Not Flag or Fail (12 page)

The Lieutenant turned to his other side where a very attractive woman in her mid forties sat. She was well made up, wearing a Wren officer’s uniform; she sat very straight, and smoked a filter tipped cigarette that showed traces of her lipstick on the filter. “This gentlemen, is Commander Rachel Harrison from the Royal Navy intelligence, we often work together, and she has agreed to help us out today.” “Good morning chaps.” said the Commander, flashing us a charming smile.

Introductions over the Major sat upright and addressed us, he reminded us that we were covered by the Official Secrets’ Act and explained that we were the subject of an investigation, the nature of which he was not at liberty to, nor did he wish to disclose to us. Turning his attention to Harry and Jack he told them that he might need them later but for now they were to return to our barracks. When they were going out of the door he reminded them not to discuss with anyone what had gone on so far.

After they’d left, the Major spoke again, telling us that we needed to be interviewed separately and that we would split up into separate rooms. Fishy left with the Commander, Ronny with the Lieutenant and I stayed there with the Major. The pipe had long since been discarded and from an inside pocket he pulled out a cigarette-case, opened it, took out a filter tipped cigarette and offered me one, I told him, “I preferred my own, .without the spats.” but accepted a light from his silver cigarette lighter. He questioned me again in an unhurried, relaxed manner.

In front of him he had some notes which he didn’t let me see, they were presumably prepared from the Lieutenant’s original interview. He spent most of the time asking about our time in the tomb and our journey, up to the time we boarded the ‘Stella De Mer,’ he didn’t seem remotely interested in anything else other than perhaps just a few odd questions about Captain Forbes-Hamilton. The Major was a very professional interrogator and asked lots of questions about why we chose to go this way instead of that way? Could I show him where, on a map he’d produced? What was my reasoning for not throwing the grenade into the German guard post in the lane? Did I now regret throwing away an opportunity of killing a couple of Hun? And then he would go back and ask the same questions but in a different way so that different answers were possible.

Eventually he came to the end of his questioning and smiled at me as if relieved to be done. He asked me to wait and left the room leaving me feeling drained. Shortly afterward Fishy came into the room, sat down and lit a fag. “Well I’m buggered if I know what that was all about?” He said “Don’t know what Navy she’s in, but she knows bugger all about the sea.”

“Why what did she ask you?” I said frowning.

“About how I found my way back without a chart, couldn’t understand that you could just use a compass on its own if you knew roughly where you were in the first place. Wanted to know if I could get back there? I told her if the Frenchies wanted their flipping boat back they could bloody well come back and fetch it, but she kept going on about could I get back in there. I told her course I could, its how I used to earn my living. Remembering how to get back to places, you have to, if you’re fishing. If there’s no fish in one place you have to remember where they were the last time and then you have to find your way there. It might all look the same but it’s not if you know what to look for and how to read the sea.

Ronny came in shortly after accompanied by Lieutenant Baker. “Ok chaps, Baker said if you want to pop into room four B we’ve arranged some sandwiches and tea, we’ll take a break for lunch now.

They joined us for lunch, all three of them, which meant that any chance of us discussing what, had gone on was out of the question. The Major said very little, other than to comment on the food that had been provided which he didn’t think was too good and which we thought was blooming marvellous. Lieutenant Baker made up for this by talking about how well the evacuation of Dunkirk had been carried out and how it was incredible that over three hundred thousand men had been rescued. For her part the Commander was telling us about the difficulties the Navy were having, getting enough ships to protect the Atlantic convoys.

After he had finished his lunch the Major sat down on a chair, he then used his foot to pull another chair closer, placing both feet on that one and promptly fell asleep. I asked if they would mind if we went outside to get a smoke and some fresh air. The Commander said that it was an excellent idea and said she would come with us so that we could show her around the camp. We headed for the exit to the admin hut leaving Lieutenant Baker reading his notes.

