"And here we are playing around ..." Mundek murmured loud enough.
"Shut up!" the commander barks. "Orders from the brigade. In two hours we head for Barchaba. I want all weapons to be clean. We will take supplies and equipment for an operation of two weeks. The rest of your things and the mattresses will be stored in the culture room. Departure at four o’clock in the afternoon. On the dot!"
Your eyes are flowing with green light
Like sparkling emeralds set to admire.
I thirst for a minute’s rest
you drive so far, so far ...
* * *
Bambi and I go on a tour of the positions. We got our lunch early. The cooks are getting ready for a big operation. Some film people, war correspondents, a few culture people, and still other curious creatures have come to the village. Its capture is to be re-enacted for them. Three houses are set on fire for effect. And all members of sup-port services for the course - cooks, drivers, mess attendants - have been equipped with guns and grenades. They are expected to capture the village most spectacularly for the movie.
"What fun!" crows Bambi, watching the spectacle from a distance. One of the cooks is wearing a turban and playing an Egyptian pris-oner. A cameraman explains to the cooks exactly how they should capture the village. All the weapons fire at once - rifles, machine guns, pistols.
"If they had an artillery piece, they would be firing that too," said Bambi critically. "And then they distribute that across the world to show how our heroes take over the whole land in no time at all. And to think of the slackers in Tel Aviv applauding. Sickening!"
We climb a hill. In front of us is a wide field. The cinema behind us is forgotten. Scattered about the field in front of us are something like eighty Egyptian corpses.
"What a stink!" says Bambi.
We go closer. The day before yesterday, this was the scene of one of the most horrifying battles of the war. A battle with daggers, knives, and fingernails. Four times the hill changed hands. The next morn-ing our dozens of dead were buried first. The Egyptians were just