Yes, sir,” Arno said. “I hereby take command of 3rd Platoon.”

+++

The Captain saluted and left the yard. Arno dismissed the Platoon and gathered the Squad Leaders around him. They went to a room in the house with chairs and a table. They sat down. Arno took off his cap and glanced at the other three. The giant Bauer was a sunny, smiling type, Karnow was short and slender, and Deschner was a moustachioed, tight Prussian, vaguely reminiscent of Hans von Seeckt, Army Chief in the Reichswehr era.

Arno told the three:

“Na ja. Here we are. I am Platoon Leader. You are my Squad Leaders. I just want to say: I trust you. And you can trust me. We’re fighting in the German Army, we’re fighting for our lives, and I’m dedicated to this task. I live for this. I expect the same dedication from you.”

“This you can count on,” Bauer said. “Total dedication! No rest for the wicked. Well, then, but you understand… Durchaus.”

“That’s the spirit,” Arno said. The rest of the meeting was a review of the men of the Platoon, their strengths and weaknesses. Arno got the impression of a well-run platoon with good rank and file. This he noticed even when he led them operationally, in battle. It didn’t take long, because they continued the retreat next week. Kampfgruppe G and Battalion Wolf fought with “active defense” tactics, being inserted here and there in the overall falling back.

In other words, the retreat through Ukraine continued. For the remainder of 1943 Arno’s unit, Battalion Wolf, fought defensive battles on a succession of bloodstained sites. The retreat through Ukraine added to Arno’s experience. Here’s a sample of what happened, scattered impressions of the infantryman’s everyday, with examples from Ukraine in the autumn and winter of 1943.

+++

They took the village, they were driven out, they halted and then retook it the same day. Finally, when thrown out of the village for the second time, the Battalion Commander decided to seek support from the Tactical Air Arm. This was arranged for the next day, Stukas would arrive to bomb the village and then the infantry would attack again. On the day in question, Arno’s platoon deployed on a forest edge as the vanguard. Arno checked his wristwatch. He looked towards the village and told his orderly: “Soon the bombers will arrive, then Ivan will be in hot water. Just hope the pilots know where the B-line goes, it’ll be plus in the flight path, not minus.”

+++

The room was illuminated by the soft glow of a Hindenburg light, a cross between a torch and a tea light, a puck of tallow with a cardboard frame and a wick. There were double-decker bunks of wood, a beaten floor with straw, a stove around which woollen socks hung drying. It was in the evening, in a neighborhood somewhere in Ukraine. Men slept. Arno had a lower bunk in the corner. And now he turned to the wall, pulled the blanket over himself and fell asleep. Even he.

+++

It was a metal harsh reality, a bronze shimmer on a statue, the deep sapphire blue of the sky and a twilight lustre over everything. It was a pathos-filled existence, neither “good” nor “evil”. Arno had long since left dualism behind. He wasn’t a saint but he was a man who strove towards liberation from indignation, indulgence and bitterness. Patrol with an SPW and a rifle squad, scout over A to B, get to grips with the enemy, observe and report… this was Arno’s reality and he affirmed it fully.

One word summed it up: elegy. And “elegy” for its part isn’t equal to “lament,” not exclusively. It’s a mixed feeling of euphoria, longing, passion and something undefined thereto, possibly the “apateia” of stoics. Arno said to himself these days: “It’s hard now. Hart wie Kruppstahl.” And in this there was a silent cheer. With this maxim he expressed an elegiac-ironic condition that he rather enjoyed.

As intimated earlier: Arno had found his home. He felt quite at ease as an NCO in the field, even though the operations generally went backward, not forward. They retreated through Ukraine. Strategically it went backwards but operationally you must and can sometimes fight back. They applied the concept of “Shield and Sword,” coined by Walter Model: retreat was acceptable only if a riposte was delivered, retreat followed by a counterattack reasonably restoring the situation.

+++

Lines move back and forth: a forest that is lost and recovered, a height that is taken and lost again; a village that is taken, a river being crossed, a landscape that is taken and lost; a battle swaying to and fro like a torn flag in the wind. The waves of the battle that rolls back and forth, seemingly forever and ever, sweeping to and fro, creating breakers, meeting and cancelling each other out so the sea becomes calm again.

+++

Steel grey, grey-green and dim green, khaki, maroon red and pitch black, off-white and blue-grey… titanium, aluminum, wool, canvas, cloth and concrete… burlap and cotton sheeting, copper-clad, unsheathed…

+++

They broke into the hall with weapons on automatic. The Bolsheviks, all seven of them, sitting at the radio table and standing at the orders table, were surprised. They were all shot down and died, bought a farm in the sky, were killed in action.

+++

Arno called to Bauer to see if his squad had kept up. Bauer shouted an affirmation that echoed in the woods. It came from the left. Then a burst of automatic fire was heard from the right flank. What was this, then, was it problems for Karnow or was it Karnow fighting back…? It was hard to know. The vegetation was dense and the light dim.

+++

Arno’s Squad went in single file over the monotonous plain. The sun had gone down. It was relatively mild, minus five centigrade. Arno led the way, clutching his MP and looking forward. He only saw deserted plains and a red sky. Smoke was on the wind. The snow lay in a thin blanket, last year’s grass sticking up here and there. Here and there you even saw bare ground, spots in late-autumn brown.

+++

The SPW’s of the platoon halted in the village. The men got out and stretched. They walked aimlessly around among the deserted houses, moving among bizarre ruins casting strange shadows. Arno for his part sat down in the backyard and looked up at a chilly blue autumn sky.

+++

The night had been spent on spruce branches in a foxhole. Arno focused. He woke up and displayed the ideal image of a combat ready front leader: scarred but calm face, his hand on the MP, pulse 70 and senses on edge. The day continued with rustlings in the trees and shell trajectories arching in the grey-green sky, a steel grey lake, the din of battle echoing between buildings, the streets distorting the sound waves and making everything surreal. It was about sauntering among the ruins while FW 189s returned from a mission, a squadron heading west at low altitude.

Then there was defence on a forest edge with the approach of the enemy, the Germans deployed in ambush 50 metres into the forest with a free field of fire, seeing the mustard brown soldiers nearing their position, withholding fire until they were close, knowing that you couldn’t miss now…

+++

Seeing violet, gold-lined clouds, drinking Ersatz coffee with its acorn bitterness, loading and travelling in their Hanomag SdKfz SPW’s over a plain, seeing smoke on the horizon, petrol fires, looming clouds of smoke.

+++

These were some telling fragments from this stage; that was how the Germans retreated through Ukraine during the late autumn and winter of 1943. The retreat was largely orderly. Some smaller Kessels were created, like Tjerkassy. Trapped men died in them, but strategically they were inconsequential. The Eastern Front wasn’t broken, the German Army still operated coherently.

In the New Year of 1944 Battalion Wolf grouped in northwestern Ukraine. There it eventually became encircled in what became known as Hube’s Pocket.

6

Hube’s Pocket

Sergeant Arno Greif sat by a table in his room in the platoon quarters. It was late in the evening of March 28, 1944. He was smoking a cigarette, now and again knocking the ash off into a porcelain dish. The room had walls of wood paneling and a floor covered by green-grey linoleum. In one corner stood a bed. From the ceiling hung a naked light bulb.

Arno sat in his shirtsleeves, having just cleaned his new 7.92 mm carbine. Driven by gas pressure, the StG 44 was a new weapon only beginning to be distributed among field units. It was a sort of assault rifle or automatic carbine. A pressed sheet metal, wooden butt of wood and a curved magazine holding 30 rounds. The gun combined the best of the rifle and the MP, having a shorter firing range than the rifle, much wider than the MP but otherwise with the MP’s rate of fire and capacity.

The effective range of this Sturmgewehr was about 300 metres, a good figure for the usual distance in infantry battles. All soldiers in the current platoon had StG’s, the other platoons of the company still had the Kar 98 rifle. You would think that the Company’s foremost Platoon, 1st Platoon, would be equipped with the latest but Thomas Shasta, 1st Platoon Leader, thought along the lines, “You know what you have but not what you get” so therefore Arno’s Platoon, 3rd, was equipped with the new weapon instead.

Arno willingly gave up his MP for this new weapon. The StG had it all: firepower, satisfactory range of fire and it looked the business. The old saying, “What looks good usually is good,” springs into mind.

Arno took a drag on his cigarette, inhaled deeply and glanced at a clock on the wall. The small hand at eleven and the big at twelve.

2300 hours.

Four hours til they march.

Four hours until marching out for the general attack, the Breakout. They were, as already noted, encircled. Now they would break out. At the end of March 1944 Battalion Wolf and Kampfgruppe G as part of Hube’s 1st Panzer Armee had been encircled between the Bug and Dniester to the north and the south. The focal point of the Kessel was the city of Kamenetsk-Podolsky. Therefore, the whole was called the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket. You could also call it Hube’s Pocket after the General who planned the breakout, 1st Panzer Armee Commander Hans-Valentin Hube.

They were encircled; they were in a Kessel, a motti or a pocket. The following ten chapters are about Hube’s Pocket and how Arno and 1st Panzer Armee fought to break out of it. This was a struggle of epic proportions. It was, you might say, a “March of the Ten Thousand”, mechanised variety, an Eastern Front Anabasis, a breakout of a total unit strength of 200,000 men. The Anabasis of Xenofon in 399 BC for its part was the heroic march home by an army of mercenaries, stranded in the middle of the Persian Empire, the force eventually heading home to Greece. This chronicler recorded the army as 10,000 strong, the adventure thus being known as “The March of the Ten Thousand”.

In the Kamenets-Podolsky operation 1st Panzer Armee was encircled, but it would break out. The plan was to move as a mobile 360-degree defensive position, forcing through the landscape like a veritable armoured amoeba. This was the accepted tactic for encirclement breakout. We’ve seen it before in this story, as in the retreat from Kharkov Arno participated in. But the breakout from Hube’s Pocket was, as far as breakouts went, a much bigger operation. It’s probably the greatest successful motti-breakout in the history of warfare. Hube made it out, with most of his army intact and would knock out a number of Russian tanks in the process.

+++

After the battle of Kursk in July 1943, the Russians, as we have seen, went forth to liberate their country – even though just how “liberated” it would be with the Bolsheviks still at the helm is a moot point. The main effort was in Ukraine. Kiev was taken in November 1943. The German front in northwestern Ukraine was held by Hans-Valentin Hube’s 1st Panzer Armee. It had 18 Panzer and Panzer Grenadier divisions, divided into three Armoured Corps. There was also a regular Army Corps alongside them.

The Army numbered about 200,000 men. And it was encircled in March, 1944, by the Russian Commander of the sector, Georgi Zhukov, the victor of Moscow and Stalingrad. Hube was eventually caught north of the Dniester and south of the Bug.

Hube asked Oberkommando des Heeres if he could break out. After some days he got the OK. He then reduced his four corps into three Corps Groups. The two Panzer Corps thus created would take the lead in breaking out towards the northwest. The Army Corps would bring up the rear, making a fighting retreat.

As for the spearheads they would advance in parallel, forming a southern and a northern column; that is, both were going towards the northwest but in the following there will be references to the “northern” and “southern” spearhead, descriptions that merely designate their relative positions to each other. In the lead the spearheads had battalions from Kampfgruppe Bäke, equipped with Panther and Tiger tanks.

Hube’s Army would breakout towards Tarnopol in the northwest. It was a distance of 250 km, over the rivers Zbruch and Seret and through muddy terrain. In the Tarnopol region, units from Hausser’s 2nd SS Panzer Corps would sally forth to meet the breakout force.

Many tricks were used to achieve the best possible starting position for the attack. Uncoded, in substance misleading, statements had been sent by radio, easy for the enemy to intercept. Troops in sectors that were not to be attacked were revving engines and the like, simulating preparations for an attack.

Inspired by the Russian attack methods employed in 1943, the first German incursion would be made by infiltration. Battalion Wolf, to which Arno’s Platoon belonged, was the vanguard of the intrusion in the southern spearhead sector. Here the Panzer Battalion at the head, the one detailed to break through the frontline, had to advance along four roads. On this side of the main line, Battalion Wolf was to clear the area of enemy units such as outposts and sentry groups. As a Storm Battalion this vanguard would enter the enemy lines covertly, on foot, and surprise the defenders. Once the way was clear, the armour would sally forth and break through the heavily defended main line some kilometre further away.

Battalion Wolf didn’t stand alone during this operation. It belonged to Kampfgruppe G, a brigade-sized unit consisting of three Panzer Grenadier Battalions, one Battalion of Panzer III’s and IV’s, an Artillery Section, a Maintenance Company and a Combat HQ.

Thus it was. 1st Army would attack, attack in order to retreat and to reach the German lines 250 km to the northwest. And everything in the initial stage depended on the units of “terrain artists, rangers and athletes” – in other words, the infantry. Sitting in his orderly room Arno stubbed out his cigarette, turned out the light, took off his boots and went to bed. He needed a little sleep before it started. He didn’t need an alarm clock. He had one built in. If he told himself to wake up at a certain time, he just did it.

+++

Arno opened his eyes, blinked and reached for the watch.

02.20. Forty minutes to marching off.  The clock had well passed midnight, so  the date was now March 29.

It was the room with a bed, a chair and a table. The orderly room in the barracks. A window on the short side was boarded up. There were some gaps in the boards but no light penetrated through the cracks.

Arno pulled on his socks, stepped into his high-legged boots, put on his uniform coat of grey-green cloth and, over it, a gabardine camouflage smock. It was reversible, white on one side and with woodland camouflage on the other. The last heavy snow of winter had fallen, so the standing order was to have the white side out. Then Arno donned his Sturmgepäck. It was made of blackened leather and consisted of a belt with shoulder straps. Onto this harness were attached ammo pouches, a water bottle, a close combat knife in a sheath and a bread bag.

Next, Arno picked up his assault rifle. He sat down at the table with his feet on the chair, opened an ammo packet and gently fed 7.92 mm cartridges into the magazines. Then he checked the safety catch and clicked a magazine into place.

He stepped down from the table and took out the platoon radio, a rather compact gadget of 15 x 20 x 3 cm with a folding antenna; he put it under his belt. Last of all he stuffed a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, slipped on a pair of brown pigskin gloves, slung a map case round his neck, put on his helmet and took the rifle in his hand. The helmet was covered by a white camouflage cloth.

This is it, he thought. Being a platoon leader obliges…! In order to gather himself he did what he did in Stalingrad. Standing at the table, fully equipped, ready to go into battle, he said to himself: “I Am”. It was the old biblical affidavit, the eternal formula of ontology and ethics. And thus he was prepared for anything.

There is no greater wisdom than this: I Am. So simple, and so difficult. But the simple is difficult as Clausewitz said.

+++

Arno went off along a corridor, went down the stairs and then along another corridor leading out of the house. Thus he found himself standing in a courtyard framed by three rows of houses. Shadows moved across the yard. Arno went towards them, halted and called out:

“Platoon fall in!”

A line was formed. A strange light hovered over them. It was winter, overcast and early in the morning and therefore it should be dark, but Luftwaffe ground crew units had arranged anti-aircraft spotlights to hit the undersides of clouds as an unorthodox way of lighting up fields of movement or battle by night. The whole area was bathed in a sort of indirect light; the soldiers lined up in front of him appearing in this half unreal, like ghosts.

Arno swept his gaze along the line. There were about 25 men. Their faces were illuminated under the helmet edges, snow on the ground reflecting the artificial moonlight.

None of the soldiers said anything. Everyone looked at Arno, the Platoon Leader. He had been that for four months now. The last time little had happened. It wasn’t until last week they had had things to do – that is, preparing the breakout with reconnaissance, planning and the destruction of unnecessary supplies. Finally, they had pulled up to Point 98, having come here to this farm of three rows, situated in a desolate forest. The Platoon had participated throughout the Ukraine-retreat, had been in the battle zone for several months before the relative calm of the last month. All the soldiers, even the Squad Leaders, were German conscripts.

“Squad Leaders, report!” Arno said.

From the left was heard:

“1st Squad, ready.”

It was Sergeant (= Unterfeldwebel) Bauer’s somewhat shrill voice. He was also the Platoon’s deputy chief; if it were needed he could take over the lead. And if you divided the unit in two then Arno and Bauer would command their respective halves.

“2nd Squad, ready,” was next heard from the line. It was Corporal (= Obergefreiter) Karnow.

“MG Squad, ready,” came lastly from Corporal Deschner. MG meant machine gun. The group in question had two MG 34s. 7.92 mm caliber, rate of fire of 15 rounds per second, which is rather a lot.

This was the Platoon. Arno said:

“I take command. At ease.”

He slung the automatic on his back and moved along the rank to inspect the men. It was a symbolic check, trying to catch each man’s eye under the helmet rim. He was pleased with what he saw. No one flickered his eyes, everyone was mentally composed.

He checked his men. It was, to begin with, 1st Squad led by Bauer. Arno inspected him and his soldiers Ilo, Henko, Ebersen, Tauber, Spiegel, Pindar, Geglo, Gipp and Rendulic. Then he went on to 2nd Squad and its Leader Karnow and the soldiers Wagner, Gans, Hackle, Lenoir, Gero, Escher, Emostas and Esil. Last of all checked the MG Squad with its head Deschner and the soldiers Langon, Mesurier, Venlo, Venskes, Menider, Schmidt, Qvoon and Salazar.

The mainstay of the Platoon was the two MG’s, its sine qua non. To bring these into action was top priority during a regular assault – exposing the enemy to their fire, laying down a wall of lead. As indirect fire the Platoon had rifle grenades. On the battalion level there was a battery of heavy mortars, 12-cm pieces. And at company level there was a mortar unit with 8-cm pieces. This was in 2nd Platoon.

7

Point X

Arno returned to his place in front of the line. He said:

“Welcome to the countryside. Now we leave for a great adventure. Anyone who wants to stay behind? Anyone who wants to give up, surrender arms? Go ahead, it’s a free country…”

Scattered laughter. Arno continued:

“We’re going to breakout. Our Army, 1st Panzer Armee will break away to friendly territory in the northwest. And we, Battalion Wolf’s Companies, are going at the head to clear the roads. Our Platoon will start by taking a certain outpost. We’ve been through it all before. Me and ten men will take the sentry post proper while Bauer and the rest of the Platoon bypass and clean up the rest of the deployment.”

That was it. The nearest enemy outpost consisted of a sentry post on a slope, plus a bivouac in a forest nearby. The sentry post was an MG emplacement and the bivouac was equal to “the rest of the deployment”.

“This is it,” Arno continued. “We’re a close-knit unit, I dare say. I have come here to lead this elite platoon. I have led it for four months now, through smoke and fire. I have also put my stamp on it. We are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, everyone here knows it, and this awareness gives us our edge. So, in short: I trust you. We are the elite, we can handle this! ‘Victory rides on our helmets!’”

All that was left was to leave. The platoon formed single file and started the march out of the farm complex. It passed the last outpost of their own line. Glances of understanding were exchanged with the sentry in his pit, reinforced with sandbags. This sentinel belonged to the Battle Group local protection unit, intended to guard HQs and the like.

The platoon moved quietly out into the combat zone, the frontline. The terrain was wooded and mostly flat. There was snow on the ground and snow on the trees, fir and pine, rough coniferous trees. The temperature was a few centigrade below zero.

The unit Arno headed was a Panzer Grenadier Platoon. They were Panzer Followers, enabling the advance of tanks. Now, in the initial stage of the operation, they fought dismounted. The SPW’s would arrive later, when they had eliminated the outposts and would be in reserve. Then each squad had its own Hanomag SdKfz 251 halftrack.

With his radio Arno could contact the Company Commander. This radio was a novelty, a very fashionable thing; only select units like Battalion Wolf had such. The head of the 8th Company, Captain Wistinghausen, for his part would advance with the Company’s 1st Platoon this night. 1st and 2nd Platoon would advance parallel to 3rd, on its right hand, along a northern path. Otherwise they could be allocated to support other Companies of the Advance Battalion, or to support Arno’s Platoon. But this, Arno, hoped, would probably not be needed. At least not for the first outpost.

+++

The Platoon walked slowly in single file at the side of a forest road. As usual on the European continent, far from the moist air of the Atlantic, the snow layer wasn’t so deep. A kilometre was logged through forested terrain, here and there with small, open fields or meadows. Everything was basking in the pale shimmer of the artificial moonlight, Scheinwerfer illuminating the clouds’ undersides.

This was the battle zone. It was 3 kilometres to the enemy’s main line. But first, the enemy outpost was close by. The whole thing was to surprise them. Everything must go quickly and quietly and radio silence must be maintained as far as possible. If for example the neutralizing of post No 1 went well then you didn’t have to report this upwards. You just had to keep going along the allotted road and destroy any possible resistance on this side of the main line, supporting other friendly units if needs be.

They walked beside the road, one of the four roads the Battalion would clear, the southernmost road of the whole breakout. At a certain point Arno divided his strength. As the ground began to slope upwards Bauer got half the Platoon to take swinging off to the left to attack the bivouac. Arno and ten men moved straight ahead to the top of the hill. From there they crawled over the ground to the forest edge.

They were on a small crest. The road they had followed ran down a slope covered with young forest. Then the way reached a dry river bed, crossing it on an embedded culvert. This offered good protection as a place to make a short halt before the capture of the defensive position proper. This modus operandi had been planned long ago, Arno had led reconnaissance patrols here over the last week.

The road continued up a small slope, the opposite river bank. Then it went across a field towards the edge of another wood. On the left side of the road, just where it levelled out in the field after the bank, was an MG emplacement reinforced with sandbags. A enemy soldier stood in the pit. The artificial, “Ersatz” moonlight illuminated his position quite well. Beyond the strongpoint ran a connecting corridor, a slit trench to the bivouac in the woods: Point X, the grouping Bauer would attack. Everything would be done at the same time, H Hour, which was at 0440. Fifteen minutes to go.

Nothing happened. Everything was still. Only the Russian soldier in the machine gun nest moved every now and then, peering out over the terrain, seemingly unsuspecting. Moreover, the searchlights moved across the sky and illuminated the clouds’ undersides, creating a ghostly landscape.

Then it began to snow. Only lightly at first, but then it came in increasingly bigger flakes. Good, Arno thought, this provides some cover.

Arno had MG men and riflemen under his command, ten in all. They lay quietly in the copse on the hill. Here it might be asked: how, actually, is leadership of military units executed?

How did Arno lead at this very moment? – Answer: he didn’t lead by performing specific actions in each and every moment. Instead he let his spirit be projected over the unit, over the nearest surrounding soldiers and, with “spiritual remote effect,” over Bauer’s group in the vicinity. Arno let his Memento Mori philosophy characterise the platoon. Remember that you are mortal, know that you are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death…! This is primarily an unpleasant but with time a reassuring revelation: I am a man, I might die, my physical body has a limited lifespan. And with this lesson Arno had all of his soldiers pulling themselves together, dedicating themselves to the task, acting at every moment in the spirit of the mission at hand.

Arno’s whole being put his stamp on the platoon; Arno’s example stimulated each soldier’s ability for internal management, in German, Innere Führung. Each soldier was schooled to become his own boss. Arno himself had, on his own, by summing up his Will, become his own boss when he came to the Front in 1942. Now he fostered this spirit in his men too.

+++

They were on the ridge, waiting. They were a collection of dark shadows in a forest, in a neighbourhood lit by artificial moonlight. Arno now decided to leave the MG Team on the crest. He then took the five riflemen and crawled away with them, down the slope, along the road’s right-hand ditch. The snow, some spare trees and their white camouflage smocks would give them concealment, he hoped.

At long last they reached the dried-out river bed. Not much of a river, little more than a brook, whose banks overgrown with dense thickets of shrubs. They got down into the culvert and rested. Six men with their nerves on edge. In addition to the leaders, Arno and Karnow, it was Wagner, Gans, Hackel and Lenoir.

Arno told the crew to wait while he and Lenoir left the stream bed and crawled up the bank just short of the crest. Here the slope overhang obscured the view of the sentry. Arno lay on his back, wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the way they had come: the slope, the woods with their dark conifers and the road that disappeared like a tunnel between them.

The enemy, that is, the sentry, was now no more than a few steps away from Arno and Lenoir. The slightest noise would reveal themselves where they lay – a sneeze, a broken twig.

Arno and Lenoir were on the road’s left side. Arno sought eye contact with the other man. He raised his head and made the “all well” sign.

Somewhere out on the left flank, a few hundred metres away, the second half of the Platoon under Bauer moved along in order to penetrate to the rear. Their route was hidden from the guard by the trees.

Karnow crouched in the culvert with his men. And on the top of the hill, Deschner and the MG Team waited.

Time was running out. The clock counted down the last minute before H Hour.

On a hand movement from his Sergeant Lenoir produced his melee knife, his arms moving in strained movements on the snowy ground. The handgrips mustn’t be heard.

Ten seconds left. And so, nine, eight seven…

Arno raised his hand, looking at the pointer of his wristwatch edging its last bit up to “12” – and struck down with his hand when the thin needle stood straight up with a tremor. Lenoir rushed up the slope, into the MG pit.

8

The Forest

Three quarters of an hour later. German Army Feldwebel Arno Greif sat on a log with his carbine in his lap. The place was Point X, the enemy bivouac inside the wood’s edge, stormed and taken by the deputy Bauer. About ten Russians had been stationed here. Now all were dead. The MG sentry post was likewise obliterated, Lenoir having single-handedly silenced the sentry. He had killed him with his melee knife. Between the trees Arno could see the MG pit from the place he now found himself at, some 150 metres away in the strongpoint proper.

It was still dark, or rather twilight. Still the the whole area basked in the strange light from the flood-lit clouds. And still it snowed.

Arno sat in the woods in the middle of a defensive ring, comprised of the whole of the Platoon grouped into a 360-degree defense, the “hedgehog defense”: all the spines pointing outward, every direction covered. The Platoon was reassembled, again unified in one place. The ring, for its part, had a diameter of 100m, so Arno couldn’t see the men where they lay behind logs and stones in the pine forest.

Overall, Arno was relatively satisfied. They had managed to surprise the outpost and wipe it out, down to the last man. As a stoic fighter he understood that now he had to calm down and settle himself for the next task. You must always restrain yourself, both in success and in adversity. Indifferent to victory and defeat, as the Bhagavad-Gîtâ has it. That said Arno wasn’t some robot, some indifferent nihilist. He was a predominantly positive actor. And the situation seemed relatively good and he quietly rejoiced in it.

Ten metres away, into the wood, four Russian corpses lay face down in the snow. Miscellaneous equipment was thrown to the side. These were some of the soldiers who had manned Point X, fallen in the battle just fought.

Firing was heard now and then. It came from the north. The road Arno’s Platoon was advancing along was the southernmost of the four roads the Battalion would clear. The alarm came from other units in Battalion Wolf attacking their goals. As long as no request for support came 3rd Platoon would solve its own tasks, that is, slugging along this road and clearing out any resistance encountered.

The storming operation had lasted three quarters of an hour. Now they would have five minutes’ rest. During the 45 minutes from H Hour they had fought and cleaned up, supporting Bauer in the fight for the bivouac grouping, reloaded and grouped for defence. Their unit had sustained no losses.

Where Arno sat he could see the road – the road that went across the clearing and continued into the forest and so on to the main line, the route to advance along and clear of outposts. You must be prepared for everything. The enemy could of course send forth reserves and launch a counterattack, perhaps some T-34’s with infantry on the back. Then you would be in hot water. There were hardly any anti-armour weapons in the platoon, only two one-shot Panzerfausts. Anything could happen, Arno told himself; this must be remembered, even when you’ve won a victory. Even after a victory like taking Point X you must think: readjust your helmet and keep your finger on the trigger. This was a mainstay of Arno’s soldier philosophy.

Sergeant Bauer appeared between the trees and went towards Arno. Bauer reported that he had deployed the men. Arno said “good”. Then he asked about the flanking movement. Bauer said that it had gone well, the enemy not having noticed anything. But he had been a little worried just as they were approaching the bivouac proper.

“Otherwise, it wasn’t that hard. Just quietly approaching the camp, then straight in, throwing hand grenades into the tent and so on.”

“Well, well,” Arno said. His comment was laconic but nothing more was needed. He liked to have Bauer as a deputy. They were like-minded warrior natures. Bauer was a soldier who could stand what Arno could stand.

Bauer was quite tall and round-faced. He was a light-hearted, spirited fellow with a sunny temperament. But when the going got tough he could quickly revert to a state of action readiness. One moment a happy child, the other an efficient combat soldier: such was Hansi Bauer, Arno’s second-in-command.

+++

It was now early morning, everything still being lit by the ersatz moonlight. This limelight had its charm, this Arno willingly admitted. It was like living in a dream, a bizarrely illuminated never-never land.

The advance along the road continued. Four soldiers under Emostas had been assigned to hold Point X. The rest of the platoon was divided into two columns with six soldiers in each plus an MG Team. They would advance on either side of the road. You couldn’t walk on the roadway itself. There you could quickly become the victim of a counter attack or an ambush, an automatic salvo wiping out half the unit in a flash.

The unit was advancing in two files on either side of the road, Arno leading one, Bauer the other. The terrain was covered with shrubs and trees, saplings and undergrowth of an indefinable kind: a mixed forest with spruce and birch, aspen and willow and everything in between. You didn’t have to carve your way through, but it wasn’t far from it.

Thin snow covered the ground. The snowfall had ceased. Battle noise was heard in the distance, but no request for support came. Arno did a radio check, calling the Company HQ and got an all clear from the signaler, acknowledging that the communication was up and running. Over and out.

It was 0540. One outpost remained to take along this road. They walked tirelessly along both sides of the road. Nothing happened. Wouldn’t the Russians arrive with their reserves sometime? Launch a counterattack?

But nothing came: no reserves and no counter-attacks, no lovely little armoured patrol with T-34s and accompanying infantry. No attacks by Sturmoviks.

So then, it was just carry on?

Or were they walking into a trap?

Your mind could begin to wander in cases like these. You had to make sure that your nerves didn’t get the better of you. You must obtain volitional control over the mind, letting willpower steer your thought. You have to have power over yourself and your wandering thoughts. Thus Arno interpreted Nietzsche’s “will to power”: it was about the will to power over yourself. And this was the basis for all human, personal existence. Take charge of your being, take charge of your unit. Same same.

They reached a field. The road ran across the field and further away towards another forest edge, a forest of firs. Arno halted just inside the edge of the forest and spread out the men in a firing line. According to the map there would be nothing hostile here, no outpost. There should be one a bit further off.

+++

Arno stood behind a tree, ten feet from the edge of the forest, looking out across the field. No signs of life could be spotted. At that moment the radio crackled to life. He grabbed the handset and acknowledged:

“Ace of Spades, Roger.”

“From King of Spades.” It was the Company headquarters, represented by the Captain himself, Captain Wistinghausen.

The Captain asked where Arno was. Arno gave the coordinates. The Captain then announced that Arno had enemy forces in front of him. There was a fork in the road in the woods on the other side of the field. Along the connecting road – the fork looking like a “Y” – a hostile unit had fled. The Company’s 2nd Platoon under Lieutenant Dion was about to pursue it but had been prevented on the way, having been exposed to a flank attack. Now Arno’s Platoon was ordered by the Captain to put in maximum speed to catch up and knock out the fleeing Russians. If 2nd Platoon caught up they would get some assistance from them. Arno said “affirmative” and broke the connection. Next he called Bauer to him and explained the situation. Then they took off, each still with a half-platoon, advancing on either side of the road. The field nearby was crossed without caution. Then they broke into the edge of the wood.

+++

They rushed through the forest with the goal of overtaking the retreating Russians. The road fork was passed. Bauer’s column could be discerned on the other side of the road, between the trees. Arno’s column must pass the connecting road. Then it was just to continue in the woods, onward, ever onward.

Suddenly, Arno saw something ahead, a moving shape. He ordered Deschner to deploy. The soldiers of the MG Team dropped onto the snow-covered ground; gunner and loader got the piece going and opened up. The muzzle flames flashed in the dark forest.

Then the rifle squad Arno currently led arrived. They were sent out on the left wing, protected by the MG fire.

Thus the advance continued for a while, leaping by bounds, the one unit protecting the other, one covering the other’s advance. However, the Russians were elusive, they didn’t allow themselves to be caught. They even fought back.

In the midst of a leap Arno noticed how the sky lit up in a blazing path. It was a mortar illumination round, fired by the retreating Russians from a 40 mm piece, easy to carry. The projectile whistled, it exploded at 100 metres’ height and spread a magnesium white light. The whole forest for a moment seemed to bathe in light. The soldiers hit the dirt; had anyone stood up he would have been a fine target.

The illumination round contained a small parachute with the flare carried under it in a metal canister, a cup of burning magnesium. The contraption now floated to the ground, slowly gliding away over the forest. Soon it disappeared. It was dark once again. The Russians fired some suppressive small-arms fire. After half a minute the German soldiers rose from cover and continued the advance.

The firing of this round at least proved that they had the enemy in front of them, the retreating enemy unit the Captain had reported. Maybe the Reds would stop fleeing, make a stand and fight it out. Or maybe they sent up flares just for the sake of it, as a symbolic marker that they hadn’t given up.

Forward again. In the process Arno thought about this and that, holding an internal monologue with questions like: do we have them now? What more is required of us today? What happened to the rest of the half-platoon? How does it look on the flanks? What is the square root of zero? Why is the sky blue? What is heavier, a kilogram of cotton or a kilogram of lead?

Then he stopped pondering, took volitional control over his thought and said to himself: I AM.

9

The Main Line

Arno was walking in the woods in search of enemies. Beside a tree he found the soldier Schmidt with an MG. This could be good to have. He took him along and continued the advance.

Arno went ahead in the woods with Schmidt in tow.

The rest of their own strength seemed to have disappeared.

Bursts of automatic fire came from in front of them.

Battle contact, exchange of fire, firefight. Arno and Schmidt continued forward. Here and there shapes could be seen, moving shapes, probably German soldiers.

It brightened between the trees. They reached yet another glade. In an opening a whole bunch of soldiers were seen: Lenoir, Hackel, Salazar and Gans. Among a few scattered cans and ammo boxes Langon, Venlo and Venskes were sitting talking.

Arno soon saw his whole platoon in the glade, minus the four posted on Point X. Bauer appeared out of the group. Arno went up to him and ordered him to position the men for defence in the glade, in a half circle pointing forward. Bauer said:

“Jawolh, Herr Feldwebel!” In English that would be, “Yes, Sergeant!”

Bauer turned and began to shout at the men. Soon they were lying in their positions, somewhere inside the surrounding forest.

Two men remained among the ammo boxes. It was Pindar and Henko. Pindar had his arm in a sling. Henko lay the ground and held his bleeding stomach. Arno took out a bandage and gave it to Geglo, who was also nearby. “Dress the wound,” was the order; Pindar helped as best as he could. Arno got down and said some comforting words to Henko. He knew that the man was in intense pain and he could only admire him for not screaming aloud. He had been hit by hostile small-arms fire.

Next Arno called the Captain and asked for the location of the Medical Platoon.

Another soldier, Gipp, was also found at the site. He and Geglo were ordered to arrange a stretcher of poles and rainwear ponchos and carry Henko to the Medical Station, which all platoon commanders had been told by radio was 1 km back along the forking road. .

The orders were carried out; soon Henko was carried off by Gelo and Gipp. Pindar joined them.

Bauer returned from the forest. He said that he had grouped the platoon for defence with machine guns on the flanks. “Good,” Arno said about this. He then asked Bauer about the advance through the woods. Bauer told him that although they hadn’t actually seen the enemy, they had been exposed to hostile fire. That was how Pindar and Henko had been wounded.

“The Reds escaped. Maybe they’ve joined the outpost that’s supposed to be near here, the last one before the main line.”

“Most likely.”

Arno wondered if they should have continued to pursue them. But over the radio the Captain had just said that it was okay to stay where they were for the moment. As it happened, Second Lieutenant Dion was on his way with a mortar. The bulk of his platoon was engaged elsewhere but now he himself was heading for Arno with heavy support: a grenade launcher. With the help of this they would storm the enemy position that the Lieutenant knew more about. It was the last outpost, the one that even Arno knew a bit about.

Arno broke the connection, sat down on a log and caught his breath for a few seconds. It was still quite dark. The searchlights in the sky were still illuminating the clouds and creating that odd atmosphere.

+++

Some soldiers came walking along the road in column formation, single file. They came from the German rear lines. It was Lieutenant Dion with five men in tow. Three of them dragged an 8 cm mortar: a hand drawn trolley had the piece split into the outriggers, the support plate and the barrel. In yet another cart a man was hauling ammunition. The Lieutenant himself was a short and muscular figure. He stopped and said:

“We’re going after the retreating Russians! Come along! Orders from the Captain!”

“Will do!” Arno said, pleased that things were going according to plan. He stood up and called for his deputy. In the meantime, Dion didn’t halt but moved on.

“I’m joining you!” Arno cried. Dion disappeared along the way and Bauer appeared. Arno said:

“Detach ten men to follow me! Form them up here in the clearing!”

Bauer did as he said. Soon the men came: Corporal Karnow, Ebersen, Tauber, Rendulic, Lenoir, Langon, Mesurier and Venlo, the last three with an MG. Good. Furthermore, Corporal Deschner was there. Good.

Arno said:

“We will join a unit of 2nd Platoon, pursuing the enemy. The ones we didn’t catch up with here. Dion just passed with a mortar. We’re to follow him. Deschner leads his MG men, I lead the rest, with Karnow as deputy. Forward!”

They sped off along the way. Soon they came to another clearing. Just before reaching the open ground they turned off from the road. They soon ran into Dion. He had rigged up his mortar and showed Arno the field they had in front of them – a small meadow surrounded by woods. The road ran across the field. Half-way out on the field, on the left side of the road, was a two-storey barn, on the maps pompously called Grand Hall. The enemy was supposed to be positioned in the wood at the right hand edge of the field.

This was the last outpost before the main line of resistance. Dion and Arno got going, planning the attack. Once ready they hit the position with mortar fire and then sent forward the infantry. Arno led the attack, but when they broke into the wood they met no resistance. Nothing at all. The enemy had abandoned the position. It was something of an anti-climax after the sequence of night battles they just had been through.

They moved on. The platoon advanced to a wooded hill on the right wing. It had served as the emplacement for a field gun. The abandoned Russian gun had been destroyed by its crew, rendered useless by strategically placed charges destroying the mechanism and chamber. The whole position was littered with equipment, supplies and junk, indicating a hasty retreat.

Deschner came to Arno’s side.

“The whole position’s abandoned.”

“Indeed.”

Arno shouted to Karnow and got a reply after a while. The man, having been about to make a flanking movement, was told that the coast was clear. He appeared shortly after with Ebersen and Lenoir in tow.

Somewhat later Lieutenant Dion and a Private arrived. Dion said:

“I’ve just been in contact with the Company HQ. Apart from this position all resistance on this side of the main line is neutralised.”

“But this is also stormed.”

“I see.”

“But the crew managed to escape. At least up here on the hill.”

They advanced a bit further and took up defensive positions on the edge of yet another wood, overlooking a valley. The road they had followed went into the valley, crossing it. On the other side of the valley the hilltops were also covered with trees. And there, on the far side of the valley, ran the enemy’s main line. It could be discerned by lines of barbed wire, bunkers and by trees felled to open up a better field of fire.

This was the line that would be stormed later today by Battle Group Bäke. But Battalion Wolf wouldn’t have to assist Bäke in this. Bäke had both Panzers and Panzer Grenadiers, sufficient for the task. Instead, Battalion Wolf was to be held in reserve.

For the moment, the Platoon held its positions. At 0700 an orderly from Captain Wistinghausen arrived. He said that the Battalion had cleared the four routes it would take. All the outposts on this side of the main line had been taken out. The whole of Battalion Wolf was now grouped in defensive positions like Arno’s platoon. The orderly also said that the Battalion baggage train would arrive later today. After getting some hot food the Battalion would remain in reserve.

All this eventually happened. At 0730 a thunderous roar broke out; it was the German barrage to soften up the main line on the other side of the valley. The enemy was put under heavy fire. Under cover of the bombardment, tanks from one of Battle Group Bäke’s Battalions came rolling up, awe-inspiring Tigers with 88 mm guns. They were accompanied by Panzer Grenadiers in SdKfz 251s. The armoured vehicles passed Arno’s grouping on the road, burst out into the valley and headed for the forest on the other side.

Shortly before the line itself was reached by the armour, the artillery barrage ceased. At the same time soldiers dismounted from the Hanomags and made for the enemy’s positions, supported by the Tigers providing heavy suppressive fire. Some operational precision, some exemplary assault, Arno thought, watching everything from his forest edge.

The grenadiers were now busy neutralising the bunkers, taking out the anti-tank emplacements. The Tigers started to advance into the main line proper. Explosions were heard, flames were seen, automatic fire echoed across the valley. Soon some more Panzers drove on and crashed into the fray, disappearing into clouds of smoke and accompanied by increasing blasts and cracks, flames and flashes.

+++

Bäke’s Battle Group forged ahead along this and the other roads that Battalion Wolf had cleared. Meanwhile, 100 km to the north-east, at the other spearhead, other Battalions of the Battle Group also advanced.  On the whole the breakthrough succeeded. Before the day was over, three bridges over Zbruch were taken by the Germans.

But, of course, Arno knew nothing about this. When the breakthrough had been made, they were ordered off the ridge. The Battalion was pulled back as Hube’s private reserve, an Army reserve waiting by Grand Hall. Then the baggage train arrived and they got some hot pea soup. Meanwhile Battle Group Bäke’s armour moved up the road, followed by other units in this southern attacking column. Battalion Wolf stayed put all day. Arno’s platoon took quarters in Grand Hall.

Arno put a sentry at the building’s southern corner, a guarantee against any Russian stragglers. Anything could happen in a war. Otherwise, he could take it easy. They were in reserve, they were waiting for orders. At noon, after a meal of chicory and hardtack, he lay down and slept in a corner of Grand Hall. Just a short nap. And during this he dreamed that he was standing by a canal in a city with sienna-coloured houses. He stood by an iron railing and looked at the water’s flow. Waterweed bowed to the current, swayed by the stream in which it grew.

Next to Arno, in the dream, stood a tall man with an aquiline nose, a man dressed in a red and yellow silk hood, a green tunic, blue breeches and boots. He introduced himself as Ringo Badger, his spirit guide.

“What do you mean by that?” Arno said. “Are you a badger?”

“No, it’s just a name,” said Badger. “I’m your guide in this dream land, the astral world. Every man has a psychopompos like me.”

“Excellent. What can you do for me, then?”

“I can give you advice. Ask me anything and I’ll see if I can answer.”

Arno then asked if he, Arno, would die in this war. The Badger answered:

“You, Arno Greif, are participating in a war. But you will not die in battle during this war.”

“Thanks for the info,” Arno said, remembering the episode in Kharkov when he had slipped from the jaws of death, now adding:

“This is strange, this knowledge, I mean. I’d rather die in battle, to be honest.”

The Badger nodded and said:

“Think of it like this: you are sentenced to life. You have to live with it.”

“I guess I must,” Arno said.

The next phase in the dream saw Arno walking over a flowery meadow. Spring clouds were drifting by and an enigmatic city hovered in the sky, an enchanted castle of shimmering crystal.

The sun was illuminating everything into golden splendour. The meadow was surrounded by deciduous trees. What beautiful hardwoods Arno thought; he appreciated the gentle, casual appearance of deciduous trees, he was a little tired of conifers. Although in his Karlstad childhood most of the trees were coniferous, Swedish woodland was generally quite varied: it was normal in Sweden to see a mixed forest of spruce and birch trees, of trembling aspen and pines. But in this Dreamland there were only maples, oaks and beeches, and the meadow of flowers was painted in many colours: violet, blue-grey, emerald green and bright red.

Over the meadow a crowd of people came walking, peasant types in grey clothes. Arno cheered them and walked over to them. But he never reached them, the people disappeared and then the dream shifted scene once again. And in this third stage Arno once again had the Badger at his side. Now they were in a darker forest, a Nordic fairy forest with dense spruce trunks, moss-grown stones and a dark lake with a still surface.

“We meet again,” the mystic man said. “Here and there in the Dreamland, that’s where our roads will cross.”

“Fine,” Arno said. “Interesting.”

“Indeed. Be prepared for anything. Stay calm. Tough challenges await you.”

“I’ll remember that.”

After this exchange everything disappeared – the woods, the lake, the Badger – and Arno woke up. Sitting in the corner in Grand Hall he deliberated on what he had just dreamt. How interesting to meet your soul guide, he thought. He seemed like a good companion. At the same time, it’s a bit scary to meet such a figure in your dreams, this takes my dreaming to a higher level. But I’ll manage this like I manage everything else, I hope. I settle for the old mantra, “I Am,” and so I’ll be prepared for anything.

10

Kamenets-Podolsky

Battalion Wolf was in reserve. So they had to wait. All the armoured units of the southern spearhead passed along the routes they had cleared and then on to Zbruch. As already noted the Germans had managed to take the bridges needed to cross the river.

As for Battalion Wolf, the men waited impatiently to get to head northwest, breaking out to freedom. But of this, at first, came nothing. For in the southwestern part of the Kessel lay the city of Kamenets-Podolsky and the Russians now launched a counterattack against this city. It happened in the evening of March 29, the evening of the day that for Arno had begun by storming and clearing outposts. The enemy got going when he realised that something big was happening here in the west. So Hube decided to send Battalion Wolf back there to protect his southern flank. The order was to retake the city.

So they moved to do it. Arno and his platoon, indeed the whole of 8th Company and the entire Battalion, was transported overnight by lorries to the south, entering the suburbs of Kamenets-Podolsky in the morning of March 30. Then they were given various tasks. They had the support of Stukas in the sky; there was support from a company of combat engineers. It was about breaking into houses and clearing them room by room, about demolition and broken rock, about barbed wire and empty brass cases in the rubble. The contest was fierce but the Germans were determined and the Russians had to give in.

The Company fulfilled its task as did the whole of Battalion Wolf. The enemy’s grip on Kamenets-Podolsky was broken. The Russians were unable to threaten them in the city region anymore. But the Russian counterstrike in question had more prongs. There was also an armoured thrust up and running, somewhat to the north. This we soon shall see.

The Battalion had entered Kamenets-Podolsky in the morning of March 30. In the evening, when the Russians had been beaten off, the Germans grabbed some food and rest. Accommodation was arranged in the city.

They had to wait for their turn to be moved out of the motti, direction northwest. The plan was that next day they would head out that way, cross the Zbruch and Seret and continue to Tarnopol.

11

The Village

From his command seat, standing at the prow of his SdKfz 251, Arno looked through the trees down towards the village, some unpainted, one-storey wooden houses along a road. The place was deserted. Everything was quiet, except for the murmur of a brook and the idle rumbling of the halftracks’ six cylinder Maybach engines. Arno glanced at the soldiers in the passenger compartment: Rendulic, Geglo, Tauber, Gipp, Ebersen and Ilo.

The sun was shining from a clear blue sky. It was mild, around 3 degrees Celsius. There was a thaw in the land, winter seemingly giving way for spring. The platoon’s three SPWs had just arrived at the copse. The men stayed mounted in their vehicles, except for the two men on sentry duty, posted at the edge of the trees.

The scene was quiet. But appearances were deceptive. Both sides had the village booked as a salvo point for their artillery. Both German and Russian armoured units were waiting in the wings. And the opposing infantry also lay waiting. Arno’s force, and many more.

The date of was March 31, the day after the Kamenets-Podolsky battle. At 0500 hours, deploying in the city proper, Battalion Wolf was finally ordered to move to the northwest, towards freedom. It would, as before, go with the location-wise southernmost of the two spearheads, the spearheads themselves, as already seen, heading northwest. At dawn the Battalion was transported off on trucks, eventually crossing the Zbruch. During the morning they travelled over grey-brown, muddy fields. Destination – another hotspot.

For this wasn’t some leisurely transport, the specific goal was yet another operational mission. Another dance with Death. But the rank and file of Battalion Wolf didn’t complain. It’s better that something happens, it’s better to fight freely than sitting waiting to die trapped in a motti; this was the general mood. And Arno personally retained his equanimity with the mantra “I Am”.

This day, the last day of March 1944, they would take part in repelling a Russian armoured shock, a Panzerstoss, initiated the day before. The 4th Russian Armoured Army had attacked to the north, trying to insert a wedge of grinding steel between Seret and Zbruch. So Hube’s southern spearhead had to react. It halted, redeployed and started to repel the riposte. And Battalion Wolf, being in reserve, fitted well into the scheme of blocking the latest Russian threat.

In the process there were several minor battles. One of these was the impending one, fought on March 31 by 8th Company at a road somewhere. The Germans would lure the enemy to take a certain village. Arno and his platoon had feinted defence in this village. It can be added that Arno & Co had now also received their SdKfz 251s. Now they were Panzer Grenadiers and not Foot Infantry.

The battle had begun at 1200 hours, with Arno’s Platoon being deployed in the southern outskirts of the village. Arno opened the game by laying down suppressive small-arms fire towards a forest edge, 800 m farther to the south, where it was assumed that the enemy was gathering. In fact, the firing was a way to draw fire on themselves and lure the Russians into a trap. Then the platoon had speedily regrouped, loaded their SPWs and raced north through the village. Leaving the village, the platoon had crossed a bridge over a brook swollen by meltwater, driven up a slope and, finally, darted off into a wood of bare deciduous trees. In it, the Hanomags deployed with 50-metre gaps between the vehicles. The snow cover was thin and the vehicles had torn up the wet ground where they had passed.

This was where we found Arno & Co at the beginning of this chapter. The counter-thrust by the Russian 4th Army was in full flow. It had been rolling forward since the day before. Now it threatened this road that Arno’s Platoon defended as an advance guard. The rest of 8th Company and Battalion Wolf grouped in thickets nearby, prepared to give support.

