Page "fiction" Paragraph 49

At 2130 hours they had passed through the barbed wire at the point of departure.

Then began the journey through their own mine fields.

Mines.

Ours were kinder than theirs, some said.

They set bouncing betties to jump and explode at testicle level while we more mercifully had them go off at the head.

Mines.

Big ones and little.

The crude wooden boxes of the enemy, our nicely turned gray metal disks.

But theirs defied the detectors.

Mines.

A foot misplaced, a leg missing.

Mines.

All sizes: big ones, some wired to set off a whole field, little ones, hand grenade size.

Booby traps to fill the head with chunks of metal.

Warren tried to shake off the jumble of his fears by looking at the sky.

It was dark.

Prevot had said that the searchlights would be bounced off the clouds at 2230 hours, `` which gives us time to get settled in position ''.