My new story already has some chapter posted. If you want to read it, it's called "Old Bloodlines."
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12-13-March-1918
''I cannot see shit'' I said while still hearing my breathing through the mask.
''It is that or dying in a horrible way'' the German officer said, who was just like me, trying to see what was happening while the gas began spreading through the area.
''I know. I do not like this gas shit at all, because that means they can also use it against us'' I said, clenching my teeth while trying to see anything happening where a huge cloud of chemicals was concentrated, moving with the direction of the wind.
''But it just saved our asses. It was supposed to be at most about 5 regiments, but with what we killed, there must be many more, probably 3 or 4 American divisions. We managed to stop the advance. I lost many of mine, but I think we will be able to resist the next blow while more reinforcements keep arriving from the front. Besides, it seems we already have artillery in position, since I had sent the message with the coordinates for them to support us'' the German officer said while I could hear him laughing a little inside his mask.
''Or we could have had bad luck and a gas shell could have landed right on top of us'' I said, staring at him through the lenses of the mask.
''Quite afraid of gas for being such aggressive bastards in offensives'' the officer replied, although many words were lost through the mask, since at times I only heard him mumbling.
''On the Eastern Front, we never used gas in our operations, although I know that in some places it was used to gas the Russians. Good, we have the chance to see if we can overwhelm the Americans, who must be very confused with all the gas'' I said, observing that one of my men had brought the fuel measuring rods and they looked quite full.
''You want to attack?'' I heard the German officer shout through the mask.
''Of course I do. They must be making preparations for their next offensive and I doubt they expect an attack. Even if we achieve nothing, if we place our vehicles with machine guns in the area, we will cause many casualties, since from what I saw there should not be many villages, so they have simply set up a camp somewhere and I do not think it is far. So we move with speed and either cause many casualties, or even force a retreat where they have to leave their heavy equipment behind, since they must have artillery'' I said, looking at the officer while pointing toward the area.
''You are insane… but if it does not go well, we fall back immediately. We cannot risk losing the chance to pocket the French we have in the rear'' the German officer said, although he sounded quite displeased with the idea.
''Good, then we leave immediately. We refill some ammunition and accelerate. We will try to use as many trucks as we have to move the maximum number of troops possible'' I said, moving toward the ammunition warehouse.
In the warehouse, my men were already refilling magazines, in addition to refilling machine-gun belts to replace the ammunition we had spent killing the Americans, so almost everyone available had begun refilling magazines and belts, since we had to be quick.
The sooner we launched the offensive, the more disorganized we would find the Americans.
So we spent several minutes refilling the machine guns, changing some machine-gun barrels that had become badly deformed from constant firing and changing broken equipment using our reserves, which were beginning to run low and, if things continued like this, we would have to return to conventional German equipment.
''Good, I never thought we would do this with masks on, but vorwärts'' I said, hitting the armored car while hanging from the door to see better.
The car began to move, but we had barely advanced a few meters when we crashed into a tree.
''What the hell?'' I said, getting inside the vehicle and looking at the driver, who, with his mask on, was trying to see through the small slit that let him observe the road.
''I am still not used to it, Karl… give me a moment'' he said, moving everything necessary to reverse and put the vehicle back into position.
''More careful. Drive slower, I do not want to break my neck'' I said, leaning out through the door again, watching how the vehicle moved.
It did not take long before we left Mâcon toward the west, trying to see if we could locate the American camp that should be somewhat close to the combat zone.
Moving more slowly than usual because of the terrain and feeling the large craters from the explosions, we moved while trying to avoid the concentration of chemicals that still remained in the area, circling around the place, and began following the trail of signs that indicated where the Americans had positioned themselves before launching the offensive.
''They came from there'' I said while crouching, observing the horseshoes of the horses and pointing toward where I believed they had come from.
I climbed back into the car again and we began moving in the direction where I estimated the American troops were, and it did not take long before we saw that I was right, since we began observing American stragglers who were returning to their camp.
Some of them looked affected by the gas, since many seemed to have been blinded and were walking without much direction, only depending on a soldier who was guiding them back.
''You, American, where is your camp?'' I said, looking at the soldier who had raised his hands and was pointing at his companions affected by the gas so they would do the same.
''I, I, I do not know how to say it'' the American said, beginning to breathe nervously, watching how his chest rose rapidly.
''Point to it'' I said, looking at the American.
''Over, over there'' he said, lowering his hand and pointing northwest.
''La Roche-Vineuse?'' I asked the American, who was looking at all the weapons aimed at him.
