Eleven Eleven

CHAPTER 14

10.00 a.m.

The sniper had shaken them all. Will could see it in their faces. And now they could hear shooting and explosions in the middle distance, somewhere over to the south. That didn’t help.

Jim was being extra terse with his commands. He needed to be stern. He sensed the men’s fear too. The last thing he wanted was to have them panic and flee like frightened rabbits. Then they could be picked off one by one. Together they could concentrate their fire on any threat.

‘I’ll carry on at point,’ said Jim, continuing to place himself in the most exposed position and putting hope and courage back into his patrol. ‘Now keep those ears flapping and no unnecessary talking. We’re going t’make our way back to the platoon. Fritz probably has several snipers in these woods. We’ll report back and get the artillery to blow this place to splinters.’

Will felt a huge sense of relief when Jim announced they were going. He was desperate to be away from this gloomy forest. He was convinced that hostile eyes were watching him, or worse, even at that moment, someone had him in the cross hairs of a telescopic sight. He had to force himself to stop wondering if these were the last thoughts he would ever have.

He tried to cheer himself up. There were still seven of them left. That gave Will a sense of security.

As they trudged back, steady rain trickled down through the trees to add to their misery. The forest was dark at the best of times. Now it was almost like patrolling at dusk. Jim held up his hand, bringing them all to a halt. He beckoned Will forward and pointed to a black shape in the undergrowth close to the path, indicating he should have a look. It looked like the sole of a boot.

Will moved forward cautiously, then flinched at the sight before him. Two skeletons, bones bleached by the elements, were lying on their backs close to each other. Both still had their army boots on their feet, but there was no evidence of any other clothing or weapons. Will beckoned the others to come and look. ‘Watch out for booby traps,’ whispered Jim to them all as they gathered round the macabre spectacle.

‘Maybe they were sunbathing,’ sniggered one of the men.

‘Glad someone finds it funny,’ said Jim brusquely. The soldier’s smirk vanished in an instant.

‘They were the boots they gave out to soldiers in 1914 – the original British Expeditionary Force,’ said Jim. ‘I remember them. Look at the stitching. These fellas were killed at the start of the war – probably retreating back from Mons in the late summer.

‘Jesus Christ!’ he said in despair, looking up to the sky. He turned his back on his men as he tried to stop his face crumpling up. Will felt for him but didn’t dare put a consoling arm on his shoulder. He could see the other men looking uncomfortable. No one liked to see their sergeant so vulnerable. He was a tough bastard, and if he started to go, then what chance had the rest of them?

Jim took a few deep breaths, until he could be sure his voice was steady. Then he said, ‘It’s taken us all this time, and all these blessed dead soldiers, to get back to where we were over four years ago. Don’t know who was luckier – them or us that’s had to carry on fighting . . .’

He turned abruptly. ‘Come on, let’s get the bloody hell out of here.’

They began to walk back west. Jim had his compass out and that gave them a rough sense of the direction they needed to be going in. No one said a word, each of them completely wrapped up in scanning the gloom for movements. But it was difficult to tell whether a shifting branch was caused by a sniper or the wind.

Even though they were tired, the men picked up speed. They were all anxious to get out of the forest with no further casualties. After fifteen minutes, Jim raised an arm to signal a halt. ‘Right, two minutes’ rest,’ he whispered, ‘and then Cowell can take point.’

Cowell nodded. They set off without a word when Jim got up. The rain had stopped at least, but the sky above, as far as they could see through the canopy of leaves and branches, was still leaden.

Will was next in line, with Cowell at least five yards ahead. It was standard patrol procedure. You kept a good distance to make it more difficult for a sniper with a quick trigger finger to pick off a group of men in a few seconds, or to prevent a sudden artillery or mortar shell wiping out the whole patrol.

There were more bodies ahead of them. Five German soldiers – very recently killed, by the look of them. The trees around them were scarred and tattered from shell blast. It was not difficult to see what had happened here.

‘They were probably after us too,’ whispered Jim. ‘No sign of ’em when we came this way before. Wonder if there are any more German patrols?’

Will shook his head and tried to control the terrible anxiety that lurked in his gut. He just wanted to run as fast as he could out of the forest.

As they hurried past, Will looked at the bodies, with their weapons and supplies scattered around them. Two were lying separate from the others. Three had been caught in a tight bunch – maybe they were leaning in to light a cigarette from a single match – maybe they had been having a whispered conversation. Now they lay tangled together. Most were untouched, save for bleeding around the ears or nose. They had yet to take on the stench of death. One, a young soldier close to Will’s age, had a letter poking out the top of his trouser pocket.

Will hated seeing the personal belongings of dead men. The wristwatch, the shaving kit, the comb, the penknife, the mess tin and spoon and fork, and especially the letters from home. These things all had a terrible intimacy – once of great value to their dead owner, now worthless.

