WW2 St Mere Eglise

[Rescue59 GRFD]

BACKSTORY: During the early hours of June 6th, 1944, D-Day, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division (alongside some scattered units of the 101st AB) dropped around St Mere Eglise in Normady, France. Unfortunatally, due to bad weather and heavy flak, the drop was heavily scattered. Some troops landed up to several miles from their drop zones where as others landed in the village itself. Their objective was to capture the town and hold it to cut off the main route the Nazi's would take to reinforce their forces defending Utah beach. AB drops begin as early as 00:50.
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Story Begins: Pvt. Adams sat in wait on the C-47 for his Sgt to tell him to jump. Adams was a pathfinder for his unit, and his job was to drop earlier than the others and set up the beacon to the C-47 where to drop the rest of the troops. He did a double check of his gear. He had his M1A1 Carbine strabbed tight to him, his Colt 1911 fastened in its holster, and plenty of ammo. He tighted the strab on his helmet and applied a final coating of his forest face paint.


Finally after what seemed like forever, the red light came on for him to stand-by. Adams stood up and clipped his chute pack to the rail on the ceiling and walked to the door. He stared at the light, waiting. The light flashed to green and he jumped. As he fell his shoot quickly opened and he drifted down to earth. He looked down to see where he'd be landing and saw he'd be landing in an open feild. A feeling of relieve came over him as he saw no enemy activity below him.
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After several moments, Adams touched down on the ground. He stood up and quickly undid his pack. Then he unslung his carbine and chambered a round. He stayed croutched and slowly made his way across the feild, eyes peeled for activity. Finally he made it to the woods, now he felt a lot safer. He checked his map and compass and gathered himself. He had about a mile to go to get to where the drop zone was so he could get this beacon set up and get this attack underway. Adams stood up and quietly walked through the woods, due east to the drop zone.

 

[Tarranium]

Pvt. John Jackson had missed his landing zone totally, by landing almost directly in the village.

Jackson is an demolition expert and his mission was to set up minefields with the others after they took the village, but now he is there separated from his squad.

''I just hope that Adams made it.''

He checked his gear, a couple of grenades his BAR and some satchel charges.
He removed his parachute and got moving, he moved to from the outskirts farther away to try to meet up with the rest of his squad.

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

Adams continued through the brush, keeping low and quiet. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance against a squad of German's by himself. Finally he saw the feild he needed to mark. In haste, he ran over the the edge of the brush. He then hugged the ground and slowly low-crawled across to the center of the feild. He then removed the becon from his leg satchel and set it up and flicked on the transmitter.

Adams heard the roar of C-47 engines approaching. As they got closer, Admas sprinted to the house at the end of the feild, he planted himself against the wall facing away from the feild. He occasionally peeked around the corner and checked for enemy movement. His heart raced. He could hear the shufffling feet of the now awake Germans in the house. Soon sirens filled the ears of anybody nearby, and the sky was glowing with AA fire and flak. The attack had begun.

 

[Tarranium]

[So it has begun.]
John kept on running through the trees and unaccupied trucks, the Germans were way too busy to notice him.

He had reached the LZ, he checked around for the one who had set up the beacon.
He then saw more Nazis on their way, he had to get to cover.
He saw an house, he then ran to it.
He cautiosly opened the door and closed it behind him.
He aimed his BAR and started searching the house.

 

[Sovereign]

SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Gruber had been tasked by the German High Command of defending the town of St Mere Eglise from any Allied attack. As a captain in the Waffen-SS's elite 101st Heavy Panzer Battalion, Hans was in command of company of almost a hundred well-trained men. His HQ was established in the basement of the town's local church. He was sitting at his desk when he suddenly felt his glass of German jägermeister tremble. "EINSATZBEREIT!!!" He bellowed as he drew his Luger P08 pistol from his coat. "ICH GELOBE, DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND TREU ZU DIENEN, UND DAS RECHT UND DIE FREIHEIT DES DEUTSCHEN VOLKES TAPFER ZU VERTEIDIGEN!!!!!!!! SIEG HEIL MEIN FÜHRER!".