''Yes… yes… that'' the American said, nodding while smiling nervously.
''We are ten minutes from there if we go at maximum speed. The man is still alive, so the gas in the area must no longer be strong, or it is nothing for now. So remove your masks carefully and we continue. Be careful not to touch the mask without gloves, since chemical residue may remain on them'' I said to my men, and some in the trucks got down to take the group of Americans prisoner.
We began accelerating now without the masks obstructing our vision and, with the road clear, we began finding American presence as we advanced.
They were troops defending the small villages near our objective, so accelerating and firing while moving, we finished off the defenders in the area and took control of the village while continuing on our way, and it did not take long before we saw that the settlement in the area was overflowing with American military personnel.
They had placed tents around the village.
Which was curious in itself, since there was no train station nearby for such a mobilization. They had probably disembarked somewhere farther west with the intention of taking Mâcon, which did have a train station, although I did not know if much more of the north had been secured. It was possible that it was connected to the French railway system.
And with that, they would have a base of operations for their counteroffensive, so it seemed the Americans had already failed in their plan twice, which meant Mâcon should still be their objective to prevent the encirclement of the French troops from continuing.
''Good, we advance. I think this area is the command tents, since they are the largest ones we can see, so we will attack while focusing on them. If you manage to spot any high-ranking officer, try to capture him or, if he is too far away, kill him'' I said, looking at my men who were in the trucks.
Our presence did not go unnoticed among the Americans, since the alarms had already gone off before we launched the attack.
We began moving and, closing the armored car door, I began hearing bullets bouncing off the vehicle's armor, and the vehicle gunner began firing.
When the machine guns began doing their work, all the vehicles of our vanguard were firing and far fewer shots began to be heard against the armor, a sign that at least they were suppressed or that many had already fallen.
Continuing blindly down the road, since the only one who could see anything was the driver and the gunner through his periscope, I felt the jumps the vehicle was making.
''We are in a safe position'' the driver said, looking at me.
Taking my rifle, I opened the door and found myself beside a house that covered me, and it did not take long before many of our troops got down and joined our attack.
The armored vehicles began maneuvering, trying to get into the most important part of the camp while we watched the Americans move out of their way or be pierced by machine-gun ammunition.
Guiding my men, we entered the town and began blocking the American reinforcements from the other part of the camp that were trying to reinforce our attack zone.
There were a lot of targets, but we did not know the number of American troops that could be seen.
So we continued fighting and, seeing that the attack was working, we simply kept pushing while the streets of the town and its surroundings filled with lifeless bodies from both sides.
Watching an American fall after I had hit him in the chest, I followed the movement of our armored car while we entered the camp, as it could already be seen that the Americans were fleeing in every direction, abandoning the camp.
Pursuing them could undoubtedly be one of our greatest mistakes, since we had no idea what was happening at the front, so we should simply be satisfied with what we had obtained.
A lot of prisoners of war, many more wounded who had been moved because they had been struck by the gas launched by the German troops.
And above all, their supplies. They might not be very useful, since American ammunition was completely different from German ammunition, so it could not be used, but denying it to our enemies was the best thing we could do. In addition, after finding where they had installed their artillery pieces, we took almost 80 pieces that were set up.
We worked as quickly as we could, since the Americans did not take long to reorganize and try to recover their camp while we looted everything we could from their warehouses.
Trying to move the ammunition and the artillery pieces back to our side before falling back.
As enemy fire became more intense, we began to withdraw, looting everything we could and blowing up or setting fire to the rest that could not be transported, leaving a camp completely in ruins while some explosives among the warehouses we had not taken with us began to explode.
We put our masks back on and returned to Mâcon after the offensive, trying to avoid the areas with the highest concentration of chemical gas, trying not to kill our prisoners with all the chemical shit in the air.
But by sunset, we were already back in Mâcon, only now with more artillery pieces and a lot of boxes of American ammunition and explosives, in addition to many of their weapons.
While we were there, the bulk of the army's reinforcements had finally begun to arrive, since most of them traveled on foot or with some motorized support, and they had finally caught up with us.
So Mâcon was already secured, where a German division had taken position to defend the place, so we quickly left everything we had captured and returned to Lyon before nightfall.
There, the city already had more German troops, so after refueling and reloading ammunition, we slept as much as we could, and ate as well.
There we prepared for the final push, preparing to close the encirclement over the French, trying to reach the city of Arles or Marseille, depending on which one would be easier to enter, since surely the French troops must already be abandoning the Alps to try to avoid the encirclement.
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