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  "Run!"

  All attention was on the inferno and the devastation we had caused. I hoped we would make it back to the tank before we were seen. The party of Italians spoiled that. The flames shone on us and they opened fire. I drew my Luger and, kneeling carefully, fired eight shots off as calmly as though I was on the firing range. Bullets flew over my head and struck the edge of the bank but I was spared. I shot three of them and the rest of my section got the others. I was about to run when I saw that Private Moore was lying on the ground. The other three were already racing towards the tank some three hundred yards in front of us.

  He looked up weakly and tried to smile, "Leave me Sarge."

  I picked him up and slung him as gently as I could over my left shoulder. "We never leave a wounded Commando behind. Now you watch my back." I ran.

  By now the enemy camp had come to life and although some were dealing with the fire others were firing at the fleeing figures. We were running into the dark and it was hard for them to estimate distance and speed. They largely missed. I saw the other three dive beneath the tank. I still had over a hundred yards to go. Suddenly Moore shouted, "Behind you! Three of them!"

  I spun and dropped to my knee. Bullets filled the space above my head. I fired my last three shots. Two of them fell. One clutching his face, he was dead. I was out of bullets. Moore raised his hand and emptied his Colt at the last German who was raising his rifle to shoot me. The German was thrown back by the force of the bullets.

  Then I heard Sergeant Latimer's voice as he shouted, "Fire!" I saw the flames from the ends of the guns as a veritable barrage erupted.

  I stood and lumbered the last hundred and forty yards. Gordy and Ken came to grab Moore from me. I nodded, "Thanks Sergeant. Now let's get the hell out of here!"

  I heard Gordy shout, "Medic! Bill!"

  We reached the safety of the sandbags. Moore was lying on his back. Bill was there and I saw a doctor racing with a stretcher. I looked down at Private Moore, "Thanks Alan, you saved my life."

  He nodded and tried to smile. I saw a trickle of blood from his mouth. Bill moved him so that he could see the wound. Moore's face was close to mine. "I'm not going to die am I Sarge? I don't want to die! I'm scared!"

  I smiled, "You? A Commando scared? I don’t believe it."

  I saw Bill shake his head. The doctor arrived. Even before he had examined Moore I knew that the boy was going to die. "Sarge, tell my mum…"

  He pitched forward and died in my arms. I would never know what he wanted me to tell his mum.

  Chapter 18

  We did not even have time to mourn as Captain Troughton shouted, "Here they come!"

  The Germans and Italians must have been maddened by our attack and they hurled themselves across the open ground before us. The damaged tank worked in their favour now as it blocked the field of fire of the Vickers. I was weapon less. I took the Colt from Moore's dead fingers. I rested the gun against the sandbags. The Vickers were sweeping side to side and hitting targets but some had clambered on top of the wrecked tank. One Vickers' crew were killed before we realised. I took a bead on an Italian and, at eighty yards range the white face disappeared. I moved the Colt a little more and saw a second Italian clutch his arm and fall. I heard Gordy's Lee Enfield as he began to pick them off.

  Sergeant Latimer shouted, "Sir I can hear the tanks! Johnson, Drake, get that grenade rifle in action."

  It was a desperate defence. We were in the dark and our enemies were advancing in great numbers. When my Colt clicked empty I climbed into the Vickers' pit and pulled the triggers. I managed to fire a dozen shots before I needed to adjust the belt. Bill Becket jumped in and began to feed the ammunition through. I just kept swinging the gun from side to side. I was aware of bullets coming towards me but I forced myself to ignore them. I heard the crump as the grenade rifle lobbed grenade after grenade towards the advancing enemy. The surviving mortars also created a firestorm through which the enemy had to advance. The trouble was that we were firing blind.

