Alex's Biography Continued...
The following is a further extract from Alex's Biography, By Prof' King, this time from chapter two. It was again sent to me by the rebel leader John Clay.
In June came the memorable Operation Fist of Sponge, which saw allied
units catapulted across the front line deep into enemy territory. Alex's
B company was one of the units spearheading an attack at one of the
enemy's main supply lines, in an attempt to cut of their southern
divisions and, routing them, open the way for for 24th and 13th
battalions to strike at the capital. It was one of the most decisive
engagements of the war, and saw massive caualties on both sides. Almost
a quarter of Alex's company was wiped out in the first assault.
The reason for Alex's survival was not courage, determination or a
blessing from above, but the fact that he spent all three days of the
engagement hiding in the empty fuel chamber of a bombed-out tank. His
retreat into dark, stench-filled places is not unusual, no doubt a side
effect of the psychological jokes his witty and well-meaning army mates
used to subject him to. At first his comrades tried to tempt him out
with promises of warm soup and the chance to hold a real gun, but the
distant sounds of explosions were enough to make up Alex's mind: in the
hole he would stay.
Meanwhile his company left him, and went off to win over 30 medals and
distinctions between them, 12 posthumously. At the end of the war Alex
was demobbed and sent back home to a somewhat less than enthusiastic
welcome...
Home.