The German troops were on high alert, as several 88 began unleashing their payload into the night sky.

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

The paratroopers finally began to fall gently to the ground in the feild. Adams slowly jogged to the door of the house and kicked it open, he nearly shot the man infront of him but found it was another American, with a weapon that he loved dearly. The Browning Automatic Rifle. But there was no time to drool over another soldiers weapon. As the two men walked through the house, they heard a lot of loud shouting, German, and the cloth-tearing sound of an MG42 opening up on the poor souls outside. Adams found a staircase and slowly inched his way up.

Adams rounded the corner and found a German machine gun team along with 3 riflemen in the windows shooting at the paratroopers in the field. Adams silently pull a grenade out and pulled the pin. He rolled it quietly into the room, then took cover on the stairs. The house shook from the explosion, and screams of pain could be heard from the room. Adams peeked around and saw most of the floor blown out and several Germans dead, not in one peice. He also noted two Germans holding large wounds in pain. Adams simply walked over to them and put a round in each of their heads. "Sons a bitches..." he muttered.

 

[Jiang Winters]

The heavy thump of explosions jolted Obergefreiter Wolfgang Bauer from his sleep. The twenty-three year old soldier, part of the Panzerwaffe, had fallen asleep in the gunner's seat of his Tiger I tank just a few hours ago after his crew had motored into some French town. St Mere Eglise, he believed its name was. The thick-built trooper yawned and sat up in his seat, rubbing his eyes. "What in God's name was that?" he asked rhetorically. The loader, Hans, pointed up towards the roof of the tank, gesturing outside.

"The Allies are attacking," he replied nonchalantly.

Bauer's eyes shot open. "How many?"

The loader shook his head. "I don't know. I've been looking outside with the commander's scope, but I don't see anything."

The conversation was paused by a dull explosion; one nearby. Hans peeked through the scope again and looked around. "Something just exploded in the house across the street. There was a machine-gun nest there. I remember seeing the crew before they let us hide the Tiger in this garage."

"An accident?" Bauer, an inexperienced soldier but skilled gunner and mechanic, questioned. Hans shook his head.

"Not a chance. Those men were SS. They were attacked."

Bauer growled in frustration and thumped the breech of the Tiger's 88. "Lock the hatches and get a round in the gun. Use one of the Gr. 39's; I want to save our AP ammunition for when the Shermans show up."

"What about the commander?" Hans asked.

"The SS probably shot him already. Let's just get this tank combat ready. I'll wake the driver."

The gunner crawled down into the tank's main body and slid forward toward's the driver's seat, where he uncerimoniously slapped the side of the man's head. "Wake up! The Allies are here!"

As he spoke, Hans took the liberty of traversing the turret just enough to draw a bead on the house the Allies had frag'd; he kept a finger on the trigger of the turret's coaxial MG34, ready to gun down any Allies who dared venture too close to his beloved Tiger tank.

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

Adams left the house, to the field to see how the other paratroopershad fared. As he left he heard a loud engine turn over out back and more German shouting.

Adams got outside and found a Captain. "Captain, how many casualities?" Adams asked. "Enough, now let's get moving. Johnson and O'Reilly! You two are on point! Let's move!" the Captain replied. The two men, Johnson and O'Reilly, stacked up at the door, then entered the house, M1 Garands raised. The rest of the group, made up of scattered units from both the 101st and 82nd, waited outside for the all clear.

 

[Neo Shark]

Schultz was dreaming, it was a pleasant dream, in it he was chasing a beautiful German girl in the middle of a field of flowers. She was also stacked like nobodies business. Right when he was about to catch and claim his prize he was rudely awaken by a slap to his head. Startled and still half dreaming Schultz tried to continue running but only ended up hitting the acceleration peddle causing the idling tank to jump out of the garage it had been sequestered in.

