By the time the squad was at the ridge, it was almost sunrise. The moon was down and some light from the sun could be seen. Johnny singled the rest of the squad to stop and hold position, while he approached the end of the ridge, then crouched down to peek over it. The first view that he saw was the view of the moon barely in between two mountains shining its light on the town and was reminded of the first time he went on a date with his fiancé. As he looked further over the ridge, he could see a town below with a German base on the outskirts, marked with their national flag. There was a fence surrounding the whole base and a gate to let troops and trucks in. He could see that inside, multiple barracks and the main building were acting as a headquarters. The layout of the base was the main road acting as the middle ground, with barracks on each side of the road leading to the headquarters. The main road leads to the outside and the headquarters. His squad was positioned on a ridge above the tree line which leads to the main road. As he was examining what they were up against, Tim crouched next to him.
"So, what are we up against down there?" Tim stated, then continued. "Is it looking good or are we up against an army." Johnny not looking away from the base responded with some surprise in his voice.
"Well, it looks better than I thought, there is about half a battalion of troops down there and around half a dozen tanks. They don't seem to be aware of any Allied forces approaching or else they would've been heavily armed." Tim looked more confident at the news and looked over the ridge as well.
"That's good to know, I think we could think of a plan to distract the Germans and find a way to destroy those tanks." He said.
They both made their way back to the rest of the squad, who were eager to hear what they were up against.
"It looks like there are about 150 men strong down there, with half a dozen tanks. There isn't a lot of activity down there, so they still may be asleep. There also seems to be an area in the fence that's unguarded." Johnny told the group.
The men look relieved that they didn't have to face the whole German force defending the base. Johnny looked at George and asked.
"George has headquarters responded to our transmission?" George gave a shake of the head and responded, "Negative Sarge they haven't said jack for two days."
Johnny thought for a moment before a plan came to his mind. "There is one plan in my mind that could work, we could have one or two of us go in the town and create a distraction of some kind, then have the rest of us sneak into the base and plant explosives."
"I think that it's the best plan that any of us could come up with." Said Willi with some optimism.
The others started murmuring their choirs of agreement and all agreed with the plan. With a look of pride at the group, Johnny went down the ridge and started down the hill. The group of soldiers made their way down the hill using the trees to hide their approach from the Germans. Getting closer to the base, they made it to the tree line and hid in the tall grass and bushes. The main road was ahead of them; they looked to their right and saw a truck carrying six soldiers approaching. Johnny could see their faces due to the light of the sun starting to rise, and he could tell they were young-looking lads barely old enough to be out of high school let alone fight in this gruesome war. The other six members slowly raised their guns in preparation for a blood bath.
"Let them pass" He whispered. Looking back at the truck the men lowered their weapons apprehensively and nodded.
As the truck passed their position, the men waited a while before looking both ways and making a break across the road. They hid in the tall grass, staying low and moving quietly in the night. While moving, Johnny motioned for Justin and Tim to move towards the west in the direction of the town. The two nodded, already knowing what he wanted from them, slowly dethatching themselves from the rest of the group.
Tim and Justin moved further away from the group, the rest kept moving silently through the early morning, hurrying slightly to make sure they were on time. Approaching the fence all five of the men quickly checked over their weapons and equipment, making sure they were ready for the fight ahead of them. As each one gave a clear signal, Johnny, George, and Tyler pulled out some explosives from their packs, getting the fuses ready and putting them back in their bags.
When they arrived at the fenced area, Johnny and George covered Willi while he grabbed the wire cutters from his pack, before crawling his way to the fence. Snapping the fence wires Willi created a circle hole, wide and tall enough to fit a man crouching. Slowly removing the cutout wire, he backed up and placed the wire down on the ground and motioned for the rest of the team that it was clear.
The others gathered their things and made their way through the small opening. Right in front of them was a wide building most likely a barrack. The group slowly got on the wall of the building, their backs pressed against it, Johnny poked his head around the corner and could see three to four different kinds of barracks. In the middle of it all, he could see two people having a conversation. One was a tall and old fellow in his thirties, while the other was a lot younger most likely in his early twenties. Listening to their conversation, he could barely hear what they were saying.
"Guten Morgen! Wie geht's dir?" The taller and older looking of the two said.
"Gut, und dir?" The other responded. They started to walk off before he could overhear any more. Johnny was racking his brain thinking of all the German he had learned. Turning back to his fellow troopers he told them what he saw.
"There are at least four different barracks and some troops who woke up recently. I overheard them greeting each other, so they must be waking up now." He smirked for a second before continuing. "Let's give them a warm wake-up call, one they will never forget. What do you say, men, let's hand it to them!"
The others gave their nod of agreement and all waited for the distraction that Tim and Justin would create, suddenly there was a loud sound followed by a plume of dust and smoke. The alarms in the base; blazed to life, Johnny looked around the corner and could make out German soldiers rushing out of their barracks a few seconds later, some not even fully dressed yet.