+++

Arno had radio contact with a tank platoon and an artillery battery, the latter ready to deliver a barrage at one minute’s notice from the moment it was given the coordinates. The pieces were 10.5s from the heavy section of Kampfgruppe G. On another channel Arno had contact with Wistinghausen. The Captain for his part had grouped 1st and 2nd Platoon in the forests south and north of the village. The enemy was gathering southwest of the village. If Arno needed support from the Company he could contact Wistinghausen. This way he could also get support from Dion’s mortar platoon. But for the heavier support Arno today had direct contact. This was vital, because things happen so fast in armoured warfare.

The silence was torn apart by a rumble from the southern horizon, followed by a whizzing sound, followed by thunder and a series of detonations. Between the trees Arno could see clouds of smoke rise from the village they had just left. It was a barrage directly on the village by Russian artillery, directed by a fire controller on the southwestern edge of the forest. With this artillery salvo, the Russians would have erased 3rd Platoon if it had stayed in the village, but that had never been the idea. Arno’s platoon had deployed in the village, firing a few volleys towards the wood to trigger precisely this sort of reaction. It was part of the plan to lure the enemy into a trap. And it had all just begun.

The Russian artillery fist struck the village, hitting it like an empty bag. Shells blasted the village for two minutes. Deafening explosions were followed by the crackling of the fires that broke out. The houses were smashed and caught fire, logs and splinters flew.

3rd Platoon was probably beyond the risk of splinters in its new position but they couldn’t be totally sure. Occasional fragments could fly far and wide so they kept their heads down.

Arno donned the radio headset and called the tank platoon. These vehicles stood waiting some distance along the way to the northeast. Arno ordered them to be ready as he stared out onto the plain beyond the village. The barrage had ceased. And no sooner had the echoes of the last detonation died away when three T-34s broke out onto the open ground from the woods 1,000 metres away to the south. Arno swept his gaze towards them, then down along the slope that lay between him and the village. It was a small valley with a wildly gushing stream; the platoon had passed over the bridge over it on the way here. The brook ran further east, parallel to the plain and the road which crossed it – in line with the Russian tanks’ advance.

The whole thing was an invitation to a riposte. If the Russians so willingly played along, then Arno wouldn’t let them down. The plan was falling into place and he again called the tank platoon, ordering it to advance to the copse and liase with him. After a few minutes’ engine noise duly was heard from the north end of the road, exhaust smoke appeared over a line of trees, and soon the first of the German tanks arrived. It was battered Panzer IV with a broken front wing.  Like all their vehicles it was still in its winter colours, irregular fields of white chalk paint.

Two others followed. The normal German medium armour platoon was five tanks, but normality didn’t count for much when trying to break out of a death trap. The platoon was operational, that’s what mattered.

+++

Now they were in a hurry. The Russian tanks could easily push through the burning village and reach them up here. So a German unit had to be sent down in the dip and hit the T-34s in the flank.

Sergeant Bauer was ordered to defend the wood with half the platoon. Under his helmet Bauer’s head was dressed with bandages. So too was his left hand, sporting a bandage where splinter had hit and been removed. The wounds had been sustained the day before, in Kamenets-Podolsky.

While Bauer stayed in defence with half the platoon the rest, split into three fire teams, would attack along with the tanks. Arno explained the plan to the armour platoon commander after the black-clad figure had emerged from his manhole in the turret cupola. He understood immediately, no need for maps and sketches. It was just about Arno pointing:

“Flank attack against armour in the field! We follow along on the back of your vehicles as support. Advance across the creek, then over the meadows on this side of the village. Firing position beyond the village, outflank the armour on the plain.”

The German tanks would catch the enemy exposed in the open. The Panzer Lieutenant nodded and said, “Understood! Come aboard. And acknowledge by hitting the turret plate twice.” Arno confirmed and gave orders to his men. Then they clambered onto the backs of the tanks, Arno going with the point vehicle. When the green light had been given – knocking with the assault rifle butt against the tower plate – the three tanks rumbled off, leaving the trees and crossing the creek at the bridge. Then the column left the road. It turned right into the terrain, passing over the meadows with the burning village on the left hand. With roaring engines the three Panzers lurched along in the wet terrain, muddy to say the least. Sitting on the back of the vanguard tank, holding on for dear life, Arno hoped that the mud wouldn’t be so thick that the tanks would get stuck.

Swaying, bobbing, mud squirting from the crawlers and fumes belching from the rusty exhaust pipes, the three Panzer IVs forged across the meadow. The soldiers on the engine grilles clung to them as best they could. What happened up there on the field Arno didn’t know, but he hoped that the three T-34s would still be there. There was no point the T-34s going into the village because it was empty and on fire. And they probably wouldn’t venture beyond it, because Russian armoured spearheads were rarely so bold. Or were they…?

Now the three German tanks turned left and went up the slope. They halted just short of the crest. The infantry jumped off. Arno shouted to his men to go down the slope a bit and take up position to the right of the armour. Simultaneous to this move the Panzer IVs rolled up on the field, got the enemy in their sight and fired at the T-34s which now were on the field just west of the village. The Russian tanks were taken by surprise as Arno had planned. One was hit, then another. As both started to burn, the third, which was the farthest away, in turn scored a direct hit on one of the Panzer IVs. The German crew managed to jump from the vehicle before it floundered in a sea of flames.

There were also Russian infantry advancing across the field. Arno ordered his men to fire on them. He even had an MG 34 along, which mowed over the field like a giant steel scythe. The surprised Russians were struck by the jacketed 7.92 mm shots pouring out of the muzzle with its characteristic cone shape. But Ivan still managed to shoot back. Two soldiers from Arno’s group were hit, Ilo and Ebersen. The wounded men were pulled out of the line by Escher and Lenoir, who gave first aid.

But in general, the enemy soldiers were unable to form a line to defend themselves. The field with its patches of snow and its mud offered no protection whatsoever. Among the blackened wheat stalks many soldiers were mown down, shot full of lead. Gaping, ragged holes in the broken bodies. Arno took in this scene of destruction and thought: when in the combat zone, combat. It could remind you of Clausewitz’ remark: the worst errors in battle stem from benevolence. For example, allowing the retreating Russians to escape in this situation would have been operationally absurd.

The last Russian T-34, the one which had taken out one of their tanks, was finally shot to pieces by the other Panzer IVs. Then they switched to explosive grenades and fired on what was left of the Russian infantry. Impact detonation on the target. On this side of the forest a whole rifle squad fell when it was hit by one such explosion. Men howled in the glow of the burning T-34s, fell and died. Flames rose fiery red from the wrecked tanks. A smell of burning flesh, molten metal and burning rubber.

When the last explosive shells had been fired, when it was all over, the Panzer Lieutenant shouted to Arno:

“That’s it. I’ve reported upward about this battle. Now a counterstrike is to be made. We are ordered to join in the queue of this, so we’ll hook up with our own company which is coming soon. So thank you for the cooperation!”

“Same to you,” Arno said and saluted. The Lieutenant touched the peak of his field cap and disappeared inside the turret of his machine. The German armour withdrew to shelter east of the village. The stranded crew had to ride on the engine grilles of the other vehicles.

Arno ordered Karnow, who he had with him, to “clear the field.” They pulled out among the blood and guts, among the twisted corpses and dying Russians, with Karnow on the left wing and Arno on the right. The wounded enemies they encountered could still shoot back, so every one they passed was given the coup de grace. According to international law you, as a victorious combatant, should give them first aid, but shooting the wounded was the custom on the Eastern Front.

This was no “hands up”-war. This Arno knew already. It meant that if you wanted to survive in the combat zone you had better shoot to kill than act according to International Law. Also, front soldiers knew that wounded Russians would sometimes play dead, only to suddenly live up and shoot you in the back. Hearing about this Arno was determined never to fall for such a bullet. The worst errors in combat stem from benevolence.

They mopped up the field halfway to the forest edge. They didn’t go any further; new enemy forces could arrive, and it would be their turn to be caught in the open and be cut to pieces. Arno ordered his men to regroup, running back over the field to the brook and back to the wood. Once there Arno went to his 251, took the radio hand piece and requested the two-minute barrage he had available. The salvo point would be the forest edge and the end of the road in the southwest. Then, while the shells fell on the target, he called Captain Wistinghausen on the radio. The Captain said that he would be on his way. Then he broke radio contact again.

The barrage ceased. Then came the rest of their armour company from the east. The tanks crashed through the still-burning village with closed turrets. The two vehicles that had supported Arno joined the column. A total of 15 Panzer IVs broke through the village, skirted the burning wrecks on the open field and moved towards the woods in the south.

An armoured counterattack was in the works, supported by a panzer grenadier company from another battalion. This too had joined the column, mounted in their 251s. In the rearguard of the column Captain Wistinghausen arrived in his Kübelwagen, driven by a staff corporal. The car pulled up in the wood. The Captain jumped out, dressed in uniform cap, tunic, white smock, riding boots and breeches, MP in hand. Arno met him and they moved into the shadow of a 251 to discuss the situation. Wistinghausen said:

“Now the Battle Group will go in and clear the woods and beyond. Aerial reconnaissance has seen a thing or two there. We’ll see what happens. Everything flows!”

Wistinghausen took off his uniform cap and wiped his forehead, continuing:

“Well, you know, anything can happen anytime. We’d better be ready to join in.”

“Yes, sir,” Arno said.

The village was still burning. Yellow flames, flanked by grey smoke and sparks, rose against the springtime sky. In the forest they could hear explosions, the rattle of MGs and the noise of engines revving as tanks pushed through the splintering trees. Their counter strike was in full flow.

+++

After three hours the German armour and panzer grenadiers returned. The soldiers in the vehicles nodded to Arno and Wistinghausen where they sat and watched. The counterstrike had been successful.

For the moment, Arno, Wistinghausen and the entire 3rd platoon were sitting eating lentil stew. Later they found out that the entire 4th Russian Armoured Army’s counter-attack had been repelled.

+++

Night. Arno Greif lay on a rough mattress of twigs on the ground under his SdKfz. The woodland surroundings were dark. He had his winter smock and heavy overcoat over the uniform tunic so he felt fairly warm. It was half past two AM. In four and a half hours they would be marching off. The clearing out of the forest to the south was completed. They wouldn’t advance further in that direction, towards the southwest. Now they were heading northwest, with Tarnopol as the ultimate goal.

The Russian counterstrike had been blocked and repelled across the whole area. The Russian supply lines had been cut off and the T-34s had been knocked out or just run out of diesel.  That was the sum of the battle on the day before, March 31. The Russian armoured counterstrike had been eliminated and neutralised in all respects. And Battalion Wolf, with Arno, had contributed to it.

At the dawn of this day, April 1, Battalion Wolf would leave the village behind, with the aim of moving towards the river Seret and eventually reaching Tarnopol. But the safe haven of Tarnopol was still over a hundred kilometres away. Hube’s Army was still in a Kessel, still in a motti, still in the process of breaking out.

12

Deliberation

The 3rd platoon column of winter camouflaged SPWs advanced up a hill, reached the crest and rolled up to a crossroads. The point vehicle halted and the two which followed stopped behind it in the icy mud.

At the forward right seat of the first car, Arno Greif sat in full combat gear: grey field trousers, marching boots, grey-green tunic, white camouflage smock, Sturmgepäck, magazine pouches and steel helmet with white fabric cover. He studied a map for a few moments, folded it, put it back in the map case, gave an order to the driver, picked up his assault rifle, then climbed up on the seat, swung himself over the edge and jumped to the ground. The grey-white-mottled combat vehicle rattled off the road and parked in the shelter of some trees. The Sergeant shouted to the MG crews standing up in the compartments of the other two vehicles that they were taking a five minute break here.

It was midday on April 2, the fifth day of the breakout. Advancing to the northwest they were heading towards some form of Russian barrier. The column point, in the form of Kampfgruppe Bäke’s tanks, was already beyond this, as it was some 50 km ahead of this part of the column. But the Russians had cut the column about 7 km ahead of where Arno’s unit was taking its cigarette break. A defensive position, a Russian anti-tank deployment on a ridge, must be stormed and cleared.

+++

The Squad Leaders walked towards Arno who greeted them with his right index finger against his helmet rim. Sergeant Bauer and Corporals Karnow and Deschner were wearing the usual equipment: Sturmgepäck with straps and belt of blackened leather, magazine pouches of canvas and white camouflage smock. In the collar opening was seen the grey-green tunic with insignia of silver thread on the collar patches, for Bauer framed by an extra angle. Even Arno’s collar patches had this traditional sign for German NCOs.

Arno said:

“Seems to be a long day this one. The operations are continuing. There’s still another line to storm. Located seven kilometres or so ahead. I’m pretty sure we’ll be part of it. Questions…?”

“Well,” Deschner, the man with the moustache, wondered “where’s the rest of the Company?”

Arno too wondered this. But he was lucky – because at that very moment an engine was heard and a handful of SPWs and a Kübelwagen appeared on the road behind them. He pointed at the vehicles:

“There they are. They will pause here too. I just spoke with the Captain over the radio. He said we must wait. Trouble ahead in the lead. The roads are congested. But in time we’ll roll on behind the Kampfgruppe’s Tank Battalion.”

The Company column rolled up into the crossroads and parked untidily. The Captain stepped out of his Kübelwagen and went up to Arno. Arno told the Squad Leaders to join their vehicles. Pause and break until further notice.

Captain Wistinghausen was wearing his usual uniform cap and white windcheater. His face was haggard. He greeted Arno.

“Quiet so far. Here, have a cigarette.”

They both lit up. Then the Captain said:

“Everything has gone well. Thank you, Sergeant. Everything so far, from the storming of the outposts and on. You’ve done well.”

“Thank you,” Arno said. He meant it; he didn’t show his pleasure but it was good to be accepted by his Chief in this offhand way.

The sky was grey. The temperature was only a few degrees below zero but it was a damp, chilly, windy climate, quite uninviting. The whole time you heard gunfire, occasional explosions, various battle sounds. In addition there was the engine noise, the sounds of strained motors running. The Kampfgruppe, Division and Corps, indeed the entire 1st Panzer Armee was on the move. Overall Zhukov had been misled about the general direction of the breakout and some part of the Armee had almost reached safety. But still the bastards were around, attacking and harassing them.

8th Company, grouping in the crossroads, found itself in the second echelon of the breakout force. All they had to do was to wait. Such was the order. The roads were congested.

Second Lieutenants Dion and Shasta arrived. The former was head of 2nd Platoon, the latter head of 1st Platoon. Shasta was of medium height and had a slightly asymmetrical face. He wore a field cap and snow smock and a belt with a holster, containing a 9 mm Walther HP. He clutched a submachine gun. Dion, for his part, was short and compact. He wore his helmet with the chin strap hanging. He wore a Sturmgepäck of brown leather with magazine pouches for his submachine gun, which was slung over his shoulder..

The Captain told them what he had said to Arno. All these officers were part of the Army Reserve. In pre-war times none of them had planned to be an officer. But now they were, they had undergone more than one year of schooling for this. Arno for his part had no leadership training at all. He had learned on the job, from Stalingrad 1942 onward. It was a hard school, but instructive for a man having eyes with which to see with and a head to think.

Arno stubbed out his cigarette and looked around. Deserted moorland, forests and meadows. Distant cannon thunder was heard. Pitch black TNT clouds scudded across the grey sky. The place they stood at was a kind of plateau, with a good view of the surroundings. Here and there you could see a distant stretch of road, along which fighting vehicles were crawling.

The Captain killed his butt, glanced at the clock and said:

“All right, gentlemen. Get loading. Stay in radio contact.”

The platoon leaders returned to their vehicles and made sure that the men, who while they had talked had rested beside the cars, packed themselves back in them.

Arno stepped down into the passenger seat of his vehicle. He checked the radio handset in its cradle on the dashboard. Then it crackled in the earphone. Arno grabbed it.

“All of Spades,” the voice in it said, the voice of the Captain. “From King of Spades. We’re moving out. Order of march: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Platoon. I will advance behind 1st Platoon. Forward. Over.”

Arno confirmed and ordered the driver to start. When the 1st and 2nd Platoon vehicles had passed they too rolled away. Towards freedom. And the Russians blocking their way.

+++

The Company’s ten SPWs plus the Chief’s Kübelwagen were back on the road, heading due north. The engines were strained, the armor bore traces of rust, the gasoline splashed in the tanks. It was orders and counter-orders on the radio, bullshit jargon with the driver in order to lighten the mood and map reading in the fading light of a late winter day. Fighter-bombers circled over the march grouping, AA went into action and explosions were heard.

The AA fire was suddenly drowned by thunder gathering in the distance. It grew to an immense whistling sound that passed over the travelling vehicles. The salvo ended with a series of violent blasts somewhere ahead.

It was prep fire from their own artillery, the Kampfgruppe Artillery Section peppering the line that they would break through, a Russian deployment with anti-tank guns and no doubt other weaponry dug in, blocking their road. What they had just heard was only the first salvo. The rumblings, whizzing and the thunder continued.

Arno picked up his assault gun from the floor and checked that it was fully loaded. It was, of course. Ho-hum, he thought, on through the night…

The column of armoured vehicles rolled on, over the battlefield, under the descending trajectories of the shells. Attack, always attack; such was Arno’s motto even though the war was going backwards for the Germans in general. He had attacked at Stalingrad, attacked to get out of the Kharkov trap, attacked at Kursk and now they attacked themselves out of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket. It seemed to be Arno’s way of being, his essence which he projected onto the environment: always attack. Fire and movement as a state.

13

The Height

Some hours later Arno led his platoon through a twilight wood. 8th Company was preparing to storm the Russian position on the ridge. The men advanced on both sides of the road, Arno’s detachment on the right wing, Dion and Shasta on the left. The sound of idling Panzers and SPWs filled the evening air; the road was jammed with armoured vehicles waiting for the block to be removed.

The immediate goal of Arno’s unit was to deploy to a forest edge some 200 metres on this side of the target, the Russian positions on the hill. The enemy had destroyed a number of advancing Panzers. The anti-tank emplacements had to be cleared out by infantry moving ahead on foot. Arno’s men were to await covering mortar prep fire and then, halfway through it, storm the target.

They reached the edge of the forest. Some 10 metres inside the forest proper Arno deployed them line abreast, with the MG squad behind the left wing. Arno placed himself midway between the squads and looked ahead.

First, there was flat ground, overgrown with small trees and bushes. Beyond this, 200 metres away, rose a hillside, the ridge virtually straddling the road. The road itself ran over the field and up the slope, then into a cutting at the top of the crest. The hill, Arno guessed, was about 70–80 metres in height. It was overgrown with pine and birch and had a series of ledges or shelves in the side. It was rocky, difficult terrain. On the top he could make out field-of-fire clearings and the contours of concrete emplacements. So there was the anti-tank position they had to assault and annihilate, clearing the path out of the death trap.

Two broken Panzer IVs and two SPW 251s still smouldered partway across the field. Nearby lay corpses in black uniforms: armoured soldiers. They had tried to save themselves from the wrecks but had been mown down by the Russians grouped on the ridge. In the thicket in front Arno a half-platoon of Panzer Grenadiers lay where they had fallen. Some were still alive, you could hear them moaning. They were Panzer Followers who had made it out of their knocked out 251s, in the process trying to storm this side of the position, but they too had been mown down and stopped in their tracks.

To the right of the wood, in front of the ridge but beyond the planned route of 3rd Platoon, a marsh spread out. On the other wing, the left wing on the other side of the road, the height continued until it disappeared in a forest edge. On that side of the road Lieutenant Shasta now deployed in line abreast. Shasta would take the height on his side of the road, Arno at the same time would take it on his side, the right side.

+++

The mortar prep fire got started, the six pieces of Dion’s unit opening up. You heard popping sounds, whistles and finally detonations on the hill where the shells landed to soften the target and make it storm ripe. They knew the height had already been laid under artillery fire, the one heard during the motor march, but this wasn’t enough to knock out the position. Therefore, this additional garnish, to make Ivan keep his head down.

Arno looked at his watch. The mortar fire would last five minutes. On H Hour minus 3 minutes 3rd Platoon would begin advancing towards the ridge so that they could storm it just as the fire ceased.

The explosions were constant, shells landing all the time, right along the ridge. You could hear a whistle in a falling tone, then complete silence for a second, followed by the detonation. And so it went.

“Ready for battle!” Arno cried out over the line. The soldiers began to prepare themselves where they lay in their positions. They would rush ahead through the thickets in two columns. 1st Squad under Bauer to the right and 2nd Squad under Karnow leading the way to the left. Karnow would be closely followed by Arno and the MG Squad under Deschner. This was, you might note, the usual triangle formation.

Where he lay Arno exchanged a glance with Bauer. The other man, lying some fifteen metres away, was completely relaxed. The look under the helmet rim was solid, the expression somewhat amused. Arno winked in response. Whatever happens, this is the elite, he thought. In the whole wide world there are no better soldiers than the ones I have under my command.

+++

Arno looked at the second hand of his watch.

Six seconds left.

He checked his equipment: Sturmgepäck with a hand grenade tucked ready, on the back the platoon radio, magazine pouches and a water bottle. And lastly the dear carbine.

Mortar shells whistled over their heads and landed with prolonged detonations on the ridge in front of them. The terrain was lit by the explosions.

Four seconds left.

Arno raised his hand, all the time with his eyes on the watch.

Three.

Two.

One.

He slashed his hand down and shouted “forward” with his best order voice, a stirring cry in the gathering dusk.

The soldiers rushed up in double column formation. The shells whistled. The terrain was rocky and brushy enough, even here on the flat. All ran quickly, there was no need for reminders to keep the pace, taking the advantage of the mortar fire as cover for the advance.

Arno glanced sideways and caught a glimpse of Bauer in the forefront of his group between the thickets. It was evening and again the ghostly glow in the sky started to show, the German specialty in this war: the clouds’ undersides highlighted by AA searchlights, casting a ghostly shimmer over the whole battlefield. The Russians, as we have seen, for their part used magnesium flares and illumination rounds to light up the darkness.

Mortar rounds were still crashing onto the ridge, which loomed as a dark silhouette before them.

They reached the point where the advance patrol of Panzer Grenadiers had been mown down. Dead and wounded soldiers in grey-green tunics covered the ground. Hands grabbed at ankles of the advancing soldiers. Heartbreaking cries.

They should of course have stayed and helped them. But there was no time for this. The battle task came first. This was the iron law of the combat zone. In this case it was to storm the ridge and cleanse it of anti-tank guns so that the Army could break out of the motti and reach Tarnopol.

The soldiers ran on, avoiding stepping on their wounded comrades. Once past this obstacle 3rd Platoon reached the foot of the hill. Arno told the men to keep going, not stop and rest.

They went about ten metres up the slope. The last detonation on the ridge rang out, echoing over the moors. There was a silence across the line, apart from the desperate cry of a wounded man. The Sergeant shouted to his right:

“Bauer!”

Out of the twilight some distance away came the response: “Aye!”

“We support! You advance!”

“Got it!”

To the MG team kneeling next to a tree stump Arno said:

“MG fire towards the ridge! Fire!”

And they opened up: with weapons at the hips the MG crew sent a stream of tracer bullets up to the crest. Carbine shooters joined in the firing.

Ten seconds later Arno ordered cease-fire. Then he cried for Bauer who now was some way up the slope. Bauer replied; Arno asked for covering fire and got it, leaping up and forward with his MG team on his heels. He hurled himself down in the cover of a small rocky shelf on the slope. He saw a detachment of StG-men stumbling by in the twilight, shouted “cover,” saw them hitting the dirt, heard more troops struggling up the hill behind him and saw a face in the darkness, Corporal Karnow. He also went into position with his StG.

The small-arms fire was like a wall of lead before them; the MG muzzle flashes illuminating the terrain of impact craters and shattered trees.

And cease fire and forward. Closely along with Arno were Corporal Karnow and soldiers Escher and Venlo.

They paused in a shell hole. Arno called Wistinghausen on the radio. The fore field reached without loss. The Captain ordered storming of the height.

Bauer had a hard time going forward on his wing. Arno saw him struggling up the hill on the right with some soldiers in tow. Arno shouted at him to hold the flank. The terrain was too steep in front of Bauer for him to continue straight ahead. “Be prepared to follow me!” Arno added. Bauer acknowledged.

Further forward. Arno’s team passed a dip in the slope. The speed of the advance was slowed down, Arno nearly tripped over a pile of stones. Inexorably they neared the enemy position. How far away was it? Arno wondered. How high? It felt close now, and the closer they got, the better the target they themselves became for the defenders.

A sharp bang was heard from the ridge, followed by a whizz over their heads. So the anti-tank stand up there wasn’t eliminated, despite the aerial bombardment, artillery and mortar. What were they firing at now? The waiting Panzers?

An MG Team arrived. It wasn’t much help now. But maybe it could provide some shock effect. Arno ordered it to fire towards the height. At the same time hostile gunfire lashed down towards them. They pressed themselves against the ground and let it pass.

Arno and his men dashed up a further stretch of slope to the fresh cover of a bomb crater. Now for hand grenades, Arno thought. Maybe it was 50 metres to the top. It had to succeed at once. If they didn’t break through here they were finished. And in the queue stood tanks with cold barrels and boiling engines.

Arno looked at the men he had with him: Karnow, Escher and Venlo, all crammed into this shallow shelter just below the target. The ridge.

+++

Arno clutched his carbine even harder and glanced down the hill. He knew portions of his platoon were taking such cover as they could in pits and behind rocks. Occasionally hostile MG fire washed down over them.

Arno thought about saying “fix bayonets” to his men. But they had no bayonets, the StG having no bayonet mount. It wasn’t designed for this. The burst of fire replaced the bayonet thrust. For this weapon and for the MP 40, this was the guiding principle. The days of the bayonet charge were long gone.

How would they get out of the shell hole without being mown down? Maybe with hand grenades? No sooner said than done. Each soldier took out a stick hand grenade. Throwing them 50 metres was a tall order, especially uphill. So Arno knew that they had to throw far, as far as they could. In addition, one must spread them along the line a little. It wasn’t any good them all landing on the same spot.

It was a difficult position. But Arno felt that it would succeed. His instinct as a soldier told him a few things, like “now we have them”… And even if it goes down the drain we have at least done our best. This he thought for a fraction of a second. But he kept his cool and thought of the follow-up forces as support. He must have more guys along than the three he had nearby. He shouted at Bauer to hang on: “Now’s the time,” Arno said. “Are you with me?”

“Aye,” came the reply from Bauer on the right wing. Deschner was also made aware that this was it. Arno turned to the three and ordered “hand grenades unsafe”. The bottom screws of the sticks were loosened and the porcelain fuses were released. When this was done Arno rasped the order, “hand grenades, fire!”

This meant, “throw” – and the stick hand grenades flew in parallel paths up the slope. When they exploded on the crest the four soldiers rushed up, like one man. Venlo took the lead and left the others behind him, taking great strides towards the crest. The ground was earthy and raked, explosions having thrown dirt around them. There was no sign left of snow at all. Impact craters were everywhere but between them the ground was firm enough for a quick advance.

An MG volley was fired at them. Escher was hit, screamed and dropped his weapon which flew away down the slope. His body was pierced by a whole bunch of unjacketed 7.62 projectiles, blood spurting from the hole in his back. He fell backwards and rolled down the slope.

The rest of the group dashed on towards the crest. The soldiers approached the position with Venlo in the lead, followed by Karnow and Arno last.

Venlo disappeared behind the ridge, followed by Karnow. Once up on the crest in his turn, Arno saw how the pair had gone off to the left side in a jumble of broken concrete walls, slit trenches and impact craters. With fire and movement Karnow and Venlo fought down the anti-tank gun and its crew. Arno grimly nodded approval.

But he needed reinforcements. He looked down the slope and saw the reserves coming. He shouted:

“Come on, Deschner! Pick up the pace!”

A steady stream of German soldiers came rushing up the slope. Once up on the crest, Arno ordered them to the right, to knock out the other anti-tank gun, dug in 100 metres away.

When about ten soldiers had dashed that way, Arno followed, hot on their heels. The main force broke into the anti-tank emplacement as he’d ordered. As he neared it, Arno saw a Russian machine gunner swinging his weapon to open fire at them. A burst from Arno’s assault rifle and the man was hit, dead before he hit the ground.

Arno decided to leave the right wing and return to the left where Karnow and the others had gone. He stopped soldier Lankow, who happened to be nearby, and took him along as a bodyguard. They reached yet another knocked out MG pit. A young, bareheaded Russian soldier was sprawled over the Maxim gun. Arno put a burst into his head. The Russian could have been playing dead. Not playing now.

It was a hard world. But in battle you weren’t allowed to be naive. “In battle the worst mistakes stem from benevolence.” Clausewitz.

The harsh rattle of automatic volleys came again from the right hand anti-tank position, a jumble of sandbags and earth mounds some 30 metres away. Arno and Lankow, for their part, continued to check the MG emplacement they were in. In a corner was yet another Russian soldier, his face a bloody mass and body torn by wounds. Shrapnel from the grenades that had been thrown, from mortar shells, the artillery bombardment…?

Lankow fired a long burst into the corpse, following Arno’s example. It was unnecessary. You could really see that this one was well dead already. But Arno let it pass. Bloodlust. Red mist. Fear. Adrenaline. Survival instinct.

Arno unclipped his canteen and drank. Again, Lankow did the same. Arno leaned out across the slope and shouted down it. If any of the platoon were still down there, they were needed in position with the main force now on the crest of the hill. They would need every last man to be ready to repel any counter-attack.

Arno took out the radio and called Captain Wistinghausen. Arno reported that the height was being cleared. The resistance was broken. Both anti-tank guns on this side of the road were being neutralised.

Arno added that on their way up they had passed wounded Panzer Grenadiers, the unit caught on the flat ground. The Captain acknowledged this, they’d get medics to them straight away. Arno then had a task for Lankow whom he ordered to go back down the slope and check on Escher. Arno guessed that he had died almost at once from the wounds from the MG burst, but he had to be sure. Lankow returned grim-faced after a few minutes and confirmed that he’d bought it.

+++

Tumult was heard from the left side of the road. Shasta was busy clearing his part of the height. Just then Karnow arrived and confirmed that the right-hand anti-tank gun was eliminated. After that a soldier came and said that the left-hand piece was also knocked out. Arno radioed the Captain again and confirmed that the target was taken; all the enemy anti-tank weapons had been destroyed. The Captain acknowledged and broke off contact.

Arno went off past the wreckage of the left-hand emplacement, heading for the road passing by in the cutting through the crest. On the other side of the road the shooting had stopped too. German soldiers were sauntering among the ramparts. One tossed his mate a pack of Russian cigarettes.

Arno, however, was sharply aware that they were soldiers in a breakout, not tourists. He barked orders. He sent Bauer to deploy men to the north, 100 metres in the advance direction, inside the edge of the piece of woodland just beyond the meadow. This outpost would be a safety screen should the enemy try to counterattack. When that had been taken care of Arno sat down by the road in a bomb crater.

He sat on the edge of the pit, pushed on his weapon’s safety catch and slung it on his back. While he drank water from his canteen he heard engines. The noise grew as the lead vehicle in the column came up the crest. Then it drove away over the level ground, the Panzer III going along the road through the snow-covered fields and quickly disappearing into the woods some 100 metres further on. Many more Panzer IIIs came in its wake, rolling on down the road, on the way to exploit the gap they had torn in the Russian line. The vehicles passed him where he sat, Arno Greif, who now took off his helmet, scratched his hair and let out a deep sigh. Relief and satisfaction.

Huge amounts of armour passed by. It seemed endless. Winter-camouflaged tanks and SPWs rolled along the way 8th Company had opened up. This was why Escher had died there. The whole of Kampfgruppe G was getting out along this route.

14

Red Sky

Later that evening. Accompanied by the MG squad and Corporal Deschner, Arno was moving cautiously through a birch wood. The sky was red in the west and the air was laden with the scent of wet hardwood and rotten leaves. The temperature was four degrees below zero. It was dark but the scene was lit by Scheinwerfers in the sky. Company orders were to clear the enemy out of this forest, located just beyond the height they had stormed earlier that day. With the rest of the Battalion as a barrier to the east, the scattered and retreating enemy unit would be destroyed. It wouldn’t be allowed to disrupt Kampfgruppe G’s breakout any more. That was the idea.

The platoon was advancing with Arno in the lead. Going by the book, a unit commander was supposed to have a private in front of him on point, but he preferred it this way. He was their leader, and he wasn’t going to die in this war.

Shasta’s platoon trudged along on the right. And Dion brought up the rear with a rifle squad made up of unoccupied mortar crewmen. They were advancing through the gloom, chasing the enemy, giving him no time to regroup. Suddenly, Deschner thought that he saw something move in front of him in the murky wood. With gestures and hasty, whispered orders, he brought his support weapons into position. The two MG 34s opened fire, muzzle flashes lighting up the tree trunks and the snow-covered ground. With rapid bursts of three or four round and alternate firing between the two weapons, a storm of lead tore through the wood to cover their advance.

Thus it continued for a while: forward and cover, fire and movement. Bauer’s and Karnow’s squads followed in their wake. They seemed to have something in front of them, the sound of scattered hostile fire reaching them from time to time, the rapid sound of Pepesjas accompanied by the echo of single rifle shots that rang out from time to time.

Soon they reached a large pit some 200 metres across, a natural feature created at the end of the last Ice Age. The thought came to him from nowhere, from something he’d read in his old life, back in the dream days. Arno pushed the thought away. Concentrate! These men depend on my wits to stay alive!

They stayed at the top and fired between the trees, down into the pit. During a pause in the firing they heard the sharp rattle of an MG ahead.

”It’s the rest of the battalion!” Arno said. “That’s the barrier. Ivan’s trapped.”

Arno took Deschner’s squad and positioned it 100 metres away on the left wing. Arno thought the enemy would try to escape in this direction. And indeed. After a few minutes movement was spotted down in the pit, men rushing towards the south. Arno commanded fire. The “electric rifles,” the MG 34s, fired belt after belt of 7.92 into the cornered Russians. The steel scythes reaped another harvest.

Arno drew his flare pistol and fired a shot. A white ball exploded in the sky; shadows moving slowly as the illumination shell drifted to the ground. The MG fire was joined by the rest of the platoon opening up with their StGs. The last fleeing Russians were cut to pieces in the crossfire. As Arno had planned.

Finally, the soldiers went down in the pit and gave the coup de grace to the wounded. Unusually, a few Russians, having surrendered their weapons, were spared and sent back. But back to what? 1st Army was a movable entity in a hostile land, a panzer amoeba, a hedgehog defensive position heading west; there were no rear lines here. This made “taking care of surrendering enemies” difficult, even if you wanted to obey the ‘rules’. If the three frightened teenagers had any sense, they’d try to hide until the fight had rolled on.

Wistinghausen on the radio. He ordered the Company to regroup on the road. Once there, reunited with their vehicles, the weary men were driven for an hour until they reached a village. Some slept. Some smoked and stared at nothing in the dark.

In the village, accommodation had been commandeered and allocated by the Battalion Supply Company. As usual, they requisitioned accommodation in the civilian houses that had survived. Civilians still lived in them, Ukrainian peasants. Now they had to provide shelter for the battalion as best as they could. Arno’s platoon got quarters in an earth-floored barn. Not what you could call warm, but dry, and much better than the forest floor or a hole scooped in a snow drift.

The billeting was a forced process but this night it went without frictions. Apart from anything else, the Ukrainians had got used to this two and a half years ago, and – whatever they now thought of the Germans – they still hated the Bolsheviks for the artificial famine with which they had killed millions just ten years earlier.

+++

Sleeping on straw in the Ukrainian barn, Arno dreamed. He was in a vault, looking in coffins and funeral urns, searching for a scroll he knew he must find. And finally he unearthed it, a rather large, ancient object, papyrus rolled up on two coils.

In his dream Arno, sitting in a stone chamber high in a tower, studied the scroll. As he pored through its apocryphal characters, he suddenly had the insight for which he was searching; he understood everything. Everything. And then, when he awoke in the pre-dawn cold, he had forgotten everything. But the feeling that life could be understood remained with him. The philosopher in him had taken another step towards clarity.

+++

Three days later, on April 5, the battalion found itself in the middle of nowhere, at the ruins of a place called Rissnovsk. They had continued the march northwest and now paused at a crossroads, bordered by burned down houses. There, at two o’clock, Arno sat on an ammunition box. Made of wood and it was 30 cm long, 17 cm wide, 12 cm high and had carrying handles made of rope. It was grey-green. Packets of 9 mm ammo had been stored in it. German ammunition. It was empty.

Arno had taken off his M/35 helmet; it lay on the ground in front of him, in itself a meaningful hieroglyph with its white fabric cover now being quite dirty. Arno found himself with the rest of the company at a Ukrainian crossroads. Another Nowhere Place in Nowhere Land.

Arno meditated. He forced himself to breathe calmly. It was a demonstration of willpower. You never begin to meditate by chance; you decide to meditate. It’s a case of mind over matter. And it starts with taking control of your breathing. This was Arno’s train of thought as he sat on the ammo box.

After a night by the ruined village, each man got a meagre breakfast ration slopped into his mess tin. Then the Battalion continued its advance towards Tarnopol. There followed a few uneventful days, in which they just rolled on through the mud. Over forest-lined fields, over hills and across raging rivers.

Slowly but surely they were heading for their main lines. They seemed to be practically out of the pocket now, hostile encounters were much less frequent. But they weren’t in Tarnopol yet, the city was still some way off. They had passed other ruined villages, burned down by the Reds to deny them shelter and supplies on their way. It was only a transit region, of no tactical value to anyone.

This latest crossroads was lined with ruins, a few rough brick chimneys standing lonely amid ashes and the charred remains of roof timbers. Ash stirred in the breeze. 100 metres off in the background was a forest edge of spruce and birch. Smoke drifted over the deserted plain. Out in a field stood one single, majestic, leafless oak. In the sky, grey clouds gathered. The Company rank and file were sitting listlessly around the haphazardly parked SPWs. It was like a real-life, open-air scene from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

They were waiting for the SPWs to be refueled, dependent on the arrival of a truck laden with jerry cans that was supposed to arrive several hours earlier. Kampfgruppe G had a Supply Battalion that worked in curious ways and travelled on mysterious roads.

They sat and waited. Arno fell to thinking of his land of birth, his Nordic homeland. Sweden. Strange thoughts, quite out of context. An advertising jingle: “Sandvikens bågfilsblad, går lätt, skär lätt”… (“Sandviken hacksaw blade – runs easily – cuts easily”). He felt close to tears. It was the memory of a language, his own language, his language of birth, mother tongue. He rarely thought of his parents. Rarely thought of the unreal days before the reality of The War.

Nowadays he spoke German fluently; he rarely had to search for words. But he still thought it sounded a little unfamiliar, despite several years of living with this language.

Arno became nostalgic for Sandviken hacksaw blades, for Veckans Äventyr and Aktiebolaget Aerotransport, for Saab and Volvo and ASJA and Aga-Baltic. He longed for Stockholm-Motala, Rederi AB Nordstjärnan, När det våras bland bergen, Flamma stolt mot dunkla skyar and Bullens pilsnerkorv.

That was it. He remembered Sweden. And he had never renounced his Swedish background. So it wasn’t surprising that he became nostalgic. For that matter, along with his German citizenship he still had his Swedish one, so he had the chance to return. But not during wartime. He had no interest in going on leave now, in the middle of Germany’s fateful struggle.

The fuel truck arrived. It pulled up off the road, between the ruins of two houses. Arno climbed to his feet and shouted orders to the SPW drivers to prepare to fetch petrol canisters. It was the drivers’ responsibility to keep the SPWs running smoothly, although everyone in the platoon had to be able to drive them. Even Arno. Long ago, he had received vehicle training in the Swedish Army to the ration team truck. And as for the SdKfz he had received one day’s basic training when he joined Battalion Wolf. It was similar to driving a truck except that you sat lower and that the vehicle had tracks and a steering brake that could stop one track so the vehicle could turn on a ten pfennig piece.

So Arno could, if the need arose, take over as driver. But a born vehicles man he was not. He was glad that he didn’t have to service the vehicles. Strictly speaking, as a soldier, he was more of a ranger type, less of a grenadier.

+++

The vehicles were refueled. And as for himself, once again seated on the ammo box, Arno shook off the memories: the sudden appearance of nostalgia for that land to the north, the enigmatic country he came from. He took a deep breath and gathered himself. It’s strange I yearn for Sweden, he thought. I don’t want to go there, I enjoy being in the combat zone. But of course, you have to let the thoughts fly…

A certain Carlos Castaneda has since written about the sorcerer Don Juan.

In these books Don Juan mentions the feeling, “and yet,” something that haunts the circle of magicians involved. They know their stuff, they’re Operational Men in the service of esotericism, doing what they’re doing as free spirits. But sometimes they still yearn for something else, like a normal life. The epitome of this feeling is, “and yet”. And in the blackened ruins of Rissnovsk, Arno can be said to have experienced the same feeling. He was in his element, he was an elite soldier on the Eastern Front, but still he sat and longed for Old Sweden. Rationally, he shook off the whole thing but, emotionally, the Swedish Dream remained with him for the rest of this day.

15

Petlyakov

Arno stood at the prow of his SdKfz 251 as it splashed and lurched along a road across a plain. The snow had gone completely now, the land was pre-spring brown under a silvery grey sky. The plain was flanked by a spruce forest with some deciduous trees, still bare, on its fringe. It was just after four in the afternoon on April 5, sometime after leaving Rissnovsk.

The sky was overcast. Rain had fallen. The air was full of aromatic scents: it smelled of wood and soil acids, plus a hint of smoke. In front of the vehicle drove another 251, a car from 7th Company.

They were still in the process of breaking out from Hube’s Pocket, also known as the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket. The situation was moderately positive: Hausser’s relief sally from Tarnopol had been launched and the Luftwaffe could support the mission with some maintenance flights and attack sorties.

The column rolled across the plain, the plain with its still-brown early spring grass, thickets and bushes. They were now about 70 km from Tarnopol. They passed a line of wrecked vehicles and dead Russians, the Soviet column having been strafed by Stukas armed with twin 37 mm cannons. As his vehicle passed in the field beside the road Arno saw the devastation: soot-blackened tank chassis, bullet-riddled trucks, turrets and drive belts, wheels and barrels and corpses. The shambles of war.

After about two kilometres the line of wrecks finally ended. Arno estimated that it must have been a full battalion. Arno’s SPW and the rest of the German column could resume the advance on the road proper. The road to Tarnopol.

+++

Arno was wandering about on the plain. It was evening, April 6. In the background he could still make out the forest where the 251s had stopped for the night They had set up their bivouacs among the trees, about 40 km from Tarnopol, to get some food and decent rest.

Arno observed Battalion Wolf’s camp critically. He could glimpse the light from field kitchens and staff tents. It was an example of bad light discipline, a virtual invitation to the Red Army Air Force to do to them what the Stukas had done to Ivan back on the road across the plain.

The cloud cover had begun to break up. Scattered clouds scudded across the sky and were illuminated by the descending sun. The grey and blue-grey rags shifted in violet and gold. Sauntering in this way Arno suddenly spotted something, barely visible in the twilight. He flicked the safety catch of his automatic off and headed over. When he arrived he saw that it was a wreck, a plane wreck.

It was the remains of an enemy Petlyakov Pe-2. The propellers were bent. One engine was blackened by soot. There weren’t any corpses in the cockpit. Arno could make out three seats behind the glass hood. The exit hatches in the cockpit cover were open; the crew might have left the plane in midair, saving their lives by parachuting out. But, given that the wreck was intact it was more likely that they had managed to make an emergency landing, after which they had fled. But if so they had forgotten to burn the wreck. Shoot the fuel tank and toss a match was the usual routine which downed aircrews always had to try to do when landing in enemy-held territory. German forces could salvage the wreck and give it to the Finns who liked this plane. Indeed, Finland had a small force of this type of aircraft in its Air Force. It consisted of emergency landed Pe-2s; seized, repaired and renovated and then deployed against their makers.

The Pe-2 was a twin-engine bomber; more or less, a Russian equivalent of the British Mosquito. But the Pe-2 was used as a dive bomber whereas the British machine, however good it may have been in some ways, was made mainly of wood and probably couldn’t stand dive bombing. Twin fins added to the Pe-2’s distinctiveness. It had a top speed of 580 km/h and could carry a deadly payload of 1,600 kg in bombs.

This one was painted green, with a light grey underside. Arno further noted the Russian emblem on the sides, red, five-pointed stars outlined in white. Arno walked slowly around the machine, he drew his hand across the fuselage sheet metal and rivets, fantasising about what it would be to live as an aviator, a pilot, a conqueror of the skies.

Arno was fascinated by planes, although he had never flown one. He only knew about how to call in air support and that too wasn’t too elaborate. It was good to have but the means of communication between ground and air in those days were still rather embryonic, like using coloured smoke flares.

Apart from when he was airlifted out of Stalingrad, Arno had never even been in a plane. The nearest he had ever got to flying in one in the old days was when, as a child in Karlstad, he saw a Junkers F-19 landing on Lake Vänern. It was the famous Captain Albin Ahrenberg who was out on tour, taking people for a ride for a certain fee. But Arno couldn’t fly that day, he was harvesting potatoes in the family’s potato field. This was in August 1933.

As for Arno and the air he had also seen the Junkers 86 in the sky above Karlstad that day in June 1938. The low-flying bomber to him had played the role of a Herald of War, but something more as well. The machine itself was fascinating for Arno. He looked at the aircraft as a revelation from another world, warlike or not.

And now he saw this aircraft as another portent – of what? For some reason he saw it as a sign of relief, of hardships temporarily overcome. A sign saying: “You made it out of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket. Congrats!”

+++

Arno bade farewell to the Petlyakov and walked back towards the trees. He returned to his bivouac on the spruce-branch covered ground under the engine of the 251. He felt safe there. The battalion was grouped into a hedgehog defence. The sentry rota had been drawn up. He pulled a blanket over himself and thought about the different hobbies he could have after the war. Mountaineering and hiking were high on the list. He had no desire to go hunting. He had seen enough killing already.

Arno was platoon leader. He knew little about the overall tactical situation. But he knew the breakout had gone fairly well. Hube’s Army had escaped being wiped out and that was a victory in itself. The Russians hadn’t been able to squeeze out and obliterate the Kessel, as they had with the Tjerkassy motti early in 1944.

16

Tarnopol

The sunlight shone into the cabin of Arno’s 251. The neighborhood resounded with distant thunder, gunfire and explosions. The platoon travelled in a column, the three SPWs rolling tirelessly along over the land under an azure blue sky.

It was April 8. The breakout had succeeded. The vanguard, in the form of Bäke’s armour, had two days earlier established contact with a reconnaissance battalion from Hausser’s SS Panzer Korps. Now the rest of the column, with Battalion Wolf in the rear, had reached friendly territory at Tarnopol. To be precise Tarnopol wasn’t entirely in German hands at this moment; pockets of Russians still fought fiercely, but the German troops had the upper hand in the region.

Overall the situation was good. 1st Panzer Armee was out of the sack. They had travelled over 200 km through hostile territory, fighting their way through the Russians time and again. In the city, in the woods and on the plains, against armoured units and against infantry. An intense week.

Battalion Wolf was nearer Tarnopol than many. Since leaving Rissnovsk they had driven or trudged along muddy winter roads, over brown meadows, through bare hardwood copses and through pine forests where the snow was till melting beneath the dark fir canopy. Ditches, streams and rivers were swollen with melting water. Tarnopol, for its part, had been a trouble spot since March. Just a few days ago the German garrison had surrendered and Tarnopol had been taken by the Russians. But the tables were turned now and Hausser’s units were about to reclaim the city. Some parts in the south were cleared already. Battalion Wolf would get quarters there, getting a little rest, and then join in the cleanup.

The road Arno’s column travelled along led up on a ridge, overgrown with trees and bushes. They halted in an oak grove. The company’s vehicles were deployed in aerial protection under the oaks and Arno’s driver followed the example. When he and the platoon’s two other vehicles had parked up, Arno gave the order “five minutes’ break.” Then Arno went to a house nearby on the edge of the trees, as ordered by radio. Arriving at the house he saw that a number of men were already there. Captain Wistinghausen, Sergeant Pankow, two orderlies and Second Lieutenants Dion and Shasta. Arno greeted them. The Captain returned the greeting with a finger against the peak of his cap. A thin smile crossed his tired face as he turned towards the plain and pointed to a town in the distance:

“Behold, the city of Tarnopol!”

It was the beckoning outpost in the northwest, the goal of the breakout, the legendary Tarnopol. The city, complete with several plumes of smoke, shimmered slightly in the springtime sun haze, a sprawling mass of houses, streets, squares, blocks, backyards and parks. The city was divided in two by a river, the Seret, which the breakout force had already crossed out of town. On the right, beyond a few fields and meadows, there was a large wooded area. Several roads lead on towards the city. It was busy with traffic: single vehicles, marching columns and convoys alike, all heading for quarters in the uncontested parts of the city.

Overall it was theirs, but this was no city of peace and quiet. The enemy was active and so were their forward units. A fresh plume of smoke rose above the city as they watched.

The Captain filled them in on details. Some of Hausser’s battalions were fighting in the city right now. Battalion Wolf would soon be deployed in the mop-up. The enemy was mainly grouped in the north, in the industrial area, as well as in some other bases in the city. It would be hard enough, but the Germans wouldn’t have to fight for every house.

The Captain finished his briefing with the order: “March off in an hour.” Then the officers remained, standing on the ridge chatting. Arno returned wearily to his Platoon. He found a path through some bushes. He thought it would be a shortcut but it wasn’t.

