Legion of the Damned Read Online Free PDF

lieutenant and the company's three harshest NCO's. They were hounded and hectored till either they went off their heads and ran amok, or they lost consciousness, or were transformed into will-less robots that obeyed all orders automatically and would have jumped from a fourth-floor window if told to do so. We could hear the NCO's bawling and shouting, threatening to have some wretches up for refusing to obey orders if they did not obey more quickly.
    Later in the evening we marched into the barracks square, ready to drop.
    "Parade--MARCH!"
    We pulled ourselves together with a last effort. Our legs flew out horizontally and our feet thudded against the paving stones. Sparks swirled in front of our eyes; we actually felt our blisters bursting. But we must do it. We must. We brought our lame feet smashing down, smashing the pain. We summoned up our last reserve of strength.
    The camp commandant, Oberstleutnant von der Lenz, was: standing at the point where we had to swing round up to our barracks. Captain Lopei ordered:
    "No. 3 Company--Eyes--LEFT!"
    Our heads turned to the left all right, and we all stared at the slight figure of the colonel; but the stiff movements that are part of the salute were not stiff at all. We even got out of step! Captain Lopei gave a start, halted, went out to the side and watched his company. Then came a sharp:
    "No. 3 Company--HALT!"
    It was the colonel. There was a moment's deathly silence, then came the colonel's snarling voice:
    "Captain Lopei, do you call this a company? If you want to go to the front with the next infantry battalion, just say so. There are plenty of officers who would be more than glad to have your job in the garrison."
    The colonel's voice rose in a fury:
    "What in hell is this collection of flithied curs you have here? What undisciplined rabble is this? One wouldn't think they were Prussian soldiers. You'd think they were mangy curs. But that can be cured!"
    Arrogantly he surveyed our exhausted company. We stood there in a stupor. If only he would finish soon, so that we could get to our quarters, get our things off and sleep.
    "That can be cured," he repeated threateningly. "Curs require occupation, a little training. Don't they, Captain Lopei?"
    "Yes indeed, Herr Oberstleutnant, a little training."
    Dull hatred mounted within us mingled with self-pity. This was going to cost us at least an hour of the most exhausting drill in the German Army, the most devilish, exhausting drill in the German Army. It could only mean parade marching.
    Have you ever had the glands in your groin swollen and hard from overwork, so that they hurt at every step, the muscles in your thighs hard balls on which you must thump with all your might every now and again to get them to work, your leg muscles contracted in cramp, either boot feeling as though it weighed a hundredweight and each of your legs a ton, and then try to swing your legs up to thigh level with toes pointed, and do so as lithely, briskly and rhythmically as a chorus girl?
    Have you tried, after that, when your ankles are weaklings that have long since given up the game and your toes are curled together in a bloody lump and the soles of your feet are on fire, large blisters filled with water, or burst blisters that bleed and are both fire and splintered glass, have you tried lithely moving forward on one foot while you bring the other poised boot down on the stone flags with a smack? And this has to be done in time, with a precision as though one hundred and thirty-five men were one; it must produce such a report that people stop and listen and say: "There's marching for you! That's magnificent! What an army we have!" The parade march always impresses the immature.
    It did not impress us. It is the most accursed, most tiring drill in the army. It has torn more muscles and damaged more lymphatic glands than any other form of training. Ask the doctors!
    But we had underestimated our oberstleutnant. We were not to have an hour's parade