The Cadet Corporal (23 page)

By 0730 Graham was back with the section and quickly packed up everything, ready to march. That done he walked around the section, chivvying them to get ready. To his surprise they quickly did so. They even seemed to be in a good mood and Halyday cracked several jokes. Best of all Kirsty gave Graham a smile and that considerably eased his anxiety. ‘I might survive,' he began to hope.

By then a Company O Group was under way and Sgt Grenfell came along and got Roger to organize the back-loading of rubbish and water jerries. Roger used Kirsty, Lucy, Pat and Andrews for the work. With nothing to do Graham wandered over to where HQ sat. Peter was checking radios and had no time to talk to him so Graham stood watching. Carnes was being made to help Peter change radio batteries. He looked a very tired and unhappy lad.

So did Sgt Yeldham. He was having trouble getting 3 Platoon packed and ready and looked tired and flustered. The remains of a red ink mark around his throat still showed and he obviously resented any comments on it. Inevitably Pigsy and Waters threw a few sarcastic jibes. Graham just shook his head and wasn't sure whether he felt sorry for Yeldham, or whether he despised him. ‘He's not very organized,' he thought, noting that the sergeant's own bedding still wasn't rolled into his pack, and that cadets just seemed to be sitting around talking.

The arrival of an angry CSM Cleland injected energy into the scene. As this meant that the Coy O Group must be over Graham hurried back to his platoon. He was comfortably in time and sat with his notebook and pencil ready till Stephen and Gwen arrived and seated themselves beside him.

CUO Masters knelt in front of them. “The OC is very pleased with Two Platoon,” he said. “Thank you for your good work.”

That made Graham both glow with pleasure, and burn with guilt. He hung his head and carefully noted timings and grid references for the day's training. It was fairly simple stuff, a section patrol exercise, so he quickly briefed his own section then had them sit on their packs ready to move. At 0755 CSM Cleland called on the sergeants to move the troops in for a briefing. A couple of minutes later Graham sat in front of his section. By then the breeze had stopped and the full force of the morning sun shone on their backs.

Every platoon except 3 was ready by 0800. Capt Conkey stood waiting, irritation clear on his face as they waited. CUO Mitrovitch stood nearby looking embarrassed as Sgt Yeldham tried to get the platoon organized.

As 3 Platoon at last began straggling over Stephen shook his head and muttered, “He's a bloody useless noddy!” Sgt Yeldham was in a bad temper and shouted angrily at his cadets to hurry. “Get a move on Bragg, you useless little bugger!” he snapped at a straggler.

At that Capt Conkey interrupted. “Please call your cadets by their rank Sergeant Yeldham, and don't abuse them.”

Yeldham flamed with embarrassment and could only nod. It was so unusual for the OC to deliver a public rebuke to one of the senior NCOs that Graham shook his head in worry. His anxieties were almost immediately increased when he felt Kirsty's knees press into his back. ‘Is she too crowded and doesn't have enough room, or?' he worried. He looked over his shoulder to check and saw her eyes sparkle and she gave him an impish grin while nudging him again.

That was good news because it meant she wasn't angry with him. But it was bad news too because he realised that Capt Conkey was standing only a few paces away and was looking at him. Breaking into a sweat Graham thought, ‘I hope he can't see that Kirsty is touching me!'

It was still ten past 8 before CSM Cleland handed over to Capt Conkey. Capt Conkey then de-briefed them on the night's events. He was lavish in his praise of the ‘airfield raiders' who had managed to outwit the defenders from St Michaels. Then he went on to explain the plan for the day's training. “We are moving along the bed of the Canning to the junction with the Bunyip. Along the way we will revise a few infantry minor tactics. After that a patrol incident course is to be set up. Each section will move along it to our new night position. That will be a few kilometres away from here, because I think we have stirred up Heatley and St Michaels and hurt their pride. They may try to get back at us.”

There was a short pause as a burst of murmuring broke out and cadets grinned at each other. Capt Conkey held up his hand to silence them. “For that reason Four Platoon will deploy as a screen to cover us and will then move last through the course. There will also be a few other special patrols and I will be giving orders to their commanders later.”

On hearing that Graham's hopes leapt. ‘Special patrols! I hope I get to lead one,' he thought.

But his anxiety was sent up by Capt Conkey's next words. “One of the things I will be particularly watching for on this patrol incident course is who might make potential leaders. I will be watching cadets to see if they are good team members, and watching section commanders to see if they have good control over their cadets.”

