30 Miles In

30 Miles In Written by Matteo Vestri

As shrapnel soared over the trenches, John’s commanding officer was barking orders. John joined the army at 23, it had been 9 years since the war started and each day, they were losing soldiers to the Germans just across the mine field. They had lost more than 100 out of there 300 soldiers from the cold weather and starvation. They were running out of ammunition and had lost all hope of winning, just a few days before a couple of P51’s flew overhead but just as they were cheering the P51’s got shot out of the air by a German fleet of Junkers Ju 87’s one P51’s got away but they could hear it crash just a few miles away. They were 30 miles behind enemy lines, and it would take 2 weeks for reinforcements to arrive. The Germans had much more troops than the Americans and it seemed like any day now the Germans would close in around the forest and take them captive or kill them! Just then they hear a buzzing of engines and prepared for the end, but they saw 47 RAF Hurricane fighter jets come over the treetops and take out all of the German Junker Ju 87’s! Now that the German AA Guns were shooting at the RAF and the Germans were busy helping more then 150 American troops climber out of the trenches and ran across the minefield! More than 30 Americans died from mines and 20 more from Germans but the remaining troops captured the German trenches with 200+ Germans killed and 100+ Taken Prisoner! But the Americans had forgot about the troops in the forest, 30 Germans snuck up from the forest to find that the Americans where clueless about them, they drew there M40 Stalheim’s and a German officer drew his Luger and the German officer signaled them to advance on the American troops. One American troop saw the Germans and cried out, now both sides opened fire! It was a blood bath with many from each side dead or wounded! The remaining Germans including the officer fled back into the woods, with only a small group of 7 soldiers the Americans set out back to their base camp 30 miles away, it was a long shot, but they had to try! The American troops were now completely out of ammo and each took 1 gun from a dead German soldier, John was among the surviving troops and when he went to take a Germans gun, he noticed it was only a boy, the boy looked so young and John felt so horrible because he was just a boy, but then he reminded himself that they were the enemy, so they set off 30 miles west. After just a mile of walking one of the soldiers fell and they realized his knee down was soaked in blood and when they lifted his pant leg, he was shot 6 times in the leg, they layed him down on a nearby log of an old oak tree and he slowly died of blood loss. While the group mourned his loss, they knew they had to keep going or else that soldier was not going to be the only one dead on the side of the makeshift dirt road. They soon realized that there were footprints in front of them fresh in the mud and they had not seen anyone since the battle, John and the others were getting worried with limited ammo and no reinforcements for miles they were a couple of goats in a tiger enclosure. At this point everyone was feeling the frigid temperatures, with no food or water they realized they had been going the wrong way so now they were almost 34 miles behind enemy lines! Now everyone was panicking even more, it now made sense why there were footsteps! The men knew they didn’t have a lot longer because of the temperatures, they didn’t have food or ammunition and they had to use the rain or nearby rivers as water, the river water wasn’t very clean, but they had to survive. Just as they thought things were bad it got worse, they could hear Junkers Ju 87’s once again flying overhead, luckily those were the loudest planes that the Germans manufactured at the time so that means they might not be close, they still had to be on the lookout because if there’s planes there is a possibility of Germans. They started to go from a jog to a full-on sprint when the sound of engines got closer by the second, soon when they slowed back to a walk, they heard the rumbling of a tank, at first it seemed to be imaginary because they were deprived of sleep, but they all heard it and soon the ground began to rumble. There was a flicker of hope in their mind just as they realized that they were actually in danger, without any words between them they all dove into a nearby bush, a couple minutes pass and just as the coast seems to be clear a convoy of transport vehicles guarded by two Tiger I tanks, one in the front one in the back passed to close for comfort, when the coast was finally clear with no sounds of tanks, they set off again. After hours of tireless walking with pounds and pounds of gear they set off to find a barn or shed to hide and take cover in for the night, if they had to, they would climb into a tree anything to cover them from the rain is fine. Soon they come across a ramshackle shed that was big enough to fit them all they didn’t hesitate to go inside. There wasn’t enough room for all the gear to fit with them so they each had to leave their shovels and helmets outside the shed, soon they would regret this. They woke up early in the morning to find that their stuff had been stolen! They were thankful that they didn’t leave any essentials outside like their weapons or canteens they used to scoop up water from rivers or puddles. They searched around for their gear to see if someone had dropped it when they fled, with no sign of their gear anywhere they set off again. It was incredibly early, and the sun was still rising so they didn’t have much light, but they got used to that. A couple hours later and the sun had fully risen so they now had a clearer view, or their surroundings and it turns out they were on farm property, it had been so dark, and they had been so tired the night before that they didn’t see the cows or fences. For the rest of the day, they were all on edge but didn’t see or hear the Germans, that doesn’t mean they weren’t cautious. Hours later it seemed it was night again, but the sun had just risen a couple hours ago, they soon realized that it wasn’t nighttime there was smoke in the sky, a lot of smoke! There was a big fire ahead! One of the men climbed the tallest tree they could find and realized the fire was spreading! He yelled down that there was a big forest fire, and it was heading towards them! Without thinking they dashed back into the farmland going diagonal away from the fire before the fire could kill them! They soon found a small river and dove into it just in case the fire was near they wanted to be away from the trees. When the fire caught up to them, they all blacked out from smoke inhalation. When they all woke up and what was once a forest was now a barren wasteland with no living trees of animals in sight. Most of them thought it was a bomber sent by the Germans the rest believed it was from lightning a few days before and it had been spreading for days, one thing was clear though, they had to get to allies before the Axis Powers got to them. They waded through the river hoping they were going the correct way, John had a compass but broke it when they ran for the river, so they did not know what direction they were going. They heard rumbling again a little after sunset and hid behind some trees, when the convoy came around the corner it had the Allies symbol on the side of the truck! They ran into the road and flagged down the convoy and the second to last truck stopped for them but then when they asked for a ride away back to any base or camp the truck driver said if they go with them there going to have to fight and they didn’t want to go through that again, so the driver told them rudely to keep on walking. One of the soldiers in the back of the truck handed them the stew he was eating it wasn’t much but there was enough for them each to have some, they thanked him and went on their way much happier and warmer they had eaten something, especially something warm. It was nighttime again and they couldn’t find any place to shelter in for the night, so they were forced to sleep on the ground. It was a long night and not very comfortable, but it was better than walking for hours, the next morning they woke up and went on their way again. They hadn’t talked to each other to much, but they were all in a much better mood and started conversation about what they were going to do when the war was over. This went on for a couple of hours, but it soon went back to complete silence like before. After hours upon hours of walking they finally reached a gate that was guarding a road leading to an Allied camp. They jumped the fence and continued down the path. An hour later they passed some guards by another gate, they tried to speak to them but then realized that they don’t speak English and that they are part of the French resistance! They kept on going in hopes the camp was close, they were correct, and they could see tents in the distance. They were running again and when they finally reached the camp it was overrun with injured soldiers, they suddenly felt lucky they didn’t have any major injuries. The group stayed at the camp for another week then they were transported back to America. The war ended not to long after they were transported home. They all stayed in touch even after the war ended and their service in the Army ended.