The Cadet Under-Officer

by Christopher Cummings

  Roger was busy organizing a water party:- LCpl Walsh with a 12 gauge shotgun as patrol leader, Cadet Tully as guide and Cadets Anderson and Morrow. They collected about thirty empty waterbottles tied in bundles and set off down the sloping rock shelf.

  “What are you going to do now Graham?” Lt McEwen asked.

  That put Graham in a quandary. He wanted badly to stay and fight Bargheese, to pin him down so he couldn’t escape but he knew that was wrong. It risked the lives of his cadets. With some regret he replied: “When it’s dark we will withdraw. We will pull back to the other side of the river below the weir and then I’ll decide how to contact the police.” He checked his watch. It was only just 1700hrs. Two hours until it was fully dark.

  Lt McEwen winced and then took another sip from a waterbottle. “What will you do if they come up here before then? I think they still want the brown notebook very badly,” she asked.

  Graham took it out of his basic pouch and passed it across to her. Then he replied with a grim dignity which they made no attempt to dispute.

  “You carry it Miss. If they come you will withdraw that way,” he pointed the direction. “I will cover your withdrawal. If I have to shoot them to keep you safe I shall.”

  CHAPTER 33

  SUNSET BATTLE

  For a full minute there was silence on top of Whaleback Hill. Graham felt a bit self-conscious and embarrassed at his determined statement but the others did not doubt his sincerity. Margaret looked at him with admiration, thinking he was so handsome and wonderful!

  Graham cleared his throat and spoke. “I don’t think they’ll come up here. Not for a while anyway. Mr Bargheese must be a very worried man. He’s had some nasty shocks and will need time to think out his next move. I also suspect he’s got some practical problems - like shortage of weapons and ammunition. We’ve taken eight guns off his people today. I also doubt if his band of crooks are all that loyal. I don’t think they’ll be too keen on taking risks in a gun battle on ground we have chosen.”

  “What do you think he will do?” Miss McEwen asked.

  “I reckon he’s busy planning his escape and trying to keep his men together until then. Time must be running out for him. Too many people know. The word must be spreading through our company. The CSM must have told the OC. We know Cpl Kenny got caught but LCpl Szelag might have made it to the Army Camp to contact the police, and all those miners must be getting mighty suspicious.”

  Roger agreed. “Bargheese only had about ten of those security blokes and he’s got two here.”

  “Three. There was one guarding Miss McEwen.”

  “Three then. That only leaves seven to guard a whole company of cadets and it’ll be dark soon.”

  Graham nodded slowly. “Hodgins, give company HQ a call on the radio,” he said.

  Hodgins tried several times but there was no response. “No one answer sir. The set’s transmitting alright. I can hear the carrier wave when I press the pressel switch. It should be ok. It’s only about ten k’s and line-of-sight.”

  “Keep trying every fifteen minutes,” Graham instructed. He turned to the others. “Let’s have something to eat and I’ll plan our withdrawal.”

  Hodgins turned to him. “Are you thinking of going down to hide along the river bank sir?” he asked.

  “Yes, why?”

  “Just thinking that radio reception will not be as good low down sir,” Hodgins replied. “When it gets dark we should get through from up here.”

  That was certainly food for thought and Graham nodded.

  Cpl Sheehan suddenly called. “Hey, sir, they’re pulling out!”

  Graham helped Lt McEwen to her feet and they, plus Roger and Margaret moved to the forward edge of the knoll. Cpl Sheehan pointed. “There sir, going west. Three of them - on foot.”

  It was Bargheese and two security men. They were about 700 or 800 metres away walking through the bush towards the Mining Camp. That left possibly three at the airfield and it had to be presumed one or more of these was armed. This tended to confirm Graham’s idea that Bargheese was planning to escape by plane or he would have just abandoned the airstrip. It didn’t change his own plans, just sharpened the regret that they couldn’t do more to help trap the crooks.

  Roger frowned. “Where’s he off to?” he asked as Bargheese skirted the bottom of Mast Hill. The faces of the three crooks kept turning to look at Whaleback Hill.

