Page 13

invaded he "might do away with his
wife + daughter" He had never told
them of this and he knew in his heart
that he would never do such a thing
but he kept saying to himself
that he "might have to do it" He
remembered in Lille during the
retreat back to the French coast
(he had been a despatch rider at the
time) he had run into a cul de sack
and suddenly horrified he saw
hundreds of men women + children
who had been machine gunned in
a body "There were hundreds +
hundreds of spent machine gun
bullets all around" he said "They
been headed into the cul-de-dack
and brutally murdered that it
was a clean war" It was this
sight more than anything other
single experience that made Hollis
from that moment on a killer- a
ruthless, calculating one at that
From that moment on "I had
no mercy no compassion " and
"if I took a prisoner it was
by coincidence"
He knew he could never be a
regular army peacetime sergeant
because "I could never put a man
on charge for not claiming his boots"
Pn the other hand during the war he