by Griff Hosker
The next day there were thick heads for Scouse had also liberated some beer. However the training did not stop. Despite the wine I had a clear head. I had only drunk four glasses. After an early morning swim and a bacon sandwich I sought out Corporal Hay and Private Hewitt. "Could you come to my hut in, say, half an hour?"
"Yes sir!" I saw the worry on their faces. Bill was still worrying about the Reggio demolition. He felt he had let the team down.
I waited until Sergeant Poulson and Sergeant Barker had organised the work teams. We had latrines to dig daily, fish lines to bait and huts to keep clean. After that the two of them would sit and work out the training for the day. "You two come along to my hut in twenty minutes. Bring some paper and pencils with you."
"Is it a test sir?"
"Sort of!"
I wanted to be ready for the four of them. I had no doubt that they would have questions and I wanted to anticipate them. I could not tell them the actual operation. Things might change but I wanted to give them an idea of what sort of problems we might face.
My sergeants arrived first and both looked worried. I smiled, "Nothing untoward here chaps. I just didn't want to repeat myself. Take an orange crate!"
They both relaxed and Gordy lit a cigarette. "I wondered what we had done wrong sir."
"Gordy, you know me well enough to know that I would tell you face to face if I was unhappy and I am not."
"Sir."
Before he could add any more Hay and Hewitt arrived. "Good. Pull up a crate. What I have to say concerns you all." They looked expectantly at me. "Our last operation was a success but we lost men. We lost soldiers who are hard to replace. Commandos are hard to come by. Good ones are as rare as rocking horse droppings! We need someone to replace Lance Sergeant Lowe; Corporal Hay, that is you. We need someone to replace Corporal Hay. Private Hewitt that is you. Congratulations." I did not believe in mincing words and dragging things out for effect.
My two sergeants had been through this themselves and knew how much it meant. They were effusive in their celebration.
"Your new pay starts today."
Gordy said, "Sir, what about Jack Jackson? I have no corporal now."
"Any of your lads ready for promotion?"
"No sir." The prompt answer was honest.
"I could promote Scouse Fletcher. He is ready too but he is from my section."
Gordy shook his head, "No sir. You are right. I will wait until one of the lads is ready." He smiled. "You always thought things through better than I did."
"There is another reason. We have another operation. It will be in July or perhaps the end of June. We have to parachute behind enemy lines, blow up a road and half a mountain and then escape through fourteen miles of enemy territory to be picked up by 'Lady Luck'. That will be the sole purpose of our training for the next two months. I don't know any more details so that will have to do until we do discover them."
I had taken their breath away. Bill Hay was the first to respond, "Will we be able to use timers sir?"
"We can use whatever we want."
That simple question set the others off. "Will there be enemy soldiers nearby, sir?"
"A division of elite troops."
"Have all the new men had parachute training?"
Gordy answered that, "Aye, we had that not long before we left."
"I will tell you more when I know it. I want a training schedule from each of you. Identify those who will be responsible for the explosives. I want at least three teams. Corporal Hewitt you need to train a replacement for you. And lastly, we need to learn lessons from our last two operations. Neither went as smoothly as we would have liked. How do we eliminate the errors?"
They looked at each other.
"Don't tell me now. Think about it. Dismiss."
Hugo wandered over with his morning cup of tea. He was never an early riser. "How did they take it?"
"Well. They are Commandos. They don't expect reward for what they do. When they get it they feel they don't deserve it."
"I never understood that before I got to be your liaison officer. You are a unique force."
"That's what Dad said about the pilots in the Great War. I think every war has men who rise to the challenge. In this war that happens to be the Commandos."
The first two weeks flew by. My four non coms filled the day with training. Men fell asleep, exhausted, each night.
The aerial photographs took ten days to arrive. Alan was convinced that Major Fleming had hung on to them to study them first. He wanted to come up with a better plan than Hugo's. It did not bother me. We would have to discover a way to complete the operation and survive. We studied them on the boat. The crew had been given a day off by Alan and they were sky larking in the sea. My men were still training and looked on enviously.
Alan took one look and said, "Here, north of Punta Braccetto is the best place to pick you up. It is an open beach with scrubland to the east and no houses within half a mile. I can be there from the middle of the night onwards; no problem."
"The problem is the road. The best place would be just south of Comiso but I can't see any vehicles to steal."
Hugo took out a magnifying glass. "What about here, in Comiso itself. There looks to be a couple of garages here. These were taken in daylight but I am guessing that they would have to park up local buses somewhere and trucks too."
Alan said, "Look you have twelve men. Surely you could spare two or three to capture a vehicle."
"You are right. In which case it is here, a mile south of Comiso. If we hit the mountain here and the road at these two hairpins we could destroy half a mile of road."
Hugo nodded excitedly "And you could use the road south to escape. Comiso has the nearest garrison and the road would be blocked. It sounds like a plan."
It took another three hours and two bottles of wine to work out the timings. However I was pleased that we had something on paper. More than that we had something which stood a chance of success. Things could still go wrong but if everyone did their job then we might come through it unscathed.
