process. God help you if you find yourselves in battle without such ordinary soldiers around you, and only obedient robots."
* * *
The next night the company set out again. The aim was to capture one of the big police stations that the British had left to the Arabs.
Menashke’s unit was to lead the assault. His people would crawl to the fence and, while armored vehicles attracted the enemy fire, blow a hole and capture the building.
The men crawled for almost two hours. Any other unit would have long since changed to jumping. But the men were well trained and used to long periods of crawling. They reached the fence without losses.
With their elbows and heels the men scraped at the ground. There was no natural cover. Bullets whistled over them, mortar shells thun-dered, and machine guns rattled. The soldiers lay motionless on the ground. They wanted to begin the assault and put an end to the intol-erable tension. Menashke was lying in the first row, with the runner, the radio operator, and the medic directly behind him. In the hellish noise the radio operator shouted reports to him. The din was too loud for the enemy to hear him.
"Ask if we can begin the attack!" shouted Menashke.
"The order is: withdraw immediately!" called the radio operator after a minute.
Menashke couldn’t believe his ears. He crawled back to the radio to make sure that he had heard correctly. Maybe the armored vehi-cles had been hit so the chief had decided to call off the assault?
Menashke was boiling with anger. To withdraw - now? He con-sidered for a moment. Then he had made his decision and called to the radio operator: "You didn’t hear that message. Understood?"
"No," said the operator.
"I am deaf. You are wounded. The radio is not working. OK?"
"No," he answered.
"Go to hell!" shouted Menashke and gave the sappers the sign to blow the fence. The way was free for his people to begin the assault.
* * *
The next morning the unit was relieved in the captured building, and Menashke returned to base with his men. Everyone was excited