As Jim’s patrol hurried on, something stirred in the pile of bodies. The man had heard them coming and, in his haste to hide, had realised the safest spot was in among these dead soldiers. He wondered where his fellow sniper Hoffmayer was, and whether he had managed to add to his total today. They had set off at first light this morning, and had bet a bottle of schnapps on who would claim the most kills by sunset. He’d already caught some fool out in the open, shouting to draw attention to himself. That was too easy. He wondered if Hoffmayer had had similar luck.

Moving with extreme care, he slowly placed his rifle to his shoulder and peered at the back of the last man in the line. He needed to wait a moment or two more. The further away they were, the less they would be able to tell where the shot came from. He also hoped there might be further shell fire from somewhere, to hide the sound of his rifle. He breathed deeply and slowly, keeping his eye on his target and his finger by the trigger. Not too close though. Like many snipers he had filed down the levers on the firing mechanism of his Mauser, to make the trigger more responsive. It was a mixed blessing. An unintended shot could easily give him away.

The path ahead of Jim’s patrol veered off to the north, but they could see it was close to another path heading in the direction they needed to go. Cowell took a short cut through the low undergrowth and all at once he disappeared in a white flash of earth and flame.

Seeing the flash and the flying debris, the sniper’s finger touched his trigger. He hit his target in the back of the neck. He could not have done a better job if he’d standing right behind him with a pistol.

Will, standing nearest to Cowell, was knocked off his feet. His head buzzed from the noise of the explosion, but he could not feel any other sort of injury. How he had escaped he did not really understand. When he looked at Cowell again, he was lying on his side with a tattered leg oozing blood and a horrible white stump of bone above where his left foot should be.

‘Hold back,’ said Jim urgently. He moved cautiously forward. ‘That were a mine, weren’t it?’ he asked his men. ‘I didn’t hear a shell coming in. Stick to the path. Keep your eyes ahead – and watch where you’re putting your feet.’

Will could see his brother talking but he couldn’t hear him. There was just a whistle in his head. It didn’t hurt or anything, but it made him feel trapped, not being able to hear anything.

The sniper cursed. The men in the patrol were now dispersed. His line of fire was no longer clear, but at least they hadn’t noticed another of their men was missing. He kept watching them flit between the trees.

Wait. That’s what snipers did. His moment would come again.

Sergeant Franklin edged over to Cowell. ‘He’s still breathing. Must have knocked him unconscious.’

Cowell stirred, then began to moan. Then he started to scream. He looked down at his injury. ‘My leg. The bastards, they’ve blown off my bloody leg.’

Jim propped him up. ‘It’s just your foot, Cowell. The rest of you is all right. Try not to make a noise.’ He took a flask from his backpack. ‘Drink some of this rum.’

Cowell gulped it down until he choked. ‘Jesus it hurts,’ he said, gritting his teeth. He was pale now, his eyes slipping in and out of focus.

Jim took some bandages from his pack and began to improvise a rough tourniquet. ‘Stay with us, Cowell,’ he said. Then he turned to the biggest man in the squad. ‘Bradshaw, will you run ahead with him, get him to a field station as quick as you can?’

It was a request rather than an order. But Bradshaw didn’t need a second bidding. Before the war he had worked down the mines and he could pick a man up as easily as he could heft a sack of coal. He put a hand on Cowell’s shoulder and said, ‘Don’t you worry, mate, I’ll get you back,’ then hauled him up. Cowell flinched as his injured leg brushed against his comrade.

Bradshaw hurried off ahead, Cowell’s body bent over his shoulder, and the others marvelled at his strength.

Will watched them go. He wanted to get out of this forest more than anything else he had done in his life. His hearing was coming back in little bursts. Sometimes clear, sometimes just a whistle.

There was a sudden crack, like a twig being snapped, and all of them turned to look at Bradshaw and Cowell. The big man stumbled and lurched forward, stopped in his tracks. He and Cowell fell to the ground in an instant. Neither of them moved. All of the patrol threw themselves down. Then Ogden stood up to get a better view. Jim immediately signalled for him to get down. Will could see a small bloody circle right in the centre of Cowell’s back. It was getting bigger by the second.

‘The clever bastard,’ Will heard Jim say to no one in particular. ‘Got them both with a single shot.’

‘What do we do now, Sarge?’ said Hosking.

‘We wait,’ said Jim. ‘Stay here till dark if we have to. Keep looking around. But make your movements really slowly.’

‘Let’s hope he’s not up in one of these trees, and can see us on the ground,’ said Hosking. He sounded terrified, and Will felt his own fear in the pit of his stomach.

But they were covered pretty well, kneeling in deep foliage in a dip in the ground. They should be hidden.

Jim called quietly, ‘Weale, where are you, man?’ He sounded on edge – as near to frightened as Will had ever heard him. Will suddenly realised Weale had not been among them since Cowell had caught the mine.

‘I haven’t seen him, just now,’ said Ogden in a terrified whisper.

Will raised his head to take a look around and see if he could spot his comrade. A shot immediately rang out, hitting the side of his helmet in such a way that it knocked it off his head. In that one instant all four of them were seized with a blind urge to run. They scattered, each one in any direction his legs would carry him, praying that he could run fast enough to outwit the hidden enemy there in the forest.