Second installment

The next day I awoke from an uneasy sleep to find it quite, that was a better feeling from the night before, I went downstairs to find everyone else there, it seemed I was the last to get up, I ate some bread and jam as that was all there was, there was someone making coffee Bobo out of all the people there he was supposed to make the best coffee, this was to become a constant source of amusement between us as I would insist that instant coffee was the best and he would say Bosnian coffee was better, everybody laughed when we could not agree it was good to see everyone laugh as that kept the moral high. After breakfast I went outside to see what had happened during the night, there had been so much damage when I arrived that the scene looked the same. It was a lovely day if you can say that being on the front line, this would be a great place to have a holiday if there was no war and there was a hotel, then reality hit me as mortars started flying overhead so back inside to find out that Ernie had already gone to Osijek so I decided to find something to keep me busy until he returned, I stripped my rifle and started to clean it as it was new and needed to be in working order. It was not long before Ernie came back he would show me around today as they were going to search the school for some sort of defense papers that were supposed to be there, George and Nigel came with us, George was carrying a bag, 

"what's in the bag" I asked him,

"nothing special only explosives" he replied.

We went out from the bar and went right, heading towards a large building in front of us, they told me that it used to be the school but of course the children had long gone. We came to a junction in the road, 

"the enemy are down there in a village called Palaca and here on our right is our bunker, this is our main defense covering the road from Palaca" Ernie told me,

This was not my idea of a bunker, it was just a hole in the ground, a few sandbags around it and dirt thrown on top, this was not the way bunkers should be constructed but at least they thought it was safe even if I didn't, one direct hit from a mortar and it would be gone, 

"everybody takes turns here as it is our forward observation post" said Ernie,

We walked on and at the entrance to the school we stopped, 

"down there pointing straight forward about fifty meters is one of our mortar positions" George told me,

"great, at least we have some sort of cover" I said,

We turned and went into the school, it had been hit several times judging by the amount of rubble and broken glass lying everywhere, I was told that George and Nigel were going to blow up a safe under the stairs that Ernie was told contained the civil defense papers, they both entered the room and set the charges, they came back and we went for cover, after about ten seconds "boom" went to have a look but all they had succeeded in doing was blowing part of the wall down so they decided to use a little bit more explosives this time, they set the charges as before and we took cover and waited and then it was like a earthquake, the whole building shook, there was dust everywhere and we couldn't see a thing. Then we all started to laugh hystericaly as Ernie emerged from the dust wearing a gas mask he had found and put on so that he could see what was going on. They had not just blown up the safe but the wall, staircase and everything within fifteen meters of the safe, we ended up having to pull the safe out from the rubble so that we could see what was in it, eventually we managed it and all that was in it were old school reports and year books, nothing of importance. After seeing what they had done I was glad that they were on our side, they were the sort of lunitics that the IRA would be proud to have in their army. We left the school a bit disappointed and completely covered in dust, it was as if we had been working in a quarry not in the army, slowly we went back to the bar walking behind the houses that lined the street as we were sure that the enemy were now awake and wondering what had happened. Everyone was still laughing and George telling Nigel that he had used too much explosives but Nigel just continued to laugh. There seemed to be a couldn't care less attitude in their voices, we were on the front line and they didn't care how much danger we were in, perhaps it was because they were not professional soldiers all they wanted was to defend their village to the best of their ability and to be honest I could accept that.