Another morning in the trench

"Good morning Sergeant!", Captain Wilson examined the man that just entered his make shift platoon office. The Captain was in a very bad mood. "Good morning Captain, Sir!", replied Sergeant Patterson stiffly. He noticed the Captains emotional state. It is as clear to me as steam raises into the cold air emanating from a fresh piece of excrement, this platoon is in trouble, thought Patterson. His muscles contracted as he waited in nervous anticipation.

"I just received this message from Headquarters.", Captain Wilson handed a note to the Sergeant. The Sergeant started reading but his eyes got stuck on a dried spot of blood that stained the paper. "The messenger was not careful enough as he tried to get down into our trench! The Germans managed to get a bullet into his right arm!", explained the Captain, noticing Patterson's hesitation, "What do yo think?" - "This is heavy stuff, Sir. We are in trouble, Sir.", replied Patterson with a shaky voice. The Captain looked right through the Sergeant and mumbled to himself: "We are in trouble indeed!"

"Headquarters wants us to surprise the Germans and capture the communication device described in the note. In other words they want us to leave our trench, getting mowed down by their bullets while we charge towards their trench, then they want us to cause the enemy as much damage as possible and after that we are expected to return with the bloody device.", recapitulated the Captain.

"No need to risk the lives of all these men, Sir! Let me go alone tonight. You can charge later should I not be successful.", proposed the brave Sergeant. "Thank you Patterson! I hoped you would propose something like this. You can make it! Come back but don't come back without it!"