That sent a chill of dread through Graham and he imagined Andrews mucking up, or Halyday rushing off, or, worse still, Kirsty disobeying him or flirting. He broke into a cold sweat and started to really fret. His ambition to be picked as one of the next year's sergeants seemed to be melting in the tropical sun.

The briefing over the company began to move. HQ and the Hutchie Men went first, leading the way down the back of the knoll and through the fence. 4 Platoon split up to deploy one patrol on the knoll, and others further south to watch the two vehicle tracks leading to the Bunyip Junction. That roused Graham's jealousy again as he was sure he could do a better job than Griffin or Dimbo. Then it was 2 Platoon's turn to move and he stood up and told the cadets to carry their packs by their top straps till they were through the fence.

As the filed down to the fence Sgt Yeldham was again in trouble because there was litter in 3 Platoon's area and four jerry cans still stood there. Graham glanced at Capt Conkey's angry face and hoped his mood would improve.

From the fence the route wound steeply down around clumps of thorn bush and rubber vine until it became a narrow track cut through the thick tangle of vines. This led them through a tunnel of overhanging branches and out onto the dry, sandy bed of the Canning. Graham loved that. The idea of the company sneaking off along a secret track really appealed to his imagination. Then his thoughts were shifted back to Kirsty. Her pack got tangled in the vines and he had to go back and help free her. She gave him another mischievous grin as he did so.

Down in the river bed they halted and were seated on their packs in the shade of the trees lining the bank. There was another delay of ten minutes till 3 Platoon arrived. An even grumpier Capt Conkey emerged from the trees after them and called out his CUOs, CSM and sergeants. There followed a talk-through revision of patrol techniques and what to do when they encountered a patrol from an opposing unit during a field exercise. The sections were then sent to do three quick practices out on the open sand: a talk through and two practices on the run. Because it was now very sweaty in the still air of the river bed Graham had been anticipating some grumbling from his cadets but they got up as soon as he called them and seemed to enter keenly into the revision.

Halyday and Pat both tried really hard. Even the girls threw themselves into the practice, only grumbling about the sand which stuck to their sweaty wrists. Kirsty even laughed once. Graham loved it, throwing himself down on the soft sand with relish, imagining he was fighting a real battle against some tough enemy.

After twenty minutes they were called in and told to get ready to move. The cadets hoisted on their packs and trudged west along the bed of the river. That was hard going and soon had them really sweating. Several times Graham licked dry lips and glanced up to see if any clouds had appeared. He also remembered to keep looking at his cadets to detect any heat problems. Knowing they could refill their waterbottles at lunch time he made sure they kept drinking.

After ten minutes walking, during which they moved away from the knoll but were still hemmed in on two sides by the dense vegetation on the high banks, and by a growth of young suckers in the actual river bed, they halted again. This time Capt Conkey had the CUOs and sergeants gave a demo of a Counter Ambush Drill. The sections were then sent to do a ‘talk though', a ‘walk through' and a running practice.

That really got them sweating but Graham felt confident he could cope with such an incident. ‘The section is really working well as a team,' he decided. That was a comfort, as was the fact that Capt Conkey seemed to have relaxed and was smiling again. As the section stood talking after a practice, Kirsty came up to Graham and offered him a drink from her waterbottle. He could not resist smiling back, mostly from relief that she wasn't liable to complain. Then he realised that Capt Conkey was looking towards them and he experienced a wave of anxiety.

‘Packs on,' was ordered. Kirsty tried to swing hers on and then appealed to Graham to help. He half-suspected she was doing it just to get attention but he moved over and helped her. In the process they touched elbows and hands a few times and she gave him another ‘significant' look and a smile. That caused Graham a spurt of guilt and he glanced around, to find to his horror that Capt Conkey was again watching. The worrying idea that the OC might be deliberately observing them caused him to sweat even more.

‘Maybe he has been told about us and is watching to see if we misbehave,' he thought. ‘I had better be more careful.'

The company trudged west for another ten minutes, then had another lesson, this time on ‘Setting an Immediate Ambush'. As before the sections then did three quick practices in the trees and sand of the river bed. Half an hour later they moved again, this time for only five minutes before halting at a point where the unit vehicles stood at the end of a dirt track which led down the bank. Another demo-lesson followed. This was on how to cope with the ‘Body and the Sniper'.

