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Upstarts
on the ground, but their information was good, for they dropped bombs with massive
bursts all around us, close enough to jar the ground. One of them knocked down a black-
out blanket and shattered the window.
The flash of the next burst illuminated the room, and I saw all the FDC personnel
and everybody else present on their hands and knees with their heads under the little
ornamental tables and their posteriors stuck out all around. I laughed later, but right then,
I was as scared as anyone.
I was never particularly frightened by artillery fire: all of us had observed and
experienced it so many times that I, at least, didn't believe at a gut level that it would hurt
me. Bombing was different. There was no doubt in my mind that it could and would.
Fortunately, it didn't. To the best of my recollection, nobody from either
command post was wounded that night.
However, Col Bacon never suggested a joint CP again.
1.
Note: The Bofors, named after their Swedish inventor, were long-barreled
automatic cannon mounted on four-wheeled trailers. They made a porn-porn-porn noise
when they fired their explosive shells. The quad .50s were groups of four .50 caliber
machine guns mounted co-axially (parallel to one another), and firing as a unit. They
were mounted on half-tracks [half-tracks are a sort of armored truck with "caterpillar"
tracks where the rear wheels belong]. Both were devastating weapons against either air or
ground targets . if properly aimed.
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