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A Soldier's Tale: Long Lost Journals Discovered
Recently, World War II historians stumbled upon what appears to be the journal entries of a senior Allied soldier during his campaign in Europe some 60 years ago. The journal spans nearly the entirety of the war but focuses on the battles fought within 1942-1944. They chronicle the highs and lows of the campaign, capturing the essence of each battle and the sorrow of inevitable defeat. The historians have graciously agreed to publish the entries for public consumption. Take yourself back in time to a world at War, as told from the perspective of a brave Allied officer.
Journals:
April 21st, 1942.
The General had informed us almost a month ago that we would be in Northern Africa soon. When we got there we had no idea that the town we were defending, called Tunisia by some of the men, would be attacked within the week. We arrived on April 1st, a Saturday, and we made first contact on the 7th. We had no clue what the Nazis would do; we just knew they were heading through the Market and an ammo dump. That's where we spread our defense. Admittedly it was a mistake, we were pushed back and had to leave the city. The next day we went as two groups to attack the city, our Sniper was the first one down, to my intelligence, and my squad had to move forward and take the hills to the left of our original position. We secured them without casualty. We almost had the town back, but those tunnels beneath were to well defended. We lost too many men and were ordered to pull out.
Three days later, the tide was beginning to turn. We successfully attacked and re-took Tunisia. The Wehrmacht, however, were displeased. Ordered by their general to re-push the town within the week, they attacked the next day. We got tight in our foxholes and strengthened our fortifications. Again, we defended the Market and urbanized area to our right, the strategy of our first successful defense. When we were attacked on 16 April we moved our MG back by a jeep and decided to defend a dig site. It was a large tunnel that had been built for quicker access to the hills, and if we lost the entrance to that tunnel our boys would be destroyed from behind. We could not allow that. When we defended successfully once more we were ecstatic. We were kings of the world. The German's however, are not as dumb as we would be lead to believe. They started to fire artillery in the dig site, so we had to move our defenses forward. However, we didn't have to worry about the tunnels being attack from behind because they never stopped firing their god damn artillery! It was entirely impassable for us all. So we set up back outside the walls of the Market. It was close, but a private, named Boyle, single handily made sure the Germans would not regain the city. We lost good men but managed to save the lives of many more.
Today, we're getting ready to move out and head back to Britain and hopefully be put somewhere else where we'll be useful.
Montgomery is now in North Africa, and relieving us of this duty, after we do all the hard work. Ron, our leader, saw how excited we were. I had mentioned before we were sent to Africa "We'd be back home by Christmas." and I reaffirmed my belief then. Ron just smiled and said, "Colonel. One battle at a time. You’ve got to win one before you can with another."
September 12th, 1942.
I hate Denmark. Six months ago I was in the UK, celebrating with a nurse I had met during R n' R. Today, I’m on a boat back to Norway, men hurt and badly wounded beside me.
After our successful encounter in Africa, Eisenhower decided to put "Ron's Raiders" --I dont know why he calls us that-- in Norway. We went across The North Sea, and me being weak on water was sick the entire damn way. When we finally reached this city, I don’t even remember the damn name, Ron knew right away we would have to secure a bridge and a wheel house in the middle of the damn place. We went and we fought hard, but the Germans had the upper hand: it was an uphill battle. Being pushed back, we were stuck on defense, guarding a broken down tank and the rubble of a house. We pushed back yet again. We thought we could control the sewers, but one bad 'nade, had killed two good men, critical to our success, and the sewers were over-ran. Ron decided to hold steady though and not leave the town just yet. The next day, we held out and pushed the German attackers back into their slimy hole. With momentum behind us, we attacked yet again and won. But those stubborn Wermacht boys refused to leave, and we had to attack again. We were making our way up the main street, sewers secured, but we couldn’t get out of them through the street exits. Ron showed up for the fight but he was shot in the back. He fell to his knees and The Sergeant Major, a Stormy tempered fellow, and I picked Ron up and brought him back to the medical area where the second in command, a 3 Star General, decided enough was enough.
Ron was hurt, and we were leaving Denmark. We would find out later that Ron, just like Stonewall Jackson, was shot by his own man. Luckily he is stable, and will survive. But we'll have to wait some time before we can be re-deployed into battle. We're being sent back to Britain so we can get some R and R. Hopefully the Nurse is still waiting for me.
