Fox & The Rat: Day 2, Minefield Clearance

Having successfully lead his men through enemy lines the night before to destroy the Commonwealth anti-tank gun Lt. Gruber was back in action again. This night he needed to clear a path through the minefield to help with the anticipated main assault.

The brave lieutenant was once again accompanied by Sgt. Klinkerhoffen and Pvt. Schafer with his sniper rifle. Pvt's Geerhart, Grosse, Weiss, Kopp, Leitz and Moller made up the rest of the attacking force. 

The defenders had already left a couple of routes through the mines for patrolling so Lt. Gruber split his force in half and worked down both flanks towards the mines.

Pvt. Schafer took up a central position with his trusty sniper rifle with the aim of providing covering fire once the alarm was raised. His hope was to further add to his three kills from the first patrol.

Both flanking forces initially made steady progress towards the minefield with Lt. Gruber even managing to start clearing a path but then things took a turn for the worse. A nosey British officer started to patrol along the stretch of mines the Lt. was trying to clear putting the area under a close watch which seriously hampered efforts.

Sgt. Klinkerhoffen had no such hinderances on the left flank and he and his men quickly opened up a path through the mines.

However Pvt's Leitz & Moller drew the attention of the guards as they pushed on to clear further mines and so decided to withdraw back into the shadows in the hope of throwing off the enemy.

At this point all hell broke loose as Pvt. Geerhart who was in the process of removing a mine instead managed to set of a chain of mines. Only quick reactions by his kameraden Grosse in pulling him to the ground meant he avoided being blown to pieces.

This however meant that the guards where driven into a frenzy of activity as the alarm was well and truly sounded.

This was particularly bad new for Pvt. Moller as the guards on the left flank started to fire wildly into the dark and he was struck. As he slumped to the ground Leitz could see he was already dead so had no choice but to carry on moving back into the night. This drew further fire from the guards nearby and things started to look bad for Klinkerhoffen and his remaining men. Fortunately at this point Schafer started to pick off the defenders one by one until three more men lay dead on the sand and the left flank managed to disengage. 

On the right flank the explosions had unnerved the British officer so he'd pulled back to a safer distance, spotting his chance to try and clear a path all the way through mine field Gruber darted forwards. In his rush however he too set off the very mines he was trying to clear. Again, either cat-like reflexes or god given fortune allowed him to come away unharmed.

Knowing that the game was now up Lt. Gruber also led his men back into the night, he just hoped they's done enough to allow the full scale attack to break through the enemy lines.