Royal Armoury to have it adapted and his scope sighted. It was a good scope and his father had sworn by it; certainly Tanner had found that on the rare occasions he had used it, the Aldis had never lost its zero.
'There's someone in the house,' said Tanner. 'Go and find out whether they've got any transport.'
Hepworth hurried up to the front door.
Screwing the scope into place, Tanner stood behind the ramp leading up to the barn and, using it as a rest, peered through the sight. The column was now about seven hundred yards away, and his sight zeroed at four hundred. He had found that allowing a foot's drop for every fifty yards beyond the zero usually did the trick, but this was going to be a long shot even with the scope; as it was, he could only just see the driver of the lead vehicle. Tanner reminded himself that all he needed to do was delay the column, cause a bit of confusion. He lowered his aim to the bottom of the truck, then lifted it again by, he guessed, about six foot. The truck was moving slowly - under fifteen miles per hour, he reckoned - and almost directly towards him. Half exhaling as he pulled back the bolt, he held his breath and squeezed the trigger.
The truck lurched and ploughed off the road, so that the vehicle immediately behind quickly emerged around it. This time Tanner aimed at the indistinct figure of the driver, then made a generous adjustment for the bullet's falling trajectory, and fired again. The man was hit - Tanner could see him thrown backwards. 'Damn,' he mouthed, pulled back the bolt again and fired once more. This time he saw the driver punched back in his seat, then slump forward. The man next to him grabbed at the steering-wheel, but it was too late and the truck struck the first, which came to a halt spread across the width of the road. Men were pouring out of the vehicles now and taking cover. Tanner smiled to himself with satisfaction, then turned towards the front of the farm, where Hepworth was still banging on the door.
'What the hell are you playing at?' shouted Tanner.
'They're not answering,' said Hepworth.
'For God's sake, Hepworth,' snarled Tanner. 'Forget 'em. Don't waste bloody time on niceties. A quick dekko in the barns and sheds. We need to get out of here - fast.'
There were several ageing carts in a barn but two bicycles in one of the sheds adjoining the house. One had a flat tyre and was covered with dust and cobwebs, but the two infantrymen grabbed them. 'Right, let's go,' said Tanner. 'Come on, quick.'
German artillery shells were whistling overhead with greater regularity now, bombarding the Allied positions just half a mile ahead. Tanner wove back and forth across the road, hoping to make himself a more elusive target should the Germans attempt to fire at them. His flat rear wheel was sliding badly, but he managed to keep his balance. Hepworth, making faster progress, repeatedly looked back until Tanner urged him to press on. Suddenly he became aware of an eerie silence - no birds singing, no blast of shells exploding. In the next moment there came a faint whirr and Tanner yelled at Hepworth, then flung down his bicycle and leapt into the snow by the side of the road, just as a stream of bullets spat up a line along the road followed by four Messerschmitt 110s thundering over.
He stood up and saw them strafing the Allies ahead, then shouted to Hepworth. To his relief, the private got up, dusted off the snow, hitched his rifle onto his shoulder and waved.
Soon after, they reached the Allied forward positions, waved in through the hastily prepared roadblock by a corporal from the Sherwood Foresters.
'Where're our lot?' Tanner asked.
'Behind. Two hundred yards, on the right of the road under the Balberkamp.'
A subaltern approached Tanner. 'Anyone behind you, Sergeant?'
'Only a column of enemy infantry.'
'How many?'
'Hard to say, sir. I counted at least a dozen trucks. They were all towing guns - about the size of our two- pounders, I reckon. And they've got tanks.'
'Good God,' muttered the lieutenant. 'You'd better report to HQ right away.'
'Yes, sir. Where is it, sir?'
'It's the only brick building around, a few hundred yards behind by the road. And it's a Joint HQ for all three battalions. The bastards have been dropping incendiaries to smoke them out, so follow the line of charred houses.'
Another shell hurtled over and they fell flat on the ground again. It exploded seventy yards further on, the noise deafening as the report echoed off the imposing Balberkamp. Tanner thanked the officer and then, with Hepworth, hurried forward. Men were still trying frantically to dig holes in the thin soil, officers and NCOs were shouting orders, while others were hastily laying down wire and building makeshift sangars. The early-afternoon air was still, heavy with the smell of cordite and smoke.
They found Joint HQ easily. One house nearby was still burning, thick smoke rising into the sky, another was burnt to the ground, while a third had a collapsed roof. A number of pines were still crackling with flames, their blackened branches bare of needles.
Outside, several civilian cars were parked haphazardly in the mud and slush. Tanner recognized one as the vehicle in which Captain Webb had made good his escape. In the yard beside the house there were a number of foldaway tables on which stood a line of field telephones, lines of cable extending across the snow. Evidently at least one was suffering from a break in the line as an exasperated Leicesters officer was cursing his inability to get through to his men. Runners reached the house as others headed through the trees towards the company positions.
'You stay out here, Hep,' said Tanner, pushing his way through the throng of clerks and other headquarters staff. His boots squelched on the mud. It was not cold, but the sky was overcast and grey and the snow was melting. Drips ran off the edge of the roof and from the branches of the trees. Indeed, Tanner now felt hot after his exertions, and he wiped the sweat from his forehead before he stepped inside HQ.
There was pandemonium. The house smelt musty, of coffee, sweat and damp clothes. In a room off the hallway, a number of men, including Norwegians, were peering at a map. Another Leicesters officer brushed past him, then Tanner spotted Lieutenant Wrightson, the battalion intelligence officer, sitting on the corner of a table in a room at the end of the hallway. Tanner knocked lightly on the open door.
Wrightson looked up. 'Yes?'
'I've been told to report to Battalion CO, sir, regarding what I've seen of enemy troop movements.'
Wrightson disappeared to fetch Colonel Chisholm.
A few moments later the colonel appeared with Captain Webb. 'Tanner, what the bloody hell are you doing here?' asked Webb. 'Shouldn't you be with the rest of your platoon?'
'All right, Captain, that will do,' said Colonel Chisholm. He was a tall man in his mid-forties, with a trim moustache above his lip and dark eyes. A North Yorkshire landowner and Member of Parliament, he, too, was new to war. 'What have you got for me, Sergeant? ‘I think Private Hepworth and I were the last out of Lillehammer, sir. We saw a tank entering the station with a number of accompanying troops, then a long column of motorized infantry deploying out of the town. The lead trucks had guns attached to the back. Only small ones, though. Anti- tank guns, I should say.'
The colonel ran his hand through his hair as Tanner spoke, then chewed one of his fingernails. 'How many tanks do you think they've got?'
'Hard to say, sir. There was one entering the station yard and another not far behind, but I heard the tracks of others as we were heading out of the town.'
'Good God,' muttered Chisholm. 'And now they'll have taken our stores. Damn it, Webb, why the hell didn't you blow them first?'
'There wasn't time, sir,' said Webb, defiantly. 'We were loading until the last minute, trying to salvage as much as we could, and then Jerry was upon us.'
Tanner shifted his feet. 'Excuse me, sir, but Private Hepworth and I managed to destroy the stores.'
'What the devil are you talking about, Tanner?' said Webb.
'We poured petrol over them, sir, and blew them up.'
'Oh, really? And what were the enemy doing while this was happening, Sergeant?'
