Soldier Boys

Chapter 6 The weather had turned cold, had been all through November, and now the month was nearly over. But still, the trenches were not completed. Dieter saw little enthusiasm in his boys now. They were tired of the daily drudgery, the long hours and the bad weather. But no one complained -- not since they had seen what had happened to Willi. Discipline had tightened all along theWestwall,and rumors circulated about boys who had slacked off, been caught dawdling, and had been immediately shipped to the eastern front to fight the Russians -- with winter coming on. Some said there was little difference between that and a death penalty. The Russians were rampaging across eastern Europe now, pushing the German army back. Germany's newspapers claimed that the tide was about to turn, that soldiers would never let the Russians cross onto homeland soil, and Dieter believed that, but he was shocked by the retreat of German troops both in the east and west.The olderHJboys were now being pulled out of the trenches and sent to fight as replacements on the nearby western front. The boys who were sixteen expected to join Wehrmacht or military SS troops once the ditches were finished. And that was Dieter's hope, even though he was still fifteen. He didn't want to be sent home, like a little boy; he wanted to be part of the action at the border, and then to see the turn of events as his countrymen took back control of the war. German troops were now gathering behind the Westwall with tanks and artillery. The soldiers were camped in the towns and fields in the section Dieter managed, and he heard from his leaders that German forces were also gathering all along the Luxembourg and Belgian borders. They weren't digging in, either. "They aren't taking defensive positions," Lieutenant Feiertag told Dieter. "Officers tell me, on the quiet, that they believe our troops are getting ready to attack."It was a heady idea. For many months now, German troops had been pushed back, but now that was over. And Dieter, after talking to Feiertag, thought he saw what was coming. At the beginning of the war, Germans had cut through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium -- where no one had expected them -- and then turned south, defeated France in only a few weeks, and driven English troops back acrossthe Channel. Hitler had drawn out the Americans and British, stretching them across western Europe. Now, it appeared, he would go after them, once again through the Ardennes. It made such perfect sense. Meanwhile, the ignorant Russians, also stretched too far from their homeland, and giving up millions of lives as they fought, would finally spend their power, and Germans, with ten times the will of the Russians, would drive them back, too. Dieter had heard it all from his Hitler Youth leaders before he had left home: What looked like a disaster for Germany was about to turn. It couldn't be otherwise. Germany couldn't --wouldn't --be defeated.Late one evening Dieter received a telephone call at his headquarters. He got out of bed to answer the phone, and he was still only half awake when the caller identified himself as a military officer, not a Hitler Youth leader. Suddenly Dieter was alert. But the officer's message was nothing surprising. "You are called to a conference in the morning. Early. You'll be picked up at five. Be outside.""Yes, sir," Dieter said, and he was about to hang up the phone.But then the man said, "Be certain you shine your boots. Wear your best uniform.""Of course." It was what Dieter would have done anyway. What Hitler Youth leader would ever attend a meeting without looking his best?He did arise very early the next morning, however, and he cleaned and shined his boots a little more carefully than he might have otherwise, and he took out his best uniform, the one he wore only to such gatherings, and he brushed it, made certain it looked tidy.At five o'clock he was outsiHughes, Dean is the author of 'Soldier Boys' with ISBN 9780689860218 and ISBN 0689860218.