One day I went to the medical station to get some medicine. It was also located in the forests about half a kilometer behind H.K.L. There was calm that day, and I had been at the station for some time, chatting with friends there. We were sitting on the edge of a bunker, telling each other the latest news, when a group of soldiers from the rear area came toward us.
We looked at these new men, and suddenly I recognized my cousin and best friend, Peder, whom we had left in Posen (Poland) in a field hospital. I clearly remember shouting loudly: \u201cPer!\u201d, and then we warmly greeted each other.
It was my greatest joy to see him again, because we had been together almost day and night ever since school, always as loyal friends, especially during the time we had been abroad. From that day on, we arranged it so that we were always together.
I have never seen a better comradeship than the one we had for each other. In good times and bad, I think I can say that we stood as faithfully together as anyone in the greatest dangers. From then on, we were always by each other\u2019s side. <\/p>\n
Peder belonged to the same company that we had both served in before. I had to explain everything to him about the front. On the way out, some enemy shells came in, and we took cover in a hollow under a tree.
There I had to explain to him how to listen to the shells and machine-gun bullets in order to judge whether they were dangerous. We were both overjoyed to be together again. I think we both felt like a small child who has found its mother again after being away.
Peder was then, at our request, assigned to my group, and he came to me as my first assistant on the machine gun. <\/p>\n
In the days that followed, we were stationed at a lonely post in dense brushwood and forest, completely alone, just the two of us.
We built ourselves a shelter of leaves at the machine-gun position, but it rained heavily, and we were constantly wet. The paths we cut through the thicket were almost impassable, so swampy was the area. Many places you would sink in up to your knees in water and mud, and that was the ground in whatever direction you moved.
Transporting the wounded, the sick, supplies, and ammunition was inhumanly hard work in this terrain, but still time passed well and everyone was in an incredibly good mood.
Here one experienced a comradeship whose equal cannot be created under peaceful conditions. A comradeship that meant a man did not hesitate to put his own life in extreme danger to save another man. <\/p>\n
We also had many amusing episodes in this place.
One night, when Per and I were as usual on guard behind our position, we decided to see how the other posts in the group were passing the time. We sneaked up to Mads, our brave South Jutlander, but we really need not have been quiet, because he was fast asleep when we found him.
When we reprimanded him for not keeping watch, he replied indignantly: \u201cI certainly am, I wake up now and then and then I send a burst of shots over to \u2018Ivan\u2019. Then he thinks I\u2019m paying attention and will stay away.\u201d
We laughed\u2014Mads was, as always, incorrigible. He was a formidable fighter. He could sit at the top of a tree for an entire day with binoculars and rifle, observing the Russians in their lines.
When he spotted a good target, he would fire, and as the good marksman he was, he almost always hit, even at long distance. It was like a little private war for him.
He especially had a taste for the enemy\u2019s food carriers, who brought supplies to their front lines. It was a true joy for him to see their food scatter in all directions. <\/p>\n
From prisoners we were told that the Russians lived in very poor conditions compared to us. They had some strange bread, which I have seen myself. It was mostly made of bark.
They were happy when they could earn some proper food by carrying ammunition, wounded, and other supplies for us, and they were always very willing and easy to deal with as prisoners, and they were also always treated well.
It was strictly forbidden under severe punishment for us to do them any harm whatsoever.
As enemies, they were extremely sadistic bastards to deal with. They were all Asians from somewhere in eastern Russia, with a typically brutal Mongolian appearance.
I have seen a disgusting example of this sadism in \u201cMyggedalen,\u201d an example that did not make our already mixed feelings toward this people any milder.
It involved one of my comrades from the 2nd Company\u2019s 1st platoon, who was named (crossed out FB). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2273,"template":"","personer":[104],"class_list":["post-2367","litteratur_og_kilder","type-litteratur_og_kilder","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","personer-aage-mariegaard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"personer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personer?post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}