大象传媒

I could have done with a cigarette while I thought it all out, but my cigarettes were in my haversack by the gun. At last I crawled out to the gun and my cigarettes. It鈥檚 a funny thing, a bullet anywhere on the body is a thing to be avoided, but when I was crawling away all I could think of was my behind stuck up like a target. I cringed all the way back to the gun, my fingers shook as I lit a fag and blew the smoke into the ground. I was still wondering how Jerry had got behind me and if I could make a bolt for it, when like a ray of sunshine, Pinkie came round the corner of the toilet holding in his hands, of all things, a jug of tea and a lump of bread he must have found in one of the houses. It was my breakfast about three hours late. I shouted to him that there was a sniper about, and told him to duck down, which he did, then he gave me the jug to drink out of while he nicked one of my fags and asked for a light. It was while I was eating that I realised that the gun by the hedge had not fired when he had run across to me, so I asked if everything was alright with the platoon. He said it was and that I was to go back with him to report to Vic, which left me more puzzled than ever. I was more than glad to be relieved, so I kitted up and we left. When we got to the carriers I found the crews in a large building, single storey and very thick walls, which just suited us, as I very soon found out. Down one wall were about six openings, for ventilation I suppose, for before we occupied it, not from choice I may add, it served as a piggery. The charts for the weights of the pigs was still attached to the entrance to each pen, now the pigs had gone and it had been thoroughly cleaned. I sat down and cleaned the Bren gun, then oiled it and collected some loaded magazines. I was doing this as Vic came in, he saw me and called me to him. I followed him outside and asked him what was up, he told me he was giving me orders in case he was killed or wounded. This got me worried and I said that he should be giving Slim the orders, after all, he was a full Corporal and the next in command. He replied that he was missing, he should have relieved me, but he hadn鈥檛 and now he didn鈥檛 know where he was. He then went on to tell me where H.Q. was and he drew in the soil the road to Warneton. I was to be certain to turn left at the crossroads, Jerry held the road to the right, H.Q. was in the first farm on the left. I was to report there, we were to hold on as long as we could, and if we could stay until seven O鈥檆lock at the latest, as we were to take up another position before it got too dark. Then came the clincher. They had told him at H.Q. that the German army from Calais had met up with the German army from Belgium, they in turn had joined the army from Holland, so we were in a pocket. As if that wasn鈥檛 enough, we were at the bottom of the pocket, and surrounded on three sides, he then said that if H.Q. had left when we got there we were to make for Dunkirk, if I didn鈥檛 know where it was he said, just follow the others, that鈥檚 where they were all going. We were to keep our carrier by the piggery for any wounded, the others would stay where they were. If things got sticky he would move the carriers to the road while we tried to hold them off, and I could tell the others of Dunkirk, but nothing else. And that was it, except that Jeff had been wounded in the neck and was in a bad way, he was probably in Dunkirk by now, if he was still in the land of the living.
The lads had started firing now and we ran in to see what they were firing at, alas, it was all too obvious. There seemed to be an endless line of Jerries running along the embankment, they were crouching down and running like the clappers. The two other Brens had started firing and I shouted to the others to shout out the range, they shouted back various ranges from 350 to 500 yards, so Vic who was by my side told me to try 450, give a long burst, and he would observe. I let go a burst and had the satisfaction of seeing one or two of them fall to the ground. I reckoned I was firing a bit low so I moved my sights up another twenty five yards and then let go at a group of them crouching on one knee and looking around to see where the fire was coming from, there was a few left on the ground when they scattered. I told Vic and he went down the line giving the others the range, after that it was fire, reload and fire again and again, until they started to get 鈥榗anny鈥�. They were still running across our field of fire, but some of them were moving behind a hedge that ran towards us, hoping I suppose that they could get behind us. Then, as they came to a gap in the hedge, they started to set up a mortar. That was real bad news, so, I being on the right, switched my line of fire to the mortar team. I wiped out the first crew and returned to the first target, but I kept glancing in the direction of the mortar, and sure enough, out came another crew, they went the same way as the first. The next crew came out at once, one of them with a bomb in his arms ready to drop down the pipe as soon as he got to the gun, I singled him out and I got lucky, I shot him just as he got to the gun. The nose of the bomb must have been pointing towards me and as he dropped it, the nose hit the spout and up they all went, except one. He was the last to come through the hedge, the blast knocked him over, he got up and he must have had an idea where I was, for he aimed his gun from the waist and let loose with a burst that had the tiles from the roof by my side. He went down from a burst from my Bren, and to make sure I shared another burst between them and moved back to the target on the embankment. By now there were very few of them coming over, it seemed as if they had found another way down, or had they.
Two hedges came to a corner close to the embankment and I wondered if that was where they were grouping before rushing to the embankment. I gave them almost a magazine and sure enough out they came at a run. That is how it went on, I would flush them out and the lads would bring them down. I don鈥檛 know how the others felt but I was as excited as hell, it was like being on the winning side at last. Two of the lads were loading magazines while we kept firing, but soon we had more mags than targets, and I stopped firing to let my gun cool down. It was while I was doing this that I saw what looked like a General walking towards us from the left, as he walked his blue-grey overcoat was opening revealing a red lining, also down his trouser legs was a red stripe, this was a prize indeed. I picked up my 鈥楤ren and took a sight on him, I let go a short burst and he still kept walking. I assumed they had gone high, and then I realised that I had got 470 on my sights, I lowered my aim to about 20 yards in front of him and when I saw the bullets kicking up the earth in front of him I slowly bought my aim up. I saw the bullets kick the earth and then travelling towards him, then they had him, I must have stitched him from the crotch to his German hat, for that went spinning as he flung up his arms and collapsed on the ground. I kept my aim on him for I guessed if he was a General then somebody was going to get him in, dead or not. Sure enough, four Jerries came running up to drag him back, I gave them a long burst and they stayed where they were. Nothing happened after that so I put down my gun and went outside for a breath of fresh air.
