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

aroundour flank without stretching his supply lines to an impossible degree. No, thisis the only way he can get to us, and us to him. It’s a narrow strip as you cansee, and it leads up to the coast.’

‘Glad we’re in a tank going through that,’ whispered PhilLawrence. Danny and Arthur couldn’t agree more.

‘Once we’re past all this, up here is our goal.’ Turner’s sticktapped on Tobruk which lay on the coast of Libya, three hundred miles to thewest of Alamein.

‘Our boys are there and they’re getting quite a pounding. Jerryhas them surrounded and, as we found out over the last few months, they’redesperate to take Tobruk. If they take it, they’ll have another port to bringin men and equipment. They’ll not have to worry about us attacking them frombehind their lines. As you may gather, Tobruk is of tremendous strategicimportance to both sides. If we can end the siege, we’ll have a foothold inCyrenaica from which we can strike westward towards Benghazi, here,’ saidTurner pointing to a coastal city to the west of Tobruk, ‘and then to Tripoli.With the fall of Tripoli, Libya will ours. Any questions?’

Arthur nudged Danny in the ribs.

‘Go on, son, now’s your chance.’

Danny whispered back, in no uncertain terms, that this was not thecase.

Arthur put his hand up. Danny glanced in askance at his friend.

‘Yes,’ said Turner, ‘That man over there.’ In fact, Turner seemedrather surprised by this. His request for questions was always met with a stonysilence.

Arthur, grinning broadly, said, ‘My mate Danny here has aquestion. He’s a bit shy.’

The group erupted into laughter as it was plain from the look onDanny’s face that the last thing, he had on his mind was to ask a question.

‘Go on, son,’ urged Arthur ‘stand up.’

By now Turner was grinning broadly as was Lieutenant ColonelLister. Turner was now in on the joke.

‘Up you get, young man.’

Danny rose reluctantly to his feet, managing to give Arthur a kickon the way up.

‘Ow,’ exclaimed Arthur, ‘no need for that, Danny-boy.’

More laughter from the semi-circle of men and Turner. All eyeswere now on Danny. He took a deep breath and decided in for a penny.

‘What’s your name?’ asked Turner.

‘Shaw, sir.’

‘Carry on, Shaw,’ said Turner, trying to supress his grin.

‘First of all, sir, thank you for a very clear presentation on thegeography of the country and our objective. My friend Private Perry here,that’s Arthur Perry everyone, is a bit slow so I’ll explain it to him againlater.’

Once more the men erupted into laughter; none more so that Arthur.

‘So my question is,’ at which point Danny paused while he thoughtfuriously of something to ask. ‘My question is how much of the success ofRommel is down to him or to better equipment?’

Danny heard Arthur exhale loudly. It was probably the only soundin the group. If you could have heard a pin drop it would probably have been fromthe grenade Danny had just lobbed. Turner raised his eyebrows and glanced atLister. The exchange of glances caused Danny’s heart to sink. Had he gone toofar? Danny risked a glance in the direction of Lister. There was a smile on thelieutenant colonel’s face. Beside him stood the same captain from earlier. Hisface was thunder. A few of the other officers seemed to be smiling, though.

‘Perhaps I should answer this question,’ said Lister, taking over.He walked towards the group and stood beside Turner. ‘It’s a very good question,I might add, from Shaw. It’s one, I suspect, that you men have asked yourselvesmore than once. We should be careful about turning Rommel into someindestructible force. He’s a man just like us. He will be prone to mistakeslike all of us. We just need to put him under the kind of pressure he’s put usunder. When that happens, we shall see what he’s made of.’

Danny was still on his feet with his eyes on Lister. However, hecould see the other officers nodding in agreement.

‘In terms of their armour, there’s no question of the destructivepotential of the eighty-eights. And yes, the Panzer tanks are formidable. Butwe have more Crusaders now and we have control of the air. And we havesomething else on our side which the Nazis do not. We are right. They are not.The German soldier is fighting for oppression. We are fighting for freedom.This is a critical difference. Always remember that, young man. If you do thenyou’ll realise, when it matters, that we’re more than a match for him.’

Danny sat down and could barely glance at Arthur who’d buried hishead to hide his laughter.

Unsurprisingly there were no more questions and the meeting brokeup. Danny, Arthur and Phil trooped back to their tanks in the company of RayHill and Jim Hamilton. By now, out of earshot of the officers, they were alllaughing uncontrollably.

‘Bloody hell, Danny, I didn’t mean that you should question theway the war’s been run,’ said Arthur.

‘I couldn’t think of anything else,’ whispered Danny, stilllaughing.

‘Bloody idiot,’ concluded Arthur.

-

Lister watched them go. Withoutwaiting for the colonel, the captain spun around and walked away. The colonelwas surprised that he was surprised by this. He watched him enter a large tentthat served as an Officer’s Mess. Moments later he motioned for Sergeant Reed tojoin him. Reed was tough, competent and respected. Everything that the captainwas not. Turner walked alongside Reed towards the colonel. The latterrepresented the best of English public schools. The captain, on the other hand,exemplified the very worst. Conceit, arrogance and questionable judgement. Anyfurther thoughts he had on the subject were interrupted by Reed.

‘Sir,’ said Reed saluting, ‘Themen are with Corporals Heath and Cornwell.’

‘Good, find out who that boywas. He was the one that had the scuffle earlier, wasn’t he? He handled himselfwell, I thought.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Reed, a halfsmile on his face.

The sergeant had thought so,too.

 3

El Alamein, Egypt, August 1941

 

Late afternoon revealed no let-up in the heat. Danny and his mateswere, by now, in full grumble mode, albeit under their breath as they sat andate what was to become a very familiar diet of stewed bully beef, biscuits andtea.

‘Christ,’ said Arthur, ‘I don’t know what’s worse, the