"US Tank Detachment, Unit 5." "Repeat." "Over to you." "Over." "No code." "General retreat has been ordered in all sectors." "Surviving units note that all points east, west and north are under enemy control." "Over to you." "Over." "I don't understand." "To the south?" "All points east, west and north, under enemy control." "Okay." "But what do we do?" "What's the order?" "Good luck." "Over to you." "Over." "What?" "Good luck to you, Yank." "ln your own language, "Scram."" "Why didn't you say so in the first place?" "Sarge!" "Sergeant Gunn!" "Hurry up, Sarge!" "Orders came through!" "Hurry up!" "Keep your shirt on." "You all right, Waco?" "Let's go." "Sarge!" "We got to get out of here and quick." "Points east, west and north under enemy control." "Retreat ordered." "East, west and north." "They kind of got us boxed in." "That's south, but there's nothing there but a lot of sand and rock." "Any place is healthier than this." "Let's get moving." "Come on down here and give us a hand." "What do we do if we can't get this cement mixer rolling?" "Lay off that cement mixer stuff." "Give me that gadget." "Get in there." "Hold that down while I bolt it." "Think she'll pull us out?" "Depends on the way we handle her." "Like a dame." "I bet no dame ever sounded as sweet as this motor will when she gets rolling." "If they keep that up, they're liable to hit us." "That ought to hold her." "Get around and start her up." "He's got a touch like an elephant." "You don't feed her enough." "Like a dame, you don't feed 'em, they won't do nothing." "That's no way to treat her." "Let me in there." "Okay, Joe." "She's dead." "$5 he starts her." "You got a bet." "Okay." "Come on now, baby." "Get going and get us out of here." "I'll buy you the neatest, sweetest coat of paint you ever had in your life." "Come on now, Lulubelle." "Let's go." "Just luck." "Sarge, two guys ahead." "What do you make of them?" "They look British to me." "It might be a trick, you know these Nazis." "Remember the fake white flag at Berhagen?" "I wouldn't bet they were British if they waved roast beef at us." "Keep them covered till I find out who they are." "Sergeant Gunn, United States Army, Tank Detachment." "Captain Halliday, Royal Army Medical Corp." "Nice to see you." "I had 42 wounded there." "When the Stukas finished with us, I had 42 dead." "These men were kind enough to help me search the wreckage." "It was no use." "What are you looking at?" "Help yourself." "American cigarette, I don't see for ages." "Pass them around." "Talks like a Yank, don't he?" "How else would I?" "We've been expecting you for a long time." "Ours is one of the first tanks here." "How many men do you have?" "Two: radioman and machine gunner." "I lost the rest of my crew." "I suppose you're trying to rejoin a detachment." "It's too late for that." "Too late?" "What are you talking about?" "Haven't you heard?" "A general retreat's been ordered." "That's not true." "Listen to that firing." "Our chaps are still at it and they're not far away." "They're mopping up what's left of them." "If we cut south, we can hook up with another outfit when they make a stand." "You don't know that part of the desert." "It's the worst in Libya." "You won't get anywhere in that old scow." "As soon as it's daylight, they'll blast the gizzards out of her." "I'm sorry you feel that way about her." "She's a good tank, and with a full crew she has a better chance than men on foot." "That's a matter of opinion." "They'll get you sure." "We'll get some of them first." "I'd sooner stick it out here than run away in a tin hearse." "Wait, there's just three things wrong with that statement." "First, we're not running away, we're obeying orders." "Second, she's not made of tin." "And third, she's no hearse." "She's an M-3 air-cooled job that can cross 200 miles of desert as easy as you'd walk around that Piccadilly Circus of yours." "I'm not gonna stand here arguing with you." "Stick around if you want." "Let the Nazis mop you up." "You spend the rest of the war in a prison camp in Berlin, but not me." "When I go into Berlin, I'll be riding that tank." "The same one that's standing there with the name "Lulubelle" written on her." "I go with you." "What makes you want to go?" "I like your cigarettes." "All right." "Get inside." "I'm sorry I blew up just now but that crack that guy made about my tank kind of burned me." "She's a good tank." "I'll tell you once again." "We got it over the radio." "We're surrounded, and the only way out is south." "That's the way we're going." "Good luck, sir." "Wait a minute, we're coming with you." "Come on...." "Hurry up." "Here you are, sir." "Come on." "Come on, fellows." "It's a peculiar thing." "A sergeant is the same in every army in the world." "What?" "A sergeant's the same in every army in the world!" "You don't know Joe." "He's a smart guy." "I don't think the Sergeant is a very tender man." "I don't think the Sergeant is a very tender man." "But he named his tank after someone he loved." "Yeah, a horse." "A what?" "A