Vic collared me outside and asked me about Slim, he had been looking for him again, but could not find him, then he asked me if I would go and take a look around to see if I could find him. Well, I was still on a high, as they say now, so I went out on the road and up to my last guard position, he wasn鈥檛 there so I tried the next house. The door was open so I tiptoed in and stood at the top of the cellar steps, I could hear talking and I thought of that burst of fire through the hedge that had put the wind up me. It must have been these two 鈥榗rows鈥�, so I fired a bullet from my rifle into the wall at the top of the stairs. Straight away there were cries of 鈥淐omrade, Comrade鈥�, and they stumbled up the stairs with hands held high. The look on their faces when they saw me, I nearly wet my pants laughing, anyway I sent them down again to get their equipment and guns, then took them back to Vic. When he asked me where I had found them, I told him they were in position on the other side of the road. He gave them a dressing down and told them to man their carrier, they went rushing away and as Vic watched them he said, 鈥淏astards鈥�, so I reckon he had a good idea what had happened although I never said anything.
At the bottom of the farmyard was a chicken run fastened to the wall, it looked a pretty strong roof, I got Pinkie to give me a leg up and keeping low I looked over the wall. 鈥淏loody hell鈥�, I shouted to Pinkie, 鈥渉alf the German army is here.鈥� It was certainly true, I saw four three-ton troop carriers and God knows how many Germans, four teams were setting up 鈥榤ortars鈥�, and two or three Officers were out in front. One of them, I should think he was the C.O. was looking at the farm through field glasses, he seemed to be looking right at me. Pinkie had handed me the Bren by then, and I took aim at the Officer with the field glasses, then I had a quick rethink. If I fired they would scatter and then mortar us, then we would be attacked in a mass. We had not got a cat in hells chance, they would either kill us or capture us, and I fancied there would be no mercy for us when they found they had got the ones who had killed there General. I put the safety catch on and slid down that roof as quick as I could, shouting for Vic as I did so. I told him what I had seen and he didn鈥檛 hesitate, he shouted for the lads to start up and follow him, then we were away.
We had only gone about 100 yards when he stopped and got out of his carrier and ran into the field, we saw a soldier with his rifle in the firing position on the ground behind a bank. Vic lay down beside him, then we saw him take the rifle from him and he ran back to us. He shouted that the man was dead without a mark on him, and then we were off again. We were doing about forty when suddenly Vic put his 鈥榓nchors鈥� on, I was so close behind that I had to swing to his side to avoid him. I asked him what was up, he pointed in front of him and said one word, 鈥淭anks鈥�, I looked and sure enough just appearing over the rise in front of us was the turret of a tank. Vic stood up on his seat, then he shouted 鈥淗ooray,鈥� and so it was, the tanks were ours.
There were three of them and by the time we had got in line they were with us. The first one stopped and a Sergeant leaned out and asked if we had seen an anti-tank gun on the road. We said we had not, then he took his field glasses and looked up the road, he said that someone had left one up here somewhere, so he had better go and look for it. Vic told him about the Germans I had seen, but that did not seem to bother him, and they passed us to go up the road. As for us, we tailed it down the road, we heard mortar bursts, so we guessed the Jerries and the tanks had found each other. I happened to glance at a signboard as we passed it, it said Bas Warneton, it was the name of the village we had just left, and now we were making for Warneton. We finally arrived at H.Q. and Vic vanished to get his orders for our next task. He came out looking very glum, and I could not blame him when he told me what we had to do. He got into his carrier, told Slim to wait at H.Q. and me to follow him, we went through the town to a farm, through the farm to a steel open sided barn, stopped, and then he told me what we had got to do.
Apparently we had been put with another Brigade, the Guards no less, a territorial mob with regulars among them and they were expecting to be attacked, probably both sides at any time. We, poor fools, were the guards on the Guards, we were to spread out on the field and to stop any troops from retreating. If they would not turn back, we were to fire high as a warning, if they still came on, we were to kill or wound a couple, the idea being to stop the rot. If too many got away with it, the rest would follow and we would all be in the 鈥榖ag鈥� and although I did not like it, I had no desire to be killed or captured.
It soon grew dark and we could see the flash of the tracer bullets as the battle began, a few wounded began to trickle back, then we noticed that it was taking a lot of men to move the wounded. In one case, there were six men to move one who had got a bullet in his arm, he was quite capable of walking by himself, we sent the others back, there was a lot of argument but they went. So it went on until dawn, then the fighting really began, mortars and artillery, which meant we were in it too, but we had to stick there, turning those back we thought were 鈥榮kiving鈥� and helping those that were not. A couple of hours of this and we were surprised by an influx of about fifty troops, some without rifles and behind them, with revolvers drawn, were a handful of 鈥楻edcaps鈥� (Military Police), so it looked as if there was not as many wounded as we thought. We gave them as many rifles as we could, we had been picking up quite a few as we wandered around, and they went on their way. They would have a lot to explain when they got back to their mates.

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