Fresh screams could now be heard, but no grenades. At one point, there was someone up there begging to be spared, and then another scream that went right through you. The scream then became a muffled gargle which after a while faded into silence. The grim purpose of the bayonet was being employed by 5 Platoon. I shuddered at the thought of such business. 5 Platoon had taken a mauling getting up to the summit, and their good manners guide had long since been ditched in a burning bunker or two. There comes a point in a battle when you just need to get the grim and unthinkable done, such is the job description for a soldier.
Jay began to lead us back up the alley, once again keeping our eyes peeled high right as we climbed to join the remainder of 4 Platoon at the top. As we got near the top I could see red, orange and green tracer streaming past from right to left, which didn’t make any sense. After thinking it over, it made perfect sense, our gun teams must be using enemy ammunition, and after all, they did have the same weapon systems as us, give or take some minor alterations. The gun teams were dishing it out in spades to whoever was on the eastern end of Longdon. MILAN missiles went roaring down range to their targets. The din was incredible. All of a sudden there was a streak of white light from the back end of Longdon and an almighty boom off to our right, our fire support base rendered silent. What the hell was that? We heard a muffled voice on Jay’s radio handset.
“Yeah roger that, what’s the damage?” He asked. Another muffled response.
“Roger, let me know if there is anything we can do, friendlies will be passing through us soon, out”
We all looked at him for an update. He turned to address us.
“The anti-tank gun we’ve been trying to knock out has just destroyed a MILAN team complete.”
One of the lads gave out a low whistle.
“The fire base is in bad shape, the O.C is just behind 5 Platoon now, with his Artillery observer trying to deal with it, A Company will be passing through us shortly to deal with the main defensive position, and we will become fire support. When we get the word we are going to crawl out of this fucking alley, and we will start engaging the positions as we spot them, understood?”
Hello Robert, good stuff. I just thought the beginning of the piece was rather passive, which undermined any sense of immediacy.
For example instead of 'fresh screams could now be heard' something like 'I heard fresh screams, but no grenades.' Instead of 'At one point, there was someone up there begging to be spared, and then another scream that went right through you' perhaps something like 'Someone unseen begged to be spared, their plea cut short by a scream I felt right through to my guts. I listened in horror, the scream choking into a muffled gargle then silence.'
Is this the very beginning of something?