horse!" "He loves a horse." "Sarge was in the Cavalry way back." "The what?" "The Cavalry!" "The Cavalry!" "Is something wrong?" "I know what it is." "I cut the mixture too thin, trying to save gas." "He's making a mistake going in this direction." "Leave it to the Sarge." "He knows what he's doing." "The Sergeant's a genius." "He's a miracle man." "When we've no water, he strikes a rock with a stick like Moses and water falls out." "He hits it twice and the water's turned into wine." "Supposing we get stuck in this graveyard." "Without any water." "Open that hatch, will you?" "All right." "Come on down for a while." "What's the matter, Waco?" "The motor." "Starving you to death, huh?" "We got to save gas, same as we save water." "We got to grease these wheels." "Do it quick." "We got to keep moving." "Try that radio again, Jimmy." "We'll be moving in a bit." "You better eat." "Drink a third of a cup of water." "Be sure to measure it in a cup." "Get anything?" "Nothing but static and "Heil Hitler."" "We've no radio contact." "We don't know where the Army'll make a stand." "Even at the worst, the line will be anchored at Tobruk." "We ought to circle like this." "Will our petrol hold out?" "I figure we got about enough for 160 miles." "It's water I'm worried about." "We've got to find one of those wells." "They call them wells on the map." "But most of them are only dried-up mud holes full of sand." "Wish I could put my feet in a nice big bucket of water." "Must be 1,000 centigrade in these boots." "My throat needs it worse than my feet." "I suffer from corns." "I'm getting fed up with your feet." "I've been fed up with them for years." "Finished, Waco?" "Not yet." "Why you call him Waco?" "It's a city in Texas." "They call it the "City with a Soul."" "Why?" "I never figured why." "We got a big electric sign on the biggest building, "City with a Soul."" "How about another city with a soul?" "Paris?" "You from Paris?" "No, but for every Frenchman Paris is the heart, soul, "La France."" "You know what?" "I've always wanted to go to Paris." "Sometime, maybe we will go there." "I'd like to go home." "You fellows like to see a photo of a beautiful girl?" "She's pretty." "What's her name?" "Cathy." "Very nice." "She's a corker." "I said to measure that water in a cup." "I wasn't thinking." "I'll do it for you." "Bring all the canteens to me." "We've got our own officer here." "I'll take my orders from him." "I'm glad you brought that up, Williams." "I've something to say to the men, Sergeant." "We've only one purpose:" "To save ourselves so that we can fight again." "We've got to work together and be disciplined." "Sergeant Gunn was in command of this tank when we joined him." "He's an experienced soldier." "It seems proper to me to ask him to continue in that capacity." "I shall confer with him on the safety and conduct of the expedition." "But immediate authority will rest with him." "My canteen, Sergeant." "Thank you, sir." "Here you are, Frenchie." "What do you make of them?" "That's what I'm trying to figure out." "Fire a couple of shots in front of them." "That ought to turn them back into us." "That's a British Sudanese with an Italian prisoner." "I think he's gonna fight us." "Give me something white to wave." "Make it snappy." "It is true, Bimbashi." "I thought I had captured an enemy tank." "Where did you get the prisoner?" "At Bir Hacheim." "A column of many tanks and many machines attacked us there." "All my company died in battle." "I alone escaped." "It was then I captured this man to carry my pack." "What is your name?" "Sergeant Major Tambul." "Fourth Sudanese Battalion." "You know this desert?" "Yes, Sergeant." "Is it all like this?" "Yes." "All that way worse for tank." "Deep sand?" "And salt marshes." "Only one caravan trail." "Very old." "Hard to follow." "Where does it lead?" "To the well at Hasan Barani." "You think you can find it again?" "I think I can." "I will try." "Get your pack off and get up on top." "Jimmy, throw down a ration." "Get back in your places." "Waco, start her up." "We're moving on right now." "Those birds know just when to show up." "They can smell death ahead of time." "Anybody know what he's babbling about?" "I speak English." "Speak very good." "You don't leave me here." "You take me with you?" "Sorry, we got no room." "I learn English in the school in Torino." "And I learn americano from reading the letters." "It's a cousin of the uncle of mia moglie." "That's my wife." "She got an uncle who's a cousin." "He live in America." "He write all the time." "He tell about the big mountain, the big building, the big heart." "Everything big in America." "Wind her up." "We're moving on." "I show you letter." "I got a letter from my wife." "She told me she get a letter from the cousin of the uncle." "He work now in Pittsburgh, USA, in the steel factory." "Maybe he make the steel for this tank in Pittsburgh, USA." "I show you picture." "I got no time to look at pictures." "He is right." "It's stupid to have pity in war." "You can in a fight." "Not