Alamein by Iain Gale

Author:Iain Gale [Iain Gale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007365975
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

He had never imagined that this could happen to him. To be not quite forty and to be leading a platoon of his countrymen in this bloody barren wilderness so many thousands of miles from home. Was this what he had been preparing for all his life? Of course he still felt an allegiance to the old country. His family had only emigrated in 1914. He was a Geordie, as his granny told him every time he had seen her. Newcastle was his family home although for the past twenty-five years it had been Adelaide. Maybe when this was all over he’d set up on his own. He reckoned they could be in for some sort of payment for war service and every town needed plasterers. That’s what he’d do, start a little business and they could all move to a nice house in Brighton, Glenelg or even Kensington Gardens.

He didn’t mind it when the lads called him a ‘pom’. He liked it, if the truth be known. He thought about Mabel and their two girls, back in Helmsdale, aged fourteen and twelve now. He wondered what they were doing at this moment, and tried to work out what time it would be down under.

‘How’re ya doing, Lofty?’

Kibby stared at him and shook his head. ‘I’ve told you, Herb mate. Try to call me Sarge or something. I’m only your bloody platoon commander.’

‘Sorry, mate. I mean Sarge. S’pose I should really call you sir.’

‘Come on, Herb. The day I make officer you can ship me back to Adelaide. You’ll never see a pip on these shoulders.’

Herb Ashby grinned at him. He liked Kibby. They were good mates in fact.

Lofty was the only nickname he could ever have had in the army, Australian army at least. At five-foot-six Kibby was the shortest man in his platoon. But he made up for his lack of height with a formidable strength. Riding, football, cricket, anything outdoors and Bill Kibby was your man. It had been only natural to have joined the Militia six years back. They’d made him an artilleryman, a gunner. He’d liked that. The idea of sending a huge heavy shell through the air appealed to him. But when war had broken out he’d joined the infantry. So here he was, a bloody footslogger, in the Twenty-fourth Australian.

But even as Ashby smiled, Kibby was burning with a need to tell him. Tell anyone. That was why he knew he’d never make an officer. He was too keen to share all he knew with the men, even though now he realized why you didn’t want to tell the men everything. Since he’d assumed command of the platoon he’d quickly come to have a different regard for officers. He’d always thought them a bit dim really. It was the sarges that did all the work, everyone knew that. But now, well, now he wasn’t so sure. Of course, the NCOs did all the real work but there was something else that went with being an officer.

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