大象传媒

Early in 1945,I took part in an attack on a German village. To give added
protection to the infantry making their advance across fields,and reduce causalities
from mines,tanks equipped with flails moved
ahead of the roops.
The idea was a cluster of soldiers
would follow in the path of a tank, which from time to time would explode any mines
concealed in the ground. As an officer had
said to us during the briefing before the battle- "Hug the tank, as if it was a woman"
The plan was for the tank to approach fairly close to the village,and then swing away,to allow the infantry to make the final advance to reach and clear
the houses and deal with any resistance.
All appeared to go well. As arranged,the tank veered to it's left,and
there ahead were the first houses of the village. Immediately,my group raced forward
across the remaining open ground. As I ran,
I felt something gripping my knees,which
threatened to trip me up,especially as it had now reached my legs. I became aware of
tittering from the men behind me. Glancing
sharply down, I saw that my trousers had almost reached the ground. With my left hand
I desperately clutched the trousers and attempted to raise them sufficiently to allow me to continue leading the advance.
Fortunately,I was not carrying a rifle,as this would have required two hands.
I carried a Sten sub-machine gun,which can be fired with one hand,but not
very accurately.Nevertheless,despite the rather personal embarrassment ,we safely
reached our objective. Later, I realised what had happened. Over several years,the
pair of braces that I had been originally
issued with,had worn out. For some time,I had been using a strong piece of string,which had done its job adequately.
(Quartermasters don't take kindly to anyone indenting for a pair of braces to be
sent up to the frontline!)
The sudden rush forward after the tank
veered away, had placed too great a strain on the string ,and it had completely given way .

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