After the walk, which again presented no opportunity for us to discuss anything, we returned to the admin block refreshed.

Without hesitation Commander Harrison asked us to go back into room 3A and wait there, she walked off down the corridor presumably to join her colleagues.

About half an hour passed during which we sat smoking and talking, none too loudly, Fishy putting forward his theory that we were probably being considered for a medal, the other two of us looking at him as if he’d lost his senses.

The officers came back into the room and sat down, this time the Major sitting in the middle chair, he spent a little time sorting through his notes, and eventually he cleared his throat and began to talk to us.

“Well men, we have considered everything that you have told us and we think that here is chance for us to help one another, if you are agreeable that is?” we looked at him puzzled, we didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Sensing our confusion he began again. “Look it’s fairly simple, on the one hand we have this chap, Forbes-Hamilton, who I have to tell you, is not without influence in court so to speak. He’s complaining that you deserted him leaving him alone in the face of the enemy. On the other hand we have a group of five young chaps who used a lot of resourcefulness and considerable skill to get themselves out of enemy territory to get home and fight again. Who does one believe eh?”

Well we believe you of course, but it may take a bit of persuading with the powers that be. Do you see the dilemma?”

We were all stunned that they could even think we’d done anything wrong.

“But sir! I said starting to defend us but he held up his hand.

“Bombardier, we’re here to help you, we’ve discussed it and think we can see a way out for you. Going back to what I said earlier, providing that is we help one another. Let me tell you our solution. We will offer Captain Forbes-Hamilton an incentive that will persuade him to drop his complaint against you; in return you do a little job for us, What do you say Men?”

“A little job sir”? Ronny said raising an eyebrow. Commander Harrison spoke next “Let me fill in the spaces for you if I may.” she leaned back in her seat and lit a cigarette and then continued.

“What it is chaps, our little department up at the combined Intelligence office is responsible for doing little jobs that are too small for the services to be bothered with. You can imagine the sort of thing I’m sure, parachute drops into an area to check out a landing site, going in by sub to see if a beach is suitable for landing craft. I’m sure you can imagine the sort of things that go on?”

“But what’s that got to do with us?” I asked.

“Well by your actions you’ve proved yourselves to be just the sort of resourceful chaps we need and if you combine that with the local knowledge required for this job, you can see that you are just what we’re looking for.”

Fishy sat bolt upright he was starting to get annoyed, I knew the signs I had seen them often enough in the past.

“Sir,” he said ignoring the Commander and looking at the Major “begging the Majors pardon, why don’t you just tell us what you want us to do?”

“I can do that for you Gunner Thomas” said the Major with a slight smile “We want you to nip back to France and bring Captain Forbes-Hamilton’s brief case back.”

No one spoke for what seemed an age, eventually Ronny said “And if we refuse?”

“Well nothing,” said the Major “it’s just I’m not sure we will be able to get the Captain to drop the desertion charges and then God knows what sort of mess we will have, and of course your other two mates.” he glanced at his papers,

“Henshaw and Hampton will also be involved.”

“So in effect, we have no choice, so what happens if we say yes?” I said, doing little to try and hide my anger.

“We take you away for a bit of training, take you into France, bring you back out again and then if you want to, you can come back here, job done. Oh and by the way you’d all get promotion to Sergeant, all our people hold at least that rank and you’d still keep that, after the job was done, so what do you think? Want to give it a go?” said the Major, as if he was discussing what we wanted for tea?

“Can we have five minutes to talk about it sir?” said Ronny.

“Take ten if you like.” answered the Major, starting to fill the pipe.

Outside the hut we lit cigarettes and looked at each other “What do you think Bomb?” said Fishy.

“I think we should tell them to get knotted, the blackmailing bastards.” I replied.

Ronny looked at me and said “But you know the problem with doing that don’t you? It’s not entirely our decision to make; we also condemn Harry and Jack to the same fate.”

“Ok what do you think we should do then? “I asked “either of you.”