Halfway through the brushwood forest Arno sat down for a cigarette. He was shattered. Even he, the epitome of cool. The breakout from Hube’s Pocket had been nerve-wracking. Ten days in a mobile hedgehog, fighting for life, left its mark.

He looked up into the blue sky and emptied his mind. He reached zero, mental zero. For a moment nothing existed but his blue eyes, looking up into the eternal blue.

+++

Arno smoked his cigarette, finished it right down to the butt, where he sat. His platoon was in Bauer’s capable hands while he was away. No hurry then. The main vegetation of the brushwood was salix, everything sprouting with green sprigs. The ground was wet but Arno sat on his pigskin gloves. Grass was growing all around, last year’s bleached out, yellow grass was already streaked with green in anticipation of spring.

When Arno finally got to his feet and emerged from the brushwood, he didn’t know where he was. He saw plenty of vehicles, German ones luckily, but it wasn’t his own platoon. The shortcut had been a detour. Losing his sense of direction was a sign of how tired he was. So he returned to the north, searched around and eventually found his men and his three SdKfzs. He called Bauer and asked if all was well. It was.

“Mount up in 45 minutes,” Arno said.

As for the situation at large, it was now clear that the breakout had indeed succeeded. Hube had managed to force his way out of the Pocket, defeating a number of Russian units in the process. Hube’s gamble was a tactical victory. Strategically, however, it was a defeat for the Wehrmacht, Germany’s once invincible Army. Now it was virtually back to the staging areas of Operation Barbarossa of July 1941. All the death and destruction deep in Russia had been for nothing. All the dead comrades were in their shallow graves, for nothing.

And yet, despite this, you must recognise the outstanding feat of the recently completed retreat. Hube’s breakout was, operationally speaking, a landmark in military history. A breakout performed by 200,000 men, smashing their way through enemy armour, without itself taking heavy casualties – such a result requires skill, sang-froid and tactical wisdom.

+++

Battalion Wolf drove into Tarnopol, entering its peculiar cityscape of ruins, half-wrecked houses and still functional structures. It was allotted quarters in the southern part of town. Next day the unit participated in the mopping-up of the city, clearing it of the last Russian die-hards.

8th Company’s clean up mission was in the northern part of town, in the industrial area. Arno and his Platoon were there, they had their tasks and they solved them. It was pretty much a routine job, with some wounded and dead. Like Private Salazar, shot by a dying Russian as they winkled out a sniper.

During one phase of the mop-up Arno stood in an office. There were two desks with telephones, a bookcase and a window. The window was broken. A curtain fluttered in the draft. Arno strode towards the window, stopping short so he was still in shadow, and stood looking out over the city.

He saw rooftops, clouds of smoke from fires and sky, pale blue sky with the special shimmer of April. Standing there, Arno for some strange reason came to think of Norrbotten, Sweden, where he was stationed in 1940: snow-covered fir trees, snow-covered swamps, blue sky over rustling forests. Why did I come to think of this, Arno wondered, while fighting in Ukraine in 1944? I wasn’t even born in Norrland. But as a mere place, a mere image, “Norrland” was a strong metaphor. Norrland was a landscape being more than a landscape; it was a state of mind, with the thousand-mile taiga of conifers as the main feature. Privately, in his mind, Arno had lived and breathed the essence of this northern clime almost every day since he had been there.

+++

Later that day, the platoon was in a backyard. Arno put out sentries and rested, leaning against the wall of a storehouse. He found himself once again thinking about the North of Sweden, about the snow: snow in the woods, what a reassuring thought. Russia and the Eastern Front he found to be emotionally alien territory, mainly because of the lack of really large forests. And, although he had snatched a few hours’ uneasy sleep in fox holes dug into drifts, by northern Swedish standards there really wasn’t much snow on the plains here in winter. As for the Ukrainian winter, it could be damp and raw thanks to the proximity of the Black Sea. And then there was the Russian summer: no shade available, no coolness…

Arno’s thoughts drifted further: a military tent in the winter is warm. I never felt cold and frozen in the bivouacs of my War Preparedness Duty. It’s easy to create a warm room in winter. By contrast, to create a cool room in summer is more difficult. Take today – and it was still only early spring. Arno wore a field shirt and tunic, the German Army’s customary, grey-green woollen tunic, totally inappropriate for summer use. To roll up your sleeves helped a little. But woollen breeches and boots didn’t make you cooler. There was a summer tunic of warp satin available. But it wasn’t summer yet so, on balance, the woollen cloth tunic was a good garment. On top of that was worn the camouflage smock, now with the grey-green-brown-speckled side out. There was no snow in the city and therefore the Company Commander had allowed this – even though this was April 9 and spring in the Army Calendar didn’t start until tomorrow, on April 10. Typical Army – even the seasons were regimented and given their marching orders.

+++

They fought on. Clearing houses, mopping up buildings occupied by enemies. In the midst of clearing a warehouse Arno thought of Nietzsche and his advice, to live as if on a volcano edge: live dangerously! This was the life of a man. Nietzsche wrote about it, Arno lived this for real. Arno lived on the edge and the purpose of it all was to raise yourself mentally.

By living on the edge you were elevated mentally, reaching a higher state of consciousness. In and out of battle Arno was in combat mood, prepared to die at any moment, but feeling alive. More alive than ever.

Once the warehouse was secure, Arno looked out into the street. The sun blazed. They saw German and Russian corpses, a dog running loose and the wreckage of a T-34. A large hole gaped in the side armour, a close-range direct hit from a German antitank grenade. The tank had been on fire and was covered by a thick layer of soot. The charred corpse of one of its crew was twisted over the turret. Another dead Ivan – trouble is, they had millions more.

+++

Later the same day, April 9, 1944. Arno was in his quarters in Tarnopol. It was a three-story brick house with tiled floor. There were open fireplaces but no running water.

It was night. Arno lay awake in his allotted room; he had a bed, and he had blankets, which was unusual. Mostly he slept on branches, bracken or straw, with his stained greatcoat as cover. Regardless of this he had trouble sleeping. It was past midnight. He had nothing to read, but – in his mind – he recited poetry. Like the Bhagavad-Gîtâ line saying, “Our army, led by Bhîsma, is insurmountable – but theirs, led by Bhîma, is insignificant.” He always liked that line, expressing as it did plain chauvinism, common-style military boastfulness. That’s how soldiers are. Across the centuries, it hit the nail on the head.

He then thought of other belligerent lines from the poem: “Do not waver in your duty; there is nothing like fighting for dharma”. And “you either die and reach heaven or triumph and rule the world; therefore, arise, ready for battle.” And: “Girding yourself for battle, being equal to pleasure or pain, profit or ruin, victory or defeat, you shall not incur sin.” The latter was the philosophy of apateia, of samatva, of equanimity while being active and fighting for truth.

Arno also had a mental stock of Swedish poetry lauding war. He remembered from shcool the Boye line, “Rest only awaits you in battle, / only between the shields there is peace”. Oh, indeed Arno thought: now between the blankets, now between the shields. Some fire-eater I am.

Then Arno came to think of another Swedish poet, Edith Södergran. Technically she was a Finnish subject but an ethnic Swede, part of Finland’s Swedish minority since way back. He had read her too before the war. And now, in the dark, he silently recited Södergran lines: “The spirit of song is war.” This was really brave. But, Arno thought, was war really about singing? Did he go singing into battle? No. But there was inspiration in the process, this was the truth, the truth that even Södergran surmised as she sat in her solitary room and wrote poems about war, when she became war, embodying the spirit of war like nothing on earth.

Södergran was inspired by Nietzsche, the same Nietzsche who Arno cherished: the vitalist, the happily prancing glorifier of fire and movement, power, strength and joy. Södergran understood Nietzsche when she wrote these lines, which Arno also remembered:

“What do I fear? I am a part of infinity. / I am a part of the immense power of The Whole, / a lonely world within millions of worlds, / a first-class star being the last to go out. / Triumph of living, triumph of breathing, triumph of being!”

Arno also remembered the more sedate “By Nietzsche’s Grave”. “Beauty is not the thin sauce in which poets serve themselves, / beauty is to wage war and to seek happiness, / beauty is to serve higher powers”

Nietzsche praised the active life. He was against austerity and self-hatred, that which Christianity in its weaker moments resorted to, indulging in weakness and despair, suffering and negativity. Of course, you had to be an ethical actor, you had to have the moral law within you, the Hindu dharma that the Gîtâ spoke of, and of course you should also cherish piety and kindness. But to cherish weakness and debility, negativity and despair…? Never! Therefore, Arno held Nietzsche in high esteem. And Södergran, whose poem on the subject he remembered when lying in that room in Tarnopol while the world collapsed and the Allies were preparing to crush Germany between them:

“O my good sword, which I have received from heaven, I’m kissing you. / You shall not rest / before the earth is a garden, where the gods dream by a wonderful chalice.”

In the same spirit he liked the following. Heroism lived on, even in the Nordic countries in 1918, the time when Arno was born and Södergran wrote: “There you stand, / a hero with newborn blood. / Enraptured in tranquility, a bonfire of reflective ice, / as if the commandment of death wasn’t written for you: / Blessed waves bring your keel forward.”

This is me, Arno thought; enraptured in the peace of the moment. This is the model battle mentality: calm but loaded, mentally elevated but stoically collected. Living in apateia, completely calm, completely prepared for great deeds: “Mars helmets in the mist…”

+++

Arno turned in his bed and looked towards the window. Pale light washed the floor from the full moon that had risen over the living and the dead in Tarnopol. “The moon knows…” Arno was half-drowsy, he was neither asleep nor awake. He was moonstruck, he was in a trance. He felt as if he were an “Operational Scout,” a mindful operator, whose programmatic philosophy and creed he would develop in full only after the war. However, as a budding Operational Scout he now said this, lost in a state of sublime inebriation:

“Plus or minus, one or zero, light or darkness. I no longer know what is what. Germany and Russia, Sweden and the USA, hallelujah. Advance, retreat. Everything is meaningless. Nothing exists. Only the act, only the battle. Only movement – which is a condition, a state of mind.

“Nothing exists. Only the act, only the battle. Das allein ist wahr.

“Nothing exists. And everything.

“Everything flows, everything flows together in blind harmony. And in the sky hangs a Junkers Ju 86 – hovering there, standing still, like a modern dragon Nidhogg with human corpses as scales.

“God’s light is within me, therefore I can’t die. I’m eternally divine, eternally saved, eternally existing. Plus and minus, one and zero. Shell cases on the ground and aircraft noise in the sky. A Junkers flying by, the round in the chamber and the helmet on the head. Stukas on their way and waiting as a state of mind.

“Battle is everything there is, battle is a condition. Everything is lit by burning magnesium in the sky, greenish glowing flares with small parachutes, they drift slowly to the ground. They’re dropped by planes, bombers, enemy planes. Or our planes: Junkers Ju 86 B3.

“Battlefield illuminated by burning magnesium. Battlefield illuminated by searchlights, directed towards the underside of clouds, creating a spooky light, unreal, surreal. And there goes a man forever, living there, thriving there, having a good time there. Outwardly committed, giving orders, signs and signals, but untouched in his heart of hearts. For movement is a condition, a state of mind.

“I thrive in the dark. Chasing shadows under the ersatz moonlight, with searchlights on low-scudding clouds – this is a feast, a virtual field-day.

“I get the urge to say, ‘I thrive in darkness but within me I have light.’ But this sounds pointless. I have both light and darkness within me. Everyone has it. But I’m one of the few who knows this. Me and Carl Jung.

“I’m not disordered chaos. I have a kind of order within me. I’m not prepared to be a lobotomised combat robot, with no face, no name. But besides that, right now I only live for the battle. I’m on the verge of becoming a war machine. Perhaps it’s risky. But I like living on this borderline.

“You have to live on the border, live on the edge. Living on the edge raises you mentally.

“Thus it is. For if someone said to me, ‘You’re skating the edge,’ I would answer: ‘I am the edge.’”

17

The Major

It was April 15. Arno and his men were still part of the garrison in Tarnopol. The city was now completely cleared. The last pockets of Bolshevik resistance had been searched and destroyed. This day Arno began by waking up in his quarters at about six o’clock, going to the yard and the morning routine in the latrine. It was a series of three outhouses. In addition, there was a sink with soap and water.

It was overcast and cold. There was snow in the air, a brief return of winter. At the other end of the yard sat the baggage train, with its field-kitchen. There Arno and the others got hot chicory coffee and crisp bread with turnip marmalade. They ate at a table in the lower floor of the quarters house, the company’s temporary cafeteria.

At 0700 Wistinghausen arrived with the orders of the day. He told them that the platoons would go on working separately this day. There was no need to muster the whole company today. Pankow gave them the details. Then Arno took his unit, mustered it and told them that they were to spend the day cleaning their weapons and thoroughly checking all their equipment. Arno finished his orders with:

“Bauer takes command of the platoon. I’ll be either in my quarters or in the mess on the other side of the street.”

Bauer obeyed. Arno returned to his quarters and slept for another hour. Then he went down and checked on them, even though Bauer was in charge. Men sat on the floor and on the bunks cleaning their weapons, polishing boots and sewing and brushing clothes.

Arno nodded to Bauer and said he would go to the mess, then steered his steps towards a building across the street, a deserted house where they had set up a makeshift officer’s club. It was just a dusty room in a deserted house but there were comfortable chairs and a table and it had been approved by Wistinghausen. The house was a four-story residential building with a brown-plastered façade pocked with strike marks around several broken windows upstairs. .

Having reached the building, Arno opened the front door, crossed the hall with its tiled floor, went upstairs, came to a corridor and went on to a room with stucco ceilings, pink walls, a threadbare carpet on the floor and a table with four chairs. He took off his cap, sat down and took a drink from a hip flask. Then he took out a deck of cards and played a game of solitaire.

He had just finished when Shasta and Dion arrived. Shasta was a postmaster in civilian life. Before his military career, Dion had been the owner of a fleet of trucks. Now he carried tin mugs and a bottle of wine. He poured some, they drank a toast. Smokes were offered around. A cracked porcelain plate was an ashtray.

“Rather fine as an officer’s mess,” Dion said.

“Indeed,” Shasta said. He and Dion were reserve officers and hadn’t spent much time on officer messes. They had been appointed officer cadets for their military service, having then been trained and eventually employed as reserve officers. Then they had gone off to war. Dion for his part had been in Baltikum in the spring of 1943. Shasta had fought in Ukraine with Battalion Wolf throughout 1943.

For the moment, though, nobody talked about the war. They asked Arno, the Sweden-born half-German, what he liked about Germany. Ernst Jünger, he replied.

With that the conversation took off. Shasta said that he liked the Jünger war book Storm of Steel. Dion, on the other hand, had read the relatively new novel On the Marble Cliffs. And he liked its fairytale-like atmosphere, its timeless mythic environment in medieval costume.

“But what about you, Mr. Tot,” Shasta said, “which Jünger book do you like best?”

“Mr. Tot…?” Arno asked.

“But you’re him, ain’t you,” Shasta said. “You were talking about death when you arrived at the Company in November last year.”

“True, I did,” Arno said and blew a puff of smoke. “I even think this Jünger guy has portrayed it. In Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis. Have you read it?”

This Shasta hadn’t. Arno continued:

“It’s like the old adage: ‘Wenn Du in den Rohren sitzt, scheid Pfeifen’ (= When you’re sitting in the reeds, cut pipes). Meaning: when you are at the front, familiarise yourself with Death, because being a soldier is about killing and being killed. That’s my philosophy. You then, what do you say to your men? ‘Everything is going well, this is like a holiday’…?”

“No, of course not,” Shasta said sullenly.

They were joined by Wistinghausen. He poured himself a mug of wine and took a cigarette from the packet on the table. “What are you talking about?” the Captain asked as he sat down.

“About literature,” Arno said.

“Oh damn,” said the Captain. “I’ve never read a book. At least not novels. I haven’t got the stamina needed to plough through 300 pages. Then again, I like poetry. Like this…”

The Captain had a far-off look in his eyes as he recited: “Tell it to no one but the wise, / the crowd will only jeer: / the living thing I praise, / that longs for death by fire.”

“Who wrote that?” Dion said. “Was it you, Captain?”

“No,” he said. “It’s Goethe.”

They asked for more. The Captain took a long drag from his cigarette, stubbed it out and recited the whole poem: “Blissful Yearning”, in German, “Seelige Sehnsucht”. He quoted:

Cooling, in those nights of love,

Conceiving as you were conceived,

A strange emotion fills you

While the quiet candle gleams.

You’re no longer in the grasp

Of shadows, darkening,

A new desire lifts you up

On to a higher mating.

No distances can weigh you down,

Enchanted you come flying,

And greedy for the light, at last,

A moth, you burn in dying.

And as long as you lack this

True word: Die and Become!

You’ll be but a dismal guest

In Earth’s darkened room.

It was a sombre poem about dying, about the meaning of dying, about having a spiritual, eternal, divine ideal so that when you die you find this spiritual element.

They four men sat in silence. Arno wasn’t really Mr. Death; they all knew Mr. Death. They were all living in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The poem was about Dying and Becoming – Stirb und Werde – as became clear in the last verse. The material world is less real than the astral world, the world where the soul lives on after death. That was the gist of Goethe’s poem.

+++

They sat and drank, still saying little. They had time for this. The city was mopped up. And they had broken out of Hube’s Pocket, some feat. And Mr. Death hadn’t called on any of them.

Wistinghausen had the sudden urge to reward his platoon commanders with a visit to Battalion HQ. So he left the others sitting with their empty mugs, walked over to Company HQ, picked up the receiver of the field telephone, cranked the handle and called the Major himself. Major Eberhardt Wolf, Chief of Battalion Wolf, duly OK’d the visit.

So, a while later, with Dion at the wheel, Wistinghausen, Shasta and Arno drove in the company Kübelwagen a few blocks through the city to Battalion Staff Headquarters. In a grand house, a two-story, detached villa, they were received by the Major. He was a little fat, slightly rounded but exuberantly vital.

“8th Company!” he exclaimed to Wistinghausen, Arno, Shasta and Dion when they had greeted him. “A fine unit, one of my best. Join me at the table.”

This was something! They got a better meal, served in a room with wallpaper and curtains. The whole thing seemed unreal to these front-pigs. The decorated room, without a sign of war. The food, served on china instead of slopped into scratchy mess-tins. This they weren’t used to. Sausage and potatoes; this simple but formal meal was luxury to them. Then more wine and spirits were served. Arno wondered wryly if they had not indeed all met with Mr. Death after all!

Shasta had soon had enough, asked to be excused, and went away to a side room to rest. But Dion, Arno and Wistinghausen stayed, listening to the Major’s stories about the campaign in France in 1940. Back in those glory days, Wolf had been Commander of a Panzer Grenadier Company. He told them of abandoned villages, food sitting on kitchen tables which told of hasty escapes, and the wreckage of a French tank, big as a house.

“Char B,” Wistinghausen said, “60 tons.”

The Major nodded and thanked him for the enlightenment. Then he lit a cigar and plunged them back into his memories of the town of Arras. He took it in 1940 he said. Just how accurate his recollections were was hard to say; perhaps it was the drunken chatter of a drunken man temporarily relieved of the burden of trying to get a whole battalion out of a death trap. In any case, of the Arras parks the Major said:

“There were parks. Fancy parks. Parks through which yellow and red birds flew, calling loudly in the splendour of the morning parks with fragrant flowering trees, shrubs and green lawns, paved walkways, ponds and bridges with ornamented railings and avenues of trees whispering in the evening sunshine.”

Puffing on his cigar Wolf reflected wistfully for a while, then he continued:

“In Arras, there are green gardens and sandstone houses slumbering in the midday sun; there’s a haze in the distance, an echo in the streets, laughter under the arches, shade in the square and whisperings in the gardens, rustlings in the poplars and the murmour of the surrounding wheat fields.

“There are houses made of yellow brick and brown sandstone, even grey sandstone, and houses with plastered façades and whatnot. A river flows through the city, the scent of water weed rises from the stream and wafts over the city, enchanting the urban space in the freshness of the scents.

“There are streets with galleries and deserted squares in the noontide emptiness; there are copper-clad spires, narrow alleys and bridges high between the houses; there are rows of houses along the avenues, palaces with pastel-colored façades, lazily dreaming away the day’s sunny hours and waiting for the evening’s pleasant coolness.”

+++

As for Battalion Wolf, it had been set up in southern Germany in the autumn of 1942. Then, in the spring of 1943, it was inserted on the Eastern Front, in the retreat through Ukraine and during Manstein’s counteroffensive. The Battalion was held in reserve during the titanic Battle of Kursk. During the renewed retreat after this battle it became extremely useful as a “fire brigade unit” with emergency sallies to seal gaps in the front and such like. And this operational pattern – fighting retreat, retrograde defensive, “Shield and Sword” – would be repeated by Battalion Wolf during Operation Bagration, the Russian offensive in Belarus in June, 1944.

Because the meal with its Commander was scarcely real. War was real.

18

Point 31

After a week of relative quiet in the cleared city, the battalion was sent back to Germany to be re-equipped. The evidence of the British bombing campaign was disturbing, but a wide-eyed girl or a lonely young widow could make a man forget. In May they went east again, to Belarus, where they had to resist the onslaught of the Russian Operation Bagration. Previously Battalion Wolf had fought in Ukraine with the Southern Army Group; now it was under the command of AG Mitte in the central part of the Eastern Front.

In 1944 the southern wing of the Soviet advance rolled on through western Ukraine and beyond, into Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. But still, in the spring and early summer of that year, the Germans occupied traditional Russian territory in the form of Belarus, situated between Russia proper and Poland. In the summer of 1944 the Red Army would make a main effort here, amassing over 150 divisions. The German AG Mitte only had some 38 Divisions by this time. So when the attack began, on June 9, AG Mitte was hammered. Waves of Russians died, but still they kept coming, and Germans died too.

By mid-July, Belarus was freed – “freed,” in the sense of “being back under Bolshevik rule.” By then the Red Army had advanced a long way into Poland and had East Prussia contained.

Much else happened in the summer of 1944, in the East and the West, in the tangled, intricate web of World War II. For example, in June the Allies landed in Normandy, France. But one thing at a time now. What part did Battalion Wolf play as Hitler’s grip on Europe slipped away?

In May, the re-equipped battalion was deployed in defense in the neighbourhood of Naksosina, somewhere east of the Dnepr-Dvina gate. Arno’s platoon was detailed to defend a strongpoint in a village. The whole village was a fort surrounded by barbed wire, defended by slit trenches with MG emplacements and firing positions for riflemen. East of the village, in the selfsame defensive arrangement, was a constantly manned Observation Post. Arno had a fire control radio connecting him to a battery deployed some 5 km to the west, enabling him to direct supportive fire on targets east of the village. The plain was measured and booked for salvo points, such as “the road end,” “the copse” and “the promontory”.

They were prepared for everything. But – as it turned out – not much happened to Arno and his platoon while defending Point 31, as the village was called. Not much, in any event, of a military nature. It was an existence beyond time, a being of timelessness, like a state of mind. So to get the feel of this state, let’s look at a random day in the strongpoint, June 2 as it happens.

+++

It was 1400 hours. Arno stood on the main street of the ramshackle village. A door slammed. A faded curtain fluttered at a broken window. At his feet, a column of ants crossed the street. Soldier ants, thought Arno. Tight discipline.

He looked up into the sky: a summery blue sky.

The situation: One squad was busy strengthening the barbed wire barrier to the south. The rest were in their quarters, with Bauer. Arno had nothing to do than other than rest. He had long ago mastered the old soldier’s trick of snatching sleep, anywhere, any time; storing it up for when combat made sleep impossible, but lack of sleep deadly dangerous. So he entered the house where he was billetted, walked down the corridor and entered a darkened room of three by four metres. It had a small window, but the narrow slivers of light that sliced through its closed shutter only accentuated the gloom. Drab wallpaper was peeling off with water damage; there was a floor of rough planks. The only furnishings were a chair, a table and a bed with an army blanket.

He sat down on the chair and lit a cigarette.

He puffed at the cigarette, heroically as only a war hero can do.

He looked up at the ceiling, eyes straining to see the fly he could hear buzzing up there.

He stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray in the form of the lid of an old jar. Then he took off his pistol belt with his 9 mm Walter HP in the holster, took off his boots and summer tunic, and lay down on the bed for a nap.

+++

The war as a state:

• a unit grouped in a village in the middle of nowhere, forgotten by the world

• a flywheel swinging around in thin air, a connecting rod cranking around

• the journey is the goal, the impossibility of movement; the pleasure of pain, the pain in the pleasure

• pistons working up and down, without purpose, without a goal, movement an end in itself

• clouds drifting across the sky in perpetual succession

+++

Arno walked to the edge of the village, then took a slit trench to reach the Observation Post. The village they guarded was just another point in a line, along with other villages and woods where the Company’s other platoons were deployed; gaps were blocked by mines and salvo points and guarded by patrols.

He reached the post, about two metres deep, lined with sandbags and equipped with a periscope for the forward observer. As expected this was currently a soldier from his platoon, one Düsterberg, who had joined them as they left Germany. He was young, slim in his field grey, his StG neatly on a shelf, and ready to reel off his post report. When Arno had heard it he peered into the periscope. He saw sandy ditches, craters, a potato field, an isolated copse and a forest edge three km away.

+++

Mobile warfare – armour in the night – exchanging signals –

Swaying antennas –

Smoke belching from exhaust pipes –

In under die Feuerglocke, trajectories of artillery projectiles, creating a virtual “bell shape”, Glocke in German meaning “bell” –

+++

Arno went back to the village centre and went into the signals room. On the wall hung a map and in one corner lay a roll of telephone wire. The table was covered by a blue oilcloth. On the table stood a radio and by the radio sat a signaler, Ditter by name. Salutes and as you were.

Life in the strongpoint was monotonous: mount guard, observation post duty, exercises, weapons care and slow hours in the quarters. It was the war as a state: a military zero existence with the front as ever-present reference.

Arno asked the signals man:

“Anything new?”

“No, Sergeant.”

Arno nodded, said that Bauer was in charge of the platoon. If he, Arno, was wanted he would be in his quarters. Then he walked out of the room, wiped the sweat from his brow, put on his side cap and walked across the yard. He sat down to rest in the quiet, grey blue shadow of a barn.

+++

The war was mobile with tanks and all but that didn’t stop the battle from becoming a state. It was the eternal cycle of the battle elements, eternal feedback; battle waves that surged back and forth, fronts that swept hither and thither; battles where they attacked and the enemy counterattacked, like waves that cancel each other out in breakers and everything becomes still again. The front solidifies, the sea is calm.

+++

Arno was leaning against a house wall, watched the sun go down over the plain, smoked his last cigarette butt and thought: When does a cigarette become a butt? By definition? Is it better to knock the ash before or after you take a drag? Does the cigarette paper provide any flavour?

The battle as a state, the relativity of movement: battle smoke, rattling weapons, aircraft noise in the sky and a blazing sun. Patrols, assaults, orders and counter-orders. Steel grey, grey-green and olive green, khaki, desert pink and titanium.

The battle as a state: you win, you lose, you get a draw; feelings of triumph, of desperation, of indifference. One day a court martial, the other day a medal, and the third you’re lying in an impact crater looking up at the clouds in the sky.

He walked back to his quarters, went in and sat down on the bed, smoked a cigarette he found on the floor and looked out the window: golden clouds in the evening sun.

He took off his boots and jacket and lay down to sleep. It was quiet in the room except for a fly buzzing on the ceiling.

Arno turned in his sleep and grunted, then his features smoothed out and he lost himself in a world where the tanks would always advance, antennae waving and exhaust fumes towering out of the exhaust pipes, chasing with high speed in under die Feuerglocke.

Direction: The enemy’s field armies.

Objective: Eternity.

+++

Arno slept and he dreamed. He dreamed that he was sitting on a patio overlooking a valley with dense foliage, almost like a jungle. Next to him sat his soul guide Ringo Badger, clad in his usual garb: pointed cap, green tunic and boots.

“What am I doing?” Arno said.

“You’re fighting in an army,” the Badger said.

“True, I do,” Arno said. “The army that is all armies. A symbolic army.”

Birds flew over the valley. The sky was purple.

“I’m a symbolic warrior in a symbolic army,” Arno said. “A myth, not a man.”

“The Eternal Soldier. An archetype.”

“An archetypal soldier I am.”

“What’s your motto?”

“I Am.”

“Only that?”

“Mm-hm.”

+++

Arno woke up in his quarters and found himself thinking instantly of practical matters. A pistol can load eight shots, a submachine gun 32, an StG 30 and an MG band after band of 50 rounds. For the latter you put together several bands, for example five, resulting in a band of 250 rounds. Once in position you fire ’em, replace the pipe when it is too hot, continue to shoot.

He yawned and lay on his back, looked up at the ceiling and imagined ways to die, like a samurai should do. The best way to start the day: to die!

Start your day with a hit song,

Start your day by dying …

Thus he imagined dying by a sniper’s bullet, a shot out of thin air that hits you when you least expect it. Then he thought of dying by an armour-piercing grenade smashing into the cabin of a Kübelwagen; by an ambush from an unsuspected angle; by an explosive shell when lying at storming distance, not so nice, no, just the opposite in fact: there you lie, ready to storm and then you get perforated by shrapnel, bleed and die.

Other ways of dying were: Being torn apart by a burst from an automatic; being shredded to pieces by 7.62 bullets; by stepping on a mine, getting a leg torn off and dying of blood loss – and so on. By thinking of such things he got used to the idea of death, it got less scary. He had lived in the Valley of Death for a long time and this mental exercise was more or less routine now. Ever since the episode in Kharkov 1943 he had gotten an inkling that he wouldn’t die in this war – but – to keep himself on the edge mentally, he continued with this habit, the habit of thinking of death. It didn’t mean so much to him now, it was mostly a way of going through the motions, it was second nature to him.

Arno was in the strongpoint, in his orderly room in the village. He felt time halting. In this place they seemingly lived timelessly, beyond the regular boundaries of space-time. He had woken; now he rose from the bed, drank water from the water bottle and ate a biscuit he found in his pocket. Then he went out into the overcast daylight, and walked along the slit trench to the Observation Post. Private Venskes was there; he saluted and reported. 3rd Platoon was still holding the fort, still defending this village in the middle of nowhere.

Arno looked out over the plain, saw it flickering in the heat. The sky was whitish blue, the grass was dry, the horizon a misty phantom in the distance.

19

Operation Bagration

On June 9, 1944, the Russians finally attacked the Germans in Belarus. Operation Bagration. The front section that Battalion Wolf held was bypassed. So it had to march off immediately, trying to reconnect their broken line. 3rd Platoon had to make a hasty retreat from Point 31, the village strongpoint. Soon the battalion was sent in to seal a front gap in the Mulkova sector. But to no avail. The front was torn up there as well as in other sectors. So the battalion and the entire Kampfgruppe had to turn back, retreating to western Belarus.

During this retreat a few things happened. It’s useless to tell of this with the usual, “Voice of Clio,” War Academy kind of overview. The four days in which Battalion Wolf retreated from Naksosina to western Belarus were a chaos of combat episodes, going on without respite, day and night. The battalion headed towards the west with its three line companies, its supply company and its HQ Platoon. Everything was vehicle borne, there were no horse carts in this unit. In the lead one or two line Companies travelled with their SPWs, followed by the staff element and the baggage train with their trucks – and finally came the rest of the line Companies, one or two depending on how many were in the lead of the column.

It was a transfer, a regrouping as a mobile position, almost, but not quite, like the Hube’s Pocket operation. Here it was very much the case of floating along to the west in a mass of enemy units, concealing your identity as far as you could, or just living on hope. It was battle during the night and battle during the day. It was clearing of anti-tank positions, it was combat mounted and on foot. Chaos and death, so it seemed to Arno in his role as head of the 3rd Platoon of the 8th Company. Thus, the outline of this chapter is, “Operation Bagration, June 21 through 25, from the viewpoint of a German armoured unit performing a fighting retreat, depicted with fragments.”

First, let’s look at a KV tank that Arno knocked out in a forest battle on June 22, exactly where is unimportant. It was like this: Arno and Karnow were out on an operational mission in a burning forest. In front of them they suddenly saw a silhouette against the smoke; there was no mistaking a Klim Voroshilov. At this very moment the vehicle’s turret turned around to face them. A flame shot out from the turret shield and a long automatic burst rattled off, the heather on the ground ploughed up by 7.62-mm projectiles as the coaxial MG came into action.

Arno and Karnow rushed off and away, rounded the tank’s rear and approached the other side of it, invisible to the crew in the turret who couldn’t keep up with their pace. Arno acted on an impulse: he grabbed the bundle charge from Karnow and jumped on the vehicle’s track. He knew this was dangerous, but the steel monster was motionless so he made it. Once up on the rear armour he fastened the charge between the turret and the chassis, pulled the fuse ignition cord, jumped down and rolled away in the moss, taking cover behind a boulder.

Moments later the detonation rang through the woods; the tank was knocked out. What happened afterwards isn’t important, it’s irrelevant in this chapter of fragments. Next, we can therefore depict dark birch trees in a swamp – a corpse lying among some ferns and blades of blue-green grass – the head with the crown sliced off by a chunk of shrapnel, a bloody eye staring and an anti-tank grenade passing through a sunflower field. Arno thought of living on the edge, of taking control of his mind, forcing himself to endure through strength of willpower. Though I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death I sing nonny-nonny.

Arno crossed a brook on a pioneer bridge, fired a signal shot and lived happily ever after in the greenish glow of magnesium. He deployed his men – fewer now – in a skirmish line, saw a group of Focke Wulf 190s flying in for a ground attack. He saw Panther tanks lurching over the steppe, he saw Opel trucks driving in a column, a caravan of cars in silhouette against a yellow sky. A soldier received a fatal lung shot and suffocated, a soldier struck a mine and bled to death, a soldier was hit in the forehead by a rifle shot and died instantly.

+++

We reproduce, as you can see, fragments. We show you scattered impressions from the retreat during Operation Bagration. And there is more from this bloody Belorussian retreat at the end of June 1944:

There was an intense shimmer over a line of trees, blazing sickly green, a bonfire of magnesium flames coming from illumination rounds sent up by mortars. Arno inspected the whole thing where he hung over the visor plate of his SPW. He smoked a cigarette, cupped in his hand against snipers. He noted how a column of Tigers was advancing on the road, the road beside which his Grenadier Platoon had parked, grouped to await their turn, the turn that would soon come. The armor would dash forward and break through and then the Panzer Grenadiers would exploit the break, smacking down remaining resistance, clearing anti-tank positions and infantry, mowing down the enemy and, yet again, holding open the door through which more units would pass. They would go in there, entering in the wake of the tanks, taking care of business. Mounted or on foot, as needed. Just doing their job.

Crackling in the earpiece. Some inaudible noise was heard, then came human speech, marching orders from the Captain. Arno said, “Verstanden,” confirmed and broke the contact. Tossing away the cigarette butt, he ordered simply “driver forward” and sat down. The driver put the 251 in gear, the vehicle crawlers grabbed the dry sand and the vehicle lurched forward. It moved in jerks down into the ditch and onto the road, followed by the platoon’s two other vehicles. In their wake came the rest of the 8th Company, as if on parade.

+++

Prep fire, unload, forward on foot, anti-armour in position, flames, low-flying Jabos and dawn over the trees. The armour in single file, spreading out across the plain; grenadiers dismounting in order to clear out a copse, then mounting up on the tanks again.

A fire control plane circled over a stony, sterile region and measured the target. It was a plain with smoke, strange leafless woods, yellow bushes and red grass. You saw dogfights in the sky, burning woods and advancing armour. You saw parachutes in the sky carrying canisters, metal boxes of supplies, dropped by the Western Allies as support to the Russians, who for their part rarely wasted time on such finesses as “dropping of supplies by parachute.” Parachute silk was in short supply in the Soviet Union.

The armoured column headed across the plain, dust swirling in its wake. Arno stood, forage cap askew and radio headphones on the dash of his SPW; he looked out across the plain, the surrounding woods and a creek. “Only a minor barrier,” he thought of the watercourse; as for the forest it had probably been cleared by their infantry.

8th Company went with the flow of movement westward, a Russian armoured battalion constantly at their heels. The sun played over the dry lands and dust whirled as the angular bodies of their dirty brown vehicles rocked across the plain. As air support the Russians had a Sturmovik division flying along in the sky. The planes were painted light blue on the underside and grey-green on the upper side.

Clouds flocked, TNT smoke spread. Arno saw impossible clouds on the horizon, enigmatic formations shaped like fairytale castles. Splintered, shifting formations, one moment resembling a cauliflower, the next a tree. Look again and they form enigmatic cities with towering temples and palaces. And in the palace Arno thought he saw devas and sylphs, fairies and angels, heavenly angels whispering about the I AM-impulse in shining, jewelled gardens.

Arno shook his head; dreaming again, was he…? He frequently used to dream, he had a dreamer’s eye but daydreaming during combat really wasn’t recommended.

+++

Arno asked for a report, looked at a map, pondered and said:

“Everything’s haphazard. Where’s the enemy? Everywhere?”

Russian fighter bombers came in for an attack. The AA pieces of the German vehicles opened up, the air becoming an inferno of burning, exploding enemy planes. More Russian planes arrived, they were met by German interceptors, the Luftwaffe happening to be there in force, just when they were needed. But a couple of bombers got through, whizzing down towards the armoured column and releasing their deadly cargo.

The explosions hit the vital parts of three tanks. Arno’s SPW had dashed for the cover of nearby woodland. As they waited there together with other vehicles, they saw a pall of smoke rising from the stricken armour.

+++

Twilight fell, the land giving a peculiar impression of yellow trees, blue meadows and new planets in the sky. Orders and counter-orders were given, it was ahead, waiting, catering. Then new plans to seize a sudden opportunity, the reserve employed in an attack in depth. They went off, rolling through the night:

“Wolf Pack, Wolf Pack, Red Dog here, tearing up a gap in the front, a gap in time…”

It was a land-bound cruiser armada, crossing white fields and black meadows, surrounded by sparks and smoke. Over the column arched an umbrella, a brilliant Feuerglocke of heavy shells in arcing trajectories, while on the flanks came arrow showers of rockets fired from supporting aircraft.

The rockets aimed for a point on the horizon where space became time, where space and time obliterated each other in an instant.

The Armoured Battalion, Tigers plus Battalion Wolf with Arno’s Company, crossed the plain with waving antennae and columns of smoke rising from the exhaust pipes. They drove into the Feuerglocke with high speed, aiming for a breakthrough at the weakest point – then they would spread out behind the enemy’s broken line and wreak havoc:

- The smell of burnt varnish, blast gases and fumes

- Pancake-flat plains, monotonous landscape

- Green birch groves, green clouds on a golden sky

Bright red lines drawn across the sky, a magnesium green shimmer hovering over the land, earth fountains rising at the points of impact, shrapnel and body parts flying, crushed pulp and steel fragments everywhere, black smoke and an echo crossing the plain, bouncing off in the distance and dying out – and it was answered by the roar of the planes, the song of the Panzer machines, the rattle of automatic fire and the roaring of the Nebelwerfer rocket launchers – a howl out of the abyss like the hellhound Garm in the Edda. Impact flashes, breakthrough, muzzle flames, space becoming time. And all in one and one in all.

+++

Infantry-armour co-operation. The everyday of the Panzer Followers. A fighting retreat, a retrograde defense, Belarus, June 21 through 25 1944. From here to eternity.

The eight-ton SPW rattled heavily along the gravel road, stopped and unloaded its heavy load. Heavy infantry, Panzer Followers, Panzer Grenadiere and in the lead rushed Arno, wielding his heavy StG.

A soldiery sky, leaden grey, black clouds on the horizon. Massive, spontaneous and vital.

Detonations coming closer. Ferocious effervescence.

Ace of Spades, from King of Spades, do you read, you infernal bombing armada… bombing in the blazing light, in the velvety twilight over blue cities…

THE SUN

The sun shone through the clouds, a warm wind sweeping over the land. Perfect summer weather, comfortable heat, nice to take a bath, Arno figured – the squirrel chattering in the forest, a drowsy wolf looking towards the man-noise, the woodpecker chopping and the MG rattling – listening to the radio, scouting the horizon, seeing the clouds piling up….

TORTION BAR

tortion bar

track wheel

track suspension

track support

turret shield

turret MG

crawler

LISTEN

Listen to the radio, hear the wolf howling in the distance – an echo across the front. Strange music circulating in the glades, rising in streams, going through my mind like a dream…

WHEN YOU DIE

When you die, your mind goes to the moon, the dream to the sun and the future to the stars – invoking the moon, seeing armour and blood on the plain, illuminating every nook and cranny of the battlefield with burning magnesium, illumination round – burning green torch in the sky, lighting up the field and dying men like a falling moon.

CLASP

clasp

loop

strap

buttonhole

side stitch

slit

earflap

PUMPING IN RESERVES

Pumping in reserves –

Protecting the flank –

Forming a column –

Parrying –

Facing, stopping, turning –

…A THREAT FROM THE LEFT

…a threat from the left, figures on the other side of a boundary. Hit the dirt. Open up and enjoy the MG rattle, bursts of three-four shots.

Once at the enemy’s positions they blasted a bunker, searched the ramparts, grabbed some Pepesjas sub-machine guns and spread to the right and left, rolling up the line. Behind them followed other units. Sunshine, white clouds and bursts of automatic fire. They came out of a thicket, they were searching through a grove, they found a fresh, bubbling spring, they filled their bottles with crystal clear water.

The communication trench ceased, the enemy fled, they continued the pursuit – and on the road through a village they were surprised by an enemy patrol. It came down on the right wing, they called for the MG and it was brought into position –

TAKE A CERTAIN HILL

Take a certain hill, pull the copper securing wire – copper and bronze, sun and steel, sword and shield – send an MG to the wing, equalise the ammunition, hand out dry rations and look towards the horizon. Organise Stosstruppen – Stormtroops infiltrating enemy lines and exploiting the mayhem.

HE FINALLY UNDERSTOOD

He finally understood what it was all about: sunshine and steel, bronze and copper, cordite and lead. Burning villages and burning woods, sun-warm sand and white clouds in the sky – and the sight of flowers on the battlefield, Hadean flowers in the night, illuminated by burning magnesium. Storming distance, B-line, battalion border, forefield, bayonet, 7.92, 88, 75, 37 – bundle charge, MG, assault gun, field kitchen, rifle grenade, smoke grenade, hand grenade, 7.92 mm clip –

THE FLANK

The flank is wide open, enemies seeping in, send a Stosstrupp with an MG –

RIFLE OUT

rifle out

distance

slot

spacing

line abreast

forward grouping

column formation point

copper and lead

sun and steel

20

Senitsova

Date: June 24, 1944. Place: Senitsova, a village in Eastern Poland. Battalion Wolf and its Battle Group were still struggling westward, striving to reach solid German lines. They weren’t there yet.

Losses mounting, they headed for their own territory. On the afternoon of June 24 Arno’s platoon made a short halt at the village of Senitsova, not far from Brest-Litovsk. They had to await the arrival of the rest of the company.

This village was another heap of rubble and ash. Arno stood on the village street and saw a group of soldiers sitting in a ruin playing cards. Other soldiers lay in the shade of some birches. Other men just wandered around, stretching their legs after having sat still in the SPWs for so long.

An MC arrived from the east and stopped at one of the vehicles parked by the roadside. The driver asked where he could find the Battalion Commander, Major Wolf. He was given the info by Bauer and drove on. Arno saw the MC pass over a dead rat, flattened by traffic. Flies buzzed around, thriving on the blackened blood. Arno saw a toxic red cloud in the sky, he heard the hum of planes in the distance. He took a toothpick out of his coat pocket and slipped it into his mouth.

8th Company was mechanised in this operation, with armored vehicles and everything. This it had been since the resupplying in April. There were relatively ample supplies around on the home front. German industrial production was peaking at this time, spitting out goods, despite the 24-hour harassment by enemy bombers. The supplies weren’t inexhaustible but even ordinary infantry units could be upgraded to mechanised status. And already armoured units like Battalion Wolf could still receive replacements for lost vehicles.

+++

The engine noise in the distance was growing stronger. Arno looked up into the sky. Now planes were seen, two single-seat fighter-bomber aircraft making a fly-past, German FW 190s. It was a so-called Rotte, two machines, a formation where one of the aircraft would protect the other, checking the rear. Arno followed them with his eyes, trying to judge how fast they flew. He guessed at 4-500 km /h.

The planes passed. The noise died down. The sky was summery blue with red and cerise clouds in the evening sun.

Arno looked out over the surrounding landscape. Everything was flat. There were no mountains. As a Swede and a Wermlander Arno missed the landscapes with mountains in the distance, constant points of reference for a striving mind. ”There is something beyond the mountains” as Swedish poet Dan Andersson said.

The village was a heap of ruins and burned down timber. The only thing standing upright were the chimneys, white columnar testimonies of mayhem and escaped lares, the house spirits having left the building. ”This is the dead land. This is cactus land,” as Eliot said.

The village: chimneys, foundations with ashes and fragments of walls that cast weird shadows. Along the way stood 251s, trucks and Kübelwagens, parked well aside so that traffic could pass.

Red clouds hung in the sky. In the field sat a wreck of a Russian SB plane, the testimony of a flying army that had taken beatings but had still not given up; indeed, it was now even victorious.

Arno went back to his 251, sat down in its shade and thought: we’re a unit going from point A to point B, from here to eternity.

Arno mustered his will and slowed down his breathing, meditating on the Bhagavad-Gîtâ wisdom which he had acquired when he was young: battle in a state of apateia, fighting competently and indifferently, indifferent to victory and defeat alike. Just fight – devotedly and piously. The rest will follow.

Eventually the “forward” order was given and the motorcade got rolling again. Riding in his 251, looking up at the starry sky, Arno thought:

- I am the edge.

- I am who I am: Ego sum qui sum.

- My creed: The Spirit.

- My philosophy: I’m Energy.

- Life is an operation: in war and peace, I live my life operationally.

+++

Eventually the company was assembled again, indeed, the whole battalion came together for the continued march to the west. It was a motor march, with 251s, Kübelwagens, tanks, trucks and motorcycles. The constant drone of the engine on somewhat better roads had a soporific effect on our hero – so he put the StG in his lap, pulled his cap down over his face and let himself be lulled to sleep.

Battalion Wolf, fully motorized, drove from point A to point B. It was straining engines and grey-green armour, gasoline splashing in the tanks and a purposeful march towards the west, towards their own units to organise a new line of defence. They were prepared to fight another day, even though the Belarusian front had been torn up.

Motor march: caterpillar tracks against the hard-packed earth, singing valves and golden sun. Blowing dust, burning throats, and a constantly fleeing horizon. Checking the map, reorientation, running first one way and then another, then taking the wrong road. Turning around again, being fed in the middle of the night in clouds of diesel fumes – people moving to and fro, the moon spreading a ghostly glow, the sound of bombers in the distance.

21

Late Summer 1944

Despite the apparent chaos, the battle of June 21 to the 25th went quite well for Battalion Wolf. The gist of this retrograde movement was that they made it out of the encirclement. In the storm that was Operation Bagration, Battalion Wolf avoided being encircled and annihilated.

By running in Russians columns, sneaking forth in enemy motorised formations too busy to see if the odd German vehicle sneaked westwards in it, by taking back roads and by various tricks and ruses, the battalion finally reached solid German territory. This was by the beginning of July. The whole battalion was sent to Frankfurt an der Oder for resupply. Again, this was sorely needed. Arno alone had lost about 50% of his strength in the Belarus retreat: Hackel, Lenoir, Langon, Mesurier, Venlo, Rendulic, Pindar, Gero and Emostas had been killed during the fighting. Pindar, had been wounded in the arm in the breakout from Hube’s Pocket, recovered and was put back in the ranks for Operation Bagration, where he finally bought it. Schmidt and Qvoon had been wounded in the same battle. They were now recuperating in a field hospital.

In late July Battalion Wolf was sent east again, taking up defence in central Poland, just east of Warsaw. During the month that the Battalion had been absent from the front, Operation Bagration had rolled on, the Russians continuously forging ahead to the west. At the same time the Allies had landed in Normandy and in late July they broke out of the bridgehead. By then the attempt on Hitler’s life had also been made, the 20 July coup that failed to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime.

+++

On August 1 Battalion Wolf found itself back in the front line, at Radzymin. They were waiting for a Russian attack against this sector of the Eastern Front. To try to find out what to expect in their particular sector Arno got the orders to equip and lead a patrol. Task: Snatch a prisoner.

This they did: Arno and five men seeped through the front line, encountered an enemy transport company and grabbed a prisoner. Some details from the patrol follow: Having reached No Man’s Land, Arno and his hand-picked team found themselves stalking through a landscape with dry grass and odd-looking trees, trunks blasted off at about a man’s height, the result of artillery fire. When the team was dispersed among the splintered timber, it was difficult to distinguish the men from the trees. Everything became one petrified, enchanted forest; they were figures in a landscape, trees and soldiers, and all in one and one in all.

Having crept silently through the enemy lines, they went to ground in a patch of scrub and waited for the evening. Then they raided a truck depot and succeeded in grabbing a prisoner. Then the Bolsheviks came after them. At one point Arno’s men took cover in a ditch. Ebersen for his part hid under a Red staff car. He was hit by a thrown hand grenade which exploded just under the vehicle where he lay, in the confined space. When they dragged him out, grey-green bowels gushed out of his lacerated stomach. Blood was literally pouring from the abdominal wound. This happens when the aorta is cut.

The soil on which the soldier lay was soaked red, the earth quickly blackening with blood. The next moment Ebersen was dead. Another casualty was Geglo. He was simply lost. They guessed that he just ran away and gave himself up as a prisoner to the Russians. Some exchange Arno thought, one prisoner for another. But he kept this to himself; Geglo was simply reported lost. That’s how to report: don’t speculate, just state what you know.

