The Action

by Miles Watson

When his outfit gets diverted from the Eastern Front to help suppress the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, veteran German soldier Gerhard "Gigi" Gadermann just wants to make sure his naive young cousin survives the battle. It turns out, however, that there are much worse dangers lurking in Warsaw than bullets and bombs: there is the awful realization that the most terrifying thing a man can face in war is himself.

[This story was originally published under the same title in Green's Magazine, Vol. XVIII, No.2., Winter 1990)

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Miles Watson was born in Evanston, Illinois. The son of a prominent Chicago journalist, he took an early interest in writing and published his first short story at 17. He worked in Criminal Justice for ten years before moving to Los Angeles for a dozen more, where he worked on numerous television shows and half a dozen feature films. He is the author of four book series: CAGE LIFE, SINNER'S CROSS, THE CHRONICLES OF MAGNUS and SOMETHING EVIL as well as numerous novellas, which have won nearly 30 literary awards.

Reviews

[Sylv • She/Her shamelessmoodreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Action by Miles Watson is the story of a day in the life of a soldier during WW2. It is set over the course of a few hours following a German platoon occupying the Polish city of Warsaw. Their objective is to gather the Jewish residents, and herd them onto trains for “resettlement” (although the implications of this they genuinely do not know).

The story opens when our main character, Gigi who with four years experience is well seasoned in the art of war, gazes in horror as his kid cousin, Fritz is brought to join the unit. Fritz has arrived from the training grounds and is clearly terrified. The story swings into action as the unit suddenly comes under fire, and Gigi will do just about anything to save his young, naive cousin.

A fourteen page masterpiece, and a definite 5 star read. It was brutal, horrific and a stark reminder that there can be more terrors than what is physical, and what it means to lose ones innocence. You experience the afternoon along side a helpless Gigi, who despite his survival instinct and experience, is only able to look on in horror. I enjoyed this story so much I had to read it a second time. Thank you so much Blackthornbooktours for sending me this story to review- you were right, I did love it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Carly Rheilan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miles Watson may be just about the only writer who can get away with a story set in the polish ghetto, told from the perspective of German soldiers sent in to round up or otherwise “deal with” Jews, without either turning the Germans into monsters or undermining the awfulness of what was done there. With a surgical precision, he depicts the world view of the German Reich, instilled in soldiers’ thinking, whilst also allowing the readers to see that in the grip of a war that they neither control nor understand, these individual men are really no different from American soldiers or British soldiers. Actually – no matter the hideous truth behind what the German soldiers are required to do – at that moment of battle, kill or be killed, they are not even much different from the jewish resistance fighters whom they confront. War. They’re all of them doing what they’ve got to do, at risk of death any moment, the most delicate of them dehumanised. This is brave writing. Seriously.