Fourth lnstalment

The morning of my departure arrived and I left to catch the bus at seven thirty as it was due to leave at eight, I arrived at the base to find the bus had already left and after talking to one of the commanders I found out that they had telephoned everybody including me, I disagreed with that as we had not received any calls from the base and when he looked at the files he found out that they had the wrong number for me. It was decided that one of the officers would take me in his car, it was a damn more comfortable and quicker. When I arrived we found out that the bus had only just arrived before us so I wasn't late after all, some of the men were different from the last time and I wondered why? As was usual Brian had taken the relief crew down to the river so I went in and put my things on my bed and waited, I was to go on guard with the same men as before so at least I was used to them and would have someone to talk to. Whenever we were on duty over the following days the topic of conversation was about the plans for the new unit but somehow I doubted it would ever come about. During one of our free periods Robin showed me some explosives that he had managed to acquire and told me that he wanted to blow up a Serbian owned garage which was on the way to the river, he asked me if I would help and I agreed straight away as at least this was something to do against the enemy. When we went on guard next Robin showed me which was the Serbian garage and told me that as soon as we got the detonator we would blow it up, the explosives that he had shown me were old and he didn't have much of them but at least it would go bang although what damage such a small amount of explosives could do was anybodys guess? The following day Robin found out that he and four others were to go on holiday for two weeks, this was paid for by the Government as it was because they had been wounded sometime during the war and they were to leave the following day so it would be up to me to blow up the garage, I didn't mind and two of the other men that Robin trusted would be lookouts while I planted the explosives. The next day Robin and the other's went on holiday I didn't mind but I was a little bit jealous. That night I decided to plant the bomb as there was hardly any moon so why put it off any longer, the men who were to help me were on duty at twelve so I drove them down to the river. We had almost reached the garage when I turned off the lights and engine and coasted to a halt, I had already checked how much safety fuse I had and worked it out that we had forty seconds to get away, I put the explosives next to the side wall hoping that it would at least blow that wall down, I lit the fuse, went back to the lorry and we left. We drove slowly down to the river waiting and listening for the explosion, eventually we heard it although it wasn't very loud, we would have to wait until the following morning to see what damage we had done as there was no street lights. The next morning I awoke to change the shifts and also to see what we had achieved the night before. As I approached the garage I slowed and almost crashed the lorry after seeing what we had done, all we had succeed in doing was knocking the small garden wall down and making a small hole in the wall that we wanted to destroy, I laughed to myself as we drove on. We hadn't had enough explosives and would have done more damage if we had used a grenade but at least the Serbian owner would have got the message that he and his countrymen were not welcome. Over the next few days on duty it became a joke because we passed the garage every time we went down to the river and constantly saw a small hole, somehow I didn't think Robin would be all that impressed with our handy work but I didn't think that it mattered as all he was really interested in was his dream of a new unit. While I was waiting to take the shift back from the river I saw an old friend Alan the Portuguese, he was in a lorry waiting to cross the river and I was glad to see him again. We didn't have much time to talk as the ferry was on it's way to our side of the river but he told me that he had sprained his ankle when he jumped out of the lorry and I just had to laugh. After a couple of minutes I managed to get myself together and talk seriously to him,

"any chance of you going back to Portugal to see your parents or to London to see your girlfriend" I asked,

"no, there is no way I can afford it" he replied,

As I watched him waving goodbye I saw something in the way he looked back in my direction and straight away I knew what he was thinking, he was still insisting that he wanted to stay a soldier and be on the front line wherever it happened to be, I knew deep down that he just wanted to die somewhere on the front line as he had lost the sight in one eye and couldn't see much with the other. As the ferry crossed the river I hoped that he would stay alive long enough for me to see hlm again but in BiH who knows? The other men were shouting for me so I returned to the lorry and drove off with Alan's face stuck firmly in my mind, I was feeling totally down in the dumps.