bottom of the trench and have a go at cleaning it. My hands are shak-ing. I set it back up and pull the trigger. Nothing happens. All the time the whistling, screaming and roaring of shells, bullets, and bombs. The very air seems to be alive and trembling. The whole hill is covered in thick smoke and dust.

And in the middle of this cacophony there are people living and breathing. A sort of command structure is still functioning. Every few minutes I hear calls from position to position: "Joseph, take over command!" And even before there is time for anyone to bandage the wounded commander, there is a whistling and a shell bursts, spray-ing earth everywhere. Joseph calls with a shaking voice: "Shmuel - you takeover...!"

* * *

I take the rifle from a wounded man, and for a fraction of a second my view clears and I shoot. Immediately bullets pepper the ground around us. I function by instinct alone. Have stopped thinking.

One of the wounded men hangs his helmet over his rifle and raises it above the edge of the trench. A whistling bullet knocks two holes in it. Rifle and helmet fall into the trench. The wounded man laughs.

I look up again and suddenly see - nothing. Twenty yards away a white wall is forming. They are firing smoke shells into the no-man’s-land between us. A chilling moment. The decisive attack is imminent. Everyone who is still capable gets up and shoots into the smoke. There are not many of us left. One machine gun and perhaps thirty rifles are all the defense that Ibdis has at this moment. The rifle is overheating. We are firing shot after shot. At any moment ranks of Sudanese infantry with fixed bayonets will appear out of the smoke a few meters ahead of us. Slowly the fog thins. Nothing moves. Probably the snipers, who are hiding in the field, just moved to new positions.

* * *

Then I notice that something has happened to David. He is sitting on the floor, pale and motionless. It would be better to withdraw behind the hill and try to repair the machine gun. Maybe new orders have come in from the company. David gets up like a zombie. When we come to the dangerous part of the connecting trench he hesitates and stops walking. I give him a push and he jumps and crosses over. I fol-low him.

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