like this." "I know better than you." "I've been fighting them since 1936." "'36?" "Spain." "There's no pity." "My wife and bambina." "That's my baby." "That's a nice picture." "You must be very proud of them." "I'll see what I can do." "I wish you'd change your mind." "This man is a prisoner of war." "As such, he's entitled to certain rights." "We have to take him with us." "We can't leave him to die." "If we ask the men, I'm sure they'd agree." "They'd agree now." "What about when they're starving and dying of thirst?" "You put me in command to look ahead." "This is a man's life." "You're wrong." "It's a matter of the lives of 10 men." "We've a long way to go and we need every bit of food and water." "I'm taking the Sudanese because he is a British soldier and he's entitled to share." "But I'm not taking on a load of spaghetti." "He walked this far and he can walk back." "That's the end of it." "What are you waiting for?" "Wind her up." "Okay, Joe." "Better get in, Doc." "I'm sorry." "Don't leave me here to die." "I swear, I work for you." "I don't drink your water." "I don't eat your food." "Don't leave me here!" "Stop!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Go on." "Come on, Italian." "Hold your fire." "Why not let the blighter have it?" "Squash him like a fly" "Keep your socks on." "Let him think we're out of ammunition." "Blasted him out of the sky." "You men all right down there?" "Yes." "Tambul, get a man and follow me." "Doc, come in case he don't speak English." "I'll come with you, Tambul." "Here's your gun." "Drop that gun." "You heard me." "Drop it." "What'd he say?" "My German's a little rusty, but I think I got the sense of it." "He said we haven't got a chance." "He wants us to be his prisoners." "Is he crazy?" "Ask him if he speaks English." "He says, "No."" "He didn't know Americans were here." "A surprise for you, Fritzie." "We saved it for you special." "Go ahead and search him." "What's eating him?" "He wants someone else to search him." "Does he?" "Why?" "He doesn't want to be touched by an inferior race." "Tell him not to worry he's black." "It won't rub off on his uniform." "Go ahead and search him." "A knife." "And this." "That's what I thought." "What do you make of that?" "It says, "An offer has been made to the British Army." ""Raise the white flag and give up your arms." ""We have proved the British are led by incompetents and idiots."" "What's that?" ""The fall of...."" "Tobruk!" "What was that about Tobruk?" "He's lying like his blasted Führer." "I'll teach him to lie!" "Somebody's hurt." "The German, he shoot." "Bring him along and pick up that chute." "Bring some water." "Halliday." "What happened?" "Take it easy, fellow." "We didn't know he was there." "He was hurt so badly, he couldn't say anything." "Get the first aid kit, please." "Move him into the shade." "Very gently." "Take it easy." "That's it." "Did you get him?" "Yes." "Don't try to talk now." "We can fix you up all right." "How is he, Doc?" "He's badly shot up, but he may pull through." "We can't take a chance on hanging around here." "Is it safe to move him?" "lf we take it easy." "I'd like to move quickly after what the German said." "Maybe he's right." "Doyle, get on that radio." "Yes, Sarge." "What do we do with this new prisoner?" "We have too many in this tank here is another mouth that asks for water." "I don't mean we can leave him here in this desert to die." "My heart, too, is very soft for this Nazi." "Suppose you and me have a little talk with him." "I'll march him behind the hill there." "When you're ready to go I'll come back." "Alone." "You know, you've got a lot to learn." "This is a Nazi." "Maybe you find out." "It's like a mad dog." "Maybe, but he's won a lot of prizes." "I'd like to turn him over to headquarters." "lf we can get there ourselves." "We'll keep him as long as we can, then we'll see." "ln the meantime, he's in your charge." "Thank you." "Did you get anything?" "The Jerries got Tobruk." "I know." "Anything else?" "They're attacking Sidi Barani." "We're still falling back, trying to re-form our lines." "What are you smiling at?" "You look like you understood every word he said." "Doc, ask him what he was smiling at?" "He thinks it's funny we should want to go on fighting with this curious detachment." "Wipe that smile off or I'll knock your teeth through the top of your head." "All right, boys." "We move on." "Every minute we stay here, our chance of getting through is less." "He may be lying about German columns in the neighbourhood, but we can't tell." "We'll go on as if he was telling the truth." "How far are those wells?" "About 60 to 70 miles." "It is there." "How far?" "What, Sergeant?" "How far?" "There." "There ahead." "You will see as we go down this hill." "How is he?" "He's pretty bad." "What does he say?" "Sounds like his girl's name, sir." "Give him some water." "I can't." "Not a drop left." "Bone-dry." "It is so in the desert." "One season, there is cool clear water like lakes in the mountains." "Another time, nothing." "Just