The rainbow never sets

"My father came to the battery to take me with him, but of course the boss would not have allowed that. Besides, I would not have wanted to leave all my chums behind."

"Do you remember, Bernd, in the good old days, when we did so many things together at home?"

"Seems a long time ago." "The rabbits, and the horses." "Wonder who is looking after them?" "And just imagine, all the food in our cellar." "Oh, home, will we ever see it again?"

"If only we could sneak away from here and go home." "Yeah, and forget the Russki and all the shambles."

"I don't think I could ever forget what I have been through." "I agree, Dieter, it's been terrible."

"But imagine, our cellar full of those lovely bottled strawberries! If only we could raid that. You could have one whole bottle and I another, and eat to our heart's delight."

"You must be very hungry." "Yes, I am, aren't you?"

"So much, that my stomach aches." We must have been rather hungry to think of nothing else than food, forgetting about the danger around us. The waiting seemed to be endless. Of course we didn't know why we were standing and waiting. Our sergeant had disappeared in the station building ages ago.

On the platform right next to the plaza, we saw a hospital train being loaded with a lot of wounded soldiers. It was not a pretty sight, and the seriousness of our situation came back to us. Bernd's battery had heard the shooting from a closer range, as his unit was placed in the north of Posen.

"I was wondering whether we were going to make it," he said. "The Russki was so close to our battery."

"Well, you have. As long as we won't get trapped here waiting at the station for so long."

More FLAK helpers came from other batteries, making the total of those waiting to about 500.

Suddenly several sergeants came out of the station building, pulling one of those baggage carts full of bread. We all cheered as we received half a loaf of bread each. Then the face of our sergeant changed. He became sad, and I could see a tear or two in his eyes. One by one we said good-bye to him. "Stay alive, Sergeant, and thanks for everything."

"You had better get back to the battery quickly, before the Russki comes."

"And regards to everyone!" What would happen to him? Was he leaving us, because the Russki was about to attack? Were we stuck here?

As he waved, he pointed to a passenger train, that was pulling up on

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