night. One who took part in the northern assault compares notes with the one from the west. Together they piece together a more complete picture of the operation.
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That is typical for the conversations in this tent. A chance remark develops into something more serious. Mistakes that have been made become clear, and the analysis covers successes, characters, and commanders. The people here are no simple soldiers. The ones who live here will be commanding units in future battles. This is the school for future leaders of combat units.
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There isn’t a battle on the southern front that is not represented here. The ten of us here have been everywhere, have seen everything - as simple infantry soldiers, in the crews of heavy weapons, in armored units, or on the jeeps. All are battle hardened.
A training exercise: you jump up, run a few steps, and throw your-self to the ground. On the right the machine gun unit runs, takes position, and fires at the imaginary enemy. And suddenly reality dis-solves and another scene comes to mind: Deir Muheisin, the first days of "Nachshon," the rows of the assault, snipers from the left, automatic fire from the right, you jump forwards...
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Or you sit in the theory tent - with paper and pencil in front of you. An officer with glasses draws the lines of an imaginary landscape on the board: a gentle slope, a steep hill, a valley, a wadi that snakes through the area. And again you are in another world: in the dark of night, returning from an operation behind enemy lines, you notice that you have lost your way. The jeep drives slowly, crosses a wadi, you examine the map in the feeble light of a lamp, you scan the sky for the Pole Star, shrug your shoulders, and drive on. Maybe you’ll get through. Maybe not. And when you eventually find your unit, your comrades embrace you like a lost son ...
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These men are here out of conviction. They didn’t come in search of promotion. They could easily have "arranged" a comfortable life for themselves. They know the responsibility a commander bears in combat. And they still chose this route. But if anyone says he likes war, they would regard him as mad.