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- Колин Маккалоу
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- Стр. 319/535
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For
a
while
no
one
spoke
;
it
was
necessary
to
every
inhabitant
of
a
beleaguered
outpost
like
Tobruk
that
he
believe
implicitly
his
own
side
had
sufficient
military
thrust
to
get
him
out
.
Col
's
news
was
n't
very
welcome
,
more
so
because
not
one
soldier
in
Tobruk
held
Rommel
lightly
.
They
had
resisted
his
efforts
to
blow
them
out
because
they
genuinely
believed
the
Australian
fighting
man
had
no
peer
save
a
Gurkha
,
and
if
faith
is
nine-tenths
of
power
,
they
had
certainly
proved
themselves
formidable
.
"
Bloody
Poms
,
"
said
Jims
.
"
What
we
need
in
North
Africa
is
more
Aussies
.
"
The
chorus
of
agreement
was
interrupted
by
an
explosion
on
the
rim
of
the
dugout
which
blew
the
lizard
into
nothing
and
sent
the
four
soldiers
diving
for
the
machine
gun
and
their
rifles
.
"
Fuckin
'
Dago
grenade
,
all
splinters
and
no
punch
,
"
Bob
said
with
a
sigh
of
relief
.
"
If
that
was
a
Hitler
special
we
'd
be
playing
our
harps
for
sure
,
and
would
n't
you
like
that
,
eh
,
Patsy
?
"
At
the
beginning
of
Operation
Crusader
the
Ninth
Australian
Division
was
evacuated
by
sea
to
Cairo
,
after
a
weary
,
bloody
siege
which
seemed
to
have
accomplished
nothing
.
However
,
while
the
Ninth
had
been
holed
up
inside
Tobruk
,
the
steadily
swelling
ranks
of
British
troops
in
North
Africa
had
become
the
British
Eighth
Army
,
its
new
commander
General
Bernard
Law
Montgomery
.
*
*
*
Fee
wore
a
little
silver
brooch
formed
into
the
rising
sun
emblem
of
the
AIF
;
suspended
on
two
chains
below
it
was
a
silver
bar
,
on
which
she
had
two
gold
stars
,
one
for
each
son
under
arms
.
It
assured
everyone
she
met
that
she
,
too
,
was
Doing
Her
Bit
for
the
Country
.
Because
her
husband
was
not
a
soldier
,
nor
her
son
,
Meggie
was
n't
entitled
to
wear
a
brooch
.
A
letter
had
come
from
Luke
informing
her
that
he
would
keep
on
cutting
the
sugar
;
he
thought
she
would
like
to
know
in
case
she
had
been
worried
he
might
join
up
.
There
was
no
indication
that
he
remembered
a
word
of
what
she
had
said
that
morning
in
the
Ingham
pub
.
Laughing
wearily
and
shaking
her
head
,
she
had
dropped
the
letter
in
Fee
's
wastepaper
basket
,
wondering
as
she
did
so
if
Fee
worried
about
her
sons
under
arms
.
What
did
she
really
think
of
the
war
?
But
Fee
never
said
a
word
,
though
she
wore
her
brooch
every
single
day
,
all
day
.
Sometimes
a
letter
would
come
from
Egypt
,
falling
into
tatters
when
it
was
spread
open
because
the
censor
's
scissors
had
filled
it
with
neat
rectangular
holes
,
once
the
names
of
places
or
regiments
.
Reading
these
letters
was
largely
a
matter
of
piecing
together
much
out
of
virtually
nothing
,
but
they
served
one
purpose
which
cast
all
others
into
the
shade
:
while
ever
they
came
,
the
boys
were
still
alive
.
