Sneak Attack: Heroes of the 82nd Airborne Book 7

By Eric Meyer and Todd McLeod

The 82nd is advancing closer to Germany. They have reached the eastern side of Belgium, a dense forest known as the Ardennes. Once past the Ardennes, they have short journey across Luxembourg before they cross into the Reich for the final destruction of Hitler’s forces.

To their astonishment 1st Platoon runs into a unit of Allied soldiers. Men who shouldn’t be there, for the 82nd is in the forefront of the advance. The soldiers are in American uniform, driving an American Willys jeep. Yet they are Germans, and they have inadvertently run into the first part of a Nazi plan for a surprise attack to blunt the Allied advance toward Germany. Ray Cassidy and Harry Byrd on point, and they manage to kill the disguised Germans, but the fight is not over. They narrowly avoid a Panther heavy tank and trailing in its wake four, half-tracks. German half-tracks, filled German soldiers wearing American uniforms. Part of a concerted effort to flood the Ardennes forest with disguised soldiers, and 1st Platoon races to relay a warning to headquarters. Outnumbered and forced to fight their way through men wearing the uniforms of their own army. Knowing if they fail the Germans will indulge in an orgy of bloodletting when they penetrate Allied lines.

Heroes of the 82nd Airborne Book 7 – Sneak Attack is the seventh work of shortread fiction set during the Second World War. The book is a collaboration between Todd McLeod and Eric Meyer, the bestselling author of more than fifty war novels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Swordworks Books
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005837068

Eric Meyer

An internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and Web standards, Eric has been working on the web since late 1993. He is the founder of Complex Spiral Consulting, a co-founder of the microformats movement, and co-founder (with Jeffrey Zeldman) of An Event Apart, the design conference series for people who make web sites. Beginning in early 1994, Eric was the campus Web coordinator for Case Western Reserve University, where he authored a widely acclaimed series of three HTML tutorials and was project lead for the online version of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History combined with the Dictionary of Cleveland Biography, the first example of an encyclopedia of urban history being fully and freely published on the Web.

Book preview

SNEAK ATTACK

By Todd McLeod & Eric Meyer

BOOK 7 OF THE HEROES OF THE 82ND AIRBORNE SERIES

SHORT FICTION

Copyright 2021 by Todd McLeod & Eric Meyer

Published by Swordworks Books

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Chapter One

How the hell can any place be this cold?

PFC Ray Cassidy grinned at his buddy, Harry Byrd. When he was growing up Ray had spent every spare moment in the outdoors, hunting, and occasionally fishing. Enjoying the fresh, clean air away from the cities and the busy turnpikes. Harry was different. A city boy, he disliked the outdoors, and if there was one thing calculated to make him dislike the outdoors more, it was snow.

Since hitting serious problems when they parachuted outside Nijmegen, they’d encountered little opposition, storming across Holland and into Belgium. Now they were close to the border with Luxembourg, and just a few miles away, the real prize, the border with Germany. In a few weeks they’d cross the River Rhine and push into the heart of the so-called Fatherland. When they entered the Third Reich, they’d be on the last leg of what had been a hard and bloody fight.

But in the meantime, they had another enemy. Snow. The area was thickly wooded, the boughs of the trees bending under the weight of thick snow. The ground covered in thick snow, the tracks almost impassable, and every few minutes a man would step into a hidden snowdrift and almost disappear.

Cheer up, Harry, in ten days it’ll be Christmas. Nobody fights over Christmas. They’ll stand us down, we can find a cozy warm billet, and take it easy.

He scowled. I don’t care where they put us, as long as it’s warm. Say, how much further do we have to go?

The platoon sergeant, John Logan, overheard the question. "The town of Bastogne is about