Toehold in Europe (Combined Operations Book 5)

by Griff Hosker

  I ran to Crowe, "Where did they hit you?"

  He held up his Thompson. The stock had been shattered. "The gun saved my life, sir. It just knocked the wind out of me."

  "You are one lucky boy, Private Crowe."

  "I know sir!"

  I reloaded both of my pistols as I examined the roof. They were using it to direct artillery. There was a radio in the corner. The operator had been shot. I went over to it in case it still worked. If it had then we might have made use of it but the last burst which had killed the operator had destroyed the radio.

  The prisoners were lined up. I saw that half of them were Waffen S.S. It was unusual for them to surrender. I said, quietly, "Did you search them properly, Bill?"

  "I think so, sir. Why?"

  "These are Waffen S.S. These are the hard lads. Emerson, Crowe, we will divide these men into two." I walked over and tapped the five who were not Waffen S.S. on the shoulders. I said in German, "You go with these men. Do not try anything. They are Commandos." They nodded. "Take these down to Sergeant Poulson and have him wait by the doors for these others."

  The five who were left did not look like men who were anticipating spending time in a prison camp. I pointed my gun at them. "Take off your boots."

  There was a tough looking sergeant. He reminded me of Brian Donleavy in 'Beau Geste', "Why? We have surrendered."

  I went closer to him, keeping my Colt pointed at his middle. "Because I told you to and I know what the S.S. is like. I met some in Belgium. Do it or I will shoot you... in the foot of course!"

  Scouse had put his silencer on his Colt and he fired a round between the Sergeant's legs. The German nodded and said, "Do it! Our time will come."

  As he bent down to untie his boots I knew what was coming. I had already taken a step back when he launched himself at me. I stepped to the side and brought the Colt down on the back of his neck. One of the others produced a knife and was about to lunge at Bill Hay when Scouse shot him. The German Sergeant shook his head. I brought my knee up sharply and his head cracked back. This time he did not get up. I pointed the gun at the three survivors. "Boots! Now!"

  They complied.

  "Now take off his boots and carry him down the stairs. One false move and you will be shot!"

  With three of us watching them and encumbered by the body of the sergeant they were in no position to cause trouble. When we reached the bottom I said, "Fletcher go and radio the fleet. Tell them we have taken out their fire control!"

  Sergeant Poulson said, "Did you have trouble, sir?"

  "Yes, Sergeant. I want these four men searching. Hold them down if you have to."

  With guns surrounding them we soon found the knives they had hidden in their boots. Scouse and Bill took one each. They were the Hitler Youth daggers. "A nice souvenir my German friend."

  We made our way to the dock for I could see the destroyer with the General aboard heading for us. There were also the two landing craft with the reserve force of Commandos. Major General Laycock was the first one off. He grinned as he strode towards me. "Well done, Captain Harsker, Major Siddons has just confirmed that Salerno is in our hands. The rest of the beach heads might be in jeopardy but we have Salerno, we have the port and thanks to the Commandos and Rangers we have the passes to Naples. Congratulations! We now have a toehold in Europe and, believe me, it will take something to shake us free!"

  I pointed to the four Waffen S.S. prisoners. I would have these watched carefully, sir. They are cunning customers."

  "I have met the S.S. before. We know how to deal with them." He turned, "Major Reed. Take charge of these prisoners and then set your team to manning the perimeter. What we have we hold."

  "Yes sir."

  "And you, Captain, can have the trip back to Falmouth you asked for. I am sorry to lose you but I am a man of my word. You have done all that I asked of you and more. Major Siddons is putting you in for a gong!"

  I shrugged, "I was just doing my duty, sir."

  "And you do it very well too. The destroyer is heading back to Valetta. Get aboard her and you can fly back to Gib and then England. The Lieutenant Commander has your orders."

  I could not help myself. My face lit up into the biggest smile ever. "Thank you sir!"