a lot of sand." "What's funny?" "Just thinking when we were kids, the biggest treat was to play on the beach in the sand." "How far is it to the next well?" "About 50 miles, Sergeant." "At the ruins of Bir Acroma." "It is south." "Cathy...." "I miss...." "Captain Halliday, sir." "He keeps talking to his girl, Cathy." "He's gone." "That's tough." "He did it!" "Let him alone, Stegman." "Battle order of the Army." "Do not retreat another inch." "Cairo and Alexandria must be defended." "The Army will stand and fight north of El Katara on the El Alamein line." "Scattered units are ordered to report to their commands immediately." "We need every man and every machine." "Report to your commands." "Re-form your lines." "Report to your commands." "Hurry." "Bad sand ahead, Sergeant." "Right." "Left." "You hear that, Joe?" "She's messing, isn't she?" "Yeah." "I wonder how much longer she'll keep going." "So do I." "Clarkson." "Back there." "Maybe he was lucky." "There it is, straight ahead." "Bir Acroma!" "Come on down, you guys." "Everybody take cover inside." "Come on, Jimmy." "On your feet." "How is it, Jim?" "Okay, Joe." "Where's that well?" "Somewhere near the building, inside the wall." "All right, you men." "Spread out and look for that well." "You stick along with me." "Sure took a beating, didn't you, old girl?" "Bimbashi!" "The well!" "He found the well!" "You better go down and look." "Yes, Sergeant." "Send down a bucket!" "There's still some water dripping!" "Quick!" "Something to catch the water!" "It's going to waste!" "Waco, get some cans and some ropes from the tank." "Heads up." "Here it comes." "Pull it up slowly." "Careful." "Careful." "What a beautiful sight." "Real water." "Easy now." "Don't spill a drop." "Three swallows for everybody." "Three swallows, no more." "Here you are, Jimmy." "Stegman, take Frenchie's place." "Three swallows." "Giuseppe." "Three swallows." "Three swallows." "For the German." "Everybody gets three swallows." "Yes, Sergeant." "We are considering going to this other well." "But we must be sure we will find enough water there." "At the ruins of Bir Acroma." "There's been water in sufficient quantities." "But it means going 130 kilometres out of our way." "These men need water badly." "It's possible your machines will get through without water." "But you take a serious risk with the men." "You will go with Sergeant Krause's advance party." "Show them the way to Bir Acroma." "The battalion will follow in an hour." "We must get water." "How's it coming?" "Very good, Sergeant." "Very nice." "Any way to squeeze it out quicker?" "It takes its own time." "You cannot milk it like a cow." "I suppose we have to stay until we get all the water we can carry." "We've got to, but it's tough to waste all that time." "Bates, you stay here." "Waco, bring Lulubelle." "We'll clean her." "The rest of you, go over your equipment." "Stegman, on lookout." "That water helped, didn't it?" "I couldn't have lasted much longer." "Keep a sharp lookout, especially toward those hills." "If any trouble comes, it'll come from there." "Watch for planes." "Right." "I would like to help you." "You know anything about motors?" "I was maestro mechanic in Torino." "You got a job." "Frenchie, let the Italian come around here." "Yes, Sergeant." "Let me take your place for a while." "No, it isn't necessary." "How's it coming?" "I'm afraid it drops more slowly." "You never can tell about these wells." "Have a cigarette." "Thanks." "How long you been in the Army, Tambul?" "Twenty years." "My father and his father before him were soldiers." "All my family have been soldiers." "My folks were always farmers." "You know where Texas is?" "It must be very far." "You said it." "I'm going back there when this is finished." "I got married just before I left." "Good." "Good?" "It's better than that." "But I guess you fellows feel differently about marriage." "The boys up top tell me you Mohammedans have as many as 300 wives." "No." "The Prophet tells us that four wives is sufficient for a true believer." "Why four?" "The Prophet says one wife makes a miserable life because she always gets bored." "And two wives make a mess of your life also." "They always quarrel and you never know which one is right." "And three wives are bad, too." "The two always take sides against the third." "But four wives makes real happiness." "How?" "Two and two are company for each other." "And the man, he has his rest." "That sounds all right." "You've got four?" "No, I have only one." "What's holding you back?" "If you had this law in your Texas, would you have four wives?" "No." "My wife wouldn't like that." "It is the same with me." "My wife, she would not like it." "You sure learn things in the Army." "Yes, we both have much to learn from each other." "He's a big man." "He speaks like a thunderstorm." "And you guys believe him." "He tells me he knows best." "Everywhere he writes his mottoes on the walls, on the street." "So we got them in the brain, we must believe these mottoes." "What does that