Second installment

My first shift was from midnight to six the following morning, I was to be with Robin and a young boy named David who was only seventeen and had been in the war from the start, he had been badly wounded on the front line somewhere around Osijek and he had the scars to prove it. No matter how many times I met these young fighters who were risking all for Croatia the sheer guts that they showed by joining the war continually amazed me. In the British army the young soldiers were not even allowed to go abroad until they had completed their basic training and here was yet another still wet behind the ears but with all the guts and determination that a man twice his age would be lucky to show, I had to admire him and other's like him, in years to come they would be a credit to their country, that I was sure of. One of the other men drove the lorry to the river where he left us and took the other shift back, we were to be there on the riverbank until our shift was over, the only protection from the night was a bunker but if you went in  there was no way that you could see what was happening outside on the river, whoever positioned it could not have been thinking when they did it, it was totally in the wrong place. We sat down by a fire which I thought was a great target for our enemies, it would be a great beacon for plane's flying overhead throughout the night. All night long we heard explosions especially from towns near us on the Croatian side of the river, these towns were between five and fifteen kilometers away from our position and the flashes of the detonations lit up the clear night sky, I hoped that there would not be a lot of casualtys as enough people had died in this war. There was nothing to do but sit and talk which was a tall order for me as I was still having difficultys with the language but I listened in the hope that I could pick up a word or two to add to my limited vocabulary and so aid my learning process. It was great to hear the sound of the lorry driving over the makeshift road coming to pick us up at the end of our six hours, our shift was over and it was time to go back to the house with no windows. Over the next few days I got used to the fact that I was always cold at night and that the food was disgusting, there was always the daily telephone call to Paula that seemed to make everything better. The rest of the men were used to the situation and were tolerating it or that was how it looked to me, this was not for me as I had enough of just doing nothing. Our days were spent sitting, sleeping, eating rubbish or doing guard, the only thing that made it alright was that we would get our pay some time towards the middle of the month, even if it was meagre compared to british wages. The wages went up every month as Croatia had a runaway inflation rate but after converting them to Sterling we were still earning about eighty pounds a month, I could have got twice that amount unemployed in the UK but I still remained in the war zone. While we were away from home on duty they gave us four packets of cigarettes and six bar's of chocolate, that was one way of averting the sound's of the men grumbling about the food and conditions. The commander next door seemed to think that we were doing an important job and were acting accordingly, it didn't wash with me and I never listened to anything that they said, that was wrong but these so-called officers could not have run a party let alone keep the men dissatisfied happy. They could act out the roles of officers and soldiers with the other men but not with me, I knew from the first few days that if nothing changed then I was going to leave and transfer yet again to another unit. When the last day arrived I was glad to see the bus and get on it, once on there was no way I was going to move from my seat, I was going back to Osijek and nothing would stop me.

Looking out the front window I could see the outskirts of Osijek, it would not be long before I was home eating decent food and hugging Paula. We arrived at the base and everybody got off the bus, nobody went home as we were told that we were to get some new kit, this would be the first for me as everything that I owned I had either stolen or bought. We formed a line and went into the store room one by one only to be given one pair of socks, t-shirt and one pair of boxer shorts,

"terrific now I was fully equipped" I thought to myself,

at least I had been given something free by the Croatian army, ha, ha, ha.