No practices followed as they were now running short of time. Capt Conkey called over the CUOs and CSM and gave quick orders, then sent HQ to fill their waterbottles from a line of jerry cans that Lt MacLaren had organized on the bank. It was 1045 by then and Graham felt hot and tired. So did his cadets who looked worn out. Kirsty looked very pale and had dark rings under her eyes. Even so she smiled.

Capt Conkey gave a briefing on the patrol incident course while Lt McEwen led away the CUOs, sergeants, and HQ platoon. Packs were placed in platoon lots beside the vehicle track and then it was time for 1 Section to move. The other sections were given their start time, 15 minutes apart, and were told to rest, have lunch and make sure their waterbottles were full. Capt Conkey and CSM Cleland then walked off across the river bed and vanished into the trees. That got Graham worried again. ‘He will be watching at the worst possible moment,' he thought gloomily.

CHAPTER 23

UNDER PRESSURE

4 Section was not due to move until 1230 so Graham told them to have their lunch, go to the toilet, and to rest. He sat with his cadets in the shade on the soft, white river sand and munched ration pack biscuits coated with apricot jam. Normally he would have been extremely happy in such an environment but now he felt very stressed. Anxiety about how he would handle the coming incident course mixed with doubts about himself. ‘I'm a bloody weakling,' he thought unhappily.

Dozens of incidents where he should have shown greater courage or will power flitted across his mind to mock him and to scorch his self esteem. All he could do was pretend he was happy and relaxed, while wondering unhappily how he might do better. What really bothered him was the idea that he actually might be a coward, and that he was too scared to really put things to the test when his courage was challenged.

Kirsty was no help. She sat next to him and chattered away as though she didn't have a care in the world. She gave him frequent ‘loving' looks and that caused Graham to worry because Lt Maclaren and Lt McEwen were both sitting nearby. The best he could do was pretend he was tired and then lie down with his hat over his eyes. But even that made him feel weak. ‘I'm just hiding, not solving the problem,' he told himself.

Inside he knew that he was scared of being firm with Kirsty in case she rejected him. Or worse, that out of spite, she might tell on him. ‘Reject their advances at your peril!' he brooded unhappily. The problem was compounded by the fact that he really did like her, as well as being driven by strong desires.

Hearing the distant shouts and yells of unseen actions in the undergrowth did nothing to ease the tension. After 3 Section filed off to start the exercise Graham's stomach tightened into a hard knot. As the time to move drew closer he became increasingly restless. A nervous pee did not seem to help at all, merely added to his feelings of inadequacy. He had heard many mocking comments about people wetting themselves when afraid and he wondered if he might be one of them. However there did not seem to be any alternative but to go on. ‘I can't just say I'm sick or something,' he thought.

The best he could manage was to tell jokes with Stephen, then to drink and refill his waterbottles. At 1225 he stood up and began putting on his webbing. By then he did feel sick in the stomach. “Up you get Four Section,” he croaked.

“Who goes where in the patrol?” Andrews asked as he reluctantly got up.

Graham had been thinking hard about that. “Pat, you and Halyday go scouts.”

“Aw! I wanted to be a scout,” Andrews whined.

“Shut up and do as you are told!” Graham snapped. He was so stressed he had no time for argument. He turned and said, “Roger, you and Kirsty are the gun group, Group One, Di and Lucy and Ando are the rifle group, Group Two.”

To his relief the others accepted this and he was able to line them up without further trouble. Then they stood and waited. It was very hot and sweat trickled down into their eyes and soaked their shirts. Graham wiped his face, looked at his watch for the tenth time then noted it was time to go. He glanced at Lt Maclaren who nodded.

As he gave the signal to move Graham felt his stomach churn with queasiness. For a moment he felt dizzy and he wondered if he really was going to be sick. But he made himself walk and went trudging across the dry sand behind Halyday.

After wading the ankle deep flow of water the section threaded through a stand of young trees. They came out on a smaller dry river channel. This had the small trees on the left and the high bank covered with large, overhanging trees and rubber vines on the right. The boot prints went left so Graham directed the scouts that way. Now that they were pretending to patrol they spread out so that there were ten paces between people- or at least there was at the front. Graham found he had to keep turning round to signal or hiss at the three girls and Andrews to spread out. “Stop bunching up!” he whispered loudly at them.

“Bang!” shouted a voice from the trees on the left.

It was an ambush left. After the initial moments of flustered panic Graham got Roger, Andrews and the three girls in line on his left and counter-attacked. By the time he had swept through the ambushers he was sweating profusely and his heart was pounding furiously but he thought he had coped alright. He had managed to keep control of the people with him while Pat and Halyday had done the right thing.

