Kaiser screwed up his courage, and with Schmundt looking on, defied the screaming bullets to stand erect in the track. He raised his binoculars and scanned the ridgelines. Having stood up Kaiser was surprised that he was not more terrified. His training was kicking in. He guessed that the column was under fire from at least three enemy positions. Kaiser detected a flashing weapon on the ridge to the north and was about to direct his machinegunner to it when several bullets richochetted off the armored shield of the gun, and the young trooper fell back, his right eye shot away.
The the lieutenant had had enough. "Schmundt! Climb aboard!"
"Those men are wounded lieutenant!"
"Then fetch them" ordered Kaiser nervously "but hurry."
Schmundt dashed round the half-track and signaled the engineers in the second Kubelwagen to help him. Sticking to the foliage in the roadside, Schmundt and the engineers managed to help the two wounded troopers to the the track, and shove them in.
"Schmundt, let's go!" yelled Kaiser.
The sergeant clambered into the half-track, realizing by doing so he was abandoning the bodies of the dead troopers— not good form, but he'd had enough, and orders were orders. Kaiser kicked the driver. "Reverse!" he yelled.
Schmundt signaled to the engineers from the second Kubelwagen mount up and pull back. One of the engineers ignored the order and ran toward the dead man from Schmundt‘s Wagon, but gave up as another burst of fire danced at his feet. He dashed back to his own vehicle, which turned violently down the broken track, out of the line of fire.
The surviving cyclists, though slightly wounded by bullet fragments, mounted the BMW with the sidecar and did the same, roaring off like motocross contestants. Kaiser grabbed the MG-42 and fired the rest of the ammunition belt at the northern ridge. Having covered the retreat he ordered the track to turn about. The driver nervously backed the vehicle into a tree, then spitting dirt and stones regained the roadway. With the engine screaming the half-track rumbled down the road, chasing the other vehicles to safety.
Kaiser's battered column reached the main road several minutes later, leaving behind hundreds of torn up paving stones, the dug up mines, three SS troopers, two motorcycles and a Kubelwagen. Kaiser's signalman was finally able to raise Lubin. Chagrinned but duty bound, Kaiser reported his losses. But said the lieutenant, he had found plenty of partisans.
Chapter 36
Yatom was working on the bunker line when he saw Lieutenant
Kaiser's motorized patrol enter the low valley that led to Biali. Now he'd been surprised by the Germans. Sentries should have been posted along the
The SS column emerged near the end of the woodline and moved forward confidently. The vehicles were carefully painted in an elaborate camouflage scheme of mustard yellow, overpainted with green splotches—so different from the dull gray vehicles Yatom had so far seen in Poland, and for that matter, in the movies. The column followed the dashing motorcycle outriders. He recognized the bigger vehicle in back as a kind of half—track, similar to vehicles the IDF had used for generations.
For a moment, the Israeli commander simply admired the scene. Yatom’s instinct was to stay down, hide and let the vehicles pass. They would hit a mine eventually, as Roskovsky had sown a thick field across the road between the main ridgeline, where Yatom was, and the smaller hillock to the south. Having encountered the minefield, Yatom reckoned that the Germans would probably secure their losses and turn about, as the Polish police patrol had done a couple days before when they encountered the mines near the high road. Yatom realized that somehow the Germans had avoided those mines off the high road, which was disturbing in itself.
Any hope of laying low was dashed when a nearby bunker manned by three excitable Jewish teenagers with an MG 34 cut loose on the German cyclists. Yatom's annoyance was softened by admiration for the boys' aggressiveness. He got on the radio to alert the rest of the sayeret and Biali's defenders in case they were needed.
