The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-12-08

hunched over with his back to
the outside door.
Hammer had been telling
them how when down in Stok-
sund the soldiers had come, all
caution h a d been forgotten.
They had picked up their guns
and called the children into the
houses. The German captain had
been the first to die. when he
fell from that shot," he said in
his brittle voice, "for minute
it was quiet. 1t was as il some
body had clapped blanket over
the whole town, and all you
could hear was your own
breathing. Then the soldiers ran
up and dragged the captains
body back behind some build
ings and out of the line of fire"
Gunnar interrupted. "How
were you situated? How many
of your"
"A hundred and four. We
were facing town with our
backs to the water and the
wharf on one side. On the other
flank we had little hill we
could keep pretty we'll covered"
He stopped and stared moodily
at his hands, which he kept era
died in front of him. about that
time" he said, twas when young
Olav Brande launched the boat"
II knew him." Malken inter-
rupted. HE was a fine young
boy"
Sverre Hammer paid no at
tention. "He damned in all who
would CO." he said, "of the wom-
en- and children, with the idea
of setting them adrift until it
was all over. But the first de-
tachment of troops had got up
on some roofs by then, and they
picked him off like sparrow
just as he was getting the boat
away. We scattered. With ma
chine guns they were picking off
man here and there, n d
whenever they had cleared a
space, they'd come running up,
doubled over, until sometimes
there weren't more than twenty
or thirty meters between us.
The women had come back from
the boats, and most of them were
lying on pilings under the
wharf. We could hear some of
them crying. But if they'd come
up, they would have had to
cross the open dock"
What happened to them?'
asked the pastor. His high, boy
ish voice quavered.
Some of them were shot"
Hammer said coldly. Some got
away
go on" cried Gunnar.
The men around the table
were white-lipped, leaning tense
forward. All that Hammer said
they could see in terms of their
own wives and houses. The lamp
on the table flickered IN a draft.
"We fought until dark" Ham,
mer said slowly, and held them
off. We'd move up the hill on
our flank, and had the machine
gun in a fine spot, with the
whole town lying down in front
of us. About that time, one of
the women suppose she
thought it was, dark enough
came up from under the
dock and started crawling to-
ward us. We kept watching her.
Two of the old men started to
pray. But they saw her and let
60 with a burst of fire. She got
up and began to run, but she
didn't get ten steps before they
caught her. Her husband broke
out from behind our barricade
and ran out to help her, scream
ing at them to leave her alone,
and crying, I'm coming, Anna;
I'm coming"
The words trailed off. The
pastor buried his face in his
hands. When Hammer started
talking again he sounded very
tired.
About nine O'clock" he said,
"there hadn't been any new
troops yet, and their firing stop
ped. We sat back and began to
talk over if we could make the
boats in the dark there
had to be a way out. 1t was
about five minutes, and then we
heard planes overhead. We dous-
ed our lights. They sent down a
flare and dived. We could not
hear a sound over the bowling
of the motors. 1t sounded like
hundred wolves set loose. All
of a sudden houses started burst
ing into flame. First one, then
another. The whole ford was
yellow. Then their mortar start
ed firing again, and its first shot
smashed our machine gun and
killed everyone within ten PAGES
of it. We broke, whoever was
left, and they came at US from
two sides. Somehow I got down
to the wharf. had to keep my
arm in front of my eyes, the
+ l m e s were so bright. All I