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The Third Son of a Duke

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Back on the ship, a different ship, smaller but no less fast, our protagonist is going to Egypt, and joining the war via the Mena Camp, the place where many Australian soldiers passed through on their way to Gallipoli, and back again in injured, there or elsewhere in Egypt.

There were special operations of a sort, not on the same scale as in WW2, but the offices of which were in a hotel in Cairo, which to me seems about right.  If you’re going to do something, it should be done in style.

I have invented this mission, borne out of the plane ride our protagonist took from Winton to Brisbane, one that I’m sure the British already were doing in part, the aerial observation of the German lines and mapping the various sites for their guns to lay down a barrage.

His idea is to create, among what would seem to the Germans as a pre-eminent attack on their trenches, before the soldiers went over the top to attack.

That, of course, was a cause of many deaths, the machine guns waiting.

His idea was if anything novel and he was going to put it into practice.  After he undergoes more training, earns a commission, and gets attached to a squad of returning men, after rests in Egypt.  There are few left of the original group, and now bolstered with replacements, they battle hardened veterans are a battle-hardened group with stories to tell.

To be honest, after reading firsthand accounts, I don’t know how they survived, ot remained sane after the war ended.

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1870 words, for a total of 43115 words.