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

back into the tank turret uttering an oath. Onwards thetank trundled, oblivious to the puddles and the mud.

‘Weshould call the tank, “Pig”. It bloody loves this weather,’ said Arthur, wipingthe rain off his face.

‘You’renot such a big fan of the rain, I take it?’ replied Danny, down below. He wasmanning the machine gun but was likely to be unemployed unless the local deercame armed with anti-tank guns.

‘No, I’m bleedin’ not,’ growled Arthur.

‘We need the rain. How do things grow, otherwise?’ pointed outDanny reasonably.

‘Go on back to the sticks, country boy,’ replied Arthur. The tankseemed to dive at that point into a large pothole. ‘Bloody hell, what wasthat?’

He was told they were going through a ditch. The tank suddenlyreared up again, throwingArthur backwards, much to his chagrin. The laughter of the other men was asmuch sympathy as Arthur was ever going to get. He rubbed the back of his headand continued to grouse as they advanced.

Therewere five men in the tank. They were still in training, so roles were rotated eachday. Three people sat in the compact turret of the A13. The commander, a gunnerand the wireless operator

‘Arewe near our objective?’ shouted Arthur, who was the gunner. His positionoffered no hatch and his only view of what lay aheadwas through the narrow aperture of his gun sight. As the tank bumped around somuch, he had little idea of where they were.

‘Why don’t you get your arse up top and see for yourself?’ shoutedCorporal Phil Lawrence who was the commander of the tank on this day. Lawrence,much to the delight of Danny and Arthur had joined them at Thursley a couple ofweeks previously having had a request to join the Royal Tank Regiment accepted.

‘I did. It’s too wet,’ pointed out Arthur. ‘What if we come across an Italian tank?’

Thisbrought a volley of abuse from the boys below. Reluctantly, Arthur opened theturret again and looked out. The rain had eased off to a mild drizzle. Dropletsfell from his steel helmet.

Therewas a shout from below, ‘Well?’

‘Justup ahead. I’ll have to open the gate,’ replied Arthur. He climbed out of theturret and opened a wooden farm gate originally intended to keep hostile cattleor sheep at bay. The tank followed Arthur through the gate onto a road. Acrossof the field was their destination. It was a pub, “The Fox and Hound”.

Fivemen emerged from the top of the tank and jogged towards the pub.

‘Doyou think it’s all right to leave it there?’ asked Danny as he entered the pub.

‘Leaveit out,’ said Arthur, ‘Even Jerry wouldn’t invade on a day like this. Mine’s abitter, as you asked.’ The others laughed and called out their orders to Dannywho strode towards the bar,

Thebarmaid sized up Danny and turned her smile on full beam. She was probablytwice Danny’s age but that didn’t matter, she thought. There had been plentylike Danny before. There would be again. She never could resist a man inuniform. She leaned forward giving Danny an eyeful of her ample bust.

‘Whatcan I do for you?’

Dannysmiled and said, ‘Your smile is enough, darling, but, now that you mention it,five halves of bitter.’

‘Cheeky,I’ve got my eye on you.’

‘AndI’ve got my eye on you, love,’ said Danny with a wink. The other locals at thebar roared their approval at the exchange.

‘Gota live one there, Mildred,’ shouted one.

Dannybrought the drinks back in two relays. ‘Thanks for the help,’ he saidsardonically.

‘Didn’twant to cramp your style,’ said Arthur.

Dannyglanced back at Mildred and waved before turning back to his friends, andreplied, ‘More your generation, Arthur.’

Agentle clip round the back of the head was Danny’s reward. The five comradessavoured their half pints. They knew that training was at an end. It was only amatter of time before they would be posted to a theatre of conflict. Opinionsvaried on where this would be.

‘Greece,’said Lawrence, ‘Has to be. They’re an ally and they’ve been invaded. Unless wesupport them, how do we expect to get other allies?’

‘Goodpoint,’ agreed Arthur. ‘You should be a politician. They’re the damn fools thattook us out of Africa when we were minutes away from kicking the ‘Eyeties’ out.Now look.’

Thetwo men looked at Danny. He was shaking his head in a manner they had grownused to and also to respect.

‘Lookslike the child disagrees,’ said Lawrence.

‘Hejust wants to be playing with his toys,’ continued Arthur.

Dannygrinned, ‘I like the big toy outside. Never had anything like that when I wasgrowing up.’

‘Letme know when you grow up,’ said Arthur, as his six-foot two friend collectedthe glasses and brought them back to the bar for a refill.

‘Here,here,’ said Lawrence, ‘He’s back on the pull.’

WhenDanny returned from the bar with another round, he looked at their eager facesand said, ‘Yeah, it could be Greece but I’m with Arthur. It has to be NorthAfrica.’

Lawrencelooked glum. He knew the boys were right.

‘Wewere all but home and dry there. It’s like Stoke going one nil up and thenpulling Stanley Matthews off because they think the game’s over. We could have hadAfrica sorted and then dealt with bloody Greece. Old Adolf would have beensurrounded on all sides.’

‘He’sno Denis Compton, though,’ said Arthur puffing on his pipe.

‘Who?’asked Lawrence.

‘Matthews.’

‘Getout of it,’ replied Lawrence, a native of that jewel in the midlands.

‘Idon’t see Matthews coming in at number three for Surrey, any time soon,’guffawed Arthur.

Dannyignored Arthur and replied to Lawrence, ‘Like or not, we’ve not got enough menout there at the moment. They need to cut Jerry off from all that oil.’

‘Harkat him,’ said Arthur, ‘Fifteen weeks or so of training and he’s a proper littlegeneral now.’

Theother two men in the group, were around Danny’s age remained quiet through allthis nonsense. Jim Donnelly and Will Anderson sat looking on in silence. Theywere happy to listen to their fellow recruits. Donnelly was small in staturewith a gap-toothed smile. He operated the radio while Anderson, a mechanic bytrade, doubled on the machine gun and made repairswhen the tank broke down, which was a frequent occurrence.

‘You’requiet,’ said Arthur, looking at Anderson. ‘Is the tank all right?’

Andersonwiggled his hands to indicate that this was a fifty-fifty answer.

‘What’swrong?’ asked Danny.

‘Enginesounded ropey back there,’