"Right Hugo. Tell Major Fleming we have a plan. We will need the aircraft to leave here an hour before dark. I want to get there as soon after the sun has set as possible."
"Righto. You know he will want to come here and discuss it with us."
"Of course but he won't stay long. He is no Commando and he does not like roughing it."
I enjoyed standing back and watching the two sections joining into one. Gordy and Polly had served together before and that helped. The attack on the railway at Bizerte had done much to fuse them into a single force. I think, however, that the defining element was the loss of the three comrades.
Bill relished his new promotion. He had come to me, privately, afterwards to thank me. He had told me that the new responsibility of fatherhood made him even more determined than ever to look after the younger soldiers. His smile when he said that the extra pay would come in handy made me feel good. I had never had to worry about money. Mum and Dad had never spoiled us and Mary and I had had to work for the money we were given but I knew that we were well off. The likes of Bill and the others had to scrimp and save for everything. Even a few shillings extra each week would make all the difference.
We had refined the plan. Gordy and Fred would head into Comiso and steal a vehicle. One night Alan took Gordy and Fred over to Malta. They spent the night breaking into the types of vehicles we might find in Sicily. We discovered that we could make a master key which would fit most vehicles and Fred was confident that he could use the wires beneath the dashboard to start one if they did not have a starting handle. The two of them also went to Marsalaforn each night. They sat in the bar, nursing a beer and learning Italian. The Maltese spoke a similar language to those on Sicily. They learned a few valuable phrases which, we hoped, might get them out of trouble.
The Major sent for us and approved the plan. "You will be leaving Valetta on the sixth of June. We have the new American Douglas C-47
transport aircraft. They are what will be used to drop the paratroopers on Sicily in July."
I was relieved. The Hampdens we had previously used were not called the flying coffin for nothing.
"Has anything changed around the target sir? Do we know what the garrison in Comiso will be?"
"No, nothing has changed. We send photographic fighters over once a week and we have chaps who compare the photographs. As far as the garrison is concerned we believe it is an Italian Brigade. Since the surrender in Africa the morale amongst the Italians is very low. A quarter of a million Italians and Germans were captured at the surrender. Sadly most of their best units fled before the end and they have been moved to mainland Italy. Still we cross that bridge when we come to it."
I nodded as I made a note of that information. There was no such thing as useless knowledge. It was just that you hadn't found a use for it yet! "So we come to Valetta on June the fifth, sir?"
"Yes. I daresay as this is the first time you have used this aeroplane you will want to familiarise yourself with it."
The way he said that implied he didn't understand why but I nodded, "Yes sir. None of us liked the Hampden but we were familiar with it."
May came and went quickly. We had found a place close to our new cove where we could practise with charges. We had only one experience of blowing up a mountain. Hay and Shepherd had Hugo get as many books as he could on the physics of explosives. The problem we had was that we would be in the dark and have a short time to achieve what we wanted to achieve.
"Don't worry, sir. That attack on the railway line at Reggio gave Shepherd and me some ideas." He pointed to Private Roger Beaumont who was working with Shepherd. "He is a star with explosives, sir. He is posh, like you." I had long ago ceased taking offence at that judgement; it was my voice and I couldn't help it. The men meant it as a compliment. "He was at University studying chemistry. He actually enjoys playing with explosives. Sergeant Poulson will baby sit him as it is his first operation but I am confident he will handle it."
"Who will be with Shepherd?"
"Davis, sir, and I will have Smith. It seemed right to mix up the two sections." He said it with a worried look on his face.
"That's fine. I just needed to know who I had for security."
"Most of our section, sir, Corporal Hewitt, Fletcher and Crowe."
That was good. I could rely on the three of them and they had been under fire enough times not to panic. I gathered the three of them. "Right chaps. We don't need to worry about blowing up the mountain but we do need to worry about protecting the lads while they do their stuff. Scouse you will have the radio so forget your Thompson you will have enough weight to carry. Make sure you each have a silencer for your Colt."
"Sir."
"All of you will need at least eight grenades. Scouse, you won't have your Bergen as you will have the radio so get extra webbing from the Quarter Master. Alan, I want you with a grenade launcher rather than a Thompson. How are you with one?"
"I haven't used one much. I will practice with one. We still have a week before we go."
"Corporal Hewitt you and I will have the Thompsons." He nodded. "Pack as much cord in our Bergens as we can carry. We will take the German grenades and make booby traps. When the mountain and the road goes up then the Eyeties from Comiso will be all over us. We may have a vehicle but we may not. However we escape I want our pursuers delaying."
"Right sir. If you give me your Bergen I will see how much I can pack into it."
"Don't forget you are still the Doc. Don't forget the medical kit."
"Right sir." He grinned. "We will look like pack mules sir!"
Chapter 10
Alan and I went over the arrangements for our rendezvous. Scouse and Wacker sat in with us for they would be talking to each other. "We will be on station from three a.m. I am not expecting you much before six but we would struggle to wait much beyond seven. It is a quiet bay but someone would come along and ask us our business."
"If we aren't there by seven it means it has all gone pear shaped! Even if we have to march down the mountain we can make it in three hours and we intend to leave long before three a.m."
