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.To the north and the west, the shatteredKampfgruppen48of nineKorpsperhaps the equivalent of a dozen or fifteen divisions, preinvasion dug infuriously.A further fourKorps, or the scraps that remained of them, were turning Hamburg into a fortress togrind the alien enemy.FromHamburg, stretched thin along the Elbe River's broad, deep estuary, whatremained of theBundeswehr and a few SS, all bridges before them blown, awaited the finalenemy onslaught.Ferries operated by theBundeswehr Pioneere49evacuated what could be evacuated of the millions of trapped civilians andsoldiers lining theElbe's southern banks.All, perhaps, could have been evacuated in a matter ofdays had the bridges been left standing.And yet all knew, nowat last they knew, that some evils were worse than others, and that killing thehelpless was not always the worst evil.It had been a long, hard and bitterly contested withdrawal for HansBrasche and his men.They had made stands at Potsdam and northwest ofWittenberge and around Schwerin.Each temporary stand had bought time.Eachmoment of time had bought human lives moved to safety.The price for thePage 195 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsalvation of those civilian lives had always been the same:blood and steel and fire, unmarked graves and fat-bellied aliens, gray-and black-clad bodies left to rot or more likely to feed the enemy host.file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20Ringo%20-%20Aldenata%2007%20-%20Watch%20On%20The%20Rhine.html (318 of 353)23-12-2006 20:00:36file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20Ringo%20-%20Aldenata%2007%20-%20Watch%20On%20The%20Rhine.htmlEach stand was a physical defeat, seeing the Brigade driven back leavingsmoking tanks and ruined men behind.Yet each stand had bought the seeds, Olet it be so, of future victory.Hans was as proud of his men as ever he had been of the men he had led inRussia.or the legionnaires.or the Israelis, once he had earnedIsraeli trust.Hans' left hand stroked his right lapel, feeling the Sigrunen sewn there.And they are clean, my soldiers.No crimes to their name, not even the crimesof necessity.Their sins, if any, I have assumed.And I was likely damnedanyway.Well, thought Brasche, I will find out soon enough.* * *Kiel, Germany, 3 March 2008Most of the refugees had to make the weary trek north on foot with occasionalwheeled transportation to assist.Medical units, such as were not needed atthe front or, more importantly, were needed to care for the wounded, assembledwith their charges instead at Kiel on the Baltic coast for movement by sea toStockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, and evenGlasgow, all cities still in human hands and likely to remain that way.Some combat units, those judged too exhausted and depleted, also mustered atKiel for the northward journey.In a scene reminiscent of Dunkirk, or the Japanese evacuation of theAleutian Islands, masses of people waited in tents, or shivering in the coldopen air, for word that another ship was loading, and they were to join it.The Posleen, of course, attempted to stop the evacuation, as a farmer mightprevent the escape of a turkey destined for the dinner table.YetDanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and British Planetary DefenseBatteries were generally successful at keeping the alien ships at bay.Moreover, the Swedes had jury rigged several stout merchant ships withfile:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20Ringo%20-%20Aldenata%2007%20-%20Watch%20On%20The%20Rhine.html (319 of 353)23-12-2006 20:00:36file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20Ringo%20-%20Aldenata%2007%20-%20Watch%20On%20The%20Rhine.html salvaged Posleen railguns.These last gave the aliens fits asthey never remained in one place long enough for the Posleen to engage.Despite the defenses, though, more than one human merchant vessel lay sunkenand smoking at its moorings among Kiel's many wharfs and quays.Still, out inthe fjord, the city's natural harbor, everything from huge container ships tolittle two person sailboats bobbed among the waves, awaiting the call to comein and dock.Though Posleen fire occasionally succeeded in pelting the harborfrom space, the greatest danger to the ships and boats assembled was eachother.Harbormasters from the usual, civilian, port authorities, supplemented by thesailors of the Germany Navy, kept order as best they could.This best was poorenough, given the density of watercraft in the fjord.More than one crash hadoccurred, with resulting great loss of life.* * *This one has lost his will to live, thought the doctor, a psychiatrist trying desperately and, in the case ofThomas De Gaullejac, unsuccessfully, to heal the hidden wounds of war.Page 196 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm
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