mean?" ""Obey, believe, work."" "Obey?" "Work for what?" "Not so much now." "But Mussolini say by-and-by everything is gonna be all right." "He says it's gonna be all right." "He kind of thinks he's God, don't he?" "Yeah." "He think." "But I think maybe Hitler is a god and Mussolini's just his prophet." "Don't you worry." "Someday that guy is gonna blow up and bust." "For some people, it's all right to laugh at ll Duce." "But when you got a wife and a baby, it is no good to laugh." "My little Giuseppina." "Such a small bambina." "Eyes, big like this." "She's beautiful." "Everybody say she look just like me." "Don't tell her." "No, I don't...." "Sure I'm gonna tell her." "How do you spell oasis?" "O-A-S-I-S." "Scientifically, you can't call this an oasis." "My wife isn't scientific." "I'm telling her I'm on green grass with palm trees waving overhead." "Has it occurred to you, you can't post a letter here?" "But I promised her I'd write home every week if I wasn't dead." "I isn't dead." "I've been meaning to write to my mother." "What part of South Africa do you come from?" "A little dorp near Kimberly." "Dorp, what's that?" "A village." "It's a fine country." "There's always a soft cool breeze blowing across the veldt." "Sounds good, but personally, I think I'll stick to Brooklyn." "I was born in Sussex." "We moved to a little farm." "Tibowee, Tedford Downs." "Yorkshire." "I'm from London." "I'm from Dublin." "What part of the States are you from, Sergeant?" "No place." "Just the Army." "ln my village, we had the finest cheese in the world." "What kind of cheese, Frenchie?" "It is from my village." "Never heard of it." "What's it like?" "A sort of Brie or Camembert?" "There's no village like mine." "There's no cheese like we make." "Mes amis, you should have such a meal." "You take a knife, so here you have a little cheese and a little bread." "Then you wash your throat with wine." "Then a little cheese" "And a little onion." "Good." "A little onion." "A little bread, a little wine a little cheese, a little bread a little wine, a little onion a little cheese, a little bread" "Lay off." "You've had enough." "I feel better." "All this is no more." "Six months ago, I'm back in my village, but I don't know it, there is no cheese." "How do you make cheese without milk?" "How do you make milk without a cow?" "We had fine cows, with the brown face and the white neck." "The Nazis take these cows." "They cut their white throat with a knife." "No more cheese and milk for the French children." "You were in occupied France six months ago?" "What were you doing?" "Working for the underground." "I learnt from the channel." "I have seen 12 people in my village executed." "12?" "Hostages." "The Mayor with a white beard." "Madame Michelet was big, like a jelly." "Monsieur Lepec, who teaches at the school." "Rosalie, with hair like sunshine." "I can do nothing." "After this, I no longer work for the underground." "I have too much hate in my eyes." "So I come here." "I wish only to kill." "To pay back for the people of my village." "There's something headed this way." "See that cloud of dust?" "Moving fast." "German scout car." "Keep your eye on them and keep down so they can't see you." "Get the Italian inside." "Get Tambul out of the well." "Bring those canteens up." "The rest of you men take cover." "You speak English?" "Still coming our way?" "Headed straight for us." "Watch them." "Where are they now?" "Down behind that hill, coming at us!" "You and Jim get on the back of that ridge." "Hold your fire!" "I want prisoners!" "The rest of you, keep down!" "You understand what they say, don't you?" "You speak English." "You can speak with me." "Shut up!" "When the time comes, I will tell you what to do." "What happened?" "There was a shooting, then there was nothing." "Be quiet." "Ask him what regiment." "Ask him where their outfit is." "This ain't getting us nowhere." "Bates, bring me up some water." "Tell them to take their hands down." "What do you make of that?" "Nothing." "Take him away." "Ask him again what his outfit is." "Ask him if he's thirsty." "Tell him he can have water only if he talks." "He said they're lost." "Separated from their company." "Tell him he's lying." "Only if you talk." "Ask him." "Keep asking him." "We got to break him." "Come on, talk!" "He says they're an advance party." "Part of a mechanized battalion cutting southeast across the Egyptian border." "Light motorized units." "No tanks, but about 500 men." "They've had no water in days." "They are told they will get all the water they want here." "Here's your water." "Go on, take it." "Sergeant, just as I expected." "The well has gone dry." "How much we got?" "Nine and a quarter cans." "It don't matter 'cause we're leaving." "It'll be a good joke on the Jerries when they arrive." "Wouldn't half mind seeing their faces." "What'd you say?" "I said I wouldn't half mind seeing their faces when they get here." "Yeah." "That's right." "Maybe we ought to see their faces." "Any water within 100 miles, not from here, but