Chapter 3

Sgt. Rowe slowly crept back through the forest hunched over as much as he could while staying silent. He only moved us thirteen feet or so back, just enough to have a low voiced conversation apparently because he chose that moment to fill us in on what he was thinking.

“We need to take them quietly,” he said.

“We have the advantage here Sargent, why not just gun them down from the tree line?” I asked.

“Because we don’t know where we are, this church isn’t on the map, and if there are more Nazi forces in the area, then gunning these two down could be the equivalent of kicking a beehive. Besides they could have a radio in there, remember our mission. We need to shut down and disrupt as much Nazi communication as we can. Besides if these two are guarding this rundown shanty, then something important is inside.”

Somewhere behind us back near the church a bright light was being shined into the trees, I wondered if we had been overheard. Contrary to my initial reaction to scatter into the forest, Sgt. Rowe instead cantered his head to one side like an interested dog and crept back towards the clearing. The lights abruptly shut off. What the heck is going on now? Me and Neff looked at each other and shrugged then crept after the apparently fearless Sargent back to our former position. Some kind of open top all black European automobile had pulled up right in front of the church. It looked sleek and fast.

A very large German officer unfolded himself from the driver’s seat. I couldn’t tell his exact rank from the tree line in the dark, but his uniform was decorated like a Christmas tree. I could see his muscles straining his dress uniform. This guy might have even been a bit bigger than Neff and that was saying something. Out of the passenger seat came one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. I lost that train of thought though when I saw her Nazi uniform... She was also an officer of some sort but a much lower rank than the driver. Despite the fact that she was Nazi scum, I still couldn’t ignore her stunning figure and movie star features. Her dress uniform was just like his except she wore a long skirt instead of pants, and instead of muscles her curves pushed her uniform out in all of the right ways.

The two officers promptly walked up the steps of the church and the two guards gave them the Nazi salute and held it until after they passed fully inside. One of the guards risked a glance inside the church for a split second, I would bet anything that he was trying to get a peek at her backside. I felt someone pull at my uniform and saw it was Sgt. Rowe motioning me closer, Neff was already next to him. He grabbed the back of my head and Neffs and pulled our faces so close to his that our skin was almost touching before he began to whisper.

“Alright men, we have the chance to capture two Nazi officers and a possible strategic target, we can’t pass this up. Neff you are too loud, you stay here. Ozzy is going to go to the right and sneak through the tree line until he gets to the back of the church, I’m going to go to the left and do the same. Once we are on the backside of the church we will sneak forward and signal you. At that point you cause a distraction and we will take the guards. Stay quiet, we don’t want to alert those inside.”

When he finished speaking he pointed at me and pointed to the wood line on our right and then he disappeared into the dark woods behind me creeping along his own path. Following orders had been ingrained into me through months of perilous and physically demanding training. So without a thought I was moving along the tree line as quietly as I could, leaving three or four layers of trees at any one point in time in between me and the Nazi door guard’s view. As I walked inevitably towards my goal I couldn’t help but feel an extreme amount of stress and anxiety. I was about to jump a Nazi, what the heck was I doing here? I’m just a dumb orphan.

Those thoughts left my mind when I saw Sgt. Rowe run out of the woodline and crouch along the back of the church. It was just a big rectangle and there were no guards out back so the two guards in the front had no view of us. There were some windows on this side, but they were stained glass and partially boarded up so I wasn’t too worried about people inside spotting us. I ran across the small opening as quietly as I could, staying as low as I could until I was next to him.

Some of my gear rattled on the way over and I dearly wished I had offloaded some of it before making this excursion. He pointed to the left side of the church and then at me. Without further direction or warning, he then began to creep around the back right hand corner of the church and out of my view. I did as he ordered and crept along the left side of the building keeping my head below the sporadic windows. Sweat from my forehead threatened to fall into my eyes so I wiped at it with my uniform sleeve. I had no way to see Sgt. Rowe from my position and I didn’t dare poke my head around the corner for fear that the Nazis would see me.

I pulled my rifle off of my shoulder and began to wave it in the air back and forth in big lazy arcs towards the woods, hoping Neff would notice it and create a distraction. Sgt. Rowe was probably on the other side of the church signaling Neff somehow as well. Neff must have seen one of us because great plums of smoke began coming out of the wood line and the two Nazi guards immediately saw it. I risked a glance around the corner and saw them both step forward to investigate in unison. At the other corner of the church I saw Sgt. Rowe’s head sticking forward, he gave me the thumbs up and started creeping forward so I did as well. I was terrified at this moment, but if I failed it could end up with Neff or Rowe getting shot, I couldn’t fail.

