The Way of War Pt. 15

Shaun brought him up to date with what had been done at the Crater and Sharron and his son, but saying nothing about what he intended to do regarding training the Israelis.

Later they went downstairs to have a meal at a local bistro. Sat outside drinking their Cognac and smoking a cigarette Shaun asked how come Bobby had not been demobbed.

"The Brass," he chuckled, "In their superior wisdom decided to extend my service by six months to enable me to finish the job I started."

Shaun frowned "What job?"

"Basically to round up all the weapons that are laying around Europe and dispose of them."

"You mean the German weapons," Shaun queried.

"German, American, English and Italian, and there is a hell of a lot of them."

"So what happens to them when you find them?" Shaun asked.

Bobby laughed, "They get melted down to turn into plough blades, or so the story goes."

Shaun changed the subject. "Prof told me you were present at Belsen when they liberated the camp."

Bobby's face changed he nodded "Yes, it's something I wish I hadn't done. The sights and smell will haunt me for the rest of my life."

"He also told me your mother is Jewish. Did that have an effect upon you?"

Bobby stared at Shaun for a moment his tongue licked his lips before answering. "Not there and then, there were others apart from the Jews, Russians, and Poles. In fact any that didn't fit in with Hitler's master race plan. But later in my billet I realised she could have been one of them. I became angry, bloody angry. Any SS we found after Belsen we shot out of hand."

Shaun nodded in sympathy "My last mission was to exterminate an SS invasion force on a Greek Island. I felt no qualms at doing it, they were the scum of the earth."

Bobby smiled, "I know, Proff told me about it."

After they had returned to the flat and sat down again in the lounge. Bobby sat forward in his chair and looked hard at Shaun, "Whilst I appreciate you have come to lookup an old friend and talk about the old days," he paused, "There's something else that brings you here, what is it Shaun?"

Shaun took a deep breath, "Bobby what do you know about Palestine and what can happen there?"

Bobby's eyes narrowed, "Palestine, you mean what will happen to the Jews there?"

Shaun nodded.

Bobby thought for a second "The Jews will have a fight on their hands if they get the UN go ahead."

"At the moment they have nothing to fight with."

Bobby stared at Shaun understanding creeping into his eyes. "You want to help them procure arms."

"Bobby I want to do more than that, I want to train some of them on the principals of the LRDG. I already have some of the vehicles Jeeps and Dodge 1½ tonners. Proff and Cookie have joined me to help train them along with Ken. Their principal job will be to secure the Sini from Egypt's tanks. What we need now is the weapons to do that."

Bobby hesitated, "Shaun I'd have no problem gathering weapons for them. The main problem is getting them, to them. The ports and airports are checked for weapons, you couldn't get a popgun passed them, in Palestine."

"Proff came up with a way to do it that might work. If we get a ship, an old tramp steamer and fill it with weapons we could let it pass through the Suez Canal. At some point they could unload it and transport the weapons overland to Palestine."

Bobby's eyes gleamed "That would take a hell of a lot of organizing."

"That would be my problem Bobby. What weapons could you get together?"

Bobby thought for a moment, "The main problem would be ammunition, it would be better to standardize it so the majority of weapons fired it. I would go with the British .303 that way you could have the SMLE rifle, the Bren and Vickers machine guns. Sub machine guns fire 9mm both the Sten and German MP40 and MP42 use it, but the German are better weapons as you know. Then there's mortars and Bazookas which are available. But what would you want for the trucks?"

"M2 .50HB same as we used matched with the Vickers K, but I don't really know about a tank stopper apart from the Piet which was always hit or miss."

"Tank stoppers used by just a couple of men would have to be Bazookas. They didn't have that much effect on Tiger or Panthers when fired head on, but fired from behind the tank they had some success. Just before war's end the Yanks brought out a Super Bazooka, the M20 which to all accounts was quite effective. But also used with effect were Molotov cocktails and sticky bombs. We had course to use them in reconnaissance when we ran up against road blocks."

"It sounds like we could use your expertize at the training camp." Shaun said.

Bobby chuckled "Well I'm in no rush to get back home. But you will have to get your skates on, my enlistment is over in just over four months."

Shaun nodded. slowly thinking. I know they use ships to bring in the European displaced people. If I can get one where would you need it to load up?"

Bobby's eyes narrowed deep in thought, then he slowly smiled. "Toulon, we have shipped from there to Italy for their steel works. Security is poor and normally loading is rushed to get the ship out to sea in order to get another in."

"All right Bobby, you start getting a load together, they will have to be in creates with either farm machinery or something like that marked upon them. I'll arrange a flight to Tel Aviv and tie up with the committee about a ship and I'll contact you with the information regarding it."

Bobby nodded "I'll start rounding up the weapons and ammunition, it'll take about a month to get all the stuff you want. If I come across any vehicles that you could use I'll include them too."

Shaun reached for the telephone to make arrangements for a flight. After replacing the receiver he looked at Bobby, "You know you could get into an awful lot of trouble over this, are you really sure you want to go through this?"

Bobby smiled sadly "Shaun even if my mother was not Jewish I'd still like to help those people. They have had a raw deal from just about everyone on the planet. It's time they had a brake."

They sat discussing details for a further hour before Bobby ran him to the airport.