the first well?" "No, Sergeant." "Anything in sight?" "Nothing, Sarge." "Not a thing." "Doc, Williams, Stegman." "I got a lot to say, and not much time to say it." "We found out those Germans are part of a mechanized battalion with guns stuck back at the first well, badly in need of water." "Think of a battalion so in need of water they got to come 70 miles off their line of march to get it." "Suppose they got held up long enough for us to send a message." "How?" "Suppose we send those two Germans to tell them there's plenty of water here." "Suppose we hold them up for two or three days while they're trying to get it." "There's just one thing wrong with that plan." "Here we are." "Here are the Germans, and here's what happens." "You hit it right on the nose." "It's a 100-to-1 shot." "We could clear out of here quick." "With a little luck, get through the German lines and back to our own." "If we did get back, they might even give us a medal." "If we stay here maybe nobody'll ever know what happened here." "Or if it was worthwhile or if it was all wasted." "I realise it's not common sense, this idea of nine men fighting off 500." "Still, it's the duty of every man in the armed forces to do everything he can." "If you'll excuse me, nine of us with peashooters doesn't make any sense." "If it's our duty to try and delay this column, what's the talk about?" "Just give us our orders." "That brings us down to cases." "I look at it this way." "Because it is a 100-to-1 shot." "Because it's so much more than "line of duty."" "Because there's so little chance of any of us coming out of it." "I felt I ought to put it up to you." "You all got families at home." "Wives, mothers and sweethearts." "I isn't got no one, so it doesn't matter about me." "I know how you feel." "Maybe having none, I know it even better." "Whatever you decide, you better decide quick." "I'll speak for Waco and Jimmy myself." "Nobody minds giving his life, but this is throwing it away." "Why?" "Why?" "Why'd they go about their business in London when the Germans were bombing?" "Why did your boats take the men off the beach at Dunkirk?" "Why did the Russians make a stand at Moscow?" "Why did the Chinese move whole cities thousands of miles inland when the Japs attacked them?" "Why Bataan?" "Why Corregidor?" "Maybe they were all nuts, but there's one thing they did do:" "They delayed the enemy and kept delaying them until we got strong enough to hit them harder." "I ain't no general, but it seems to me that's one way to win." "If all I've said don't answer your question then somebody tell me why." "I'm for staying." "I'll stay." "Me, too." "It may surprise you, Professor to know that you're the one man I was absolutely counting on." "Mind you, it's against my better judgment." "Then I know I'm right." "What about you, Frenchie?" "I still like your cigarettes." "All right, on your feet." "Stand up." "Doc?" "Tell the Sergeant we're sending him back." "Tell him the other fellow told us the truth." "Tell him we're lost, too." "We need food, they need water." "It's a fair exchange." "No use fighting about it." "Water for food." "Shut that man up!" "He understands English." "He tried to warn them." "You're playing a game, huh?" "You can call it that." "lf he moves without orders, shoot him." "Shall be happy to." "You know he talked English?" "A little while ago I find out." "Then why didn't you tell me?" "I was afraid." "I am like a man who fights his shadow." "You give me water, I eat your food." "I swear, I will do nothing wrong." "I give you my parola." "That's my word." "We got to work fast." "I want that tank dug in and a couple of slip trenches at the wall." "That'll be Williams, Stegman, Bates." "Take the Italian to help you." "All right, Doc." "Go ahead." "Start them on their way and bring up the half-track on the way back." "March." "Go on, beat it." "How's it coming?" "She's almost full." "How many left?" "A little over five canteens." "This is for you on the road." "Take it, Waco." "Okay, Tambul." "Tambul?" "Yes, Sergeant?" "Got her filled?" "Pretty sure of yourself, ain't you?" "I like to travel." "It broadens the mind." "I wish you weren't so cocky about it." "You think I can't make it?" "I ain't saying." "I'll take a bet on it." "Even money?" "Why not?" "I got an even chance of getting there." "I'm eating British mess tomorrow morning." "Here's $5 says you won't." "Here's $10 says I will." "That's a sucker bet." "lf I lose, I won't need the $10." "All right, Waco." "Joe'll hold the money." "Okay, get going." "You got to make it." "Tell them we're trying to hold up a battalion here and we need help." "Don't worry." "I can make this thing stand up on its hind legs and howl." "So long." "I got to mail letters." "Turn right." "A little more to the right." "Now straight ahead." "It's a good thing the Jerries had some mines in the scout car." "There they are." "Coming over the hills." "I see them." "Give me your belt." "Cover yourself, Frenchie, and watch that German." "Around that corner, back at the wall." "All