observation plane”, and so we ducked, but when she went away no- body thought about it much. We didn’t expect she could spot us in the hollow from that high up.

Thirty minutes must have passed when we first heard a low hum. It was low but very strong and it was coming from the Fascist side. It was getting stronger by the second and we knew we were for it. It was a roar that filled the air you were breathing. It was a roar that almost lifted you up, shaking. It was getting stronger and stronger and, Christ, it was coming straight at you...

I was hugging the earth, pressing into it with my hands, with my feet, with my face, but the roar set the whole ground shaking and the ground was pushing you up, pushing you up higher and higher, sho- ving you over to them; here he is, don’t let’im get away from you...

’And I felt that I was perched up high and knew that they could spot me from miles. I looked up a11d there they were, going around and around, the whole sky black with them, manouvering into posi- tion, icrooking their claws to swoop down o11 you... ~

Then they let loose. That awful whistle, scream and rush of th bombs, then the explosion, The whole earth was blasted into pieces. It heaved and rocked a11d swayed a11d roaredand smoked, and the bombs kept coming down, and everytime you heard that whistle and scream you knew there was a shaft pointing to the small of your back and the bomb would hit you right there and blow you to a million pieces.

The small of your back was bare and you knew they could see it and you knew they were pointing at it, and aiming their next bomb right there. Then there would be a pause to make sure their aim was right. Waiting for that next explosion everything in you would be wound up tighter and tighter till you couldn’t stand it any longer and felt like screaming; “Come on, you bastards, drop it, drop it!”

Then they’d begin bombing again and there you were lying na- ked. And where was our anti—aircraft, where were our planes, where were our guns to help us, to drive’em away? They were all killed, the Fascists had everything and we had nothing. There was Hitler, Fran- co and Mussolini riding those planes and killing off everyone of us till there was nobody left living on this earth. We never had a chance, we lost this war long ago.

Then the bombing stopped and they began straffing. Everything was smoke and dirt and dark but you knew the machine guns would see through the dark, and everybody around you was killed, and you were left here alone and the next burst would catch you square across the back and you would be killed, too.

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