The sudden acceleration had the side effect of causing the rest of the tank crew to loose their balance and wake Schultz completely. Looking out of the driver’s window he had just enough time to realize he was about to hit a house when he drove right through the wall of the house the Allied soldiers had just attacked. Blasting through the wall the Tiger tank crushed and smashed any piece of furniture or person that got in its way. Now screaming in panic Schultz watched as he hurtled towards another wall, only to smash through it and the stairwell and another wall behind it. Luckily, the previous wall had been the last wall and the tank was now out in the street again.

Stopping the tank in the street Schultz turns to face Bauer, panting from the sudden adrenaline rush, “What the hell was that for?! We’re going to be in so much trouble, I just took out the only stairs in that house as we drove straight through it. I’m so dead, I‘m so dead, I‘m so dead.”

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

"TIGER!!" Adams yelled, watching in half-shock, half-confusion as the Tiger drove lazily into the house, then pulled back out. They all knew Johnson and O'Reilly were dead. The Captian barked the order "Adams, around the house! Everyone else, on me!" as he lead his unit around the far side of the house. Adams crept along the close side, planted against the wall.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Get your foot in the gas, Schultz, and don't let this tank stop for one second!"Bauer barked, after he got back to his feet. "This place is swamped with Americans! If we stand still, we're a sitting duck!"

He scrambled back to the turret and clambered into his seat. Hans gestured frantically to the gun. "Bauer, that house we drove there had Allies in it. I think we killed them, but we gotta be sure, we gotta put a round in there!"

"What!?" Wolfgang cried. He swung the turret around, bits of shattered wood and plaster dust streaming off the turret's edges as it discarded what few chunks of the house had accompanied it out into the street. He laid the gunsights on the house's nearest wall, one of the two exterior walls left undamaged by the Tiger's impromptu visit. "Shot!"

The mighty 88 roared in defiance; the tank lurched and smoke and fire billowed out of the muzzle. A high explosive round hurtled into the wall and detonated, encapsulating that side of the house in a shockwave of dust and debris. The wall buckled and caved under the violence of the assault, severely destabilizing the structure and almost undoubtedly shredding anything caught on either side of the wall in a hail of fire and shrapnel.

Hans retrieved a fresh round, while Wolfgang cleared the spent case from the breech. "Get it loaded again, fast! Schultz, if you can hear me, get us moving! Now would be a VERY good time!"

 

[Neo Shark]

Any last vestiges of sleep were wiped away with the sound of the Tiger’s main gun firing. Now fully awake and panicking, Schultz does his best to follow the directions given to him by Bauer. Still dealing with the sudden awakening and the confusion caused by driving through a house Schultz turns the tank and accelerates. His sense of direction thoroughly confused he ends up driving the tank out of the village.. and straight into the field that is, or will quickly become, the landing field for the Allied paratroopers. “I’m so dead, I’m so dead, I’m so dead,” continuing his mantra Schultz drives the mighty tank out into the field.

 

[Sovereign]

From his HQ, the SS-Hauptsturmführer watched in shock as one of his tank crew began driving recklessly out of the village. "AUSFÜHREN! AUSFÜHREN!" He shouted. His division usually consisted of some of the most elite soldiers of the entire Reich. This sort of tomfoolery was not typical behaviour. Either some Americans had infiltrated their village or the tank crew had gone insane. It was most likely the former. The SS-Hauptsturmführer picked up his radio. "AMERIKANER! AMERIKANER! SIE ALLE TÖTEN!!!" Immediately the German company became alerted of their presence. Several MG-42 crews began aiming their sights towards the demolished house.

The americans had to move...

 

[Tarranium]

Jackson had hid in the middle of the battle in some tall grass, during that time he had planted his satchel charges on the way of the tanks and waited for it to drive over them so he could blow it up.

''Come on come on!''