  I don't know what made me look down but I did and I saw two Germans crawling along the ground. I could not depress the barrel and, when they saw that I had seen them they leapt at me with their bayonets. I heard Bill shout as he was speared. I managed to knock aside the barrel of the German rifle. The German fired and I heard a scream from behind me. The German was a big man and he knocked me over. I reached down for my knife but I could not find it. I did find the Luger and I swung it hard at the side of his head. He rolled from me but his left hand grabbed my battledress. As I fell on him I punched him repeatedly in the face with the butt of the pistol until his face was a bloody mess and he was still.

  I wrested the rifle from his dead hands and swung the bayonet down into the back of the second German who was trying to strangle Bill. I pulled his body and shouted, "Medic!" The bayonet had pierced his arm and he was bleeding heavily. I worked the bolt and swung the rifle up just in time to shoot an Italian who was levelling his rifle to shoot me. He was just ten feet away and the force of the shot threw him back.

  And then it was over. There were no more men in front of us. Sergeant Latimer shouted, "Cease fire!"

  We had held them. I turned and looked at our line. There were entwined bodies of Germans, Italians and English. Captain Troughton was lying clutching his shoulder. He had been shot. I turned to Sergeant Latimer, "The tanks?"

  "One has pulled back and there are two still there. I think we hit them but in the dark…"

  "Curtis, Barker, grab some grenades and come with me."

  I took out my Luger and reloaded it. Picking up two stick grenades from the Germans I had just killed I ran into the dark towards the tanks. A hand reached up and tripped me. As I fell I shot the German between the eyes and then struggled to my feet. I saw one of the tanks. Its cannon had been bent. Suddenly the machine gun fired and I barely had time to dive out of the way. I was fortunate it could not depress to the right. I clambered up on top, opened the hatch and dropped a grenade in. I shut the hatch and dived to the side. Six seconds later a wall of fire and hot air came from the driver's visor.

  I saw Gordy and Ken leap on to the second tank and drop grenades inside. "Right lads, back!"

  There was just one tank left now and it only had a machine gun. I began to hope we might survive.

  We waited for the next attack which never came. Dawn broke and we could see the remains of the battle. A pall of smoke still drifted over the battlefield. On the rise the wrecked guns and Kübelwagen showed the success of our raid. The enemy had retreated back to the high ground. We had taught them to respect us at least. The khaki bodies lying covered with blankets showed the cost. Sergeant Latimer came over with a mug of tea for each of us.

  "Well, Tom, it looks like you and I are in command. The only officer without a wound is the Doctor."

  I nodded, "And how many effectives?"

  He shook his head, "We just have your lads, four of them, and I have forty two."

  "Any chance of relief?"

  "The Captain is staying by the radio chivvying them up but they Germans and the Italians are still attacking up north."

  "Then we make it hard for them. We have to make a solid wall around the front. Make them come up that drive river bed. We booby trap that."

  "Good idea but what do we use for a wall." He waved an arm around the scrubby piece of land. "There's sod all here to use."

  "Fill the old ammunition boxes with sand. They will stop a bullet. Those sandbags stopped the cannon shells. Use rocks." I pointed to the mud huts which had borne the brunt of the shelling. "Use bits of the hut."

  He nodded, "Right."

  "I'll take my lads and we'll see if we can make the river bed a death trap."

  I found the others looking hollow eyed. They too were drinking tea and eating corned beef on days old bread. "Right lads when we have finished breakfast we need to make the dry river bed a dangerous place for the Germans."

  Gordy nodded as he picked up his mug. "Aye, now that w
e have shown them how to use it they will be along soon enough. Any chance of relief, Sarge?"

  I shook my head, "The attack further north is as bad as here. They will get here when they get here." I finished my tea and laid it on a rock, "Why are you in a hurry? Have you got a date?"

  The others laughed. Ken shook his head, "It was hard last night. I thought they were going to overrun us."

  "And tonight they will come mob handed. They must know how close they came to breaking through. They will bring more guns and next time we won't be able to sneak up on them." I stood. "Still we will do what we can do. Ken, see what explosives you can get." I pointed to the enemy bodies lying just beyond our perimeter. "There may be some left there. Gordy, take Polly and see if there is any spare barbed wire. John, get the last of the parachute cord." I pointed to the Bergens of the wounded. "There may be some left in their bags. Mine is all gone."

