His Battle

“Today I was sitting in school learning about World War II. I was so interested in the subject about how the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the Americans fought back and won that battle. The president at that time was Franklin D Roosevelt. The main cause of WWII was Adolf Hitler. He was the dictator of Germany; he wanted to take over the world. Adolf Hitler didn’t like Jewish people, he and the Nazis would go and capture all of the Jewish people and put them in concentration camps.”
“After that day of school I was so excited to go home and ask my mom to visit my grandfather!” Mom I asked, “Can I go visit grandpa Rico at the nursing home to ask him about World War II.”
My mom replied, “Yes I will drive you there in about an hour.”
One hour later.
Mom yelled, “Honey lets go”
I replied, “Ok I will be down in one minute.” We got in the car.
Mom asked, “So why are you so eager to visit grandpa Rico?”
I explained, “Because we are learning about World War II in school and I wanted to ask him about it because he was in it”
She replied, “Oh ok”. Me and my mom finally reached grandpa Rico’ nursing home he lives in.”
Mom stated, “We’re here.”
I said, “I will be out in about 30 minutes.”I run into the nursing home and reached the front desk I signed in. I went to grandpa Ricos room and knocked.
Grandpa Rico said, “Who is it.”
I replied, “It’s me grandpa, Jake.”
Grandpa opened the door and said, “Jake it so nice to see you, how have you been?”
I replied, “good how about you”
grandpa “good, so what do you need”
I claimed, “We are learning about World War II in history class and I was wondering if you can explain it a little more to me. Also I was wondering if you can tell me stories about you and your comrades.”
Grandpa said, “Ahhh yes World War II I remember it like it was yesterday”
Grandpa seemed a little sad when he said that.
Grandpa started, “I was in the 28th air born into Germany. Our plane was called “It’s Our Job” There were thirty-five men in our plane. We were flying for at least 13 hours from New York to Germany. The red light was still on in the plane when we started to hear loud bangs and gunfire; we started to hit turbulence. One of my comrades started to get so worked up he had a heart attack, we tried to bring him back. When we were doing so the red light shut off and turned to green. The flight commander started to yell “Go! Go! Go!” Me and my men jumped out we deployed our parachutes. I looked around there were at least seven-hundred men floating down awaiting battle, but at least one eighth of them were floating lifeless, they were shot by gunners below. I finally hit the ground with a thump it kind of hurt a little bit but I got up un-snapped my parachute and took cover.
I had no clue where I was at in Germany. There were a lot of houses and buildings; it looked like I was in some city. We started to battle it took at least thirty minutes until we could advance further into the town. There was wave after wave of German troops.
We finally started to move ahead near some houses we were going to search for more German troops, when all of a sudden “Bang” a shot was fired at one of my comrades, he got hit right in the head. The sad part was that he didn’t die immediately. I ran out and grabbed him while getting shot at; I drug him into an empty room. He was in pretty bad condition; he was shaking in my arms. He stated to yell “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die”. He looked at me, reached into his pocket; it he pulled out a picture of his wife and baby. He kissed it and said, tell them I love them. I looked away for a second then looked back, he was gone. A tear came out of my eye, I ran outside to my comrades yelling take him out, take him out! The sniper of our group finally found the enemy sniper; he was in a giant building. Our sniper scoped him up and shot.
We moved on and searched the giant building where the sniper was and where Hitler was spotted last. Me and the little bit of my comrades left searched the building. There was no one here; we found some valuable papers with Adolf Hitler’s signature on them. We were all in an empty room taking a breather when all of a sudden we started to hear rumbling and the ground started to shake, my men and I went to a window; there was nothing there for a second, when all of a sudden a German tank came rumbling around the corner. I screamed get down! “Boom” the wall exploded. All I heard were screams, we knew we had to get out of that building so we went around the back of the building my men took cover while I snuck up behind the tank. I climbed on top of it a German troop opened the hatch up top and tried shooting me; I took out my knife and stabbed him in the chest. He screamed while falling back into the tank, I opened the hatch and tossed a grenade inside, I jumped off of the tank and dove behind some rubble. The tank exploded.
My troops and I started to move on again we were two miles away from our check point. We were instructed to find a tall building and go to the top and destroy the Germans utility bunker. We got out our mortar equipment and shot them at the German utility bunker. There was a giant explosion because of all of the ammunition inside.
” Jake said, “Sorry to interrupt grandpa but were you scared during the war?”
Grandpa replied,” Yes I was terrified because we didn’t know where or what buildings the Germans were in. We could have gotten massacred at any time”
I replied, “If I was there I would have been terrified, I wouldn’t have had the guts to even jump out of the plane.” I told grandpa “tell me more please”
He replied, “Ok, if you are so interested.”
“Like I was saying we mortared the bunker, we started to make our way across town to our check point; we thought we were in the clear when we started to get fired upon from a bell tower. We took cover. I started to yell “private do we have any mortars left.”
Private replied, “yes we have one more!” We had to be careful with this last shot we had. Our spotter took the distance and we aimed. Boom we fired our last mortar. Direct hit.
The troops and I started to move on another 200 yards when all of a sudden we started to see green smoke. Green smoke was the signal of the end point where we were supposed to meet our comrades. The end point was a German air base that another division took over. There was a plane waiting for us to take us back to America. We boarded the plane after a day of fighting, the plane took off. It took about seventeen ours to get back to Georgia. We all knew we weren’t going to be sent back home the war was no where over.
The troops and I finally reached the base in Atlanta, Georgia. We spent a couple days at the base to be healed if we had any injuries. I luckily didn’t have any. I got some phone calls from home. I was so excited to hear grandmas voice, but we were just engaged at the time. While I was talking to her, I was interrupted by General Patton. He came up to me and congratulated me on our victory over in Germany. He said the other generals and I decided to send you home for one week to visit your family. I was so excited and happy to hear that news.
I was sent back home, and all my friends and family were at the airport. I was walking off the run way and grandma ran up to me and threw herself into my arms, I was so happy to see her, a tear of joy trickled from my eye. I went home with them for a week and then I was sent back.
I arrived back at camp a week later, we had to do some standard training and target practice. The course was pretty hard we had to climb over obstacles, crawl through mud, and run 50 yards in under six seconds with all of our equipment we carry. I was finally called back to duty. I was being sent back to Germany, but another city.
Well that’s enough for one day Jake; maybe I can tell you the rest some other time.”
I replied, “Yes I would like that and thank you for telling me your stories.”
Grandpa replied, “You’re welcome Jake come back and visit soon.”
I started to walk back to the car and I looked at my phone; I was in there two hours. I was so surprised, it didn’t seem that long. I got into the car and mom asked, “Did you learn anything or have fun with your grandpa?”
I replied, “Yes I did, and it was so interesting!” I asked my mom “what did you do that whole time”
She stated, “I read a book”
“Cool,” I said. My mom and I went home.