When the patrol got back and the Russian prisoner had been interrogated he told them this:

“It’s about to erupt, a major attack…! The road from Bialystok to here is full of artillery, Guard Infantry and T-34s, many Klim Voroshilovs and Stalin’s Organs.”

A major attack indeed. And Battalion Wolf got it confirmed soon enough. August 3. The unit was deployed south of Radzymin, east of Warsaw. In the ensuing attack the Battalion defended a line in a forest edge. Desperate fighting. Wagner, one of their newcomers, fell and Corporal Karnow was wounded. But the Russian onslaught was thrown back, here and in other places of this combat zone.

True, there was a Russian breakthrough north of the Battalion Wolf sector. The Soviets poured in their armoured reserves, intent on reaching Warsaw and beyond. The Head of AG Mitte at this time was Walter Model and as Army Group chief he had amassed reserves on the north flank, northwest of Radzymin. With them he would surprise the Russians.

The reserves consisted of three newly arrived SS Panzer Divisions, two from the southern front and one from Italy. On the same day, August 3, these were gathered on the northern flank of the enemy. The German force attacked at two o’clock and drove a wedge into the Russian advance guard, forcing a retreat. At the same time, on the current southern flank, Russian bridgeheads on the western shore of Vistula were met and contained using other reinforcements.

Thus, on the whole, the Russian onslaught had been halted. The north wing of the Eastern Front was still unbroken. This road towards the Third Reich was, for the time being, blocked. The Russians were not yet in Berlin, not even in Warsaw. But overall the Russians had reason to be proud of their operational achievements, having in five weeks advanced over 700 km. Operation Bagration was a Russian success. This, of course, shouldn’t hide the fact that the onrush of the Red Army also meant horror for the civilians. There was pillage and mass-rape, specifically when the Red Army reached Germany.

As for operations, the German counterattack east of Warsaw also was something of a feat. Now it was the turn of the Russians to be forced on the defensive. From their point of view it could be rationalised thus: At this point, in August, the Russians had stretched out their supply lines too far and needed to consolidate what they had won. The halt on the Vistula would last quite a long time, almost half a year.

22

Warsaw

Now for the uprising in Warsaw which began in August 1944. Its early phase was simultaneous with the battle between the Germans and Russians east of the city. Arno and Co. took part in the suppression of the uprising.

The rebellion by the Polish Home Army of urban guerrillas in Warsaw began on August 1. The rebels hoped that the Russians would join them in their fight against the Germans. But the Red Army waited and watched from its positions east of the Vistula. The Russians were exhausted and stayed put, or Comrade Stalin thought it was a good idea to let two sets of fascist and reactionary pigs slaughter each other. Take your pick! But the Polish rebels were fresh and determined; they soon held all of central Warsaw. The Germans were short of reinforcements and only began retaking the city from August 10 and onward.

German infantry units were rushed to the city. So, after helping hold the defensive line to the east of Warsaw, Battalion Wolf became part in quelling the rebellion. Arno’s platoon, 3rd in 8th Company, now consisted of three six-men squads. The first squad as usual had Bauer as manager. His men were the veterans Ilo, Henko, Gipp and Tauber. Newcomers were Crispus and Ullmer.

2nd Squad was still led by Karnow. He had bounced back after Radzymin, quickly recovering from his wound. His men were now the veterans Gans and Emostas and newcomers Ditter, Sachs and Wuchs. 3rd Squad, the MG team, was now led by a certain Egon Lenz. The previous head, Deschner, had been felled by a piece of shrapnel in the final stages of the Radzymin battle. Deschner wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time, he stuck his head up too high from the last of a thousand foxholes and, zip! Another telegram home. Egon Lenz, his replacement, was a new arrival, a recently trained Corporal who quickly got into the routine of leading a squad. Arno could of course have promoted one of Deschner’s men to Squad Leader but only Venskes and Menider had any experience to speak of and they didn’t fit as leaders. And he liked Lenz, so that was it. The MQ Squad now consisted of Venskes and Menider and the relative newcomers Schnell, Huber, Düsterberg and Modrow.

When Arno became the head of his platoon in 1943 he had made a speech about getting used to death. Now he spoke in the same vein to Lenz, face to face, deciding to give this absolute beginner a part of his accumulated wisdom, the wisdom of living in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. In camp just south of Warsaw, in a barn where the platoon was quartered, Arno led Lenz into a side chamber furnished with a table, some chairs and a dirty window looking out over lush greenery. When they had seated themselves Arno said:

“I’ve already welcomed you to the platoon. And it’ll probably be fine like it is, with you leading the MG Squad. We’ll see…! Well, I trust you. But a tip to you is to get used to the idea of death. Don’t live in hope. Be factual. We are in hell, you know that, huh…?”

Lenz nodded slowly. Arno tried to see if the other paled at hearing this, if he was terrified. Was this the first time he had been brought to think about death? Or was he already familiar with it? If only in theory? Lenz merely displayed a collected, freckled face, with a lively but relaxed look in his blue eyes.

“Death is stalking us all,” Arno said. “Face it.”

“Indeed,” Lenz said. “I’ll remember that.”

“Fine,” Arno said. “And by all means, don’t become a death worshipper now or something like that. But you’ve got to have a healthy respect for death.”

+++

Battalion Wolf, including Arno’s platoon, was thrown into the mopping up of Warsaw. They fought around the Water Works and Polyteknikum. They broke in and retook parts of the areas the Poles possessed, homing in on General Bor’s bases. They called in artillery strikes on particularly stubborn blocks, and also let Stukas and Ju 88s hammer them from the air. They also received support from assault guns, type StuG IV. Then the infantry had to go in with automatic weapons and hand grenades; retaking the houses, cleaning them up room by room. And during all of this the clouds in the sky drifted by and the wind rustled in the maples.

The fighting was intense. The heat was strong. Everything became a hurricane of violence, explosive gases, stone dust, broken rock and burning rubber. Among other things Arno remembered how, on one occasion, headlights swept across a darkening land of rubble and ruins, the headlight beams running here and there and throwing long shadows. A stray dog howled in the distance.

+++

The Warsaw battle became an impressionistic, ferocious canvas. Like: with empty eye sockets, blackened skin fragments and uniform in rags a skeleton sat leaning against a brick wall, the bones shimmering in green, the skeleton holding his rifle in a solidified grip.

Clear the ground floor. Cut off Winiarski Street. Fire signalling ceases, attention. Ammunition report from the right.

There were bushes in a park, a burning SPW wreck and shadows on the ground – and black clouds in a grey sky, a murmour over the land, a roar and impact detonations in the distance. There were concepts, words, hieroglyphs and symbols, symbols such as:

• explosion cloud

• explosive gases

• shell cases

• blood

• bile

• turbine

• sandbag

• amassing along the street with armour, infantrymen dashing into houses, artillery towards suspected points

• a cloud shadow that glides over the terrain, going over a barricade, a backyard, a ruin

• a soldier pressing his finger on a wound to the carotid artery, the blood pumping out, hard to stop

• shell shocked but still alive, as in a trance directing assault guns, fire towards the Energy Office

• sunset, evening sun against a firewall, on the yard broken rock and lumber

• an SPW conquered by the Poles, the Polish coat of arms painted on the front plate

• steel helmet

• fabric cover

• cartridge belt

• skeletal shot

• flesh wound

• explosive bullet

• gas turbine

+++

Bombers thundered in the sky, allied units bringing supplies to the beleaguered Poles, dropping parachute canisters with weapons, ammunition and canned food. Most of it ended up with the Germans.

The horizon bathed in a heat haze. Signal wire laid out. Pioneers having chow. An MG opened up, empty cases thrown out from a hatch in the bottom of the box. Burns, gunshot wound, leg torn off by a mine –

INDUSTRIAL BUILDING

They fought over an industrial building. The enemy lit up petrol he had spilled out. The platoon lost seven men in a sea of fire, four injured by burns and three disappearing completely in the inferno. They lost the entire 2nd Squad: Karnow, Gans, Emostas, Ditter, Sachs and Wuchs. Screaming.

IMPRESSION

Arno stood on a street and took in the sights, noting the impressions: fire smoke from a Sturmhaubitze wreck halfway up on a sidewalk, flames from the hatch licking the armour plating. Quiet, dull-yellow façades looked down on him, broken rubble in the street, warm blue skies and a blazing sun. Time had stopped, they lived in a virtual “movement as a state”:

- A horse on the loose

- Grey soldiers advancing over a vacant lot

- Flies around a corpse

- Bombers buzzing in the upper atmosphere

- A door slamming, a curtain fluttering

- A haggard little cat sneaking by

WAREHOUSE HALL

They broke into the warehouse hall. They fired against sounds, not against objects. Everything was hidden in veils of dust and smoke. Everything except the familiar, metallic smell of fresh blood.

HEAT HAZE

Late summer heat haze, explosive gases and stone dust, sand and particles making everything wrapped up as in a veil – it could make you think of Stalingrad, apart from the fact that it wasn’t deadly cold, the same strange haze prevailed, a veil of mystery over this vortex of violence and death, a Wagnerian theme of pathos and destruction.

BARRACKS

Beyond a park, in a pause in the fighting, he saw some grey barracks with red window frames. He thought: The barracks of my old Swedish Regiment, I 14, were better looking, they were yellow, the yellow turning to gold in the evening sun – and these barracks are grey – how ugly, how flat. – Standing in Warsaw, looking at these grey barracks, Arno became sentimental over his time in the Swedish Army. The tattoo at dusk, trooping the colours, shoulder rifle, avdelning framåt, lägg gevär, rättning mittåt, 6.5 mm Mauser, white sheepskin coat, grey uniform M/23.

He was jerked back to the present by the clatter of tracks, steel against cobblestones. A StuG III passed and turned right, the steering brake drawing sparks out of the road like flint against a tinderbox. And so it continued with a storm of further impressions: An Opel Blitz in flames, fire smoke and dust in the summer haze – telephone wires across the street, a fluttering curtain, a slamming door, chalk white clothes, MG belts – a torn helmet cover, a column of civilians trudging away with pathetic bundles and battered suitcases, white clouds in the sky – a brief nod from a passing soldier, face sooty under his helmet rim.

EMERGING TARGETS

The Sturmhaubitze fired on a massive concrete building while Focke Wulf 190s flew in for the attack, peeling off and diving down one after another from the sky, dropping 250 kg bombs. You saw Poles escaping along a ditch, you saw a column of army horses, you saw a vacant lot with piles of broken rock and rubble and you saw maples in a park, lush green.

STONE HOUSES

The stone houses of Warsaw were solidly built. Despite being bombed and slammed by artillery they still were good enough to group in. The Poles held a number of such blocks in the central part of the city. The buildings were heavily battered but they still stood. But when it was all over the whole town would be razed to the ground by German demolition squads. A statement: “Thus to all who dare rebel against The Reich!”

THE RIVER

A Polish platoon was driven into the river and mown down by MG fire. A German battalion was decimated in the vicious fighting for the medieval houses in the southern sector. A Jäger battalion attacked from the southwest and a Volksgrenadier battalion from the west. Stukas were buzzing in the sky and came howling down on target – the Polyteknikum. The Vistula was crossed by infantry in storm boats – Stosstrupps were deployed, exhausted and withdrawn. A truck loaded with ammunition drove up to a house, unloaded the ammo and loaded up with wounded men.

COMBAT ZONE

It was fought above and under the ground. In entertainment halls, lobbies and corridors, in ruins, cellars, sewers and offices, in industrial plants and power plants – Goliath robots crawling forth and climbing piles of rubble and broken bricks, StuGs and SPWs barking like crazed metallic dogs through a chaotic, fractal landscape – German shock troops moving like ghosts through a blackened workshop, fighting with grenades, even hand-to-hand with Poles who seemed almost eager to die if they could take a German with them. In the sky, Allied planes dropping canisters to the rebels; in the east, the waiting Russians.

GREY SKY

Dead façades, drab house fronts, grey sky and a crow flitting by. The smell of cordite and burned rubber.

Arno stood on a cleared street, StG in his hand. Seeing a group of officers some distance away, he wondered if he should go and ask them about the situation. In another direction he saw his orderly standing around – and behind him, on a side street, the platoon was ready for more of the same.

Arno took it all in. He also saw a parked Kübelwagen, empty cases in the gutter and blasted buildings looking down over a park of splintered trees. He saw smoke drifting by in the street, smoke from a burning tank 300 metres away – he saw pallets outside a loading bay, a flag hanging dead on its pole, a haggard cat hiding under a truck. Two soldiers in summer tunics passed by, one of the soldiers carrying a MG 42, the other ammo boxes.

SUMMARY WARZSAWA

The Warsaw Uprising was completely put down and quelled by early October 1944. 63 days of some of the fiercest fighting since Stalingrad. The exhausted but victorious Germans had orders to treat even the many non-uniformed Home Army fighters captured as Prisoners Of War, so 15,000 Poles were shipped to detention centres. The civilians who had stayed and survived were expelled. The Germans then razed the city to the ground. Demolition Commands primed their explosives and detonators, lit their fuses and blew up the buildings that had survived. Scarcely one stone was left upon another. The ruined desert that had been Warsaw was left as No Man’s Land between the German and Russian lines.

Battalion Wolf was transferred back to Germany. Some equipment was replaced, but to get the losses in personnel made good just wasn’t possible at this stage. Arno saw his platoon reduced to an MG squad and a rifle squad.

23

The Plane Ride

This is the story of what happened to Arno Greif on October 27, 1944 and beyond. Battalion Wolf at this time was quartered behind the front. After Warsaw it had been occupied with routine chores. And this day, October 27, it would be redeployed for some logistical purpose known only to the Top Brass. The north wing of the Eastern Front was quiet at this time, the Russians still waiting behind the Vistula. Eleswhere in Eastern Europe the Russian advance continued, but this is irrelevant right now. In the west the Allies had broken out of Normandy and driven the Germans out of France, but the Allies were eventually halted at the German border. By the early winter of 1944 the German Army still defended a virtually unbroken German border in the west.

On October 27 Arno slept in a barn in a Polish village, this being the platoon’s quarters in the General Government. He had a strange dream: He stood on the balcony of a fortified palace and looked down over a stormy neighborhood. Turbulent clouds racing across the sky. Later in this dream he would meet a man inside the Palace, his soul guide Ringo Badger. He had already met this figure several times: First in June 1938, then in Grand Hall on March 29, 1944 during the breakaway from Hube’s Pocket, then in Point 31 in Belarus.

Arno stood on the balcony and gazed over the storm-tossed trees below. The scudding clouds glowed red on the underside for they re-cast the glow of the burning earth; it burned in the valley below the castle and even beyond it.

Arno regaled his lungs with the smoke that hung thick in the air. Ah yes, he thought in the dream, this was a bit unsettling but still nice to see for a fire-eater like him. Wild fire tore over the fields, consuming grass and trees lining a brook. Towards the south a whole stand of blood maples were suddenly engulfed by the flames.

As he stood there, Arno saw a ship come sailing through the air, a mysteriously soaring galley with an elegantly dressed man at the helm. The man steered the ship through the turbulent skies, approaching the castle and stopping at the balcony. Arno called on some helpers and had them secure a gangway they had in store. The ship’s captain stepped out on this, jumped down onto the balcony and was welcomed by Arno.

The Captain was called Moskons, a sturdy, bearded fellow in a fur coat and a black bear-skin busby on his head. He said:

“I’m merely the herald of a greater man, Ringo Badger.”

“Indeed,” Arno said. “Him I know.”

“Indeed you should.”

Moskons made a sign to the ship. And there, on the gangway, appeared Ringo Badger, tall as Arno remembered, with an elongated face and a noble nose, dressed as usual in a red and yellow hood, a green tunic, blue breeches and boots.

“Greetings, Ringo Badger.”

“Greetings, Arno Greif,” the Badger said. “Still I walk by your side.”

The newcomers were ushered into the hall, the banqueting hall that Arno, in the dream, ruled. At a long table his foremen and captains were seated.

The Sky Captain and the Badger were shown to their places, on either side of Arno at the head of the table. The Badger took a goblet of wine. When he had drunk from it he said to Arno:

“I am your soul guide, your spiritual escort in Dreamland and other dimensions.”

“Say something spiritual, then, if you’re my spiritual escort.”

“I can only remind you of what you already know: Hold on to your essence, your IAm-impulse.”

Arno nodded, took a sip of wine from his goblet and said:

“True, the I Am-impulse must never be forgotten. I Am, indeed I Am.”

Pause. Then the Badger:

“Otherwise, Mr. Greif, my dear Arno, how goes it in the war in the everyday world? Had enough of the killing?”

“What a question. I serve in an Army in a war, doing my duty. I wear a uniform and the uniform is a token of service. And if that means meeting my people’s enemies in combat, then I’ll do that.”

“You do, eh?”

“I’m doing my darndest, solving my operational tasks.”

“OK,” the Badger said, ”just checking.”

The storm raged on; outside, the fires were still burning. Then Arno said:

“Would you like a guided tour of my residence? It’s a fascinating castle, there are many nooks and crannies, plus a ceremonial hall, an art collection, an arsenal and a throne room – with a throne made completely of silver.”

“Oh, you’re too kind,” the Badger said. “But I have to leave immediately. I’m going off to Delsadore to play on the sounding stones they have.”

“Music, eh? How nice.”

“Indeed. Praise the Lord for the gift of music.”

“Farewell then.”

“Farewell,” said the Badger, got up, put on his cap and left the room.

“He just disappeared,” Moskons said, who had sat in silence during the meeting.

“Indeed he did,” said Arno. “Mysterious man, to sum him up.”

“He’s your soul scout and guardian angel, spirit guide and conductor,” Moskons told him gravely.

Then the feast in the castle continued. The sapphire wine flowed, beautiful ladies sparkled, musicians played and minstrels sang.

This was what Arno experienced in Dreamland that night. When he awoke he thought about the Badger and what he had said, about the I Am-impulse and about meeting again. For some reason Arno felt a bit uneasy at this, he didn’t know why. Well, you always have to say “I Am,” Arno told himself, and this he did even now when he woke up in the platoon’s basic quarters, saying “I Am” to himself. And so he was ready for anything.

He had woken up in his barn, sleeping on a pile of last year’s straw. He got to his feet and thought, today it’s marching off-time. They were being redeployed.

He got to his feet, the battalion gathering its belongings and getting ready to go. Eventually they were loaded onto a train, heading west through the land which had once been western Poland. You could see the clouds gliding in the sky à la majestique, see a peculiar light fall over everything and hear the Tune of Your Life playing over woods, gorges and sunken roads. They stopped at a certain station; the platoon leaders were shown to a warehouse where they received a briefing from the company commander. Among other things Wistinghausen informed them that they would be garrisoned for now next to the Pomeranian town Grafenburg. Then it was food distribution – pea soup. If you had pea soup one day and lentil soup the other you could count yourself lucky. Sometimes you even had meat soup or goulash.

After a further train ride, 8th Company duly found itself deployed in a forest near the Oder River. It was next to Grafenburg, an East Pomeranian town on the border with East Brandenburg. They bivouacked next to an air base with Junkers Ju 88s well camouflaged under the trees.

The Grafenburg bivouac is of no importance to this story – but – a plane ride Arno made from this air base, is. It was like this: Arno, who had no formal leadership education, was ordered on October 28 to attend NCO school in Hanover. So after formalities he took his stuff, said farewell to the company and to the men of his platoon and headed for the air base where he would get a ride with a Junkers 88. His liaison was a Luftwaffe Captain.

October 28 was the very next day after they had arrived in Grafenburg. This day, having paid his respects, Arno headed off through the pine forest, in Going Out Order (= no weapons except for a 9 mm pistol, and without helmet and Sturmgepäck) with a rucksack on his back and a tatty cheap suitcase in hand. The weather was mild and dry; the trees had mostly shed their leaves, although winter was still some way off.

Having left the woods he strolled two kilometres along a dirt track, crossed a stream on a wooden bridge, came to an open field, saw the fence that surrounded the air base, found a path along the fence and eventually approached a gate. There was a guard house. He walked up to the window hatch and showed his orders to the guard.

He was escorted to the HQ building where he was met by a pilot, a Captain Nietsky, wearing light brown overalls. He shook hands and offered Arno a cup of Ersatz coffee in the mess. The room was large, having spartan furnishings with wooden chairs and wooden tables. The walls were unpainted masonry. They talked about the coming flight, a subject that fascinated Arno, the flight enthusiast who had only flown once.

They would fly to Hanover, where Arno would attend NCO school. The course would start on November 2. Coffee finished, Nietsky took his gun holster and his leather helmet and went out on the field, Arno picking up his bags and following. The field was suddenly completely engulfed in fog. A sudden autumn temperature drop had made the moisture in the air condense.

Walking through the fog Arno said to the pilot:

“Some dense fog, eh? Can you really take off in this?”

The pilot said brusquely that he would, that they had countermeasures for this. Arno refrained from asking what those means were. They continued through the fog, the dense veil of water vapour. You could say that they were in a cloud, a cloud that had touched the ground.

An enigmatic machine took shape through the veil as they approached it. It was about 15 metres long and had a wingspan of 20 metres. Arno thought that it was a giant, a veritable revelation, a creature from another dimension.

It was a machine, a flying machine – a Junkers 88, a twin-engine plane. The type was versatile, something of a Luftwaffe workhorse. It served variously as a heavy fighter, night fighter, bomber, dive bomber, torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as part of the Mistletoe system. In this concept an unmanned, bomb-laden Ju 88 A was directed towards its goal by a fighter plane that was mounted on the back. At the target area the bomber was released, to be controlled remotely the last distance to the target. The fighter plane could then return to base.

They approached the plane. This was no Mistletoe, just an ordinary medium bomber. Arno admired the sober camouflage: grey spots on a white background.

“Winter camouflage?” he asked.

Nietsky nodded. “Rather attractive, isn’t it…?”

At this very moment a booming sound was heard over the field. It was the antidote to fog. Gas pipes lined both sides of the field, pipes with a multitude of inline orifices which, once lit, created a system of flames and a microclimate. This raised the temperature and wiped away the fog, as if by magic. Even as Arno and the pilot boarded the machine and took their seats in the cockpit, the surroundings switched to clear visibility. The wide grass field became visible along with the surrounding trees, the control tower, hangars and service buildings.

The pilot started the machine. Arno manned the rear machine guns in the cabin. There were two separate pieces. Captain Nietsky had gestured at them: “Sit there. All yours. Keep your eyes peeled.” A man of few words. Arno quickly worked out that, if it came to shooting he would have stand up, but until then he sat down on a folding seat. Before that he had inspected the weapons, familiar MG 34s. They were clean, loaded and belt-fed, everything OK.

The Junkers 88 taxied out to the grass-grown runway, the pilot communicating with the tower. Arno could listen in because he, too, wore a flying helmet with earphones.

Shortly they got starting clearance. The bomber set off along the runway, trundling alone at first but quickly picking up speed. Then, with a lurch that dropped Arno’s stomach and renewed all over the wonder he had felt on his previous flight, the monster lifted from the ground and rose into the sky. Soon, they were in the clouds again. And after five minutes they burst through them and into bright sunshine. 4,000 metres altitude.

Junkers was a renowned aircraft manufacturer. Besides this machine, it had built the Stuka that had supported Arno’s units in the battle of Kamenets-Podolsky, in the cityscape proper, and in several other battles. It had also built the Junkers 86, the Swedish B3 Arno had seen flying over Karlstad in 1938, the epoch-making revelation which told him that war was approaching. And now, in October, 1944, he was deep in that war, in a Junkers machine heading west for his initiation in the formalities of being an NCO. The training would give him an official stamp on his status as a Feldwebel. He wondered idly if it could teach him anything about combat, then realised his time would be better spent watching for enemy fighters.

+++

The bomber droned on through the western skies. It was warm in the cabin, the interior heat system being just like a car’s: hot coolant from the engines was channeled to the flight deck and made life there pleasant. He blinked his eyes and struggled to stay alert. What if…?

Shit! Suddenly, out of the blue, he saw that his thoughts of enemy planes had perhaps been a premonition. A pair of American P-51 Mustangs swooped down on them. Arno caught on. He cocked his weapon and fired long bursts. And he actually hit the lead aircraft. The aluminum shimmering Mustang ran into trouble and soon disappeared in a trail of black smoke.

Beginners luck! But the second plane in the duo was still there – except that it had disappeared. As Arno stared wildly around the sky it came in underneath them with a long, raking burst of automatic cannon fire, which hit both the bomber’s engines.

Both of the propellers juddered and stopped. The Ju 88 was going down. Nietsky struggled with the controls. For a while he seemed bent on clearing up the situation. But then he suddenly gave up, stood up and gave Arno a wry smile. The pilot walked towards the manhole beyond the wing root, opened it and jumped out. He saved himself down to terra firma with a parachute.

Arno barely had time to be outraged. He had no parachute. He could not fly a plane even if it was not already going into a death spiral, a mass of doomed scrap metal. But he had no desire to die in a crashing plane, in this swirling, tumbling chaos of burning rubber, cordite, bakelite and steel. So he made a drastic decision: he would jump out, straight out into the unknown. He thought: rather die as a free man, floating in the open, than sit in a wreck and wait for the crash.

He left the MG, tightened the flight helmet on his head, edged backward in the diving plane and finally stood at the open door. He saw the sky swirling past, said “I Am” – and jumped out.

He fell freely. And he felt peace. Heaven’s blue fell into his blue eyes, merging with them and becoming one with them. He was one with the universe, one with the entire cosmos. His Spirit Guide had said he would not die in war, well, he wouldn’t die from a bullet, from shrapnel, in a flamethrower blast….

The ground came closer. And closer. Dark forestry rushing up to meet him. Finally, he touched Mother Earth or, rather, a spruce top in a Lower Saxony wasteland. Arno fell through the successive branches of densely growing trees, was whipped and buffeted by layer after layer of branches, dense, rich, resilient layers of spruce branches. It all became a relatively softly intercepting net of greenery, something of a buffer before his contact with the soil. But he didn’t notice when he hit the ground for he had passed out by then.

Each layer of branches had received him and slowed his fall, until he landed on his back on a bed of moss.

He lay on his back, being away from the world for some time. Then he was awakened by rain splashing him in the face. He stared into the grey sky – and then he remembered his fall from grace, remembered the Ju 88, the air battle. Jumping. Falling. So this is what it felt to be dead. Very much like being alive as it happened.

He was alive, he was breathing; this he noticed. Then the sting of scratches on his hands and face. He didn’t need to pinch his arm or something. He saw the fir trees looming above him and he guessed that these could have broken his fall, perhaps…

He thought: the trees helped me. Or something bigger: fate, destiny, karma, God, whatever. I Am.

He thought of the episode in Kharkov in March 1943, the one when he was hit by a bullet which was halted by a weapon belt, a wallet and more. After that he had felt invulnerable, somehow convinced that he wouldn’t die in this war. The Badger had confirmed that. And now he had, miraculously, survived a fall from the sky.

He would not be meeting Mr Death today. But he was wounded – again. For when he tried to get up on his knees he couldn’t. He had broken his leg. Moreover, he had a severe headache. He had concussion, a broken leg and, by being hit by the branches, had picked up a flesh wound in his arm. He fell unconscious again. After a while, he was found there, lying alive on the ground – where he had no rational right to be alive -by a passing farmer.

He was carted off to a hospital in Hanover. He woke up a mass of aches but he got morphine for the pain. He was operated on at once for his wounds, anesthetised as a succession of hospital staff came in to peer at their miraculous survivor. And in that state, that is, in a coma, he dreamt once more.

It was a long, complicated dream. The climax of it had this scene: Standing in a temple, he was given a fiery sword. And with this sword he brought fire to the world, burning it up.

For this we need a separate chapter.

24

Fire Dream

Arno flew from Grafenburg to Hanover in late October 1944. Then there was the air battle and the fall. That left him in Hanover hospital for a while. He was back in the German town where he received his basic German army training in 1941. But this fact didn’t enter his mind. He was drugged and in a coma. He was off dreaming a major dream, the one about burning up the world.

In the first part of the dream he was walking over sand flats. He was clad in an old-fashioned helmet, a cuirassier’s steel breastplate and a cloak. The sun was shining and a bird flew crying overhead. Arno was in high spirits, thinking: I’m a great man, a true hero. I live in a world of adventure, I seek treasures and I find them, so now on to some more gemstones and heirlooms, chests of gold and what-have-you.

The sand flat suddenly changed into a town, a city of shiny metal houses. On the street drove low-slung, fancy cars. The people Arno met in the street were extremely tall, pale and frail, delicate aliens who greeted him with reserve.

The street ended in a square. Under an oak tree sat a man on a chair. Arno approached him, this figure too being elongated but not so alien in his features. It was Ringo Badger, wearing green tunic and silken hood.

“We meet again, Arno.”

“Indeed we do, Badger.”

Arno sat down on a bench beside the man. After the customary politeness, they both took up pipes and smoked, puffing on chocolate-flavored tobacco. Arno told about his search for treasures and weapons. Then he asked him for the Ultimate Treasure in this respect. The Badger advised him to look for the Sword of the Cherubim – a powerful weapon.

“Indeed?” Arno said. “That sounds fine.”

“But be careful. You might burn the whole world with it.”

“Hm. But why not? Why would that be so wrong? I think I’ll go searching for this sword right away. Where is it?”

“This,” the Badger said, “I will not tell you.”

Then it was farewell and a continued search through Dreamland, a continued walk under flying clouds. Arno’s soul was on fire, the thought of the Sword of the Cherubim leaving him no rest. He thought, “I’ll unsheathe the Cherubim Sword and draw fire over the world.”

He headed for a distant mountain. He climbed the bare, black rock, found a cave, went inside and walked down strange paths, saw chambers and halls, heard the drip of water and the echo of falling rocks. Everything was a bit spooky but he felt confident. It felt like home, this having a mission, a task, this was what he wanted most in the world. And now the task was to burn the whole world down.

In the dream he went along inside the mountain, gliding through the levels and wandering now in the cave system’s upper floors. Suddenly he saw light before him. He stepped out of the cave and found himself in a jungle, a forest of lush greenery. And before him in the jungle was a temple, with a dome of shining aluminum that flashed in the sun.

Arno strode up towards the temple, went in and passed through an entrance hall of shimmering black marble. The next room was a large hall adorned with malachite and white marble. And in the middle of the room sat a shining figure on a throne, a divine being with golden hair, an angel dressed in a white robe with a green belt. In his lap he had a sword, a magnificent weapon in a silver scabbard.

“Welcome, Arno Greif,” the angel said.

Arno looked the angel straight in the eyes. Then he bowed and knelt. There was something compelling in the sight of this shining angel.

“Thank you, Mr. Deva and cherub,” Arno said. The deva for his part introduced himself as Sindalion. After some small talk Sindalion said:

“Now to the point, the reason you have come here – as I have been expecting you to come, you warrior and hero.”

The angel rose to his feet from the throne, held out the sword and said:

“Take the sword. It’s yours. Take it and draw fire over the world, it’s the way of the future!”

Arno looked at the sword and said: “You speak wisely. I’ll take the sword, indeed I will. I want it, I want to put the world to the flame, burning it all down – in order to ‘pay for its sins’ or whatever. Taking the world to a higher level, putting an end to the current era.”

In this dream Arno was appointed by Fate to unsheathe the Cherubim Sword, the legendary fire weapon that could light up and burn down the whole world. The ultimate weapon.

Arno wanted to receive the sword and draw it. This was what he dreamed, this was what he genuinely felt in his dream state. He was quite prepared to burn down the earth with this weapon. He understood that the Earth’s current epoch had ended and that a new era must come. There must be an end, an abrupt end to greed and materialism; for the time has come for a higher vibration, harmony and spiritual bliss. Therefore, he would take the Cherubim Sword, unsheathe it and draw fire over the world; only thus Man could reach a new, higher stage in his development. The old must die, must reach a spectacular end; only then could the new sprout from its ruins.

Right or wrong, that’s how Arno thought, that was the logic of his dream.

Arno rose from his knees and took the sword, as in a trance. Now it would burn, he thought; this whole world will meet the blade, meet the flame, meet the Red Dog! – This “Red Dog” was the name of the all-consuming flame in his current dream mythology.

He bowed to the deva, turned on his heels, left the palace and pulled the sword a little from its sheath. Already the flames emanated from under the scabbard, they licked the guard but didn’t burn Arno’s hand for he had been inoculated against fire after all the battles he had participated in.

He sheathed the sword and laughed – indeed, he was laughing like a madman. His blade burned with all the fires of hell, the heat by his hip made him mad with anticipation, and with a cry of triumph and joy, he jumped into the saddle of a dragon that waited nearby; his designated steed in the coming conflagration, his two-legged winged lizard, emerald green and with a yellow underbelly. This winged creature was also captivated by the moment: its eyes burned, its feet stomped. Arno himself was fiery, his eyes glowed – for now he had the Sword of the Cherubim and now he would set the whole world on fire.

He urged his wyvern to rise; the winged beast ran a few paces, leapt and they were airborne. It circled to gained altitude, then flew away over the hilly land. Fine, the rider thought, now the Earth Kingdom will perish! The current culture is doomed. I’m only its gravedigger.

Arno flew away from the golden temple on the mountain, flying with the speed of wind. He pulled the sword from its silver scabbard and swung it aloft, the divine weapon enchanting both the carrier and the dragon.

They flew over desert and meadow, hill and valley, river and city, Arno swinging his sword over it all, sending flames over the land, fiery sparks shooting out in all directions and setting fire to forest and field, town and country, man and beast.

Arno gave out a triumphant cry, a barely human cry from the depths of his throat. He saw the Red Dog swallowing it all up, saw the flames shooting across the land, and he shouted:

“Burn, baby, burn! What a sight. Break out, awaited storm! Ride the fire storm, surf the avalanche of death! I am the god of fire and want you to burn!”

Everything started burning under him where he flew. He went all over the earth and drew fire over all the countries. Every last inch.

The earth was set on fire. Flames rose, smoke rose and darkened the sun, made the day into night, people cried out in agony as they were engulfed by the flames. Arno himself was a sign in the sky, an evil portent, a flaming arrow in the firmament – a rider on a dragon, Cherubim Sword in hand, the flaming sword shining like a beacon over the dying old world.

Arno took one last ride over the world, checking that nowhere was spared the flames. Satisfied with his day’s work Arno landed with his wing lizard onto the ice and bare rock of a mountain, the highest mountain in the world. He thrust the sword into its sheath and looked out over the world, watching the whole Earth Kingdom go up in flames with grim satisfaction. Wherever he looked, the night was shot through with flames of orange, with flaming streaks crossing each other and disappearing into the distance. The air was thick with smoke, of the aromatic substances being released when it burns.

“Such a spectacle,” Arno said to the dragon. It returned the reply with a glance from its ellipsoidal pupils, its unfathomable lizard eyes. And then the animal said with a deep voice:

“Indeed, this was a spectacle worthy of the name. It was a sight for the gods!”

“True that,” Arno said, “a sight for gods indeed. I have killed and burned throughout the world, ruined everything! I’m pretty happy with that. And I’ve had the help of you, my fiery dragon!”

Arno patted the lizard on the withers. Then he took off his helmet, cloak and cuirass, lay down on the ground and rested. As a tool of the gods he had taught the world a lesson, he figured. He had sent fire over an outdated culture, overthrowing the old, kicking it over the precipice and prepared the stage for something new to emerge.

+++

The dream ended when Arno woke up in the hospital, his leg was in splint and his wounds all dressed. He was ordered to stay calm and still because of the severe concussion.

He recovered. Partly because the injuries – although more serious than he had thought when he first came to on the forest floor – were not life-threatening. And partly because of his inner strength. “Meditation mobilises your inner strength,” this he had already known before the war. And this habit of his contributed to the recovery. Saying “I Am” helped.

The dream then, the revolutionary dream he had just dreamed – what did he think about that? You can say: Arno was glad it was only a dream. He had no desire to burn down the whole world. He just wanted to fight for his Germany, to prevent it from being swamped by conquering hordes from the East and the West. They were the ones spreading flames, another city burned every night.

The dream left him slightly uneasy. It would haunt him for years. But he wasn’t essentially of a neurotic nature. So after some two months he had recovered and could be discharged from hospital. This was at the end of December 1944. By this time Battalion Wolf was stationed on the Hungarian front. At the same time, the Ardennes Offensive had failed. It was an attempt by Hitler to regain the initiative in the west and cut the Allies’ supply lines before throwing them back into the sea. Now a similar drama was to unfold in the east. Budapest was to be retaken to stabilise the eastern front. And Battalion Wolf would be part of this new throw of the dice.

Arno heard about this through the grape-wine, that Battalion Wolf was again going back into the combat zone. In that respect, he deemed it pointless to attend NCO school. While convalescing he had missed two months of the curriculum; this too contributed to his lukewarm feelings towards the schooling assignment. So he applied to be returned to his old battalion and to postpone the training. “Postpone” in this respect was just formality. He felt that there would never be any officer school for him, neither here nor there. But if he could get to the front again, he would be satisfied. And his prayers were answered.

25

Hungary

We have already learned that the Russian wait on the Vistula lasted for six months. But on the southern wing of the Eastern Front, things moved on apace. In August 1944, the Russians took Romania. Romania surrendered and became an ally of the Soviet Union. The same happened to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

Then there was Hungary. On February 13 1945 Budapest fell to the Red Army. But Hitler was hell-bent on retaking Hungary, and especially its capital. The ensuing operation would be called Frühlingserwachen, that is, an awakening in spring. One of the staging areas would be the Hungarian town of Komorn, 64 km west of Budapest. The force that would carry out the main attack was called 6th Panzer Armee. 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler would be in the lead. The Division was divided into two Kampfgruppe, the one with the Panzer Battalions, led by Standartenführer Jochen Peiper and the one with the Panzer Grenadier Battalions led by Obersturmbannführer Peter Hansen. The force would advance east from Komorn, reach the Donau and then head north for Budapest.

That was the core of it, but the plan had other elements too. For instance, a supporting attack would be made by the unit that now included Battalion Wolf. It was called Battle Group M, shortened to BGM. Three manoeuvre battalions, a battery of 10.5s, an HQ and a supply company made up the operational strength of BGM. Armoured vehicles there were none; this was a regular infantry unit with soldiers marching by foot. However, a transportation company with trucks was available for some troop movements.

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It was February 21, 1945. Battalion Wolf was deployed in the country south of a city located northwest of Budapest, somewhat south of the Danube. The battalion and the whole of BGM would make a supporting attack in Operation Spring Awakening, the liberation of Budapest. From the west the Peiper and Hansen Battle Groups would forge ahead. From the north BGM would attack through the Woxa Forest and clean it up. Having reached open land, the famed Puszta in the form of the village Kerenyi, it would then connect with Peiper and the units advancing from the west.

But before it all started, Battalion Wolf had to know exactly where the front ran in its section. So, Arno on this day, February 21, was sent out to scout. Where was the enemy’s main line of resistance? This was the recon question he got. Arno by now had been returned to the ranks without much ado. He had asked permission to come back and he got it. He regained command of 3rd platoon which had been led by Sergeant Bauer in his absence.

The recon patrol adventure began with Arno being ordered by Captain Wistinghausen to go out and scout, go a certain way and see if there were enemies, check where the front actually went and what Ivan had there. It was some way off, so they would have to spend the night out on the trail itself, then return and report.

Arno gave careful thought to the task. As a seasoned infantryman he embraced the predator mindset, that of not going twice along the same path; rather, the patrol would take a circular route, never retracing its steps. This reduced the risk of hostile ambush.

The patrol personnel were selected, seven men in all, including Arno. His team was Weissbart, the new Leader of 2nd Squad, plus Bauer, head of 1st Squad. The MG head Lenz was sick in dysentery, in the care of the Battalion Medical Station. The rank and file of the patrol were Ilo, Henko, Huber and Modrow. The last two were relative newcomers, having been around since Warsaw. Arno saw patrol operations as a school. Everyone would sooner or later go out on patrol, this was his motto. And incidentally, to stay behind in the bivouac was as dangerous as venturing out into the unknown. You could be hit by harassing artillery fire as you slept, you could be hit by a sniper’s bullet on the way to the latrine, and so on.

The patrol was prepared. Orders, procedures, kit check, and then they slept on it. Then it was D-Day, February 22, 1945. Arno woke up in the cottage which was his quarters. It was early dawn. He went out onto the typically Hungarian pillared porch on the south side of the building, took a deep breath and said to himself: “The battle is won in the heart, in the inner mind.” They had a light breakfast and gathered under a pine tree. Arno looked at his men, motioned them to crouch as he did, and drew a rough map in a sandy patch:

“We will scout over Village 103 towards Logging 544 and possibly beyond. Check for enemy positions in the village and in the felling area. Scouting is our job; we’re going out to find out where their front line is, not to fight the bastards. At least not primarily. It’s a long way to patrol so we’ll spend the night in the open. You all have your ponchos, I hope.”

Everyone nodded. “Poncho” was a cotton duck tarpaulin which could be used both as a personal rain cover and, joined with another, as a small two-man bivvy.

“We find where the front goes,” Arno continued, “then we return here, but by a different path from the one we take on the way out.”

The men had questions. All doubts were clarified and extra ammo and supplies were distributed. For explosives, they had smoke flares and hand grenades. They were dressed in the usual grey-green cloth uniform tunics and white snow jackets. Generally used by now, even by Arno, were boots with canvas gaiters. The classic German Army jackboots, the ones with the high boot-shafts, were too expensive to produce in what was now a desperate war. The personal weapon was the StG 44. No MG was taken along.

Arno gave the order to march out, himself taking point, with Weissbart as tail-end Charlie. They filed quietly out into the wilds, into God’s boundless realm. It was minus five degrees, the sun in a wintry blue sky. There was snow pretty much everywhere, even in the wood, but the layer wasn’t so thick; no skis or snowshoes were needed. They went with their senses on edge, despite still being behind their own lines. They passed the front under the watchful eyes of a German sentinel, broke out into No Man’s Land and moved cautiously but quickly along the edge of a field. The primary goal was Village 103, a gathering of farmhouses and outbuildings some distance away. Arno knew how to get there, he needed no compass, the map was enough. He was born with a good sense of direction, having what Swedes call lokalsinne, the ability to find your way instinctively. “Some guys got it, some guys aint.”

A fresh scent permeated the forest: winter snow, earth acids and spring on the way. Clouds appeared, grey, broken clouds gliding past in a sky that wasn’t blue anymore. They went through a copse of conifers. Arno looked at them and thought: the fir trees are green. However, in this overcast light, they’re almost black. The snow is lithographing the spruces, pulls a white surface on the outermost branches. How nice: black spruce with white lithography, almost like back home in Sweden, like the Wermland woods of my childhood.

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They passed a frozen creek and a burned down house. Only the chimney structure stood upright. Then they passed a field of thistles, the blackened remnants of the plants sticking up through the snow. The patrol passed the outskirts of a garden with leafless apple trees. This was part of Village 103.

Suddenly, Arno smelt cigarette smoke, Russian variety. It was the smell of burnt mahorka, so-called peasant tobacco or black tobacco. Anyone who has been in Russia knows this tobacco, rather bitter but having its peculiar charm. Arno turned and checked if any of his men were smoking but this wasn’t the case. Just as well, he thought, because anyone that careless would’ve got a right rollicking. So the cigarette smoke could only mean one thing: enemies nearby.

He motioned the men into a skirmish line and they leopard crawled forward through tall, tussocky grass until they reached a spruce hedge. Arno raised himself up and gently pushed branches aside so he could peer through. On the road, 150 metres away, stood three T-34s and three crewmen. The vehicle commanders were holding a consultation. All smoked. All wore tank helmets and brown overalls.

Arno shrank noiselessly back to his side of the spruce hedge. As well as the Russians he had seen a cottage with outbuildings. White fields spread out against a dark forest edge some distance away. Above them the sky arched shiny white. What a day, Arno thought, what a joy to be alive. A day to say to yourself, “I Am”.

They had to let the tanks be, because the patrol carried no anti-tank weapon. Of course they could have taken them along; the new, easily portable Panzerfaust only weighed just over 6 kg. But this was a reconnaissance patrol, not a combat squad. Of course, they could still mow down the three tank commanders, distance 150…? But the tanks had crews inside as well. And again, Arno’s men were not to disclose themselves, they were there just to scout, so Arno instead took a piece of paper and wrote: “Three T-34s in Village 103,” added the time, gestured Modrow over, gave the note to him and whispered that he should take it to Company HQ. Modrow nodded and crawled away through the dead grass in the orchard, back towards the spruce forest.

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Having reported the location of the tanks the patrol swung wide past the village and went on, destination Felling Area 544. They went over moorland and through a big spruce wood, but still hadn’t reached the big clearing marked on the map by the time night fell and they had to camp. The place they picked had a number of cut poles and the brash from felled trees lying handy, so Arno ordered the men to use these to construct a makeshift dwelling with a one-metre high entrance and a sloping ceiling made of ponchos and fir branches for camouflage. The floor was also covered by fir branches, soft and relatively warm with all the needles forming a barrier to the frozen ground.

They had to keep quiet. No talking, no coughing, and they couldn’t risk making a fire. But they had assorted canned food they could heat on their army issue ranger stoves, powered by hexamine tablets, their meal consisting of sausage casserole, synthetic fruit juice and hardtack.

Arno drew up a sentry list. Night brought a shining full moon, illuminating the land like burning magnesium. Guard duty was two-hour shifts in a hidden pit overlooking the wooded surroundings. Those who didn’t stand guard could sleep, as best they could. The proximity of the other soldiers in the cramped shelter gave some warmth. And they had their heavy woolen winter coats as cover, the men, in ranger fashion, sleeping fully dressed.

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The next day they walked on. Leading small units is a peculiar art form. You have to have virtual telepathic rapport with the men, have to know where they are without even looking. As a chief you have to project your will onto the unit. You can’t always make yourself understood with orders, you have to project your personality on the team, have them act in the spirit you represent, have them live the philosophy you vindicate.

And Arno’s philosophy was “going out there to die.” When you’re in the combat zone, be prepared to die. Then you’re on tenterhooks, then you work at a higher mental level. With or without words Arno had his men act in this spirit of bushido.

Eventually they reached the logging area. They spotted three deer grazing near a big pile of logs. He raised his hand slowly. The soldiers stopped. They would have to wait until the beasts moved on, because to startle them and make them bolt could alert a Russian sentry if any were nearby as half expected.

The deer were startled, but not by them; a whizzing sound was heard above. It was a reconnaissance aircraft flying low, a Russian SB-2. No one had time to hit the dirt. Everyone stood stock-still instead. Had they been spotted? Probably not. A pilot in a plane has some difficulty in distinguishing soldiers on the ground. A man, even one standing out in a clearing, is difficult to distinguish from a tree.

The plane passed. They moved on. Alternately advancing and giving support, they made their way across the snow-covered surface, using every scrap of cover and seeking the protection of the terrain.

Coming out in a meadow they made their way along a row of poplars. They pushed on into another logging area and, without any warning, suddenly found themselves under artillery fire, with a salvo of shells tearing up the ground uncomfortably close, then another closer still. They hit the deck and rolled and crawled to what cover they could, all six: Arno, Bauer, Weissbart, Ilo, Henko and Huber.

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While lying in the barrage Arno thought: “We’re being fired at. We’ve been sighted by an artillery observer and now we’re under well-directed artillery fire. This means that the enemy has a strongpoint here. Now we know where Ivan’s front runs. All we’ve got to do now is get the hell out and get back to report at HQ.”

The firing was almost on top of them, although fortunately the shells were falling slightly short. In a brief pause, Arno saw that things were going from bad to worse – an enemy patrol had been sent out against them on the right flank. The Russians ventured out from a forest edge and touched down on their flank. At least that meant the shelling stopped. Arno’s men were going to get trapped and captured out in the field. Or were they? They could sneak out to the left, Arno thought. Said and done. He ordered Bauer to lead half the unit off along a ditch.

Weissbart and Arno plus Huber were left as a rearguard. After some minutes Weissbart threw a smoke grenade under cover of which the three could sneak out of the trap, covered by Bauer’s team as they darted between log piles.

Eventually they reached the cover of some serious trees, but bullets from the pursuing Russians still cracked overhead. Then Ilo threw a hand grenade at the Russians. This slowed them down briefly. Ilo was an expert thrower, being capable of 100 m throws.

Ilo was given more grenades and these too had their effect but soon the chase was on again. Arno’s men managed, however, to clear the crest of a hill and, about 30 metres further on, Arno breathlessly ordered them to dive into ambush positions. It was a desperate gamble, but the Russians were over-confident or badly led and they dashed straight into it. The lead squad was cut to ribbons; the others went to ground just back beyond the ridge. One last hand grenade made the Russians lose the desire to pursue them further.

The grey sky looked indifferently down on Arno’s patrol. They sauntered homewards. But before they made it, Huber stood on a mine. It was an anti-personnel mine, a blast mine. He was seriously wounded in the foot. Weissbart tied his leg with a string, stopping the bleeding. This saved Huber’s life, but he had to be carried. They took turns.

They carried Huber on a stretcher made of poles and ponchos. They went through the same forest they had gone out through but along a somewhat different way. It was, as already mentioned, the infantry patrol creed, never taking the same way twice. Do as the tiger: always take a new path, wherever you go.

Before they arrived at their own lines they met a Russian T-34, out on a solitary mission to do devilry, an armoured patrol of the kind the Russians were fond of. It was a hostile tank out in the open, a patrolling T-34 tasked with finding out where the German front ran – same job as theirs. Specifically, it was one of the three tanks they had seen in the village the day before.

