EDGE: World War One Short Stories: Through Mud and Blood by Tony Bradman

Author:Tony Bradman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781445123844
Publisher: Hachette Children's Books
Published: 2014-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Bullets Buzzing

This café was much larger than the one Jack had escaped into, with a window that gave a wider view of the square. Most of the glass had been shot out, a heavy burst of machine-gun fire disposing of the rest just as Jack emerged from the kitchen. He dived to the floor and crawled forward, his rifle cradled in his arms, pushing past over-turned tables, jagged shards of glass jabbing into his elbows and knees.

Sullivan’s men were huddled against the café’s front wall, keeping their heads below the level of the window. The lieutenant himself was on one knee beside them, at the corner of the window, peering out across the square. Jack came up beside him and assumed the same position. Sullivan glanced at him, but said nothing and returned his attention to what was going on outside, so Jack looked out too.

The café was on the right side of the square, at an angle to the building where the machine guns were sited. Each gun was crewed by two German soldiers, one feeding the long cartridge belts into the breech, the other doing the shooting, both protected by layers of sandbags stacked across the bottom of the windows. They were firing steadily, sweeping the whole square, the rounds buzzing like angry metal bees.

Jack could only see three bodies, the men lying where they had fallen, like bundles of rags dropped from the clear blue sky. The Germans weren’t having it all their own way, though. Most of Sullivan’s soldiers had taken cover in other buildings on this side of the square and were firing back, their bullets thumping into the Jerry sandbags, blowing splinters out of the shutters and chunks from the brickwork.

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