  Epilogue

  In the event we did not leave until the next morning. The destroyer was taking the intelligence we had captured back to Malta so that it could be sent to England. In effect we were the guards for the papers. The ship's doctor saw to our wounded men. The two of them, Beaumont and Shepherd, had slight wounds. They were not going to risk being separated from us. We assured the doctor that Corporal Hewitt could be their nurse until we reached England. We had a night in Valetta before the Sunderland took us, first to Gibraltar and then to Southampton. By then we knew that the invasion had been a huge success. They had pushed on beyond Naples and were heading north. For the first time it felt like we were winning.

  I had time to write my reports. I recommended Bill Hay and Scouse Fletcher for promotion. I also put in Hay, Fletcher and Emerson in for the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. They had deserved it. To be honest they all deserved something.

  I spent some time speaking with Roger Beaumont. He was the youngest of my men but he had impressed me. "Why didn't you try to be an officer, Roger? I am certain that you would have thought about it at University."

  He smiled, "Blame yourself, sir. I went to Manchester University and I was told about this undergraduate who packed in the OTC, joined up and won the Military Cross. I thought if you could do it then why not me? I am happy I made that choice sir. This team is all that I want and, perhaps, one day I might be a corporal or even a sergeant. I still have a lot to learn and neither of us believes that this war will end any time soon, do we, sir?"

  "No Roger. You are right. Well if you ever need any advice, feel free to speak with me. You have made me feel responsible for you."

  When we landed at Southampton there was a lorry waiting for us and a grinning Reg Dean. He looked fit to burst. "Welcome home lads! It has been quiet without you! Get in the back of the lorry."

  They began to throw their bags and guns on board. Reg turned to me, "And you sir, promoted to Captain. No more than you deserve."

  "Thank you Reg. That means a lot."

  He grinned, "Aye sir but there is more. You have been put forward for the V.C. and General Laycock himself has endorsed it. Well done sir! You'll soon have the same medals as your dad. What a family!"

  As I climbed into the cab I reflected that I had joined up as a private so that I would not be compared with Dad and yet here I was in the same league as him. Fate!

  The End

  Glossary

  Abwehr- German Intelligence

  Bisht- Arab cloak

  Butchers- Look (Cockney slang Butcher's Hook- Look)

  Butties- sandwiches (slang)

  Chah- tea (slang)

  Comforter- the lining for the helmet; a sort of woollen hat

  Corned dog- Corned Beef (slang)

  Ercs- aircraftsman (slang- from Cockney)

  Fruit salad- medal ribbons (slang)

  Gash- spare (slang)

  Gauloise- French cigarette

  Gib- Gibraltar (slang)

  Glasshouse- Military prison

  Goon- Guard in a POW camp (slang)- comes from a 1930s Popeye cartoon

  Jankers- field punishment

  Jimmy the One- First Lieutenant on a warship

  Killick- leading hand (Navy) (slang)

  LRDG- Long Range Desert group (Commandos operating from the desert behind enemy lines.)

  Marge- Margarine (butter substitute- slang)

  MGB- Motor Gun Boat

  Mickey- 'taking the mickey', making fun of (slang)

  Micks- Irishmen (slang)

  MTB- Motor Torpedo Boat

  ML- Motor Launch

  Narked- annoyed (slang)

  Neaters- undiluted naval rum (slang)

  Oik- worthless person (slang)

  Oppo/opp
os- pals/comrades (slang)

  Pom-pom- Quick Firing 2lb (40mm) Maxim cannon

  Pongo (es)- soldier (slang)

  Potato mashers- German Hand Grenades (slang)

  PTI- Physical Training Instructor

  QM- Quarter Master (stores)

  Recce- Reconnoitre (slang)

  SBA- Sick Bay Attendant

  Schnellboote -German for E-Boat (literally translated as fast boat)

  Schtum -keep quiet (German)

  Scragging - roughing someone up (slang)

  Scrumpy- farm cider

  Shooting brake- an estate car

  SOE- Special Operations Executive (agents sent behind enemy lines)

  SP- Starting price (slang)- what’s going on

  Snug- a small lounge in a pub (slang)

  Sprogs- children or young soldiers (slang)

  Squaddy- ordinary soldier (slang)

  Stag- sentry duty (slang)

