African Front — January 1, 1942
There were no planes in the sky.No buzz of reconnaissance engines.No rumble of artillery—not even in the distance.Only wind. And sunlight.
Falk's Panzer IV sat in a forward position, nestled between two soft ridges of sand. Behind it, the rest of the platoon's tanks stood idle. None of the engines were running.
There were no orders.No gunfire.No fear.
Just a strange sensation drifting through the lines like a trapped echo:this morning, no one seemed interested in killing.
**
Helmut was the first to break the silence from the radio:
—No transmissions. Total silence on the British frequencies.
Ernst, sitting near the main loader, toyed with a piece of rope.
—Maybe we won and they forgot to tell us.
Konrad shook his head.
—Neither side is firing. That's never a good sign. It's… odd.
**
Falk watched from the hatch. In the distance, on a far ridge, a British soldier walked calmly along the enemy line, hands behind his back. Unarmed. Alone. Like a man taking a stroll before lunch.
No one fired.
Falk lowered his head.He said nothing.
**
Around midday, a sergeant from a Spanish unit approached the German camp with a bottle of wine in hand and a weary smile.
—We didn't come for reinforcements —he said in rough but clear German—. Just to share what's left of a makeshift New Year's Eve.
He was joined by two Italian soldiers carrying stale bread, aged sausage, and a few tins.
—And we brought coffee —one of the Italians added—. The good kind. From before the war.
**
They ate together. Sitting on the sand. No chairs, no flags.The wine passed from hand to hand. A loaf was broken and shared.No one spoke of the war. Or of tomorrow.Just the heat. Their hometowns. What they missed.And for a moment, that was enough.
**
Lukas murmured:
—My mother used to say that the first day of the year sets the tone for the rest.—I hope she's right.
No one laughed. No one disagreed.But inside, they all wanted to believe it.
**
As the sun fell and the engines came back to life, no one mentioned what had happened.Because none of them knew what to call it.
**
Only a single thought remained. A whisper unspoken,but shared by all:
Even war didn't seem to know what to do with the first day of the year.