May 9th, 1943
I’ve been out of combat for about eight months now. After Denmark I collapsed with some sort of illness on the ship on the way back to the UK. Ron told me to stay in Britain and do all of the paper work for him, so that’s what I’ve been doing. He told me I was helping the war effort in a different way, but I didn’t buy it, and I was pissed. Looking back on it now, Ron was smart to do so. I became sick; I caught something in Denmark while running around in those damn sewers and was stuck in bed from November of '42 to about March of '43, I was taken care of by a nurse named Raven, the one who I met back in September and the one who I’m hoping to go back to once this war is over.
Once I was able to get back up out of bed, however, I trained daily trying to stay in somewhat decent shape incase Ron called me back to his side on the battlefield. About three weeks ago, he finally sent me a telegram telling me to "Get off my lazy ass and report back to duty." I just smiled and told Raven I was leaving. I thought once I got back that I'd be welcomed with open arms by everyone and it would be like I was never gone. I was wrong.
They had been in France since November, fighting all over the place, and it was not going in our favor. When I got there I realized most of the men I knew were dead. That Ron had a bunch of new recruits, people who hadn’t seen combat. He still had his officers which is why I guessed he called me back. He needed some helping training some of them. I got there and they looked like they had been through hell and were getting ready to go straight back.
Apparently while fighting in the city of Dijon, France, Ron and his Raiders were stuck in the middle of the city, around the large church, and they were mounting some kind of defense to protect it. I arrived just in time for the Axis attack on the church which we held off pretty well. One of the Privates, a Random guy, I don’t know his name yet, saved Ron and killed about 2 Germans while doing it. Apparently he told Ron to "Get down and shut up!" as he killed some of the Germans, which is suicidal enough, but hey, Ron must have appreciated it enough: it got him promoted to a Sergeant.
Ron decided then was the time to attack; it was disastrous to say the least. We were unorganized and ill-prepared. These weren't the Raiders I had left 8 months previous. They were rookies, and the lack of team work cost us many lives. Ron finally said to pull back, and regroup but by then, it was to late. We ended up having to leave France. Apparently Dijon wasn't the only city that was counter-attacked; the string of losses along our front line caused the Axis to push back into Normandy, and back to the UK.
October 31st, 1943.
I don’t know if we're going to win this war anymore. I don’t know if I'll ever see Raven, or if she's even alive right now. I’m on a cruiser on the way to The Netherlands. London was taken about a week ago and our morale is sunk. The Americans and British force tried as best as we could but, it wasn’t enough. The Raiders were put in a small town called Rive, the river wasn’t even a river anymore, it was just a muddy embankment. We had orders to hold the town at any and all cost. And we did so, we did our best anyway. We had barely a month to recover before the first bombings of London occurred. Then they landed on the southern tip of the Island. Next thing I knew, reports of Panzer and Tiger armored divisions entering major cities were reaching London, and we moved immediately.
While in Rive we defended against a small foot force, they didn’t expect us to be there, the town was insignificant in the large scheme of things, but they must have figured we had something hidden there because they reinforced the area quickly. We figured it'd be an easy counter attack and we'd head across the mud and push them out. It was nothing short of disaster, again. As we ran across the mud, it stuck to our boots and men tripped and fell over each other, and were shot and killed like sitting ducks. When we finally got to their side of the river we moved like nothing was going to stop us, but we started to realize they were around every freaking corner. Next thing I know the gunner with the Thompson in my squad is down, and I hear Ron calling out to pull back across the river, so we do.
We figured we’d brace for their attack and hold our ground again but we couldn’t. They were like an iron fist, just beating our brains in. They took Rive in less than 4 days. We fell back to London, but once London came under attack Eisenhower moved all remaining American Forces to The Netherlands. I don’t know where we're going now, or if we're surrendering, or what.
February 14th, 1944
There is no hope left for us.
The war has not being going our way since May of '43, and it just keeps getting darker and darker. Every time we have a major attack or major push, the Axis counter and destroy any momentum we gain. They decided to attack the Netherlands in the Winter, a surprise to us, but Eisenhower told Ron to take us and to hold the line. It was freezing; being from Texas I found it particularly uncomfortable. I think in the three weeks we were there I saw the sun once, the rest of the time I was stuck in 3 or 4 feet of snow.
