Thomas and company ran into a problem after clearing the second set of guns, the reason the Germans had retreated so hastily. They had several dug in and fortified bunkers guarding the trenches to the next set of artillery guns. The next set of trenches and the set after were probably a series of bunkers, they would have to clear each one. That was going to cause a lot of casualties, but thankfully with the French reinforcements, they had enough troops to a.s.sault each bunker. This made Thomas"s head hurt, he knew the trenches would turn into kill zones, good thing they had smoke grenades. Thomas called for some smoke for the next trench alley, they were going to have to move forward under the cover of smoke, probably close to the ground to avoid getting chewed to pieces.Two PFCs came forward, they both carried four smoke grenades each for tactical use, it seems their job during the a.s.sault was to obscure German gunners so the companies could advance forward with fewer casualties. Now they were being repurposed for another job that was practically the same, covering their advance so they could storm the bunker. Thomas ordered the PFCs to throw their smoke grenades in twenty-second increments, that way the smoke and haze would never clear, everyone else was to crawl on the ground as that would provide the best avenue for avoiding the German MGs from killing them.
"ALL TROOPS, CHARGE!" Thomas screamed! Smoke grenades were deployed, there was a thunderous roar and all of the allied troops. .h.i.t the dirt, causing the earth to tremble a little. They advanced forward under the cover of the smoke, the German MG at the end of the trench corridor started blasting blindly through the smoke, thanks to Thomas"s direction, they crawled underneath the bullet stream as it whizzed by their heads. Men screamed and bullets flew, dirt exploded, and wood chips flew everywhere. It was brutal, more than a few soldiers were nicked by wood chips, a few had even lost their eyes, but they kept on going, they were determined to capture this bunker. For the fallen, and all the friends they lost along the way, and the many more they were going to lose because no one lives forever.
Thomas reached the edge of the bunker, it took a total of three minutes, the training he endured crawling under barbed wire at Camp Young came in handy today. He lobbed a grenade through the Machine Gun port in the concrete bunker. There was a brief shout followed by an intense explosion which shook the ground in force, flames spewed out of the bunker over Thomas"s head, singing a couple of hairs. It sounded like they had quite a bit of ammunition inside.
Thomas got to his feet when a German who was on fire and had flaming pieces of flesh melting off his face came screaming out of the bunker, hands wildly flailing and clutching at his burning face, ripping off more chunks. Out of pity Thomas shot the man in the head with his revolver, then calmly reloaded it, there was no need to check this bunker, time to move on to the next one. A group of soldiers rushed ahead of Thomas, and he watched as they were shredded by the next bunker. Their bodies jerking and spasming in response to being filled with a ton of lead by the MG that had that corridor covered.
Another soldier tried to climb on top of the trench and his body jerked backward and fell over, a neat hole in the middle of his forehead, he had been killed by a sniper, no one could see from where. Their only option was to charge through the trenches, no clever tricks could be used here, Thomas himself hated this. They were out of smoke grenades as well. Thomas could only charge down the corridor, there was no other way. Lobbing a grenade wouldn"t work, they were encased in a concrete bunker, the grenade would bounce off or explode harmlessly.
Thomas leaned around the corner with his M1 Carbine, he quickly took aim at the MG port and popped off two shots in quick succession. There was no follow-up machine gun fire, he might have gotten a lucky hit. He waved everyone forward, they started rushing down the trench, blasting the MG port with as much fire as they could to suppress the MG gunner.
Thomas stormed the bunker, he found the gunner behind the port dead, he was riddled with bullet holes and blood was still pouring from the wounds. He had a look of shock on his face, even in death he could not believe he would die this way. Thomas bent down and closed the man"s eyes before he cautiously moved on, he rounded the corner and came face to face with a couple of Germans, he shot them both in the chest before they had time to react, they dropped like flies, they never knew what hit them. Thomas ducked behind a wall as a German armed with an MP-40 came around the corner spraying, he caught a couple of American soldiers who had just entered the bunker with his spray. They danced and pirouetted on the spot as he filled them full of holes, yelling at the same time, his face grimy and black, with the exception of a trail of tears currently streaking down his face. Thomas calmly rounded the corner as the man emptied his magazine, he was desperately trying to reload when Thomas shot the man out of mercy, he would never have to remember this night ever again.
Stepping over the corpses, Thomas entered a door and came to a bunk room of sorts, it was a large area and currently, it was occupied by a squad of Germans who were all hiding behind tables, rifles, and sub-machine guns at the ready. Thomas thought better of it, and he left the room quickly. He pulled the pin on a frag grenade and lobbed it through the door after three seconds. There was a lot of shouting and then an explosion, someone"s arm flew through the door, n.o.body attached.
When Thomas entered the room, he was greeted with a murder scene, there was blood painting the bunks, the walls, the floors, and the ceiling. There were severed limbs everywhere, the tables had been chewed through with fragments, and most of the corpses were not whole. It wasn"t the prettiest scene, but the frag grenade got the job done. A couple of fresh American soldiers came into the room and started gagging immediately on the iron stench of blood and the mutilated corpses, they both lost their lunches on the floor, adding to the mess.
Although it seemed disrespectful, Thomas scrounged the corpses for .30-06 ammunition for his M1 Carbine, he needed some rounds desperately. He couldn"t find any, so he swapped out for an MP-40 that was lying in the hand of a severed arm a few feet away, he found it"s owner and pilfered him of the ammunition he was carrying. With the two soldiers in tow, they proceeded to mop up the rest of the bunker, there weren"t that many Germans left in this one, most of them seemed to be in the first bunk room.
Thomas exited the bunker, the sky was overcast and although he had been inside for just ten minutes, it had started to rain as it often does on the Italian coastline during the summer. The rain soaked into the blood-filled trenches, mixing it and making it hard to traverse. Many of the soldiers started to grumble about the weather, but there was nothing they could do. A radioman found Thomas and told him command was on the horn, they wanted to speak to him.
"Sir! Sargeant Thomas Conlin reporting in sir," Thomas said into the radio.
"d.a.m.n fine job you"re doing Son, we"ve got a plan in the works, you"ve been field promoted to the rank of Master Sargeant, artillery use has been authorized. Navy guns are standing offsh.o.r.e three miles out, call the salvo with red smoke, I repeat, call the salvo with red smoke. Command out!"
The radio went dead silent, Thomas handed it back to the radioman, things were going to get easier from this point on, they could just sh.e.l.l out the bunkers. They weren"t buried particularly deep into the ground, they probably didn"t even have time to harden and reinforce them either, it was a win-win scenario for Thomas. He could almost see the giant explosions coming from the ground, dirt spewing in geysers of haze and concrete mixed with blood. He relished the thought of taking the fight to them without losing am an for it. He quickly called for any troops with red smoke to come forward, they were to give the smoke to him to deploy. Of course, they couldn"t wait between salvos, they had to at least storm a few bunkers in the time it takes for the naval ships to rearm.
Thomas pressed forward with a grin on his face, there were bunkers to blow up and he didn"t want to miss the fireworks.