  “To use the radio I think. Or to get more guns or perhaps a getaway car?” Graham said.

  Margaret pointed to the left. “Here comes a vehicle now,” she said.

  They looked where she was pointing, to the left near the weir. Graham kicked himself for not organizing sentries to face in all directions. ‘That vehicle must have been visible, off and on, for five minutes or more,’ he thought. It was a NORMAC Landcruiser. It came up out of the river bed driving fast.

  Roger gripped Graham’s arm. “The water party!”

  They all stared in horror. Below, walking across the plain and apparently oblivious to the vehicle, were the four cadets on their way to the river.

  Graham called in his loudest yell: “Walshy! Lookout! Car!” It didn’t seem possible the cadets hadn’t seen or heard the vehicle. Tiny pale faces turned. Then they scattered - too late! They had been seen and were right near the road. The vehicle screeched to a stop in a cloud of billowing dust and four armed men in blue shirts jumped out.

  All the group on the hill could do was watch in horror. The sound of a shot echoed against the hill and two cadets went down. The other two fled into bushes in the gully. Two more shots - one from LCpl Walsh’s shotgun. The crooks stopped chasing him and dived behind rocks and began firing rapidly down the gully. Two security men with pistols ran to the two cadets who were down and with a mixture of relief and horror the watchers on the hill saw them get up with their hands up. They were alive but captured!

  “Morrow and Anderson,” Roger said.

  Graham felt sick inside. Suddenly the tables were turned! Not only did the crooks have two hostages, one of them was a girl. Graham privately thought Sharon Morrow was the prettiest girl in the platoon, with a real ‘peaches and cream’ complexion and a figure which seemed quite perfect to his adolescent eyes.

  The Landcruiser drove off towards the mining camp taking the two prisoners. Bargheese’s position had received a powerful reinforcement.

  Graham felt the depressing sting of the set-back and for a few moments just stood there, biting his lip and thinking hard. Then he shook his head. ‘The best thing to do is to hit back quickly to try to regain the initiative,’ he told himself.

  LCpl Walsh and Cadet Tully appeared from hiding and were told by loud shouting to get the water. They picked up all the empty waterbottles dropped in the chase and headed for the river.

  At that moment Lt McEwen let out a moan. Graham was just in time to grab her before she crumpled and pitched over the cliff. Very carefully he picked her up in his arms and carried her back to the hollow in the rocks and laid her down.

  Roger knelt to help make her comfortable. “She needs a doctor,” he said.

  Graham nodded. “Yes. She’s had some nasty knocks to the head. Get a work party to work making a stretcher,” he said. He was deeply worried about Lt McEwen, who had now gone a pasty bluish colour and had some green tinged lumps on her forehead.

  “What do we do now?” Margaret asked.

  Graham made his mind up. He turned to Roger and Margaret and began to present his plan, knowing he must convince them as he needed their approval. “I don’t think we should withdraw yet. We must do something to see if we can save the prisoners. If need be I’ll trade that notebook. We’ve copied it all anyway,” he said.

  Roger nodded and Graham went on: “My gut feeling though is to go down and hit them and disorganise them more. It will strengthen our bargaining position. I’d like to try to stop those crooks escaping. There’s supposed to be a plane flying in tonight from the Pacific Islands somewhere. I reckon that’s Ba
rgheese’s escape plan.”

  Roger frowned. This was deadly serious. “We could just wait for the police, Graham,” he said. He certainly didn’t want to see any more cadets endangered.

  Margaret turned to him. “How will they know where to come?” she asked.

  “I told company HQ on the radio we were coming here,” Graham replied. He glanced at his watch. “With a bit of luck the police might get here soon.”

  Margaret again spoke: “If you go down to that camp there will be more shooting and someone could get killed.”

  Graham shook his head. “I don’t think those crooks would be too keen to do that, Marg. I reckon they know they are in real trouble already.”

  “Yes, but by accident. Besides, if you shoot someone you could end up in jail yourself,” she said. It was a sobering thought.