We got word that they would be crossing the frozen river at the beginning of February and the Sergeant Major said something like, "What are those pansies gonna do huh? Bring us flowers for Valentines?" We all laughed, we figured in the fog that was always there, that there was no chance of them pushing through and pushing us back. When they first attacked it was a heavy left push, and it caught us off guard, though we prevailed. As we crossed the frozen river to push them back, we suffered heavy losses and pulled back across. It was like a game of tug o' war; every time we got somewhere, they pushed us back.
On the last day they did a major push on the right, and it caught us by surprise. I was stuck scouting near the center bridge and when I heard everything to my right erupt in gun fire, I got up and though I could get behind them, but by the time I got there, they had already gone through the place and killed most of the men. Ron gathered up whoever was left and got us out of there. We're being moved for a final attack onto Poland. Eisenhower believes we can turn this around
April 21st, 1944.
Eisenhower has officially declared Europe a lost cause. I’m heading back to the States today. The nurse from England, as far as I know, is dead. Two years to the day from when I first took steps in this war, I am leaving it. We attacked Poland as a last ditch effort in hopes of it turning the war around for us, however it failed. The town literally looked like an Avalanche of rubble coming down a gigantic hill, and we were the ones stuck going up. I didn’t like what was happening at all, the entire time we were stuck in maybe a third of the center of the city, stuck defending a bunch of rubble and destroyed apartments while the Germans had the market and Church. Each time we pushed into the city we made it through the church and onto the Market, but once we were in the ruins of the Market, we were torn to bits by their Machine Guns. Every time they tried pushing us out of the city, we fought them back. After the third week in the city, and our third attempt to drive them out completely Ron got the orders to fall back to Stockholm, Sweden, and that we were going home.
It was a long war and it was a costly war. It had ended the same way it had begun: violently. Though when I reflect on the war it’s not the towns we fought in or the weapons with which we fought that I remember, but the people.
These were the stories of Colonel Compton, 1st Ron's Raiders. Here are the stories of his friends and fellow soldiers as civilians, after the days of war had come and gone...
The Commander of Ron's Raiders, Ron Paul (1917-2005), became part McDouglas' council during the Pacific Conflict that took place from 1944-1949. He brilliantly orchestraed the final invasion of the Japanese Homeland after talking the American Leadership out of dropping the Atomic Bombs on Japan. After the war, he retired from the military became owner of a small butchershop in New York, where he worked from 1953-1990. He married his wife in 1958, whom he stayed with until his death. He died on October 8th, 2005, at the age of 89, leaving behind his wife and three grown children..
The General (1919-1947), called "I Owe", or IO for short by most of the men due to their constant debt to him in bets he always won, died in 1947 at the age of 28. He was storming the beaches of Southern Japan when he was gunned down by Machine Gun fire. Prior to this, he took control of Ron's Raiders (Though, they began to go by their Company name Three Three I.D. after Ron left). He successfully carried out plans made by the higher ups using the Island Hopping ideals, and helped take 4 of the offshore Islands to Japan.
The Brigadier General (1923-1974), who earned himself the nickname "Backstab" by recording 257 back stabs during the 7 years he served with the Raiders, became IOs second in Command after Ron left the Raiders and then took over at the death of IO, served out the remainder of the war with the Raiders, then stayed in the military until he retired in June of 1963. In 1970 he became President of the United States, and with his outstanding service record, he helped end the Conflict in Vietnam. In October of 1974, during his Re-election Campaign, he was shot,and killed, by his close friend, and former Sergeant Major, nicknamed "Stormy" due to his temper.
The Colonel (1925- ), Dr.Compton served with the Raiders until 1950, after he left the military he moved back to Texas and became a High School Teacher and Coach. He taught for 43 years, until his retirement in 1993, he is currently living with his wife in San Antonio, Texas. He is the only surviving member of Ron's Command Staff. He attended both Ron and Backstab's funerals.
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The above stories and individuals are not based on actual events from World War II. They were re-created and re-told from the perspective of Day of Defeat: Source, a PC video-game.
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