El Alamein, Jack Murray [best autobiographies to read .txt] 📗

the battlefield, destroyed, derelict and reeking of death. A few of the surviving British tank crews were scattered around, unable to move for their wounds. Manfred and the other Panzers ignored them and pushed ahead.

‘Faster, Jentz, we need to catch up with the others,’ said Manfred. It was true. By occupying the crater they’d fallen behind the general advance.

The tank began to pick up speed. Manfred risked putting more of his body outside the tank now as the British had swerved away in a different direction. The stench of cordite and burnt charcoal assaulted him. He knew that he would never forget the sights and smells of this day for as long as he lived, however long that might be. Each battle they fought did not feel like one step closer to victory. Quite the opposite. The Allies had taken a fearful battering, yet they would not stop. His own regiment, in fact the whole division, was hanging together by threads now. It was not sustainable.

They were making up ground on the main body of tanks when something caught Manfred’s eye. He looked left, past half a dozen tanks and then he saw it. A hundred metres away, one of the Grants had started moving. He’d noticed it earlier. It was not blackened or smoking. At first Manfred thought it had been abandoned. Now he could see it was still operable and it was moving to intercept them.

His eyes hardened. A chance to avenge the lieutenant.

‘Jentz, turn left, eight o’clock. Kleff, traverse left. Enemy tank, one hundred metres. AP Armour Piercing. Quickly. It’s heading this way.

-

‘They’re dead, sir,’ said Danny climbing down towards the driver’s seat. He motioned for McLeish to take over at the gun. The seat and the dashboard were covered with blood and something that Danny tried not to think about. His stomach heaved as he brushed away the remains of PG from the panel and the seat. Flesh and bone spilled onto the tank floor.

‘Hurry, Shaw,’ shouted Benson, unaware of the extent of devastation below, or perhaps trying to ignore it. There was more than a trace of panic in his voice now.

Tears blinded Danny’s vision. He sat down having cleared away the distorted, twisted remains of what had once been a man. He couldn’t bring himself to look in Gregson’s direction.

Air was coming through a hole in the side of the tank. The shell had passed through killing both men and exited the other side. Had the shot happened further away, it would have stopped within the tank and ricocheted around, probably killing everyone.

Danny fought back the nausea as he took control of the steering sticks and pushed his foot on the accelerator.

‘Move,’ screamed Benson.

The tank lurched forward, and they headed directly towards the rear guard of the Panzer advance. There was one tank, a Mark III, directly ahead of them, moving at speed. It was less than one hundred and fifty yards away and had obviously not seen them. The commander’s shoulders and the side of his head were visible. Suddenly the German commander turned in their direction and held his binoculars up to his eyes. His mouth fell open and he ducked down into the tank.

The enemy tank was now obscured by a destroyed Grant, but it was facing in the wrong direction. They had a few vital seconds of advantage now.

‘Traverse left,’ ordered Benson to Andrews. The gunner was furiously twisting the wheel to get the turret round. Danny steered towards a derelict tank to provide some cover. He wanted Andrews to fire off a round and then he would duck behind the destroyed tank in front. There would be split seconds between the two tanks firing at one another.

The German tank had reacted more quickly than they’d have thought possible. It seemed to swivel. Within seconds it was almost facing them.

‘Fire dammit,’ shouted Benson to Andrews.

Andrews fired.

-

The shell entered the left side of the Manfred’s tank. It went through the thirty millimetres of armour like a fist through wet paper. The fragments of the armour encountered Jentz first, shredding him instantly. The shell continued its journey, encountering the right leg of Kleff, removing if from below the knee. But Kleff had died already as a result of a of lump armour embedding itself in his chest.

Kiel, beside Jentz, disintegrated in a shower of metal from tank and shell. The dead body of Basler evaporated as thousands of metal shards sliced him apart.

It was only by a miracle that Manfred was not eviscerated. Just as the enemy tank had locked onto the Panzer, Manfred had realised that the British tank would get the first shot in. There was no avoiding the impact of the shell. In those split seconds, as his life hung in the balance, he knew that it would either be an AP Armour Piercing shell or a HE High Explosive one. The latter spelt certain death. The former gave him the merest half chance of survival. He lifted his legs up just as the Grant fired.

At that moment all became a blur. He saw the flash from the mouth of the gun. The tank rocked as the shell penetrated the hull. This was followed by a stab of pain in his shins and feet as the shrapnel ripped through the body of Kleff that had temporarily, shielded him before continuing their journey towards the next soft obstruction.

He screamed in agony and fell into the tank, clutching his bloodied legs. He screamed again when he saw what he’d fallen into. The blood and the tissue and the bones of his comrades had washed the inside of the tank a dripping red.

Just above his head, through the tears of pain in his eyes, he could see the fire button. Instinctively, he reached up. His hand felt around for the button. Then his thumb found it. He pressed.

-

Danny saw the front of the Panzer fold inwards as the shell ripped through the hull. Archie had hit bullseye. From one hundred and fifty