‘There I was, unable to do anything, sir. I couldn’t have done better than he did. I certainly couldn’t; no one could – except, perhaps, Shears. Shears! It was then that I heard someone else shouting. Shears’s voice, that was it. It echoed right round the valley. The voice of a raving madman, sir! I could only make out the one word: “Strike!” He too had realized, and sooner than I had. But it was too late now.
‘Some time afterwards I saw a man in the water. He was swimming towards the enemy bank. It was him. It was Shears. He too worshipped action, action at any price. A crazy thing to do. He had gone mad, just as I had, as a result of that morning. He didn’t have a chance. I felt like dashing out to join him, but it would have taken over two hours to climb down from the OP.
‘He didn’t have a dog’s chance. He was swimming frantically, but it took him several minutes to get across. And in that time, sir, the train was already on the bridge, the splendid River Kwai bridge which our comrades-in-arms had built! Just then – just then, I remember, I saw a group of Japanese soldiers; they had heard the yells and were stumbling down the slope.
‘They were the ones who dealt with Shears as he climbed out of the water. He got rid of two of them. Two thrusts of his knife, sir, I didn’t miss a thing. He wasn’t going to let himself be captured alive, but a rifle butt came down on the back of his head. He collapsed. Joyce was also on the ground, lying quite still. The Colonel was getting to his feet. The soldiers had cut the wire. There was nothing more we could do, sir.’
‘There’s always some further action to take,’ Colonel Green observed.
‘Always some further action to take, sir . . . After that there was an explosion. The train, which no one had thought of stopping, had blown up on the fog-signal I had laid this side of the bridge, just below the OP. A bit of luck, that! I’d forgotten all about it. The engine came off the track and plunged into the river, bringing two or three coaches down with it. A few men were drowned. A fair amount of stores lost; but the damage could be repaired in a few days – that was the net result. But it caused quite a lot of excitement on the opposite bank.’
‘A pretty fine sight, I should think, all the same,’ Colonel Green consoled him.
‘A very fine sight, sir, for those that like that sort of thing. So I tried to think how I could make it look even finer. I didn’t forget the principles of the Force, sir. I really wracked my brains at that moment to see if there was anything more I could do in the way of action.’
‘There’s always something more to be done in the way of action,’ Colonel Green dreamily remarked.
‘Always something to be done . . . That must be true, since everyone says so. That was Shears’s motto. I remembered it.’
Warden stopped talking for a moment, overcome by this last thought; then went on in a softer tone of voice.
‘I thought hard, sir. I thought as hard as I possibly could, while the group of soldiers swarmed round Joyce and Shears. Shears was certainly still alive, and so perhaps was Joyce, in spite of what that dirty dog had done to him.
‘I could see only one possible way of taking action, sir. My two partisans were still in position with the mortar. They could fire just as easily on the group of Japs as on the bridge, and the group was just as easy to hit. I gave them that as their target. I waited a little longer. I saw the soldiers pick up the prisoners and start carrying them off. They were both still alive. It was the worst that could have happened. Colonel Nicholson brought up the rear, hanging his head as though he was deep in thought. I wonder what he was thinking, sir. I suddenly made up my mind. While there was still time.
‘I gave the order to fire. The Siamese understood at once. We had trained them pretty thoroughly, sir. It was a splendid fireworks display. Another fine sight for those in the OP. Close cross-fire. I handled the mortar myself, and I’m not such a bad shot.’
‘Good results?’ Colonel Green broke in.
‘Good results, sir. The first shells burst right among the group. A stroke of luck! Both our chaps were blown to pieces. I confirmed that by looking through my glasses. Believe me, sir, please believe me, I didn’t want to leave the job half-done either. All three of them, I should have said. The Colonel as well. There was nothing left of him. Three birds with one stone. Not bad!
‘After that? After that, sir, I fired all the shells I had. There were quite a lot. Our hand-grenades as well. The position had been well selected. We sprayed the ground pretty thoroughly. I was a bit overwrought, I admit. The stuff was falling a bit indiscriminately, on the rest of the company rushing out of the camp, on the derailed train, in which everyone was shrieking, and also on the bridge. The two Siamese were as worked up as I was. The Japs fired back. Soon the smoke spread and crept up as far as us, more or less blotting out the valley and the River Kwai. We were cut off in a stinking grey fog. There was no more ammo, nothing else to fire. So we retired.
‘Since then I’ve often thought about that decision of mine, sir. I’m now convinced I couldn’t have done anything else. I took the only line of conduct possible. It was really the only proper action I could have taken.’
‘The only proper action,’ Colonel Green agreed.
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Epub ISBN: 9781446484678
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Published by Vintage 2002
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Copyright © René Juilliad 1952
The Bridge on the River Kwai was first published in 1954 by Secker & Warburg.
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EPUB ISBN 9781446484678
Pierre Boulle, The Bridge on the River Kwai
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