  While I waited for them I checked my Luger. Thanks to the men we had killed I had plenty of ammunition from their bodies. The rest of the section was now using Lee Enfields. There were plenty left from our dead and wounded. Sergeant Latimer was busy directing his men. I saw that there were just two Vickers left in action and they had had to cannibalise the others to make two of them function. There were three Bren guns and the saviour that was the anti tank rifle. The mortars were all gone.

  I put the Luger in my belt and wandered over to him. "Graham, just a thought, if you half bury the mortar shells you have left then you can fire at them when they advance. If they explode it might make life difficult for them. They are no use otherwise are they?"

  "I'll give it a go." He looked up at the sky which was now cloudless. "I reckon we will have aeroplanes today."

  I nodded, "I am surprised they didn't send them yesterday." I saw my men returning. I picked up the entrenching tool. "I'll be off."

  Ken had six stick bombs. "There wasn't much left."

  "They will have to do." The others followed me to the river bed. "John, give me the cords. Now go ahead of us and keep a look out. I don't want to be surprised." He handed me the cords and ran at the crouch ahead of us. We all kept low. I saw John kneeling behind a bit of scrubby vegetation ahead, "Now we crawl."

  The dry bed was some four feet deep. The bottom was largely rock free. We had found it easy to cross in the dark. The enemy would too. "Gordy, I want you to lay the wire just beyond Connor. We need it to reach from bank to bank. It does not matter if it isn't one piece just so that it is an obstacle."

  While he and Polly used the bits of wire they had found I led Ken back down the bed. "They will be cautious until they come to the wire. It won't take them long to get through it. I reckon they will check the first few yards for booby traps. That is why we will put them here, thirty paces from the wire. They will have a good chance of tripping them if we put a cord all the way across." I handed him the small spade. "Dig holes for the stick bombs. I'll be back." I used some of the precious parachute cord to make short trip wires. They would find them and expect bombs. These were decoys. I dug holes and buried the cord in them. I used just four short cords at random. They would waste time with them…I hoped.

  Gordy and Polly joined me. "Pick up as many small stones as you can."

  Ken had finished three holes. "Spread the other three out further down. We are trying to make them slow up." I broke the porcelain on the first of the grenades and took out the arming cord. I laid it down so that the cord hung out. "Now you two fill the hole with small stones. I want to make this into a minefield." I tied a two feet length of cord to the grenade and then laid it out to the side. I used my knife to make a hole. I jammed the end of the cord into the hole and held it there with a stone which I forced into the crevice. I took a handful of sand and small stones and covered the cord.

  It took a couple of hours to finish the job to my satisfaction. There were now grenades spread out over a large area. I whistled and Connor came back. As he neared my minefield I said, "Pick your feet up and don't step on any stones."

  As we made our way back Gordy said, "I am surprised they haven't come yet."

  "Me too. There will be a reason. The Germans are very methodical."

  The perimeter looked much sturdier when we returned. The Sergeant had disguised the sand filled boxes with bits of vegetation and more sand. None would stop a tank but they only had one left. Sergeant Latimer nodded as I arrived. "We have a line of mortar shells going to the left and right of the first wrecked tanks. The others were too close to the enemy. We might not even need to use a rifle. One of my corporals thinks that the weight of a foot would set it off. Certainly a tank will."

  Just then a voice from behind shouted, "Aeroplanes! Stukas!"

  I shaded my eyes against the bright sky and saw the flight of six Stukas heading from the north. "Take cover!"

  We had more cover now but we did not have enough machine guns any more. The Vickers could not fire up and we had to use the three Bren guns. We would not be able to use the wall of fire. I picked up a German rifle and dropped into the slit trench. I leaned the barrel on the sandbags and waited. As they screamed down towards us I realised that I should have taken a tin lid from one of the bodies. It would do them no further good and it might save my life. It was too late for that now. The gull winged beasts became larger as they drew near. Suddenly they dived. I had faced them before but some of these Green Howards knew nothing of them. The screaming sirens seemed to fill the air with a primeval cry.