Would they be discovered by the vehicle? The first generation T-34 had poor 360-degree visibility for the vehicle commander. But this newer model had sight prisms in the dome and they worked all too well. The tank halted and turned its turret against them; the men threw themselves into cover and then rolled away some more. He might have seen where they went to ground, but that didn’t mean you had to stay there. Arno couldn’t help but look up and watch as the steel monster fired a projectile at them. There was a muzzle flame; next, you could see the propellant gas emanating from the barrel and the tank lurching backwards with the recoil.

The shell was fired straight at them. But then nothing happened, no shrapnel was triggered over the target. Arno wondered why. This was indeed strange. Then he realised that this must have been an armour-piercing round, not an explosive shell. The T-34 had fired the wrong shell. Luckily – for Arno’s team.

But it wasn’t over yet. The machine’s driver rammed it into gear, its engine revved and the tracks gripped the muddy road. The tank was aiming to run them over instead. And if they tried to run to avoid being ground and smashed to pulp, it would mow them down with its machine gun.

Arno shouted to the men to crawl away further in different directions.

How would the stretcher bearers cope? Arno didn’t know. He had given his orders. He himself crawled off and behind a tree. The T-34 advanced against them. And then, another unexpected salvation that reminded Arno that he wasn’t going to die in this war. A roar like he’d never heard before thundered overhead. A plane he’d never seen before flashed low over the trees. The plane spotted the tank, banked round and swept back in attack mode, dropping its two 250 kg bombs bang on target. Direct hit! The turret flew off with a bang and the chassis was set on fire. High flames licked up from the wreckage. The smell of cordite and burning flesh filled the air.

Arno was briefly mesmerised by the speed and the sound of the air attack. Then and his men pulled themselves together and resumed their journey. They praised the Luftwaffe, their comrades in the air; they praised the fighter-bomber. They worked out that it was a Messerschmitt 262, a real “Wonder Weapon” with its high speed jet engines. Yet again, Arno’s war had turned on a plane. On one a futuristic monster, a predator from an age to come. From biplanes to jet engines in the space of a war! What a shame, thought Arno, that these space-age killers hadn’t been rolled out two or three years earlier.

They soon reached their own lines. Huber, groaning through gritted teeth, was carried off to the Battalion Medical Station. Arno went to see Captain Wistinghausen to make his report. The front goes there and there Arno said, tracing the line on the map. One man wounded. When he was finished, the Company Commander said:

“Fine. Dismiss.”

26

Woxa Forest

Battalion Wolf’s legendary chief, Major Wolf, had been injured in a car accident in December 1944. He was replaced by a certain Major Mahler. But the unit was still called “Battalion Wolf” for simplicity.

Now they knew where the enemy’s main position was. On the basis of the reconnaissance information, Major Mahler could fine-tune the planning of Battalion Wolf’s attack. Battalion Wolf would lead the attack, followed by the other two battalions of Battle Group M, Battalions Rot and Weiss. They would first take a Forward Assembly Area, FAA for short. This “taking of FAA” took place in early March. They would seize and secure a 500 m x 2 km large area deemed right for the staging of the subsequent, all-out battle group attack. 8th Company got the task of taking this FAA.

The enemy had attacked almost continuously since July, even here in Hungary. But Ivan had overstretched himself. The current German plan was, as intimated, attacking towards Budapest with Panzer Battle Groups from the west. Battalion Wolf and Battle Group M – BGM – would support from the north and join the other column at Kerenyi.

First, however, Battalion Wolf had to take the staging area, with 8th Company receiving the task of going “an der Spitze”. 6th Company would protect the flanks. 7th Company would be in reserve and on alert, ready to support the venture.

On March 4, 8th Company gathered at a forked road in the forest and split up into two columns, with Arno’s platoon in the lead of the right-hand column. Captain Wistinghausen would advance with the left-hand column. The temperature was ten degrees below zero. The winter of ’44–’45 had been harsh, and was not quite over yet. Three assault guns accompanied them along two parallel forest roads. Arno was supported by one such self-propelled artillery piece, the other column had two. StuG IIIs. They were factory painted in grey, hastily given winter camouflage in the form of small white paint strokes.

They reached the starting line on their side of a clearing. Arno ordered his unit to deploy and wait. They heard hostile artillery fire from 7.62 cm-pieces and saw battle smoke rolling in from the right. Arno ordered gas masks on, even though at this point in the war few had their gas masks left. No one any longer expected a gas war.

As for Arno, he still had his gas mask. So he whipped it from its metal container, took a deep breath, took off his helmet and woollen cap-comforter, donned the mask and wore it until the smoke had drifted by. He lay alongside the StuG, looking absentmindedly at the caterpillar mechanism with its track wheels, track supports and track tension. While waiting for the prep fire one of the soldiers was affected by the smoke, he began to stagger around coughing and seemed to be about to suffocate. Then he dropped to the ground. It was Private Schnell. He was carried a little way off in order to get fresh air.

The sun was shining in the clear blue sky. On the wind there now was the smell of wood smoke and cordite, the latter from the Russian harassing fire shots before.

The orderly of the Company HQ, Untergefreiter Pfeiff, arrived from Wistinghausen. He was there to check that Arno had understood the concept of the attack, which – of course – he had. After prep fire from the Battle Group Artillery and the assault guns his platoon, the 3rd, would attack on the right wing. Guntz’ 2nd Platoon would attack on the left wing. Ongoing, successive support would be provided by the assault guns, which would roll along in the attack. 1st Platoon was in reserve. The goal was the woodland beyond the clearing, two kilometers away. It was rather wide and several kilometres in length.

The task looked quite daunting. When the Germans ventured out into the open ground in front of them, the enemy would have an open field of fire at the advancing force. However, Arno set to work despite the prospect of being mown down on the field. Once the German prep fire had softened the target dense smoke lay over the neighborhood. That was a plus. Now was the time to get going. Arno brought his men along in two files behind the StuG. On the left wing Guntz made the same move behind his two machines.

The snow in the field, as usual, had a thin layer. In the middle of the clearing the StuGs halted and fired explosive shells into the already bombed target. Arno’s and Guntz’ columns left the relative safety behind the machines and charged the wood, breaking into the tangled mess of barbed wire, logs and broken concrete that was the enemy position.

The enemy, for his part, wasn’t completely knocked out. In the ensuing battle, it became a matter of shielding off a stubbornly-held bunker with smoke, automatic bursts to their front, hand grenades into the unknown, shrapnel flying and blood flowing, hard explosions and white flames, gunfire rattling over the land and a field shovel with a short handle.

A lull in the firing. There were indifferent clouds in the sky, bomber noise and a rustle in the tree tops. Arno strode along in a trench, then under a barbed wire barrier and past a pile of broken rock. He deployed his men along an earth embankment. Then he saw enemy infantry approaching, using a pile of logs as cover. “Enemies, fire,” he shouted and they opened up, creating a virtual wall of lead. The Russians lobbed a smoke grenade but Arno wasn’t fooled, he continued to direct the fire into the smoke and around it. Result: hostile riposte eliminated.

This battle involved considerably more than that. There was blood and guts, black bile, vomit and screaming. There were dressings and painkillers, reinforced concrete and earth, clouds of dust, damp heat and grass, mist and sand. It was rifle grenades, machine gun magazine, shaft grenade and the Iron Cross’ red-black-white stripe, applied in a buttonhole. It was cutting the uniform off a wounded man, a belt that was applied to stop bleeding, bandages and send him to the rear.

After hours of battle, among the barbed wire and bunkers, hidden passageways and infantry shields, Arno lost contact with his units. He crawled up a brushy hillside, looking for his men; the line was supposed to be somewhere up here, but where was it then…?

He ran into a soldier who lay moaning while blood pulsed out of a stomach wound. Arno was about to produce a first aid bandage and dress the wound. The next moment he looked at the man he was dead, blank eyes in a pale face. Arno continued up the hill. Once at the top he saw their three StuGs standing 200 metres off in a sunken road, motors running on idle. The central part of the wood had been taken with the support of 1st Platoon, their reserve. Captain Wistinghausen had emerged from out of nowhere and thrown his force into the fray as well. So the FAA had been taken. Another mission accomplished.

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At dawn on March 6 the major attack started, Operation Spring Awakening finally being executed. For the main force in the western column, Peiper’s Panzers, it all started near Komorn where the Leibstandarte had its Forward Assembly Area. On the first day of the operation the Russian forward positions were taken. Then the attack went forward for a few days.

As for Battle Group M it also got going on its particular front, starting in its proper FAA and attacking over Woxa Forest and south to Kerenyi and the Puszta. Battalion Wolf was in reserve on D-Day, March 6, with Battalions Weiss and Rot getting the task of storming and breaking through the Russian main line with heavy support. Then there was advance along three to four parallel roads for some days: snowy woods, the sound of machine gun fire, harassing artillery and black Dornier 217s in the sky; these were the symbols of this phase.

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On March 8, a fine task awaited BGM. This day Battalion Wolf would be transported with trucks to a secondary line in Woxa Forest that must be broken through. Battalion Wolf would take the lead, followed by the Battalions Weiss and Rot. When this line had been broken through, the battle Group would be free to push on for the Puszta, with the village of Kerenyi only 15 km away. This was the rendezvous point for the meet up with Peiper’s Panzers.

The battalion would break through the line with each of the Companies in separate locations. This sounded like madness, Arno thought. Instead they should amass their force on one point and roll up the line from there. But what did he know; maybe Major Mahler had some ulterior motive for this strategy? For 8th Company the day started with Wistinghausen giving orders. Then Arno went to his strongpoint and gathered his Squad Leaders, Lenz, Bauer and Weissbart. He produced his sketch map, pointed at it and said:

“The target, the enemy position, is four kilometres to the south. After lorry transport to Point Y we’ll advance in single file through the forest, crossing a boundary line and then going on through more woodland. At the ridge here, we’ll be able to see the target, the enemy defensive line on the next rise in front. Our platoon will take the lead in the ensuing attack, being vanguard for the company. The other two companies of the battalion will break in at other points, to the right of us, that is, to the west.”

Then they had chow, ersatz coffee, hardtack and turnip marmalade. This on a patch of flat gravel next to a road junction. The Company waited for the truck transportation while they ate. Arno sat and sipped at his steaming coffee while his orderly, Kellner, asked:

“So what’s going to happen now? Are we encircled, sitting in a Kessel?”

The soldier scratched his forehead, took off his backpack, unslung his StG and sat down on the ground. Kellner was a good orderly, but he was fairly new to the combat zone. Arno blew on the drink in his pan lid and said:

“We’re not encircled. Where did you get that idea from? We’ll continue the attack. But first I’ll finish this.”

This Arno did, sitting on an ammo box, slurping and saying “ahh” in between sips. In front of him was a backpack and an StG. The sky arched yellow over the waiting, fidgeting soldiers, the platoon and company gathered at an anonymous crossroads in a forest they’d never heard of. Men ate or lay down and waited, using their backpacks as pillows. You could hear the roar of low-flying FW 189s and distant explosions. Heaven greyish yellow, temperature zero Celsius, a mild March day in the bosom of Hungary in the middle of nowhere.

They would continue the attack, break out onto the great plain, smash their way to Budapest, retake the city and stabilise the southern part of the Eastern Front. It was six o’clock in the morning and they had waited for an hour, but Arno didn’t mind it. He took a bread slice out of a pocket, dipped it into the brew and brought it into his mouth. A tasty, well baked piece of bread, in truth…! He was satisfied with little, being something of a warrior monk. “You should rejoice in small things; why else do you think the microscope was invented?” as a wise man said.

Strange birds were singing in a tree nearby. It sounded like a requiem on flute. A happy elegy. Macabre.

“But what will happen today?” Kellner said where he sat cross-legged on the ground opposite Arno, gun in lap. Arno thought: He reminds me of my cousin back home, Gustav Nilsson. Energetic and inquisitive.

Arno finished his meal, put away the pan lid and said:

“Well, we ain’t encircled, I can tell you that. We’ll attack the enemy defensive line ahead. This we will break through like nothing on earth. Just follow me and you’ll do fine. That’s the task of the orderly. How hard can it be?”

“How far away is it? The enemy line?”

“Four kilometres.”

“That’s far.”

“Far? It ain’t far. Infantrymen can go anywhere. Besides, we’re getting transport today.”

As if on cue engine noise was heard and an Opel Blitz drove onto the gravel. Bonnet, wings and roof were painted in steel grey and had a matching tarpaulin over the bed. The vehicle was followed by eight more. They stood in a circle, ready for the men to board. Arno put the pan lid on his mess tin, buckled it together, put it all in his backpack, slung it on his shoulder, picked up his StG and gave the order to mount up. When the whole company was seated the trek south to Point Y began – the unloading site.

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The Company travelled, being transported the four kilometres to Point Y. The march went slowly because of hostile air presence, Russian fighter-bombers buzzing in the sky. Oddly enough they didn’t attack. Once at Point Y the Company unloaded. The backpacks were left on the trucks. Arno trudged off in the lead with his 20 men, Kellner and Lenz close to him. The platoon leader has to have the MGs close by, that’s a surefire way to success.

It was nine o’clock. The sky was now pale green and pink. They advanced through the leafless deciduous forest, crossed the boundary, a three metre broad ride through the woods, a path for foxes and rabbits with so many woodsmen gone to the war. The Germans went straight into the next area of woodland, a mixture of birch and spruce. The snow layer was thin, way thinner than in Norrbotten 1940, Arno thought.

They arrived at the forest edge. The ridge, the target of the attack, could be seen in the distance. Captain Wistinghausen arrived and said that they would wait for prep fire. It would start in an hour. So the rank and file gathered spruce branches, lay down on them and rested. In the meantime, Arno took his squad leaders to the forest edge, letting them see the target. Before them was a meadow with a ditch and a barn, both of which could provide protection during the advance. The ridge was an elongated hill where they could make out cannon emplacements and infantry positions. On top of the ridge grew conifers and deciduous trees.

The prep fire started right on time, saturating the ridge. Dust and smoke rose from the impact areas, trees were smashed, branches and treetops flew. Just before H Hour Arno’s platoon set off, scurrying along the ditch and halting at the barn. There, they waited until the storm of artillery fire ceased. Then they doubled towards the target in two columns.

A muzzle flash was seen on the right. Everyone hit the dirt. Arno ordered rifle grenades towards the spot, plus hand grenades. Lenz opened up with the MG, forcing Ivan to keep his head down. Then Bauer’s squad advanced, firing their StGs from the hip.

The sky was now completely overcast. This was good since this limited hostile air operations. The platoon broke into the ridge position, harassing the trenches and ramparts. The enemy had been considerably shaken by the prep fire. The position had only been thrown up some 24 hours ago and the Russians had not had the time to perfect the defences.

Arno’s platoon cleared them with fire and movement, StG salvoes and hand grenades. There was support demanded and given, shaft grenade and egg hand grenade, blood and flesh wounds, killed and wounded. It was steel helmet with fabric covers, it was boots, combat webbing, magazine pouches, StG and MG, it was support from the company mortar platoon. And it was bare birch trees, blackbirds and elegiac music: “the spirit of song is war” as Södergran said.

There were three squads, moving by bounds, an armoured door, boulders, neighbouring platoons, intrusion and cleaning up, equalising of ammunition and back into the fray.

It was counter-attack, retreat, mortar support, grenades and blood out of a soldier’s mouth. The troops poured in, cleaned the trenches and got into the heart of the position. 8th Company had begun its breakthrough. 1st Platoon eventually succeeded 3rd Platoon as point Platoon. Arno’s men could rest for a while. But during the storming of the ridge one loss had made an indelible impression on Arno. At one moment his orderly, Kellner, was hit by a burst of MG bullets in the chest. He was choked to death by this lung wound, dying in Arno’s arms, his face turning blue while life itself flowed out of him.

With 1st in the lead they at long last reached a road, a dirt road. This was the same road where the company had left the lorries in order to reach the FAA. And now the unit, the dismounted company, was at a point 1.7 km further south along this road. Soon the other companies of the battalion reached the road too. The battalion had succeeded in attacking in line abreast. The crazy plan had succeeded, Major Mahler dispersing his forces and pulling off the bold gamble.

The line was broken through. They didn’t know it then but this would be the last actual attack they performed during the war. And as such it was part of the very last offensive by the German Army in World War II, this Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen of March 1945.

+++

Battalion Wolf had broken through, holding the door open to let Battalions Weiss and Rot forge ahead to Kerenyi and the Puszta. The following day Battalion Wolf followed in their wake. Some days later, on March 10, Battalion Wolf was in the lead with Arno and his platoon yet again as advance guard. This day they reached the end of the forests and hills, having travelled four kilometers by foot from the early morning. Ahead they saw the great plain, the Hungarian Puszta.

To be precise, it was at ten o’clock that day that Arno saw extra light filtering through the trees ahead. He walked on up to the forest edge and looked out over the boundless plain, sitting muddy brown under a grey sky. The road over the plain, the road ahead, led to a village some 2.5 kilometres away – the point at which they would meet the other spearhead in their desperate bid to stabilise the front. To buy time for more ‘wonder weapons’, even more effective than the ME262.

As noted above Arno’s orderly, Kellner, had fallen with a fatal lung wound in the battle for the ridge. His replacement was one Gunthram. Now Arno sent Gunthram to Wistinghausen with the report, “The plain reached without further losses, nothing hostile, end of message.” As for using a runner for such a report and not a radio, the fact of course was that Arno didn’t have a radio anymore.

Battalion Wolf had come a long way to get as far as this. But they would never reach the key just a few kilometres ahead on the plain. By now they were in the second week of Operation Frühlingserwachen. During this time Peiper had pushed steadily east. But the Red Army had retreated in an orderly fashion. Peiper’s losses began to rise.

At one point Peiper was far ahead of the rest of the division. Soon he was only 30 km from Budapest. But they had neither the numbers nor the fuel to force their way through. On March 18 Peiper was ordered to turn around. By now he was encircled, but he did manage to breakout and save himself, along with 25 tanks – all that he had left of his once proud Kampfgruppe.

What did this mean to Battalion Wolf and Battle Group M? It meant that by the time they were within reach of their key target the village had been retaken by the Russians. The Battalion and the whole of BGM were ordered to withdraw, fall back, retreat. The operation was called off.

Arno for his part didn’t really care about the outcome; he had become largely indifferent to the higher goals of the war; by now being something of a fighting machine, only interested in operating as a goal in itself. He operated, this was enough for him. But yes, a vague sense of futility took possession of him at the news of retreat. He resented the fact that Bolshevism was now seizing control over all of Eastern Europe, but this fact per se didn’t make him feel dejected; that is, not existentially dejected.

He had done what he could to defeat Bolshevism. Obviously, it hadn’t happened. Now he had to regroup and keep fighting nihilism with different means, or the same, time would tell.

Mounting Russian airstrikes had put an end to movement by truck. The transport company had been knocked out. So in going back up north the soldiers had to retreat on foot.

Operation Spring Awakening was called off. But Battalion Wolf and BGM didn’t meet too much resistance in its zone, wearily slogging back the way they had come. They had already crushed the Russian defence in the forest. So after four days, with overnight stays in villages and bivouacs, they were back in the FAA region, the starting point for the failed last gamble. Soon the units were shipped across the Danube on combat engineer barges. After this Battalion Wolf was transferred to Berlin in order to help prepare the endgame defence of the Reich capital. The Twilight of the Gods.

27

Berlin

Arno Greif was lying asleep, dreaming. He dreamt that he was at a house. In front of the house grew an ash tree, a stately, grey-barked green hardwood guarding the house like a giant sentry. Around the trunk ran a bench, a circular wooden bench. Arno was sitting on this bench listening of bees up in the green canopy and the leaves rustling faintly in the soft breeze. Looking ahead he saw a spring green wood under a fiery sky and stately palaces on distant hilltops. And he heard birds singing.

Arno looked around and finally saw one of the singing birds, a white, quaint figure with bushy head feathers. It was a cockatoo. It swooped down, circled and landed on the bench. Arno, in the dream, spoke to the bird, calling it Maja. Maybe it was a reminiscence of his one-time friend, Maja Boklöf. Now this bird Maja said this to Arno:

“The dragon Dramation has just been born!”

“How?” Arno asked.

“A golden egg has been hatched revealing a benign dragon, a veritable golden age dragon, born to bring good vibrations to a stagnant culture.”

Arno rejoiced at the news, composing a song about a golden future for all, of sapphire trees, ruby lakes and emerald meadows in the sun. It was a dream-like song in a trance-like dream. When Arno woke with a start, he couldn’t remember what he had sung. He only remembered the feeling of trance, of inspiration.

Arno was lying in a bed in a house south east of Berlin. In the city itself few houses stood unburnt or unblasted, but on the outskirts there were still habitable billets to be found. 8th Company was there in order to fend off Russian landings on the nearby lake shore. It was in the early morning of April 15, 1945, and Arno lay deliberating on the dream he had just had. There had been some hope in the dream, however hazy the narrative with the golden dragon and all.

But Arno was a spiritual man, and he acknowledged the ideas of “good will to all men,” of God as the creator of the human soul, of rebirth and karma, and much else that formed the basis of a moral world order. He could see traces of the same in the world, in his waking life, notwithstanding the grim times: he could see the changes in the water, the wind and everything that grew, in the flowers’ very essence and in the trees’ greenery, in the rustling of the leaves and the rippling of the waters, in the highlights of the skies and in the twinkling of the stars. Dark these times were, certainly, a so-called world war was raging, but there were also good signs. You have to have the willpower and imagination to be able to see this. Everything seemed to be holding its breath, everything was waiting for the end and for something new; everything, all of creation, waiting for moment to come when people would start to realise their power, to realise the I Am-impulse.

Arno knew this, he felt it. He knew that something other than materialism must come in the world – but so far he wouldn’t go out and preach it, knowing from experience that it was pointless.

People, people in general, the masses wouldn’t start affirming their immense personal powers until enough philosophers and authors were vindicating the ideas in question, the ideas of self-empowerment, the practice of saying “I Am” to yourself, the use of willpower, the practice of meditating, an activity that was primarily led by willpower. You never start meditating by accident. People in general didn’t get this, they always waited for someone else to hand out the goodies, waiting for some God figure to say that Good Times Are Here, the party begins at eight and you yourselves don’t have to do a thing except turn up.

Arno hated this attitude. Instead, people had to mobilise their will. Until then nothing good would come out of this world.

Will, the individual’s free will was, as always, what was needed. Free will to believe. This was what Nietzsche touched on: it’s incumbent upon the will. He reduced all of metaphysics into will. Nietzsche had no monopoly on ideas of will, and he got lost in ego-inebriation and pushiness, but he did emphasise the concept of willpower more than his contemporary thinkers.

This was valuable: that Nietzsche had lifted Will as a concept, a force of nature. Therefore, Arno appreciated Nietzsche. And therefore he thought of the spiritual boost in Nietzschean terms – in, let’s say, combined Christian, esoteric and Nietzschean terms.

Arno was interested in matters philosophical. And he soon began to brainstorm on his own philosophy, a soldierly creed that incorporated the combat zone experience. For instance, he knew what the symbolic person he wanted to portray should be called: Operational Scout. But other than that, for the moment his concepts were too dim to be written down.

Arno groped for his watch lying on a chair beside the bed. The luminous figures said three. Then he could sleep a little longer. He did so. He was in his quarters in the company’s billet south of Berlin; he was in vest and pants under a blanket, all on a bed with a mattress. He asked himself why he had dreamed this ethereal dream of bird, peace and emerald meadows, the location at hand being anything but rosy. His army was fighting its final struggle. The company was inserted south of Berlin in order to stop landings on the northern shore of the Müggelsee.

+++

Arno fell asleep again. At last he was awakened by aircraft noise. He looked at the sky and only saw a ceiling. He had expected to see the aircraft. He was still in the quarters.

The heavy drone of the big engines went by. It was Lancasters on the way home from yet another raid. Was there anywhere anything still left standing? Arno sat up, took out a cigarette, lit up and inhaled the smoke.

It was April 15, 1945, 0530. The unit was ordered to defend a front line just north of the Müggelsee, a lake south east of Berlin. The company had arrived there some days earlier and was grouped for defence with the Company HQ as a strongpoint. Arno had suggested that they deploy along the lake shore instead – ”catch them as they land” – but the current Company Commander, Captain Friesler, had rejected this. Battalion Wolf now had been deployed in defence of the Deutsches Reich capital. At this time Berlin was attacked by the Soviets from the east and southeast. This was where the heavy blow was expected. Arno saw no logic in the Captain’s comments, but he was the Captain, and orders are there to be obeyed.

Arno got out of bed and pulled on socks, trousers, field shirt and tunic. Then he put on his boots and gaiters.

He took a few deep breaths. He meditated, trying to gain mental peace. This was nothing new; this he had done throughout the war, day in, day out. Whether he was in Stalingrad, Kharkov, Tarnopol, Hanover or Berlin. Having calmed his breathing down he usually said aloud to himself: I AM. This he also did this very moment, early in the morning of April 15, 1945.

He put on his Sturmgepäck, helmet and map case. The helmet was of type M/42 without the processed edge. It was a simplified way to produce helmets in comparison with the 1935 variant, which in comparison was a blacksmithing miracle. However, the current helmet was better than the older one at one point: it had a dull, rough surface, not polished as the old one. When the M/35 was wet it shone it like a mirror and that was bad in the reality of infantry battle. Back in the day, this had been cured with matt paint or by giving it a fabric cover.

It was again time to fight. And again Arno stoically said, “I Am.” He was still determined to fight. The battle was largely lost. But there was no thought in him of just giving up and surrender arms. All his surviving platoon were of the same opinion. And even if someone had attempted a mutiny, if any soldier in the platoon had protested against the continued fighting, he would have been shouted down immediately, probably shot on the spot. Despite the overall collapse, random unit morale remained remarkably high in the Wehrmacht until the end.

Putting a packet of cigarettes in his pocket, Arno left his room, walked briskly through the house, went out into the open and soon reached a farmyard where he met his squad leaders. Bauer, Weissbart and Lenz stood there in the grey first light, scarred and weary but with their fighting spirit intact. He ordered them to him and asked:

“Time to fight, time to die. Are you prepared for that? Prepared to fight?”

They all nodded.

Arno led the way to the Company HQ. As intimated they now had a new commander, a certain Captain Friesler. Wistinghausen had been ordered to take over a battalion on the Western Front. The HQ building was 100 metres away, a wooden two-story house with a whitewashed front. The company was fighting separately now, the rest of the battalion having been positioned in Berlin proper.

+++

After an hour of waiting all the platoon leaders were sitting in the Briefing Room in the HQ building. Apart from Arno, the leaders now were Sergeants Guntz and Lutzow. Sergeant Lutzow had taken over from Lieutenant Shasta, who had suffered a heart attack during the crossing of the Danube. They were in the main living room, a ground storey hall with a fireplace and windows in three walls. At one end of the table stood Captain Friesler, tough demeanor augmented by two days’ stubble. He was flanked by two orderlies and a Staff Squad leader, Corporal Fidus.

Friesler pointed to the map spread on the table and said:

“There is a risk that the enemy will land on the lake shore close by. So I need a man to lead a recon patrol.”

Friesler looked at Arno and said:

“Feldwebel Greif will lead the patrol. You can take 1st Squad. Your other squads I need to defend HQ. – Your mission: scout southward up and until the lake shore, fight any hostile resistance and report the situation: Is the enemy nearby, what is he doing, what is his strength? This I want to know. My HQ will be here in this house.”

Arno said, “Yes, Captain, will do.” He secretly despised Friesler and thought him a coward, a madman giving unsound orders.

After the briefing Arno went out and took 1st Squad along, going south and crossing the front line, nodding to the tired looking sentry. The sky was now bright white with thin, grey clouds drifting by. Cannon thunder rumbled ceaselessly to the northeast.

The patrol moved off through bushes. The ground was muddy. After crossing a meadow, they reached a gravel flat. On the far side of it they stopped in their second-nature defensive mode. Arno looked at Bauer and the other eight men. His men. Still going strong, Arno thought, in spite of all the hardships, retreats and the prospect of a war lost.

The patrol moved off southwards, fulfilling the orders to check the shore and see if the enemy had landed. As they got close, they spotted a column of Russians approaching through the woods. It was one of several patrols that had just landed on the shore, using storm boats. Arno signed, “get down”. Then he said in a low voice to his closest men:

“Enemy in the woods, straight ahead. Wait until I give orders, instantaneous opening of fire.”

When the Soviets were 100 metres from their position Arno ordered “fire”. The StG-men fired their 7.92-rounds, with bursts of three or four shots at a time. The Russians fell. Then the Germans advanced, hurling grenades to add to the damage. Finally, Arno went forward with two men to finish off the injured.

+++

Arno had no radio. But he could send a runner to Captain Friesler and report the enemy contact. Said and done, an orderly was sent off back to Company HQ with a report of the incident. After some 15 minutes the man, Ilo, returned. He told Arno that the HQ was deserted. They were all gone, the Captain and his Staff, the units supposedly deployed for defence, the rest of 3rd Platoon, the whole of 8th Company – all gone.

“Gone?” Arno said. “You mean, nobody home?”

Indeed, Friesler had left the scene and taken the whole company with him. Only Arno’s patrol was left, out without any support, in the forward combat zone.

Arno quickly gathered his men under a big spruce and told them the news. Then he said:

“Now we’re in hot water. The normal thing to do would be to head north and try to find the company. But, on the other hand, I get the feeling that Friesler is a coward and shirking his duty. Earlier today he said nothing of retreating. His HQ during this operation was supposed to be at the house where I got my orders from him this morning. Maybe he sensed that landings were coming, and having got me out of the way he just left the premises, taking the company with him. This, to me, frees us from his command. I hereby give you, my soldiers, a choice: You can leave my squad, leave my command and go north, looking for the company, with Reds crawling all over the place. Or you can follow me down to the lake shore where we’ll seize a boat, cross the lake and take the bastards unawares.”

Arno looked at his men. No one said anything. Arno continued, elaborating on his plan, and especially eyeing his old comrade Bauer:

“You remember how we in Battalion Wolf have always attacked? Even when we’ve been outnumbered and surrounded, we’ve attacked – attacking in order to escape the enemy, to escape from encirclements and Kessels. We did it in Kamenets-Podolsky and we did it in Belarus. So I suggest the same now: Attack! Always attack! So let’s get down to the beach and borrow a Russian landing boat.”

“And then…?” said Bauer.

“Then we head south, over the lake. And then we’ll land and move on, fighting the enemies of the Reich wherever we find them – as we head west.”

Bauer nodded and understood. Better to withdraw westward and oppose Americans than to fight against the Russians here in the east. All the other men of the patrol decided to join Arno in this grey-area venture. No-one wanted to be captured by the Bolsheviks, and they had all heard the rumours that the unnatural alliance between Stalin and the Western allies might break down – then they could find themselves once again advancing against the Reds, but this time with Mustangs and Typhoons in support against the T-34s.

A tactical decision was reached, Arno saying that they would approach the lake shore in a flanking movement. They went away in double file; Arno and Bauer taking point, followed by the eight men of the squad – Ilo, Henko, Tauber, Crispus, Gipp, Ullmer, Sachs and Emostas. After 200 metres they crossed another gravel flat, their advance the whole time accompanied by gunfire in the background; the Russians were advancing, more boat patrols having landed. But Arno’s unit was dodging the enemy patrols, managing to infiltrate the enemy position by swinging far out on the right flank.

They approached the shoreline, moving stealthily through aspen and maple thickets. They were good, Arno’s lads, not a twig was snapped underfoot to give them away. They reached the gap he knew they would find. Going as point man Arno spotted a landed Russian storm boat. One bored looking guard, gazing vaguely in the direction of the gunfire. Arno motioned for Bauer, Ilo and Tauber to come with him. They moved closer, tree by tree.

But there was not enough cover to creep up and deal with him with a knife. So it must be done with the least amount of gunfire in the shortest time. Whispered orders. Tauber crawled back towards the other men to tell them to be ready, Bauer and Ilo both got ready to fire. Two rounds each. Simultaneous. To be absolutely certain.

“Ready to fire, wait.”

The two quietly brought down the control handles of their StGs.

“Fire!”

The sentinel fell, dead before the echoes of the burst had died away. Hopefully it would have been too short to be noticed in the general clatter of gunfire all along the shifting front through the trees away from the lake. Arno’s men, all nine of them, rushed forward, pushing out the boat, splashing through the shallows and throwing themselves aboard. Henko took on the engine, got it started first go – our luck holds – and as helmsman steered out to open water. The boat barely had room for ten men. Ilo was placed as bow gunner and the rest sat on the three cross benches. The craft was built of plywood on a tubular steel frame.

Further along the beach, another Russian boat guard must have guessed what was going on and fired towards them, but they were already at the limit of his effective range. The boat was at full throttle. The coup had succeeded.

“What now, Herr Wiking,” Bauer said.

“Viking…?”

“Well aren’t you, a Nordic hero in an adventure in a foreign land, steering a boat towards new shores…”

Arno smiled:

“Well, I suppose I am. Ich bin ein Wiking, ich bin ein Warjag ‘varjedag’. Durchaus!”

While the boat chugged away across the lake Arno elaborated on his plan, finally saying to the men:

“We have reinterpreted our orders. Deserted by our HQ but maintaining the Deutsches Heer spirit of ‘attack, always attack,’ we decided to commandeer a boat to continue solving our tasks on a new beach. We acted in the spirit of the task, which was to fight the hostile advance upon Das Vaterland.”

“Indeed,” Bauer said, “this is in the spirit of the attack. We’re advancing.”

Vikings or not, this boat adventure was in a grey area. After all, Arno could have moved back to defend the empty HQ. Or they could have launched a suicide assault on more Russians as they landed. In either case they’d all have ended up dead or as prisoners, which, knowing the Reds as they did, was probably the worst option. He was growing tired of the war and he admitted it. Yet, he was prepared to meet anyone saying to his face that he hadn’t done his duty and solved his tasks during the operations in Stalingrad, Kharkov, Ukraine, Belarus and Hungary from 1942 through 1945. And in the operation today he hadn’t turned and fled, he had headed on to the target, the lake shore and beyond. He remained the fighter.

They chugged on over the lake until they reached the western shore. They left the boat among some reeds and headed off through a spruce forest. They spent the night in a barn, heating tinned meat and eating biscuits from their “iron ration”, der Eiserne Ration, the emergency rations each soldier carried for if he got cut off from the baggage train. How many of those were still operating in the fighting ruins of the German army?

So, westwards. Always westwards. Finally making contact with another German unit. Arno’s report was accepted. It was difficult to verify things in the current chaotic situation so this dubious transfer from the Berlin sector to the Western Front prompted no action from the authorities.

Arno’s men were given food and shelter. Then, resupplied with ammunition and not much else, they were sent, constantly on the lookout for allied fighter bombers, to the Hunsrücker Taunus. There they participated in the final German battle against US forces. They fought through the last days of April, as the battalion to which they now belonged was ground down. At the end Arno’s team was only Bauer, Ilo, Gipp and Sachs. They were with Arno that last day, in the village of Messendorf. Facing strong American units, with infantry deploying from halftracks under cover of a hail of suppressive fire, they found a Sherman tank attacking from their rear. They had no Panzerfaust; not even any hand grenades. And they were trapped in the backyard of a burning house.

So Arno gave the orders to surrender arms; tears streaming down Ilo’s face as the Yanks roughly prodded them away to captivity. They were held in a prison camp for eight months. Arno was questioned repeatedly about how he had ended up there, as most Swedes who had fought for Germany did so as Waffen SS volunteers. But, unlike all of them, he didn’t have his blood group tattooed on his shoulder, so in the end his explanation that he had been conscripted on account of his dual nationality was accepted. Arno was released. Since he still held his Swedish citizenship Arno went home to Sweden.

Coming home to Sweden, in the New Year of 1946, Arno was jailed for having illegally strayed from military service. When, back in 1941, he had obeyed his German call-up he had – as told earlier – not had permission to do so approved by the Swedish Military Authority. So he had broken the law when he had gone to Oslo to report to the German Army Authority. And so, back in Sweden in January 1946, he was sent to prison.

28

Aspeboda War Academy

Arno was imprisoned for desertion. He had to attend “the big house,” sitting in a stark cell in Långholmen Prison in central Stockholm. It was warmer than Russia.

So, having first sat in an American POW camp from May through December 1945, Arno now spent another three months in jail. Three months for desertion, for leaving Sweden with the ulterior motive of going to Germany to serve in its Army. It was a pretty harsh penalty; some Swedes only got a week for similar offences.

But at least Arno wasn’t totally destitute when he walked out through the prison gates. During his German service he had received his Wehrmacht wages, deposited monthly into his Swedish bank account. He didn’t spend that much cash in service as a German soldier. He had only really been on leave twice, during the battalion resupply stints in Dresden and Frankfurt an der Oder. Then he had spent money on wine, women and song. But most of the time he was at the front, eating supplied rations and sleeping in bivouacs and quarters.

He was one of those who had to be ordered out on leave, he rarely applied for it himself. He had been an instrument set for war; if he left the front for long he kind of lost it, falling down from the elevated state of mind the combat zone engendered. It took time to get back to the combat zone state after a few days of leave. Plus, he had no home to visit, no known relatives in Germany; his parents were in Sweden and they were off limits. So he had never applied for leave voluntarily.

So Arno’s wages had accumulated in his account. So when he was discharged from prison in early April 1946, he withdrew some of the money, rented a cottage in the country, where he could live on spring water and spend his days in meditation. The cottage was in Aspeboda in Närke, halfway between Stockholm and Karlstad. While living in the cottage he pondered. Now I’m back in Sweden. How nice: I’m in the native country of the Sandviken hacksaw blade, Aga-Baltic, Volvo and Rederi AB Nordstjernan. Well, I shouldn’t be sarcastic, he thought. Along with being a German I’m Swedish, this is my home country and I’m still alive. And the world hasn’t come to an end, despite atomic bombs and global conflagration, so praise the Lord and sing nonny-nonny.

Arno had time to think these days. He thought of various things. Among other things, he got the idea: why not start an independent war academy, such as they have in the USA? A military college for high school youth intending to become reservists and regulars. A school preparing its pupils to become officer cadets in the Army.

I could do this, Arno thought, while he was sitting at the kitchen table in his cottage, looking out over the summer green neighbourhood. I could manage such a school. This day in July 1946 the thought occurred to him and now he brooded on what he could teach at his academy. Essential to prospective officers was of course leadership, the art of leading units. And Arno knew this subject. Even the smallest military leader, he considered, even the Squad Leader, must be something of a guru. He must teach his men a thing or two. And then some more. Such as to endure, forgetting hunger and overcoming hardships. Being an operational scout shapes your character; that was the thing. You must have the will to make it, the will to survive, the ability to persevere. To project your will on events and change them. For example, hunger isn’t so merry. But as a soldier you must have the will to cope with it – the will to survive, will to endure. And hunger can be endured. Primarily, water and sleep are what a human being needs, food only comes third.

Arno suddenly began to think aloud as he sat. He began training for his role as teacher at the Aspeboda War Academy, as he would call it. What would he say to his students?

“Welcome to Aspeboda War Academy. I’m your teacher. I’d say: A motti may be more or less exposed, depending on whether it has artillery support or not; if friendly artillery positioned outside can reach it and defend it with proper salvo points, then it is less exposed. As for artillery I also come to think of a formula – like, you know – this one, in the realm of, ‘what artillery and mortar should do, type of fire and for how long, possibly smoke and flare – and fire control sites and observation posts, and a fire control officer with a radio, sent along with a patrol, and signal rockets to call in a barrage.”

Arno sat in his cabin; he spoke to himself, a lot of words and little structure. Through this talk he processed his war memories. Whether he was mentally disturbed or not is debatable. In any case, he had to try to adapt to peacetime existence. He had already done it on a conscious level, for example, saying to himself, now there’s no need to look for mines when you’re out walking… And when you’re in town, don’t keep looking for snipers in the windows of buildings…And when a delivery truck backfires, don’t hit the deck…

These things he stopped doing quite quickly. True, he was an infantryman by nature and they move in a special way: checking the terrain, listening into the silence. But he didn’t sneak around in the bushes with a rifle believing himself still to be on the Eastern Front. He was in Sweden in post-war days, in peacetime, and he knew it.

But the rest of the warrior life lingered in unseen ways in his mind. To get over the memories of bloody corpses, spilling guts and staring eyes that came to you now and then – this was more difficult. And to get rid of the war jargon, clear your mind of unnecessary memes and attitudes – this took its time too. So he gave it time. He sat in his cabin and remembered. And now, in the bird-song summer of 1946, he composed off-the-cuff, impromptu prose poetry of the combat zone variety:

“A dead city, a city of darkness, a town of shadows – to roam in this metropolis, howling with the wolves and barking at the moon – venturing out into the delirious glow, an endless patrol in a grey area…”

In other words, he raved. He paid tribute to a city in lyrical terms, a deserted war city, a mix of the destruction he had seen in Stalingrad, Kharkov, Kamenets-Podolsky and Tarnopol. He sang where he sat and he teetered on the brink of insanity. However, he continued to speak and he did it in these more prosaic terms, as fragmentary and chaotic as before, a strange man, babbling in his loneliness. He thought of it all as part of his War Academy preparations, as a draft for what he would teach, but there wasn’t any structure in it. He said:

“Aspeboda War Academy. On the weapons side: combined anti-tank, anti-aircraft-cannon with 20, 40 or 75 mm calibre. Preparing to shield off the enemy with rifle grenades, then advance in the van… Just look at the Swedish M/42 tank – eight track wheels, three track supports and a nut for tightening the track tension – and a cannon and two MGs, one forward and one backward. One of these MGs should be coaxial with the cannon, that’s ideal, because you can shoot tracers in order to see where the main gun’s projectile will land. Works especially well in forested, mountain terrain. This can be difficult otherwise. That’s what the German armour fighting in Norway 1940 quickly learned.”

+++

Arno sat at his kitchen table. Sometimes he experienced some kind of peace, inner peace. He drank a sip of spring water from a glass. No metallic tang from a water bottle. Inspired by its clean taste, he said:

“I’m at home in my home country, The Secret Wonderland of Sweden, the mid-Swedish forest… Here I can roam every day, every second in my imagination, storming forward in solar expression, erecting a bivouac, patrolling and living in wonder and glory forever…”

Then the war jargon burst through again: “MG, MP and StG, canvas gaiters and Dopplellitzen on the collar patch. MG fire can sometimes break through brick walls – and Molotov cocktails may contain potassium chlorate and with a sort of matchstick fastened outside – or gasoline and sulfuric acid plus a small dose of potassium chlorate stuck on the outside, in an envelope or whatever; this is the catalyst, the explosive trigger. We’re fighting with suicide units, we’re bombing cities, the losses are high. Death is followed by a troop parade at the graveside. Forward over trenches, vorwärts über Gräber – syntax committing hara-kiri in the light of the explosions, eternal operation, endless combat zone – fresh troops to the slaughter, crescendo of doom – don’t judge me, don’t forget me but tell my story, you, the living – pitch black, light grey, rusty brown and signal red – forget my name, mask my face, de-mythologise me and bring me alive again – heating a tin of iron rations and having to do without water, the carrier team fetching it hasn’t returned – the clouds chasing across the sky, the cuckoo calls…”

He left the table, went out in the yard and lay down in the soft, dappled shade of a birch. He said: “The planes in the sky, eternal hieroglyphics in my mind – when I was a child I wanted to be a pilot, now I’m an army soldier, it’s more in harmony with my being. I’m a soldier, a fighter on the ground and I see hieroglyphics in the sky, enigmatic ideograms; they are portents whose meaning I don’t know but I feel their essence with my whole being.

“A forest clearing with a road, a clearing sloping down towards a lake, a clearing with a row of trees as a screen. Taipale 1941, it was a Via Dolrosa – I’ve heard of this, this was in Finland. The reconquered battlefield made for a depressing sight, the region where they had fought during the Winter War was like a desert – in that summer they retook it and it was a waste land, full of blown up trees, they still stood but were splintered away at head height. A veritable Via Dolorosa: not a forest, not a plain, but a slightly different third. It was like Radzymin, I was there, I also saw one of these woods, I patrolled a forest with trees blown up, a little patch of ground in the flow of eternity, a symbol of life in the grey area…”

Now Arno again took up the thread of the “Aspeboda War Academy.” As he lay under the birch tree, he said:

“Aspeboda War Academy is beautifully situated in a pine forest, a moorland covered with pine trees and heather. Beyond the sandy ridge flows a river. And beyond that, flanked by a hill with birches and aspen, lies the Academy proper: namely, this cottage that I live in, located in Aspeboda in Närke, north of Örebro. In my Academy I lecture about the ins and outs of artillery – like the importance of artillery for defence (sometimes artillery alone can make up the defence, sometimes infantry weapons needn’t be inserted) – and the importance of artillery for patrol operations (bring an artillery observer along), and the risk of counter fire from enemy batteries. And fire control via light and sound measurement and aerial reconnaissance. And hostile barrages in areas where the enemy believes that our attack will go forward.

“Aspeboda artillery course: first a two-minute thrust against the enemy’s forward positions, then moving the fire towards the actual attack target – through the battalion F-group seeking fire clearance with the battalion or brigade mortar and artillery – listen in on the Battalion Support Net and hear how it goes, know when to ask for clearance. The support of artillery T-5, of mortar T-3, in the flank assault guns, first firing with their cannon, then their MGs. Register targets, prepare insert of the Artillery Division.”

+++

“TNT-black sky, steel-grey sea, war winter, world at war, patrolling over white sandy heaths, scouting in forest clearings, walking with a grey-brown column along a polder, transport planes droning in the sky – dropping equipment, white parachutes with canisters, falling like clocks to the ground…”

He didn’t stop: “Handgun, MG and hand grenades – clear the flank. Fire and movement.”

“Make a plan of attack, make a fire plan – artillery and mortar, type of fire and for how long.”

Drifting away: “The clouds are on parade, blue mountains in the distance. Somewhere a dog barks.”

Back to war: “Ranges of fire. A soldier must know all this off by heart. Cover, concealment and ranges of fire are the alpha and omega of the infantryman – and with the weapons we had, it was 150-600-1000 metres for MP, StG and MG; for the Panzerfaust it was 60 metres; for flare pistol it was 250 metres, that was the circle being illuminated, a circle 250 metres in diameter. With illumination rounds it was 800 meters, mortar grenade, a mortar flare bomb.”

Rambling: “Assign each man a fire zone. Drum magazine, stick magazine – jet noise over a field, light rain at dawn – belt buckle, collar patch, camouflage smock, mitten with hole for the trigger finger, automatic counterattack – company reserves, Terra Incognita – the Battle Zone – the Zone – No Man’s Land – the Secret Land – the Dreamland – the Promised Land – the Land – the Battle Zone That Never Was…”

Silence. Then: “Deserted city, symbols, reserves and reinforcements. Walking in the void behind armoured spearheads, walking in the winter wonderland. Clouds in the sky. Battle as a state, the eternal cycle of battle elements, eternal feedback. Platoon leader writing in his notebook as around him a world is falling to pieces – he’s the operational scout, the creative Self in an eternally present moment – thus overcoming time, the world, everything, even if the world at the same moment goes to pieces.”

“Burning magnesium, ersatz moonlight, spooky clouds in the morning, uncanny valley under the searchlights – anti-personnel mine, telephone wire, 9 mm projectiles. Sun over a clearing, white clouds in the sky, rustling woodland.”

“The rain stops, the sun peeps out, birds chipping. Heather glistening with water droplets.”

“Advance, take, prepared to support. Fire on emerging targets, willing to go to hell and back. Deployment there, fire towards the flaming field, prepared to blind targets here and there.”

“The pine forest, huge, deserted and dormant, and mountains in the distance as an ever-present reference – smell of resin, soil acids, needles and sprigs. This is nowhere, this is here, this is the Land, this is the Thousand Mile Forest.”

“Reindeer droppings on the ground – a hare at a forest edge – the cuckoo calls – a woodpecker hacking, a crow cawing. A buzzard flying in the sky, a car hurrying past on a dirt road.”

“The stillness. You don’t see a living soul, but forest is alive, and you yourself are alive – you are a part of the forest, the forest you’ll go into once you leave this world.”

+++

Arno stood up, left the shadow of the birch and walked down to the river. It flowed past him in a slight curve, bordered by birch, aspen, spruce, moss and grass. Sitting down on the trunk of a fallen conifer, contemplating the soothing, hypnotic flow of the water, he again came to think of the Academy he would start: The Aspeboda War Academy. He practiced delivering a speech, sketching mentally what he would say in an academic lecture. Now he said this, comparatively structured and ordered, on the theme of death and how to overcome it:

“Today’s Academy lesson is about dying – or rather, being denied death. A soldier must be prepared to die. No! He must even want to die, desiring death on the battlefield. Why else be a soldier? Dying in battle is the ultimate, transcendent goal. Dying in the elevated state of consciousness that is typical of the soldier in combat; to die in a mental boost, dying in a higher state of consciousness, and thus go from this world to the next with that enhanced consciousness intact.

“However,” Arno continued, “if you’re denied the opportunity to die, then? It was like when I was in Kharkov, that time in March 1943 when we retook the city. I was hit by a bullet, silent as they are. They are silent because of this: the bow wave going in a plough shape on both sides of the bullet doesn’t reach the ear until you’re hit. And so, about my fate, this was in a muddy park we were about to clear – the enemies retreated but someone threw away a chance shot – I was hit and knocked to the ground. But the bullet was stopped by successively a gun sling, the shoulder strap to the battle harness and a wallet. I was hit and I made it through. And I realised: this could have meant death if not ‘if’ had been. And then I felt, in some strange way, that I would never die in battle. So I had to continue to fight, with Mr Death at my side but never as my redeemer. It took a while before I learned to live with it. I learned, one might say, to appreciate life.”

