ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (18 page)

‘This is brilliant, have ye got a name for it?’

‘Nah.’

‘Poet Laureate, Ode to the Jocks.’  Fezz offered. 

‘Ode to the Jocks, I like that.’  He agreed.

‘I’ll pass it round, thanks Gigs, I’ll see you later.’  I was up and away.

An hour later, I slid back into Fezz’s trench.  ‘This is getting fucking ridiculous,’ I screamed over the noise of the stonking.  ‘They seem to have plenty of ammo to waste.’  I suggested when it was over.’

‘I noticed.’  Fezz agreed.  For the next twenty minutes, we discussed domestic matters, rations, foot powder, candles, and bags to piss and shit in.  While we talked, Gigs added their previous day’s accumulation to the sand bag I’d dragged around with me and sealed it with masking tape.  I’d throw it into a pile of boulders on my way back to my trench.

‘Leave that today Jim.  I’ve an orders group in half an hour; I’ll drop it off then.’

‘A whit?’

‘Ó Group.’

‘Who for?’

‘All section commanders and second in commands except you.’

Our exulted platoon commander didn’t consider my appointment as 2IC.  Seriously.  I shook my head in disbelief and a feeling of dread filled my guts.  ‘That’s ludicrous; you’re nae going are ye?’

‘Have to.  With any luck, I’ll be able to persuade him to re-man the OP.  I think the others will back me.’

‘Has he informed HQ he’s changed our position yet?’

He shook his head.  ‘No, I talked to Binns on the phone last night when he was sleeping; he thinks he’s scared too.  But don’t worry; I’ve already prepared a signal.  If he and that arse licking sergeant of ours doesn’t re-man the OP, I’ll deck the pair ó the fuckers and send it in.’

The thing was he meant it.  It was also the reason he was still a lance jack.  He was probably one of the best men at small unit tactics I’d ever met and I never stopped learning from him, but his brilliance was counter balanced by a quick temper and a total intolerance of fools.  And if they just happened to be his senior ranks then so be it.

It mollified me a bit, but I still wasn’t happy.  ‘Does he nae realise the risk he’s taking?’ 

‘No I don’t think so.  He seems to think because that silly wee Sanger of his hasn’t been fired on yet; it’s out of range of the mortars.’

‘Why bomb a friend.’

‘At the least I might be able to let others out of their holes more often and take some of the heat off us.’

I nodded, ‘Aye that would be good.  They fair enjoy their daily visits but their getting worried sooner or later the fuckers are going to get lucky.’  He just nodded.

It isn’t easy dropping a mortar bomb into a hole six foot long by two wide.  Especially if you can’t see the target and are being guided by somebody else, but it’s far from impossible.  The very nature of the weapon itself was our biggest danger.  Every time they are fired, the bases are driven further into the ground and their aim changes slightly.  They can cover a fair bit of ground in a short time without any adjustments being made.

Twice today, they came within a meter of a trench I was sheltering in and they were getting closer and closer.  I knew it and so did my friends and as much as they liked me, they didn’t particularly want it to be their trench we landed in together. 

‘Don’t worry about it Jim, he’s my problem now.  I’ll get action out of the fucker one way or another.  You’d better get back and check on Buff.’

‘Right see yé later.’ 

I was up and running again.  I headed for the boulders but changed direction halfway there.  The mortar bombs fell straddling the boulders, while I sheltered in a shell scrape.  When they swung fire, I made it home.

Buff was still sheltering in the same corner.  When the bombardment stopped, we took up our firing positions again.  I filled him in on the day’s news.  I read out Gig’s poem to him and laughed again.  When I told him about the Ó group, his mood changed and he voiced the same concerns as myself.  We fell into a silence and waited for Fezz’s move.

The seconds ticked by agonizingly.  Finally, he made his dash, diverting to drop off the bag of shit.  We tensed getting ready to drop.  Nothing happened, had we missed it, our eyes automatically scanned the sky hoping to catch a glimpse of the mortar bombs as they reached the top of her arc and started on their way down.  I started fidgeting nervously; audibly mortars give very little warning.  Still nothing, Fezz got clean away.

