September 7, 1943 – Ft. Benning Georgia

Sgt. Ferman McCans returned from his sixty day leave which all of the men who had been at Icebox were given after their return. Upon return he was promoted to sergeant effective while he was in Alaska and received his back pay. Now he was assigned to a training command. This would be a soft posting for as long as it lasted. He hoped the war might be over before the army decided to send him elsewhere. He had been a wartime soldier for nearly two years and although he had been in a hostile climate he had not sighted a gun or been fired at. It was a good feeling. He hoped it would last.

October 14, 1943 – seven miles south west of Moscow – 0330

Anthony Roskov strained as he looked into the morning mist. There were engines running out there and Anthony recognized them, they were Panzer Mark IV’s, how many he couldn’t tell, but there were at least a dozen. He looked at his men, there were only twenty seven to hold a front over a hundred meters wide. Anthony knew the gravity of the situation, there were no reserves, if the Panzers broke through they were free to advance to the city and beyond. In the last attack they had exhausted the ammunition for the anti-tank gun, now he had only one weapon that would even pose a threat to the Panzers, a battered American bazooka. It’s range was short, you had to be close to hit a tank with it. He counted the rocket rounds, there were only eleven. His men had killed at least twenty German tanks with it, thirty two of them had died in the process, but three times that many Germans had died too. Each time the gunner was killed the bazooka was picked up by another man.

He checked the positions of his men and looked out into the mist again. He saw the first tank approaching. His men waited, they had not retreated from the positions they had held before, instead they had moved a hundred meters toward the Germans, they would surprise them, they would engage the enemy early.

He saw the first round fly from the bazooka, a Panzer flamed. The machine gunners on the remaining tanks began sweeping the area. A second round bounced off a Panzer without causing any damage. The German tanks easily swept by the small force, pushing on to the east, toward Moscow. They were followed by another column, this time trucks loaded with German soldiers. Anthony and his men regrouped and were able to harass the men who followed on foot. Within a half hour only Anthony and two men were left alive. They counted cartridges, between them there were only a total of ten. They had two bazooka rounds but the bazooka had been crushed by a Panzer. They no longer were an effective fighting force. They slipped quietly toward the east, toward home.