  Stand your corner- get a round of drinks in (slang)

  Subbie- Sub-lieutenant (slang)

  Tatties- potatoes (slang)

  Thobe- Arab garment

  Tommy (Atkins)- Ordinary British soldier

  Two penn'orth- two pennies worth (slang for opinion)

  Wavy Navy- Royal Naval Reserve (slang)

  WVS- Women's Voluntary Service

  Maps

  Operation Husky courtesy of Wikipedia

  Map courtesy of Wikipedia

  Maps courtesy of Wikipedia

  Historical note

  The first person I would like to thank for this particular book and series is my Dad. He was in the Royal Navy but served in Combined Operations. He was at Dieppe, D-Day and Walcheren. His boat: LCA 523 was the one which took in the French Commandos on D-Day. He was proud that his ships had taken in Bill Millens and Lord Lovat. I wish that, before he died I had learned more in detail about life in Combined Operations but like many heroes he was reluctant to speak of the war. He is the character in the book called Bill Leslie. Dad ended the war as Leading Seaman- I promoted him! I reckon he deserved it.

  I went to Normandy in 1994, with my Dad, to Sword beach and he took me through that day on June 6th 1944. He also told me about the raid on Dieppe. He had taken the Canadians in. We even found the grave of his cousin George Hogan who died on D-Day. As far as I know we were the only members of the family ever to do so. Sadly that was Dad's only visit but we planted forget-me-nots on the grave of George. Wally Friedmann is a real Canadian who served in WW2 with my Uncle Ted. The description is perfect- I lived with Wally and his family for three months in 1972. He was a real gentleman. As far as I now he did not serve with the Saskatchewan regiment, he came from Ontario. As I keep saying, it is my story and my imagination. God bless, Wally.

  I would also like to thank Roger who is my railway expert. The train Tom and the Major catch from Paddington to Oswestry ran until 1961. The details of the livery, the compartments and the engine are all, hopefully accurate. I would certainly not argue with Roger! Thanks also to John Dinsdale, another railway buff and a scientist. It was he who advised on the use of explosives . Not the sort of thing to Google these days!

  I used a number of books in the research. The list is at the end of this historical section. However the best book, by far, was the actual Commando handbook which was reprinted in 2012. All of the details about hand to hand, explosives, esprit de corps etc were taken directly from it. The advice about salt, oatmeal and water is taken from the book. It even says that taking too much salt is not a bad thing! I shall use the book as a Bible for the rest of the series. The Commandos were expected to find their own accommodation. Some even saved the money for lodgings and slept rough. That did not mean that standards of discipline and presentation were neglected; they were not.

  German Panzer Mk. 2 used in the Low Countries. 20 mm gun and machine gun in rotating turret. Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia.

  The 1st Loyal Lancashire existed as a regiment. They were in the BEF and they were the rearguard. All the rest is the work of the author's imagination. The use of booby traps using grenades was common. The details of the German potato masher grenade are also accurate. The Germans used the grenade as an early warning system by hanging them from fences so that an intruder would move the grenade and it would explode. The Mills bomb had first been used in the Great War. It threw shrapnel for up to one hundred yards. When thrown the thrower had to take cover too. However my Uncle Norman, who survived Dunkirk was demonstrating a grenade with an instructor kneeling next to him. It was a faulty grenade and exploded in my uncle's hand. Both he and the Sergeant survived. My uncle just lost his hand. I am guessing that my uncle's hand prevented the grenade fragmenting as much as it was intended. Rifle grenades were used from 1915 onwards and enabled a grenade to be thrown much further than by hand

  During the retreat the British tank, the Matilda was superior to the German Panzers. It was slow but it was so heavily armoured that it could only be stopped by using the 88 anti aircraft guns. Had there been more of them and had they been used in greater numbers then who knows what the outcome might have been. What they did succeed in doing, however, was making the German High Command believe that we had more tanks than they actually encountered. The Germans thought that the 17 Matildas they fought were many times that number. They halted at Arras for reinforcements. That enabled the Navy to take off over 300,000 men from the beaches.