  The Bren guns opened up. I waited. The first Stuka seemed to be diving at a point just in front of me. I saw its bomb fall and then it pulled up. As it became a cross in my German sights, I fired as fast as I could pump fresh bullets. The bomb struck the ground ahead of me. The sand bags protected me. I hit the Stuka. I was certain of that. It began to wobble a little and then, instead of rising for a second run it headed home.

  I had little chance for self congratulation for the next ones screamed down. One kept on going as it was struck by Bren guns. It had two bombs on board and the explosion totally disorientated me. It also put off the aim of the next Stukas.

  The remaining four rose to make another attack. Gordy said, "I thought I was the marksman. How in hell did you do that?"

  "An aeroplane is complicated and there are controls and wires running all over. I was lucky. I must have severed one."

  The Stukas dived again. Having rid ourselves of two the men had more confidence now and a third was hit and flew west, low, smoking. The last three left but they had done enough. The new defences had provided more protection than before but there were still wounded and dying men. Another of the Bren guns had been damaged too. The only good aspect was the fact that there were now seven craters which would be a slight barrier to the tank when it chose to come.

  When the enemy had not attacked in force until early afternoon we feared the worst. Captain Troughton asked us to go to him so that we could report. We were now the senior NCOs. Two of the wounded officers had died when a Stuka had machine gunned the medical tents. The Company was now little better than a large platoon.

  "They'll be back sir. I reckon tonight."

  "Can we hold them, Sergeant?"

  Sergeant Latimer looked at the ground. "I don't know, sir. They almost broke through last night. We have fewer men and fewer machine guns now. They only have one tank but that is all that they do need. If the grenade rifle packs in then…"

  The Captain nodded, "I have radioed Headquarters in Torbruk. They have promised relief as soon as it can be sent but they have only just seen off another enemy attack."

  "Perhaps they will back off here then, sir?"

  The Captain shook his head, "We have shown how vital this corner of the desert is. They will want it, if only to deny us its use." He looked despondent, "We have to hold until the last bullet."

  Sergeant Latimer stood a little taller, "Don't you worry sir, we will. They don't realise that they have tangled with the Green Howards and the Commandos! That is a combination which cannot fail."


  As we left the half wrecked hut I pointed to the dry river bed. "I think that will need defending too, Sergeant."

  He shouted, "Reed, get the Bren and set it up to cover the river bed." Peering down he smiled, "I reckon the barbed wire will slow them down."

  "Aye and the Bren will discourage them."

  The first sign of an attack was the rapid gunfire from the high ground. Although they were too far away to be accurate they kept the defenders' heads down. I heard the sound of the last Italian tank as it lumbered towards us. The craters meant it could not drive in a straight line. Italians walked behind it and were safe from our shots. Gordy was lying on the half roof which remained on the mud hut. He fired at every piece of flesh that he could see. He was wearing them down slowly. We had no target at which to fire. The tank was impervious to our bullets.

  The grenade rifle had but two grenades left. They both hit the tank but neither damaged the track. The crew would have had a headache but still it came on. Our only hope was the buried mortar shells. We could not fire at them until the infantry walked close by them. The tank would be the first to cross our improvised minefield. The half buried shells were laid out in double lines a hundred and twenty yards from us. I braced myself as the tank drove over the first one. Nothing happened. Perhaps the sand was too soft and the shell had been driven deeper. I regretted not doing the job myself. We knew how to make improvised traps; the Howards did not.

  Perhaps the second row of shells was buried better for the tank suddenly lifted with a crump as it drove over one. We knew the tank had been damaged when it slewed around on its broken trap. This was where we needed the grenade rifle and it had no ammunition left. The turret on the tank still worked and it turned its machine gun spraying our defences at point blank range. The sand filled boxes and sand bags stopped the bullets penetrating but they also kept our heads down.