The Undaunted (Book 2 of The Undesirables)

Chapter 30: The Troublemaker

Johann Krause held his arms over his chest, wrapping them tight over his uniform's tunic for warmth. The temperature in Stalingrad had plummeted, and 71st Infantry Division had not yet received their winter uniforms. Krause had never much minded the cold, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in Berlin, sitting at the table of a sidewalk café, sipping schnapps.

He was not in Berlin, of course, and he was not at a sidewalk café. He was here, in Stalingrad, occupying the basement of the "Railwayman's House".

The Railwayman's House had been the living quarters of the Soviet administrator of Stalingrad's Central Rail Station. He and his family had, apparently, had the good sense to leave, either defying Stalin's orders or else receiving special dispensation for their high rank in the Communist Party. So, the apartment house, ruined like every other building in Stalingrad during the firebombing, stood abandoned.

Over a month ago, when 71st Infantry division had sent wave after wave of German soldiers to capture the train station, only to be thrown back again and again by Soviet reinforcements, Krause's officer in command, Hauptmann Polik, had come up with an idea. Rather than attack the rail station itself repeatedly, Polik argued, the Germans should attack and occupy the buildings that surrounded it. That way the Soviet defenders in the station would be cut off from resupply and reinforcement, allowing a final German assault to be decisive.

General Walther Von Seydlitz, commander of LI Army Corps, of which the 71st was a subordinate part, approved of Polik's plan, and this Railwayman's House was the first building Polik had led his company to attack. The assault had been horrible and difficult, and Krause shivered when he remembered his own part in it. He had been sensibly armed with a submachinegun instead of a rifle, which he sprayed indiscriminately through walls and doors ahead of his advance into each room. The tactic worked – often after kicking down a shattered door he was greeted only by the slumped bodies of bullet-ridden Soviet defenders. But one time the tactic had almost cost Krause his life. A Soviet defender had primed a grenade before he was killed, so that when the door swung open the live grenade was rolling on the floor seconds from exploding. Krause and his squad mates hit the deck just in time.

Krause hadn't had unlimited ammunition, so eventually he was forced to fight hand to hand. His brain played a funny trick on him, and he barely remembered wrestling with the last of the Russian defenders. He did remember, however, emerging from the building, victorious, but his hair and face crusty with blood. It was probably for the best that he couldn't recall how they had gotten that way.

The old Krause would never have fought like such a devil. The old Krause would have found some clever way to avoid the duty or hang back near the front of the building. The old Krause had no one to impress and was impressed by no one. But the new Krause was in love, and he would do whatever he needed to help the object of that love receive the credit and admiration he deserved. The new Krause wanted Polik's plan to succeed.

And it had succeeded. Polik's strategy hadn't only resulted in the eventual occupation of the Central Rail Station, but in clearing a way for all Central Stalingrad to be attacked. A few days later the 71st had driven all the way to Central Landing Stage on the Volga, and by September 27th the Germans had prevented the Soviets from ever again using that dock to evacuate wounded or ferry over fresh troops.

There were other landing stages, of course, in the north and south of the city, but the capture of Central Landing Stage was a major victory. Krause had received an Iron Cross for his bravery, and Polik had received a promotion from Hauptmann to Major. The Railwayman's House became both his headquarters and a symbol of Wehrmacht perseverance and tactical genius.

Throughout the subsequent bitter fighting of October, during which Russians seemed to be multiplying like rats, this basement ruin had become a welcome retreat for Krause and his beloved officer, where he could lie in the arms of his lover and commander and they both could forget, for a time, the bloodshed.