I switched the grip on my rifle and reluctantly took my right hand out of the trigger guard and put it on the buttstock. I would need this grip to get more leverage, but not being ready to fire was going against all of my training and survival instincts. The Nazis were still walking towards the smoke and talking excitedly, I was praying that one didn’t turn around to alert those inside or they would see me and gun me down. I was trying to stay on line with Sgt. Rowe’s forward movement and we were both only about eight more feet away from the Nazis.

At that moment something in my kit rattled. One of the Nazi’s began to turn around, then I saw Neff walk out of the woodline and through the smoke, brazen and defiant. The Nazi not turning towards me yelled “Scheisse.“ Which caused his partner to stop turning my direction. Time slowed down for me, either Neff was going to get gun downed or we were, this was a critical moment. My adrenaline dump and my vision darkened, but to my surprise I was already running forward. I had to be loud as a charging rhino because the Nazi once again began turning my way despite the obvious danger that Neff presented at his back. Before he even got a chance to look at me I jumped, I have no idea why, it just felt right at the time. As I came down I shoved the buttstock forward for all I was worth. It connected to the Nazi‘s temple with audible crack sound and his eyes snapped closed, he fell over like a sack of potatoes.

Next to me I heard a scuffle. I turned towards it feeling lightheaded and for some reason guilty for hitting the Nazi. The second Nazi and Sgt. Rowe were… Boxing? Somehow the Nazis weapon was on the ground and Sgt. Rowe and him were having a good old fashioned fist fight. I must have been in shock because I didn‘t even try to help him. I couldn‘t do anything except watch as they exchanged blows. Sgt. Rowe was quick and wiry, but the Nazi was large and strong, it made for an interesting bout. Or what would have been interesting if our lives weren‘t dangling in the proverbial wind.

Before I could come to my senses and help him Neff was there. He grabbed the Nazi and threw him like a sack of potatoes at the side of the church. The Nazi crashed into the stone foundation and lost consciousness.

“Well done, the both of you,” said Sgt. Rowe. “Now Neff, go get that smoke grenade you deployed and bury it. If opposition sees that smoke we will be overrun. Go, now, double time soldier!“ Neff ran off to disable the smoke grenade and before I had time to think Sgt. Rowe was giving me orders as well. “Pvt. Osburn secure these men’s weapons and tie them up. I need to check the interior of the church. As soon as you are done, quietly head inside.”

Wow I hadn’t even been thinking about the church interior. There were those two Nazi officers somewhere inside and maybe more since they found this location appealing for some reason. Sgt. Rowe quickly sprinted towards the entrance to the church and moved inside at a quiet crouch. I didn’t hear any gunfire so I had to assume that he was alright. Besides I had to get these two tied up before they woke. I dug into my right cargo pocket and pulled out a bundle of extra parachute cord. A bunch of us carried this stuff, I couldn’t think of an explicit reason why I had brought it but I’m glad I did because it was coming in handy now. I had to admit to myself that in my naivety I had envisioned myself using it to secure a tent or some nonsense…

The first thing I did was pull the Nazi that Neff had thrown at the wall over to his buddy and I lined them up head to toe side by side. I figured if I tied them up this way they would have trouble coordinating an escape effort. I wanted to pat them down but I was afraid they would wake up so I tied their hands. I had never tied someone up before, I wasn’t sure what kind of knots to use, I was nervous as all hell, and I still had mild tunnel vision from my adrenaline dump, but I did my best. Once that was done I felt confident that I could beat up two concussed and bound men, if it came to that, so I began my search.

I patted all up and down their bodies, emptied their pockets, opened their coats, and everything I found I piled up. I ended up with two MP40’s which were supposed to be really nice submachine guns. Basically the equivalent to our Thompsons. I think Neff had taken a class on German weapons, I would give these to him. I also landed two Lugers, which are nice pistols. Extra magazines for both of the weapon sets. Several different knives, most of which were emblazoned with swastikas. Some German and French currency, some German chocolate, some playing cards, a map of the region that was similar to ours, two German canteens one of which smelled like alcohol, a gold ring, and two necklaces.

