Part 1: Leaving Hartenstein
(setnoise: rain, hard rain)
Everythings gone wrong, everythings lost,
I didn‘t even see the Arnhem bridge… and now
this a few hours ago we were told that it‘s all over,… and that we have to retreat from our positions.
Why?
How on earth are we gonna get more than two thousand men across the river?
Go now.
My stomach aches. Day and night under attack, sheltering from the withering machinegun fire… the menacing drone of Tiger tanks… the roar of our own howitzers…the sounds of endless hell.
So many men pointlessly dead and injured…..and for what!
A hand on my shoulder:
“Hurry.”
I‘m feeling dizzy. When was the last time I ate?
The rain pours down, drenching my clothes. Bent over, I run to the other side, to HQ.
Hartenstein is no more then a silhouette against the dark sky. It has taken a pounding. Gunpowder fumes everywhere… To the left, wooden crosses with helmets on them.
I‘m thirsty, I swallow sand… the last hope of victory has gone.
Now that we‘re leaving, now that we‘re giving up… I realise how tired I am. My legs feel so heavy, As if I‘m walking through thick dough.
Not a streak of moonshine anywhere. Only darkness, rain and the dull boom of our artillery. Hundreds of silhouettes, sometimes a face, with that dejected look and excited eyes.
I‘m shaking from the cold, and from fear…
The Germans must not see us. The Germans must not hear us. We receive wordless instructions. We bandage our shoes.
My mate is one of the stragglers. His right leg is in too much pain for him to walk… A doctor kneels next to him. I give him my gun, I don‘t need it anymore, I‘ve fired my last bullets.
“So long”
There we go again, in groups we walk southwards into the darkness. Shots ring out from the west.
That doesn‘t scare us anymore, we are so deaf, so defeated.
I grab the coat tail of the man in front of me, the shadow behind me holds on to my belt… we clamber through the mud like a herd of elephants…
For ever following the white ribbons
To safety, they say….
Part 2: Through the woods
Part 3: Out of the woods
Part 4: To the Rhine
