I gathered my Kar98, P08 Luger pistol, mesh kits, and knife. I rushed out of our camps bunker and towards the trenches that were about 100 meters away. I ran with two ammo cartridges in both hands, with my Kar98 strapped around my back. Bullets ripped pass me. My fellow soldiers called out my name, Albert Schneider, to hurry up. I dove into the trench and when a Panzer IV came up from behind and ran right over the trench. Mud poured on my face and got in my mouth and eyes. When the tank was about 15 meters away, the commander opened the hatch.
"Fire!" the commander yelled.
The tank pushed back a little and smoke surrounded us from the shell coming out of the barrel. My ears rang and I took off my helmet to hold my ears. My friend, Kurt Smith, yelled at me to put my helmet back on and to quickly get up and shoot my gun. Kurt quickly got up again and fired his Mg-42. I took a deep breath and got up and fired one shot. The Soviets have came up from the tree line that was about 150 meters away. There were about 70 of them.
"Keep firing!" Kurt yelled as he kept firing his Mg-42.
I watched as the ammo belt disappeared and the Kurt looked at me.
"Come on!" he yelled.
I grabbed one of the cartridges. That one was jammed shut. I grabbed another until the Soviet's screams got louder. They were now about 100 meters away now. I quickly got it open and tossed the belts to Kurt. He loaded them in and pushed the lever back and started shooting again.
I got up and fired a bullet. I was lucky enough to hit one in the shoulder. Kurt finished him off. I again looked at Kurt and the Mg-42. I watched the small flame come out from the end of the barrel. The small flame looked like a small star. I looked back at Kurt, sweat was dripping from his face and arms. I peeked my head about the trench. The Panzer IV was still pushing forward and shells kept coming. I watched as Kurt shot them down and the buzzing sound of the Mg-42 gave me chills. I could just imagine being the enemy and hearing and seeing it taking out your friends and others around you. I started gazing about it and the rest of the war. I was then back at attention again when I heard a soldier from the right of where Kurt was.
"Granate!" he yelled
I saw him get down and held the grenade against him stomach and bent over.
"No!" I yelled.
I saw him get blown to bits. Blood was splattered on my face and some went into my mouth. I started to cry a little. I then knew who he was, I had recognized the scream. He was a 12 year old soldier named Hans Schroder. I've talked to him a couple of times. He was from Berlin, just like me an Kurt. Kurt looked up at me and said not to worry about it. I just could not help doing so. I knew I just had to keep shooting until Kurt asked me for another ammo belt. One shot after another. I have killed about 5 of them now. It looks like Kurt got about 20-30 on them. I heard him yelling out every time he would get a kill. I would always count in my head.
The battle lasted about 30 minutes. I was completely worn out. Sweat was dripping in buckets from my face. At the end, a bullet was lucky enough to bounce off of my helmet. Now, theres a small dent or scratch, whatever you would like to call it. It scared me half to death. After we killed all of them with only a few of us left, me and Kurt were glad to be alive. We rose our hands in the air and yelled of joy. We had laughs and Kurt patted my back. All of the other soldiers had bright smiles on their faces. Although, the medics did not smile, they were busy carrying out wounded and dead soldiers. That's when we stopped smiling. We then went over to help some of the medics load the soldiers into transport trucks. They were headed off to a field hospital to get healthy again.