by Griff Hosker
Raider
Book 2 in the
Combined Operations Series
By
Griff Hosker
Published by Sword Books Ltd 2015
Copyright © Griff Hosker First Edition
Smashwords Edition
The author has asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Cover by Design for Writers
Dedicated to my little sister, Barb, and in memory of my dad who served in Combine Operations from 1941-1945
Chapter 1
If we thought that when we returned from our raid in northern France that we would be afforded a leave then we were sadly mistaken. We were moved instead, to join the rest of Number 4 Commando at Weymouth. I suspect part of the reasoning behind the move was the problems caused by the Luftwaffe who had spread their bombing raids to the whole of the south east. Harwich was not safe any longer. We could not get out of the harbour as easily as we had.
We travelled by lorries to our new homes. It was a shame to be leaving the old one for we had learned many important skills there. Daddy shook his head when I complained about leaving our old home. "The way I see it, Tom, moving us around will help to improve our ability to fight. We have to learn to adapt to each new place. Besides the Germans guns, the bombers and even the ships shelling the land were causing more casualties than we could afford. And this new base, at Weymouth, will be dead handy for the Channel."
Sergeant Major Dean felt he owed Sergeant Daddy Grant and me a favour for the work we had done with the new section. It was now the best in the whole troop. He found four boarding houses close by each other along the sea front. There was little business for them and they were more than happy to accommodate the non commissioned officers. It saved us a job. We were all close together and the landladies were delighted to have an income and be part of the war effort. Far from demoralising the British people the German raids had created community spirit in a way the Germans could never have predicted.
Gordy Baker grumbled, "Except we'll have longer at sea when we do cross the Channel. More chance for Jerry to jump us and more chance for us to be seasick."
Norm Ford said, "A right moaning Minnie you are!"
The bickering and bantering was a good sign. It showed that they were happy. Silence was always a worry. Luckily they were rarely that.
"What do you think about the RAF, Corp?"
"What do you mean, Polly?"
Polly Poulson was a bit of a worrier and, I suspect, a thinker."Well your old man is RAF brass isn't he? Will they beat the Krauts? If we can't beat the Luftwaffe then they can just come over. They have these new paratroopers don't they? They could land by air. Wouldn't even need to come by sea."
They all knew that my dad was a war hero and a Wing Commander. They didn't know that he was in the Middle East and knew as much about the battle over London as we did. "I am not certain what my dad would think. But I do know this; I grew up on RAF bases. We have the best fighter in the world in the Spitfire. Our pilots are the best and we are hitting them for six when they come over."
"Aye but they have started knocking London about a bit haven't they?"
"They did that in the Great War too. The Germans were the ones who invented bombing civilian targets. My mum was in London in the war and she told me about it. It doesn't mean they will win."
Daddy threw his dog end out of the back of the lorry, "Corporal Harsker is right but I reckon the bombing is going to get worse before it gets better. That is why our little jaunt across the Channel was so important. We were hitting back at old Adolph and he won't like that believe me. This isn't over yet. We British are tough and it takes more than an Austrian house painter to beat us. You just do your job, Poulson, and everything will turn out fine."
I knew why Polly was worried. His family lived just north of London. The German bombers were a little indiscriminate in their targets and were causing widespread civilian damage. Some dropped their bombs early and some late. Daylight bombing guaranteed success. The Spitfires and Hurricanes had caused the Germans to change to night time raids. To many of the lads it seemed despicable and underhand that the Germans were hitting their families. That was not right. Most had joined up to fight and would be happy to take on any number of Germans. The ones who had volunteered for the Commandos were even more determined to fight back than most.
After we had found our digs and checked out our new operational base Daddy and I found a pub to have a quiet pint. We had not had a chance to talk about our new squad since we had returned from the raid. For both of us it had been our first experience at leading men under fire. Dad had always said that being a leader was easy; perhaps that was just him. Ted and Gordy, his comrades, said that he made it look easy. I was not so sure. Too many things could go wrong. When did you trust the lads to do jobs on their own without checking? My sudden promotion had caught me unawares.
