The Devil in No Man's Land: 1917 by Will Hill

Author:Will Hill [Hill, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: YA
Goodreads: 17455359
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Published: 2013-02-28T06:00:00+00:00

The Special Reconnaissance Unit moved carefully round the pool, through the gently rising valley of fallen trees and artillery holes, and came up less than fifty yards from the roofless shell of Crest Farm barn. The farmhouse stood a further hundred yards to the east, its windows lit by the faint orange glow of gas lanterns.

Captain Harker ordered his men to the ground and led them past the barn on their elbows and knees. As they neared the house, a German voice rang through the empty windows, followed by the laughter of two, maybe three, men. The squad paused, listening for footsteps or the opening of a door, but all they could hear were the voices of the soldiers. They resumed their course, dead east, towards what was left of Passchendaele.

When they reached the village's main road, rolled dirt now heavily rutted by the tracks of tanks and churned by thousands of pairs of Wehrmacht-issue leather boots, Harker stood up. The rest of the squad did likewise. They took cover in a small copse of oak trees and Quincey asked Ellis what the Germans had been laughing about.

The Private smiled. “One of them was telling the others that it was their lucky day, because the Kaiser was on his way from his palace in Berlin to take watch, so they could all go to bed soon.”

The men of the squad grinned. They had told similar jokes many times, substituting the Kaiser's name for Gough's, or Haig's, or any of the myriad others who sent men to die from behind the comfort of a desk.

Harker led them on a loose lap of the village. As expected, with the Allied attack so obviously imminent, the place itself was deserted; the German soldiers had been summoned to the front lines, apart from the tiny security force keeping warm and dry in the Crest farmhouse. But something nagged at the Captain.

It's too quiet, he thought. Not even a single patrol. Not one.

A chill shuddered up his spine. He trusted his instincts; they had saved his life more than once in the years since this godforsaken war had been declared. So when Lieutenant Thorpe suggested that they make their way back and report no changes in the German positions, as they had known there wouldn't be, Harker shook his head.

“Let's check the village,” he said.

None of the men said anything. He knew they wouldn't, but he also knew them well enough to read the disappointment in their eyes. Their mission, given to them by a demented old man determined to do them harm, had gone better than any of them would have dared to hope, and none of them were keen to push their luck. But when their Captain set off down the road towards the centre of Passchendaele, walking in a slow crouch, his rifle pointing forwards, they followed him immediately.

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