The waiting was stretching me to breaking point.  I had to talk to ease the strain.  ‘I dinna like this.’

‘Maybe they’ve run out ó ammo.’

I stared at him incredulously, but he wasn’t being serious.  Realising the state I was in he was trying to get me to bite at him and let off a little steam.  I didn’t shout but it worked anyway, I calmed down a little.

‘So whit d’ye thinks gone wrong?’

‘I’ve nae idea.  I’ve just got this right bad feeling.’

‘Oh no, ye’ve nae.’

‘Sorry.’

‘How bad?’

I felt close to panic, ‘Bad, bad, like I’ve never felt anything like this afore bad.’

He scowled, ‘sometimes I just fucking hate you, d’ye ken that.’

I defended myself, ‘I canna help it, canna.’

We fell back into an uneasy silence.  A noise filtered up to us from below.  ‘D’ye hear that?’

‘Aye Buff, trucks.’ 

‘Aye.’

‘How many?’

‘Not sure, half a dozen at least.’

I shouted the information across to Fritz who relayed it to the command post.  The faint noise of the trucks abated.

‘I winder fit they’re doing now?’

I shrugged.  Something touched me.  It caressed the hairs on my arms and kissed my cheeks.  ‘Did ye feel that?’

‘Fit?’

The warning bells in my head went mental.  ‘Take cover.’  I screamed.  We’d barely reached the bottom of the trench when our world dissolved into sheets of flame and screeching metal.  How long did it last, I don’t know, ten minutes probably, but it felt like hours, but end it did.

‘Holy shit.’  Buff was spitting out dust as we staggered to our feet.

‘Stand to, stand to.’  I screamed.  We waited, but nothing materialized.

Davie Whitton came bounding up and collapsed to his knees on the edge of our trench.  ‘Jim you’ve got to come.’

‘Whit is it?’

‘They’ve hit the Sanger.’

‘Buff take over the section.’  I was out of the trench and running.  ‘Andy, Buggs.’  I screamed and made the universal sign for form on me.  I headed for the Sanger; a glance was enough to ensure they were hard on my heels.  Others from the other sections had beaten me to it and were scrambling all over the debris.

‘Get to fuck off there.’  I bawled.

Frankie rushed over.  ‘Thank fuck your here Jim, fit d’ we do now?’

‘The first thing we do is get half these men back to the trenches.  One more salvo like that will wipe out half the platoon.  I’ll keep one man from each section.  You’re in charge of yours, get Taffy to take charge ó his.’

‘I’ll stay here we you Jim.’

‘No Frankie, I need you back there keeping them sharp, I’ll keep Ali.’

‘Who the fuck are you to tell us what to do Murison.’  It was two sections dick head coming to stake a claim to fame.

A fist flashed past my ear and smashed him in the mouth.  He went down on his arse.  Buff.  ‘He’s our section 2ic, acting lance jack, which is more rank than any ó the rest ó us have, which makes him acting platoon commander and me platoon sergeant.  Has anybody else got a problem we that.’

No one had.

I turned to Davie.  ‘Do you ken where Binns was?  We need that radio.’

‘Aye, over here Jim.’

‘Then that’s far we start.’  The Sanger was an old shepherd’s shelter built from surrounding stone.

‘How did ye get away with it Davie?’

‘There wasn’t enough room for all of us.  He slung me out in to the trench.’

‘Jammy bastard.’

It hadn’t received a direct hit, but a couple of shells had straddled it, blowing the sides in and the roof had collapsed in on top of the lot.  It didn’t take us long to start pulling bodies out.  Binns came first with the radio.  He was still conscious but the radio didn’t seem to be working.

‘How are ye Binns?’

‘Alive,’ he grinned, ‘but I think both my legs are fucked.’  Davie cut off his trouser legs one look was enough.

‘Andy, take the radio and try and get it working.  Bide still Binns were going to splint your legs, then give you some morphine.’

‘No Jim!  No morphine.  Bind me up and take me over to help Andy.’

‘Ye sure?’

‘Aye.’

‘OK where’s the code sheets?  We can’t put this through in clear.’