  Although we view Dunkirk as a disaster now, at the time it was seen as a setback. An invasion force set off to reinforce the French a week after Dunkirk. It was recalled. Equally there were many units cut off behind enemy lines. The Highland Division was one such force. 10,000 men were captured. The fate of many of those captured in the early days of the war was to be sent to work in factories making weapons which would be used against England.

  Freya, the German Radar.

  Germany had radar stations and they were accurate. They also had large naval guns at Cape Gris Nez as well as railway guns. They made the Channel dangerous although they only actually sank a handful of ships during the whole of the war. They did however make Southend and Kent dangerous places to live.

  Commando dagger

  The first Commando raids were a shambles. Churchill himself took action and appointed Sir Roger Keyes to bring some order to what the Germans called thugs and killers. Major Foster and his troop reflect that change.

  The parachute training for Commandos was taken from this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/72/a3530972.shtml. Thank you to Thomas Davies. The Number 2 Commandos were trained as a battalion and became the Airborne Division eventually. The SOE also trained at Ringway but they were secreted away at an Edwardian House, Bowden. As a vaguely related fact 43 out of 57 SOE agents sent to France between June 1942 and Autumn 1943 were captured, 36 were executed!

  The details about the Commando equipment are also accurate. They were issued with American weapons although some did use the Lee Enfield. When large numbers attacked the Lofoten Islands they used regular army issue. The Commandos appeared in dribs and drabs but 1940 was the year when they began their training. It was Lord Lovat who gave them a home in Scotland but that was not until 1941. I wanted my hero, Tom, to begin to fight early. His adventures will continue throughout the war.

  The raid on German Headquarters is based on an attempt by Number 3 Commando to kill General Erwin Rommel. In a real life version of 'The Eagle Has Landed' they almost succeeded. They went in by lorry. They failed in their mission. Commandos were used extensively in the early desert war but, sadly, many of them perished in Greece and Cyprus and Crete. Of 800 sent to Crete only 200 returned to Egypt. Churchill also compounded his mistake of supporting Greece by sending all 300 British tanks to the Western Desert and the Balkans. The map shows the area where Tom and the others fled. The Green Howards were not in that part of the desert at that time. The Germans did begin to reinforce their allies at the start of 1941.

  Motor launch Courtesy of Wikipedia

  Motor Gu
n Boat Courtesy of Wikipedia

  E-Boat

  Short Sunderland

  Messerschmitt 110s over France

  Aeroplane photographs courtesy of Wikipedia

  Fieseler Fi 156 Storch

  Photographs courtesy of Wikipedia

  The Dieppe raid was deemed, at the time, to be a fiasco. Many of the new Churchill tanks were lost and out of the 6000 men who were used on the raid only 2078 returned to England. 3,367 Canadians were killed. wounded or captured. On the face of it the words disaster and fiasco were rightly used. However the losses at Dieppe meant that the planners for D-Day changed their approach. Instead of capturing a port, which would be too costly they would build their own port. Mulberry was born out of the blood of the Canadians. In the long run it saved thousands of lives. Three of the beaches on D-Day were assaulted with a fraction of the casualties from Dieppe. The Canadians made a sacrifice but it was not in vain.

  S-160 Courtesy of Wikipedia

  The E-Boats were far superior to the early MTBs and Motor Launches. It was not until the Fairmile boats were developed that the tide swung in the favour of the Royal Navy. Some MTBs were fitted with depth charges. Bill's improvisation is the sort of thing Combined Operations did. It could have ended in disaster but in this case it did not. There were stories of captured E-Boats being used by covert forces in World War II. I took the inspiration from S-160 which was used to land agents in the Low Countries and, after the war, was used against the Soviet Bloc. They were very fast, powerful and sturdy ships.

  Sherman Tank- courtesy of Wikipedia

  The first Sherman Tanks to be used in combat were in North Africa. 300 M4A1 and M4A2 tanks arrived in Egypt in September 1942. The war was not going well in the desert at that point and Rommel was on the point of breaking through to Suez. The battle of El Alamein did not take place until the end of October.