The Sand Panthers Read Online Free

thinking about it…’

    *  *  *

    Von Dodenburg, smoking his post-breakfast cigar, smiled and watched the two NCOs plodding away through the thick sand to the coast, telling himself that it would take all their celebrated ingenuity to get them into the brothel, which was reserved for ‘golden pheasants’ and staff officers over the rank of major. Then he dismissed the two NCOs from his thoughts, and grinding out the cigar, walked to the operations tent for his first meeting of the day.
    Captain Professor Dr Hans Reichert was already waiting for him inside. The elderly Captain who rose to salute von Dodenburg seemed as cool as a spring day despite the intense heat. There was not a trace of perspiration on his face. ‘The man must have ice-water in his veins,’ von Dodenburg told himself a little angrily as he motioned the Captain to a seat.
    ‘I’ve been told by Field-Marshal Rommel that you will brief me on the difficulties of the operation, Captain…er…Professor Reichert?’ he said.
    Reichert, who had once been the University of Heidelberg’s leading Egyptologist, cleared his throat importantly, as if he were now about to deliver a lecture. ‘That is so, I believe, Major.’
    ‘I know, Reichert,’ von Dodenburg snapped, irritated by the heat and the man’s academic manner. All the same he knew that he had spent half a lifetime in the desert and was the Afrikakorps ’ foremost expert on it. He needed his assistance badly. ‘Now this is the problem. I have been ordered to take my Mark IV tanks and my halftracks through the Sand Sea into Egypt. Ten tanks, ten halftracks and 150 men. Now what am I going to be faced with?’
    Again the ex-Professor cleared his throat. ‘There are many problems,’ he said carefully. ‘Very many.’
    ‘All right, tell me them,’ von Dodenburg snapped. ‘Come on get on with it!’
    Reichert’s face flushed like that of a maiden lady who had just felt a man’s hand thrust up her skirt. ‘There is the question of navigation for example,’ he began. ‘The Sand Sea is featureless – rather like the Luneburg Heath with no outcrops of rock. You’ll have to use the sun compass.’
    ‘Sun compass?’ von Dodenburg questioned.
    ‘It is a very simple way of navigating. It depends upon knowing the exact sun time. From this we can determine the sun’s bearing throughout the day. I have personally always found it easier to remember that at midday, when the sun is due south, the shadow falls due north. Hence the direction of movement at right angles to the shadow will obviously be either due east or west. Once one has absorbed that fact, one needs only to note the distance one has travelled to determine to within a few hundred metres one’s position in relation to the starting point. Is that clear, Major?’
    Reichert did not wait for the Major’s response, but carried on as if he had reached a particularly important point in one of his Hauptseminars and did not want to be stopped by some foolish question. ‘Then there is the problem of driving. Once the sand has dried after dawn, one finds that each vehicle is followed by a huge plume of sand which not only gives one’s position away for kilometres, but also–’
    Major von Dodenburg held up his hand. ‘Hold it, hold it, Professor!’ he commanded. ‘Let me ask you one question – and one question only. Do you think we can make it?’
    ‘From Cufra, our last outpost in the desert, you will have to cover virtually one thousand kilometres of uncharted desert with one hundred and fifty men who are not yet acclimatized, plus twenty heavy vehicles which will eat up tremendous amounts of fuel and water – where there is not one solitary well.’ Reichert paused and stared up at the young officer. ‘With luck, you’ll make it, Major,’ he concluded.
    ‘Excellent,’ von Dodenburg exclaimed. ‘And I am especially glad. For your sake, Professor.’
    ‘My sake?’
    ‘Yes, my dear sir.’ Major von Dodenburg grinned at