by
Elmer Ake
copyright 2000
Nothing told us what we would find within.
The Germans were putting up a real good fight
And we were in this alley since mornings first light.
Mortar shells falling left and right
A machine gun firing up just ahead just out of sight.
Trier was the name of this once proud city
Reduced to rubble and no longer pretty.
The fighting was house to house, and floor to floor
Both sides had casualties by the score.
But the citizens suffered even more
As they tried to hide from the battle's roar.
In England they were called air raid shelters
Here in Germany they were called bunkers.
When the bombers came they were a good place to hide
But what can you do when the enemy is just outside?
Most people prayed and stayed inside
The one's who ventured out quickly died.
This bunker was three stories high with steel doors
With machine guns firing from the upper floor.
There guns had clear lanes of fire
While we lay in the alley in the muck and mire.
So we waited for the defenders to surrender or retire
To blow up the place we had no desire.
We finally got help from a bazooka team
When they came crawling up to the scene.
A couple of rounds through a steel cellar door
A couple of more through a window on the upper floor
The building erupted with a flash and roar
And the squad rushed into the blood and gore.
I remember running through that door
And seeing the sights I now deplore.
A baby blown from a young woman's womb
Her entrails scattered about the room.
Thirty people here meet their doom
Their haven had become their tomb.
The squad rushed the foe on the upper floor
There they shot several more.
These were SS men who wouldn't quit
They wouldn't surrender or retreat a bit.
They fought on though mortally hit
You had to admire their stubborn grit.
The guys finally gave each one the Coup De Grace
In war that is the unwriten law.
For some times an enemy you thought dead
Would roll over and shoot you instead.
They would happily die if your blood were shed
Best to give each a bullet in the head.
In war a chance is one thing you don't give
To an enemy if you want to live.
These men should not have made a stand here
Not with these civilians so near.
They should have been evacuated to the rear
But death came too fast in the City of Trier.
Back to the cellar too that horrible place
Were thing's that a man shouldn't have to face.
Bodies scattered all over the floor
Everywhere you looked were bodies soaked in gore.
Now bullets kill soldiers by the score
But high explosives do a whole lot more.
This was a safe place for women, children and the aged
It should have been left undefended.
After all these years I still relive this nightmare
Torn bodies and blood soaked hair.
Young eyes watching us through a deathly stare
An old mans headless body sitting on a chair.
None remember the names or faces
Of the thousands who died in these awful places.
The victors and the vanquished should share the blame
And the world should point fingers of shame
At goverments who think war a game.
And remember the victims with no name.
When we left the bunker and went outside
We felt some thing in our souls had died.
We will never forget what we saw here
This memory isn't dimmed by passing years.
And once in a while your eye's fill with tears
When you remember the bunker in the City of Trier.
