Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [184]
“The black specks are part of a German officer’s face. He was blown up right in front of me. They’ll never come out.”
We sat looking at one another for an infinity of time, holding hands, like Simone and I do.
It was twenty minutes before we spoke. It seemed an eternity. Had I talked him out of it?
“You understand that I have to go,” Gideon said. “Don’t you, Uncle Lazar?”
“Yes, I know,” I said. “We’ve all got to carry the burden of our times, fight our own wars, both inside us and out there on the battlefield. It’s the way men have always done things. Don’t try to be a hero. Do your job, and part of your job is coming through alive.”
I scratched my signature on the document, giving him permission to join the Corps. I took off my Marine ring and put it into the palm of his hand and closed his fist around it. “Take it. This little sucker got me through. You’ll need all the luck you can get.”
PART FIVE
JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE, MOTHER
MITLA PASS
October 31, 1956
1100 HOURS, D DAY PLUS TWO
Southern Command to Lions STOP Enemy convoy spotted from air moving on west side of Mitla heading for the Pass STOP We have diverted our air cover from Para 202 to attack convoy STOP We are out of communication with Para 202 STOP Do you know their location SIGNED Ram.
Lions to Southern Command—1130 Hours STOP Negative STOP we are not in contact with Para 202 SIGNED Ben Asher.
Southern Command to Lions STOP Our two northern columns have been slowed at Gaza and Jebel Livni STOP We have not made sufficient penetration for you to try evacuation by land STOP Attempt to clear your runway to length of twenty-five hundred feet by forty feet in order to accommodate Dakotas for possible air evacuation SIGNED Ram
Lions to Southern Command STOP Impossible to clear field by hand STOP Large rocks and boulders can’t be moved STOP Advise SIGNED Ben Asher
Southern Command to Lions STOP Will attempt to parachute two bulldozers STOP SIGNED Ram
High Noon
Lions to Southern Command High Noon STOP One bulldozer received in operating condition STOP Estimate airstrip can be cleared by 1600 Hours SIGNED Ben Asher
Southern Command to Lions STOP Air strike against enemy convoy west of Mitla Pass successful STOP New intelligence directly from Cairo sources indicate that only two Egyptian companies are inside Pass STOP Included in enemy force are two mortar and two machine-gun platoons STOP Air Recon reports no activity now on western side of Mitla SIGNED Ram
The sun this day was another brutal bone bleacher. Lethargy had all but consumed the Lions. They shifted about lazily to conserve every molecule of energy. Soft voices were heard from the command post and hospital tent. The bulldozer inched forward, backward, forward, backward, shoving the larger rocks and boulders aside and filling in the pockets they left. Now and again, an Egyptian mortar from high up in the Pass tried to reach the airstrip, without success.
This indicated to Major Ben Asher that the Egyptians didn’t have any larger artillery with them, or they would have certainly been using it. He was encouraged by the latest intelligence. The report had come from Cairo. An Israeli spy was apparently inside the Egyptian high command and in a position to know the size and whereabouts of the enemy deployments.
Two companies inside? Not too bad. A few hundred men, more or less. It also appeared that the Israeli Air Force owned the skies and had the western side of the Pass under constant scrutiny.
Gideon’s leg seemed miraculously better. The blood had drained away from the enormous swelling in his hip, reducing it to nearly normal size. It was still tender and bruised, but he had gained back nearly full use of the leg.
“Come on, Zechariah, where the fuck are you!” someone shouted every five or ten minutes.
Their eyes were all reddened from constantly straining in the sun for a sign of Para 202. Earlier they thought they had spotted dust rising and sent out a patrol jeep to lead Zechariah’s men in. It turned out to be a false alarm. The dust had originated from a sudden lurch