Fox & The Rat: Day 8, Advance Party

Lt. Gruber grimaced as he laid back in medical rooms bed, his ankle aflame with pain and badly swollen. It had all seemed so simple at the briefing only 24 hours earlier. With the offensive going so well he'd been ordered up to the outskirts of Benghazi to scout out the defensives on the outskirts of the town and if possible destroy them. So when they'd crept up to the picket posts and spied the  anti-tank gun he know what needed to happen.

The initial advance had been flawless, by now the team was used to operating together and with himself on one flank and the ever dependable Klinkerhoffen on the other he felt sure that at least one of them would be able to place a charge on the gun.

Schafer with his sniper rifle and Geerhart with his MG34 had both reached their assigned positions to cover the advance and the Tommy patrols had not noticed anything but one of their officers was on the prowl and had started to advance outsides their lines straight towards the Sargent. 

Closer and closer he walked, never deviating, Klinkerhoffen had crouched down into the night and Gruber could almost see him willing the officer to turn back, but he did not. 

At the last second Klinkerhoffen opened fire and as he did Schafer and Geerhart took their queue to open a general fusillade of fire upon the unsuspecting Tommies.

Bullets flew and struck home and many of the defenders fell without realising what was happening but enough survived to raise the alarm. At this point the mission started to fall apart as the tangled roots which where the cause of Gruber's pain claimed him as he tried to advance and make the most of the confused moments after the firing started. 

He remembered limping on through the pain even as the reinforcements started to pour into the area like hornets pouring from a agitated hive and the continuous fire from Geerhart's MG34 as he attempted to cut a path through the enemy to the gun.

But one Tommy had taken cover so Gruber was forced to take him on, sneaking up behind with knife drawn his ankle almost fully gave out at the last moment and a desperate struggle took place. Gruber could recall subduing the enemy and before he could seek cover coming under a hail of bullets from behind. One of these bullets clipped his side and sent him tumbling, strange that would hurt far less than the ankle. 

As he lay their he could see Klinkerhoffen also engaged in a hand-to-hand combat which seemed to last forever. Again it was the German who emerged victorious only to be gunned down. Gruber recalled crying out which alerted the nearby Tommie's to his position and led to his unfortunate incarceration. 

Well perhaps a couple of days in a comfy bed being looked after by the enemy wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, in fact it would he thought be just the break he needed.