Ghost of you

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, for you to come back. Back home!"

The water lapped the blood-stained beach of Normandy and drew the dead bodies of fallen soldiers into the sea. It was red, red and black ..... red ... and black.
How many of my comrades did it accommodate?
How many more would there be?
How many until this was all over?
How many would be left in the end? -and which one will I belong to?
-To the dead in the sea, or those on land, or ... will I survive, lose an arm, or a leg, or both?
These were questions I didn't want to think about, but I did anyway.
So many questions, but no answers, just the certainty that if we dock and try to storm the German fortress, many of us will die ... a lot ... maybe all ... no, probably all.

A scream got me out of my mind. Bullets rained down on me and my comrades.No escape, no means of escape.
In front of me, many people just turned the front rows.
One turned to me. His arm was bleeding profusely, his clothes were red. He stared at me with shocked eyes and slowly staggered towards me.
He screamed, he screamed all the time, but I didn't understand him, I didn't understand anything. Suddenly everything was so quiet. Bullets struck the metal next to me. They hit there like in slow motion and made no sound!
No sound, nothing ... nothing could be heard, everything was moving in the distance.
And then the soldier in front of me grabbed my arm so tight it hurt.

It got loud again. The bullets got faster again, chased past me and hit the soldiers standing behind me. Screams became audible. Some of my comrades managed to jump in the water, some couldn't, but most ... most of them fell on the beach.

The beach, it was much bloodier than the water.The bodies of soldiers piled up against the metal, cross-shaped barriers that prevented the tanks from getting through.
Soldiers took cover behind slowly bleeding comrades, tried to concentrate on the enemy, tried to ignore the cries for help, tried to block out the pictures of dying friends and just to shoot.

Charly, a friend of mine, he tried to save as many as he could. He didn't care about the enemies, he didn't care about the bullets that fell on him, he only cared about the injured, including me ...

....
...... A dead soldier was lying next to me. Open eyes, open mouth. It was like he was still screaming for help, like begging me to help.
Those cold, empty eyes, they distracted me. I forgot about the enemy bullets. I forgot everything.
Slowly I crawled out of the protection of the metal barriers to pay him his last respects and to close his eyes.He shouldn't see more friends die in death ...
He should be able to rest forever ...

His forehead was still warm and there were still tears in his eyes that he had shed when he died when I gave him the darkness, in the hope that he would rest in peace.

Shots suddenly churned up the sand around me. They hit the metal next to me and the head of the one in front of me.
Anger rose in me, and taming anger, which drove me to take my rifle and run to the fortress shooting!
I ran screaming towards the opponents, my thoughts were only with my dead friends! They had her on their conscience, and I wanted them to atone for dying too.

One shot grazed my shoulder, another my leg, but the pain stayed away and I ran on, screamed, shot on, on and on, and on and on, until the third shot hit me in the hip and suddenly I stopped myself could move.I slowly let go of the rifle and went to the ground. Blood oozed from the wound and the area became blurred.

And then I heard Charly scream.
"An injured man ... he's still alive!"

Hands touched me, rudely and frantically cleaned my wounds. I felt a stab in my arm and a few seconds later the pain subsided and the surroundings became clearer again.

Charly patted me on my uninjured shoulder. He smiled wearily among the crusted blood and dirt on his face.
"gave me a real scare!"
He shook his head .....
"Don't be so reckless."
then he grinned at me.

He grinned at me, like always, as if I had played a prank on him, like in school, to scare him,
He was grinning at me the whole time.
He was also grinning at me when a bullet hit him in the head.
He grinned as he fell on top of me and buried me under him.
He grinned as his comrades died next to him.He was grinning at me the whole time.
Even when I said goodbye to him at his funeral!

end