Sixth installment

The following day Kirk gave everyone the day off and to be quiet honest they deserved it as they had all done exactly what had been expected of them. We didn't have anywhere to go doing nothing and pestering Kirk to let us go back to the front but he refused every time we asked. Later that day Kirk that he had to go back to Brvnik because one of the locals who was on the front line was drunk and wheeling his bicycle up and down the main road that went through the village and if someone didn't get him away from there he was going to end up very dead, we asked if Peter and I asked if we could go with him and after a slight pause he agreed. We reached the front and parked the car and as we were almost at the graveyard a sniper opened up, there we all were on the ground and this idiot with his bicycle came walking past, one of the men made a grab for him and eventually managed to get his head down. While Kirk was struggling with him Peter and I were listening and laughing, here we were pinned down by a sniper with a drunk man wanting to wheel his bicycle, it was a totally mind boggling situation. After about ten minutes Tony decided to walk the man back to our lines while the rest of us went to check the front bunker, everything was ok and we decided to head for home when we heard what sounded like a horse and then Kirk ran off in the direction of the noise. We waited while he went off for what we didn't know but eventually he returned leading a pony, he walked straight passed us with the pony so we followed behind. It was like follow the leader, there was Tony, the drunkard pushing his bicycle, Kirk leading the pony, Peter and myself walking behind, this would have made a great comedy film if it hadn't been for the fact that we were on the front line. Once we reached our lines Kirk told me to drive the car back with Peter and he would walk the pony and the drunkard back to our base. We arrived back and told everybody what had happened and they all laughed hysterically, it was great to see that everyone could still laugh when all around them was falling apart. For me this was the spirit of the people and no matter how much the communist government tried to suppress it they would never succeed. When Kirk and his pony arrived back he took it to the house next door because it had a stable, he asked for Docy to have a look at the pony but as he was elsewhere Kirk phoned for a vet who he knew lived close by. It seemed that the enemy in Brvnik were using the horses as target practise and had subsequently killed the ponies mother and had shot the pony twice before abandoning it. After we knew that the pony was going to be alright we all went to bed but before that Kirk came in to tell us that our weapons had arrived, so we all went quickly to get them before they took them back, we all went to bed feeling safer now that we were armed.

A few days later called us into HQ where he told us that we would be going on another recce with his men that afternoon, we were supposed to go five hundred meters in front of our lines and then wait for 104 company who were going to move their men in behind us securing our line. We left early that afternoon, Peter, Docy, Alan, myself and eight of Kirk's men, Alan was all cammed up and was very happy at last to do what he was trained for. We arrived at the front line to find none of 104 there so we continued anyway, we were going the same way that Kirk and I had gone a few days earlier but this time we were dropping a man off every fifty meters hoping that 104 would arrive to back us up, as we were going forward we were checking all the houses for any signs of recent activity but found nothing. We had now gone as far as we had been told so we stopped to discuss what we should do now, eventually we decided to go to the point where Kirk and I had been before and check out the bunkers and houses around the spot where Kirk and I were fired on. There were only five of us left so we left Docy on the side of the road and the rest of us continued, I and one Croatian waited at the bunker while Peter, Alan and the other Croatian went right up to the road but without crossing over, we then waited for back-up. We were there for about half an hour when Peter and Alan decided that they could check the house that was right next door to the road, Alan and the Croatian crawled off towards the house and inside without any trouble, while they were there we were lying down in the ditch waiting for 104 but it seemed that they were never going to come, we were all considering what to do now when there was an almighty explosion as a rocket demolished the front of the house that Alan and the Croatian were in and then the bullets started to fly on our position. We were not strong enough to attack so Paul came to my position and said that it would be better if we headed back, we were in a ditch but weren't safe as it only took one grenade thrown into the ditch to kill us so we went back to our lines. We got to the place where Docy was supposed to be to find him over the other side of the road with some of the Croatians, we went over one by one until we were all there, Docy was just standing there and all of a sudden he pulled the trigger on his weapon and a bullet embedded itself in the ground right between my legs,

"bloody hell what are you doing" I said to Docy,

"sorry about that, it was an accident" he replied calmly and with Peter laughing.

There was only one missing and that was Alan who we assumed had been inside the house when the rocket hit, perhaps he got his wish of dying a soldier I thought to myself although I hoped it wasn't true, we didn't know whether he was alive or dead but in order to safeguard the rest we had to try to reach our lines. The enemy had started to fire mortars and our position was not good to say the least, by now Tony had arrived and after he checked that we were all there he told us to fall back. We got about one hundred meters in front of our lines we had to stop because of enemy fire on our position, I for one was lying face down flat on the ground and the bullets were still whizzing only inches above our heads and I was definitely not happy. After five minutes of being pinned down and there was a lull we decided that now was a good time to make for home so off we set with myself and Tony bringing up the rear. We got back to the front bunker just in time as another barrage of mortars were starting to fall all around, Tony was busy trying to find out what had happened and where was Alan when a face appeared through the bunker, it was Alan, safe and sound but completely out of breath. While we were sitting there Alan explained what had happened.