  “Margaret, my orders put those two cadets in danger. They are my responsibility. I also think we can do things that don’t involve too much risk. What I had in mind was interfering with their communications by cutting the telephone wires and knocking down the radio mast. That might keep the plane away and it will worry the crooks. They won’t be able to control their people at Canning Junction very well either. I don’t believe they are united and if we push them a few times I reckon they will end up fighting amongst themselves, or just making a run for it on their own.”

  “What about Miss McEwen?” Margaret asked.

  That was a real worry to Graham. He said: “She needs medical help but there is no way we could carry her ten or fifteen kilometres on a stretcher. The best we might do is get her a few hundred metres to a safer hide. Our best bet is to get help, either by radio or by sending runners to a telephone.”

  “Who would we send?” Roger asked.

  Graham puzzled over that. “I would be best but it will have to be one of the corporals. I want you here.”

  “Pat,” Roger said, “With a couple of the fittest cadets.”

  Graham nodded. He knelt down and felt Miss McEwen’s pulse and put his hand on her forehead. “She’s not running a temperature and she seems calm enough at present,” he said. Reassured he stood up and bit his lip, trying to decide what to do. He was hoping a police vehicle would appear at any moment.

  “What exactly do you propose to do, sir?” Roger asked.

  “I’m going to take a couple of cadets and go and cut down that radio mast. At the same time I’m going to get you and a couple more to go and cut the telephone wires and make a road block down where the road crosses the dry creek. This hill dominates all the roads and the airfield and they know it. I’d like to hold it as a firm base to strike them from so I’ll leave a couple more here under Cpl Sheehan. I’ll send Lt McEwen and all the girls back to a safe place on the river bank downstream from the weir. And we’ll try to get a message to the police - by runner if need be.”

  Margaret, who had stood listening, now spoke with a vehemence that astounded Graham. “Oooh! Sgt Dunning, don’t you let him!” she cried. She turned on Graham. “Oh you sexist brute! You are just a male chauvinist pig Graham Kirk! The policy in our unit has been equality. We are as good as the boys anytime. In fact girls usually win ‘Best Cadet’ or ‘Best Corporal’, and who topped last year’s Sergeants Course - a girl! - And the Corporals Course? A girl!”

  Graham was speechless and squirmed with embarrassment. He knew he was guilty of trying to treat the girls differently. “But...but... this is real!” he blurted out - then knew it was the wrong thing to say. He groped in his head for the army policy on women not being allowed in combat areas but couldn’t find the right words.

  Margaret flared up. “Oooh! Did you hear that! We can pretend to be equal as long as it doesn’t matter - Oooh! I could hit you, you stupid boy.” Her eyes flashed with anger.

  “But..but I just wanted you to be safe,” Graham said. His natural instinct to protect the females struggled with the personality clash and he lacked the maturity to simply force his will.

  Roger was mildly amused at Margaret’s outburst. “I agree with Margaret. This is a team effort and the girls are part of the team. I reckon that they should take part or we all pull out!” he said. As he explained it later to Lt McEwen he really wanted them all just to sneak away but Graham was so obviously determined he reasoned that if the girls were involved he would be much more careful in what he did. With only boys he was afraid Graham would be tempted to take dangerous risks.

  Graham tried to climb down with as much dignity as a flustered 17 year old could manage. “Alright Cpl Lake...Orders in...” he looked at his watch. It was 1715. “In fifteen minutes.”

  Margaret looked at his tired, sunburnt face and nearly embraced him. ‘God he’s wonderful!’ she thought. She was more in love than ever. In her eyes Graham had just proved himself to be a very courageous young man and a real hero.

  The CUO sat on a rock on the cliff top and studied the problem and began making quick notes. A simple plan seemed to just evolve in his mind. His only real doubt was whether to abandon the hill during the night. He was worried that it would become Bargheese’s target but against that was the desire not to split up too much. He also realized it was important for ease of navigation for his own people in the dark, and for radio communications.

  He sensed that if he took the initiative with active probes and harassing it would so demoralize and disorganise Bargheese’s men, who must already be very worried, that they would not be able to do anything effective anyway. Finally he decided to hold the hill but still felt uneasy about it. ‘Captain Conkey always keeps reminding us what Napoleon said about fighting the mind of the enemy commander. So I will. If Bargheese is worrying about where I might hit him next he won’t think of attacking the hill. That is the best way to defend it.’

