there are not enough people there to rescue them. We leave all our equipment and ammunition reserves in the field before we go over there. We can pick the things up later.
We carry five wounded men. One has a shrapnel wound in the chest, another in the back. A third was wounded in both legs by one bullet. We only have a stretcher for one of them. The others will be carried on tarps.
Those who haven’t seen these wounded men can’t imagine the heroism the human being is capable of. They were wounded in the field and are in danger of remaining there. Some of them are seri-ously wounded and won’t live to reach a hospital. They are all in great pain. But none of them complains. They try to crack jokes and to make suggestions for the best way to transport them.
Like always after a battle we have to tell someone about it. That way a complete picture can be formed. One talks in particular about the heroism of the wounded. There were not enough stretchers and blankets. People take off their shirts and trousers. We tell each other the names of the wounded and the fallen. It is clear that the "sup-porting" unit suffered heavy losses and that Kotzer’s company was almost wiped out.
Each name is a living figure for us, a person who shared the ups and downs of life with us for months, in operations and celebrations. Someone whose most private secrets, desires, and preferences we know. And every one of them leaves behind a gap that cannot be filled.
Some feel that we have suffered a defeat. But we know that the out-come of a single confrontation doesn’t mean much. The battle as a whole is all that counts. Whether this or that engagement ended in defeat or victory is not important. What is decisive is the losses of men and material on the two sides and whether, in the end, the enemy advance was stopped or not. But one thing is certain: we have stopped the Egyptian advance. The danger is no longer acute. That is the most important lesson of the battle of Isdud.
* * *
After this battle we remained in the camp for a few days to reorga-nize. We didn’t get any leave. But we didn’t wait for written permis-sion. We could check that no action was planned for the next twenty-four hours, find a hole in the fence, and disappear for a day.