Paradoxically Yours...

Andy Warhorse

(prompt - 'disguise' 3rd June 2017)

"Dead horse!" Ned's grin was as broad as his exclamation was loud.

"Sauce, you silly bugger? Bloody love some - with or without the snaggers and bread. " Will's initial belligerence softened and his eyes went dreamy before closing to picture his hand covered with a thick slice of bread topped with barbecued sausages and good ol' tomato sauce. He could smell it... almost taste it—

"Nah, yer great idjit. Forget your belly, mate. Lift yer thinkin' above your belt, can't you? " Ned paused and glanced around at the hell-hole they called home these days. Did a more miserable place exist than here, pinned down in a trench one side of that barren landscape called no man's land with endless fire from the distant German trenches? The wide, flat expanse of wasteland was covered in bodies - human and animal - a dismal enough scene in daylight, the vision softened by the dark of night, but not the sounds of dying and terrible scent of death. They lingered on to haunt the soldiers' worst nightmares. He gave himself a hard shake to lift the depression threatening to swamp him at his oppressive surrounds.

"I'm thinking about the other day... you know, when I was havin' a bit of a chinwag with that Froggie about getting a foot into no man's land and sneaking right up on those Krauts."

"Aww, now I know wotcha talking about - that mashed up paper horse!"

Ned nodded so enthusiastically his Aussie slouch hat would have slid off - if not for the sturdy chin strap. "Yair. What a bonzer idea those Frenchies came up with." And he told the story once again, as though Will had never heard it before, but this time like a mental checklist he was running through, to see if their boys could do the same.

One of the Frenchies' great war-horses had panicked with all the gunfire and run straight at Jerry's lines. Of course, he was shot down way before he reached them. Someone had casually suggested the horse carcass would make a great hide for a sniper, but all agreed it would be impossible to contend with the stench of the rotting carcass. And then the brightest and most creative talent imagined a papier-mache horse, disguised as that war horse - and those clever with their hands went to work. In the dark of night, they silently dragged away the real body and replaced it with the impostor, complete with sniper hidden well inside. A further refinement involved a telephone wire running back to the Froggies' trenches to keep them informed of German activities. It worked successfully for some days before a change of guards revealed a man emerging from the supposed carcass and the Krauts ensured the ruse was all over. Undeterred by the fierce individual danger, the concept was successfully repeated in several different places.

"Dead 'orse!" Will chuckled. "And I thought the Frenchies were supposed to be such common sewers with their food and wine and all!"