Free The Sand Panthers by Leo Kessler

night: the hiss of urine on the still sand; the clatter of canteens being put away; the lazy banter of men lying sleepily in their bags, talking of the things all soldiers talk about – war and women. Then he said: ‘Prof, what can you tell me of the place?’
    ‘The Ascent? There is not much I can tell you, Major. I’ve never been there myself. In my days in Egypt all this was named the Devil’s Country and one kept out of it. Besides the handful of British who did penetrate it were not too happy about having Germans poking around it, especially after the Pact of Steel 2 . However this I do know. One of their officers – a certain Major Clayton seems to have discovered it, apart from the Arabs naturally who have probably always known about it, in the late twenties. According to the few descriptions I have heard of it, it is a great curving ramp of sand running up to a rock wall.’
    Von Dodenburg nodded. It was roughly the same description that Rommel had given him. ‘Can you tell me any more?’ he asked. ‘What are the conditions that we may be expected to face tomorrow night, for example?’
    ‘Not very much, Major, I’m afraid. Narrow gullies, framed by high rocks which I would expect would be too steep and too high for your tanks to climb.’
    ‘You mean we shall leave the Great Sand Sea through some sort of gully feature, which is already known to the Tommies?’
    ‘Yes indeed. After all we of Afrikakorps Intelligence have known that the British have been using the Ascent since 1940. Indeed they call it the “Easy Ascent”.’
    ‘So if they knew we were coming, that is one of the places they would be waiting for us?’ von Dodenburg demanded with sudden urgency.
    ‘Yes, that is if they had enough of their special desert troops to cover the spot, which according to Major Samt of Afrikakorps Intelligence they don’t. They are all up at the front…’ He stopped suddenly. The other man no longer seemed to be listening. For what seemed an age, von Dodenburg crouched there in front of the fire, lost in thought. Then he made up his mind. He rose to his feet. ‘Sergeant-Major Schulze!’ he called. ‘Get me Sergeant Doerr of the panzer grenadiers at the double.’
    ‘At the double, sir,’ Schulze’s huge voice came floating back through the glowing darkness.
    Von Dodenburg looked at the ‘Prof’. ‘Now Doktor Reichert, I’ve got a little task for you this night before you sleep.’
    ‘Major?’
    ‘I would like you to prepare a route to the Ascent for a one-eyed sergeant, who isn’t too bright,’ von Dodenburg said with a smile on his face. ‘And at the double, Prof, if you please …’
    Notes
    1.   A popular beach near Hamburg.
    2.   Alliance between Mussolini and Hitler.

TWO
    Von Dodenburg stared back along the column in the dawn light. There was a distance of fifty metres between each tank, as he prescribed the night before after they had reached the approach to the Ascent. He nodded to himself in satisfaction. His lesson had paid dividends. The two second-lieutenants had their crews well in hand now.
    He turned and faced his front. The track which ran towards the Ascent was dangerously narrow – just broad enough for one vehicle – and as the ‘Prof’ had predicted, they were hemmed in on both sides. To their right, the naked rock wall rose steeply above them, while to their left the abyss fell away to an unknown depth, veiled still in the pre-dawn mist. The approach was a dangerous place.
    ‘Are you all right, Matz?’ he called, pressing his throat mike.
    ‘I went on the crash course, sir,’ Matz answered cheerfully enough, although the prospect before him would have daunted the most experienced tank driver.
    ‘All right, roll ‘em!’
    Matz pressed his starter. The tank’s engines burst into life at once. The roar echoed and re-echoed back and forth. Von Dodenburg glared at the heights to his right. They were empty; then he concentrated on the task ahead, as Matz slipped