set here?" "All set, Joe." "Hold your fire till they get to the top of that ridge." "Doc!" "Right!" "Jimmy!" "Yo!" "Bates!" "I'm here." "All right, Frenchie?" "Ici, Sergent." "Tambul?" "Fine, Sergeant." "Stegman?" "I may be wrong, but I think I saw something white out there." "It's a white flag." "They're showing a white flag." "We told them we'd make a deal." "Perhaps that's what they want." "It looks like our trick is beginning to work." "I'll go. lf there's translating to be done they can do it themselves." "Watch it, you can't tell with them." "Don't trust them." "It's a trick." "I'll be all right." "You just stay there and keep me covered." "Major Hans von Falken, Africa Corps." "Gunn, United States Army." "You have come a long way, Sergeant, to pull British chestnuts out of the fire." "We don't mind." "We like chestnuts." "Don't want to see them burned." "Very good." "Don't suppose you came to crack jokes." "What do you want?" "Are you authorised to negotiate?" "Where's your captain?" "It's around 5:00." "You know how those British are about their tea." "It's my understanding he proposed to give us water in exchange for food." "We didn't know how many men you had." "We thought you had only about 30." "You knew all the time there was a battalion." "The soldier who gave this information has confessed." "He has been executed." "Is it still possible to come to an agreement?" "What's the deal?" "Surrender your arms and you'll be free to go with as much water and food as you can carry." "We like it here." "We're pretty well fixed." "Plenty of water and a lot more food than we thought we had." "I'll make you an offer." "Water for guns." "For every rifle, I'll give you a pint of water." "For the mortar, I'll give you a quart." "Turn over all your rifles and I'll give you water enough for all your men." "I've heard you Americans have a great sense of...." "Humour." "I'll give you a last chance." "You can save your life and the lives of your men." "You heard my offer." "Water for guns." "How'd you make out?" "He spoke English, pretty good, too." "What did he say?" "It worked." "They think we got so much water, we're swimming in it." "They're worse off than we thought." "They offered to let us go if we'd give them water." "What about Waco?" "Do you think he's at a British outpost?" "Possible." "Maybe they're on their way to help us." "I can just see them crowding around him giving him great glasses of ice-cold water." "They're getting anxious." "Just got two of them." "Good." "But take it easy, will you?" "Keep on like this, we'll be down to our last belt by tomorrow." "Isn't it enough to get two?" "No." "Got to get 10 with every shot before I'm satisfied." "Here's your water." "Time to strike the rock?" "What's that?" "The other day I was making fun of you." "I said, "When the time comes, you'll perform a miracle." ""Strike a rock and water'll run out or maybe champagne."" "The only miracle I ever heard of was the one you get by working for it." "I wish a miracle would cure my corn." "Why?" "It gives you something to think about." "I've got plenty to think about." "ln fact, I've just been working on a problem." "What kind of a problem?" "You might call it a project." "Project?" "I'm planning on how to irrigate this desert." "What, all of it?" "Why not?" "Turn it into a blooming garden." "That isn't a bad idea." "There's lots of water in the world." "It's not in the right places." "It just stands about waiting for people to drown in it." "You feeling all right?" "As I remember, you can irrigate one acre with about 15,000 cubic feet of water." "You're nuts." "Where do you learn all that stuff?" "I'm a typesetter by profession." "You learn it by reading it while you're setting type?" "Nothing like it for an education." "I've set type for about 5,000 books." "Prose and poetry." "You wouldn't believe it, but I'm very partial to poetry." "A book of verses underneath a bough." "A jug of wine." "It was a 100-to-1 shot, Williams." "Now is the time!" "We must reach the German camp to tell them there is no water here!" "No." "I cannot do this." "We have only to overpower one man and take his rifle." "Maybe steal a machine gun." "Then we've a chance of killing them all." "I got no hate for them." "Hate or not, that's not your decision." "I'm not going." "This place will soon be taken." "If you refuse to help me now, I will denounce you as a traitor." "Denounce me, then." "Italians are not like Germans." "Only the body wears the uniform and not the soul." "Mussolini is not so clever like Hitler." "He can dress his Italians up only to look like thieves, cheats, murderers." "He cannot, like Hitler, make them feel like that." "He cannot, like Hitler, scrape from their conscience the knowledge right is right and wrong is wrong." "Or dig holes in their heads to plant his own Ten Commandments." "Steal from thy neighbour." "Cheat thy neighbour." "Kill thy neighbour." "You dare to insult the Führer!" "That would take an artist." "I am but a mechanic." "But to turn my eyes blind that I must