Day by day the training gets easier as Heinrich and his fellow recruits learn their craft. Quickly their number decrease as those unable to hit the target are encouraged to transfer to a line regiment while the choice is theirs. The 100 recruits have now become 40 potential Jaegers with the target now at 270 paces. The 40, as they call themselves, are able to hit the target 3 out of 6 times at this range and their Sergeant states that only with an expensive rifled hunting rifle could they do better.
The 40 are now joined by the 80 members of Jaeger Company B with Sergeant Felson his company sergeant. Heinrich and his mates are divided among the 2 platoons and paired with seasoned Jaegers to speed up their training. Schwabian Jaegers operate in pairs so that that while one is shooting the other is loading to keep the rate of fire constant.
Heinrich is assigned to Gefreiter Hans Gruber, who has 6 years of honorable peacetime service.Following morning inspection each new team sets out into the woods to drill.Heinrich is pleased to learn that before joining the Jaegers Gefreiter Gruber was a forrester and helped his father. Gefreiter Gruber was pleased to learn that Heinrich is literate and competent with computations. Gefreiter Gruber said that with time he could advance since he could help write copies of reports for the companies officers.
Finaly the day arrived when Heinrich was able to obtain pen and paper to write a letter home to tell his family he was doing well. He told of his good performance reports and praise from his instructors. He was proud to tell his father of his company commander Hauptman Fuchs. Oberleutenant Schwartz commands his platoon in company B or Fuchs company as they call it.
Unterleutenant Reinhardt was the new commander in charge of his squad. Unterleutenant Reinhardt is as new to his job as Heinrich is to his, having just graduated for the Schwabian Acadamy. Heinrich is pleased to report that Unterleutenant Reinhardt grew up in the Jagers as his father commanded this company prior to his retirement due to injuries. Heinrich is proud to tell his father that he is well placed to learn from the best that Schwabia has in the Jaegers.
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I'm enjoying Jaeger Kohl's story . . . but if I might offer a suggestion?
ReplyDeletePlease consider breaking your posts into several paragraphs (with blank lines between them). It would make it easier to read for those of us with old eyes.
The technique is sometimes referred to as "journalistic paragraphs" because old newspaper writers needed to break up their text into very small paragraphs due to the narrow columns . . . in order to make it easier for people to read.
And please do continue with Kohl's story.
-- Jeff