Forward into Hell by Vince Bramley

Author:Vince Bramley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843586449
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-05-27T22:00:00+00:00

15

FORWARD INTO HELL

We dismantled our gun and evenly spread out our kit. The air was chilling. Everything seemed frozen and still. Just over the skyline where we had been firing earlier, rifle fire now dominated the night. Bob and I crawled back to where we had been. Against the skyline, we could see figures moving through the crags. A tracer round bounced off the rock: the second phase was well under way.

The air went still, then it was sucked up as if a small whirlwind had come. The ‘whoosh’ grew louder and louder. I buried my head in the dirt. About seventy metres away the ground exploded in a mass of earth, shrapnel and rock. Then another shell came over, this time further to our right. I looked down the hill as the shell exploded, and saw an unbelievable display of flying red sparks: deadly shrapnel. The ground shook as shell after shell fell behind us. The first minutes of the shelling were terrifying.

‘That tells me they know they’re losing,’ shouted the OC. His comment was briefly registered, before another shell pounded into the ground.

‘Right, listen in, everyone, listen in!’ screamed the OC. ‘First, get into cover, get into cover now, quickly.’

I grabbed my kit, stood up and made for a base line of jutting rock about thirty metres away. Bob and the PC found a bunker and slid in. I wished that I had seen it too, for my new position didn’t seem safe. I squeezed into the crag, which had a lip, like a cave. It covered me, though I was vulnerable on my left side. Shells were landing further down the hill as we all scrambled for protection. I pushed myself as far into the crag as I could. I thought to myself, Lie facing the inside of this rock, Vince. Then I thought I wouldn’t see what was happening, so I pushed my back into the crack, laying my webbing over me, as if that would help. What a joke!

In the distance, a booming sound began that carried over the area. Someone screamed, ‘Incoming, incoming.’

Sure enough, the air disappeared, there was a ‘whoosh’ and then the explosion killed any remaining peace. The shells came in thick and fast. I lay watching the red, glowing shrapnel flying by. Now the shrapnel was creeping up towards me, the explosions getting so loud I thought that they would deafen me. The shells were landing about fifty metres away. Four or five shells would hit an area in a salvo; the next batch about ten metres nearer.

The booming from Stanley could still be heard in the gaps between explosions in our area. As I lay there watching the shrapnel getting closer, I found myself shaking. Was it from cold or fright? My legs shook and I couldn’t control them at all. The next salvo landed thirty metres away. I curled up into a ball as the shrapnel splintered the rocks around me. A piece of shrapnel landed in my little alcove, still burning with fury, sizzling into the dirt by my waist.

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