The Black Jackals. Iain Gale

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СКАЧАТЬ he spoke small pieces of masonry, wood and nameless debris began to fall among them, clattering off their tin hats. Luckily the larger pieces were confined to the vicinity of the bridge, and most fell into the river. As the smoke began to clear Lamb peered down the grassy bank to survey their handiwork.

      He could see the span of the bridge, and there in the middle of it a large hole, as if some giant had taken a bite through the side of the wall. Beyond it lay a yawning void. Good, he thought. That should hold them for a while at least. But then as the smoke dispersed he saw around the bridge, across the road and in the river below, dozens of bodies and parts of bodies and burnt and shattered fragments of what had been possessions. Lamb stared as his heart filled with guilt and pity, and he tried again not to look at people, merely objects. But there was the woman in the floral dress, and over there the man and his daughter. What was left of them. He knew that he had timed it as well as he could, had allowed two German lorries onto the bridge before blowing it. Now he noticed among the civilian corpses a number in field grey, and he felt the better for it. But the feeling did not last for long, for amid the patter of the falling fragments, another sound arose – a low moaning, punctuated with terrible screams. He shook his head, and Valentine looked at him with pitying eyes.

      Lamb spoke. ‘Well done, Corporal. That’ll slow up the Boche.’

      The man looked at him and Lamb noticed, not for the first time, the irritating smirk that seemed to lie permanently around his thin lips and his curiously educated accent. ‘Please don’t thank me, sir. Not for doing that.’

      ‘I had no choice, man. You saw. The enemy . . .’

      ‘I saw, sir. And I promise that I shan’t tell anyone what it was that you just did. Why should I want to do that, sir? They might get the wrong end of the stick.’

      Lamb stared at him and was just about to challenge his remark when a voice from his rear shattered the opportunity.

      ‘Sir, look. Over there. In the trees.’

      Lamb raised his field glasses and looked through them across the river towards a spinney of poplars by the edge of the road. At first he thought the shapes he could see were more refugees, but then he saw the flash of steel and knew at once that they were the enemy.

      ‘All right, here they come. No one fire until I give the command. Parry, set up the mortar over there. Zero in on the centre of the bridge. They might try and use the wreckage to get across.’

      He had hardly spoken when there was a burst of machine-gun fire from the opposite bank. ‘Take cover.’

      Lamb pulled his revolver from the canvas holster on the left side of his webbing belt and yelled, ‘Sarnt Bennett, Corporal Briggs. Get that Bren working. Thompson, you and Massey get on the anti-tank rifle. Save it till you see any tanks. The rest of you save your ammunition until you see a good target, then let them have it.’

      He felt anger now. Anger at what he had just been compelled to do, an act that sickened him and went so much against everything that he believed in. Killing helpless civilians. And here now was the chance to assuage that anger, against the men who had caused it. He heard the Bren rattle into action and saw the flash from the muzzles of the German rifles as the enemy responded. There were shouts from across the river.

      Lamb yelled at the section closest to him, ‘Perkins, Dawlish, all of you, keep your heads down and your guns trained on the road. See the first flash of field grey that comes into range and you open fire. Smart, get on the blower back to Company HQ. Tell them we have contact. Enemy tanks, estimate zero six, infantry four zero plus.’

      As his batman spoke into the handset of the .38 radio, the enemy machine gun crackled again and turned over a few sods of earth on the lower part of the riverbank. Smart turned to him. ‘Can’t raise them, sir. Line’s dead. Not a thing.’

      ‘Keep trying.’

      Lamb opened the chamber of his revolver, checked that it was full and snapped it shut again. His fellow officers agreed: the Enfield pistol was a sad excuse for a sidearm. They said the enemy had automatics that never jammed and fired like a dream. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on one. But that of course would mean either taking one off a dead German or winning one himself in hand-to-hand fighting. Perhaps, he thought, in the next few minutes he would have a chance to do both. But his keenness quickly turned to disappointment.

      Bennett was at his side. ‘Pull back, sir. CO’s orders. We’re to pull out.’

      Lamb shook his head. ‘What?’

      ‘We’re pulling out, sir. From the CO.’

      Lamb shook his head again and laughed. ‘No, Sarnt Bennett. This is no time for one of your pranks. There’s hundreds of Jerries over there and it’s our business to deal with them and see they don’t get across this damned river.’

      ‘Sorry, sir. It came direct from Battalion, it did. Our orders are to withdraw. Clear as day, sir.’

      Lamb frowned. This was no joke. ‘You must have got it wrong. We can’t be pulling out, Bennett. We’ve just blown the bloody bridge and we’ve got the enemy pinned down. And what about those poor bloody civilians down there dead in the river? I’m telling you, man, the Jerries won’t get across here for hours, and then we’ll be waiting for them. You can see that. What we need is reinforcements.’ He turned to his batman. The poor man was still trying to contact company HQ. ‘Anything?’

      Smart shook his head.

      ‘Right. Is that runner still here, Sarnt?

      ‘Sir.’

      ‘Then get him to take this message back to Company HQ: “Need reinforcements soonest. Your order not understood. Please send help. Enemy now in range preparing to engage.”’

      The sergeant pursed his lips and nodded. ‘I’m sorry, Mister Lamb, sir. That runner is straight from the CO. It was quite clear, sir. Pull everyone out, he said. Everyone, sir. And that means us. I’m sorry.’

      Lamb stared at him. This was madness. First they tell him to stand his ground and to blow a bridge, killing dozens of innocent people, and then they tell him to abandon the position.

      Lamb shook his head. ‘I’m sorry too, Sarnt.’ He paused. ‘I’m sorry because I just can’t do that. Not until we’ve killed a few more of them, at least. Then perhaps we’ll come along. Eh? Why don’t you tell the Major that we’re . . . I know. Just tell a runner to tell him we’re caught up in a firefight and trying to disengage. Tell him that we’ll be with him presently. Just as soon as we can retire without the risk of taking any further casualties.’ He was damned if he was going to pull back now.

      The sergeant looked at him and smiled. He had somehow sensed that Lamb wasn’t going to take an order like that without some sort of protest. ‘Very good, sir. If that’s your orders, that’s your orders.’

      ‘That is an order, Sarnt Bennett. Send one of the men back to the CO. Thank you.’

      The sergeant turned and was about to go when he looked back. ‘There was one other thing, sir. Runner said that he’d heard on the wireless at Battalion HQ that Mr Chamberlain’s been given the heave-ho. Winston Churchill’s the new PM. Fat lot of good that’ll do us though, sir, eh?’

      ‘Thank you, Sarnt.’

      Lamb smiled and, as his sergeant СКАЧАТЬ