The sun glared though the side of the window. Albert had woken up on the opposite side of the bed than he had been when he fell asleep. He heard Charlotte up, getting things outside and in the kitchen and was thinking she was getting ready to leave for the journey this late morning. He sat up and stretched then opened the door and headed to see Charlotte. She had changed her dress which was now a bright red color with big black buttons in the front and had washed her hair. She had lipstick the same color as her dress. Her hair was curled more than it was before.
Albert walked into the kitchen and saw Charlotte gathering more food to put into baskets. He sat down at one of the dining chairs and watched what she was doing. She turned around, not knowing Albert was sitting in the room with her.
"You look beautiful this morning," Albert said with a sigh.
Charlotte was startled and confused on how he got there without her noticing. She straitened out her dress while Albert continued to smile at her.
"Thank you, Albert," she responded with a small smile.
He got up and went over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She shrugged him off.
"What?" Albert said.
"Sorry, I'm just focusing on these baskets for today."
Albert backed away from Charlotte and walked back over to the sofa where Ernst was still sleeping. He woke up Ernst by shaking him. Ernst's hair was covering most of his forehead and eyes.
"What!" he said in a tired voice.
"Come on, we are leaving in about an hour."
Ernst hid his head back in the pillow, moaning. Albert got up and went back over to the chair he sat in last night. Albert was about to close his eyes to rest until there was a giant banging sound that made everyone jump. Charlotte screamed and Ernst flew off the sofa. Dishes fell from the wall. The wine glass Albert drank out of last night had shattered on the table.
"What was that?" Charlotte yelled in fear.
"Ernst, come on. We got to go!"
Ernst quickly got up from the floor. We both ran outside and headed toward the cellar. I had to grab my helmet and a couple of rifles from the chest. Ernst grabbed his cap and sprinted for the cellar, grabbing a Stg44 and MP-40.
"Charlotte, stay safe in the........."
There was another big explosion. Ernst's eyes widened and his heart thumped against his rib cage.
"The cellar!" yelled Albert.
Charlotte quickly ran to the back of the dark space and hid there. Albert and Ernst left the cellar heading out to the forest that was about 100 meters across the village. There was a giant cloud of black smoke about 2 miles away. They both looked at each other and ran towards it. The faint sound of tanks rumbled across the forest's floor. Were they German or Soviet tanks?
"Stay back, Ernst!" commanded Albert.
Both of them dove into the moist dirt behind two thicker pine trees.
"I will go up and tell you if the tanks and soldiers are ours or theirs, got it?"
Ernst shook his head and watched as Albert got up and ran towards the action. Ernst looked through the small crack between the two trees and saw that Albert had taken cover behind a rock, peeking over the right side of it. He got up and ran down a small hill, then Albert was out of sight. For a couple of minutes, Albert did not come back. Ernst was now at the point of having a panic attack and had already broke into a sweat. He tried to relax, hiding himself behind the two trees.
"ERNST, ERNST!" yelled Albert.
Ernst signed in relief. Albert was out of breath and was trying to tell Ernst what he had seen. There was a slight smile on his face which might have meant something good.
"What? Tell me!" screamed Ernst.
"Two Tigers, one Panzer IV, and about 200 German soldiers. We are invading that small Russian town close by, I think it is Stary Oskol. We should go."
Ernst said "Yes" and they ran ahead. Tigers and Panzers came into view with Wehrmacht soldiers taking cover behind them, waiting to break their formation. The Soviets have not started firing yet but when they do, Ernst and Albert planned to run down the hill and join the troops to be on the battlefield. Ernst tried to tighten his grip on his gun but his hands shook too much.
The officer in front of us behind the tank peeked on the right side. The tanks came to a halt and we waited for orders.
"Vier Panzer!" a tank commander yelled as four tanks turned a street corner ahead.
We all got down and the Russian anti-tank guns, grenades, and their four tanks fired. The German tanks fired and we all shot around them.
"Stay close, Ernst!"
Ernst huddled against the line of the rest of the soldiers.
"Wait for the command." Albert said.
"Angriff, soldat!"
The German soldiers scattered around the battlefield. We hid behind rocks, in ditches or machine gunner pits, and old vehicles. Albert and Ernst dove into a ditch when they encountered machine gun fire. Ernst peeked his head out of the ditch.
"Stay down you idiot!" snapped Albert as he placed his hand on top of Ernst's cap.
The Russian soldiers continued to fire their machine guns, aiming where Ernst's head was.
"Could you be anymore stupid than that?" Albert said smacking the back on Ernst's head.
"I'm sorry," mumbled Ernst.
Bullets from machine guns hit the dirt in front of the ditch. Albert and Ernst sat as low as they could. Tank shells fired at the ditches, some were injured seriously and some were killed.
Ernst watched as airplanes flew over head. German paratroopers from the Fallschrimjäger jumped with their parachutes flying open. They landed around the battlefield and the entrance of Stary Oskol. Some of them did not even make it to the ground, Russians fired machines guns at them while they were still in the air.
"Get up!" yelled Albert.
Most of the Soviet soldiers have been killed and the rest of the German soldiers attacked the city. The Panzers and Tigers entered the town first with soldiers behind them.
"We have to go back!" complained Ernst.
"No!" snapped Albert as he grabbed Ernst's collar.
"What about Charlotte and going back to Germany, huh?"
"What? Did you think I knew this was going to happen?"
Ernst looked back towards the forest they came from and thought about Charlotte on the other side. He looked back in front and looked at all of the soldiers, then looked back at the forest again. Ernst growled and ran back, passing through all of the other German soldiers that tried to stop him.
"Ernst, Ernst?" yelled Albert as he tried to catch him.
Albert ran through the crowd of soldiers and saw he was already out in the middle of the battlefield. Ernst ran back into the forest. When Albert met him there, Ernst was standing there looking up at a tree. He saw Albert but he did not care.
"Ernst! What are you....."