To Do or Die by James Barrington

Author:James Barrington
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911591092
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

13 September 1939

‘OK, it’s about time. Let’s go,’ Dawson muttered and stood up. He slung the Mauser over his shoulder and checked his Schmeisser – if they met anyone, it would probably be at very close range, and the machine-pistol would be a more useful weapon than the rifle in that circumstance.

‘Ready,’ Watson acknowledged, and stood ready to follow Dawson along the meandering path that led down the gentle slope from the hill to the level farmland below.

They’d watched the activity on the plain diminish steadily as dusk fell and the darkness approached. There had been progressively less movement of troops and supplies as the shadows lengthened, and by early evening most of the German soldiers had assembled in makeshift camps consisting of groups of tents, sentries posted on the outskirts of each encampment.

That was what Dawson had been hoping would happen. The wood they’d taken shelter in was to the south of an unmade road the Germans had been using to transport men and materiel. It would have been very difficult to cross it unseen if the movements had continued through the night, and they had to cross it to make any progress towards the north-west and the border with Luxembourg.

In silence, the two sappers walked down the track that snaked through the trees. At the very bottom of the hill there was a small clearing. Just before they entered it, Dawson held up his hand, and both men stood in watchful silence, carefully checking the land ahead of them, in case the Germans had positioned sentries there. But the clearing appeared completely empty in the moonlight, the only illumination.

Dawson stepped forward, Watson a few steps behind him.

‘The road’s about a hundred yards over there,’ Dawson whispered, pointing to the north. ‘I know it all seems quiet at the moment, but I still think we ought to head east for a while.’

The two men walked around the edge of the clearing, and emerged through the trees on the far side. Beyond the wood and the hill, the land was more or less flat, a network of cultivated fields with lanes and tracks snaking around them.

‘This way,’ Dawson muttered, and began walking slowly down a narrow track that turned into a field through an open gate. They stepped through the gateway and carried on walking down the side of the field in the same direction, Dawson holding the compass in his left hand and checking it periodically.

After about half a mile, he stopped. In front of them just outside the field was another lane or track, unmade and continuing to the east.

‘I think this is about far enough, Dave,’ he muttered. ‘We don’t want to go very far this way or we’re going to get too close to that town over there – Pachten, I think it’s called. It’s time we tried to cross that road.’

Dawson led the way out of the field, across the unmade track and into the next field. The whole time both men scanned in all directions for any sign of trouble.

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