Arno said this in his delirious talking to himself. The incident itself was a fact of course. Now Arno added to fact his views on death and awareness of death, things he had deliberated on during the course of the war:

“‘Like cherry blossom in the spring time, let us fall pure and radiant,’ the Japanese say. Indeed, this death wish has some allure. As a soldier you mustn’t be afraid to die. By the same token, you mustn’t seek out death for death’s sake. We’re all gonna die so this is pointless; to revel in death is indulgence. Instead, you have to live deliberately, to live on such a mental level that death won’t sneak up on you unexpectedly, taking you by surprise. Because I imagine that an unprepared, totally surprised psyche ends up in turmoil after death, with the individual in question having to start anew in the next life, having to continue at the same level as in the earlier life. A raised, conscious psyche, however, for its part goes on to a higher level when he dies, to a new celebratory frenzy. So in short, to die with preserved consciousness, this is the goal.”

+++

He left the river, found his way through a copse and walked away across a moor, passing a thicket of willows and ending up on a wooded ridge. Between the trees, 50 metres below the ridge, you could see a tarn. In the azure sky the clouds drifted by, silently and majestically. A woodpecker was heard chopping at a tree. Otherwise it was quiet.

Arno sat down on the ridge. He rambled on:

“The storm of lead howling, the steel tempest raging. Fire is the main means of combat. To live forever and let your heart throb to the rhythm of the heartbeat of the universe – that’s the goal.”

The woodpecker ceased its hacking. Arno added:

“Thus it is.”

After he said this, Arno sat in silence, until the woodpecker started up again, hammering away at his tree. Arno said:

“Distribution, deployment, grouping, contact backwards. Fog giving concealment, ditches giving cover. Fire ranges, fire and movement, cover and concealment, morale and discipline: it’s the way of the future.

“Trooping the colours, sabres out, Stichelbein marschieren, straight lines dressed to the right, shoulder arms and the sun flashing on the bayonets.”

Once again the bird finished his staccato hammering. Arno squinted against the sun and said:

“The sun warms and the bees are buzzing. The harvest is rich and the stomach purrs. I have everything, having achieved everything. I live on a higher level of consciousness in an eternal present, an endless here-and-now – hallelujah – forever – in black and white, good and bad – going to hell and back, to the fire zone and buffer zone, to the plains and the blood forest – back home and on to the machine coast, to the culmination point – and beyond.”

All was peaceful. Nothing was heard over the wide moors. Arno said:

“Tiger heart, gunpowder heart. Steel storm, leaden tempest. It’s the battle as a state of mind, without beginning, without end – the way off, the way back, the way out. Living on a higher level, a sort of shell shock, but at a higher level, a conscious level. Living on the edge to raise yourself mentally.

“I’ve always thought this. In Tarnopol, I reflected on this balancing on the edge – the balancing that never was because I am the edge. My whole way of being is Beyond the Beyond and Within the Within.”

29

He Remembered a Tank

Arno remembered a tank in cover behind a barn, one of their tanks, lying in ambush. It opened fire on an enemy tank just as it appeared. The enemy vehicle was hit; there was an explosion, flames and smoke. He remembered how the German tank backed away and sought a new firing position amid nearby trees – and how new enemy tanks arrived, and how a group of grenadiers rushed forward with mines and bundle charges – mission, to knock out armoured units in melee fashion – close quarters fighting, like St. George and the dragon, Siegfried and Fafnir, Man against Monster.

He remembered a house with a red plastered façade, situated in a city somewhere on the Eastern Front. Inside the house there were jerry cans with gasoline, barrels of oil and cans with glycol – on the cement floor was the trace of a vehicle, a vehicle had been parked, oil having dripping from the engine, dark stains on the floor – there was a workbench with tools on the wall, spanners, screwdrivers, drills.

He remembered intestines hanging in a tree, like decorations on a Christmas tree – blue-green guts, the remains of a soldier, blown to bits. He remembered blood in the gutter, flies around the mouth of a corpse – he remembered the sight of dried blood on a wall, darkened gore, blackened and congealed. He remembered the smell of it. He remembered water running down a wall, water in a trickle, water flowing straight, branching off, running to the side, then straight down, then down on the floor forming a puddle, then from the puddle running off and disappearing in a crevice, trickling down between two floorboards.

He remembered anti-aircraft guns and electrophones, ammunition boxes made of wood and mortar cases, brass, 40 mm. He remembered a grove with maples, densely growing and at one place leaving an opening, forming a cave – tall maples and medium high ones with the highest forming a roof with their top branches – inside the grove was a strange light, the foliage shutting out the sunlight but it wasn’t dark, it was twilight, it was shade.

He remembered slit trenches and reserves, he remembered artillery tractors, he remembered the walking wounded trudging back. He remembered a wounded man dying in his arms: orderly Kellner in the Hungary operation. Kellner had taken a lung shot, he couldn’t breathe, his lips turned blue and then his whole face turned blue. A stale, solidified gaze, he was dead. The corpse was carried to the BMS. Arno remembered that. And he remembered a village in Ukraine they had been rushing through, MG fire from the right, smoke and Stukas in the sky, supportive aircraft approaching. He remembered a bridge that was blown up, two explosive incisions, each of them one metre from the middle of the bridge. He remembered the formula “one kilogram of explosives per metre of road width,” he remembered the necessity of having two fuses as insurance against one failing. He remembered flat bridge, frame girder bridge and girder bridge.

He remembered an encirclement and a motti – airdrop supplies, parachutes in the sky, canisters of light metal that landed all over the place, canisters with tins of jam, chocolate bars, powdered foods and rice. Canisters with 9 mm ammo, hand grenades and explosives, swabs, dressings, ether and sulfate tablets.

He remembered a patch of woodland which they defended in Ukraine in 1943. After an uncomfortable wait they had got the support of assault guns, they dug emplacements for them in the soft, dark soil; two metres deep to the front, three metres wide and seven metres long. From the trees you looked out over a meadow, you saw a forest edge three kilometres away, you saw billowing cornfields, you saw blue sky with small wads of clouds. You saw a ditch edged with alder and birch, you saw an embankment disappearing into the forest.

+++

He remembered battles. He remembered, for example, how in a given sector they once judged that a frontal attack would be too costly. So they decided to go against the flank and rear instead. For this operation they went along trails, awaiting during 10-minutes of prep fire and then attacking.

He remembered a battle in which the Russians broke into their position – and the enemy bared his own flank as he turned 90 degrees, as he turned to roll up the line – then they threw the regimental reserve against this flank. 8th Company was the reserve.

He remembered how in Kharkov, spring 1943, they retreated from the city – and when Vatutin’s offensive ran out of steam came the order to retake the city. The battalion would board a train and take the city by surprise while an armored battle group attacked along the main road towards the city. Two companies were loaded in the first train and Arno was there for this ride. They went eastward to the city, which was reached without incident. Once at the station they disembarked and then straight into battle to overwhelm the Red force there. Soon after came a train of three companies and anti-tank units – these units completed and consolidated the strongpoint. Then the infantry advanced as the armour came in from the outside. Then it was a cinch.

As for battle anecdotes Arno had, during the war, heard of a battle in the Baltics, it was about a company that held a certain village – then it was thrown out of it by a local attack – but – left in the village was a lone German artillery observer. He had a radio, he could direct fire, he was ordered to stay – and soon the battalion in question got hold of reserves that were passing in another direction, these were stopped and inserted in a counterattack to retake the village. Fire led by the isolated fire controller was an asset in this.

Arno also remembered what he heard someone talk about concerning the fighting in Crete, at the Mavronitis air base. The British were holding on to a certain hill. Then, after heavy fighting, they retreated from the hill. Thus, the resistance was broken; they themselves, the Germans, could continue to ship reserves through the airbase – had the British on the other hand kept the height, the German operation may have completely failed – it hung in the balance there. But the Germans won, they took Mavronitis. Arno thought: hail to the heroism of the British soldier, and even their commander, General Freyberg, he was a staunch fighter, but strategically the island was lost when that hill was abandoned.

Arno Greif remembered a lot. He remembered fragments of battles, like “attacking an AA battery,” “after bridging advancing, surprising enemy armour” and “defence of the bridgehead at the riverbank.” Where, then, was this river? He had forgotten about it right now, the river was nowhere and everywhere, a symbolic river forever flowing in the no-space of the Dreamworld.

+++

He remembered a few things, our friend Arno. Like plans and operations. He had, for example, heard about an incident in the summer of 1941: a fortress, perhaps Brest-Litovsk, was said to dominate a river. But a regiment was sent to keep it in check while another unit crossed the river further south, beyond the reach of the guns. He knew not why he remembered this, it was pointless in itself. But such were his ruminations by this time, coming home from the war and processing his war memories.

As for Operation Barbarossa, the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and thereafter, long distances were logged in the beginning – their tanks could advance up to 80 kilometres in a day – this was probably a record – a more normal rate was 5 to 10 km. But if a Panzer Corps had broken through and achieved operational freedom, then everything was possible. Then you could threaten alternative goals. The Germans experienced the same in reverse when the Russians attacked from 1943 onward. This Arno knew, he had experienced this when fighting in western Ukraine 1943-44, and he also saw it in Belarus during Operation Bagration.

30

He Remembered Stories

Arno remembered his war. And he remembered stories. About operations. Like Klingenberg’s feat in taking Belgrade in 1941. This was bold. But how did he really do it? Did he take with him ten men, a platoon commander and an NCO plus seven rankers? Did they steal a vehicle for it all? And take a boat in order to cross a canal? And did they walk into a fortress, capturing its commander? “Who dares wins” at least seems to have been the motto. Apparently the whole city fell due to this action. “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold,” as the poet said.

Arno remembered stories from Normandy. One, for example, concerned how the Allies, after coming ashore, didn’t advance quickly enough – but – on the German left wing, in western Normandy, the Americans eventually employed strategic bombers. They bombed a breach of 0.5 x 1 kilometer. Then an armoured assault was made, breaking through via the carpet that had been bombed. This was by the end of July 1944. They broke through and eventually encircled half of the German Normandy deployment in the Falaise pocket.

Arno remembered even more. He remembered how the Russians during a battle in 1944 built a road over a marsh. Under cover of smoke, they organised a wooden road over it. What purpose did they have for this? Answer: the Russians advanced across it when the attack was executed.

He remembered fragments of operations, things he had heard or experienced or read. Like this one: how a cut-off battalion bluffed its way back to its own lines, among other things by tricking a Russian sentry – “Hey, can we pass? We are Russians! We are dressed in German uniforms but that’s just a ruse! – Sure, pass!” That was daring à la Klingenberg.

+++

Arno remembered equipment. He remembered, among other things, the German rain cover, the triangular piece of cotton duck that every soldier carried – together with others it could be fashioned into a tent – it was a clever design, but he himself had never liked it. Didn’t like the smell of it.

Equipment…! This is important. For example, the equipment of the squad must be in order when loaded into the SPW – you can’t just throw backpacks, Sturmgepäcke and all in there, fling on jerry cans – and then have the troop riding on top of it all. No, everything in its place.

Indeed. There was equipment in the German Army. And Arno had been working with this equipment, he had used it or seen it. He remembered bundle charges, mines, flamethrowers, rocket artillery, 20 mm automatic cannon and panzer rifle, Panzergewehr, an early, small calibre anti-tank piece – he remembered Molotov cocktails, they filled a bottle with gasoline with a few drops of sulfuric acid – outside the bottle was taped a small envelope with calcium chloride which was the same substance as in the firing tip of matches. If you threw the bottle and it shattered, the contents were ignited thanks to the calcium chloride reacting with the liquid.

He remembered petrol: in barrels of 200 litres and in cans of 20 litres, the latter being the handy, portable jerry cans in sheet metal. Tankers couldn’t be used in the combat zone, they were way too much “fat targets” – instead, you had to divide the gasoline into these containers, the jerry cans, it was safer. It was invented by the German army, the Allies then copied the design, which was why they called them jerry cans. German cans…

Arno remembered anti-tank pieces: 37 and 75 mm there were. 37 mm was too weak. But in the dual arrangement on Stukas, they could have some effect as “Panzerknacker”.

Arno remembered SPW versions: basic model with 7.92 mm MG in the frontal visor shield, then there were variants with 20 mm automatic cannon, and SPW with 81 mm mortar – grenade launcher SdKfz – the idea was that the piece would be deployed in the back space and fire – but – the recoil of the grenade launcher tended to crack the vehicle’s drive shafts. Instead, you had to carry out the piece and deploy it on the ground.

During the readiness, the Swedish War Preparedness Duty that Arno so happily returned to in his memories, there was also memorable equipment: for example, the Swedish Army white fur coat. It was a little heavy to wear, not so good while skiing in wet snow and also having to wear a backpack etc. – but – for guard duty and the like it was perfect. A white so-called Persian cap was also issued: specially processed white wool that looked like fur. Or was it synthetic? It was warm to wear anyway. Other things too: M/39 tunic in hues from woolen grey to brown-grey-green, undershirt M/39 in cotton, very comfy. The Swedish Mauser 6.5 mm, a good sniper gun. Empty cases in the moss and blood on the snow – and aircraft noise from the sky and cannon thunder in the distance – and von Döbeln he rode in front of the thinning ranks, and Sven Dufva didn’t let one SOB pass the bridge, and steely eyes under the helmet rim – Swedish steel, the best in the world.

+++

So much for Swedish equipment. Then there was German equipment. For Arno had also been a German soldier and he remembered the world of German war items. Such as the small Panzer II and Hetzer – the latter wasn’t so bad, it was rather better than the Panzer III, Hetzer was a Czech construction. Then it was the Panzer IV, it seemed like a colossus when it arrived. Then it, in turn, seemed like a dwarf compared to the Tiger and Königstiger. Would you believe it?

The German woolen tunic and breeches were warm in winter but rather uncomfortable in summer. Then the summer tunic and ski trousers came along.

German poncho – useless. Meta tablets for heating a field stove? Why not. Hals- und Beinbruch.

Tall-shaft boots, jackboots – impressive footwear as such – but the nailed sole was idiotic, the cold was led up through the nails and froze your feet in wintertime.

+++

Arno remembered his war – with fire zone, buffer zone and death zone – and obstacle pits, minefields and salvo points – and strongpoints in the plain with anti-tank guns, anti-tank patrols and mortars. Hitting the wagon in the engine grille – and sick calls for dysentery and frostbite, 25% of the strength.

They were supported by heavy fire. The German 10.5 Leichtes Feldhaubitz could fire explosive shells, shrapnel and smoke, plus signal, anti-tank and propaganda canisters. The Russians, for their part, had various items on the heavy ordnance side. Such as the 7.62 cm field piece and 105 mm mortar.

+++

Arno, the budding War Academic, was thinking about strategy. He had no training in this but he had picked up a thing or two in his day. He had, for example, once heard about how a given operation would separate corps X from Y; one was pushed back towards the coast, getting the sea in the back. It was trapped in a motti and wiped out in this way – not by drowning but by being encircled, decimated by artillery and starved out before it came to surrender. Was this 6th Army’s downfall in Romania in 1944? he asked himself. He suspected it but didn’t know. The sea in question would in that case have been the Black Sea.

Operational moods. Like, in forest terrain infantry should fight like rangers, thus being labeled “rifle” troops and not infantry proper. While, on the plain, armour and artillery rules, having the infantry only as feelers and defenders of fire bases at ground level. This was Arno’s meaning. He further considered that the operation against Crete in 1941 was a misguided deployment of rangers; he sent his belated kudos to the German paratroopers who dared everything – and won. But was it worth the cost? Perhaps not, because they never tried another airborne assault like that again. Still, Germany took the island by air, without having any German warships as support. It was daring and a bit odd, strategically, notwithstanding the Axis brother Italy and its naval presence in the area.

Arno was an amateur strategist. He knew tactics, his years of service as a Panzer Follower and infantryman being evidence of that. Higher level operations and strategic matters weren’t really his cup of tea but as intimated he had heard a few things and he now reflected over them. Like thinking of such things as “strategic offensive followed by tactical defensive,” thus the mottis such as those at Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev in 1941 were created and obliterated. And he thought of concepts such as cordon, cut the vanguards, supplying a motti by air, attacking with armoured divisions in the lead, scout and block, attack and chop up, wipe out.

+++

He had been a platoon leader. Of the art of leading a division he of course knew nothing. He had no staff training. He had no officer training. He mostly went by instinct, he knew what he knew, what he had learned at the front and behind it. His world was that of a sun that shines, dispelling the clouds and drying up the rain-soaked meadows and fields; in this world, he lived with ammo boxes, mess-tin lid with soup, collar patches, insignia and explosive cartridge, blast mine type 28. The war was over but he still lived in a world of dive bombing plus artillery, advance patrol in SPW, combat engineers laying a bridge, infantry patrol in hardwood copse, armour in pine forest and storm boats on a lake at night. This was his world in symbols, this was his creed, his tangible gospel.

He wanted to portray his life in solar euphoria: golden sun, freedom, light and life. Being a combatant in an eternally present moment: such was the existence of the Operational Scout, his personal philosophy that was taking shape. But he still didn’t see this creed clearly enough to write it down.

+++

Time and time again, he remembered his war. His memories were partly organised, partly chaotic. Such as the memory of a front zone with operations and figures, and grey uniform and heavy army pistol – and heavy tanks from a heavy motorised army with heavy support that rumbles in the night and, in the sky, heavy bombers illuminated by the beams of the searchlights.

He remembered a battle in a city: cloud shadows drifting over heaps of broken rock, empty house fronts staring down on a dead street – and smoke clouds over a river, empty cases on a lawn.

He remembered thermos flask and signal pistol, off-road driving and the training suit worn inside the uniform, double socks and newsprint insoles. He remembered contrails in the sky and a river crossing at a conquered bridge – the enemy forgot to blow it up, how lucky, now we thunder over it with heavy tanks and heavy footsteps, rattling boots on reverberating vaults.

“Distance between the groups! Smokes away!”

“Attention, squad leaders to me!”

“Platoon forward, single file after me!”

He remembered swans in a pond, swimming in the evening sun. He remembered whispering willows, grease jar and cleaning brush – maples in a grove, dense vegetation, tall trees, lush green, like an entrance to a cave, a portal to a cooler world with slower rhythms, more muffled sounds, rippling water from a source you couldn’t see – repeat the task, distribute the personnel, officer vacancies and register completed, deleted and drifting away along the patrol paths in no man’s land, away to the Secret Land, the Promised Land, the Dreamland – the Land where all our desires are fulfilled, where all our dreams come true – the Battle Zone that never was.

Bypass unit, what luck –

Wandering cauldron – movable hedgehog position – armed amoeba negotiating the countryside –

Cobbled streets lined with stone houses, the rattle of tracks on the pavement, echoing in the street space –

31

New Dream

Arno lived in his cabin. It was now the autumn of 1946. He had money in the bank, food in the pantry. He had time to process his war memories.

But something nagged him. It was the dream he had had when he was in the hospital in Hanover in 1944. The dream where he burnt the world.

It wouldn’t go away; it was a pain in the neck, a virtual nuisance. He must take hold of this, this debility: burning up the world and liking it. He knew that it was “only a dream” but it was also a lucid dream, an extraordinary dream.

To burn up the world and be proud of it, this wasn’t healthy. He had no wish to dream a similar dream again, a dream where he enjoyed killing. The thought of it gnawed at him. And he realised that the way to deal with this must be done in dreaming itself. He must find his dream guru, the Ringo Badger he had met in some previous dreams. The Badger had said that he was Arno’s soul guide. Then maybe he could help him decipher the dream of when Arno set fire to the world.

It might have seemed far-fetched, aspiring to dream consciously in this way. But Arno had been a seasoned esotericist since his youth. He believed that dreams mattered and that going into them, going consciously into the psychic landscape of the astral realm, you could determine things which had a bearing on your waking, everyday life.

He would dream up a meeting with the Badger. Maybe he could give answers to a few things.

Said and done. One evening in September Arno pulled the blinds in his bedroom, put on his nightshirt and crawled under the sheets. He would dream deeply, he would dream intensely, he would dream consciously.

He fell asleep. And at long last he began to dream. But this was no sweet dream: he dreamed he was flying in a biplane, an old-school aircraft, and when he looked down at the world he saw flames, red flames and smoke everywhere. He said:

“What the hell is this? The world is on fire again!”

“Indeed,” said Ringo Badger, sitting in the plane’s rear cockpit. Thus Arno at least had managed to find his soul guide, Ringo Badger. But Arno didn’t rest on his laurels. He listened to his guru, who next said:

“The world is burning and you’re the culprit! You’ve set fire to the world. You recall that you drew The Cherubim Sword, don’t you…? This is the result.”

Arno by this, in the dream, remembered the other dream he had dreamed, in 1944, the Dreamland experience of how he got a sword from a deva – and how he, as he pulled the sword, the flaming sword, sent fire over the world. The world was up in flames and in this dream they were back in it.

Arno watched the world being burned down, the old world. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. But out of the ashes maybe a new world would sprout.

The fire raged constantly, spread over green woods, it ruled supreme in all the climes they flew over.

The forests burned beneath them. The flames threw their reflection against low clouds and gave everything a ghostly glow, like searchlights illuminating the underside of clouds, the German finesse in some wartime operations.

+++

The plane flew on. The Badger was the pilot and Arno the passenger. He looked out over the world of people screaming, of flames and smoke, of Red Dogs and burning forests. He was chased by the god of fire, he gasped for water, he glided across a land of iron under a sky of copper. He was chased over the world’s edge, he reached the Abyss and he fell forever and ever.

In the next phase of the dream Arno was down on the ground, on terra firma. But still, it was a torn world. Arno saw burnt turf, a charred grove and, a short distance away, a village in ruins – black ruins, burned ruins. Smoke hung on the wind.

Arno looked at his clothing. It was a brown shirt with silver embroidery on the cuffs. Ringo Badger was still with him. As usual he was dressed in red and yellow hood, blue breeches and an emerald green tunic.

They were down on the ground, in the scorched land. The only things in sight were dust and ashes under an overcast sky. The pair went through veils of smoke and saw burned corpses and charred houses: the bodies of man and woman, children and pets, all had been ravaged by fire.

Everything was burned; the Earth Kingdom was in ruins. Lifeless. They walked across plains and sandy heaths; they crossed ruined cities and blackened valleys. Finally, they faced a forest of bare trees. The Badger sat down on a tree trunk and took out a pipe.

Arno saw the Badger’s pipe and asked:

“Will you really light it? Isn’t that a bit… not in keeping with this world destroyed by fire?”

“The less the risk of burning something then,” the Badger said, lit his pipe and puffed.

Arno said:

“I think everything seems pointless.”

The Badger said:

“Indeed? You who used to say, ‘I Am,’ and then be ready for anything.”

Arno nodded at this. Then he quietened down his mental turmoil, took a deep breath and said, “I Am.” This made him calm, as it always did.

But still, he had set fire to the world and this upset him. This he told his guru, who said:

“You feel anguish over this. OK. It shows that you’re human, that you have an ethic. But your woes aside, we can’t undo the fire. Now you must reset yourself and think about coming days.”

“Indeed,” Arno said, “I will.”

He fell in a trance where he sat, immersed in concentrated thoughts. He took a breath, he took two, he took several. He thought: the way forward – coming days – new world.

+++

A bird sang. The sky revealed a rip in the clouds.

“Have some wine, the sunshine is fine,” the Badger sang. Arno heard it and said:

“Summer’s here, eh…?”

“The fields are black but the sun’s shining. As for you, Arno, I have an inkling that you’ve cleared your psyche. Well, at least you have a foundation to build on. You can help build up the world again…!”

“But how?”

“By acknowledging your ‘I Am’-impulse – and seeing the same impulse, the same spark in your neighbour’s eye. Also, you can build a new world by living in the here-and-now. By being constructive, being present in the present. Light will prevail over darkness. But we have to actively choose light. Willpower is needed, in this as in any other case.”

This was in sync with Arno’s own philosophy and he cherished the thought.

That very moment rain started falling from the sky: a Benign Higher Being sending water over the Earth and all its countries, putting out the fires that still raged. The rain fell and extinguished the remaining fires, moistening the throats of thirsting people. For some still lived.

Arno got up and said goodbye to the Badger. The other man bowed his head in a respectful gesture and continued puffing at his pipe. Arno started walking. He looked back at his guru who faded away in the moor while the rain fell, the sun shone and a rainbow arched in the sky.

+++

Arno continued to dream. He was, as intimated, a seasoned dreamer: “He was old in the land of dreams,” as Lovecraft once put it. And this dream had just begun. He went off through woodland and desert and eventually spotted a building in the distance, a tall, narrow tower, built of reddish stone. Arno approached the structure and stepped up to the gate, a massive, ironbound oak door. He knocked.

No one answered. Arno tried the door. It was unlocked. Once in the hall he saw a staircase straight ahead. Up old, worn stairs he went, reaching the upper floor and heading for a chamber. Soon he found himself standing in a round room with a lancet window. The walls were covered by woven fabrics, monochrome hangings in turquoise blue. Otherwise, the room contained nothing. He walked over to the window and looked out over the Dreamland.

He saw the plains, he saw the forests in the distance, he saw the azure heavens. The sight of this was unremarkable but it was pleasing to Arno. There and then he realised it all. He gained clarity; there was a sense of clarity in the things and clarity within him.

He understood his lesson: Yes, fire and uninhibited belligerence can burn the world. He had during the war, when he was in hospital in Hanover, dreamed that he burned the world. And in the dream recently experienced his spiritual guide, Ringo Badger, had re-appeared and reminded him about this world fire. “The World Conflagration,” this was a symbol for World War II, what Arno had participated in. Now he had, in the dream, seen its devastation. And learned to make use of moderation in wielding arms. Like: if you go too far you create atomic bombs.

Arno hadn’t dropped the nuclear bomb. But he had, in his 1944 dream in Hanover, dreamed that he burned the world with “the Cherubim Sword” and it was in spirit the same as dropping a nuclear bomb.

Arno had served in the war as a combat soldier. He had fought for his land, for his people, against Bolshevism. This he was proud of. But on a more abstract level the violence bothered him, the destruction, the uninhibited use of force as displayed in the great armies. This had triggered his dreams of burning the world. Arno, having served the War God, got nightmares from the ferocious, nihilistic aspect of the war. Back in the day, he hadn’t been altogether immune to the allure of nihilism. “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.”

But now Arno had been reconciled with his past. The Badger had helped him see the big picture. Standing in the castle chamber Arno faded into the dream landscape. He said:

“Everything is unity. I am the plain, I am the woods, I am the world. I am Arno. I AM.”

+++

He dreamed on. He dreamed that he left the chamber, walked down the stairs and went out into the sun.

He wandered through the woods. They were green again. It was a seemingly endless series of neighborhoods that must be crossed for the dream to be fulfilled. So he walked on, saw cities and seas, parks and gardens, woodland and moor. All alive once again. And then he woke up.

+++

He was in his cabin in Aspeboda. He looked at his watch and its luminescent hands. Half past five. Through a gap between the window sill and the blind the grey morning light was seeping in.

In other words, it wasn’t really time to get up yet. Arno thought about what he had dreamed. He was only human. He wasn’t a saint, nor a war god. But he had, as he already knew, a will – a will to do good.

The dream from 1944 to burn the world began to gain some perspective. Arno still shuddered at the visions – visions he had received in the replay he had just dreamed. But it wasn’t his fault that the world was mad. Not solely.

I’m no saint, he thought. I Am That I Am. Ego sum qui sum. I have the divine spark within me. I’m trying to be more than I am, trying to realise the Light by force of Will.

With that he fell asleep anew.

+++

Arno lived on. His money was running out, so he took a job. For a while he earned his living by working as a waiter in Örebro. Additionally, one day in 1948, he went to visit his parents in Karlstad, Horst and Tora. It was a happy reunion. Then, in the ’50s, he became an NCO in the Swedish Army, serving in the I 21 Regiment in Sollefteå. He became a regular military employee. More about the career-related side of this shortly. Anyway, he moved to Sollefteå, this northern metropolis at Ångermanälven river. And in 1955, he was in this city living with a certain Solbritt. She was only 19-years-old but looked like 25 or more. She was a voluptuous, captivating, full-blooded woman with dark blond hair and blazing blue eyes. She worked as a bank assistant.

32

Sollefteå

Arno awoke in the middle of the night. He wondered where he was; he saw a woman sleeping beside him. Who is she?

He looked around the room: a double bed, a traditional tapestry, a window with curtains, a table and chair, white and brown wallpaper. Moonlight seeped through a gap between the blind and the window frame. He remembered the present. Aha, I’m home in Sollefteå, he thought, I’m not at the front with its explosions, rattling MGs and roaring aircraft; I’m at home in the peaceful land of Sweden, with my girlfriend. Arno was certainly a fire-eater who liked action in hard times but now he tried to settle in the peacetime Army’s relative lack of excitement.

As intimated, by now Arno had become a regular member of the Swedish Army. The technicalities of it were these: His ‘desertion’ in 1941 had been punished on his return to Sweden in 1946. And even after that it was still held against him when he approached the military authorities to investigate the possibility of becoming a Swedish Army NCO. But with the Cold War in full swing and the land having a large conscript army to train, the authorities decided to turn a blind eye to his transgression. It had been done for many others with a history similar to Arno’s, those who had abandoned the Swedish Army to serve in the German Heer or the Waffen-SS.

After taking an NCO Course in Uppsala Arno was promoted to Sergeant in the spring of 1950. He was then posted to I 21 in Sollefteå, Norrland, halfway between Stockholm and the ultimate north of Norrbotten. I 21 was also called Västernorrland Regiment. Arno was assigned to 7th Company as a trainer, responsible for the education of a school platoon. When each platoon was fully trained it could be mobilised for war service, then to be headed by officer cadets trained in parallel, aspirants who after two years or so became commissioned officers in the Regular Army or in the Reserve.

After awaking in the middle of the night Arno feel asleep again. In the morning he awoke – to another day – a day in May 1955, May 7 to be precise, a day in Arno’s life as a Sergeant in I 21. The previous training battalion (in Swedish, GU-bat) had ended its service in April and the new cohort was expected in June. In the meantime, there were no grunts to train. So the workday started with Arno attending the NCO mess.

At home Arno got dressed in grey woolen cloth uniform M/39, riding boots, breeches and uniform cap. He only lived about a kilometre from the regimental barracks, so he walked. It was uphill, the barracks proper being placed on a sort of shelf overlooking the town, the river and all. Along his way the trees shimmered in fresh green for the spring had begun in earnest and the soft splendour of the birches was bursting forth. He entered the gates as a bugler sounded reveille and the Swedish flag was hoisted on a pole. 0800.

Entering the regimental yard Arno admired the buildings, the barracks or kaserner as they were called. They reminded him of I 14, the Hälsinge Regemente – and indeed, like the kaserner Arno saw during his military service in 1938 the I 21 buildings were four storey palatial structures with yellow plastered façades. This is the proper color Arno thought, golden yellow in the sun, not grey like the barracks in Poland and Germany.

He headed for the NCOs’ mess, situated southwest of the barracks, on a plot surrounded by birches. This two-storey house also had a yellow plastered façade, otherwise it was a rather discreet structure, not palatial, more like a large villa.

Once inside the mess hall on the ground floor, Arno sat down and talked with his colleague Rickard Balk, who happened to be there. Balk was a Sergeant Major and Adjutant of the 8th Company. He was a man with a furrowed face, prominent cheekbones and a long, drooping moustache. Like Arno he was dressed in grey M/39 uniform. The room had oil paintings with nature motifs on its paneled walls, red and black carpets on the floor and an oak table with chairs, adorned with ornaments in the form of lizards, wolves and eagles.

The adjutant looked out the window and said:

“Your horse seems to be ready for the ride.”

Arno looked down into the kasern yard and nodded, watching his horse standing there held by a groom. It was a gelding, brown with black mane.

He had learned to ride while in NCO School in Uppsala. Another part of that school curriculum was motor vehicle service and this he had also attended, learning to drive a jeep and assorted other army vehicles. As already noted he was no vehicles man, so he particularly enjoyed the opportunity to get some riding lessons as well.

They were joined at the table by Sergeant Gunnar Lekatt, the pale chief of indoors schooling. Amid the small talk he mentioned that Cinema Rio would be showing the 1941 film Första divisionen that evening.

“Fine,” Arno said. “A Swedish flight movie. I’ve heard it’s good.”

“And so it is,” Lekatt said. “I saw it during the war.”

They decided to have coffee. When they had been served Arno asked Lekatt if he had seen some other flight movies, films starring the Swedish Air Force:

“Indeed I have,” Lekatt said and put down his cup. I’ve seen Tre söner gick till flyget. But Första divisionen is better, it’s more operational.”

Lekatt took a bite from a biscuit, chewed on it and asked Arno:

“Going out for a ride, are we?”

“Maybe,” Arno said. “I did a riding course at NCO School in Uppsala in 1950. Bugger all use of course, with the army about to be completely motorised – but they still wanted some riding NCOs for ceremonial jobs. And I thought it might make it a nice hobby, and a fine military pastime on days like these when there isn’t that much to do. Hence the groom has got me one of the remaining regimental horses ready for riding this morning.”

Arno took a sip from his coffee and relaxed. He felt rather at peace, having seen so much during the last fifteen years, with the war-time experience as main event. And having survived that, physically and mentally, was something of a feat, he figured. So after all this, being in the peacetime military wasn’t so bad. And on this day things seemed promising; unless something cropped up he would ride towards the marshlands of Tjärnmyren firing range. That would be a good ride.

Having finished his coffee Lekatt rose and excused himself. But Balk was still sat there, now reading a grey-covered book. The spine was adorned with stylised artillery explosions, blazing stars in the air. This caught Arno’s attention. He asked the title of the book and was told that it was Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna, a Finn. Balk added:

“Linna was a machine repairman at Finlayson’s in Helsingfors. And then he was in the war too.”

“And his book, is it any good?”

“I’d say so. Very substantial.”

This novel was a minor phenomenon at the time. It was particularly popular among the officers of I 21 – indeed, among all Nordic soldiers, army men and fire-eaters and all sorts, even pacifists. The novel depicted a modern Nordic war. It was grey uniforms and pine forests, it was spruce branches and dugouts, it was World War II in the northern latitudes. It was a fictional story set in the Finnish Continuation War 1941-44. The entire war was depicted through the experiences of a machine gun company, supporting an infantry battalion. Even young squaddies liked the book, more than one grunt believing that he was a Rokka or a Koskela when he sneaked around the training grounds firing blanks with his K/45.

Balk opened the book and said:

“I can read a little. About a certain Lieutenant Autio. Here, Arno Greif, you old war horse, here’s your equal! Autio is only a supporting character, but he’s sharp as hell. Here’s how he’s described at the beginning: ‘Autio was a young officer in the Regular Army, a quiet man with a purposeful look and known as a good leader.’”

“Indeed,” Arno said. “How concise and soldiery. Without fanfare but with substance.”

“True that,” Balk said. “Autio falls in 1941, when approaching Petrozavodsk on Lake Onega. Linna describes Autio’s death as objectively as everything else. Just listen.”

Balk flipped up the right place and read aloud:

“Seven kilometres from the town 3rd Company Commander, Lieutenant Autio fell, pierced by eleven bullets, hit by a light MG burst before he dropped dead. It was one of the grandest kills they had witnessed. The line had wavered and their counter-attack had been faltering. Some soldiers began to fall back, and to infuse new courage into the men Autio had stood up and shouted: ‘Remember who you are. Not one step back!’ The LMG burst knocked him full of holes; he literally shook in time with them when he fell. Kariluoto took command of the Company.”

“Indeed,” said Arno, “maybe I’ll have to read the book. Are there more heroes like Autio?”

Balk said that there were and he read some more samples. Arno liked what he heard; this was concise but meaningful fight fiction, not sentimental and dissolute. It was operational. Linna seemed to know what he was writing about.

Being done with his reading Balk closed the book, said goodbye and went off to deal with something at the Mobilisation Unit. Left to himself in the mess Arno sat and thought a few things over. He thought about Finland and its war in 1941, the one Linna wrote about and which he, Arno, once had thought of entering. There was a Swedish volunteer force open for conscripts, he had thought of joining it but it never came to pass. But other Swedes had served in it, they were about one full battalion in strength. Something to make you proud as a Swede, he thought, helping Finland in its desperate, against-the-odds struggle against Bolshevism.

Arno too had fought Bolshevism, this by serving in the German Army. And he was indeed proud of that. Now he lived in Sweden, he was a Swede by nationality and by being a Swedish subject. But he also still held German citizenship. He might go to Germany again, he didn’t rule out anything.

However, for the moment he indulged himself by being a Swede. He was proud to serve in Sweden’s Army and to think of the coming greatness of Sweden. It was a kingdom based on the Rule of Law, an Honest Reputation and a Strong Defence. “In the rock grows ore, and real men thereupon” – Arno subscribed to these words of Tegnér, himself being an expression of iron will and wooden strength, the spirit of the Thousand Mile Forest living in him as a matter of course.

Despite all its sham, debauchery, lying and treason it was still a fine world, a beautiful world. The Great Powers might be trying to swallow up or obliterate Sweden, by this time it was Cold War with the rattling of atomic sabres – but it would lead nowhere, Arno rightfully thought, because Swedish defence was strong. At the time, Sweden stood outside of the superpower blocs, being non-aligned in peacetime and neutral in case of war.

Arno favoured national defence, industrial development and modern trades. But he also had an ear for birdsong and an eye for meadows, children and flowers. He lived in a spirit of “greet the dawn, drink wine, make love to a beautiful woman.” His ideal was light and well-being, law and custom, and that the strong should defend the weak.

+++

He left the mess hall and went down to the barracks yard. The sky was blue and there was a lust for life: “Bliss was it that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven,” as Wordsworth said. Arno was 35, but right now he felt like he was still eighteen. He walked up to his groom, thanked him for his wait, took the reins, mounted and rode out across the fields to the south of the military complex. The forest shifted in light green, hints of budding birch among conifers in darker green. The fields were pre-spring brown and snow-free. Inside the spruce copses all the snow had melted by now, the last of it had gone by the end of April.

He approached the deserted hut, a little red cottage, firmly locked up. It sat beautifully in the field, surrounded by a few trees. Arno dismounted and let his horse go free to graze for a while. Arno himself went to the south wall of the house and took a break sunbathing, standing leaning against the wall and worshipping the sun with closed eyes

It was pretty warm there by the hut. Arno wanted to tell himself that he enjoyed life, but in fact he was bored. He rather disliked being a peace-time soldier. But as he didn’t have the energy to do anything else, for example, becoming a mercenary in Africa or Asia, he probably shouldn’t complain.

He saw a butterfly flying past. It landed on the grey-brown grass in front of him and he addressed the insect:

“You can enjoy yourself, Mister Butterfly, you can do what you want, whenever you want. At least, you needn’t brood over your career. You just fly, spreading your lemon wings. I, however…”

The horse whinnied. Arno continued:

“OK, I’m doing alright. But I also enjoyed being in the Combat Zone, a life where you got up, ate some dry bread, drank acorn coffee, went out and looked around. There were days of boredom too in that life but I never disliked the soldier life as such, of eating frugal meals and having to risk your life. This life, however, now in Sweden, where nothing happens – it’s killing me…!”

There! He’d said it! Arno stood and pondered. “Indeed,” he thought, “I’m a brooding soldier. This shouldn’t be. The warrior must be determined and energetic. Pondering isn’t his way of being; philosophising isn’t what he should do. But I am what I am. I’ve always liked philosophy. I still have my copy of Zarathustra, I cherish the integral esotericism of Jung and I’m updated on the school of existentialism. You have to be aware that you’ll die. Existential minds like Simone Weil and Heidegger say so. As do I. Such philosophising may be needed, even for a soldier.

“I philosophised before the war, during it and now. Some philosophy is needed for a soldier. And for a civilian. Many people live broodingly; they ruminate without getting anywhere. My brooding on the other hand leads forward. So maybe I can help people with my ideas. Dammit, I should write a philosophical treatise…! Or something like that. A philosophy for people in life, in the flurry of existence.”

With this thought, he left the house wall, took his horse and rode away along the gravel road. Now the track ran uphill, for the county of Ångermanland is overall very hilly. This is said to be because the last glaciation in this region had its thickest layers of ice. The ice shield across the Nordic region was thickest in the middle, that is, over what would become Ångermanland. So when the ice melted, over 10,000 years ago, there was a rebound in the earth’s crust; the crust rebounded after having been pressed down by the ice mass. The result was all the mountains and hills of Ångermanland including its steep coastline, which at the time of this story was beginning to be called The High Coast – Höga Kusten.

After reaching the crest Arno indulged in a short gallop. Finally, he rode into the yard of the Tjärnmyren firing range service building. It was a one-story red wooden place with an office and a day room, plus storage room; all in one, so quite long. In the yard Arno met an acquaintance, Sergeant Major Gustav Lidendal, a bearded fellow who ran the firing range with cool efficiency. Dressed in grey uniform, forage cap and rubber boots he hailed the rider. Arno dismounted, tethered his horse and was invited in for coffee. Sitting in the stale and smoky barrack staffroom they talked about this and that. The other man was a real northern bear, a legend who off-service was known for his hunting feats, his fishing trips and his howls in the night when the cold was at its worst. “Watch out for Liden,” people said, knowingly nodding their heads, “he’s been around for a long time. He’s got aces up his sleeve and knows a few tricks…!”

Lidendal, age 52, indeed had aces up his sleeve. As the head of the shooting range he steered his C3 grunts with an iron fist. He went around Tjärnmyren in his Willys Jeep and ran the shooting operation like a true military commander. He knew every nook and cranny of the field, he knew all the back roads and road bars. He knew all the tricks of the trade, like knowing how to smuggle home waste wood to use as firewood in his own cottage on Rämslemon. He would stuff short planks in a rubbish bag and sneak it into the boot of his Volvo PV and think, “Indeed, I know my way around this and that… if they only knew how much free firewood this service has given me.” The same wily look would cross his face if the cargo was a deer that had wandered onto the range.

Lidendal did this and then some. He was an old hand, having, as some said, a fox behind his ear. He was, in short, a legend of the I 21 Regiment.

+++

They sat down in the day room. The interior was spartan with unpainted paneled walls, plywood floor without carpets and furniture of the patched and mended variety. Boiled coffee, prepared on an iron stove, was what the house offered. Liden smoked a pipe, Arno smoked Cecil, a cigarette brand that was popular then. The ashtray was octagonal, of glass and with the inscription “AB Bolinder-Munktell, Eskilstuna”.

“So, you’re out riding?” Lidendal said.

“Yes,” Arno said. “I’ve got time. At least now, in the gap between two trainer battalions.”

“Same here,” said Lidendal. “There’s little to do. But I see to it that I look busy when officers pass by. Nailing targets, mending emplacements…”

They spoke of the history of the Regiment, the legends of the city and the secrets of the river. Eventually Arno bade him farewell and left the building. He slipped the reins from the tethering ring, sprang lightly into the saddle and rode towards the valley where the central firing ranges of Tjärnmyren were set out. He rode along the valley that was one big staging area for war games, for live fire exercises, open fields lined with hills clad with coniferous trees.

At the so-called anti-tank shelf, he stopped. It was a niche in the forest edge, intended for the deployment of heavy weapons. In this valley, on this and other duly designated spots, units were deployed for combat shooting, firing on life-size sets of cardboard figures, to see if the soldiers, deployed in field units, were able to hit the targets. The valley was a dolls-house version of a war-zone, a place where small arms fire danced over the meadows, with MGs, rifles and sub machineguns wreaking havoc on the cardboard targets.

Here we practice, Arno thought, we Swedish men, determined to defend our country against the Bolsheviks. It’s the same battle that I fought 1942-45. I was there, I battled Bolshevism, the Red Menace from the East. This is a noble cause. I want Sweden to remain free. Russia should stop shooting down our DC3s and Catalinas.

Arno remembered well the sense of national shock and outrage when these Swedish Air Force machines had been shot down over the Baltic Sea by the Soviets in 1952.

Here we practice combat, Arno thought. And maybe the thunder-flashes, explosions and MG rattle sound rather like the Eastern Front at times. Burning magnesium over Gammberget. But still, it’s not the same. That “roaring monster raging out over the frontal zone” that Gösta Borg writes about – it just isn’t around – and no one here knows what it is. I’m over-qualified in this service. That’s why I get frustrated being here. Not that I want war. But I want another service, an operational service.

Arno rode on along the dirt road, passed the deserted farm called Berghem and reached the field beyond which the road went uphill again. Here he nudged his mount aside for the passage of a grey-green Volvo 915, a staff car on whatever mission was keeping its occupants busy at present. Then Arno rode up to the crest, then downhill, passing Madhouse Meadow, a narrow, elongated field with the actual madhouse at the far end. Then down another hill and thence back to the regimental complex.

Arno was Sergeant and troop trainer on I 21. Until 1956, when he was promoted to Sergeant Major. He knew his stuff. He had been at the front. Over-qualified or not, his melody was active combat training. He tried to impart the demands of total war to the Swedish grunts. Some feared him; some admired him; all learnt from him. There were whispers of his war; Arno was something of a regimental legend too.

33

Movie Night

It was a Friday in September 1958. Arno sat with Solbritt in a café in Sollefteå. It was six o’clock. They would go to the cinema at seven. Cinema Rio was showing Gula divisionen.

They sat at a corner table, drank coffee and ate pastries. The chairs had leather upholstery. The tables were made of painted, nut brown veneer. The walls were beige and adorned with paintings depicting Mediterranean motifs. Arno wore black corduroy trousers, a tartan flannel shirt and a poplin lumber jacket. Solbritt wore a green and blue blouse, a yellow dress and jacket and her hair in a bun.

Next to them sat two other figures. They are minor characters in this story, they only occur in this chapter. But they were interesting in their own way.

On the table next to Arno and Solbritt, at a window table, sat a boy and a young man. It was, more precisely, a brylcreemed young man in blue serge suit, smiling sunnily at his cup of coffee and a custard wheat bun. Opposite him sat a younger lad in homespun trousers and knitted pullover. He drank a ginger ale. He had heard that the older fellow would enlist in the Air Force, so he asked:

“Oh man, joining the Air Force, eh? Going to fly Saab Draken?”

“Even better,” said the brylcreemed lad. “A-36. Atomic bomber, ain’t it. Dropping the fototurb, ain’t it. Bombing the Russians in the Baltic and wherever: Nuke’em ’til they glow, then shoot ’em in the dark. It’s the way of the future.”

“True that!”

That’s what these two figures said. And this perhaps raises some questions. Like: what was the “A-36” that the Air Force aspirant was talking about? – It was an aircraft project at Saab, planned as a nuclear bomb carrier. According to the sketches it looked a lot like the French Dassault Mirage. However, this Swedish project was scrapped on the drawing board and instead they ordered the FPL 37, which became Saab Viggen, not fully operational for atomic bombs like the A-36. But the Viggen was suitable for conventional attack, interception and reconnaissance. This was enough, in the end, because the Swedish nuclear bomb was never developed. Thankfully, the suspension and scrapping of the project “Swedish nuclear bomb” was resolved in 1960.

More questions that may arise from the above scene might be: what is the “Draken”? It was the most modern Swedish Air Force plane at the time, in the late ’50s. The J-35 Draken, designed by Erik Bratt at Saab in Linköping. “Drake” means “Dragon”.

Then you might ask: what is “fototurb”? – That’s the name of the atomic bomb in Harry Martinson’s science fiction epic Aniara from 1956.

As for atomic weapons Arno was against them. Ever since he had dreamt of The Cherubim Sword in 1944, he had something instinctively against this ultimate weapon – both the sword that he dreamed of and the atomic sabres of the real world. They were too much; they destroyed the game, he felt.

+++

How strange: that Arno and his woman would sit in a café and overhear this conversation. Its flight theme was particularly surprising since the pair was about to watch a flight movie: Gula divisionen starring Hasse Ekman.

Arno drank his coffee and looked at his lady. She was beautiful, every inch a woman. But still…

Arno was still restless. He disliked being in the peacetime army. When no war was to be fought everything became increasingly indifferent, he thought. Sure, it was cold war, Sweden and the West were threatened by the Bolsheviks. But Arno got nothing out of training grunts how to sling arms, stand straight and shoot, year in, year out.

He took a bite of his puff pastry, chewed it, looked across the street and stirred his cup. Solbritt looked at him and said:

“What are you thinking of?”

“I don’t know,” Arno said. “I’m just so bored at work. If you’ve been at war with the Soviets, it’s pure death pottering around in a peacetime regiment.”

“Maybe you should become a mercenary,” Solbritt said. “Get away to Africa, Asia… Wasn’t there something going on in Indochina…?”

“Indeed,” Arno said and cheered up. “The French Foreign Legion hired some Germans after the war ended, in the late ’40s. Some of them ended up at Dien Bien Phu, mind, where they eventually surrendered.”

The Legion’s Dien Bien Phu disaster had happened in 1954. And this was in 1958. Solbritt said:

“Exactly. Din Bin Foo. Perhaps it’s something for you? Being a hired soldier, fighting Reds in the jungle?”

Arno looked at her. And he rejoiced over her sympathy. She understood him. She didn’t try to hold him back, trying to tell him that the post as a Swedish Sergeant Major was the best in the world, like a lot of girls would’ve done.

“It’s worth considering,” Arno said, taking another bite of pastry and drinking his coffee. “Maybe I’ll join the Foreign Legion. Or whatever. I don’t know.”