"We have the code words, sir. The boat is 'Pier Head' and we are the 'Toffees'."
I nodded, "Both Liverpool references." I looked at Alan, "How are we for using the radio?"
"A heads up to say you are on the way and then a second blast when you reach the shore but we have the back up of a signal lamp anyway."
"We will keep messages short. I doubt that they have time to use radio location devices. It is a fairly remote area."
"That is my worry, Tom. I have seen the road. You have to go damned close to Ragusa on your way down."
"I know. That is why we are setting the timers for a good hour after we leave the demolitions. We will be beyond Ragusa by then."
"And if the explosives don't go off?"
"Then Lance Sergeant Hay will have a rapid demotion!"
Scouse sprang to support his comrade, "Don't you worry, sir, Bill Hay is a good lad. Won't be no cock ups with him, sir!"
There was something about his accent which made Alan and me smile. Wacker and Scouse did not understand it and they both shook their heads.
A lorry whisked us to the airfield. We arrived at six. I saw that there were dozens of the new Dakotas. It meant that we had to camp in the same hanger as our aircraft. The crew were waiting for us. Flight Lieutenant Cross was young but he sounded enthusiastic. "I say, sir, this is exciting." He patted the rudder of his aeroplane. "I am dying to use these properly!" He leaned towards me and spoke conspiratorially. "The big one is not far away you know."
"I know Flight Lieutenant but I would keep that to yourself. It is supposed to be a secret." I pointed to the non service workers. "Loose lips and all that."
"Quite sir. Sorry sir." He hesitated and said, "Er sir, there is a rumour that you are related to Group Captain Harsker."
"It is more than a rumour. He is my father."
"Gosh sir. A real ace!"
"Yes Flight." I did not want to go into the inevitable questions about what was he really like and so I became business like. "We have never flown in these. We trained and used Hampdens and Whitleys before."
"Totally different beastie, sir. These are purpose built for dropping parachutes and carrying heavy loads."
"Hang on a moment." I turned, "Right lads, gather round, Flight Lieutenant Cross is going to tell us about our new bus!"
The Flight Lieutenant began, "We have a crew of four. Flight Sergeant Williams is the radio operator and he will let you know when to jump. Notice that we have a door. None of that jumping through a hole in the floor here and we have racks for your parachutes. They are oiled and there will be no delays when you jump. The door is aft of the wings but make sure you jump when you exit. You don't want to smack into the tail plane."
They all looked at the huge tail plane. I doubted that would be a problem but it was a consideration. Dropping through a hole in the floor was not good but at least there was nothing to hit you there. It was too late to practise now.
"It will only be a short flight but you are being dropped down to a one thousand feet high mountain and so we will have to drop you at three thousand feet. Mount Etna is much higher than that and we don't want to hit it. It is likely that the wind will be from the west and so we will make our run from the east. That way you should hit your target. Any questions?"
"Could we look inside the fuselage, Flight Lieutenant. It will be dark when we exit. It is always good to get your bearings."
"Of course, sir. Be my guest."
I could see the hand of a good designer all over the interior. It could hold twenty eight men and there were steel benches along both sides. There was a rack running the length of the aeroplane. I saw that it would be impossible to foul your lines. We would be able to stand close together and exit very quickly. The door was wide enough and high enough for the biggest paratrooper. I was happy and I left.
Some of the more nervous jumpers stayed inside longer but when they all emerged I could see that they were all as happy as I was. The Flight Lieutenant said, "Well that is it until tomorrow." He strode off.
Flight Sergeant Williams shook his head and wandered over, "Sorry about that, sir. The young gentleman was supposed to say that there is hot food for your men in the mess. You are expected in the officer's mess."
"Thanks Flight. He seems excited."
He shook his head, "Like a bloody puppy with a new toy sir but he is a good pilot. You'll be all right."
"I never doubted it for a moment." I turned to the men. "You take charge, Sergeant Barker. We will be sleeping here. I will see you after dinner."
It was some time since I had eaten in a mess. I felt a little strange as I headed to the main buildings. A helpful sentry pointed me in the right direction. I was the only soldier in the mess. The rest all wore the Air Force blue. It meant I was a curiosity and I spent the meal answering questions about the Commandos. Since the raid in the Lofoten Islands, St. Nazaire and Dieppe we were seen as mad men. I had to smile as I saw young pilots looking for a nervous tic or something similar.
When Flight Lieutenant Cross entered he couldn't wait to tell everyone about my father. I had merely delayed the inquisition. One slightly older pilot said, "Didn't I hear that you dropped behind enemy lines to rescue him a year or two back?"
"We went in for a General actually, but yes we did."
"Had to fight your way through enemy lines, I heard."
I nodded, "Yes, I lost some good men that day."
The older officer nodded. "We heard that the Germans execute your lot if they capture them."
I smiled, "The operative word is 'if'. We make damned sure that they don't."
He shook his head, "Rather you than me. If we get shot down it is just a prison camp."
"We don't take chances, you know. Everything is planned."
He laughed and the others joined in as he said, "Like jumping out of an aeroplane over a mountain behind enemy lines in the middle of the night." He suddenly stopped. "That's a thought. How do you get out?"