The necklaces really threw me off, they were simple affairs made of what felt like a leather string, with a golden pendant on the end. The pendant was a perfect golden circle with a raised relief on it. The relief was a circle with a smaller circle inside of it. The smaller circle had twelve ‘S’ like spokes coming out of it that had hard angry angles in the bends. The spokes connected the larger circle to the smaller circle. I wasn’t sure what the symbol was but it gave me a bad feeling. I loaded up all of the miscellaneous items and threw them into my bag, including the canteens full of booze and water. I attached one of the pistols with the holster it came with to my belt and took half of the ammunition for it.

Neff came running out of the treeline and headed over to me. He helped me tie the Nazis up further. We made sure to connect the lines binding their hands to the opposing nazi’s ankles as well, that way if they tried to get up they would just pull the other person down. Then I showed Neff the two MP40’s and the remaining pistol. He attached the pistol to his belt with its holster just like I had done. Then he threw his Thompson up the back of his shoulder and tightened the sling it was on so it wouldn’t shift around. After that he picked up both of the MP40’s and loaded all of the extra ammunition for them into his bag.

“Whoa, you are going to take them both?”

“I’m a big guy,” replied Neff matter-of-factly. “Where did the Sargent go?” he asked. I pointed to the darkened front door of the church. Neff moved forward and entered leaving me no real choice except to rush in after him. I wondered which weapon would be better indoors, the new pistol or the Garand… I settled on my Garand because it was familiar. It was slung over my shoulder so I pulled it down and got a good combat grip on it. The inside of the church was really dark at first, but there was a red muted glow coming from somewhere in the back, outlining the silhouette of Sgt. Rowe. He had his weapon pointed downward at a depression in the floor that I couldn’t quite make out from my position just inside the doorway.

I moved through the dark church noticing strange stains on the ground in the gloom, and large chunks of rotted wood which I guessed had once been the pews. I stopped for a second as my eyes scanned around and noticed strange divots in the floor. I reached down and rubbed my fingers across them, three large gouges. Each gouge was inches apart… I couldn’t even imagine what kind of animal had made these. I racked my brain and tried to remember if there were lions in Germany, I never did get much of an education... I rushed the rest of the way over to Sgt. Rowe excited to tell him about my find, but when I got to his location all thoughts of my discovery were shrouded by his.

He was aiming his weapon into what I thought had been a depression before, but now I could see it was a stairwell leading down. At the end of the stairwell was a hallway but I couldn’t see where it was heading due to the angle. All I could see was that it was the source of the strange red light illuminating the sergeant. I had been so surprised by the hallway discovery that I hadn’t noticed that the walls of the stairway looked strange and misshapen. It was hard to tell why in the extremely dim light. I felt at them, they felt smooth. The piece I was rubbing which was a bit rounded and felt loose, like the mortar that was holding it in place was failing. I tugged on it and it fell out into my hands, revealing it to be much larger than just its surface area. I rolled it over and-- I dropped it. It smacked the floor and rolled once, it was a human skull. My eyes darted again to the grotesque walls, now that I knew what I was looking for I could make out the shapes of different bones carefully wedged into the wall, thousands of them, human bones…

Neff, and Rowe saw my discovery, their faces were just as shocked as mine. “What is this place?” I exclaimed in a loud whisper.

“This is not a house of God,” replied the Sergeant. Something about what he had just said reminded me of the strange pendants. I pulled one out and handed it to him.

“I found one of these on each of the Nazi’s outside.”

“I’ve heard rumors of this, it’s called The Black Sun. It’s had many different meanings over the ages, but it’s strongly tied to the occult and dark forces,” said Sgt. Rowe who then handed me back the necklace in a hurry, as if he didn’t want to touch it any longer than he had to. I stowed the necklace away in one of my pockets. Without saying anything further Sgt. Rowe started moving down the stairs. I looked at Neff who had a blank expression on his face, I shrugged my shoulders and he shrugged his and we followed Rowe down the stairs. As we descended the red light grew brighter.

Once we hit the corridor at the bottom, I could see it quickly turned into a bent passageway. The light was coming from around the bend. Sgt. Rowe again gave us the hand signal to stay quiet and we all crept forward. Once we crested around the bend we could see an intersection of sorts just ahead of us. There was a dark passageway heading diagonally left, one just as dark heading diagonally right, and in the middle straight ahead of us between them was a set of very old fashioned arched double doors. They were cracked open a few inches, the crack was where the red light was coming from.

I glanced again at the grisly walls and noticed the care and work that must have gone into placing the bones here. I also noticed that some of the bones had scratch marks on them, big ones…