Chapter XII

Early the next morning the alarm clock woke us and I got out of bed immediately as today was the day, the day that a whole new aspect of my career in the Croatian army was to begin, I walked with Paula to school and then after kissing her goodbye I went to catch the bus to my new unit. Instead of going to command I went to where the rest of the men were waiting and I found them eating breakfast also with them was Zaggy who had returned the day before, it was like old times again. We had a cup of coffee as the commander had called a meeting for eleven so we had plenty of time. While I was waiting I went to get any equipment that they were going to give me which of course included a rifle, before they issued me with anything the second in command told me that I was in charge of three of the men, not much of a section but that was all I had. They issued me with a Heckler and Koch MP5, magazines, bulletproof vest and various other items,while I was there I looked around at what they had, for such a small unit they were equipped with all sorts of weapons cross-bows and 40calibre machine guns. It was amazing what a unit can get if they declare themselves independent and take a handful of men who had to do their national service with some unit, these men and women were getting the same wages but were not risked on the front line. If I was to be on the front then I was well equipped and was with the people that I knew and could trust. The time of the meeting arrived and we all lined for the commander who was a Mr.Tate,he was small, chubby and had a beard, he proceeded to tell us where we were to be based for the next fifteen days. It was to be a village called Tolisa which was about five kilometers from the front and our job was to do recces for the HVO in front of their lines, he also told us that we would be leaving at about 1300hrs that afternoon so after the meeting had ended Alan and I went for a beer, while we were talking in the cafe Alan told me that he had not yet received his citizenship although he had applied the same time as me. What a strange game the Croatian government was playing, they accepted us to fight on the front line but were not willing to help when it came to issuing us with a small piece of paper saying that we were now Croatian citizens of the country which we had come to willing to risk our lives for, I told Alan that when we arrived back from Bosnia he would probably find it waiting for him, it was a little white lie but it made him feel a lot happier. We left right on time and were soon passing the turn off for Babina Greda, I was glad that we were not going there, we turned right and went down to the river where I had been a guard not so long ago. We had a short time to wait but I knew I wasn't going to stay, there was a whole new country in front of me that had never heard of my nickname Frenchi and I knew that that would soon change with my arrival. We crossed the border with it starting to get dark and after a further fifteen minutes we arrived, our accommodation was in two adjacent houses and all my section plus the British would sleep in the one house with four Croatians. The houses had been lent to the unit by two Bosnian families who were bound to be getting something out of it although I didn't know what. We took all our belongings in and unpcked, they were nice and comfortable houses and we were told that the enemy were not attacking this village, well for the time being that was good news, the only bad thing was that there was no telephones and therefore I couldn't get in touch with Paula, I was going to miss her but for the time being I had to cut her out of my thoughts as I needed to concentrate on the job at hand. The first two days went by with us doing nothing apart from playing cards and drinking, our Croatian counterparts were only too glad to do nothing as this wasn't their country but as for myself and the rest of the foreigners we were getting rather bored especially as one of the Croatians was winning all the money at poker.