As we sipped the indifferent beer Daddy said, "I think we have been lucky with our lads. They didn't panic under fire. I think that we should count our blessings. If we had handpicked them we couldn't have a better team."
I nodded, "The trouble is that we have made two raids and in both of them we encountered totally different problems. How do we prepare the lads for the unexpected?"
"The Corps has done that, Tom, giving us seemingly impossible tasks, like getting from Oswestry to Poole without money. Having to find our own digs, find our own food. You were in the regulars like I was. We were told when to eat and when to do spud bashing. Our lads have to think for themselves. It breeds the right spirit.
"I'll tell you what will make a difference; if they could speak a little of the local lingo. I mean it stands to reason that we will be operating where they don't speak English."
"Then teach 'em. You speak French and a bit of German."
"I'm no teacher."
"No you are a corporal in the Commandos. You would be able to show them how to strip a Colt wouldn't you?"
"Yes but…"
"Then it is the same with French. Teach them what you know. I wouldn't mind learning a few words too. Consider it part of our training regime eh?"
"Well if you think it will do any good."
He grinned and downed the beer, "I reckon we are going to be behind enemy lines more than we are at home! It will help. Believe me."
The next day we were marched to a cinema in the town. It had been closed for the duration. Outside stood a dozen redcaps. We piled in, wondering what this was about. Sergeant Major Dean roared, "Attention!"
We all stood. It was not easy to do so for they were cinema seats. Officers marched in following what looked like a gamekeeper wearing a sweater and carrying a stick. He was both tall and lean; at his side stood a Scottish piper. It was bizarre. He said, "Sit down. Smoke if you wish." There was a ripple of noise as we sat down and I saw Sergeant Major Dean glaring at the one or two who whispered to their neighbours.
He folded his arms behind his back and rocked gently backwards and forwards as he spoke. "Number 4 Commando I am Lord Lovat and I am the chap who gives you your orders. I have been the one who has sent you behind the lines on these jolly little jaunts. Number 4 Commando is mine and I want it to be the best! Now that we are all together, no matter how briefly, I thought we should get to know
one another. We won't always work together. That isn't the Commando way but you will find that I am not a staff officer who sits on his backside sending others to do his bidding." There was a ripple of laughter. "I am going to be with you on these raids. Not all of them," he smiled, "I don't want to hog all the glory but I will be there. And when we are not sneaking in and we are attacking like other soldiers then you will know where I am for you will hear the pipes of Billy Millins here. You won't need to look for me. You will hear me and I will be ahead of you. That is my way. You will follow the pipes. If you go forward when we go to battle then you can't go far wrong."
Despite the glares from Sergeant Major Dean everyone cheered.
Lord Lovat held up his hands for silence."You have done some damn fine work up to now. The raid on those guns at Calais was particularly good. But I have to say that was just the start. We are going to raid and the raids will be bigger and more spectacular. We have shown Whitehall what we can do and they want more of it! Tomorrow a large number of you will be boarding a train and heading north with me. In fact the majority of you will be doing so. The rest will have other important jobs to do so don't feel neglected," he paused, "and those jobs won't be in England. They will be where the Germans don’t want us to be, in occupied Europe."
Again we cheered.
He looked up at the circle and down at the stalls in the cinema where people had laughed at Will Hay and George Formby, "Some of us won't survive this war. We all know that and only a fool would think otherwise. You have proved you are no fools already. Those who fall know this; we shall never forget you and you will have died to keep this island, our home, free from the German jackboot. We are soldiers of the King and we will fight. Gentlemen, it is a privilege and an honour to be your commanding officer." He saluted and strode off. He went to applause such as might have greeted a movie star or a footballer scoring a winning goal at Wembley. We had a real leader!
Major Foster stood, "Sergeant Major Dean will read out a list of those troops which will need to pack for their journey north. As for the rest you need to stay where you are. You are the ones who will be remaining here in Weymouth. "He pointed to the circle, "When the others have left those who are in the circle come down to the stalls."
Reg Dean stood in the centre of the stage and bellowed for silence. It was instantaneous. He read out the names of the Commandos who would be leaving. It was a large number. "You will all draw cold weather gear from the Quarter Master. You will not need your digs for some months!" He actually smiled. It was both intriguing and enigmatic. Where were they going? "Good luck and off you go!"