Solbritt finished her cup. Arno went after a refill for them both. When he returned he patted her on the shoulder, put down the cup for her, then his own, sat down and looked back out on the street. A red-tinted, metallic blue heaven shone over the street. People were strolling by. Volkswagens, Borgwards, Volvos and small black Saabs drove past. All was well in late ’50s Sweden. The Social Democrats ruled and expanded the so-called welfare society, that is, the state system of health care for all, education and care for the elderly. Even the Conservatives went along with the project although they did protest against ATP. This latter issue was debated at the time, being about systemic, not optional, retirement savings, based on how much you had worked in your life. ATP was a supplementary pension; basic pension, state pension, was given to all Swedes above 65 since 1913.

Arno, for his part, didn’t care about retirement savings. He wanted something to do, something sharp and edgy, something inspirational. But, despite the talk of Vietnam, he didn’t really feel like going to war again. And as for becoming a Swedish officer he was too old now to enter the Karlberg War Academy. Oh well, he thought, time will tell. I still have something to give. I’m still only 39.

+++

They went to the cinema. The film was hardly worth seeing. Arno dismissed the whole story. It was about the tribulations of a Fighter Wing in contemporary, peacetime Sweden. Hasse Ekman led a unit of J-29 Tunnans. True, there were some tasty flight scenes but overall the film just didn’t work; it lacked both style and urgency. The story about marriage problems, career and petty personal squabbles could have been set anywhere; the flying environment wasn’t essential to the plot at all.

So the movie was a disappointment. Arno felt that its predecessor, Första divisionen which had been released in 1941, had been much better. It was about flying, period. The plot was integrated with the activities of a Bomb Wing during the War Preparedness.

When there’s war, the soldier lives on the edge. When in peace, the edge is lost!

That was true both for Arno and these films.

+++

Arno had seen Första divisionen at the movies, in Sweden, the previous year. The tip from Lekatt had led him to go and see the rerun. Arno had enjoyed it, and he especially liked the final line. The background is this: the Wing has seen some losses but then the gaps are filled with new recruits. So the Wing Commander could report: “The unit is complete. All present.”

Arno came to think of this now, in 1958. He said this to Solbritt as they strolled home through the city to the flat on the riverside.

“The unit is complete. That’s how it should be. The unit must be combat ready. There’s always another battle to fight. Deaths you leave behind. Tears have to wait until the funeral.”

“You’re a hard man,” Solbritt said.

“Maybe. But you don’t survive in combat by brooding. OK, I brood as well, I even did it during the war and I do it know. But I know how to keep it in check.”

They went home, put on some tea, talked a bit more and then went to bed. During the night Arno had a strange dream. A nightmare. He dreamed that he was a criminal. Specifically, he was a murderer. Then he was sentenced to death. Just as he was about to be executed by the firing squad he woke up, sweating.

He was somewhat bothered, not only by the nightmare itself, but by the fact that he still had these recurring dreams of guilt. In his daytime he was the epitome of cool, he was the paragon of bushido, being something of a reflecting samurai, western variety. And then, not every night but now and again, these dreams of being a global pyromaniac haunted him. Dreams of being a killer. Dreams in which he ranted and raved. OK, maybe the dreams were an outlet for hidden tensions. As he lay there, trying to fall asleep again, he said to himself: “I’m no saint, I’m just a man, and a man sometimes has nightmares. Now let’s get back to the nightmare.”

This, for its part, was a “vice versa” strategy. Instead of avoiding the dream, shying away from possible further unpleasant happenings, he willed himself back into it, as a way of quietening down his mental turmoil. And it worked. Soon he was asleep again, not having a nightmare.

34

The Bivouac Drill

Next week, the platoon Arno trained was to have a field day. They would go out on Monday for a camping exercise, a bivouac drill. They would practice putting up tents, cooking on camp stoves and so on. Arno supervised the quartermaster side of it, like ordering rations and arranging transportation, but he delegated the running of the actual exercise to two officer cadets from the Regimental Guards Company. These Sergeants, prospective First Lieutenants, had to lead the platoon’s doings with the tents, sentry lists, foxholes and so on.

It was a Tuesday in September, 1958. The platoon had spent their night out in the woods. Arno himself had gone home at four o’clock on Monday and, as usual, spent the night at home. It was the Cadets, Kadax and Forslid by name, who shared the bivouac with the soldiers. The exercise would be completed this Tuesday afternoon. This morning Arno had been out and overseen it. Then he had gone back to the Regiment for lunch. The soldiers, however, had to heat tins on their field stoves. A good basic exercise in the ways of the combat zone, Arno thought. As for himself, he rode his service motorcycle back to the regimental base and ate in the dining hall. It was one of the privileges that come with age. True, he inculcated the ways of the combat zone into his men, promoting the ideal of active combat training and speaking of the demands of total war. But you needn’t go to extremes, like sharing every peacetime grunt hardship.

On this day the cafeteria was serving meat casserole with sweet-and-sour dill sauce, a Swedish classic called dillkött. This he couldn’t resist. And it was excellently cooked, Arno thought as the trained chef he was. After lunch he went to his office in C Barracks and rested, taking a nap.

He slept for 30 minutes. Then he woke up, at 1240. He would be back in the field at 1330. After the unit had had its ranger-style lunch the drill would continue, headed by the two Officer Cadets. So Arno still had time to kill and he picked up the book that lay beside his office bed. It was Det röda massanfallet (= The Red Mass-Attack) by Gösta Borg. Borg was a Swede who had been a volunteer in the Waffen-SS. His book had come out in 1951 and was widely and openly read in Swedish Army circles at the time. Borg, with the Eastern Front as an example, wanted to reform the Swedish combat training and the Swedish Army in terms of mindset. He wanted to get away from the concept of deploying in lines, wanted to abandon routine in favour of a more active behavior on the enemy’s flanks, made possible by the forested and hilly terrain of Sweden. Over time, this attitude indeed became part of the official army doctrine.

The, shall we say, triangulation of Borg’s thought was this: a study of the World War II tactics of both Germans and Soviets, noting both their strengths and weaknesses, and applying this to Swedish circumstances, to the 1950’s reality of facing a Soviet invasion. Into this mix the weaknesses and strengths of the Swedish Army, the terrain features of the Swedish territory and the mindset of the Swedish soldier, were all added as a matter of course.

Arno had read Borg’s book before, but felt it worth re-reading. He was captured primarily by the scenes from the Eastern Front, elements based on Borg’s own memories. Arno nodded approvingly at lines like these, how it was in Poland in the summer of 1944 when the Russians pressed on but they themselves, the Germans, despite everything, stood their ground:

“In all this, still the whole mechanism of battle is working; there is the young NCO quietly waiting in his tank, his hand playing with the directional knobs of the piece, eyes searching the smoke for the familiar silhouette of a T-34 (…) There is the orderly officer driving his staff car up to the main command post, never minding the hostile pressure. – Battle Group Commander is a 30-year Major; even before the shrapnel has landed he’ll be in a focal point. He knows how to point a finger at a guy and to make a counterstrike with all his resources, quenching Panzer threats and putting out brush fires.”

Arno also liked how Borg described leadership issues. How should a combat zone leader be? Arno felt that the Swedish Army needed to hear these Borg words:

“The chief should be brave – but not foolhardy! There were commanders who always were ‘an der Spitze’: a leader must be at a focal point – but he must also lead his unit; it’s up to him to know, to feel, where the focal point lies. A senior manager leading a group of ‘old cronies’ is more useful as a patrol or shock troop leader. A commander should have all of his men as his confidantes.”

Finally, Arno liked this characteristic of armour. To fight against tanks was something very special. “Armour panic” was a fact, a lingering and threatening phenomenon, even for a scarred Panzer Grenadier; this Arno could warrant. Borg:

“The mass-armour attack often awakens a wild, primeval fear in humans, the brown-yellow juggernauts coming alive as wild animals, shredding and tearing apart everything in their way, invulnerably rushing toward and over each individual. (…) The fire storm and the heavy vehicles exert their presence already at 1,000 meters’ distance, making it difficult for you to remain in the foxhole; the running and shooting vehicles, the rumble and roar having its effects on the nerves of the defenders, but if you rush up out of your pit there’s a 95% certainty you’re lost.”

Arno closed the book and put it down. Looking up into the white-plastered ceiling he thought: Gösta Borg is certainly a wise man. It’s important to take advantage of the experience of the Eastern Front in order for the Swedish Army to survive in the reality of the Cold War. We train for war and our training must be realistic.

Arno got up from the bed, put on boots, gaiters, the tunic, a leather hood with goggles and, finally, pigskin gloves. Then he went out on the parade ground. It was sunny and mild, awakening a desire to live. He approached his grey-green, 500 cc service bike, kick-started it and went away over the regimental streets to the low-speed pounding of the machine. It was a Swedish model from the war days, the frame made by Monarch and the engine manufactured by a boat company, Albin. In the army inventory it was listed as “Swedish Army Motorcycle M/42” but the soldiers just called it Albin.

Arno left the base through the southern gate and drove southwards on Highway 90. After about a kilometre he turned off and continued along a forest road. The platoon in question was staying at a legendary spot called – Pommac.

Pommac was a crossroads in the forest, somewhere in the never-neverland of the I 21 training grounds. It had an advertising billboard for the soft drink Pommac mounted high on two trees at a corner of the flat which characterised the crossroads. The sign was a triangular, enameled metal plate, 2 meters by 1.5. As such, it was quite common in Sweden at the time, but how it ended up in the middle of the forest, nailed onto two trees, nobody knew. But it was rumoured that Lidendal was the culprit: that the legend of I 21 had ventured out one dark autumn night, gathering two C3 conscripts to help him, then going off in a jeep, stealing the sign from its posting on a barn wall at the highway, smuggling it here and with the help of a ladder mounting it high up on the trees in question.

The question of “why” surely arises. Why put up a commercial sign in the middle of nowhere? But there was method in the madness. Naming a nondescript crossroads after a soft drink sign elevated it into the realm of myth, the sign itself explaining the naming.

Arno drove through the dense coniferous forest in the sunny autumn day. It was a fine day as such even if he was a tad bored by life in the peacetime army. Yes, there were things to do as a Sergeant Major, like planning exercises, having refresher courses in his war position as Company Quartermaster in the Ådal Brigade, and skiing over the exercise field during wintry combat shootings – but in essence, this meant nothing to him. Fighting the Titans on the Eastern Front, advancing with an Armoured Battle Group with smoke in the air, fires on the horizon and with support from Stukas available; in comparison to this, being a trainer of peacetime units is not much to write home about.

Arno wanted to like his current life. He put his willpower to it, he thought in terms of “there is only here and now,” saying to himself that the combat life sure was something else but now you’re a peacetime soldier, get used to it – but it didn’t work. He had to change it, change his life, but he didn’t exactly know how.

+++

Arno eventually reached Pommac, this imperceptible but legendary place in the middle of nowhere: an intersection in a pine forest, an open space 100 metres across. He drove his MC onto a path, entered the forest proper, stopped the machine, pulled it up on the support stand and took off his gloves, leather hood and goggles. Putting on his side-cap he went away to the current bivouac, the tent camp in question. The platoon consisted of 25 men. It had two tents, erected some 30 metres apart and camouflaged by nets supported by lines. Sprigs and branches were stuck through the netting, effectively breaking up the silhouette of the tents. These in themselves were large pieces of dark sail cloth, circular structures with chimneys sticking up from their roofs. Arno had encountered them for the first time during his War Preparedness Duty 1940 in Norrbotten.

Next, Arno saw Kadax standing in front of the unit. He was addressing the soldiers, who wore field uniform with webbing and carried slung weapons, M/45 submachine guns and M/96 rifles. Kadax in turn saw Arno, called the men to attention, saluted and said:

“Sergeant Major! 1st Platoon under orders. I’m about to tell them about the importance of disguising the tent.”

“Fine, Sergeant,” Arno said. “Carry on!”

Kadax, a 20-year conscript Officer Cadet, continued to lecture the unit on something he had read in a book. Meanwhile Arno went into the tent where he found Cadet Forslid lying down asleep.

“Rise and shine!” Arno said. “This is a good day to die.”

Forslid awoke with a start, said, “Yes, Sergeant!” took his cap and belt and went to leave the tent. Before he went out Arno added:

“If you have time to rest, rest, but more than that, as an officer you have responsibility. You must look like a Leader, giving the impression of activity and preparedness.”

“Yes, Sergeant,” said the Cadet and went out. Once outside he stood some distance behind Kadax and tried to look responsible. And that was exactly what Arno wanted: if you’re in command, look the part. In the meantime, Arno inspected the inside of the tent. There were spruce branches on the floor, equipment stowed away along the walls and a bucket of water with a fir branch in it, ready for extinguishing any small fire inside the tent. The unit slept in it lying like the spokes of a wheel, with their feet towards the heating stove at the centre. They did not have sleeping bags. You slept with boots and tunic taken off and with tunic and overcoat as covers.

Arno went out again and took over once Kadax finished his training lecture. Arno praised the neat set up inside the tent. Then he took them through all the forms of military accommodation, from tents like these and proper quarters indoors, everything from barns to apartment houses and villas. Living in some sort of purpose-made building, he said, was the standard for the German Army during the war. He usually didn’t advertise his war background but he divulged it now and then to those having ears to listen with. It was well known that he had been a platoon commander on the Eastern Front.

But he barely spoke about it. For one thing, he wasn’t really a talkative type. And it wasn’t quite the done thing to talk about the Eastern Front to grunts of Sweden’s Democratic People’s Army. By comparison, to speak of Finland’s war against the Bolsheviks in 1939-40 and 1941-44 was more acceptable. This was because Finland and Sweden had a long common history, up until 1809 – and even after that, both under Russian rule and afterwards, there was a large ethnic Swedish population in Finland. Finland and Sweden were Nordic brother countries, so service in Finland’s wartime Army was less controversial than having served in the German Army.

Arno then declared the exercise over. The two tents were to be dismantled and loaded on to the truck they had available. Once back at base, the tents must be pitched again, because sailcloth gets damp during a night in the open. This was done; led by the Cadets the youngsters broke camp, loaded all the equipment onto the truck and finally clambered up onto the platform behind all the kit.

They went back to base. Once at the Platoon Storage Area, two rows of garage-like facilities, Arno oversaw the unloading and then went off to the end of the row, standing with arms akimbo and looking out into the distance, over the hills and far away.

After a while a soldier of the platoon approached him, Private Tallberg. He was a peculiar fellow, a naive questioner who reminded him of Kellner who had been his orderly during Operation Spring Awakening in 1945. The man who died of a lung shot.

Tallberg saluted and spoke. “Sergeant Major, I wonder about one thing.”

“Go ahead and ask.”

“In the war, I mean, World War II, did you live in houses? At the front?”

“Indeed we did, as soldiers in the German Army.”

“Did you sleep in beds?”

“Sometimes, you could get a bed. If you were lucky you might even get a mattress: a sack filled with hay.”

“Who owned the houses, then?”

“The civilian population.”

“Did you pay for it?”

“Not for the accommodation per se. It was a coercive measure. If you were in an occupied country, the Company Quartermaster would just saunter into the latest village, go into a house, see if there were rooms available, book ’em for the Army, scrawl ‘Room for 3’ in chalk on the wall, then go on to the next house. Then soldiers were allotted this room and they would stay there, sleeping on the floor, on straw or whatever.”

“Did you ever live in a tent?”

“Almost never. The German Army didn’t have a lot of tents. But there were plenty of villages where you were operating. Everywhere in Russia there are villages and that’s where we stayed. Military Police and such made sure the locals behaved themselves. If civilians harassed or killed housed men, it led to reprisals. At the same time, of course the soldiers weren’t allowed to harass the people they lived by. Army discipline saw to that.”

After checking the packing of the equipment in the storage room, Arno dismissed the troops. He himself stayed and talked with Kadax and Forslid. He praised them for the good order in the tent and the overall fine execution of the drill. Then he again chided Forslid for lying down and relaxing while Kadax had been left alone to train the men. Finally, he thanked them for the successful exercise and let the two return to their barracks on the crest to the east of the parade ground, on this side of the Officer’s Mess. Then Arno went down to his barracks for the School Platoon’s evening lineup at five PM. After this his service was over for today, but Arno suddenly had an urge to stay on at the base until after dinner.

35

Germany Calling

He had no desire to go home. Partly because Solbritt wasn’t home, she would have dinner down town and then go to a gathering with her sewing pals. Partly because the reading of the Gösta Borg book had given him the desire to check out the NCO mess library for more of the same, more books about the Eastern Front. So he stayed and had dinner in the main canteen. Tonight they served salmon from the river. Then he went off to the NCOs’ mess, the yellow two-storey house surrounded by birch trees. The leaves were already yellow.

Arno went inside, got a glass of beer at the bar and then went to the library. There were chairs and sofas and a rather large shelf of books, stretching along an entire wall. On the shelf he found one new book. It was a history of the fighting on the Eastern Front, written by Lothar von Coburg. The book was in German and fairly unread, pristine condition: Ostfront im zweiten Weltkrieg was the title, published in 1952. Since Arno knew German he grabbed it eagerly. Standing by the shelf he read on the back cover that Coburg had been a Divisional Commander and Army Corps Chief of Staff in the wartime German army. At times he had even fought on the same battlefield as Arno – for example, in Ukraine 1943-44.

Arno walked over to a chair and opened the book at a random page. It was about the fighting around Rostov. Coburg used Rostov as the example of how fluid the fighting on the Eastern Front had been.

Rostov was situated in southern Russia, in the part of the Russian Soviet Republic reaching down to the Black Sea. Rostov lay at the mouth of the River Don on the Azov Sea, which in turn connects to the Black Sea. At the same river, Don, 500 km upstream, lies the Ukrainian city of Kharkov where Arno fought in the spring of 1943. Rostov was an example of mobile combat. Arno was quickly wrapped up in Koburg’s account, appreciating the narrative of how the city had changed hands several times:

“The fighting on the eastern front was mobile, the frontline pattern being fluid, not static. The operations around the city of Rostov can illustrate this. (…) On November 20, 1941 Rostov was conquered for the first time by German units but they retreated as fast as they had come. The city was retaken by the Russian 37th Army, supported by 2nd Army. In the summer of 1942 the Germans were back in the vicinities of Rostov. On July 23 German units were in the outskirts of the city, and the following day they occupied it. After the Germans during the capture of the Caucasus (to which the retaking of Rostov’s was a first step) had been drained of their strength in Stalingrad, and finally surrendered there with the 6th Army in February 1943, it wasn’t long before the Russians recaptured Rostov. This took place on February 14, 1943. Then the Russians kept the city for the rest of the war.”

Arno put down the book, drank his beer and looked away across the library. He looked without seeing towards the window, out through the park and off into the distance. Rostov, he thought, well that’s how it was: it came and went between the two armies, lying there quietly but – as it were – being transferred between different worlds, between German and Russian jurisdiction. It was reminiscent of a nearby town he himself knew, Kharkov: taken in 1941, then lost and then reclaimed in the spring of 1943, and then retaken by the Russians in the summer. Back and forth, back and forth, yet somehow still and unchanged. An example of movement as a state.

It was the Eastern Front existence in a nutshell. And reading this, being immersed in the German language, being swept away by the German spirit, Arno had an inspiration: I can’t live here. I have to return to Germany. Not to war, not to serve in the German Army, and not just for some veteran club activities. I simply have to get back there. But how?

He went back to reading Coburg’s book. He finished a couple of beers and was still reading when the bar finally closed. He borrowed the book and went home, deep in thought. Once there, he lay down on the couch in the living room and read on. He read about Stalingrad, he read about Kursk, he read about the beginning of the campaign in 1941 and the end in 1945. And in the process he relived his own experiences in the east, in Ukraine and southern Russia, Kamenets-Podolsky and Belarus, Warsaw and Hungary: the hardships, living on the edge, the trials and tribulations. But also with a sense of being at home.

At about ten PM Solbritt arrived. Arno got up, said hello and had some tea with her.

“So how was it on the sewing circle?”

“OK,” she said. “But since everyone attended we had no one to gossip about.”

They laughed at this. Later they went to bed. That night Arno dreamed that he was fighting in a battle. Oddly, he was fighting along Hansi Bauer, his old squad leader during the war. In the dream Bauer was Arno’s adjutant. The friendly forces being dressed in checkered white-red livery and the enemy in green livery. They fought with cavalry and infantry, swords and pikes, a bit like the Thirty Years’ War, although without firearms at all.

The fight went on for a while, a long and bloody battle that the red-white side won. After this the dream changed scenes and Arno dreamed of something else.

When he woke up in the morning Arno thought: Bauer was in my dream. How strange. I never dreamed of him before, as far as I can remember. True, I liked to have him as a Squad Leader and deputy during the war, he was a rock. But why did I dream about him now? Is it Germany calling again? I mean, yesterday I read of the Eastern Front. And now the Bauer dream. Either my Eastern Front reading affected me or the dream is trying to tell me something.

When he got home from work later that day a letter awaited him. It was from Bauer, his old war comrade. Really weird, Arno thought. From dream to reality, as it were. His dream of last night indeed had been important. It had been trying to tell him something.

In the letter Bauer told him that he was now living in the Bavarian capital, Munich. He said that he ran a security firm and that he needed help. He asked Arno to come down and strengthen the unit. He had several major operations going on at the time.

Arno was glad to get this letter. He wanted to help his German friend. He wanted something sensible to do and “German security company” sounded more exciting than drilling Swedish grunts in the basics. The Swedish Army was a fine institution but Arno couldn’t find any joy in the work at hand. The inspiration was gone.

But to go to Germany, for this Arno had inspiration. So to cut a long story short, he applied for and got three months’ leave from the Army. Before the journey south he kept in touch with Bauer, among other things over the phone. The German said that the help was long overdue. Come and help me, you’ll get paid and you can stay in my house for a while. This was the crux of Bauer’s message.

On Monday, October 5, 1958 Arno took the train south. Solbritt stayed in the flat. Arno would just go to scout and reconnoiter; that was the plan. He hadn’t decided on moving to Germany permanently. So now he travelled by rail from Sollefteå to Långsele, and from there via the mainline to Stockholm. The train journey took some ten hours. He had a sleeper ticket and slept well in his bunk.

On arrival at Stockholm Central Station, at 8:12, he went to the café for a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Then he went to Norra Bantorget to take a bus to Bromma airport.

Once at Bantorget square, Arno sat down on a bench. He placed his old brown suitcase on the ground, safely tucked between his legs. Gossamer clouds drifted past in the blue sky. The temperature was mild for the season, about eight degrees Centigrade. His view was dominated by the LO Castle, a magnificent building of red sandstone, designed by Ferdinand Boberg and built at the beginning of the century. Now this building housed working-class bureaucrats, the united, major trade unions in their national HQ, in Swedish, Landsorganisationen, shortened to LO.

This LO exerted a certain political hegemony in the country through its connections with the ruling Labour Party. Socialism and collectivism were the watchwords, although industrialists, merchants and capitalists weren’t powerless either. Right- and left- wing eminences ruled the Swedish ship in fairly good agreement. True, they disagreed on the ATP issue, but in general most issues in the land were decided in a spirit of unity. High taxes, strong defence, a big welfare state – this was the Sweden he really wasn’t bothered about anymore. He wanted to go to his new destination and to get to work on something interesting again.

Arno sat admiring the LO Castle facade, golden in the morning sun. He appreciated the park nearby, a grove of elms and beeches, now leafless. He thought: my dear Sweden, you’re probably an excellent country. But I have dual citizenship and now I’ll work for a while in Germany, I guess.

The bus came, a Scania with the entrance behind the driver. Arno paid a conductor, took his ticket, sat down and admired the interior of vinyl, lacquered plywood and lino floor. More passengers got on and the bus drove away, heading along the Karlberg Canal and passing the Karlberg Palace, the school for Army Cadets. Arno had not taken that career path and now he didn’t care. Perhaps he could have got in in the early ’50s if he had set his mind to it, but he lacked the motivation to become an officer in the peacetime army. True, there was the Cold War, but at heart Arno doubted that Russia would attack the West. Russia had been completely exhausted in 1945. If some Russians leaders wanted to start a new war they would probably have a popular uprising on their hands.

Bolshevik Russia was aggressive. The Hungarians could tell you all about that. So its neighbours should keep their guard up in presence of its huge military forces. But would there be war, real, actual shooting war? Arno doubted it. There may be war in the Middle East where they weren’t as war weary as the Europeans. The Middle East just hadn’t experienced a war of the Eastern Front type. But a new war in Europe? Now, in 1958? Arno just couldn’t see it. And this made him lose inspiration for a career as an army officer. He was proud of his work as a Swedish Sergeant Major but he didn’t feel like continuing in the profession.

The bus eventually arrived at Bromma. Arno checked in. After handing in his suitcase and pocketing the receipt, he was led out onto the tarmac where a SAS DC-4 was waiting. It was a twin-engine, propeller-driven plane with nose wheel. Arno nodded approvingly to the flight attendants, sat down comfortably in his place and remembered how his most memorable plane ride had ended: with a crash. But that was then. The Junkers 88 in question flew over the combat zone of Saxony in 1944. Now it was 1958 and peace.

At last the plane started, taxied to the end of the runway, stopped, revved up, ran off and lifted. The trip to Munich took three hours. It was noisy and the plane lacked a pressurized cabin but Arno preferred this from taking the train all the way. Moreover, they served refreshments on board; this, he thought, was the height of luxury. With a soft drink in hand he looked out over the expanse of clouds and saw fairytale castles in the distance, shimmering gold and azure in the hazy distance. He had fallen through such air once. Fallen and yet survived. He wondered vaguely if the pilot of the 88 had survived the war? Would he even recognise him if they met in a German street? Would Arno punch him? Perhaps his long stay in hospital was how he had survived the war? Perhaps he would buy him a drink!

+++

Once in Munich Arno took a taxi to his hotel. Having checked in, showered and changed he called Bauer. A secretary said that everything was green, the meeting would be held as scheduled, Arno was free and at home. The firm, Cicero AG, was situated in the city’s middle zone.

Arno took a taxi in the overcast daylight, a black Mercedes 180, diesel. When he arrived the office turned out to be a two-storey structure with glass front and brick gables, very modern. The surroundings consisted of industrial sidings, a petrol station and a motorway some 500 metres away. It could have been a little greener, wouldn’t mind a few trees, Arno thought as the son of the woods he was.

He went into the building. Via a corridor, he came to the office in question. A blonde secretary received him, asking what she could help with. Arno said in German:

“I’m Arno Greif. I have an appointment with Mr. Bauer.”

“Ah, wait a minute,” she said. She rang the intercom. Soon a door opened and Bauer came out. He was as he always had been, tall, sturdy and round-faced – and now even a little more portly. He smiled and greeted Arno cordially. They even embraced.

“Feldwebel! You’re alive!” Bauer said and showed him into the office, a neat room with hazel plastic panels, a large desk, a bookcase and a sofa in green leather. They both sat down and Arno said:

“Yes, I’m alive. And you, Unterfeldwebel!”

“Indeed I am. But now I’m the boss here and I want you onboard the ship. How do you feel about that?”

“I’m ready to work for you,” Arno said, “being your loyal servant. Aber natürlich.”

Bauer was his old sunny self, the happy man who quickly would become serious and ready to strike. And serious he was when he spoke about his security company. In the conditions offered Arno could work with almost anything he wanted: surveillance, investigation, management consulting, personnel issues, personal protection – just choose. So he did, Arno became a glorified right-hand man working with now this, now that, a sort of top consultant, able to take on almost any job after a brief instruction.

The entire building they were in belonged to Cicero AG. Bauer had twenty employees, of whom five were top agents, smart people who worked with issues such as bodyguard security, security systems (fences, alarms) and work on cases where the police had closed the investigation, or things that the police never investigated in the first place. The latter were cases of the type, “I suspect my wife of having an illicit love affair, can you look into it for me?” This wasn’t particularly heroic but it was ‘operational’. It was a job mainly on the move, not ordinarily done from behind a desk.

Arno came to work operationally in Bauer’s firm, Cicero AG. He was a jack of all trades, a roving scout and investigator, a private recon operator, always on the go. He could combine the less inspiring cases of the type “checking up love affair” with other ones, like gathering facts about unexplained thefts, all sorts of things in fact.

As for Bauer, Arno had a cordial conversation with him in the office at their first meeting. Then they went down town for a session at a decent restaurant. They talked about war memories: Kamenets-Podolsky, Belarus, Poland, Hungary… They spoke of Wistinghausen and Battalion Wolf and of fallen comrades, they talked about StG and MP, and they talked about howls in the night and smoke on the horizon and marching columns having walked away and into history.

36

Munich

It was a day in June 1960. It was, more precisely, a Friday. Arno was something of a workaholic but right now he had the weekend free after a busy work week. He was still prepared to venture out if the phone rang – if Bauer wanted him to check out this or that urgent matter in relation to some surveillance job. But for now, as mentioned, Arno was free. He had cycled to work. He didn’t take his grey VW; it was such a beautiful weather. He had cycled three kilometres from his small villa to Cicero AG in the middle zone, in the area between the city proper and the suburbs. Arno now rented his own house after living on top of Bauer’s garage during his first time in the country. He had no major problems with the Bavarian or Federal authorities; the basic tenet was that he was allowed to work in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Federal State of Bavaria. He still held German citizenship.

Arno had been sitting in his office almost throughout the whole day. He had worked in Germany for over eighteen months by now. He had resigned from the Swedish Army and broken up with Solbritt.

Arno had quickly decided to stay in Germany. He wrote to Solbritt as early as November 1958 to tell her that he would stay there. This pretty much ended their relationship. He wrote that she could keep the apartment and most of the equipment there. Arno only asked that she send his books.

To end a relationship by mail is not ideal, and Solbritt didn’t accept it. She travelled to see him in February 1959 and asked to continue being his partner. But Arno had tired of her. Why, he didn’t know. She was simply history. She didn’t give him energy any more. Eventually Solbritt accepted it all and went home again. She kept the apartment; it was rented so this was no sacrifice to him. But she never sent him his books. This grieved him a little. He could gradually find new copies of his beloved books – In Stahlgewittern and so on – but they were in editions other than those he had owned and read as a young man. It was, somehow, not the same. “The media is the message” to some extent.

This was a minor issue but it grieved him nonetheless. The bottom line is that relationships, and breaking up from them, always is a drag.

+++

This day in June 1960, Arno had worked in the office on various things. He generally enjoyed himself at work, whether it was at the desk or out scouting. Everything was related to operational work. And now, satisfied with his week’s work, he was on his way home. The road went over a large grass field. To the left was a swampy lake, fringed by reeds. To the right was a small, grass soccer field, used for inter-company tournaments and suchlike.

He crossed the field on a cycle path, parallel to the football field’s goal end. Beyond it lay the residential area where he lived.

He was on his way home. He was looking forward to a cold beer and a rye bread sandwich with Wurst. But something made him stop riding.

He dismounted, led the cycle a bit, went off the road and stood on the grass. It was full summer. The continental heat had set in, coming early this year. Hazy clouds rested on the mountains on the horizon. In the background you could hear the city noise.

Arno looked at the football field proper. In the nearest goal was a ball. Someone must have forgotten it. It was a well-pumped leather ball. Arno got the urge to kick some ball so he leaned the bike against a shed and went out into the field. He took the ball, kicked it out to the penalty spot and prepared for a goal shot.

He wore brown leather walking shoes. Otherwise, he wore a white lumber jacket, grey-blue suit trousers and a flat cap.

This is like in Karlstad in 1938, he thought. On that day in June when I stood with my cousin and took a shot on the goal. It’s 22 years ago now. Time flies…

He gathered himself for the action and kicked. The ball shot straight into the goal. The netting caught the leather ball which then fell to the ground, bouncing three times and rolling away to come to rest in the corner.

Arno remained at the penalty spot, standing still. He had no desire to retrieve the ball and shoot again. A cerise sky watched over the stillness of the day.

Arno was about to turn on his heels and retrieve his bike when a figure came walking across the grass. The man wore a red and yellow hood, a green tunic, blue breeches and boots. What on Earth now, Arno thought, Ringo Badger here…?

He had recognised his soul guide immediately. And in a gesture of greeting the other figure now put a finger to his hood, revealing an elongated face with a long, noble nose. It was a timeless, characteristic face with deep blue eyes.

Arno felt a little confused, even disturbed. Indeed, this was Ringo Badger, the soul guide whom he had met in the Dreamworld several times. How, then, could he appear in this world, the everyday world…?

“You’re Ringo Badger,” Arno said, “I’ve seen you in my dreams.”

“Indeed,” the Badger said, “It’s me. Your soul guide, your psychopompos. Now I’m here again.”

“But this is the real world,” said Arno. “On earlier occasions, I’ve met you in my dreams. Now you’re here, in Germany, Munich 1960…”

The Badger remarked that Arno called this world “the real world” and said:

“How real is it then, if I may ask? Rather, it’s the Dreamworld that’s real, the Astral World. Your dreams are real, fairy tales are real; we can relate to their essence. The everyday world in comparison is jumbled and chaotic.”

“OK, I get it. Interesting,” Arno said. “But this is real: you, out of my dream, standing here talking to me.”

“True, I’m here. I live here and there,” the Badger said. “I live in Dreamland, I live on the Earth Plane, I’m living on other worlds. I go with the mist and slide with the wind; I visit parallel worlds in the Omniverse reality.”

“Omniverse,” Arno said, “this sounds exciting. Can you take me there?”

“Why not. We’ve been there before, you and I: the Dreamworld, the Astral World is part of it. So join me on a tour of impossible worlds.”

Together they walked off over the grass field. Imperceptibly it transformed into a garden with walkways between beds of exotic flowers; they weren’t in Munich anymore.

“So how are we travelling, then, in this Dreamworld tour? By car?”

The Badger smiled ironically and said:

“You might want to fly? Wasn’t it fun to fly in a biplane over the burning land?”

He alluded to Arno’s dream in Aspeboda in 1946. Arno said hastily that he preferred to walk.

“Indeed,” the Badger said. “We’ll walk. We are already in Dreamland. We travel with the force of thought, so we can end up wherever we want. Right now you seem to be harmoniously set and the environment is therefore soft and mild. It’s a garden. This is the content of your inner mind today: a flourishing rose garden.”

“Fascinating,” Arno said and looked at the surroundings: A fountain, a row of poplar trees, flower beds, shrubberies and a gravel path lined with tanks – armoured giants – on plinths, forming a monumental row, a mechanised memorial.

Again: now they weren’t in Munich anymore. This wasn’t the football field. They were in Dreamland.

In the distance was a lake and beyond, in the distance, emerald green mountains, different from the darker Bavarian mountains. Among the mountains there were castles and villas, shining like silver.

“So this is my current psyche,” Arno said. “Nice. The tank monument kind of tops it off, making it into my land, my sort of paradise. Otherwise it would have been too, I don’t know, saccharine.”

“True. And even so, you can paint it still darker and visualize barbed wire and burning wrecks if you will, with attack aircraft whizzing across a red sky and all. Ragged cats, corpses, crying babies…”

“OK, I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m not into that right now. Tanks on plinths, yes, burning tanks, no thanks.”

“But in some way you belonged there, in the world of flames and ruins. In the war, this was the mental landscape you realised.”

“I guess,” Arno said. “And I’m proud of my service as a combat soldier of World War II. I have served, I did my duty.”

They went towards a cream-colored palace in the garden. Once inside, walking along a colonnade, the Badger said:

“Satisfaction, peace and a quiet paradise. You’ve come a long way from burning ruins, gunpowder and flying lead.”

“That may be,” Arno said. “But I was calm even as a soldier: ‘enraptured in tranquility,’ as Södergran said.”

“How apt…!” the Badger said. “We ascended fellows can actually admire you ordinary people. And Miss Södergran surely nailed it with that expression, ‘enraptured in tranquility’: aroused and calm at the same time, in action but somehow quiet. She was human and she saw an ontological truth. Christ said: ‘People worship gods; when will the gods begin to worship people?’ As a virtual demigod I feel like worshiping people when I hear lines like that one, the Södergran line.”

Arno appreciated the Christian wisdom but he had never read it in the Bible. The Badger then explained that it was in an apocryphal document, a Gnostic gospel.

+++

They walked on through the palace’s galleries, halls and courtyards in a regal atmosphere, a serene but exalted atmosphere. They were kings, they were priests, they were in a timeless state of mind in a timeless dimension.

A hall was reached, a veritable art gallery. Sculptures occupied the middle of the floor surface. The walls were hung with paintings. The Badger went up to a large oil painting with golden frame. It depicted a knight with a lance, thrusting his weapon down the throat of a green dragon.

“How do you like it?” the Badger asked.

“Grand!” Arno said. “Truly heroic. An ideal for all of us. A determined man fighting his adversary.”

“Look closely,” the other man said. “Who’s the knight?”

Arno looked closer. The knight was wearing a helmet without a visor, known as a salad. You could clearly see the man’s face, you saw it in profile. It was slim with a rather firm chin and blue eyes to go with it.

“But that’s me…!” Arno said.

“Indeed, it’s you. You’re a hero. You’ve battled the demons. You seem to have defeated the enemy – yourself. That is, your obsessions. You have fought, but you haven’t let your emotions get the better of you. When the battle trumpet sounded you heeded the call. You did your duty. But you never hated your enemies. Free from concepts of success and defeat you did what had to be done.”

“Sukha-duhkhe same krtvâ, labhâlabhau, jâyâjayau / tato yuddhâya yujyasva, naivam pâpam avâpsyasi. The Bhagavad-Gita, verse 2:38.”

“Exactly so,” the Badger said. “You had this apateia or samatva even before you went into the combat zone. You had peace within yourself before you went off to war. Thus, you survived the challenge, not being carried away by the passions. It seems that you’ve passed the test.”

Arno nodded. He continued to examine the painting. Well, he thought, here you are in a dream palace, depicted in a dream image… His gaze lost itself in the green and brown hues of the painting’s background, of the dragon’s scales, of the dark sky with its yellow accents.

+++

Arno had been taken to the Dreamworld. A waking-dream world. He was clear-minded but he was in a different land – a land where he had been taken by Ringo Badger, his dream guide who suddenly had appeared on the football field in Munich’s outskirts where Arno had kicked a ball, one day in the summer of 1960.

Arno still lingered in the dream castle gallery. But when he raised his eyes from the canvas the Badger was gone. His hood-adorned, elevated-yet-relatable guide was gone. Well, Arno thought, he’s all right. And I am. It was a beautiful palace this, I think I’ll go and investigate it further!

He went through the brilliant halls and courtyards, along the refined galleries and through chambers decorated with mahogany and ivory, brass, silver and gold, everything being accompanied by soft, beautiful music. It was an enigmatic melody that got him into its power, a flute melody – and he followed it – through the halls and corridors, through gardens and beyond bosuquettes, across lawns and off to a gazebo.

And then; there, in an octagonal, white building with large windowless openings, a garden house shaded by leafy oak trees, a brown-haired woman sat and played the flute. Arno went up the stairs and stopped on the threshold of the room. The woman looked at him with her grey eyes and stopped playing.

“What do you think?” she said.

“It was beautiful.”

She put down the flute. Arno went in and sat down next to her. He was somewhat enchanted by her pure, enigmatic features. She was wearing a white dress. Her soft brown hair fell straight over her shoulders.

“Do you play any instrument?” the woman asked.

“What’s your name?” Arno asked.

“My name is Simida.”

Arno said his name. Then he admitted that he didn’t play any instrument.

“But I can sing,” he said. Then he sang the lady a song.

She liked it. They went for a walk. They passed through a grove of trees, they sauntered along the beach of an azure lake and they ended up on a plateau overlooking the lake. They spoke freely about everything between heaven and earth. Enchanted, Arno looked into the woman’s grey eyes. He thought he recognised her and, finally, he asked:

“Who are you?”

She said enigmatically:

“Who do you think I am…?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then I can tell you that I am your mother. I am your sister. I am your daughter. I am your first cousin, your second cousin and your friend. I am your playmate. I am your twin sister. I am your mistress… I am you.”

Arno drew Simida to him and kissed her. Then everything disappeared, as if washed away by a phantom wave, and next he found himself standing on the street outside his Munich house. It was twilight, the sun had gone down. He had the bike with him, holding it by the handlebars. “How did I get here?” he asked himself.

He was back in the everyday world after a séjour in the Dreamworld. It was all very mysterious. But pragmatic as he was, he went up on the pavement and checked his wristwatch. Quarter past nine. He thought: I must have dreamed a little, fallen into a sort of trance and thus I’ve walked here like a sleepwalker. But that doesn’t explain the time difference. When I was on the football field it was only six o’clock. Now it’s past nine. Well, even dreams are real. I dreamed heavy dreams during the war. I dreamed of the Badger in Ukraine, in Hanover in late 1944 and I’ve been dreaming about him after that, in Aspeboda in 1946. And now he seems to appear even in my waking life, just like that.

Arno shook his head, went up the drive, headed for the kitchen entrance, unlocked the door, went inside and drank some water in the kitchen. Then he went to the bedroom, pulled down the blind, undressed and went to bed.

+++

Weeks went by. Arno soldiered on in his job. He drove around in his grey Volkswagen Beetle and he spoke to people, solving tasks in Bauer’s security company. Unrelated to Cicero AG he was also a consultant for a lunch place that wanted to upgrade and become a gourmet restaurant. As a former chef Arno knew a thing or two about this.

He used to have lunch at the restaurant in question, Gasthaus bei Mayer, situated in the zone between Munich’s industrial area and its central residential zone. The house in question had two floors; via a staircase and an access balcony you reached the tavern. Now, one day in August 1960, Arno slipped in there at noon. He had begun the day by meeting with a shady type apropos some thefts in a grocery store. Arno paid for the information he might find useful. Then he had made some calls from his office desk and then he had gone here, to the Gasthaus. The sky was blue-grey, a lot of humidity in the air. He wore corduroy trousers and a shirt, with his lumber jacket slung over his shoulder. A regular blazer was impractical when you drove a car, so he usually wore this casual jacket.

He walked up to the counter and picked the daily special, marinated pork loin. He exchanged a few words with the chef, Topsi Creuff, the very guy who had hired him as a consultant on how to upgrade to à la carte status.

Arno got his food, paid and took his tray. He would go and sit by a window table. Then he saw her, a brown-haired woman with grey eyes. She looked at him with a calm gaze, a gaze literally pulling him to her. He walked towards her as if in a trance.

“May I sit down here?” he asked formally.

“Indeed,” said the woman, dressed in a moss-green suit. Her hair was up in a bun, as women used to have their hair in the early ’60s. The prevailing style was a bit old fashioned, a bit stiff, a bit “senior” with current standards. This woman was about 25 years old and lively in a quiet manner, being the same beautiful revelation Arno had seen in the dream. Simida she had been called there. But Arno couldn’t say this. Or could he?

“I dreamed about you the other night.”

“And I dreamed about you,” the woman said with a quiet smile. She introduced herself as Renate.

“But in the dream I called you Simida.”

“Hmm,” she said and smiled again. She had finished eating, but she stayed as Arno ate.

He had found his dream woman. He knew it, it all clicked into place instantly. Both felt it. She was literally his dream woman; he had met her in that dream in June earlier this summer. And his dream woman had now revealed herself in the living world. It felt right somehow. She had made a move similar to Ringo Badger, transferring from the Dreamworld into the Everyday world.

Arno accepted this. In essence it wasn’t strange at all. Wonders do occur, on a daily basis: “Either everything is enchanted, or nothing is,” as Ernst Jünger once said.

Arno felt as if he had come home – to Munich and to Renate. She was a secretary at a car dealership, selling German-made Fords. She soon had Arno change to a cherry red Ford Taunus. She even moved into Arno’s house.

Their relationship developed rather sweetly. They socialised as cohabitants, they made love, went on outings, attended parties. They went through thick and thin, having a relationship with some depth, experiencing peaks and troughs in the vortex of love.

37

Huber

Bauer and Arno sat in a Munich pub, having a beer after work. It was a September day in 1965. This was a simple Kneipp downtown. The walls were of wood imitation plastic panels, the tables were decorated with oil cloths and plastic flowers. There was also a rather low ceiling; the owner had put in an intermediate floor to take advantage of the premises to the full, thus creating an extra space upstairs serving as a banquet hall.

It was a somewhat odd, worn-down pub. But they liked to sit here sometimes, Bauer and Arno. The food was simple but good. And beer is the same everywhere. On this occasion, they fell to talking about comrades of yesteryear, something that, for some reason, they had never really done in depth before. They went through the ghosts and old faces, and Bauer mentioned Huber.

“Is he alive?” Arno said.

“He is,” Bauer said. “In Nuremberg. But he’s missing one leg.”

“Mm-hm.”

“In any case, he’s alive. He has an invalid’s pension. I go and see him every now and then. To cheer him up or whatever. Want to join me?”

Arno didn’t really want that. He had completely disconnected himself from the subject of invalids and comrades of bygone days, almost everything to do with the social side of the war. He himself, Arno, survived. The rest was neither here nor there to him. He simply wasn’t the chummy type, the gregarious type. But he realised that it was impossible to say no to Bauer’s request. So they decided to go to Nuremberg next weekend.

They would meet and greet Huber. Private Huber had been wounded in the foot by a mine. It was during the reconnaissance patrol before Operation Spring Awakening in 1945. When the patrol returned to their own lines Huber had been carried to the BMS. After that he had never been heard of, not by Arno, not during the war.

But now he had resurfaced, miraculously resurrected from the Land of Shadows. And now they would go and visit Huber in Nuremberg. The Saturday in question they went in Bauer’s black Mercedes 220S, the model with a pontoon body, tailfins and a six-cylinder engine. Bauer drove. And Arno had the meeting prepared with a certain item, a poem he might recite.

While the wooded Bavarian countryside raced past the wide tarmac road, Arno said, as he sat in the passenger seat:

“So he’s OK then? Huber? Or is he depressed and beside himself?”

“Well,” Bauer said, “he’s single and maybe having a hard time making the time pass. Retired, with a little apartment. Now we’ll go there and do what we can, talk a little bit. Of course, you never know what people are really thinking. Maybe he enjoys life, even though he lacks a leg. I mean, you may recall Lutzow…?”

Arno remembered Sergeant Lutzow, in the final stage Leader of the Company’s 1st Platoon.

“He made it through the war as we did. More or less unscathed. Bodily unharmed. But he’s said to have fallen on hard times since. With what? With memories? Memories of the dead, memories of killing, what do I know. What did he do? He wasn’t a monster. But –”

“Maybe the other way around,” Arno said. “He was an ordinary decent human being. But common decency isn’t enough to make it through the fire storm. You have to raise yourself mentally, steel yourself to the tribulations.”

“Like you.”

“Indeed,” Arno said. “I’ve gone through hell with open eyes and it has helped me. Both during the war and after.”

“Mein lieber Gott…”

“What do you mean by that?”

Bauer didn’t respond. He had to overtake a lorry. Having done that, he said:

“So you have to be a superman to persevere, right…?”

“Call it what you want. But you then, you were just carefree all the time during the war? I mean, you were a good comrade in the war zone, good to have along. But you weren’t always the joking, hearty fellow. When the enemy was 30 metres away then you were a tiger, a predator on the go. A man having raised himself mentally in order to cope with the challenges.”

“OK, that’s who I am…” Bauer said and smiled.

Hypocrite, Arno thought. You can’t always get out of an argument with a smile. Well, the jovial Bauer could. The one moment a joker, the next, a killer.

“Anyway,” Bauer continued, “Lutzow eventually took his own life. 1953 I think it was. I heard it on a comrade gathering. He shot himself. He had family and everything, but for this he rented a hotel room. To be alone. Put a Walter HP to his head.”

“May God have mercy on his soul,” Arno said. He had nothing to add. Privately he thought, you must be mentally guarded, steeled, before the trials of war. Both before and after the battle. Being in constant combat mood, not maniacally so, but all the time trying to stay calm, cool and collected, in and out of the combat zone – this was what had saved him from going mad, Arno thought. Making the soldiery persona your second nature and functioning decently in the everyday world that way. More or less.

+++

At length they came to Nuremberg. They saw medieval houses and other traditional buildings, rebuilt from the ashes of the wartime firestorm. Huber, however, lived in a newly built apartment house in an area on the outskirts of town. Bauer had been there before so he quickly found the way and parked the Mercedes close to Huber’s. Then he led the way among the elongated apartment buildings with red brick fronts and flat roofs.

The weather was overcast. It was mild but looked like rain. Arno followed Bauer into a house. It was on the ground floor. Logically, since Huber was disabled and the house had no lift.

They rang the bell. The door opened. The one-legged Huber stood there, leaning on crutches. The injured leg was cut just above the knee. Huber smiled when he saw Bauer:

“Ah, der Alte…!”

“And here,” Bauer said, we have an even Älterer: Arno, Feldwebel Greif…!”

Arno stepped forward, smiled uncertainly and held out his hand to Huber. The other man looked a little pale and was balding. But he seemed relatively vigorous.

“Guten Tag, Herr Feldwebel!” Huber said with a tinge of irony and held out his hand, crutch under his arm. There was a twinkle in his eye; there was a certain warmth in his voice. Arno admitted that he liked it. He had thus been approved by his former subordinate, now living in the sanctified realm of martyrdom. The martyr, the invalid, had given him absolution by welcoming him – him, Arno, the more unscathed veteran.

They went inside, they sat down in the kitchen. It was modern with an electric cooker and fridge freezer. Table, three chairs and a green oilcloth. They had coffee. It was a rather animated conversation for a while. Huber asked what Arno had done since last time and Arno replied. He in turn asked about Huber’s life story, like what happened after the patrol. Huber answered; his shattered leg had been amputated in an Army Field Hospital followed by several years in and out of others. After the war he retrained as a cobbler, and worked repairing shoes while people were still in post-war poverty. And then full-time retirement when the opportunity presented itself. Huber said:

“I had the offer of retiring at the age of 45. Perhaps odd when I still could mend shoes. But I wanted to go in retirement, actually. I shouldn’t complain. I have my hobbies, I have pen pals, I go around in my Kabinenroller, going down to the bus depot and talking to people. I have some acquaintances…”

Arno glanced at the other and tried to judge how he really had it. It later transpired that Huber had really wanted to be a bus driver. But with only one leg it was impossible. He also didn’t become a car mechanic, which he would have liked. Mender of shoes was what he was offered as disability training. And, after having performed this profession for some years, he now had retired from it.

