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Sixth installment

Early the next morning we started the move, we wanted to have it finished by the afternoon so that the houses could be put in some sort of order so that the men had some where to sleep. While they were moving bedding, kitchen equipment and themselves, all the ammunition was being brought to Osijek and was to be stored in one of the outside garages which could be locked, it was decided that Steve would be in charge as he was seen through Ernies eyes to have some intelligence. The instructors did nothing after all they were teachers not removal men, as for myself and the rest of the old bunch we pitched in wherever we could. This was nothing new to us as we had moved so many times we were getting used to it, it was as if this unit was never going to have a permanent base, here or anywhere else in Croatia. The new president had already said that there were no foreigners fighting in the Croatian army and by not giving us a permanent base they were trying to get rid of us, politics was a funny world to be in and I was not going to get involved in it. Well the move went according to plan and by the early afternoon we had finished, it was decided who would sleep where and everyone sorted out their respective homes. The unit was now split and stretched between two places, whether it would work was another question. There was a meeting scheduled for two days time and a lot of problems that were occurring at this moment would hopefully be sorted out. Sometime that day James had rung from America and had said that he would be arriving back in five days and could we pick him up from Zagreb, Ernie arranged it and told us that we would use two cars, another trip, another disruption to our unit, what next? The meeting that had been planned took place, one of the problems that they wanted to discuss was why they were being brought to Osijek to be trained, they thought that they were already soldiers and didn't need any more training especially from the British, I was not surprised as everyone knew everyone else since Laslovo and after and we all knew Ernie, they respected him which is more than can be said for the British and I knew that this meeting was going to be one hell of a party but I hoped that I could distance myself from any arguments as I liked almost everyone in our unit. The meeting was going to be a battle of nerves between the British and the Croatians, the eventual winners would be the ones Ernie agreed with and at that moment in time I thought that the British who were doing everything for Ernie and that gave him plenty of free time which he liked. How quickly a person forgets who his real friends are just because they disagree with what he says, this was now happening to me but I was determined not to give anyone the opportunity to get rid of me, I was here for the duration of the war or my life whichever lasted longer. 

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