Excerpt from Angels of Chaos

I thought I would share a brief snippet:

After about 20 minutes of what seemed like endless strafing, the Germans inexplicably called off the attack. Rollie poked his head out of the hole to see trucks on fire all around him. Ammunition popped as the crates overheated. Men ran every which way shouting for help. The fighters had released two or three bombs in addition to shooting the hell out of the trucks. Rollie heard a concentrated commotion and climbed off of Ed and Art to run to where there were men gathered. Sergeant Prather lay dead on the ground. A bomb had exploded near his foxhole and buried him alive.

As they looked over his body in semi-disbelief, Ed asked, “Is there anyone else missing?” The men glanced about nervously.

“Ren high tailed it over to your truck, Rollie,” Tex finally said. He motioned to it and the men’s eyes followed.

Although it was one of the few trucks not burning, shrapnel had shredded its tires and cut clean through the rear axle. It listed like a grounded ship. Rollie walked over to it as the men followed. He rounded the front end, looking beneath the chasses for signs of Private Ren. The nearby truck fires provided plenty of light. He reached below and pulled out Ren: first one piece, then another, then another. The shrapnel that had destroyed the undercarriage of the truck had cut him to pieces as it randomly ricocheted. He arranged Ren more or less in proper order for the grave registrar. Someone started chuckling and, within moments, they were all laughing.

Never, NEVER fall asleep under the truck, Rollie thought as he joined in. “Looks like we’re going to need a new truck, Ed,” he said. The men laughed some more.

Tomorrow would be a long day, and the fires were almost out. Rollie walked over to the foxhole that he had shared with two other men. He collapsed with one of Jones’s blankets. In a few minutes he was asleep.

Shortly before daybreak, there was an explosion. He felt earth rain down on him, but he was so done in that he didn’t care to get up to see what happened. He rolled over and slept until the sun hit his eyes.