The Anti-Tanks in Action

By Hugh Slater

The Fifteenth Brigade’s Anti—Tank Battery went into action on the second day of the Brunete offensive. As soon as We opened fire We Were heavily shelled for the first time in our lives.

As We moved forward over open country to take up positions under Mosquito Crest—— one of the objectives of our Brigade——we saw, With- out ‘Warning, huge belching clouds of black smoke and vermillion flashes in the field to the right of our convoy. One tiny silver cross immensely high up was buzzing very faintly overhead. The plane dropped the rest of its load rather nearer but did no damage. Cheerfully We collected ourselves from the fields and ditches and carried on up towards the F ascist—held crest.

I peered through glasses at our shells landing and scattering small, panic-stricken, black figures from their positions, and noticed how un- real the world seems through glasses — as if one were completely detach- ed from the scene With its bullets and shells Whining round about. Mor-

phia has this effect on patients in great pain. They still feel the pain, i

but it seems to them as if everything were happening to somebody else a long way away.

Later some of our guns were moved down to positions near Jock Cunningham’s headquarters Where We were shelled regularly for three days.“ ‘

On the third day, Malcolm Dunbar and I were Walking back from our most forward gun, over one of the undulations in the hills. We saw that our base was being violently bombarded. Some cases of ammun- ition Were exploding in howling syncopation with_ the screaming of the enemy shells. The grass all round the guns and Cunningham’s dug-out was on fire. The Whole area was a private little inferno in the middle of a quiet landscape. Behind the smoke, moving about, We could see fo11r or five grey, ghost-like forms. It was hardly believable that there could be men out in the o-pen in the middle of the crashing shells, the explod- ing ammunition and the fires.

We got back just before things began to die down, and discovered

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