Major Banks closed his eyes as the car screeched around the muddy bend.

'Take it a little slower,' he ordered Private Norris.  'There'll be plenty of action left for us.  They don't finish a battle in three hours, you know.'

'Begging the Major's pardon, Sir, but if he opened his eyes he'd see half the German Army coming over the hill back there, and I'm buggered if I want to be here when they arrive!'

'What are they doing back there?' demanded Sergeant Hill from the back seat where he sat cradling a box of detonators, while trying to keep the box of explosives beside him from falling to the floor.

'Bloody thoughtless of them.' grumbled the Major.  'They're supposed to be safely corralled in the Salut Valley.  How the hell are we supposed to blow the Deuxieme Dam with them on our tails?'

'Maybe they haven't seen us.  We could get off the track, wait until they pass us, then head for the dam and continue as planned,' suggested Hill.  The shell that whistled past them and exploded at 2 o'clock showed him the error of his assumption.  It said much for his presence of mind that he didn't gibber at the blast.  'I don't think I want to be sitting here with a lap full of detonators if the next one hits,' he remarked idly.

'You wouldn't be boasting about it to your grandchildren,' Banks admitted.

Hill carefully placed the box of detonators on the floor beside his feet, grabbed his field glasses, and twisted around in his seat to inspect the Germans coming up fast behind them.

'I thought their flag was supposed to have a Swastika on it,' he observed.  'That one looks white.'

Banks snorted.  'Are you trying to tell me that a whole German division is so scared of our car that they are falling over themselves to surrender to us?  It's a trick.'

The car skidded and almost left the road, narrowly avoiding the steep drop on their left hand side.

'Shall I stop, Sir?'  Private Norris sounded hopeful as he struggled with the wheel.

'That's why you'll always be a private,' remarked the sergeant coldly.  'Stop asking silly questions and take your foot out of your mouth long enough to plant it on the accelerator.'

As the staff car hurtled down the track, sliding and jolting in the mud and rattling their teeth, Major Banks turned to Sergeant Hill.  'Can you time those detonators, say for ten seconds?'

'I'm ahead of you, Sir.  I've already got two of them fixed up, just in case.'

'Hold off for a minute or so, maybe we can figure out if that white flag is genuine.  That shot might just have been their way of getting our attention.  If so, it worked admirably.'

As the scrub-covered hills flew by on each side of the track, a second shell detonated in front of the staff car, forcing Norris to swerve to avoid a newly formed crater.

'You know, I do believe that flag is a lie,' murmured Major Banks.  'OK, Sarge, you're the opening bowler at Lord's.  Let's try for a duck.'

Rolling down his left-hand window, Hill manoeuvred his upper body outside the car, and overarmed the two makeshift grenades in the direction of the advancing force.  The ensuing blasts gave a result that he could never have dreamed of.  The leading Tiger tank caught the full force on its left-hand track, which disintegrated.  The tank slewed around gracefully in the mud, before its gun found the windscreen of the troop carrier following too closely behind it.  Tangled, the two vehicles came to a metal-grinding halt across the track, leaving the oncoming force to stop as best it could before it too contributed to the pile-up.  The first couple of vehicles didn't stop in time.

Sergeant Hill looked on in awe at his handiwork.

'Jolly well done, Sarge!' applauded the Major.  'We'll be well away before they manage to clear the track.'

'I don't think they'll manage to do that, Sir.  Those Tiger tanks are too heavy to push, especially in this mud.  They won't be able to get any traction.  But it's OK.  When we blow the dam, and all the water comes rushing through here, it'll do the job for them.  Like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables Sir, it'll sweep the track completely clear!'