The poor sod thought he was being liberated, thought Butler guiltily —that possibility was something which hadn't occurred to him until this very moment.
He heard the man shouting unintelligibly behind them, then Winston swung the jeep out of the shadow of the street into the light of the village square.
It was black with Germans.
Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage
II.
A German soldier skipped out of the way of the jeep to the safety of the pavement.
'Drive on!' said Audley out of the side of his mouth. 'Not too fast—
There were two more Germans crossing directly ahead of them. Audley signalled them out of the way with an urgent gesture.
'
The Germans increased their pace smartly.
Butler sat like a stuffed dummy, one hand gripping the body mechanism of his Sten convulsively, the other clutching thin air.
They were driving down one side of a tree-lined square, between a line of grey lorries under the trees on one side—lorries so heavily camouflaged with branches that the trees seemed to be growing out of them
—and a wall of drag shops and houses. The intervals between the lorries were crammed with German troops in full marching order, some in steel helmets but most in soft field caps, with their helmets hanging from their packs.
'Turning ahead—' Audley lifted his hand in a vague half-salute. 'Smile,
'
'Bahnen Sie die Strasse,' repeated Audley to himself.
Winston started to turn the wheel, then straightened it instantly. A second later Butler saw why: the side road was jammed with horse-drawn transport—and with more Germans. And, what was worse, at the head was a group of jack-booted officers pouring over a wide-spread map held between them. In the second that it took to pass the turning one of them looked up to stare directly into Butler's smiling face.
At least, it was the nearest he could get to obeying Audley's command—he could feel his cheek muscles drawn back.
They were past the turning. A shop door opened just ahead and two soldiers stepped blindly into the road, their arms filled with long French loaves.
Audley half rose from his seat. '
Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage
There was a shout behind them, and the sound of another motor engine.
'The other jeeps,' said Audley. 'Let's go, Sergeant.'
'Yes,
As the engine roared there came a single shot from the rear, then a burst of firing. One of the loaf-carrying Germans dropped his load and threw himself backwards, upsetting his comrade. The jeep's tyres screamed and skidded on the cobbled road surface. Butler had a fleeting, confused impression of men scattering in the last lorry interval to his left; dead ahead of them there were more men scattering—
men who had been sitting on the steps of the church. Winston swung the steering wheel to the right, then to the left, flinging Butler from one side of the jeep to the other.
They were into a narrow passage—so narrow that the jeep barely fitted between its walls and the sound of its engine filled his senses.
'Shoot, Butler!' screamed Audley.
For a moment Butler didn't understand the order—there was nothing he could see ahead of them to shoot at. Then he realised that anyone firing down the passage at them from behind could hardly miss.
As he twisted in his seat there was another burst of gunfire behind them, followed by a grinding crash of metal on metal which ended in an explosive crash.
The passage was empty—
'Shoot!' Audley shouted again.
Butler loosed off the Sten at nothing—he couldn't have hit anything if it had been there, with the jeep bucking under him.
'More!'
He put another burst down the empty passage and saw dust and chips of stone fly from the walls of a house as the bullets ricocheted from one side to another.
'On the right—there!' shouted Audley.
'I can see it—hold tight!' Winston shouted back
The jeep braked hard. Just as the Sten magazine emptied there came a single shot from the far end of the Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage
lane and in the same instant a bullet cracked over Butler's head. The jeep swung sharply to the right, un-
