the rim and simply slide down. No idea how the mortar and PIAT bearers manage it, but somehow they too arrive at the bottom. Yaakov too, now bandaged, is back with us.
Down below is chaos. I run around looking for the units. We form up again in a long line and set off to the north, in the wadi. We travel in a long arc to the north and the west. The Egyptians are still shoot-ing at the place we were when we first made contact.
While we are marching through the dunes toward the south, the rumble of our artillery meets our ears. One shell after another explodes in the Egyptian camp. Our hearts leap. That is our revenge for Latrun.
To the sound of artillery we march on, until we reach our goal. We lie on the ground in a circular defensive position. At the same time the Irgun unit joins the battle. Their task is to harass the enemy from the other direction and to tie up his forces. The Irgun orchestra pro-duces a sound we have never heard before: hundreds of rifles, hand-guns, heavy machine guns, and mortars make an unbelievable racket.
The Arabs respond and also fire red and green rockets into the air.
Asher Dromi has now completed his preparations. He arranges the company for the assault. Our section on the northern wing, two squads directly facing the enemy. The third squad as a reserve behind. Jerach and I in the middle of the front row. The whole com-pany advances on a broad front.
After a hundred meters we halt. According to the plan, Kotzer’s platoon should capture the left wing and Josh’s the right, before we in the center begin the decisive assault.
We are lying in soft sand and freezing. From both sides come the typical sounds of close combat. Shots from rifles and heavy weapons mingle with human shouts and cries. Our comrades are storming the fortified positions of the enemy at this very moment.
We wait for the command to start the assault. The ground here is unpleasant. You can’t run on this sand. Now and then a salvo of machine gun fire comes in our direction - thirty to fifty tracer rounds.
"It will be light in twenty minutes" remarks Shmulik, the squad leader.