He saw as the paratroopers ran around trying to flank the tank so they wouldnt die, he saw Adams.
He wanted to shout his friend to hide with him but he refused to reveal his hiding spot.
Death was everywhere, he was indeed scared.
His job was to make ambushes, not run into battle.

He had his BAR next to him and was holding the detonator, just praying for the tanks to go on his trap.

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

Adams was knocked over from the blast, but not injured. The house began to creak and moan as it shifted, ready to fall at any moment. The Captain had sent another man, Sgt. Wells, over to Adams. "We gotta take that tank out! Otherwise this entire landing will have been for nothing! Adams, draw its fire away from the house and I'll launch a Bazooka round into her. Don;t stop moving! Get to that building on the other side of the street and don't come out until you hear that tank get destroyed!" the Sgt yelled over the sounds of explosions both near and far. Adams nodded, but on the inside he as nervous.

Adams inched along the wall and waited for the Sgt's mark. "Go Adams now!" The Sgt screamed and Adams sprinted across the street. He wasnt sure how a tank would be interested in one man, but at the very least, it got Adams out of the main line of fire from the Tiger. Adams sprinted as hard as he could for what felt like forever, and finally reached the house. He wasn't sure if the tank had even noticed him, but it was still more than nerve racking. Adams slowly made his way through the house to the far side, and positioned him self in a room with only one way in, so any investgating Germans would be swiftly dealt with. Adams crouched behind a desk, and leveled his M1A1 Carbine at the door, no surprises for him to deal with this time.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Schultz! Get us back into the damned Village! We need infantry support!" Bauer yelled. Another round was rammed home in the gun and he swung the turret once more, bringing the bore of the mighty 88 onto the house. He didn't bother calling the round; he simply fired. The cannon roared once more, spewing forth another column of smoke and fire, a cloud of dust rippling away from the tank as it rocked with the recoil. The cannon shell tore into the house's remaining good wall and obliterated it, yet another lethal maelstrom of debris encircling the area.

The structure groaned; weakened by the Tiger's drive-through, damaged and burning from the cannon fire, it could no longer support itself. It creaked, then buckled and collapsed, crumbling in on itself.

"Bauer!" Hans yelled over the roar of the engine, "Infantry moving around that house! They're flanking!"

"They ours?"

"No - Americans!"

The gunner took his sights off the house and panned the turret, searching for the targets Hans had spotted in the commander's periscope. "I'll look for 'em - get another round in, hurry!" Bauer ordered.

He spotted what he thought was movement, masked by the dust of the destroyed house. It couldn't be german troops - they were holed up in the village, machine-gunning anything foolhardy enough to try to get onto the streets. No, it had to be Americans. He laid on the coaxial MG34, belching a line of tracers and incendiary rounds into what he positive was a flanking force. He loosed off a ten round burst, paused, then fired another three bursts; he didn't want to risk overheating his coaxial gun, or running out of ammo.

 

[Neo Shark]

Reacting from instinct Schultz halts the tank and puts it into reverse. "Would you make up your damn mind already?! Once we get back on to the road I'm going to swing us around. I dont' want to hit another house, and I'm not taking the blame for the first one either." It only takes a matter of moments for the tank to get back onto the road in town as they hadn't progressed too far into the field. With the jolting of the tank hitting the pavement Schultz twists the stearing wheel of the tank bringing it around to face the town. Aiming for an adjacent street to the house they just pummeled he drives down the street putting a house between them and the Allied forces.

 

[Tarranium]

''Aw! Come on!''
Jackson was indeed frustrated, the tank didnt go into his trap but now its going back!
He started moving up the hill while crouching, mind as well get a good spot to shoot some Nazis.

 

[Rescue59 GRFD]

Adams ducked as he heard the house across the street collaspse. "Shit!!" he yelled. Adams ran over to the door and peeked outside. He was unsure if any of the Americans survived the blast. Suddenly he heard the WHOOSH of a bazoka round soar across the street into the Tigers side.