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Chapter 111 Arrival, Attack And Evacuation Of Laslovo

As we were traveling to Laslovo I wondered what sort of organization this international unit had from the banner on the front of the lorry I knew that they were called PIV(Prvi Internationalni Od-First International Platoon), how many soldiers did they have and how many were actually defending the village, it would not be too long before I found out. My backside was wishing that we would reach Laslovo soon as it and my whole body were getting pounded by the boxes we were sitting on, a few minutes later we stopped,
"are we here" I asked George,
"no, it's just a bar" he replied.
We got off the lorry and went in, there were only a few people inside but each one shook Ernies hand, he ordered beer for everyone and I could not thinking that Ernie was someone special, he seemed to be some sort of local folk hero. Everywhere we had been since our first meeting he had either spoken to or shook hands with, I wanted to know more about this man but that had to wait, there were more important things to find out first. When we had finished our beers we left and back into our chauffeured limo and back on our way. From the state of the building's we were passing it was clear that we were getting closer to the front line, there were not only holes in the building's but some were completely demolished"morters have no conscious"I thought.
There more and more soldiers, more and more checkpoints, the only thing that there was less of were civilians, they had probably taken refuge somewhere safer, we must now be very close to the front line, it couldn't be much further I could wait and look around at the devastation. 
We were now going along a straight road, swerving every so often to avoid the morter craters and the home made tank traps that were everywhere. We entered a village which didn't have a sign to identify it but I guessed it must be Laslovo at last. We slowed down dramatically, there were holes everywhere, along the side of the road were left and abandoned or completely destroyed. Every house had been damaged inee one way or another either with roof tiles missing or no roofs at all, the gates of the houses had been punctured by shrapnel, the majority of windows were non-existant due to flying rubble or the shock of falling artillery, it was like some war movie but this was reality and not a studio set. We passed some houses and George pointed to a street and told me that that was where his parents house or what was left of it,
"we live in this village and don't want the Serbians living here we all young and old have to defend it, it's our home do you understand"
I didn't answer because I couldn't, back in Wales it was safe so there was no way that I could understand. Would he and his family ever be able to live in peace again somehow I didn't think that it would happen perhaps in the future but I was no fortune teller. They all had good reasons to stay and fight, why were the foreigners here perhaps for the same reason as myself. The lorry came to a stop and parked in what looked like a car park, this was our HQ. Slowly I looked around for any signs that this village was addaquatly defended, I couldn't see anything, no tanks, no artillery, nothing, there must be something but where? The building was not a barracks but what looked like a bar, two storyies and perhaps a cellar, it was not sufficiently fortified for my liking, I could see that there was a lot I could do to help but before I could make any suggestions for improving their defenses I must let the rest of the unit get to know me and then perhaps they would not object if I tried to change things for the better. There were a few things that I had to remember, I was an outsider, a foreigner, I at this time had no rank or right to impose my ideas on this unit, I must wait until the time was right. We went up the outside steps and into the top floor, accross a corridor and into the corner room and Ernie told me that this was where I could sleep, so I put my bergan down and followed him downstairs, no lights and not knowing where I was going I felt my way gingerly after the others, somebody had forgot to pay the electricity bill I jokingly said to myself, well this was home for how long I had no idea but I was where I wanted to be, the front line. 

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