  At 1730 the ‘O’ Group met on the flat rocks of the cliff-top. That gave them a good view of the whole area from below the weir to up past the camp. As he told them where to sit Graham glanced out at the distant Mining Camp. ‘If the crooks have binoculars they will be able to see us,’ he thought. But he reasoned that didn’t matter.

  When Roger, the two corporals, Hodgins and Rebecca the medic were seated with their notebooks ready and maps spread in front of them Graham began. He did it properly ‘by the book’ but quickly - pointed out all the key ground and gave things nicknames, listed what he knew and believed about the enemy and pointed out that they themselves - the friendly forces- were on their own. Their mission was to prevent the enemy escaping. Groupings were nominated, tasks, timings out and in, routes, Admin (water and medical mostly) and Signals (radio watch and passwords). Time check. Questions. It was nearly 1800hrs by then. The sun was well down near the western horizon.

  By the time he finished Graham was excited at the prospect of more action and the light of battle was in his eye. Margaret was content. She was leading her section with him against Mast Hill. And she had been given a rifle - only a .22 but still a real one with live ammo.

  They dispersed to give orders to the cadets and to make last minute checks. Hodgins hurried away along the spine of the hill for a nervous pee. When he returned Graham had him do another radio check. “Any luck with the radio?” he asked.

  “Not a squeak sir.”

  Rebecca took over on the radio. She had constructed a bush stretcher from saplings, ropes and webbing and Lt McEwen now lay on it. To Graham’s great relief she seemed to be sleeping peacefully and had regular breathing. Cpl Sheehan, LCpl Halyday, both with rifles, and Cadet Lawson were to guard the hill, one at the top of the path down the snout, one watching the sloping path they had climbed up and the other on a ledge on the right overlooking the airfield. Elizabeth was put at the rear of the hollow watching back along the ridge. She was exhausted and looked haggard and miserable and kept complaining. Graham wasn’t impressed and wondered what he had ever seen in her.

  The survivors of the water party came puffing up the sloping rock shelf. They were unhappy and LCpl Walsh looked ashamed - as well he might. The waterbottles we
re distributed. Tasks were quickly explained.

  Graham then had the patrols all lined up and made sure they knew the ‘Rules of Engagement’ (when they were allowed to shoot), Password and the RV if they got lost or split up. As he spoke he looked them over and felt his chest fill with emotion. Not one had suggested running away or questioned his decision. ‘They are a bloody good platoon,’ he thought proudly.

  At 1810 the two patrols set off. There had been no movement in the enemy camp in an hour. Lt McEwen was still unconscious and looking at her made Graham hesitate and wonder if, even now, he shouldn’t stop his plan and just withdraw before someone got hurt.

  Roger led the remaining four cadets of Cpl Sheehan’s section back down the sloping rock ledge. Their objective was the airstrip road junction and their task to construct a road block. They were armed with two 12 gauge shotguns and 27 cartridges.

  Tully, Livingstone, Arthur and Lazarus groaned and griped about this as they had just been down to the river and back up and now had to go down again.

  “Typical bloody army,” Livingstone grumbled.

  Graham led Margaret’s depleted section, plus Hodgins, straight down the front of the hill, to the right of the rocks half way up. He was aware they would probably be seen but it was safer and quicker and he doubted if the enemy would guess his intentions. ‘They will be more worried about another attack,’ he thought.

  It only took a couple of minutes to reach the bottom. Graham was sure there were no enemy near as they’d had the whole area between the hills under observation all afternoon so he led them in single file at a brisk walk across the gentle down slope through the dwarf acacias and clumps of parallel rocks. They crossed the airfield road and came to the dry creek and halted. LCpl Walsh and Cadet Debbie Wallis were left there in a big rock pile. Their job was to guard the withdrawal route in case someone came from the airfield or flanks. Walsh saw it as a bit of a punishment but accepted it without comment.