The ambush party comprised CUO McAlistair, Sgt Sherry and Cadet Lyle from the medics. CUO McAlistair pointed to where a small, dry gully led in to the river bed.

“That was well done Cpl Kirk. Now take your section up that gully there. It is Dingo Creek.”

Graham gulped down a big drink and wiped sweat from his face as he eyed Dingo Creek. Overhanging trees hid the entrance, which had a large, muddy pool almost closing it off. Beyond that the creek bed was sand and dry mud in a deep gully five metres wide. Both banks appeared to be an impenetrable tangle of rubber vines and thorn bushes. The sides were five to ten metres high and almost vertical in places. A few large trees topped the bank, amidst clumps of vine and long grass. Thistles and some sort of waist-high purple weed grew thickly in places along the creek bed.

‘Bloody hell!' Graham thought gloomily. ‘This looks a bit grim.'

Nervously they entered Dingo Creek one at a time, their eyes anxiously scanning the thick undergrowth for signs of lurking enemy. Fifty paces on they had to skirt a sludge filled pool under a small tree. The creek then curved left. No breeze penetrated into the deep cleft and the midday sun blazed down directly into it so that a heat wave shimmered off the sand. Graham noted a snake track, pig tracks and wallaby droppings but found his eyes seemed to go fuzzy when he tried to search for hidden enemy.

Then Pat signalled and Graham put them all under cover while he went forward to look. It was a rope tied across the creek bed with a sign hanging on it reading ‘MINES'. Twenty paces on was a second rope, presumably to show the far side of the ‘minefield'. A few tins were just visible in the sand. They coped by Graham deploying two groups to cover while the scouts prodded a path across. Then he followed, half-expecting the enemy to open fire as he did. Then he had each of the other groups join him one at a time.

Around the next bend in the creek was a log which they had to crawl under. Beyond that the creek ran straight for nearly a hundred paces. Both banks were high and covered in thick weeds or vine scrub. Near the far end of the straight was another large log across the creek and beyond that the creek curved to the right. Worse still, Capt Conkey and CSM Cleland were standing watching near the second log.

“Oh bugger!” Graham muttered. Seeing the OC and CSM made him sure there was going to be a difficult problem to cope with. He hesitated, trying to pick what the problem might be, or where the enemy might be waiting. ‘I'd like time to scout along the top of both banks,' he thought. He also decided that if he was really on patrol he wouldn't even be in the bed of the gully. ‘It's just a bloody death trap. I'd cut my way through that vine scrub instead.'

But he wasn't given that option. Capt Conkey called on him to get a move on. Reluctantly, knowing he was walking into disaster, Graham signalled for the scouts to move. Pat and Halyday at least did it well, moving alternately from cover to cover, one on each side of the five metre wide creek bed.

It happened about when Graham was sure it would, and even from where he thought it would; from the top of the bank above the bend directly ahead of him. Voices began yelling “Bang! Bang!”

“Contact Front!” Graham screamed. He dashed three paces left to the nearest cover, rolling in under the long grass, hoping there were no snakes there. As he did he tried to decide which bank was the higher so he could order his fire support group to go there. He decided that the left bank was the same height and easier to get up and began screaming to Roger, then saw that Roger and Kirsty were already trying to claw their way up the other bank.

Knowing that Capt Conkey and the CSM were watching added to Graham's feelings of losing control, of failure and of fear. He became flustered and shouted to Roger to come back, then changed his mind as they were already half way up. That bank was so steep that in places it had been eroded and undermined to expose bare grey earth. His throat hot and dry with shouting, Graham tried to come up with a plan and, at the same time, control his section. He yelled for Lucy and Di to move forward to join him.

“Climb the bank on the left Group Two!” he shouted. As he did he signalled frantically with his arm. That was all he could manage before the dust and dry grass caused him to have a fit of coughing. He gasped and spat and tried again. There were muffled cries in reply, over-ridden by screaming from in front. Graham began clawing his way up through the long grass and vines, getting snagged and tangled at every step. Completely snared and now desperate he stopped, chest heaving, to try to work out what to do. He then saw what the shouting in front was. Halyday had raced on along the creek bed, dashing from cover to cover, on a one man suicide attack. Pat was trying to give him ‘covering fire' while yelling at him to stop.

