Tartarus- The Gates of Hell

In this prologue chapter, the brave Private, Roland, charges the German defenses head on. He meets the most fearsome vehicle ever assembled and he comes face to face with his enemy.

On June 6^th, 1944, a massive amphibious assault force approached the French coast at a place called Normandy. This was operation D-Day, the Allies attempt to breach fortress Europe and take out Berlin. According to history, they succeed. For exciting purposes, they will not in this tale of valor. A young man named Roland Basel is on board a Higgins boat with the rest of his squad, heading towards the beach designated as Omaha. His M1 Garand was being held against his chest, praying to his god that he would live through his baptism by fire; the unholy waters of the beach would soon baptize him into combat, a place where no man should ever be.

He looked to his left and saw his friend Rick Heron loading and unloading his Thompson M1A1 repeatedly.  Bullets rang out from the pillboxes on the hills behind the beach head. A sniper round split the soldiers head in half that was in front of Roland. Blood splattered in his face and he threw up over the side of the boat. As he did so, a Kraut artillery rounds hit the water next to his face. Water hit his cheeks as sharp as knives. More cannons fired at the boats, rocking them in the stormy sea.

The door dropped as the boat got stuck on a reef a few yards away from the beach. Roland pushed pass the other soldiers and dove into the water. He struggled against the waves returning from the beach. His gear was holding him below the water surface as he made his way into knee deep water. He trudged along until he was out of the water. He sprinted over to a metal tank trap and took cover. He leaned around one of the metal bars and fired his Garand at a pillbox. A machine gun fired at Roland. He ducked back behind the metal obstacle as the bullets ricocheted off the tank trap. Artillery and mortar rounds pounded the beachhead. A group of troops ran out of a Higgins boat and into the wall of lead that the Germans had created. A single shell landed in the middle of the suppressed soldiers. Blood, guts and limbs flew across the beach shore.  Roland saw a wounded soldier on the other side of a long wall of barbed wire. Roland poked his head out to get ready to run. A pillbox opened fire of his position. He ducked back and waited for the machine gun to reload. He breathed heavily as the bullets hit the sand around him.

“Alright old boy, it’s now or never. Grow a pair and run,” Roland said to himself.  Right after he spoke those words of, let’s say encouragement, he sprinted across the shoreline and dove over the barbed wire. He landed on his right shoulder and he dropped his rifle as landed. He went to go get it when a shell from a mortar blew the thing to pieces. He covered his eyes to protect his sight from shrapnel. Wooden shards punctured his backpack and his shoulder. Each one brought a stinging pain. He rolled over behind a dead medic. He grabbed the man’s carbine and medical equipment and crawled through the shallow waters. The water was a brown and red mix. There was no ocean blue.

When he reached the wounded soldier, it was too late. As Roland handed out a hand to pull him behind a small wall of sandbags, the poor soul was peppered with gunshots. The gunner then locked onto Roland. Roland dove into the water as the machine gun fired at him. The rounds tore through his backpack. The only thing that saved Roland’s life was his frying pan that was packed in his back pack. When the machine gunner stopped to reload, Roland shot up onto his feet and ran towards the pillboxes. Machine gun rounds peppered the sand around him, killing ever unlucky b*****d that followed Roland. He made it to the sea wall, a long wall of sand and barbed wire that separated the beach from the line of defenses. He jumped against the sand wall and pressed his body low against the ground.

Bullets flew overhead as the thunder of artillery and naval guns echoed through every soldier’s ears. Behind the sea wall lay a field of mines. The gates of Hell. He was now at the doors of Tartarus, the darkest and deepest depths of Hell.  More and more soldiers and tanks came up from the beach and into the cover of the sea wall.  No man dared to cross the barbed wire top of this oasis. Then hell got a whole shitload worse. Five King Tiger tanks rolled over the sea wall, blasting the Shermans back to kingdom come and mowing down every soldier with their fearsome machine guns. The Shermans teamed up on two of the tanks and took them out before they could get to the center of the beach. The other three continued to destroy every single bit of hope the Americans could conjure up. Roland bounced off the surface of the sand and onto his feet and charged towards the rear of one of the Tigers. He threw a grenade into the tracks of the tank. The grenade was crushed and exploded as Roland dove for cover behind a burnt-out Sherman. The tank was now immobilized. Roland got back onto his feet and scaled the large weapon that was the King of all tanks. He opened the hatch and fired his whole carbine clip into the interior of the mighty metal beast.

Roland then jumped down into the turret and sat down. A shell was already loaded into the breach. He grabbed the controls and rotated the turret towards the other Tiger. He launched the mighty 88mm slug at the vehicle’s brother. The tank exploded into smithereens. Roland then loaded another shell into the turret and aimed at a pillbox. He fired at the concrete emplacement and it erupted into a volcano of metal pipes, blood and concrete slabs.

