Only on one of these patrols (of those I took part in) did we come into direct contact with the enemy.
It was around midday.
We had penetrated deep into the forests and had quietly made our way to a large clearing.
We sat down, still in silence, in the undergrowth around the clearing in order to confer and observe the far side of it through binoculars.
Suddenly, we noticed some figures moving along the edge of the forest on the opposite side of the open area.
After a few minutes of observation, we were able to determine that it was a group of armed men. <\/p>\n
We now began cautiously moving through the undergrowth in order to get closer and determine who these men were and how strong their force was.
We were already certain that they were the enemy from their clothing and because we knew that we were the only German soldiers in that area.
This was naturally quite exciting, since it was the first time we had seen the enemy and we were alone deep within the forests.
The tension increased after we had moved considerably closer, and bullets began to whistle around our ears from several directions.
We quickly sought cover, for an observation patrol such as ours is not supposed to engage in combat unless it is absolutely necessary and in self-defense.
The sole task of such a patrol is to gather intelligence on the enemy’s nature, strength, and position. <\/p>\n
The group leader now crawled forward into the clearing and examined what could be seen in order to report on it, and we noted the partisans on the map.
Afterwards, we decided to begin the return journey, because we were already farther in than the order allowed, and on the way back we had to pass some German positions before a specified time.
All friendly troops are always informed of the times for the departure and return of such patrols, so that they do not mistake them for the enemy when they come from \u201cno man\u2019s land\u201d and open fire on them.
It was, of course, not entirely simple to suddenly turn around and go back home when we were several kilometres deep in the wilderness and only had incomplete maps, so there were many things to take into account. <\/p>\n
The direction was known to us, however, and we crept along a small path until Kling (the group leader), who always went in front, suddenly stopped and showed us a thin, almost invisible wire stretched across the path in the gravel just in front of his feet.
It was so well hidden that only an alert and experienced observer like Kling would have noticed it.
Such a wire is connected to one or, in most cases, several mines, which explode upon the slightest contact with the wire.
If we had not discovered it and stopped, we would most likely have walked straight into it with the entire group, and there would have been a high probability that the whole group would have been sent to another world, with only a fraction of a chance of escaping unharmed\u2014especially since we were so far away from help.
I believe some of us turned a little pale.
We now had to turn back and go the same way, because this path was almost certainly mined in several places, and once again we received a burst of fire over our heads.
We were able to take cover from it, however, and all of us made it through unharmed, and then we returned the long way back to the company, where for the first time we could report to the commander using the term used at the front: \u201cFeindber\u00fchrung\u201d (contact with the enemy).
I am afraid we were somewhat proud in front of our comrades that we had seen \u201cIvan.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2273,"template":"","personer":[104],"class_list":["post-2719","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\/2719","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=2719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"personer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personer?post=2719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}