of white phosphorus grenades to get some smoke up, and thinking, `You brave bastard!' I looked at Legs, and saw tracer going across the top of his head. Knowing that tracer flies higher than normal rounds, I couldn't understand how the other stuff wasn't hitting him. I thought, 'He's going to get it here.' Then I wondered if the Iraqis were firing all tracer, instead of one round in five, as we would. Then the stuff was coming past us. Andy and I were walking up together, and tracer was flying between us, rounds right between the pair of us. At last we got over the top, into dead ground, and col�lapsed on to the deck. Andy gasped, 'Fucking hell! I don't know how we managed that.' `Nor do I,' I said. 'But look at this � at least I got my flask back.' `Where was it?' `In my bergen. I had to go back for it.' `Christ!' I unscrewed the top, took a swig of whisky, which was six�teen-year-old Lagavulin, and handed it to him. `Jesus!' he gasped, as he felt the impact of the spirit. For a few seconds we lay there, trying to get our breath, and when we stood up again to see where the guys were, we were amazed to find everyone in one piece. I'd thought we must have lost two or three � but they all appeared and came Contact!63 round, just like that, nobody so much as touched. At the very least I'd been expecting to have to dress wounds � although, with the medical pack gone, there was very little I could have done except stuff holes with bandages. Everybody was talking, but I can't remember what they said. It took us only a few seconds to reach a group decision. If our Lost Comms procedure worked, the Chinook would come in to the drop-off point at midnight; but now that we'd stirred up such a hornets' nest, and the Iraqis knew we were in the area, the chances were that they'd ambush the heli�copter and shoot it down. We decided it was safer to make for the Syrian border. First, though, we'd head south and put in a dog's leg, as a feint, to throw the Iraqis off our track. `Right,' I called, 'let's go.' Without consciously trying to take command, but wanting out of this bloody place, I led off, with Andy behind me and the rest in line. By then, we thought, we were out of range of the Arabs' original posi�tion, but some of them had worked their way round on to a closer ridge, and as we came up out of the depression they opened up again. Also, we were back in view of the anti�aircraft gunners, who resumed firing. Some rounds were going booth past us, others landing ten or fifteen metres away � but we weren't interested; we just kept walking like mad. Then the vehicle with the .50 came up on to a crest and started cracking rounds over us again from a range of 400 or 500 metres, but luckily for us the light was dying, and the rounds were going far too high. So we set off, and walked for our lives into the gathering night. three DOWN TO TWO Until we cleared the second long valley, the occasional AA round was still falling in. Some burst in the air with a puff of black smoke and a crack, and others hit the ground. Then we were in the clear, out on the barren gravel plains, and we headed due south, marching as fast as we could in single file. Every now and then we'd shout to Mark to get a fix, and he'd switch on his Magellan and hold it up until it locked on to a satellite. After a couple of minutes, he'd call, 'I've got one,' and the guys would go to ground while Andy and I closed up to look at the map and check our position. Mark would read off the coordinates from his little illuminated screen, look down at the map and say, 'OK, we're just there' � and we'd know our position, within ten feet or so. Encouraged by such precision navigating, we'd carry on. It was a great shock to us that we seemed to have been abandoned by our own people. It's an unwritten rule of the Regiment that if guys need help, their mates come and get them. Wherever you are, even in the shittiest area in the world, if you get into a firefight and give a
Similar Books
