foxholes and camouflaged their vehicles. Artillery is thundering nearby - ours and the enemy’s. Rumors are circulating among the commanders of heavy fighting around Negba. Another name is also mentioned: Ibdis.
Czera Czertenko, the battalion commander, suddenly appears. Czera, as he is known to everyone, is fresh and smiling as always. God knows when he sleeps. He needs four jeeps to accompany him to Negba. It is a unique opportunity to find out what is going on in the area. Such chance duties go to those who grasp them first. I wake my team. We set off.
About a kilometer before Negba I see the people in the first jeep lowering their heads: the typical movement of experienced soldiers who feel the approach of danger. What is it? I look around and see it. Near Beit Affa five little dots are moving over a field, and rapidly get-ting larger. Tanks! They are heading for us. Separating us is a bend in the road, that leads to Negba.
Our commander has only a tenth of a second to make a decision. He has three possibilities, each one of which is actually an impossi-bility. He can race ahead, toward the tanks, in the hope of reaching the bend before them. He can leave the road and drive across coun-try directly to the gate of Negba, but the field might be full of mines and wadis. Or he can turn round and drive back.
Czera looks like a student of the humanities, wears glasses, and smiles a lot. But inside he is a real old warhorse, brave, cool headed, and decisive. He knows that our army has no surplus of battalion commanders. And he also knows that Negba needs us.
He leaves the road and races like the wind. The tanks have noticed our turn and drive toward us. At this moment our lives are in the hands of Ovadia, our driver. We keep our heads down, as much as we can, making ourselves as small as possible.
As we are getting near to the gate the Egyptian tanks realize that they will not be able to catch us up. They come to a halt about two hundred meters away and start firing at us. The shells fly over us and to either side of us. It is very difficult to hit a fast-moving jeep.
* * *
We have only just arrived when the enemy opens up an artillery barrage. The lookouts in the police station of Iraq Suweidan have seen us.