Chapter 30
All the men were present inside the hotel lobby. Jack came over to see him, "I understand from Bobby, I'm to command our Jeep, Boss."
Shaun smiled, "Make sure you bring it back in one piece."
Sues' patrol gathered around him. "You're going to be in the landing party then, Boss?" Titch asked.
"Yes, me and Cookie, you'll take your orders from Bobby and Bill, so don't let me down," Shaun grinned.
The trucks arrived and they climbed into them, Shaun's truck had the canopy down. Once they were on board, the rear was closed up.
When the truck stopped, the back was unlaced and a Chief Petty Officer stood outside. "If you can get your men inside, Sir?" he asked Shaun.
Once inside the wooden Nissan hut he addressed Shaun again. "If you can ask your men to change into the clothes provide, Sir, I'll show you around. You'll find your room through the door at the end."
The clothes turned out to be naval ratings shirt and trousers, his and Tim's were Sub Lieutenant's shirt and shorts in white. The CPO showed them where the washhouse and latrines were, telling them their meals would be brought to them, adding, "The Commodore said for you to keep indoors has much as possible, Sir."
When he left, Shaun finally had a chance to look around their new home. The hut was about thirty feet long by twelve feet wide. At one end, six bunk beds had been placed with foot lockers at the end of them. At the other, tables and chairs had been provided. His and Tim's room was through a door at the end by the bunk beds. Two beds with a cabinet dividing them and two small wardrobes were at either side.
"Be it ever so humble," Tim said, dropping his valise on one of the beds. Shaun chuckled as he began to unpack.
Over the next few days they received their overalls, skull caps and gym shoes. A Sargent from the SAS brought their side arms and showed them how to attach the silencers, warning them that the range would be reduced owing to the silencers, "You'll need to get in close when you use them." On another occasion he showed them how to slit a man's throat.
He started off by asking if either of them had ever killed a man close up. Finding out they hadn't, he continued, "You are going to have to steel yourself to do it, any hesitation could mean death to you and your men."
He demonstrated how to place the palm of the hand over the victim's mouth at the same time pulling his head back hard then slicing the left side of the throat, "You have to do it fast, before he can retaliate. Now, you are going to see a lot of blood, it will be all over your hand and arm. You may feel like gagging but you mustn't relax your grip until you are quite sure he's dead."
They practiced on each other until the SAS Sargent was satisfied.
Shaun and Tim spent hours sharpening the commando knives. Later they were shown where they could fire their Browning's. Cookie was busy checking the time pencils and plastic explosives. He reported to Shaun, "They should give us twenty five minutes give or take two minutes either side, Boss. We'll need to stick two in each block to be on the safe side."
Tim and Shaun went over the attack plan with the group until each man knew what was expected of him.
Commodore Silverman visited them on the fourth day. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry for your imposed isolation but it was necessary due to the amount of enemy agents who keep this facility under observation. The RAF are laying on six Wellington aircraft and it has been impressed upon them about the timing of their arrival. You will be embarking on the submarine tonight at twenty-two-hundred-hours. It will submerge once you are on-board and proceed underwater from the harbour. All that remains is for me to wish you all luck."
He took Shaun to one side, "Shaun, I don't need to tell you to be careful, as I know you don't want to break my daughter's heart. I understand that a wedding is in the offering when you get back."
Shaun looked surprised, stammering, "Yes Sir."
Silverman chuckled "It's all right, you have my permission." He shook hands with all of the men before leaving.
On the submarine, they were shown to the rear of the boat by a Lieutenant. He showed them the ten horsepower outboard motor, "It has an electric start and has been adapted to run very quietly," he explained showing them. "When we surface, we'll inflate the boat for you. All you need to do is climb in, the skipper will sink the submarine slowly and you will float free. But we need to do it fast, Jerry has E Boats patrolling this stretch of coastline."
He left them as they began to apply the black face cream.
"You look lovely," Cookie said to Tim, who gave him the 'V' sign in return. They checked their weapons and haversacks, then sat back to wait.
Shaun took out his cigarette case and looked at the photograph of Sharon, wishing they could have smoked aboard. The time seemed to drag by as each man was lost in their own thoughts.
Shaun sensed the change in motion of the boat as men rushed by them. They were surfacing. The Commander of the submarine came back to wish them luck and said he would be waiting for their signal to pick them up. A rating unfastened the hatch and they climbed out onto the deck.
The inflatable was ready for them as they climbed in. The submarine slowly sank beneath them, L/Cpl Powers took control of the outboard, steering towards the dark outline of the shore.
On shore, Titch drove the Jeep with Prof giving directions.
