Crusader (A Novel of WWII Tank Warfare) by Jack Murray (important of reading books .TXT) 📗

seemed to be ill at ease. Danny quickly cleared up and stored theirplates and cups. He just wanted to be doing something. It took his mind offwhatever was coming. And if the atmosphere was anything to go by, something wascoming.

-

Flares and explosions lit up the sky. Danny and the others werehuddled inside the tank. He felt his stomach flutter as the sounds of gunfireacted as a malevolent dawn chorus.

‘Should we be doing anything?’ asked Danny.

‘Don’t allow any gaps for a stray bullet,’ replied Craig.

The shooting continued for a little while and then as quickly asit had started, it stopped. Dawn was breaking and they sat inside the tankwaiting. Danny glanced at Reed who was preoccupied with looking through hisperiscope every few minutes. As tempted as he was to ask, Danny remainedsilent. Whatever he was waiting for was coming soon.

Very soon, in fact.

The guns opened up. By now Danny recognised the difference betweenthe big eighty-eight’s and the basic field artillery. The crump was definitelyfrom a big gun. All of a sudden explosions were going off all around.

‘Bloody hell,’ exclaimed Felton. ‘That’s an eight-eight.’

‘Bigger maybe,’ said Reed, eyes glued to his periscope.

‘What’s happening?’ asked Holmes.

‘Just the guns so far. They’ll be coming soon. The question is ifit will be artillery, tanks or infantry.’

At eight o’clock in the morning Reed had an answer to his questionwhen the shooting started again.

‘This is going to be a fun day,’ said Holmes motioning to Danny toload the gun. Danny immediately took the shell from his lap and opened thebreech. Moments later he had another shell on his lap waiting to go.

‘We’re not just going to sit here and wait to be hit?’ askedCraig.

Reed shook his head, ‘I thought we’d be moving by now. At somepoint we have to get to the top of the ridge at the north east of the airfield.Unless we get tanks to the top of that ridge and over the Trigh Capuzzo, we’veno way of linking up with the army at Tobruk.’

‘Can’t do it without the infantry boys,’ pronounced Craig.

‘Nope,’ agreed Reed.

As the morning wore on, the stalemate continued. The Germansseemed content to shell the valley floor but made no move. Neither side moving.Each content to offer salvo after salvo from a distance. The temperature in thetank rose with the sun. Danny was bathed in sweat and frustrated. By now hejust wanted to be doing something. Sitting here providing target practice forGerman anti-tank guns seemed bizarre. He wasn’t the only one feeling strange.

‘Aren’t we going to move, sarge?’ shouted Craig at one point. Thequerulous tone, the look of dismay. They were all feeling it. Reed held his handup. He was listening to a wireless communication. When it finished, he indicated‘no’ with a cursory shake of the head.

‘Our orders are to hold the airfield. Anyway, I don’t like theidea of getting too close to those eight-eights or hundreds, whatever they are.Brigadier Campbell is coming here. I don’t know if that means we attack todayor leave it until tomorrow.’

‘Doesn’t sound like there’s any tanks out there,’ responded Craig.

Reed nodded. He’d noticed that, too. It could mean they were underattack from infantry and a handful of anti-tank guns. In which case why nothave a pop at them from closer in. It was a strange situation. Perhaps thebrass were afraid they would be walking into a trap.

‘I agree,’ he responded finally. He put his earphones back on andlistened to any wireless traffic to understand better what the situation was.Whatever their original plan had been, Reed strongly suspected that it was nowin flames. A hail of bullets pinged off the tank.

‘I spy…’

Danny ducked down as the rest of the tank descended on him armedwith berets. He didn’t care. He was laughing and soon the others were, too.

Danny no longer noticed the bullets pinging off the tank. It hadtaken one morning’s contact with the enemy to become inured. They did no damagebut were a constant irritant, rather like flies at the camp. At least you couldswat the flies. Here Danny was unconvinced about the damage they were doing. Itseemed to him the firing from the British was desultory. From the Germans, too.As if each side was keen to keep the other honest.

By early afternoon, it was clear they were going nowhere that day.Reed confirmed as much to them when there was a lull in the firing. Danny wastasked to brew up some tea with Felton’s assistance. When they returned, Reedexplained the situation.

‘As you know, we can’t dislodge our friends on the other side ofthe escarpment without more infantry support. My guess is we’re here tonight.Tomorrow we’ll probably try to take the rest of the ridge up to point one sevenfive.’

‘By which time Jerry will have worked out what’s going on,’pointed out Holmes sourly, ‘and arranged a big party in our honour.’

Reed nodded but said nothing. He held his mug of tea up by way ofthanks to Danny. The taste of the tea and biscuits could not have been sweeterto Danny at that moment. In civilian life the taste would probably haveappalled him. Here it was feast that he’d been craving since mid-morning. Thepangs of hunger, which hadn’t really left him since breakfast, had become acuteby mid-afternoon.

They quickly cleared up the brew. As they were doing so, Craigasked the question on all their minds.

‘How long before we’ve more boiled shit to eat?’

Strangely while their situation was still hardly safe, theexplosions from the anti-tank guns were a nuisance rather than a threat. Thegreater danger would occur when they moved forward to engage the enemy. Helooked around at the faces of his tank mates. They seemed almost bored. Craigsaw Danny’s look of bemusement and he smiled wryly.

‘It’s called digging in, son.’

Danny nodded and motioned with his head towards where the fire wascoming from.

‘Do you think they’re doing the same?’ He already knew the answer.

‘Count on it,’ replied the Ulsterman.

-

The night chill penetrated Danny’s clothes, infiltrating hisbones. He stayed close to the fire and listened to the forces radio. The musicwas classical and made little impression on Danny. He much preferred music