The Shadow of War by Jack Murray (latest ebook reader txt) 📗

I would. Ican’t. All I can do is make sure that you and the rest of these young men aretrained to such a degree that your chances of survival are greater. I want thatyou all be inculcated with the values and the esprit de corps that ensure thatyou work effectively together. This is how we will defeat the Nazis.’

The three men stood toattention, eyes ahead as the colonel spoke. With each word, Bob’s shameincreased. Danny suspected this was the case and felt deeply for his friend.Paradoxically, he also began to feel something else. It wasn’t for another yearbefore he could identify what the feeling was. By then he was in the middle ofdesert, dust and death. The feeling was love. Love for his friends and for hisfellow recruits.

Foster had paused to let hiswords sink in. He could see they were having the intended effect.

‘Harn will be given fourteendays detention. We’ll let him out. No doubt he’ll try again. This time alone.He may succeed, who knows? If not, we’ll repeat the process. We’ll probably try and post himelsewhere after that. No doubt, in return, we shall receive someone else justlike him.’

The three men waited for theirpunishment, for they were all, by now, convinced this was where things wereheading.

‘You three men,’ said Foster,pausing for a moment while he looked each in the eye. They were all verydifferent, he thought. Carruthers, older, weedy and yet as likely to make agood soldier as anyone; Owen, stouter but so young to be at war so young tomarried. What madness. And then Shaw. The one they all had hopes for. Anofficer in the making, the only person who did not realise this was him.

‘You three men,’ repeatedFoster, ‘are dismissed.’

 5

Caterham Army Barracks, March1941

 

Change was in the air. Flowerswere beginning to bud. Birds were reappearing in the trees. The sound of dawnwas no longer silence or rain battering the parade ground. The heat of summer wasjust around the corner. Danny didn’t care. He was enjoying army life but, atthe same time, as he looked forward to the changes he knew would soon occur, hefelt trepidation.

It was now six weeks sincetheir arrival at the barracks. Route marches were the only occasions any ofthem had been in the outside world over this period. Captain Budd made a rareappearance at the parade ground accompanied by O’Dowd. The sergeant looked evenless happy than normal.

The platoon immediately stoodto attention, but Budd quickly made them stand at ease. He then gave them thenews they had been looking forward to for days.

‘Gentlemen, you will doubtlessbe aware that at this stage of your training some of you will be leaving andsome will stay on. Your basic training has finished. The next six weeks of yourinstruction will be specific to the branch of the army where you will beheaded. This will be revealed tomorrow. The good news is that tonight you willbe permitted to leave the barracks and go out into town. I suspect this is morelikely to be a pub than a museum.’

This was greeted with laughterby the men. Budd laughed along with them.

‘I don’t blame you. However, Ihope that you can enjoy a well-earned drink while remembering somethingtremendously important now. You are British soldiers. We hold ourselves to ahigh level of account. Do nothing that will let yourself, your comrades or yourregiment down. The locals will be very welcoming. Do not take advantage oftheir goodwill. I hope my meaning is clear. Others will follow you and theywill also want to be able to have a drink in town without encountering ill willor anger. Sergeant O’Dowd will now hand out your passes.’

He broke off for a moment.Overhead, he and the rest of the recruits could hear the sound of planes.Everyone looked up. The training had included plane identification. Thedistinctive sound and underside made these planes instantly recognisable.

‘Messerschmitt,’ said Budd. Threeplanes flew past, toohigh to take a pot shot from where they were. A minute late the sound of theplanes was a distant murmur, but the ack-ack had started.

‘Give ‘em hell, boys,’ shoutedArthur. This set off a chorus of shouts of encouragement to the gunners. Buddlooked on. He was smiling but his mood was bittersweet. Somewhere between thepride he felt for the transformation of the men before him was a sadness atwhat they would face. He avoided trying to get to know the men personally. Thiswas a factory for recruits. Most of them came in callow youths. They left asmen. Many of them were going to their deaths. Budd knew this and it saddenedhim greatly. Every night he had to console himself with the same thought: therewas a job to do.

The platoon broke up. Dannywalked with Arthur and his friends to the barracks. Tom said quietly, ‘Ithought that had all finished.’ He was referring to the Battle of Britain whichhad ended the previous year.

‘I know,’ replied Bob. ‘We gavethem a hiding.’ He wanted to believe it was true. They all did. Otherwise whatwas the point?

-

Five-thirty came. Danny wasjoined by his friends from the village as well as Carruthers and Arthur.

‘Don’t you two cramp ourstyle,’ warned Hugh Gissing to the two older men as they climbed onto the busbound for Guildford, the nearby town.

‘If my dog looked like you,mate,’ replied Arthur, ‘I’d shave its arse and teach it to walk backwards.’

Even Hugh laughed at this andthe bus set off into town. They arrived half an hour later in the centre. Itwas a nice spring evening, and still quite bright. All around were armypersonnel. All around the army were young women walking in groups.

‘I think I’m in heaven,’ saidBert Gissing as a couple of teenage girls walked past the group. ‘This place can’tbe real.’ Above their heads, the sound of music emanated from a flat. It was AlBowlly. He was waltzing in a dream. So was Danny. He looked around him withsomething approaching awe.

Until this moment he had notrealised how limited his life had been. He had accepted the monotony of life atthe forge and lived vicariously through the books in the Cavendish library. ButGuildford seemed the promise