And through all the chaos and din of the battle, the significance of the date, 26th August suddenly came back to him. It was the Anniversary of the Battle of Crécy, when Edward III and the Black Prince had crushed the French; he wondered if this was a good omen.
The 2nd Durhams hugged the ground tightly as another salvo rattled viciously about them. d**k Stainson had a haunted, waxen glaze to his face, and Norman Blackett guessed he was near to breaking and gave him a nudge. ‘OK?’ he shouted.
Stainson swallowed hard. ‘We’re sitting ducks,’ he replied. ‘Like rats in a f*****g barrel. Rats in a barrel, that’s what we are. Done for.’
‘Think on it this way, d**k, lad: it’s better than marching.’
‘Aye, tha’t right—almost owt’s better than marching over them bastard cobbles.’
But there was
