Barossa [antikvár]

1.LONDON, 1940The boy was fascinated. He lay on his stomach in thé long grass, not far from the spinney, the evening sun warm on his back. He could see the soldiers were working hard, stripped to the waist, the sweat glistening on them as they passed the sandbags along the human chain, from the lorry to the gun emplacement.Other soldiers had the back-breaking task of stacking the sandbags around the gun, building a protective wall. But it was the undulating, wobbling dance of the barrage balloon as it slowly filled with gas that drew his eyes like a magnet. Great folds of silver silken material, gradually rolled upright, swelling as gas was pumped in. First the fins emerged. Then the fat, bulbous, cigar-shaped body appeared, and it began to look a bit like the pictures he had seen of the airships. Slowly it filled out, assuming its final rounded shape. It was dumpy, silver, and beautiful. As it strained against the steel hawser, trying to fly, the boy was irresistibly reminded of Dumbo.