Evening star., 1942-03-14

pdSG lllc dUdIlOOIleQ TOdQ DUCK,
where scores of bodies sprawled
about were grim evidence Of the
fierce fighting a few hours earlier,
when the tanks jolted to stop and
the guns which had been trained
on the roadsides were quickly
pointed upward.
Racing toward us out Of the sun
were great swarms of planes and as
they roared low overhead the Grim
son orbs painted on the wings shone
down on us. Leisurely they banked
and few up and down the length
of the convoy. I counted 40 bomb
ers, but fighters weaving in and out
and chasing one another in jubilant
sweeps around us were too difficult
to count. We jumped out of our
jeep and stretched out fiat on the
roadside from where we watched the
air armada do a war dance over us.
Bombers Swoop Low.
They took their time. They turned
away and then came back again.
They swooped lower over the road,
then swept steeply up into the clear
blue sky. When nine bombers de-
tached themselves from the rest and
formed for an attack it was almost a
reief-a short lived relief-for a
moment later the whistle of falling
bombs was loud in our ears. They
seemed to be coming so directly at
me that I had half risen to run.
But I threw myself fat again as the
earth seemed to come up to meet me.
The air seemed to have been sucked
away and it was like trying 10
breathe in a vacuum and then 1t
came back like a gale.
1t seemed impossible that any,
thing could live in this locking uni
verse of blackness and lightning
flashes, but when the dust cleared
and ran back to the jeep, hundreds
of other men, half bent as they ran
were racing to Chamber back into
their vehicles
Another few hundred yards along
the road and another group of nine
bombers detached themselves lazily
from the cloud of aircraft which
now followed us almost like an es-
cort. The group flew to the head of
| the column. turned and swept down
on us. Again there was the whistle
of bombs, again the earth rocked
as we threw ourselves into the ditch.
This was bigger stuff than the
Japs generally had been using in
this war zone, for although some of
this lot of bombs burst wide of the
road, black soil rained down on us
like hailstones.
Fighter Sprays Bullets.
The next time we were driven
from our jeep by fighter who tame
racing along the road spraying it
with bullets. We didn't have time
to run this time. Healy had wrapped
a mattress around himself and I
clutched a brown cardboard carton
of timed fruit hard against my
stomach and chest-too hard be-
| cause as we stood in the road
watching as fascinated as rabbits
fixed by a snakes stare the bottom
fell out of my carton and the tins
crashed down on my toes, leaving
me with my arms wrapped around
an empty cardboard box.
They let us survive another few
hundred yards before eight more
bombers took up positions to blast
us. I threw myself under a lorry
which had been wrecked at the
roadside. Further down the road
four Gurkhas squatted in front of
their arnored car with their guns
pointed upward, taking pot shots at
the bombers. Suddenly there was
the now familiar blackness and
flashing lights, the rush and swirl
of air. When the smoke and dust
had cleared the four Gurkhas were
sprawled across the road and their
carrier looked as If it had been
kicked back by giants boot.
Fighters came in the wake OF
bombers with white smoke from
splitting machine guns around their
noses like halo had slipped and
the never-ending whistle of bombs
seemed to be all around us again.
There was new note in the air
now. 1t was q sound like "shough"
or a steam train getting under way.
thought 1t must be from heavier
bombs and when one burst, throw
ing a great fountain OF earth and
smoke into the sky, I ran toward it
to take shelter in the crater, hoping
that like lightning bombs did not
strike twice in the same place. But
I was still long way from it when
the whistle of more falling bombs
screamed into a crescendo so loud
that I was certain they were drop
ping right on top of me. I threw
myself into ditch again and for
ages it seemed there was nothing
but the thunder and lightning OF
bursting bombs. I prayed hard
that might be allowed to see my
wife and baby just once more and
when q lun came after this hardest
blasting OF all, I discovered that the
other men had been thinking much
the same thoughts.
Bullet Rips ColonePs Hat.
I jumped back on the jeep, a
major clambered from his tank and
ran to me. He told me his name
and said:
"Tf vo,, oof fbro,,oy, sepd q coh1e