Killing Ground Read Online Free PDF Page B

face. ‘He was with some piddling little supply company, Dutch I think. Whoever the guy was who was with him he couldn’t have been that important.’
    ‘Perhaps.’ Clarence didn’t raise his voice, but with its precise clipped tones it carried. ‘Perhaps the Reds have heard the stories and they’re looking for Paradise Valley.’
    ‘Quiet back there.’ They had a long way to go, and Revell wanted to put an early stop to speculation like that. With Russian reconnaissance patrols already probing the area they could not afford to waste time on a wild-goose chase in search of some mythical end-of-the-rainbow-type supply dump.
    He was about to order an increase in pace, to take their minds off the speculation, but against the continuous and virtually ignored thunder of artillery came the much louder, and closer, throbbing of a Soviet gunship. Their step quickened automatically.

    FOUR

They were lost. Time after time Revell and Hyde had conferred at crossroads as to the right or best direction. Almost as often, within a kilometre their chosen route had veered to the wrong heading. In the rugged mountainous terrain they would have been slowed to a crawl if they had struck across country, and so their compasses were virtually useless. The instruments served for little more than to act as general indicators that now and again they were heading in the desired direction.
    Their only map was no better. Many of the roads were not marked and in any event all signposts had been removed long ago. It was an action planned to confuse the enemy, but as now it often had the reverse effect. Also against them was the fact that even before the war this had been a sparsely populated area of West Germany. The few scattered houses and farms they glimpsed were all abandoned and anonymous.
    A first halt had been called after a couple of hours, while officer and NCO scaled a wooded ridge in the hope of identifying some landmark. They tried hard to conceal their frustration when they returned exhausted after the fruitless effort.
    ‘At this pace it’s going to take a bloody week to get back to our lines.’ Scully felt no benefit from the forty-minute rest when they restarted. The straps of his pack and his rifle sling bit into his shoulders. Their weight felt doubled by the water that lay on them and dripped from every crease of his combat clothing. Save where a tear was letting in an occasional icy stream he was still dry, but the wind was cold and beginning to burrow its way through to him.
    ‘Keep it moving.’ Revell looked back from the head of the main group and noticed a perceptible slackening of pace. ‘We must keep them moving, Sergeant, keep them on their toes. Another hour and then we’ll fall out, look for somewhere sheltered where we can tight a fire and prepare something hot. That’s if we don’t have any more Hinds buzzing around us then.’
    ‘I think we’ll have to take that risk anyway. Put a hot meal and a drink inside them and this lot will work wonders. Another stop under the trees with just a sip of cold water and a nibble at an oatmeal block and we’re going to have a hell of a job getting them on their feet again.’
Revell had to agree. ‘Pass the word that’s what we’re going to do. In return I want to up the pace.’
    ‘Major, Major!’ PFC Garrett came sprinting back from the point, shouting at the top of his voice.
    Hyde’s snarled warning got the young soldier to lower the volume but did nothing to abate his excitement. His words came tumbling out in a breathless rush that had nothing to do with his exertion.
    ‘Dooley’s seen something, Major. We’ve all seen it. It’s incredible. You got to come and see.’
    There was little to be got out of the eighteen-year-old while he was so worked up. Revell had seen him in the same state before, when he was on the substitutes’ bench at an inter-unit football game. A rush of emotion rendered him almost inarticulate and completely incomprehensible, and