"Ok Titch," Prof said, "pull up over here." He glanced behind to see that the other Jeeps had halted. Prof climbed out, pulling the Barr and Stroud rangefinder out and setting it on his shoulder. He looked again at the other Jeeps, seeing men unloading the mortars.
He waited until Sargent McNought and the other five men arrived at his Jeep, each carried either a barrel, tripod or base plate, all had a backpack with two 10lb bombs in them. They set off with Prof leading, moving swiftly but quietly. After about twenty minutes, Prof signalled to halt behind a sand dune. The men lowered their loads to the ground, grateful to be relieved of their burden.
Prof climbed the sand dune. At the top he took out his binoculars and focused on the entrance to the air base. There was some illumination bleeding from the buildings that housed the guards and the radio shack. Prof glanced at his watch, 2:52am. He assembled the range finder and focused on the radio shack adjusting it until the images merged then read off the range in the right eye piece. He jotted it down on his note pad and added the compass bearing with the legend '1st Target.'
He repeated the same procedure for the sandbagged, 30mm Quad cannon on the left-hand side of the entrance, adding '2nd target.' He followed with the right-hand side Quad cannon as the '3rd target,' adding its coordinates in the legend.
He slid back down the dune to where Sargent McNought had already assembled the mortars, each base plate was resting on sandbags to give a firm support.
"Here are the coordinates, Sargent," Prof whispered."
Although it was cold, Prof was sweating, he wiped it away with his scarf.
McNought glanced at the notebook, and gave instructions to Cpl Burr, then both of them bent to carry out adjustments to the mortars.
"We'll fire all the mortars on the radio shack first, once that's destroyed, we will each concentrate on the gun positions. I'll take the left-hand one and Cpl Burr can take the right-hand one," Sargent McNought explained to Prof.
"The MG34's are about twenty feet in front of the Quads, can you adjust for them?" Prof asked.
"Well, it'll be a gnat's cock of an adjustment," Sargent McNought chuckled. "You'll have to shout down the corrections so we can adjust.
Prof nodded, he glanced down at the row of mortar shells lined up, ready to fire as he made his way back up the dune. At the top he checked his watch, 3:10am. Suddenly, he heard the drone of aircraft engines somewhere off in the distance. A siren began to wail and the airbase plunged into darkness.
***
Just before the breakers began, Shaun and Tim slipped over the side, swimming in a slow breast-stroke. He felt the sand in his hand as he inched forward up from the beach. He paused, checking his watch, 3:10am, five minutes to go. He faintly heard the sound of aircraft approaching and then the wail of a siren. What few lights were on, were suddenly switched off.
Keeping perfectly still in the darkness, Shaun searched for the sentries. He took a deep, calming breath when he saw one of them light a cigarette, passing the light to another shadowy figure. They said something to each other, then separated. Shaun followed the glow from the cigarette of the first man, noticing Tim was going for the other man.
Shaun knew he was going to have to kill a man in cold blood. His conscience troubled him, but he knew it was necessary for the safety of his men and the mission.
It was over very quickly, just as the SAS Sargent had said; hand over the mouth, pull back the head and slash the carotid artery. He could smell and feel the hot blood as it gushed from the throat, holding fast as the sentry thrashed momentarily. He lowered the body down, glancing to see if Tim had finished. In the gloom, he saw Tim's shadowy figure wave. He turned to face the sea, giving the signal to come in with the red torch light. Then washed his arms and hands in the sea.
The inflatable was pulled up on to the beach and the men began their bent over rush up to the flight line. Cookie handed him his satchel then gave one to Tim. Suddenly they heard the sound of mortars and seconds later the explosions.
The three of them began to run up past the aircraft, noticing the others placing the blocks on each of the enemy planes. Cookie peeled off at the next to last aircraft, then Tim took the last. Shaun continued until he reached the camouflage petrol dump. He placed two explosive blocks at either end of it and two under the fuel browser with two pencils in each block crushing the copper tubing that activated them.
The sound of the fire-fight was deafening, with mortar shells going off combined with the ripping sound of enemy MG 34 machine guns and the pounding throb of the 30mm Quads. All this over the top of the big Browning's and the chattering sound of the Vickers Ks added to cacophony.
He waved to Tim, who was crouched under the air intake of a Stuka as he went past, and then motioned to Cookie as he headed for the third plane in line.
He found the explosive block in the air intake and crushed the copper tubes and attached the pencils into the block. Cookie rushed to his next target, as Shaun he hurried towards his next aircraft. Tim was just finishing setting his charge as he went by. And so they continued down the line.
Cookie was making for the inflatable, whilst Tim finished off on another Me109. Shaun waited for him at the edge of the runway, when he suddenly heard, "Achtung, Haltan!" When he swung round, a German soldier was running forward with an MP40 in his hands.