‘I dinna ken.  I had them in my hands.’

We got them all out and although none were dead, none had gotten off lightly.  Davie worked like a man possessed, while we searched for their weapons and the spare ammo.

‘Jim.’

‘Aye Davie.’

‘That’s as much as I can do, bar keep them comfortable.’

‘How are they?’

‘Not good, I’m sure some of them have internal bleeding.  We need them casevaced.’

‘If we canna get through in the next ten minutes, I’ll pull the whole platoon out and we’ll carry them.’

‘What about here?’

‘Let me worry about that.’

‘OK.’  His head was down and I sensed there was something more.

‘What is it?’

‘I just feel so helpless.  I want to do more, but don’t know how.’ 

‘Then learn.’

‘What?’

‘When we get home.  I ken you’re from one of the hardest districts in Glasgow Davie and your mair used to fighting than helping, but I’ve been watching you.  You’ve got the touch.’

‘The what?’

‘Jim we’ve got it, quick.’  Andy shouted.

Davie tried to grab me as I turned away.  ‘Fit d’ye fucking mean teuchter.’ 

‘Get back to your patients Dr Whitton, I’m busy.’

I ran over and grabbed the handset off Andy.  Binns was in the guts of the radio holding wires together.  He was in shit state; sweat ran clean runnels down his dust-laden face. 

‘Hurry Jim,’ he gasped. 

‘Hello 0 this is 42 over.’

‘0 send over.’  The line crackled and hissed in my ear.

‘42 we require an immediate casevac over.’

‘0 use proper procedures, over.’

‘42 we can’t over.’

‘0 verify, Juliet, tango, over.’

My patience ran out.  ‘Fuck you put Zeek on now.’

Zeek must have been standing next to him.  ‘0 is that you Jim over.’

‘Aye, over.’

‘0 calm down, we’ve got to use proper procedure these frequencies are being monitored, over.’

‘I know that Zeek but we can’t, my own call sign is now 42 niner, over.’

‘Eh!  0. Wilco that 42 niner, over.’  Great Zeek had got it.

‘42 niner, we need an immediate casevac.  Sit- rep the rebels are.’  There was a loud crackling in my earpiece.

‘Shit sorry Jim.’  Binns was sucking on his fingers and wisps of smoke rose from the exposed circuitry.  The radio was fucked.

I gripped his shoulder.  ‘It’s a right Binns.  We got through thanks to you.  You deserve a medal for what you just did.’

He grinned.  ‘Fuck the medal I’ll settle for some morphine.’  But he didn’t need it.  He slipped into unconsciousness.

‘Buggs, Andy, Davie.’  I gathered the three of them around.  ‘I want you three to go with the medivac regardless of what form it takes; it will go straight to the cleaning station at BHQ, won’t it Davie?’ 

‘Aye Jim, standard operational procedure.’

‘Good on the way down Andy, Buggs, help the medics as best as you can when you get to BHQ.  Andy grab that piece of scrap and get it to Zeek, get a new one then find Buggs.

Buggs I’m going to write you a note explaining what’s happened here.  Put it in your top left pocket and get it to the manny D’Ord.  Dinna, dinna let anybody stop ye.  If they try, deck them, do whatever ye have to do, but put it straight into his hands, nobody else’s, understand.’

He was grinning from ear to ear.  ‘Now that’s a fucking order.’

‘Good I’m going to give you a verbal brief on what I’m going to do.  If you get bumped on the way back the most important thing is getting that message to BHQ, nothing else, understand.’

‘You mean leave the wounded, Jim.’  Davie asked.

‘Exactly.’

‘I couldn’t do that.’

‘Davie, I understand how you feel but I’m not talking about a few lives here.  If that note doesn’t get through to BHQ the whole battalions at risk and not only them, if the rebels get through to the capital and take it, the government here will just go into exile and start building a new army.  Then they’ll become the rebels.  In six years’ time, we’ll be back fighting them; how many more lives will that cost among the civil population David.  Thousands, hundreds of thousands, this is the cycle the mediators are trying to break here.  They’ve been fighting on and off like this since the end of the last century, it could go into the next.