So what did Huber do during the day? Visit the depot and talk with his acquaintances among the bus drivers? Was this a life? Perhaps. Arno himself wasn’t much for small talk but he realised that others liked to sit down and chat, talk about sports, the weather, events…Well, what can I say, Arno thought. The cards of destiny fall in various ways. And we all have our cross to bear. I myself have to deal with my war, and Huber has to deal with his. And now I’ve stretched out my hand, now we’ve met.

It was time to go out, time to dine – so they left the apartment and headed for the car, Huber being steered in his wheelchair – and off they went and checked into a Kneipp. It was a rather high-end restaurant in a secluded house, halfway to the centre of town. The hall had exposed beams of varnished oak; there were woven cloths on the tables and rustic rugs on the floor. The tables were standing in booths, fine for private conversations. And the menu was solid, with a choice of fish and meat. Hare was what was recommended, so hare they had, all three of them.

They ate and drank and talked about this and that. Bauer told, for example, of the veteran gatherings that he had visited. Battalion Wolf counted as part of Battle Group G, with which it fought under from 1943 through 1944. So its veterans were organised as Kameradenwerk Kampfgruppe G. This organisation had regular meetings in Würzburg once a year. Huber wouldn’t go there, he simply had no wish for it, but Bauer used to do it. And Arno probed the opportunity to come along next time around, which Bauer agreed to arrange.

+++

They ate their roast hare and they had a few beers – except Bauer, who was driving. Arno now had the urge to read his poem. He said:

“My dear Huber, it was nice to meet you. Yes, of course: I know that I, back in the day, maybe wasn’t the most social chief around. But…”

“OK,” Huber said, “that’s alright. We rather appreciated you anyhow. You knew your stuff. We felt safe with you. We needed no smiling sissy to lead us, some Kindergartenfräulein.”

“Fine. Thank you. And if you wanted some chief to talk to, you had Monsieur here…”

He was referring to Bauer, who smiled broadly at this.

“Now,” Arno added, “I want to read a poem. A poem that I found. That is to say, I haven’t written it myself. No, it’s by a certain Börries von Münchausen.”

“The man on the cannon ball? Riding a cannon ball into a fortress and everything?”

“Well,” Arno said, “the poet was related to the man who wrote about Baron Münchausen’s adventures. And he, the younger one, wrote this poem about a soldier during the Thirty Years’ War. The poem ends like this:”

Arno here read from his note: “Hinter schlagenden Trommeln durch welsches und deutsches Land – / Bruder, ich weiss ja, mein Los war klein, / war doch viel Blut und Schweiss darein. / Bruder, gib mir die hand, / zu Münster ward Friede, nun schlaf ich in deutschem Land!” (“Behind beating drums, through German and foreign land, / I know, brother, I wasn’t so lucky, / but there was much blood and sweat in this. / Brother, give me your hand, / in Münster there was peace, now I sleep in German lands.”)

The invalid nodded. He drank his beer and repeated: “‘Zu Münster ward Friede, nun schlaf ich in deutschem Land’… Good. Thank you, Mr. Feldwebel. Can I keep it?”

“Sure,” Arno said and gave him the note with the poem. Thus it fell on good ground. Arno had done what he could. He had stretched out his hand toward a subordinate – toward all his subordinates, Huber was a symbolic figure. Arno had stretched out his hand as a brother, not as a foreman. And the gesture had been accepted. Arno enjoyed this to the full. The feeling stayed with him the rest of the day: While driving back to Huber’s apartment; while they were sitting in the apartment and rounded off the meeting with some chit-chat, and even while Arno and Bauer went home, through the twilight lands toward Munich. It was the “Bruder, gib mir die Hand” part which struck a tone, Arno realised.

Going towards Munich along the Autobahn, Arno came to think of something else, saying, “So Lutzow killed himself?” thereby re-connecting with what they had said on the way there.

“Indeed,” Bauer said. “Lieutenant Guntz, chief of 2nd Platoon, however, he’s now a Bundeswehr Colonel.”

“Well whaddaya know. And what about Wistinghausen?”

“He died of a heart attack last year. Natural causes, it’s said.”

As promised, Bauer eventually brought Arno along to a veterans’ meeting with the Kameradenwerk Kampfgruppe G. They met, very privately, in Würzburg in February 1966. There, too, Arno read the von Münchausen poem. It was appreciated. Otherwise, the evening was rather merry. He again saw Tauber, Sachs and Ilo as well as Colonel Guntz, in civilian clothes but with military bearing and a diplomatic way of expressing himself.

This was as befitted a man of his status, the former Wehrmacht Lieutenant having become a regimental officer in the Bundeswehr. Of course, Bundeswehr officers weren’t allowed to be heard saying anything controversial about World War II battles. It could ruin a career, or at the very least end up noted in the records, for the Bundeswehr man who talked a bit too loosely in the company of wartime comrades. But when they’d downed a drink or three, tongues could still loosen….

The veterans’ meeting Arno attended was fine and merry and as good as you could expect. There were happy smiles and handshakes. Arno ate and drank and had a good time. He even laughed, the old fire-eater. Generally, however, he felt that these meetings didn’t give him anything. The past was in the past. There was for him no energy in reliving the past. At least not collectively. He was and remained a recluse who wanted his war memories for himself.

38

Operational Scouting

Arno lived together with Renate. One day in September 1966 they sat and drank tea in the living room. Arno was wearing slippers, trousers and a cardigan while Renate was wearing a green blouse and light brown corduroy slacks. Arno talked about an old project, of systemising his creed into that of an “Operational Scout”. As the private investigator he was, as a security consultant and urban scout, employed in Bauer’s firm, he lived and breathed the operational lifestyle. This was a continuation of his life as a soldier and now, more than ever, he wanted to formalise it in some way.

Explaining his creed to Renate Arno said, “I’m an Operational Scout.”

“What’s so operational about it then?” Renate asked and sipped her tea.

“I do things,” Arno said. “I conduct operations: scouting, checking things up, gathering facts. Like checking up on cold cases, cases the police won’t even touch. Working for companies wishing to check out thefts and shady operations.”

“But your job, your title’s not ‘Operational Scout,’ is it?”

“No, it’s Security Consultant. But I operate; I live on the edge constantly. I’ve always lived like that, always praising a philosophy of action. Before the war, at home in Sweden, I read Nietzsche and the Bible. I did sports, I was an active man. You must shape your life positively and actively. Going to church and kneeling to the priest, I consider obsolete. Surely you should link up on the mystery of existence, and probably Christ can inspire this, but to do it once a week in a temple is not for me. I’m an Operational Scout, I shape my life positively and actively, I raise myself mentally – with my scouting job, just like I did in my war days.”

Renate put down her cup and turned to her man:

“You’re pretty original. Operational Scout, it sounds appealing…! Maybe you should become a philosopher. Create a new doctrine: Scouting for Fire-Eaters…!”

Arno smiled. And the more he thought about it, this might really be the time to summarise his creed. He had often thought of it before of course, but he had lacked that extra inspiration, that catalyst to write down his thoughts.

Arno had already coined the concept “Operational Scout”. This was the symbol figure of his creed, this he knew, this he was sure about; this was the starting point. He had thought about being an “Operational Scout” earlier on, in Tarnopol, in Berlin and in Aspeboda. Now was the time to formalise the creed. As for writing Arno wasn’t a man of the written word, however, writing reports as a scout in Bauer’s firm had taught him some typing and writing skills, making Arno “a writer in spite of himself”. And so, somewhat later, one weekend in the autumn of 1966, he got going with writing the Operational Scout Document.

He quickly summarised it into key points, like “Memento Mori,” “Assuming Responsibility,” “Living on the Edge” and the like. As for “Memento Mori” this was his old creed of getting used to the idea of death. He used to talk about it in terms of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”. Now he had learned the Latin phrase, Memento Mori, “remember that you’re mortal,” and in his 1966 memo he formulated this as, “You’ve to get used to the idea of death, of yourself being mortal. This might upset you at first but in the long run it gives you inner calm.”

In his memo he elaborated on this, and he quoted other thinkers who stressed the need to realise the reality of death, like Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Simone Weil. But more than being a scholarly theory focusing on Great Quotes, this was essentially Arno’s personal creed, the one he had lived in the combat zone and beyond. Memento Mori had taken him through the storm of steel. Acquainting himself with the idea of death, not being afraid of dying, had saved him a lot of anguish.

Next in his memo Arno deliberated on the idea of “Assuming Responsibility”. Taking responsibility for your actions, for yourself as a man in the flurry of existence, was imperative. You couldn’t blame everything on the System, Society, the Man and whatever. We are here for a reason. Here Arno quoted some lines of the Italian thinker Julius Evola, arguing against the venerable Heidegger. Heidegger in some respects lacked some insight, saying that we as humans are “thrown out in the world,” German, geworfen. But in a certain study Evola had rejected this and said that we are not geworfen, instead, we are who we are because of karma. Arno acknowledged this Oriental concept of karma, and the reincarnation idea that went with it, the idea of human existence as a necessary learning time, but he didn’t deliberate on it in the memo. He just said: take responsibility for your life.

Responsibility! This is the life for a man. Soldiering. Back in the day the German Army that Arno knew had talked about “the joy of responsibility,” Verantwortungsfreude, and Arno acknowledged this to the full, then and now. As a soldier in the combat zone you had to do what had to be done, above and beyond the mere duties of your position at hand. The whole German Army was educated in this spirit, both before, during and after World War II, and now Arno incorporated this in his creed, taking it to a higher, spiritual level.

+++

Arno wrote these things, and more besides, in his paper on “Operational Scouting”. By the time he had finished he had a 30-page document, single-spaced. The general character was rather peculiar. There was some “grey-area, No Man’s Land” character to his philosophy: there is no right or wrong, good and bad, there is just the Action. Indeed, Arno thought, this is some fine nihilism, active nihilism, somewhat approaching atheism. Arno still believed in God, as a supreme Primeval Light of which his personal, eternal soul was a spark, but other than that he was not a godly, pious man in the ordinary sense. And his Operational Scouting memo mirrored this.

In the memo Arno wrote things like, “Nihilism isn’t altogether bad, nihilism of the active kind can be fruitful; rather be a critical, active nihilist than a listless, customary cliché.” And, “Willpower is a spiritual thing. For instance, you never start meditating by chance. It’s an act of will.” And, “I don’t live on the edge, I am the edge.” And this led to the central piece of his creed, the saying that had kept him going through the war, maybe even more than the varieties of Memento Mori, and this was: I Am.

Thus Arno wrote on the final page of his memo: “The ‘I Am’- saying is the fusion between morality and ontology, the formula on which everything in this world is based, regarded from the view of a sentient human being. “I Am”: everyone can say it. And an Operational Scout is the very embodiment of the I Am-motto.”

These were some aspects of the Operational Scouting creed. And when the weekend was over, Arno had Renate read what he had written in the memo. And having read it all, she said:

“Good job, Liebchen. And it’s quite easy to understand. But how would you sum it all up? What’s the kernel of your wisdom?”

“I Am,” Arno said. “The thing I mentioned at the end.”

“Ahh, yes, I Am. How curious. So easy and so enigmatic at the same time. I guess that I can say it too: I AM.”

“Exactly,” Arno said. “I am, you are. We all can say I AM. We’re all part of existence.”

“I am,” Renate said.

“And I am you.”

“And you are me.”

39

Tanz

In November 1966 Arno had a job in Berlin. He was following up leads on a gang stealing cars. The details of this reconnaissance are of no interest here. In any case Arno had to go there, to the former national capital. He took Renate along, she wanted to get out and get moving, she said.

They rented a new Ford 17M from Renate’s company, dark green = Dunkelgrün. They took the Autobahn north. Since West Berlin was an enclave in East Germany, to get there from Lower Saxony they had to take a special motorway east to the divided city. This was, indeed, done. The controls at the border were quite strict but the pair were allowed through without incident. Arno said they were going for a holiday. This white lie made the passage easier. Once arrived in Berlin they took residence in a hotel in Kreuzberg, Le Nouveau Monde. The next day they headed out and looked around, pursuing leads in the criminal case. The next day took them into East Berlin. They got entry visas there and could then continue scouting. They left the car in West Berlin and went by public transport. The trail led to a particular hostel at Tierpark, Jugend Tourist Hotel am Tierpark. It was an uninviting 15-storey concrete building. Arno led the way from the foyer in the separate two-storey bunker, along a path in the open over to the tower block in question. They went into the entrance hall, a bare, frugal affair with white walls and grey-and-brown flooring. The lift took them seven floors up. Arno headed for the room where he was due to meet his contact, a certain Uli Lehmann.

But having got to the room they found that Lehmann wasn’t there. It was empty. Arno went to the window and looked out over the greenery.

It was green. It was a park: Tierpark. It seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. This was in East Berlin at that particular Zoo, not to be confounded with the Tiergarten in West Berlin. Somewhere down in this greenery was the eastern Berlin Zoo.

Renate joined her man at the window.

“How beautiful. Greenery everywhere. And a ray of light in the sky.”

The sky was predominantly grey but there were streaks of blue if you had a sharp eye.

“True,” Arno said and put his arm around Renate’s shoulders. “Well, it is Tierpark.”

Eventually they left the room, going further into the nooks and crannies and grey concrete alleyways of East Berlin, venturing about like secret agents. The lived a low-key, heroic, operational life, existing in the reality of Memento Mori, Assuming Responsibility and I Am.

+++

They were in Berlin. During the Imperial, Democratic and Nazi eras this was the nation’s capital, with a short break for Weimar between February and August 1919. The then, new-style government wanted the Thüringian town of Weimar, with its memories of Goethe and Schiller, to symbolise a break away from Berlin’s stifling imperial traditions. But it turned out that this move was impractical, so they moved the government back to Berlin in August 1919.

After World War II, Germany was divided into a western and an eastern part, and the national capital, the venerable Berlin, underwent a similar fate. As a whole, it was located in what was to become East Germany, and specifically, the city was divided into one western and one eastern sector. The western section therefore became an enclave, a western island in a communist sea. But there were both roads and railways leading there as well as flights. And the West German government in Bonn supported the city in various ways so that it wouldn’t go under.

They were in Berlin. Renate and Arno left the area at the Tierpark and eventually, after some more scouting, they left East Berlin entirely. Now Arno had a recon mission in West Berlin at Potsdamer Platz. This old focal point was now a vacant lot of mythical dimensions, located just west of the Great Wall. Right on Potsdamer Platz’ deserted plains sat a Gothic ruin, the war blasted remains of the Anhalter Bahnhof Station. The structure’s pointed arch windows crowned by round windows indicated the theme.

Arno and Renate approached the ruin. The sky was grey, the perfect climate for this city that was said not to be a place but a state of mind, a mental way of being: equanimity, overcast sky and mental zero. And this, to Arno and others, wasn’t an entirely unpleasant atmosphere. It could be fruitful. There was of course a vibrant cultural life in the western sector, partly also in the East. Many writers, musicians and painters lived in Berlin. They found the inspiration to live on this island of nowhere.

Arno sat down on a fragment of wall. He looked out over the deserted square, over the surrounding, enigmatic houses, and over the Wall which ran to the east. He remembered how he had fought near this city, remembered the operations at the Müggelsee in 1945. And now he was here, in Berlin, in the divided post-war Germany in the year of 1966.

Renate had gone some distance in advance. When she saw that Arno had halted she did the same. She stood in the vacant space and just stared, looking at him with an inscrutable expression in her eyes.

“What’s the errand? Why are we here?”

“What?” Arno said. “Indeed, what.” He looked up into the sky, letting the grey emptiness reflect his own mind: psychic zero. The more he looked at the sky, the more he saw that it wasn’t uniformly grey. For against a silver background thin rags of cloud drifted by, grey ghosts. And over everything was playing a Wagner Theme: Trauermarsch aus Götterdämmerung.

+++

They went towards the remnants of Anhalter Bahnhof’s station complex. Once inside they were fascinated by the arches, pillars, water puddles and echoes of the past. Arno received visions from his dreams and his past, visions of archaic temples, Ringo Badger, smoke-covered battlefields, howling Sturmoviks in the sky, pine forests rattling with bursts of automatic fire, burning meadows, a grey castle with a garden outside, and all in one and one in all.

They headed up a staircase and along a gallery in the half-ruined house. Renate and Arno. Arno had heard that a certain figure lived here, nothing to do with the reconnaissance of the current criminal case, but important for his own past.

They came to an intersection with corridors going off in several directions. By instinct Arno took the one that led to a backdrop window that gave guiding light. Halfway to the window opening he came to a doorway on his right. In there, a light shone. Accompanied by Renate Arno went inside, saying, “Hello, is there anybody in here?”

He found himself standing in a large room furnished with assorted debris. The walls were dark. In the middle was, however, a light from a candle. And behind a desk sat a man with long unkempt hair and glowing eyes. In front of him was an open book in which he was writing.

Arno had received tips about the man. And he knew who it was: Lieutenant Tanz, the Platoon Commander he had in the Kharkov operation in 1943, well before he came to Battalion Wolf. The madman Tanz. The man who openly said he was crazy, even in 1943.

“Please, sit down,” Tanz said and looked up with an enigmatic gaze under his bushy eyebrows. He pointed at two chairs at the table. Arno took them out and gave one to Renate.

“I’m Arno Greif,” our hero said. “This is Renate Schmetterling.”

“I’m pleased to hear,” Tanz said, smiling at Renate. “And you, Mr. Greif, I remember, you were with me at Kharkov and elsewhere. We had a conversation about madness. And I’m still crazy. Whatever that means. I Am what I Am. I am Tanz.”

“What are you writing about?”

“I’m writing a book about characters in the flurry of existence. Environments, neighbourhoods, lines, moods, and all in one and one in all.”

“Fine,” said Arno, in a conciliatory tone.

The wind moaned through the corridors of the ruin. Arno asked about the location, if Tanz actually lived there. At this, Tanz lit up and said:

“Indeed I do. This is a zero location, a nowhere place. No Man’s Land. I get on rather well here.”

So Tanz was now a tramp, Arno thought. Well why not, if he liked that. Maybe he’s a rich bum, a Shadow Land aristocrat. Maybe he ambles looking for junk he can use, maybe he has a small bank account that he can live on. Perhaps the unkempt appearance was deceptive. Maybe he’s just another bohemian Berlin artist, happy with his pen and his work.

Renate asked Tanz to read a sample of what he wrote. The man got up and searched among his papers. He was dressed in a robe of silk. The white hair was tousled. But this was the genius look, Arno thought: long hair, crazy countenance. A murky madman and proud of it.

Tanz returned to the desk with a piece of paper. He paused and then he read the following, of a visit in a dream city:

“He walked through dense forests, over quaint meadows and past over-flowing watercourses. He came up in the mountains and saw a sky of azure and carnelian, mother of pearl and silvery auras – and there, on top of the mountain, he saw a shimmering city that took his breath away with its magnificence. He approached its delicate silhouette, wandered among the palaces with their footbridges and pinnacles and towers, the structures in their unearthly whiteness, marble and crystal and some other indefinable materials.

“He stopped in a square, a plaza surrounded by temples and palaces of silver and gold, coral and azure and opal. In the farthest part of the square was a palace that surpassed them all, the enthroned Tronadon where dreamlike building elements created a harmony beyond human comprehension. He fell into a trance, he fell to his knees, worshiping this unearthly palace.”

Tanz stopped reading. Arno was surprised. This wasn’t crazy, not clinically insane anyway. It was quite captivating, much like one of his own, more beautiful dreams. Renate for her part was enchanted, her eyes twinkling like a schoolgirl’s. Arno looked at her and he thought: if you can get that kind of reaction, then you know your stuff as a writer. Although personally Arno felt that this text was a little saccharine.

Arno said out loud:

“A fine text. But don’t you have something darker…? Or, should we say –”

“Enough, I know what you mean. I do have something right here that might charm even you. I write in all keys. Dark skies, headlights, Flying Fortresses sweeping clean over the Ruhr, the riposte of friendly forces… Oh well. Old dreams. And I live in them. I live Beyond the Beyond and Within the Within. But on the whole… well… what can I say? I mean, I came home from the war and survived. There have been some ups and downs. I’ve been a journalist and a tramp, a film director, newspaper editor, everything. But here I am. And you too, Mr. Greif.”

“I can’t complain,” Arno said. “I live under scudding clouds, in old battlefields, under the searchlights, under burning magnesium.”

“You should write something yourself,” Tanz said, lit his pipe and puffed.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Arno said and lit a cigarette. They talked for a while about surviving in the combat zone and surviving afterwards, about having mental strength. Tanz had thought about this. For example, he had the motto: everything is decided within.

“Everything is decided within,” Arno repeated.

“Yes,” said Tanz and disappeared in a cloud of pipe smoke. When the smoke had lifted he added:

“The line was coined by Goethe: I’m Innern ist’s getan.”

Then Renate reminded him of the other text he had said he would read, the somewhat darker one. Tanz put down his pipe and began to read:

“I venture out in the Grey Area, looking for the impossible freedom. I stroll in search of exquisite views, but how should this be done in this city of impossible perspectives…? I walk into a bar, I talk to people, I forge ahead in the culverts, I glide along the rain-soaked streets… I’m enjoying this excruciating city, this mind-blowing street, this pitch-black sky, these streetlights which wander away into infinity and into my mind – in my mind, within and beyond the Beyond, beyond a beach in Provence, beyond a cave at Lascaux, beyond a plain in Szechuan, beyond a Pacific island with concrete paths for the Flying Fortresses to start and go bomb Japan so that everything is burning up, leaving only one rice paper lantern blowing away in the wind between the purple mountains and the sepia scree.”

Arno nodded and said:

“Some writing, eh? Alluring, enchanting. You know this.”

“Well, I’m a journalist,” Tanz said.

“But more than that,” Arno said. “Such things you can’t read in Der Spiegel…!”

They talked about history; they talked about Berlin and Sweden, about everything and nothing. Renate and Arno were with Tanz for several hours, time just flew by. In the end they bade farewell and left the man with his writing in his bizarre ruin, situated on the border between east and west, good and bad, positive and negative, zero and infinity.

As for Arno’s other meetings with veterans and comrades from the war, a few things can be said. Among other things, he once came across Major Wolf in a shopping centre in Bremen in 1965. The Major was, as before, somewhat round, with rosy cheeks and in good health. He had recovered fully from the car accident he had in December 1944, the one which forced him to withdraw as head of the Battalion.

In the Bremian Mall Arno asked:

“How did it go after the accident? Did you survive?”

The question was a bit rhetorical. Wolf smiled a faint smile and said:

“Yes, I survived. I got a whiplash injury and had to go around wearing a support collar. And I got a face full of glass splinters. But they saved my sight. At least in one eye. The other one’s glass eye. Look!”

Wolf glared at him with his glass eye, and tapped it with the back of his thumbnail. Arno shivered slightly and said:

“Imagine that. But you survived.”

“Indeed,” Wolf said. “I’m quite recovered.”

The rest of the war, Wolf spent in an Army HQ at the Eastern Front. He was taken prisoner by the Russians in March 1945 and spent five years in a Russian prison camp. Arno asked some questions about this stage in Wolf’s life. Then Wolf told him that he entered the Bundeswehr in 1950. And now he was actually a Lieutenant Colonel and Chief of Staff of an Army Corps.

At the store where they happened to be Wolf had a trolley filled with sausages, wine and delicacies. That, and Wolf’s entire body language, suggested an orderly family life, stability and contentment. Arno then told a little about his life. They exchanged a few pleasantries and parted. And that’s all there was to it.

However, such meetings were still important, this Arno had to admit. Ships passing in the night, but still…! And in addition to these meetings with the living he sought out the dead. He went visiting graves, including Wistinghausen’s and Shasta’s. Indeed, he was touched by this: the peace of the churchyard, tombstones and inscriptions like “Thomas Shasta – 1920-1962”. But how much…? How in the essence-of-his-being affected was Arno by this…? That is the question. Arno was a hardliner, a Nietzschean of sorts, a rigourist. He wasn’t heartless but he could come across as that.

He was what he was and that’s all he was. That he had a spiritual outlook on life, we’ve already seen. It didn’t make him into a saint, but neither was he insensitive to the fact of being human.

+++

Back to Berlin in 1966. Arno and Renate sat in a café on the Kurfürstendamm, a western main street. It was a smart, fashionable place with mirrors, carpets and waitresses. They drank tea and ate expensive sandwiches.

It was a few days after the meeting with Tanz. The days had been spent with reconnaissance. Arno had gathered some facts that he could use about the car theft gang. The very reason he went to Berlin. The pair would go back to Munich the next day.

“Do you like Berlin?” Arno asked his lady. She wiped her lips with a napkin and said:

“No…! Not really. I mean, sure, it was fun to go in the Potsdamer Platz desert and see the ruins and meet Tanz and all that, but Berlin as a whole… it’s too flat. I miss the mountains. Here, everything flows out like a sauce. I mean, thanks for the trip, it was fun to holiday here, but I prefer Munich with its mountains and its tastier climate.”

“Tastier…?”

“It’s more fun, more alive. Berlin has some character, true, but to me it’s just a giant city on a potato field.”

Arno poured himself more tea from the pot.

“Maybe so,” he said. “The city is a bit flat and monotonous. And now I understand why I myself like Munich: there are mountains! You see mountains. It’s like in Karlstad where I grew up: hills surrounding the town. You have to have something to look at, something that draws your eye to the horizon. This we don’t find here.”

“Berlin, shit city…!” Renate said, covered her mouth and smiled at her outspokenness. Now I was a naughty girl…

+++

They left the city and drove home. The highway from Berlin to West Germany was covered during a sunny day. After spending the night in Kassel they had the Autobahn through middle and southern Germany left. The Ford went well, everything rolled on. Arno drove. At a certain point they stopped and refueled, had refreshments and rested a bit. Finally, everything was ready and in the grey afternoon they would get going again.

They sat in the car with Arno at the wheel. He was about to start. Then, suddenly, he became paralysed. Everything around him disappeared, everything went black. Only a sharp, white headlight seemed to light up his world. He was in burning magnesium in artificial moonlight, in a catatonic state.

Nothing touched him, nothing interfered with his world. He was in a trance, in a coma. In his inner mind he saw searchlights catching B-17 planes in the sky, he saw the platoon’s Hanomags parked under a violet sky, he saw an armour wreck burning, he saw blood and guts. He saw the spark of life ebbing from soldier Kellner’s face, watching his face turn blue and his eyes become lifeless.

Arno sat in his car with Renate at his side. It was two o’clock in the afternoon. They had reckoned they would reach Munich in the evening. But now Arno was in a coma, he had suffered some sort of fit, and now he was locked in a dissociative state. He sat stiffly, with his hands on the wheel. Renate put his hand on his shoulder; no reaction. For Arno was now off in his own world. And in his mind’s eye he saw flares in the sky, tracer rounds lighting up the land. He saw explosions, he saw MGs rolling out their networks of tracer over field and meadow. He heard the armoured machines growling, motorcycles rattling, cars roaring, strained engines going uphill. And above all, over all these imaginary sounds, he heard a wolf cry in the distance, the sound of a howling ghost dog, a cry out of the abyss.

“Garm roars outside Gnipahellir, the chains are broken, the Fenrir Wolf is running loose!”

Howling wolf, flying raven. Was it “Arno’s inner predator” who was waiting to come out or was it just an elemental cry, a roaring beyond good and evil, a faraway call that resounded through the dimensions – a cry from the open spaces, an echo from the battle zone, an eternal echo of battle, life, everything and nothing?

Walking in the ciaroscuro and howling with the wolves – advancing in artificial moonlight, staring with a pale face across the field and assessing the range of fire. Seeing burning magnesium in the sky, the night lit by green light casting shadows, hiking in Ersatz twilight with rifle at the ready – and every second, with every breath, being ready to die. Going under the searchlights through a deserted woodland, hearing bombers in the sky and chasing fleeing enemies with the occasional illumination round fired behind them, the burning magnesium lighting up the woods, the fiery green light gliding to the ground under the parachute holding the cup of burning magnesium, gliding to the ground and having the shadows of the trees moving in time, gliding to the ground and touching down and everything becomes dark again.

+++

Someone was touching Arno’s shoulder. Someone waved a hand in front of him. He saw a steering wheel, a dashboard, a bonnet and a copse of grey hardwood trees. Where was he? Who was the woman at his side? He felt fear when he saw her, pure horror. He must get out of the car.

“Liebchen, was ist denn los…?”

Arno was in hell. But he had been there before. From 1942 through to 1945 to be exact. So he kept calm, took a deep breath and turned on his soldiery autopilot.

He returned to the operational mood, to the action pattern of a soldier: sharpening the senses, expecting anything, controlling his breath. Along with it, he could understand certain things. Like actually not being at war now. He had just been away in his war memories and his impressions of the front, but now he sobered up – he sobered up but within the shadow of his soldier persona. He was acting like a soldier, acting with his reptile brain in charge, saying in Swedish:

“Vik hädan, trollpacka!” (In English that would be, “Get thee hence, witch.”) Then in his usual German: “You have no power over me.”

Renate understood nothing. Arno looked at her, still without recognising her.

“Let me go out for a while,” Arno said.

He went out on the petrol station car park. He looked up at the cloudy sky. It was cold and raw. He saw the leafless deciduous trees, he saw the highway, he saw the station with its pumps and the station building. Caltex. Well…

He was still half gone. But he remembered vaguely that he shouldn’t smoke at petrol stations, even though he needed a cigarette. He walked thirty steps away to a patch of grass. He sat down on a bench that belonged to a rest area. He thought: what is it with me, who am I…? Am I going crazy…? What scares me is this: I actually want to return to the world of “howling dog in the distance, burning magnesium, bombers in the sky”. Some part of me wants to roam that twilight zone forever, howling with the wolves, patrolling the combat zone under artificial moonlight; target, the enemy’s field army, direction, infinity…

Yes, he realised: I’m about to go crazy. If I give myself up for that twilight world, I go mad for real. Well, I’ll try to avert it, trying the methods I vaguely remember. But what, exactly?

He got an inspiration: perhaps by saying to himself: I AM.

This brought some calm. The formula worked, the old formula he had been living for as long as he could remember.

I am… But what am I? I am, I am – what and who…?

Cars passed on the highway at furious speed. Everything formed an unmistakable noise, a rushing roar in the background. Renate remained in the Ford.

“I am the light of the world,” he said to himself. “I am the light. I am the light, the light of the world.

“I’m Arno Greif.” This he remembered now. He took another deep breath. Things clarified a bit: he knew who he was and what he was doing. Then, with a rush, everything came back to him. Oh, so nice, ain’t it good to be alive… That was close – me close to going insane. I was almost about to strangle Renate. She was completely foreign to me when I just saw her, when I sat at the wheel. I thought she was a witch who would wipe me out.

He thought, you can apparently be latently crazy – go to war, living as one of the masters of the devastated world, enduring it, liking it – and so, afterwards, out of the blue, be visited by blackouts like this, over 20 years after returning home. No one is safe, not even an Übermensch like me.

Arno took a breath of the air, saturated with exhaust fumes and the smell of fuel spills on the concrete. Then he got up, returned to the car, got in, smiled at Renate and started the car. They never talked about this incident again.

40

I Shine

A night in January 1968, Arno was sleeping in his Munich villa. Renate lay next to him. Not that her presence played any discernable part in the following drama.

A drama it was, indeed. For the book you’re now reading, this story, this whole epic about Arno Greif, is nearing its end. And the end will be staged in the form of a dream he had this night.

First, Arno dreamed that Ringo Badger and he were sitting at a stone table in an arbour of lilac bushes. The Badger was wearing his yellow and red silk hood. He smiled affably. And he said, with graceful courtesy:

“Mr. Greif, my venerable Arno man, what did you and the enemy forces do, in western Ukraine in 1944, with the intention to fight…?”

“You really want to know that, eh?”

“Yes. That’s why I asked.”

“And you did it with an allusion to the Bhagavad-Gita’s first verse, thinking that it would make me smirk and smile a little..?”

“Indeed. Maybe I did. Sanjaya uvâca –”

“…Dharmakshetre, Kurukshetre, samveta yuyutsavaha, / mâmakâha Pândavas caiva; kim akurvata Sanjaya…?”

“Brilliant. But now it won’t be about mythical Indians, fighting with bow and arrow and Brahma-Astra.”

“No, thank goodness.”

“Thank goodness…? So you’d really like to tell me about MGs and Jabos and everything else you fought with there in western Ukraine in March 1944?”

+++

Then the Badger disappeared. The warlike trait, intimated in the dialogue above, would however remain in the dream. How had Arno experienced his war, his Eastern Front séjour? – This Arno continued to dream this night, dreaming of words, concepts and images. He dreamed:

+++

“Cloudy sky, the roar of a jet plane you can’t see. At the stone wall: empty cases.

So did we love you that, would you die, our love could awaken you –

Timeless moment, dateless date, the ever ongoing flow of here-and-now –

A curtain fluttering –

A door slamming –

I meditate by pushing 7.92 mm rounds into the magazine of the StG, buckling up the mechanism, securing and looking out over the fore field. Then you’ll come to rest, thus you’ll shape your life according to an actively esoteric worldview. While I act, I have my mind rooted in the cosmic calm. Such is my way of esotericism. And it never takes time off. An Operational Scout lives his creed in every second, every moment.

Similarly, you can argue that the combat zone is a spiritually heightened zone, a zone of devotion, inspiration, initiation and inebriation. A combat zone is a temple, an open-air temple, an endless temple. Hoc omne templum. In this sacred zone the Operational Scout conducts operations, finding rest in action.

There’s no religion, no morality, no transcendence, no promise of how good everything becomes after death. Because, everything is present in the here and now, immanently. All that is needed is to take responsibility for your actions and have knowledge of cause and effect. If I do this, this will happen. If I decline to do this, that will happen.

This is the ethics the combat zone teaches every soldier.

Ammunition box

Machine pistol

Bipod

Bread bag

Bayonet in scabbard

Spruce branches

Sailcloth

A low-wing, single-seat fighter took off from an airbase in the combat zone. Wow, thought Arno who saw it in his dream, how symbolic, how archetypal. This is the fighter which is all fighters, in the combat zone that is all combat zones. And I, Arno, am the soldier who is all soldiers.”

+++

This was what Arno dreamed this night. And he dreamed still more. He dreamed the following, a monologue of mantra-like affirmations:

+++

“The battle on the plain involved battle groups, battalions, companies, platoons and teams – and one of these teams was led by me, Arno Greif. I said, go off and bomb the jungle –

I said: grease the barrel with armol –

I said: still leaves second gear rubber –

I said: So did we love you that, would you die, our love would awaken you –

I serve

I serve

I serve

I serve

7.92 mm Sturmgewehr

I shine

I shine

I shine

7.92 mm MG

I balance

I balance

I balance

Fully dead at last, and wondrously alive. I’m an Operational Scout who fights and fights well. If I die, I’ll die, but I don’t seek death per se.

I think

I think

I think

inverted gull-wing, two-seat attack aircraft with two 37 mm machine guns

I will

I will

I will

I will

40-ton tank with 75 mm cannon

I expand

I expand

I expand

I expand

I expand

81 mm mortar, smoke, flare and explosive grenade

I progress

I progress

I progress

I am the hinge of the door, I stay still as it slams shut – I am the motionless in the moving, the constancy of the variance, movement as a state – I am the unmoved mover, ho ou kinoúmenon kinei, unmoved in my inner mind, balanced, untouched – the unseen seer, the unspoken speaker, the unheard hearer –

I nurture

I nurture

I nurture

A curtain fluttering –

A door slamming –

I sacrifice

I sacrifice

I sacrifice

A door slamming –

A curtain fluttering –

A curtain flutters in an open window. Yes – but is it the curtain fluttering or my mind that flutters…? It is the mind. Be peaceful, therefore, become transcendental to this world of movement and change. Join the movement as a state, seek rest in action.

I economise

I economise

I economise

I economise

Oh dear, war is terrible, the Major said. Well then, step down and resign. Put up or shut up –

I possess

I possess

I possess

Live, live, that’s the voice she hears while she thinks and plays and creates – everything is vanity, everything earthly lives, lives – but she herself becomes the work she creates –

I conquer

I conquer

I conquer

9 mm Parabellum Pistol

I exist

I exist

I exist

I exist

Seven rounds in the magazine, cock the weapon, one bullet ends up in the chamber. Check safety catch. Remove the magazine, insert another round –

I breathe

I breathe

I breathe

Cross the abyss and reach solid ground on the other side. Look futility in the eye, shape up and live on. With time meaning will emerge, you only have to have the ability to listen within. So, recognise that the abyss surrounds you, affirm this, affirm nihilism. That is, die spiritually. And cross the abyss. And be resurrected. Stirb und werde –

I expand

I expand

I expand

Magically pulling a shimmering veil over everything, attracting birds and flowers, trees and leaves and in the spirit of spring saying, “live, live” –

I organise

I organise

I organise

I organise

I organise

9 mm bullet, service pistol. “Oh dear, war is terrible” –

I shine

I shine

I shine

That’s right, “I shine”. In my greatest moment I’m still ready to serve. Stirb und werde. Fully dead at last, and wondrously alive. Going on superconductivity to the horizon and seeing everything moving in slow motion.

I’m moving beyond sun and moon, night and north. Beyond the Beyond. There, the burning magnesium brightens up a tangible landscape, this should be like an artificial moonlight leading the way for an Operational Scout: Arno Greif, the man without further ado.”

41

Passages

Next in Arno’s dream he was again interrogated, now by an unseen actor, and it was about aspects of the German Army he had served in:

+++

“Q: Did you ever see an MC combination? MC with a sidecar?

A: Yeah, I did. What about it?

Q: Fancy thing, eh? Das Heer had a lot of MCs.

A: True. They even had Motorcycle Battalions in the beginning. Like some modern cavalry. The idea was scrapped after a while, I guess in 1940 or somewhat later.

Q: No need for an MC infantry?

A: The mechanised infantry role was already served by Panzer Followers in Hanomags.

Q: Panzer Followers like you?

A: Mm-hm.

Q: As such, do you have any more opinions and experiences? Of vehicles? SdKfz 251? SdKfz 7 tonne? Sturmbär? Jagdpanther? Flakvierling?

A: Truly an amazing menagerie. I’d say, there was a lot of finesse in the concepts behind all this hardware. The Russians, for their part, focused on a handful of models and made tens of thousands of each. The Germans diversified and variegated and ended up in a possible mess.

Q: But the Americans and the English had a wide variety of armoured vehicles. Kind of copying the German concept?

A: True.”

+++

Next the dialogue situation was swept away, without trace, and instead Arno dreamed these words and images:

“Truck Opel Blitz. Kar 98k. Stg, MP, MG 34.

Gott mit uns. Wenn die Soldaten. Ich bin ein freier Wildbretschütz, und hab ‘ein weit Revier…

Plus or minus in the B-line. Speak to the troops and then off into the night. Being Squad Leader, becoming Platoon Leader.

…could see it through the trees, tracers, muzzle flames – brought into action, open up, two belts gone – forward. Flares in the night. Engine noise, swaying antennas –

…boiling and steaming horizon – jabos flying across the sky, diving, firing rockets – tanks running idle, standing in a row. Having created a breakthrough, the Company to exploit a breakthrough, up on the back of the tanks and off under a smooth, radiant sky, jet noise in the distance…

…having been separated from the Company, losing contact – venturing home for three miles as an individual platoon marching through no-man’s land – where was the Company, where was the Battalion? Battle Group, Division, Army Corps…?

Timeless existence, alienation and disorientation – five-metre wide road, permanent, gravel and tarmac – MG providing supportive fire, throwing out the empty cases underneath. Orders, characters, commands, signals, symbols, marks…

Indeed – signals and dots, orders and counter-orders. Like, to go out and scout one morning, concealed by a copse and sneaking up to the edge of the forest, go over A to B and on to C and then back again – operating in a peaceful state, seeking rest in action, perpetual action, eternal peace, eternal motion, movement as a state of mind.

Movement as a state: approaching a target at the forefront of an armoured column, you see the goal ahead and give the coordinates to the airplanes circulating above, the planes get into formation and approach the target, peppering it with machine guns and rockets – and then the armour goes in to finish it off, and finally the Panzer Followers dismount to mop the place up, sweeping it clean, fighting down remaining resistance. And then mounting up and on to the next target.

Listening posts, trenches, armour-infantry interaction, tanks and assault guns, panzer grave, Panzer Marsch, massive armoured assault southwest of M, Reconnaissance Company of 7th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

• six grenadiers and two MG teams

• supported by assault guns, anti-tank pieces and armour

• clearing the way for the armour

• towards the armour grave

• all officers and noncommissioned officers dead or wounded

• a bag of hand grenades and 9 mm submachine gun ammo.

Since the company was leaderless the battalion commander ordered him to take command of the remnants of the company

Abandoned Russian MGs, a new line of defence, a wounded company commander, isolated Russian panzer followers – support from our own artillery, rocket launchers grouped at the First Battalion, green flare shot.”

+++

As the narrator of this story you could admit that this was rather puzzling, Arno dreaming disjointed military terms. However, he dreamed still more in that style. He dreamed:

“Bursting clouds

Explosive gases

Field works

Assault rifle

Vascular

Abdominal

Bile-green, blood-red, brain-grey

So did we love you that, if you were dead, our love would bring you to life. Denker Du im Wort und Rat, Lenker der erwognen Tat, Du im Frieden und Im Feld, Vaterlandes Sohn und Held –

Pocket flaps

Buttonhole

Culmination Point

Column Formation Point

Assault gun

Artillery observer

Ammo belt

Empty brass case

Go ahead, take terrain, fire on emerging targets. Equalise the ammunition supply, take the Readiness Area, protect the flank. Scouting, patrolling, reconnoitering. Protection against aircraft, against gas.

Bomb Line

Battalion border

Distance, spacing

Cover

Shrapnel

Illumination round

Retreat from Kharkov, attacking Kharkov – retreat from Ukraine, enclosed in the Hube Pocket – breaking out from the Hube Pocket. Clearing up in Tarnopol – defending Belarus, retreating through Belarus – beating down the Warsaw Uprising – relieving Budapest, being halted, turning back, retreating, giving up all further attempts at attacking and advancing – defending Berlin, sailing off over a lake, fighting the in Hunsrücker Taunus, meeting superior forces, surrendering, imprisoned – going back to Sweden, imprisoned, released, becoming NCO, becoming private investigator, watching the sun rise, hearing a murmur in the distance, aircraft noise, the rumbling sound from starting jets, starting fighters you can’t see…”

42

Burning Magnesium

The last phase of the dream began by Arno walking through a dark, dense coniferous forest. Soon he found himself standing on a dirt road in soldier’s attire. The moon stood above the mountains of a valley. Beside him Arno had a Panzer IV with Schürzen additional armour. In the turret cupola was perched a panzer platoon leader, clad in a black beret and with a radio headset around his neck. Together, he and Arno discussed some important, operational thing, exchanging words in the secret code of army soldiers, the sacred brotherhood.

It was night, a magical night. The moon stood silvery in the sky. This was the scene that surrounded Arno and the Panzer IV. This moonlit valley could be seen by Arno and the tank commander. This was the mental landscape they were in.

And then everything disappeared, like being washed away by a wave, and now the impressions came helter-skelter in the form of sail cloth, cleaning brush, khaki drill and burning magnesium from a parachute in the sky – on and on, on through the night, heading for the Beyond the Beyond, the Within the Within, and one in all and all in one.

I AM

I AM

I AM

A Königstiger storming along the street, crushing everything in its path – and the climax is reached in a square – and in the square a confused soldier wanders around and talks about ammo belts for 7.92 cartridges, hollow-eyed façades gazing down at him.

I AM

I AM

I AM

9x19, 7.92, 88, 105. The sun shines on a sandstone façade, columns, corniche, cultural layers – overlays, golden letters in the sunset…

I AM

I AM

I AM

The ontology summarised in two words, egoism obliterated by the most egocentric of statements: I Am.

I AM

I AM

I AM

Thus did we love you that, should you die, our love would awake you – my father was a young soldier, the fairest man around – let up your graves, no, give us men in research, colours and writings –

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

Kübelwagen, Opel Blitz, Schwimmwagen, Panzer III, Hanomag Henschel – Messerschmitt 110 in black camouflage and the intriguing radar antenna in the nose –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Shoulder patch, spare barrel, rucksack, field cap, forage cap –

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

Black on green, grey on grey, brown on grey, black on grey –

I AM

I AM

I AM

9 mm Walther Heerespistole – 88 mm Fliegenabwehrkanone – 9 mm Maschinenpistole – 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Reconnoitre toward A over B – under the viaduct, past the barracks, away to the bus stop, over the football field – along the river, the lake, the train yard and back. Await further orders –

I AM

I AM

I AM

I AM

Aircraft noise from the sky, cannon thunder in the distance. MG rattle in the woods. A dog howling, a door slamming, a curtain fluttering –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Canvas, grey cloth. Tarpaulin, oilcloth, cotton duck. Cellophane, linen fabric –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Medium bombers, interceptors – reconnaissance aircraft, liaison aircraft, transport aircraft –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Over the fore field and into the target area – over the battalion border and into the side show – beyond the bomb line, beyond the readiness area, beyond the storming distance, Beyond the Beyond –

I AM

I AM

I AM

Snow on the fir trees, snow on the ground – red sky, blue-grey, blue-grey-blue and grey-blue-grey – inscrutable gaze under a helmet edge, automatic series in the distance, on through the night –

I AM

With 9 mm automatic pistol –

I AM

and the moral law within me and the goal in front of me –

I AM

and support, liaison and command, classification, distribution and mission –

+++

I am the edge, I am the battle. In short: I am. I am the light of the world, I am willpower, I am holism. I am.

+++

Burning magnesium – flares, burning contraptions lighting up the battlefield at night – burning magnesium falling to the ground, gliding to the ground beneath its delightful little parachute – burning magnesium floating on the wind, rising on the upwind, then slowly gliding to the ground in its parachute.

Burning magnesium in a cup, under a silk parachute and suspended by steel wires – it’s the way of the future – burning magnesium, hovering under its parachute, attached to the cup with steel wires, gliding to the ground – burning in the night, shining with a metallic green lustre, lighting up the battlefield so that the soldiers can see each other and kill each other. It’s the last chivalry, the sacred bond: young men killing other young men…

Range of fire

Flash bomb

Flare gun

Buzzerphone

Wandering in the ersatz moonlight, forging ahead under Scheinwerfers pointing to the clouds, the situation is clear and all is hunky dory – pale moonlight, pale shimmer from the underside of clouds, ghoulish green light from burning magnesium – roaring bombers above the clouds, thundering cannon in the distance, growling Panzers nearby and TNT stains on the snow, empty shell cases in a ditch. And a fluttering curtain and a slamming door.

Rear guard

Voice pipe

Safety fork

Bright red lines in the sky, a magnesium green shimmer over the land, earth fountains rising at the point of impact, shrapnel and body parts flying – crushed pulp and steel fragments everywhere, black smoke and an echo crossing the plain, bouncing off in the distance and answered by the howling of the jet planes – the song of the Panzer machines, the rattle of automatic fire and the roaring of the Nebelwerfers, a howl out of the abyss like the hellhound Garm.

Gun sling

Field gun

Gas-pot

Burning magnesium, dropped from an aircraft – burning magnesium, fired and released from a mortar shell, drifting to the ground with its quirky, heartwarming parachute – burning magnesium, developed from the cone of an illumination round, with a parachute and everything, drifting to the ground, illuminating the battlefield – sending its joyful green glow over forest and meadow, over hill and mountain, across the battalion border and the storming distance, over fore field and backfield, across the B-line and the centre line, the primary objective and the starting point, based on the terrain – the point where all our dreams come true, the point where realities collapse into a black hole, the point where zero and eternity meet and everything becomes evident.

About the Author

Lennart Svensson (born 1965) made his English language debut in 2014 with Ernst Jünger – A Portrait. The following year he published a biography of another controversial German, Richard Wagner. In Swedish Svensson has written novels and essays and he’s currently working on several projects in English, his adopted language. He has a BA in Indology and lives in Härnösand on the northern coast of Sweden. He blogs at The Svensson Galaxy.

Published by Logik Förlag

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Copyright

LOGIK FÖRLAG

Burning Magnesium by Lennart Svensson

Cover Design: Andreas Nilsson

ISBN: 978-91-88667-23-6

©2018 Logik Förlag

Box 22120, 250 23 Helsingborg, Sweden

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Content

Lennart Svensson
BURNING MAGNESIUM

1 Arno Greif

2 Stalingrad

3 Kharkov

4 Kursk

5 Ukraine

6 Hube’s Pocket

7 Point X

8 The Forest

9 The Main Line

10 Kamenets-Podolsky

11 The Village

12 Deliberation

13 The Height

14 Red Sky

15 Petlyakov

16 Tarnopol

17 The Major

18 Point 31

19 Operation Bagration

20 Senitsova

21 Late Summer 1944

22 Warsaw

23 The Plane Ride

24 Fire Dream

25 Hungary

26 Woxa Forest

27 Berlin

28 Aspeboda War Academy

29 He Remembered a Tank

30 He Remembered Stories

31 New Dream

32 Sollefteå

33 Movie Night

34 The Bivouac Drill

35 Germany Calling

36 Munich

37 Huber

38 Operational Scouting

39 Tanz

40 I Shine

41 Passages

42 Burning Magnesium

About the Author

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