We lit up a second cigarette and eventually a third. We kicked the problem around this way and that, eventually accepting that they had us over a barrel. We had little choice but to do the job although we realised with France now occupied by the Germans it would probably be the last job we did for anybody. We went back in and agreed to go.

Once we had agreed to go, things happened very quickly, Major Jackson told us we needed to leave right away and not to worry about sorting out our kit as they could provide us with all new stuff at the other end, wherever that was? Lieutenant Baker gathered their things together while the rest of us followed the Major and Commander outside.

On some unseen signal a polished Humber staff car pulled up outside and the Major and the Commander got into the back seat.

“Jump in Chaps!” said the Commander, leaning across to pull down some occasional seats from the partition behind the driver.

Lieutenant Baker got in next to the driver and the car pulled away. Once in the car the Major let his guard down a little and started to talk to us in a friendlier manner. He explained that time was of the essence at the moment, pointing out that the Germans would still be getting organised and there would not yet be much security in place. He felt that the sooner we went back into France the better the chance we had of getting out again.

As the car headed out of Oxford, through the towns and villages on the road to London, all three of the officers took turns in telling us what they had planned so far and what was still to be sorted.

It seemed that the plan so far was for me and Ronny to be landed by light aircraft at night as close to Bailleul as landing sites allowed. We were to proceed to the tomb, retrieve the briefcase and make our way to the coast.

A fast, air, sea, rescue launch was to be sent in to bring us and the briefcase back to England. Fishy’s part in the operation was to guide the boat crew onto the beach where we had stolen the boat from. It all sounded so simple really, the way they told it, but for my part I remembered what it was really like sneaking along the side of the hedge, past the Germans in the lane, with the Stuka’s bombing the columns of refugees. Yes I thought, perhaps you should try it yourself some time, I glanced across at the Major, in the half light of evening, and the thought occurred to me that he probably had.

At around seven pm the car pulled to a halt in a street in Eton, all of us, including the driver got out and followed the Major into the George pub. Judging by the greetings he received from the few customers who stood around the bar, it was plain that the Major was no stranger to the place. The landlord, a burley man, in collarless shirt with his sleeves rolled up, came up to the bar. He was about the same age as the Major and you could see that it took some effort on the man’s part not to salute when he saw the Major.

“Evening sir what can I do for you?” he asked.

“Good evening Williams, is the backroom free?”

“Yes Sir.” answered the Landlord.

“Good, in that case we’ll have some food brought through, and let’s see, six pints of your best ale and,” here he turned to the Commander, “pink gin Rachel?” “Yes that will do very nicely.” she replied.

“So six pints and a pink gin then and light the fire, there’s a good fellow.”

The back room was a smallish dining room that would seat twenty people in fours, around five tables. The walls were panelled in oak, low beams were narrowly missed by the taller members of the party, a large old smoke blackened brick fireplace already had a fire laid in the grate, just waiting for a match.

Williams the landlord followed us in, he put a match to the fire, then pulled the curtains across the window which was leaded with small diamond shaped panes, through it you could look out across a lawn to a view of the river.

After he had done this he took from a brass holder on the hearth, a spill, which he lit from the fire, and then went around the room, lighting candles that were held in a variety of candlesticks and bottles.

The fire was away in a very short time and a cosy yellow glow from fire and candles soon filled the room.

The Major gave Fishy a pat on the back “Come on then Thomas, lets get a couple of these tables pushed together, we are not going to dine on separate tables are we?”

“Err, no Sir” said Fishy, taking the other side of the table that the Major had already grabbed hold of, he helped him to move it next to one of the others, then together they spaced seven chairs out around them.

Williams arrived, carrying a tray which he placed on one of the spare tables, he took the gin which he handed to Rachel Harrison and said, “There you are Ma’am,” to the rest of us he said, “help yourselves gentlemen.” he then turned and added more coals to the fire.