The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-12-31

forward, pulling the pins of
their grenades, and let fly
through the porch windows.
There was a crash and tinkling
of glass, and then the explosions
rocked out, one after another.
For a moment the firing halt
ed. Gunnar tried to call his men
forward, but the guns started up
again from the sides, catching
them in a merciless crossfire.
They broke and fled back to the
shelter of the trees.
And the fisherman, trying to
rally his broken force. realized
he had made his first and great
est mistake. He had underval-
ued the captain and lost score
Of men in a trap any half-train-
ed soldier would have known
existed.
But they had met their first
fire, and somehow it brought a
new spirit to them.
Far to the south they could
hear firing from where Trygve
and his small group were hold
ing the battered bridge and from
the north came the sharp sounds
of a skirmish somewhere on the
road. It gave them heart. They
rallied around the path, crying,
"We can hold them, Gunnar.
They'll never get through" But
the fisherman, hearing the guns
from both sides of the town.
knew differently. 1t was only 7
o'clock, but they were already
surrounded and standing out
numbered, their backs to the
sea.
He spread his men again in
desperate hope that it would
keep the enemy from cutting
toward town through the forest.
Twice more in the next hour
they tried to force a way across
the clearing toward the inn, but
each time the Germans drove
them back.
It was after 8 o'clock when ar
tillery started firing. The first
warning was a low thunder back
in the hills, and from the village
the crash of an explosion. Their
hearts sank for the families they
had left below, and some of the
men were for turning back.
"We can't help Them" Gunnar
said, and slipped from one to
another under the trees. Hold
FAST" he cried. And all the time
he racked his brain to think
where the gun could be. 1t was
inconceivable that re inforce-
ments could have brought artil-
lery over the hills in one night.
1t must have been there for
m onths without any of them
knowing about it.
1t was about that time when
Sverre frog came up the path,
hacking for breath. He had run
practically all the way from the
north road. Knut and Kjerlof, he
told them, were being pressed
steadily back, and unless some
decisive stroke were made, an
other hour would see the enemy
in the square.
Gunnar listened thoughtfully
and sent a man off to the left
under the trees to ascertain Ger
man strength in that direction.
Then he posted guards on the
path, and 10 minutes later, when
the man returned, swung the
main body of his group down.
hill and northward through the
forest. And almost a quarter of
a mile beyond the hotel, in the
last of the darkness, they sur
prised a large body of the Ger
man troops. 1t all happened SO
quickly not one of them had a
chance to think. They did not
know that unframed men are
not supposed to be able to use
bayOnets, or that by all the rules
of war they should have stood
no chance. Gunnar charged for
ward when he saw them, below
ing at his men to follow, and
bounded down the hillside, roar
ing at the top of his lungs and
brandishing his rifle like a club.
In one glorious burst of bitter
combat they struck, and curled
back the flank of the German
line halfway to the road.
They were like a flood let
loose. They smashed at the backs
of the helmeted troops between
the trees, firing from shelter and
then dashing forward, sometimes
in handsto-hand struggle over
the dark face of the hillside with
little clumps of soldiers caught
from the rear. And when they
were stopped at last by what
seemed to be the main body Of
the enemy, they could hear the