Read Not Flag or Fail for Free Online

that we had come across earlier. As we sat together eating our meal I could sense there had been a change in all of us. The five high spirited young men we had been, just a few hours ago had disappeared, I suspected probably forever. I looked from face to face, all were smiling and I knew why we had survived our first action, we had come through unscathed, others hadn’t been so lucky, but that was how it was, you couldn’t change it.
    It was just before 06.00 the next morning when we got word that they were coming. We all stood waiting by our guns looking down the road.
    We were nervous, excited even, but if any of us were really scared then we were hiding it well.
    “Ok chaps here they come, watch your range, B gun take tank on the left, C gun take the wagon with the troops, D gun select your own target!” The Lieutenant shouted pointing at them with his pistol drawn. The enemy were 600 yards away so he was not going to shoot anyone, well not a German anyway.
    “Gun ready!” shouted Fishy.
    “Watch your marker, then and fire on range” I shouted back to the crew and watched as our tank drew level with Ronny’s range. ‘Boof’ went the gun, followed by a ‘Boof’ from the C gun and another from the D.
    Our gun was by now reloaded and ready, Ronny had made his adjustments.
    “Fire at will!” I shouted. At this stage there was nothing I needed to do, so I watched the tank. Our first shot had fallen about 10 yards to the right, of the tank second in line, just in front, but almost as I heard the third ‘Boof’ from our gun I saw a direct hit on the left side track. I watched as the tank started to turn on its own axis, I hadn’t meant to say anything but the excitement overtook me. “Go on!” I shouted, “give ‘em another.” And they did, but this time the turret exploded and the tank started smoking. Meanwhile, the shots from the other crews must have been finding their mark because now several other trucks and tanks were on fire. Others were either stuck, or bumping into each other, as they tried to get out of the way.
    Lieutenant Davies came back across to us, still waving his pistol about; I was really beginning to wonder about the safety catch now.
    “Come on lads! H.E. shells and let’s fire into the middle of them. Remember Bombardier Willis and his crew! No, quarter lads, don’t let them turn back” he shouted, caught up in the excitement.
    All around our guns continued to fire ‘Boof’, ‘Boof’. What a wonderful sound. A few wayward shots came back towards us from the tanks but they were too unsettled and were well out with their range finding, they really didn’t concern us. There was no infantry with us and we were not really in a position to move forward and take advantage of our success. All we could do was maintain our position and keep firing. We watched as some of the tanks and trucks managed to find a way out of the mêlée and head back the way they had come, it was frustrating however there was nothing we could do but to watch them withdraw.
    As the last of the Germans disappeared from view we started to relax a little, looking around I could see that we were all pleased with ourselves, and why not?
    The training had worked, we had fired in anger and we had hit the targets. We had forced Jerry back. Ok, so some of them now lay dead in the wreckage but we had buried a few good blokes ourselves, so we weren’t going to loose any sleep about that.
    The smell of cordite hung in the morning air. As the sound of the guns died away and with our hearing getting back to normal, the sound of birdsong could be heard in the woods behind us. I looked at my watch it was 07.40, the action must have lasted for just over an hour and yet it had seemed like only a few minutes, if I needed proof, I only had to look at the pile of empty shell cases over by the gun. They added up to a lot more than a few minutes firing.
    Lieutenant Davies came over towards us; thankfully he had put the pistol back