Skip to main content

Seventh installment

"this looks like it's been attacked" I said,
"it has, the Serbians (who were the enemy) do not care what they attack, all the patients and staff have been moved to the basement as it's safer there" came his reply.
As Nigel and Ernie got out and walked towards the hospital I wondered what sort of war this was, it would not take me long to realize how dirty a war this was. As we sat talking we heard explosions getting closer, George decided that because we were sitting on so much explosives in the lorry that we should get out just incase and take cover, I couldn't agree more. After about fifteen minutes a lot of explosions and George telling me about his family, Ernie and Nigel appeared on their way back, we got back into the lorry, Nigel and George started to talk in Hungarian, I guessed that George was asking how Nigels brother was. 
We carried on until we reached the same building as before, we turned in and parked the lorry next door to Ron's car. We got out and Ernie that we would get a uniform and rifle for me before going back to Laslovo, so I followed until he told me to wait while he went to get someone, he came back with a soldier who seemed much older than us, he introduced himself as Andrea and he spoke perfect english. We went inside and he unlocked the door to our left and we went in, it was their clothing store and gave me a uniform without checking the size, I hoped it would fit, even if it didn't I had my British uniform which was much better than what I had been given. We left the room locking it behind us, unlocked another door and gave me a brand new AK47, four magazines and a cleaning kit, he got me to sign for them and came back with a few things for Ernie then outside to the lorry. As Ernie had a few more things to attend to we waited by the lorry and I had time to annalize my surroundings, I noticed that everyone was in uniform but all not necessarily the same and there were some just wearing ordinary shoes. Most were carrying some type of weapon Thompsons, shotguns and AK47's at least they were armed. It seemed to me that these people were fighting a war on a shoestring and without being actually trained. There didn't seem to be any form of command structure and it seemed that he or she didn't know what they were supposed to be doing they were just loitering. They didn't know much about military strategy or they would have fortified this building better if they were using it as some kind of barracks, I saw no military armour only an old transporter that seemed to be out of commission, I wondered what sort of tanks, artillery and airplanes they were using on the front line if any, how far away were the enemy positions, how many soldiers in total did we have, so many questions and not a lot of answers, it didn't matter I was here now, I had enlisted, I had to make the best of whatever situation I was put in. This country was definitely the underdog in this war, it was the same all over the world the mightier wants to conquer the weaker, communist Yugoslavia to stay as part of their country and were willing to use all their military force to achieve their objectives, I must help in whatever way I could, I will see what I can do when I reach Laslovo, my first destination. It would not be long before I found out as Ernie came back and we all got in the truck and set off, I hoped that nothing would hit our lorry or we would never reach Laslovo my new home for how long was anybodies guess. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ninth installment

The remains of the unit that were in this position left and we followed them, we went around the outskirts of the village and back into the center. The rest of PIV or what was left of it were already there, we found out that Colin just after he had reached the main hq in the center of the village. We had to go back to the end of the street to see what was happening but as soon as we arrived we came under heavy fire as the enemy had pinpointed this house as our new front line, there was no way that we could reach Eric without getting everyone who attempted a rescue killed and because of the amount of enemy fire we had to fall back, on the way Alan started going berserk saying that he had to go back to fight, he was shooting everywhere so George calmed him down and asked him to take care of the elderly and that seemed to work. By now the village command had decided it was time to leave but first we had to wait for the mortar unit to reach safety. We could not get anywhere near under cons...
Post a Comment
Read more

Third installment

Day in, day out, it was the same routine, sleep, guard, fire off a few rounds in the general direction of the enemy, there was not much else to do, the main thing was to stay alive by keeping inside every time mortars or artillery came flying in to the village. The only time that there was a lot of activitie was when we were buzzed by planes, everybody would rush outside, Ernie would jump on the transporter and fire the machine gun, I used to run to the machine gun that was mounted on a tripod at the end of the street and also fire at the plane, everybody else would be outside firing their ak47s, there was not much chance of hitting it or bringing it down but it took only one lucky shot and that would give everyone hope. After the plane had gone out of sight that the transporter was Ernies because he had shot at the enemy leaving the damaged transporter with a sniper rifle, so Geordi the commander in charge of the defense of Osijek had given it to Ernie, I also found out that he worked...
Post a Comment
Read more

Seventh installment, sorry it's a bit late but its hard to write what I wrote and remember.

The next day it was awfully quiet, the calm before the storm perhaps, nothing much for breakfast so we decided to try and lay the land line. So off we went house to house laying the wire behind us and then the mortars started again so we hit the ground, lying down was the safest if caught outside, there were pieces of shrapnel hitting the wall near to us and it was not a very safe place to be so we decided to make a run for it, that was the quickest I had ran in a long time, it is amazing how fast your legs move when you're life is at risk, "that was a nice little bit of exercise" Eric said laughing, "yes but it would have been better if we weren't dodging pieces of metal" I replied also laughing.  Everyone was there apart from those on guard duty and during the night it had changed from two to three, so I sat down on the bar stool and Eric went behind the counter looking for something to eat and all of a sudden bang and I fell off the stool, they all came t...
Post a Comment
Read more