Halyday didn't. He dashed on past the OC and CSM, rolled under the log and launched himself up the steep slope directly into the front of the enemy. “Oh bloody hell!” Graham cried in despair. ‘We've made a real stuff-up of this!' he thought miserably.

As Halyday scrabbled up the slope Graham groaned with anguish. But then he heard voices up on the bank above him. It was Lucy, Di and Andrews. “We found an animal track,” Lucy called.

Graham looked around and saw that Roger and Kirsty had managed to get to the top of the other bank and were crawling forward through long grass to a big tree. ‘That would make a good fire support position,' he thought. ‘Maybe...'

By then Halyday had climbed the bank and Graham heard Sgt Yeldham screaming, “You are ------ dead, you ------ idiot! Lie down and shut up!”

“Stop using that sort of language Sgt Yeldham!” Capt Conkey bellowed.

Graham took heart. ‘If I can get up to the top we might do it yet.'

But when he tried he just tripped and became entangled in the vines again. Almost frantic to try to do well while Capt Conkey was watching Graham struggled till he thought his heart would burst. It was no good. He was only half way up the bank but was ensnared.

“Lucy! Di! Keep going along the top of the bank to attack. I will try to get up to join you,” he shouted. Knowing that Capt Conkey would hear that Graham burned with humiliation. ‘What will he think of me!' he thought unhappily. ‘The section commander who leads from the rear!'

But it was better than doing nothing so he repeated the order. When he was sure the others were moving he stopped and took stock of his own predicament. Slowly, one limb at a time, he disentangled himself. Then he was able to slide down beneath the vines and crawl. Dirt and leaves fell on him and went down the back of his collar to aggravate and irritate but he was so upset he ignored them. Wriggling as fast as he could and still hoping there no snakes, he struggled up the slope.

By the time he arrived on a narrow animal pad on top he could hear that the battle was joined. A glance across the gully showed Kirsty and Roger ‘firing' from behind two big trees. Heedless of scratches Graham dashed along the animal pad, wrenching himself free from any snagging vines by brute force. His heart hammered and his breath came in hot gasps but he was driven to catch up and lead.

In this he was not successful but only by a few paces. He glimpsed Capt Conkey down in the bed of the gully just as he caught up with Andrews. By then the two girls were standing facing CUO Mitrovitch and Sgt Yeldham. Halyday sat under a bush looking grumpy.

“That will do Cpl Kirk,” Capt Conkey called. “Bring your section down and keep going with the exercise.”

Graham stood and gasped air, then gestured to go down the slope along another animal pad. By the time he had slithered down in a cloud of dust he was sweating so much he was coated in grime and had trouble seeing. While he waited for Roger and Kirsty to descend he had a big drink and washed some of the dirt and sweat off his face.

“Well done gang,” he croaked. He made them all drink, then swapped Andrews and Kirsty to be scouts and got them moving. He was quite unsure how he had performed in the OC's estimation but felt very anxious. This was increased when he noted that Capt Conkey and CSM Cleland were walking along behind the section as they continued on.

‘Oh no! There must be more,' he thought. A feeling of something close to despair swept through him. Dingo Creek curved right and then ran straight for another hundred metres. It looked awfully like the same scenario and Graham gritted his teeth and prepared to face whatever it was. Then he found himself grinning at Roger. ‘Bugger it!' he thought. ‘I have probably cashed my chips so I may as well enjoy myself.'

Over the next twenty paces he calmed down. His breathing slowed and he found he could see clearly. He noted animal tracks going up either bank, and that a clump of large trees grew in the bed of the creek at the next bend. ‘It will be there,' he decided. He acted on that instinct and signalled to Andrews. He was right. Andrews angled up onto the bank to where he could get a better view. Almost at once he went into a crouch, giving the thumb down ‘enemy' sign.

Graham moved the section over against the bank and crept forward to look. By now the rubber vine was giving way to grass and trees and he had to move slowly on a thick carpet of leaf litter and dead sticks. From behind a tree he looked around the bend and saw a small ‘enemy camp': a couple of hutchies and a smoky fire. Peter was there, with Carnes, LCpl Kate O'Brien and Cpl Forman. Their red shoulder flashes indicated they were ‘enemy'.

A plan formed itself and Graham had to make himself pause to check it wasn't the wrong one. After a minute's thought he decided it was a good plan. With that confidence he slid back and called in Roger. With a stick he drew a sketch map in the sand and explained what he wanted to happen. He was aware that Capt Conkey and CSM Cleland were standing listening but now it did not bother him.