Second World War 10.Day of the Tiger by Stuart Minor

Author:Stuart Minor [Stuart Minor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten.

The sky was black above Jack as he sat in the shallow slit trench, his eyes drooping with fatigue as the sound of gunfire echoed across the night shrouded land.

They had held the wood late into the evening before the order to withdraw had arrived, the British guns screening them as they fell back from the trees.

They had been told that the brigade was going to pull out during the night and now they were waiting to go, the men on edge as the sound of engines rumbled in the distance as the guns were withdrawn, the perimeter slowly shrinking as the units slipped away into the darkness.

‘How much longer do we have to wait here for?’ Reg asked, as he sat huddled beneath his cape.

‘Not long now,’ Jack said, for the fifth time, his eyes watching as a string of flares fluttered across the horizon.

‘If the Germans find out that we’re slipping out from under ‘em, they’ll throw everything they’ve got at us,’ Reg muttered.

‘Fritz doesn’t like to fight at night,’ Jack replied.

‘Neither do I.’

Jack smiled, before turning as a battery of self-propelled guns erupted to life nearby, the shadows breaking as flashes of white light spilt across the fields like sheet lightning.

Jack felt himself crouch further down as he watched the shells burn through the sky, the explosions echoing with muffled gasps across the fields as they burst amongst a distant wood.

‘What’s taking ‘em so bloody long?’ Reg groaned.

‘There’s only one road for the whole brigade,’ Jack said, his voice irritable.

‘It’ll be dawn before we leave.’

Jack opened his mouth to reply, when a shadow moved to his left, his eyes watching as Fred plodded out from the darkness.

‘Over here,’ Jack called out.

Fred made his way towards him, before dropping down above the parapet.

‘Budge over.’

Jack moved to one side and the big sergeant squeezed into the cutting.

‘When are we going?’ Reg asked.

‘Soon,’ Fred replied.

‘You’ll tell me anything.’

‘Then why’d yow keep bloody asking?’

Reg grunted in response.

‘The battery on our left will be pulling out soon, we’ve got to hold our position until they’re out of harms way,’ Fred said, before breaking a chunk of corned beef into three pieces and sharing them out.

‘Let’s hope Jerry doesn’t hear them go,’ Jack replied.

Fred nodded, before glancing above the parapet as a streak of tracer flickered to the right.

‘I’ve been told that our bombers are going to plaster a couple of nearby villages to cover the withdrawal, they should make enough racket to keep Jerry busy.’

‘Let’s hope they don’t drop anything near us,’ Reg moaned.

‘How are your section looking?’ Fred asked.

‘Knackered,’ Jack replied. ‘I promised Stan I’d come and relieve him on picket after two hours.’

‘He’s probably snoring his head off,’ Reg said.

‘He better bloody not be. We’re spread so thin that Jerry could walk through us in a dozen places,’ Fred replied, his voice concerned. He rolled up his sleeve and glanced at his watch, before turning to where the battery lay hidden amongst the hedgerows. ‘Yow had best go and relieve ‘em,’ he said.

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