Roland climbed out of the tank and hopped down onto the sand. A siren like noise echoed from above. Roland and several others looked up in fear. Five whole squadrons of Stukas flew over the beach. As they fropped their bombs, the machine gun pillboxes opened fire again. A bomb was heading straight toward The tank Roland had just jumped out of. Roland picked up his carbine and ran toward the sea wall. the bomb hit the tank in the fuel storage tanks. Shrapnel and fire shot in a circle over the sea wall. Roland dove into the mind field to avoid the explosion. The other Americans were getting demolished by the combination of machine gun sprays and Stuka bombs. Some soldiers noticed Roland's jump and mistaken it for a charge forward. Hundreds of troops poured into the mine filled flatlands that stood between them and the pillboxes.

Roland climbed off of his belly and ran towards the pillboxes amidst the crowd of brave men. Mines wnet off all around the poor fellow. he wnet into shellshock at least three times. As he ran, his vision blurred with mud and blood. He then closed his eyes as he ran. Roland ran into the wall of the pillbox. he was unscathed, not a single bullet or mine had touched him. Roland turned to his right and noticed a Seargent giving orders. The man noticed Roland.

"Hey son, this way. We need to take out the pillboxes so the rest of the froce can help us. Don't just stand there, more your a*s boy!" Roland nodded and ran towards the concrete trench the man was in front of. The squad of troops reached a metal door, coverd with rust and bullet holes.

"Get this damn door open maggots! basel, thanks for volunterring," ordered the Seargent. Roland turned his head around, not remembering volunteering. he wlaked up to the door and kicked it opened. As soon as the door cracked open, an MG 42 fired at the soldiers. Roland was hit in the shoulder and in the left thigh. He fell over and hit his head on the concret wall of the trench, bullets slamming inot the concret and his brothers. He passed out.

Roland heard German voices and American moans. He was sitting on concrete and he was in his tank top. Roland's shoulder was killing him and his thigh was not much better. His hands were tied with barbed wire and he was blind folded and his mouth was gagged with a gun cleaning rag. The German voices stopped. Then only one spoke and it was a sentence Roland could understand.

"The boy is awake, just like the others. What shalle w do with them Vauln?"

"We execute them tommorow. Those are the orders from upstairs."

"I see. Hey wait, I recognize that man. The dumbass got in one of our Tigers. brave son of b***h right there."

"Yes, Isaw that. The British and the Canadian forces have been pushed off the coast. Stukas are bombing them as we speak."

The voices then began to fade as the sound of footsteps increased. The man then said a sentence Roland could not translate. A thought popped into Rolands scared head.

"Hey you dirty kraut b******s. Did we win yet?" yelled Roland with all his drained energy and trhough the gag. The foot steps stopped. One of the Germans turned around and began to walk toward Roland. The man crouched down in front of Roland. The Kraut pulled his hand back and smacked Roland in his face.  The blindfold came off and revealed a German with a shaven face and green eyes to Roland's sight.

The man chuckled as spoke,"No, my young friend. You have not won, unfourtunately. As I am sure you have heard us talking, you are to be executed tommorow, along with your friends. My advice is to pick up the wire cutters I accidently dropped on the floor as I walked away." The man winked at Roland and dropped the cutters in Roland's lap.

"Why are you..why are you helping me?"

"Hitler is paranoid. We have streched out to far. The end is invetable. We were all drafted five years ago. i do not like war but I cannot leave. if the war is over, then I can leave. I am counting on you to get me out, along with several other German warriors."

"So... I just met a Gerry you wants to help us Yankees. that's a twist I did not see coming."

"We are all human. I don't like this war. War kills humans. This conversation never happened and if i see you as you are escaping, i will not hesitate to shoot your a*s. When you get out,  there will not be a halftrack outside in the right hand side garage. you will not take the road to carentan where there will not be a group of paratroopers ready to meet up with the invasion that was uposed to work." The man stood up and tuned away. he walked intp a room and closed the door.

Roland rolled over so the cutters would hit the floor. he place his hands on them and began to cut the barbed wire. Once he was loose, he ran over to the other soldiers who had been captured. There was seven in count.

"Alright boys. We need to get outside and head to Carentan. Rick, I need you and Jeff to head to the gun storage room and meet us in the top pillbox iwth enough rifles and ammuntion for us all," ordered Roland. he was ahppy Rick had made it. They has signed up together back when they were in highschool. Everyone said they looked almost like twins. the same wavy dark brown hair, the same light blue eyes, and even the same muscle definition. they were practically brothers.

Roland stood up with the wire cutters in his hands. he bent one half so far that they broke and they were to seperate handled knives. he gave on to Rick and they headed off in different directions. As the others followed Roland, they passed the point in which they entered the bunker from the beach.

Author's Note

Please leave your review and tell me if i should finish the chapter and the rest of the book.

Reviews

[WriterSki7]

Okay; red flags are gonig up. First off all do not start your book saying this is a "what-if" story. Seriously, if you need something to explain what happened take a lesson from C&C Red Alert and use a time machine. Otherwise don't bother (unless you KNOW howe to say it and keep it interesting)

A few grammatical errors, some minor details; all in all you're off to a pretty good start. Just think about what I said.

[CherryBomber96]

Hmmmm. Alright. i did not know how else to start it off. ill do some revising and fix it all up nice a spiffy for you.lol