fall to my knees to worship a maniac who has made my country a concentration camp who has made my people slaves." "Must I kiss the hand that beats me?" "Lick the boot that kicks me?" "No." "I'd rather spend my whole life living in this dirty hole than escape to fight again for things I do not believe." "Against people I do not hate." "And for your Hitler, it's because of a man like him, that God my God, created Hell." "German escape." "Tell them no water." "I lost him." "I'll get him, Sergeant." "There he comes." "He hasn't got a chance." "The dirty...." "He got the heini." "Wasser...." "Bates, this is for you." "How are you feeling?" "Fit as a fiddle." "The Sergeant say, this is to last till next week." "Sergeant likes his little joke." "ln all the world, there's nothing...." "French Corporal Leroux, parlementaire." "Major von Falken." "I was the only one he could send." "The others are bathing." "Be careful, Jimmy." "It's all we've got." "I'd give plenty to see the expression on that heini's puss right now." "Very impressive." "And the rest?" "All dead?" "We'll make no further attempt to take the well if we get enough water." "This is my last offer." "Report it to your commander." "You are very generous." "But my sergeant did not say he would like to hear your terms." "He said maybe you would like to hear his terms once again." "For every rifle you send, he will send a pint of water." "One rifle, one pint." "Two rifles, two pints." "Three rifles" "Enough of this nonsense!" "If you don't like these terms and you still want the water then you must come and get it." "Fire!" "Frenchie was right." "We don't know the Nazis." "They did shoot him in the back." "Come on in, Doc." "Sorry I can't give you a tall one." "How's Jimmy doing?" "Running low on ammunition." "If we run out, what are we going to fight with?" "Bayonets, gun butts, fists." "How long can four of us keep on that way?" "I don't know, Doc." "I have to admit, it sounds impossible but we've got to do it." "Looks like somebody'll have to work a miracle." "Miracle?" "What kind of a miracle?" "You got me there, Doc." "It seems to me that four of us holding off several hundred of them is nothing short of a miracle." "You know why we're able to do it?" "Because we're stronger than they are." "How do you mean, stronger?" "I don't mean in numbers." "I mean in something else." "See, those men out there have never known the dignity of freedom." "Dignity?" "That's a funny way to put it." "Maybe you got something there, Doc." "We've all got something." "Joe, I'm hit!" "Can you make it inside, Jim?" "I'll try." "You've got to." "Come on." "Keep down!" "You'll be all right, Jim." "You said it." "It's going to take a lot more than this to kill me." "That's the spirit." "Never say die." "I've got to make it." "Somebody's lying there." "Is he dead?" "No." "He's an American." "That was a close one." "They got the well." "Bull's-eye in the well." "What's the difference?" "No difference." "As the saying goes, "It was fun while it lasted."" "I wonder what it feels like." "What?" "Cold steel." "They tell me it's over pretty quick." "I never did tell you what my first name was, did I?" "No." "What is it?" "Osmond." "It's a funny name." "It's okay." "Hope somebody finds this." "Finds what?" "My tag." "Why?" "If they don't find it I'm missing." "If they do find it I'm dead." "If I'm missing, nobody will know I'm dead." "If I'm dead, nobody will know I'm missing." "I might just as well be dead." "Here they come." "It looks like they're all coming this time." "Okay, Osmond, this is it." "Okay, Joe." "Why don't they get here?" "Why don't they finish it?" "Come on and take us!" "We're waiting for you!" "Come on!" "Get it over with!" "We aren't surrendering!" "Water?" "You're giving guns for water!" "Go ahead!" "There it is!" "Drink all you can find!" "Go on, take it!" "There it is!" "Roll in it!" "Swim in it!" "Drink till it rolls out of your ears!" "Go ahead!" "Drink till you split your guts!" "It's full of water." "The shell's opened up the well." "It's a bloody miracle." "That's just what it is." "Get down there and take their guns away from them." "Let them drink all they want and then line them up." "I'll cover you from here." "It's an American tank with some German prisoners." "Send some men to pick them up." "It's them." "They're coming to meet us." "She made it." "Hi, Sarge." "Good to see you." "How's Lulubelle?" "Hello, boys!" "Good to see you!" "Tell us about it, old boy." "We had a bloody hard time of it." "Hi, Waco." "Hi, Joe." "You got a butt?" "Yeah." "A crummy looking bunch ofjokers you got here." "How'd you get them?" "They just walked in." "I see you whittled them down a bit." "They whittled us down, too." "Jimmy?" "How was it?" "Pretty rough?" "Pretty rough." "I've been out of this war for a few days." "What's going on?" "The limeys held the Jerries at El Alamein." "Too bad they didn't know about it." "Yeah." "They'd want to know." "Halliday Doyle Tambul Williams Stegman Frenchie Clarkson they stopped them at El Alamein."