Tanner peered through his sight, waiting for the enemy soldiers to get up and move again. Sure enough, before long anxious helmeted heads lifted and then, when no sniper's bullet arrived, the men got to their feet.
'Fire!' said Tanner, and McAllister sent out another withering burst. More enemy troops tumbled.
For the next two hours, Tanner sniped while the Brens and the Lewis gun in the barn kept up their harassing fire. Despite their best efforts, however, it was clear that enemy troops had reached and occupied the half-dozen cottages and buildings that dotted the open fields in front of them. The attackers were using the elevated camber of the roads as cover, and although from the attic the Rangers could see glimpses of half-hidden moving enemy troops, their fire could only slow their progress, not prevent it entirely. By mid-morning enemy guns were in place all along the Hondschoote-Bergues road, which ran parallel to the canal some two miles in front of them. Shells began to hurtle over and gradually found their range. Mortars were also in action, and shortly after eleven, several hit the road on the other side of the canal. Then a flurry landed in and around their positions.
'We're not going to be able to stay up here much longer, sir,' said Tanner. 'One shell in the right place and we'll be lying under a pile of rubble.'
'What do you suggest?'
'I'm not sure. This and the barn are the only place where we can really see the enemy, but the buildings stand out like a sore thumb. If only those damned vehicles weren't in front of us we might have a better line of fire.'
No sooner had he said this than two large shells screamed over in quick succession and hit the barn. Someone yelled, and then there was a grinding crack of breaking timbers, tiles and brick.
'Oh, Christ,' said Peploe, his face ashen. He stared at Tanner, then sped down the stairs. Tanner ran to the rear window and saw that half of the barn had collapsed. Jesus, he thought, how many were in there? Half a dozen?
McAllister and Chambers were firing again, the burst of bullets deafening in the narrow confines of the attic. Suddenly McAllister's Bren stopped and he cursed. 'Sarge, I think the firing pin's melted. Bastard won't fire anymore.'
'Go and get another. How are we doing for ammo?'
'Running quite low, Sarge,' said Chambers.
'Mac, get another MG and send someone up here with more mags.'
'Sarge,' said McAllister, hurrying downstairs.
Tanner now stood at the embrasure in the roof once more and, raising his rifle, saw several German artillerymen running down the road from the cottage towards the canal, towing a small anti-tank gun. Quickly, he drew back the bolt, adjusted his aim and fired, hitting the first man clean in the chest. The other three ducked, but he hit them, too, with his next four shots, then saw one man, evidently wounded in the leg, hobbling off the road. He aimed again, fired, and saw him trip over the edge of the road and into the ditch. Already, though, another antitank gun was being run off the road and into the cover of some poplars.
'Did you see that, Punter?' called fanner. 'Get some fire over there - quickly!'
Chambers gave out a burst but not before the antitank gun, some three hundred yards away, had opened. Tanner saw the flash of the muzzle and a split-second later a shell shot past one end of the house.
'Quick, Punter, time to go!' said Tanner, and then a second shell burst through the roof to hit the central beam. It bounced off and landed on the floor. 'It's an anti-tank incendiary!' yelled Tanner, almost pushing Chambers down the stairs. 'Out! Out!' he shouted, to Hepworth and Ellis, who were still manning a Bren on the first floor. Together they raced down the stairs as two more shells hit the roof. Hurrying to the back of the building they saw Peploe running from the barn with Sykes. Half of the building still stood, including part of the first floor. A ladder had already been leaned up against it and Tanner saw Corporal Cooper climbing it with another Bren.
'Four dead from Cooper's section and another two badly wounded,' said Peploe.
'I'm sorry,' said Tanner, 'and now the attic's been hit.' He looked up and saw smoke wisping from the damaged roof, but there had been no blast.
'Hold on,' he said, ran back inside the house, up the stairs and cautiously to the attic. Three shells were smouldering on the floor, apparently spent, so he ran across to the bucket, poured water over them liberally, then dashed back downstairs again. 'I think we might be all right up there,' he said, as he rejoined Peploe at the back of the house, 'but the bastards have got guns on it now, so the moment we start using it again we'll be in trouble.'
Another mortar crashed behind them, hitting one of the sheds, and causing them to dive to the ground.
'The problem is that we can't see them clearly enough,' said Tanner, as they got to their feet again. 'If only we could get across to the other side of the canal we could use that cottage fifty yards up the road and get stuck into them from there.'
'There's that dinghy, Sarge,' said Sykes, 'by the woodpile the other side of the farmhouse.'
'Don't be mad,' said Peploe. 'You can't use that.'
'Why not, sir?' said Tanner. 'We can take a couple of Brens and the Boys. If we get a move on we can occupy that cottage before Jerry does, let rip, then come back again. It might just delay him a bit more.'
'I'm not sure - it seems horribly risky to me.'
'No more so than staying here,' he said, gesturing to the remains of the barn.
'I'll rig up something for Jerry to remember us by in the house as well, sir.' Sykes grinned. 'Maybe put something interesting in those vehicles too. Don't know why I didn't think of it before.'
'I suppose there's something to be said for that,' agreed Peploe.
'Good,' said Tanner, taking that as his cue. He turned to Hepworth. 'You can come too, Hep.'
'Why do you always pick on me, Sarge?' said Hepworth.
'I'm doing you a favour, Hep. It's better to be doing something than sitting here getting stonked.'
Having picked up the Boys anti-tank rifle, a Bren and some spare magazines, they found the dinghy, ran to the front of the farmhouse and lowered it into the water. They rowed the short distance across, scrambled onto the far bank, secured the boat and hurried, crouching, along the road to the cottage. It was only a one-storey building, but had a small, neat garden and a hedge that ran round the back, protecting it from the fields beyond, and a willow tree in the far corner.
Intermittent shells and mortars continued to rain on their positions along the canal, but now, from the direction of the destroyed bridge, there came a sudden escalation of small-arms fire from both sides.
'Sounds like Jerry's making a play for the bridge,' said Tanner, as they crept to the back of the cottage. 'Stan, get to work on the cottage, will you? We don't want any Germans using it. Hep, come with me.'
They ran, in a crouch, across the lawn to the far corner beside the willow and, lying on the ground, Tanner peered between the hedge and the tree. He could see the road from L'Avenir leading to the bridge but a track went to a farmhouse by the bridge. German troops were scurrying forward, either side of the road and track, using it as cover. At the end of the track, perhaps two hundred yards away, there was a small cottage and a barn. From where he was, Tanner could just see a mortar team and another anti-tank gun behind it.