"Curious that I never feel like eating when fighting is going on ..." I think aloud. Ovadia mumbles something and keeps eating. "We need something to drink with it," he says after a moment and gets up. Ten feet away from us is a big earthenware jug full of water. I think of his wife who works in the medical center of the battalion. "I feel sorry for her. She always knows about it when you are in the middle of a battle." I am not sure whether I said the words or just intended to say them. Just then we hear the whistling of a shell. It is especially loud. I duck, and there is a loud explosion. The shell lands about five feet from our trench.
I raise my head and see Ovadia lying in the commander’s trench. I start to laugh, but break off immediately. Blood is dripping from Ovadia’s sleeve.
"I am hurt" he calls to me. I jump up, wrap a bandage around his arm. The wound is not so terrible. A fragment has gone right through his arm, but apparently missed the bone. I force myself to eat. In sit-uations like that you never know when you’ll next get the chance.
* * *
The damn shelling gets heavier again. The Egyptians have apparently given their forces a pep talk. The tanks are moving again. And the rows of infantry are following, jumping forwards and lying flat, jumping forwards and lying flat. The hill holds its breath - these are decisive moments.
David Shani runs back and forth between the trenches and the command post. Someone notices that his shirt is bloody.
"You are wounded!" they shout to him.
"It’s nothing" he replies, clenching his teeth. A fragment has hit him in the shoulder, so they bandage him up.
"You’ll have to get out of here" says the one remaining unwounded commander. David refuses. That is no empty heroic gesture. He knows that everything now depends on the commander. He thinks of Hill 69 that was lost a month ago due to the incompe-tence of the commander. He knows that the morale of the soldiers might collapse if he now disappears. So he stays. And with him stay Nehemiah Rotholz, the platoon leader, and Levy Kolker, our deputy company commander - both of them wounded.
* * *
Again the attack is repelled. The order to return to base comes over the radio.