Darkest Hour

'That was certainly good work, Sergeant. Captain Wrightson has taken them to Battalion HQ with Ten Platoon.'

'So you managed to get the prisoners to Battalion but not me,' muttered Lyell. 'Nice to know I'm lower in the pecking order than some bloody captured Huns.'

Barclay sighed. 'For God's sake,' he said, through gritted teeth, 'be thankful you're still alive and not being carted off to some German prison camp.' He turned back to Tanner. 'Go on, Sergeant.'

'I also took the chance to have a bit of a dekko, sir. I took one of the bikes to the far side of the ridge and saw the Germans in the distance. At the time, I reckoned they were twelve to fifteen miles away. They'll reach the canal by nightfall.'

Barclay swallowed. 'Right. I see.' He patted his pockets and took out his pipe.

'And, sir, I’d like you to know that Corporal Sykes and Private Hepworth performed well. Sykes alone destroyed an armoured car and Hepworth accounted for at least fifteen enemy.'

'Really? By Jove! All right, Tanner. Thank you. Duly noted. And, er, well done.'

Blackstone joined them from the back of the house. 'Sir, we really should be going. We've been held up long enough as it is.'

'Yes, all right, CSM,' said Barclay, without moving. 'Your old friend here has been performing heroics. How many dead was it, Sergeant?'

Tanner shrugged. 'Wouldn't like to say, sir.'

'About thirty, sir,' said Sykes.

Blackstone's eyes were unblinking. 'Well done, lads. Well done. We saw these boys hurtling down the hill, didn't we, Mr Peploe?' he said. 'At first we thought they were Jerries gone mad, then we heard your shouting and hurried to the bridge.'

'Another part of the enemy reconnaissance battalion opened fire on us, sir,' said Tanner.

'But you made it back,' said Barclay.

Blackstone grinned. 'Touch and go, though, wasn't it, sir?' he said, to Peploe. 'Bullets flying everywhere.'

'I was hit by one.' Tanner glared at Blackstone.

The CSM patted him on the back. 'But you're all right, aren't you, Jack?'

'I was lucky.'

'There!' exclaimed Blackstone. 'Haven't I always said so?' He smiled affably, took out a packet of cigarettes and held it open to them. Hepworth took one eagerly, but Tanner and Sykes ignored the offer. Instead, Tanner saluted Barclay again, then turned sharply and brushed past the CSM.

Soon after the company set off, two platoons and Company Headquarters - seventy-nine men in all. They marched, 12 Platoon following 11, along a dusty, unmetalled road, their backs now to the advancing enemy.

Lieutenant Peploe was walking beside Tanner. 'Still no sign. Hard to believe that less than an hour ago Germans were shooting at us down by the bridge.'

'They'll be up there somewhere,' said Tanner. 'All these woods make damn good cover. We've got a bit of time, though. Jerry can't get across the canal without bridges, so their sappers'll be busy tonight.'

'You think they'll be over by morning?'

Tanner shrugged. 'I reckon so.'

'We don't want to be long at the rendezvous, then.'

'No. I don't suppose we've been told where we'll make the next stand, but the sooner we get there the better. A bit of scoff in that wood and then a long night march, I reckon.'

'What about your wound?'

'Hardly a wound, sir. I've put a dressing on it. I'll have to get my housewife out, though, and sew up my shirt and battle-blouse. Don't suppose we'll be seeing too much of our kitbags in the next few days so what I've got has to last.'

They passed through another small village, as deserted as the others. In the fields, more cows lowed painfully, their udders swollen with milk. Tanner saw one cow already dead, its legs sticking up stiffly into the air, its body rigid and bloated. Two dogs barked and snarled as they passed until a soldier kicked one, and they scuttled away. An elderly woman was watching from a window. A few days before she would have seen British troops marching to the front, Tanner thought. Now they were marching back. What must she be thinking, left alone, her neighbours gone, the Germans just a few miles away?

He wondered whether they would really manage to reverse the retreat. All the momentum was with the enemy now - that was obvious - but he had also heard that the French Army was massive. Chevannes, a French officer in Norway, had boasted about that, and how they had more tanks and guns than the British and the Germans put together. The French had been caught off- guard but surely they would regroup, concentrate their forces, now that they knew the direction of the German advance, and fight back? He remembered his father telling him that something similar had happened at the beginning of the last war - a swift opening attack by the Germans that had taken everyone by surprise but was eventually halted.

Tanner stepped out of line to check his men were all

still present and in good order. Company Headquarters led, followed by three sections of ten men, the last led by Corporal Sykes. He waited until the last two in Sykes's section - Hepworth and Rhodes - reached him, then continued alongside them. 'All right?' he asked.

'I suppose so, Sarge,' said Hepworth. 'I'm sick of all this marching, though. It's all we ever seem to do in the Army.'

'What are you talking about. Hep?' said Tanner. 'Wasn't that enough action for you this afternoon?'

'More than enough.'

'We'll be in that wood soon. Get some scoff. You'll feel better after that.'

The column crossed a railway line, the men climbing up the small embankment and over the rails.

'Sarge,' said Rhodes, as they cleared the line, 'is it true you used to know the CSM out in India?'

'Yes, it is. Why?'

'A few of the others had said so. Just thought I'd find out for myself.'

'Well, now you know.'

'Don't take this the wrong way, Sarge,' said Hepworth, 'but do you and the CSM not get on?'

'What makes you say that, Private?'

'You didn't have that smoke he offered you.'

'I'd had one a few minutes before. So had Corporal Sykes.'

'So had I,' said Hepworth.

'Well, you shouldn't have taken it, then. Doesn't do you any good, you know, smoking too much.'

'Well, I think he's all right, the CSM,' continued Hepworth. 'Seems like a good bloke.'

'Aye,' agreed Rhodes. 'He's certainly a lot better than the bastard we had at training. I hated him good and proper.'

'But am I right, Sarge?' persisted Hepworth. 'About you and Blackie not getting on?'

'It's CSM Blackstone to you,' said Tanner, 'and whatever I think of him is none of your bloody business.'

It was nearly eight o'clock by the time they reached the wood, and the light was fading. Eyes had adjusted to it out on the open road, but under the canopy of the trees, now almost in full leaf, it was suddenly dark - and quiet.

The track led straight through the wood, but a few hundred yards in, with no sign of the battalion, Tanner felt uneasy. He was not alone.

'Where the hell are they?' said Peploe, in a low voice. 'Surely we'd have seen something by now. This wood seems completely deserted.'