Meanwhile the enemy vehicle has come to a stop about a hunded meters away and extinguished its lights. They may not have seen us, but they know that we are in the area. If they were to drive on fifty meters they would reach the mines laid by our sappers and our PIAT3 would destroy them.
Suddenly our machine gun barks. Has the man gone mad?
The enemy replies immediately. The bullets come directly at us. We duck down in our trenches. Someone crawls over and whispers to Amnon: "One of the men got nervous. He heard a noise and thought the enemy was coming." Devil take it. That’s the way opera-tions fail.
The enemy keeps up his fire. My radio is driving me mad. I’ve lost contact with Lea Three. Then I have an idea - maybe the battery is flat? I stand up to change it. Amnon shouts at me to get down. But I ignore him. After all the lives of many men depend on the functioning of this damned box. As soon as the new battery is connected I notice the dif-ference. It is nearly three o’clock. It will be light around four. If we don’t manage to capture the police building, we will have to with-draw. In the daylight we will be easy prey for the enemy in these posi-tions. There’s no way we would get out alive.
"Hello Lea Two, message for Lea One, Matti is here, Matti is here, message for you, Lea One, over!"
At last. The company commander has taken over the functioning radio.
The retreat begins. First the sappers remove the mines. The squads withdraw in order - first the most forward squad with the sappers, the machine gun, and the PIAT.
We return on foot, with me talking continuously on the radio. The withdrawal goes according to plan. The police station is very near. At the moment there is no shooting from there, but the fire barrier is still burning. It seems that the building was not taken despite all our efforts. In this light it would really have been madness to approach the enemy.
* * *
Two days later the fortress again came under attack. This time our platoon was in the front line of assault. The plan is to assault the building from two directions after a heavy mortar barrage. While the two platoons crawl toward the fence, a column of armored