There was a hubbub of noise as they departed. Some were leaving friends and there was a ripple of goodbyes. The rest of those who would be staying gradually filtered down from the circle and filled in the seats in the stalls. Soon we were ready to find out what we would be doing. Major Foster stood. He gestured to the side and a Major with the red collar of a staff officer came out from the wings. Sergeant Major Dean unfurled a large map of northern France which had red dots close to the coast and swastikas dotted all over.
Major Foster said, by way of introduction, "This is Major Howard and he will explain, in broad details, what we will be doing for the next few weeks."
I wondered if this staff officer would be the usual type, totally out of touch with ordinary soldiers. As soon as he spoke I knew he was not.
"The job you are going to do over the days to come will be both highly dangerous and difficult. I want none of you under any illusions about that. The battle over London and the airfields means that every aeroplane we possess has to be used for the defence of this island. We have not aircraft to spare to reconnoitre behind enemy lines. I daresay there will be French and Belgian resistance groups soon but the truth of the matter is that until we defeat the Luftwaffe and get intelligence from the ground it will be up to you to give us that information. You will become the new eyes and ears of the whole country. But it will be dangerous. If you are picked up behind enemy lines the odds are that at best you will be a prisoner of war and at worst, shot!"
He turned and took a pointer before going to the map. I liked his honesty. "We know that there are German troops in all of these places marked with a swastika. The trouble is we don't know if they are an army, a corps, or a regiment. They are the soldiers who will invade England should the RAF fail. The red dots mark the places you will be landed. We need you to find out as much information as you can. And I mean any information. Position of camps, names of regiments, airfields, petrol dumps, anti aircraft guns; everything! If you can get a prisoner then so much the better but you will be behind enemy lines for at least twenty four hours. Jerry has had months to begin making defences. We know what was there we now need to know what is there. The Navy will drop you off and pick you up."
There was a hum around the cinema as that information was taken in. "Quiet!" Once again the stentorian tones of the Sergeant Major affected silence.
"And it is for that reason that you will be landed in ten man sections." He walked to the front of the stage. "Lord Lovat just told you that many of you will not survive this war. I am here to tell you that I do not expect all of you to return. If half of you make it back then I will regard that as a success. It is cold and it is hard but it is also the truth. I wish it were otherwise but we need to face the facts here. Jerry has kicked our arse good and proper. We need to stop him from invading and then find a way of hitting back and finally, a way to retake France. It will be a long job. You are the boys who are up to it." He nodded as though he was punctuating his speech. "Now you gather every tiny piece of information you can: paths leading from beaches, woods, hedgerows, where there is water, villages, sign posts, everything. So long as one man from each group makes it back then we will have a better picture of what we face. That is the reason we chose the Commandos for this job. You can think and you have shown you can survive behind enemy lines." He pointed to Major Foster. "The Major here has your section assignments. Good luck and I hope to see you again."
As he strode off I heard Norm Ford grumble, "Cheerful bugger isn't he?"
I hissed, "Shut it!"
Once we were given our maps and orders we dispersed to different parts of the cinema, the foyer, the circle, the concession stands, the manager's office so that we could discuss our mission. The redcaps still prevented anyone from entering.
Daddy read the orders. "Right lads its looks like we go in without an officer. I will take that as a compliment. It means they trust us. And I trust you to get it right." Everyone nodded and smiled. "We have got the area north of Boulogne and south of Dunkirk." He nodded to me, "Which is handy as Tom here knows the area. We will be dropped off after dark and picked up twenty four hours later."
Bert said, "I would have thought they knew all there was about that place. For God's sake, last summer there were three hundred thousand lads on those beaches!"
Daddy filled his pipe. His wife was trying to get him off cigarettes. "You got me there, Bert. But if I heard the Major right then we don't know what Jerry has done since we were making sandcastles and waiting to be picked up off the beach."
While he tamped down his tobacco I said, "We know what it looked like. Jerry has had months now to make it his own. I can't imagine he would leave it the way it was. It is the closest part of Herr Adolph's empire to England. And besides it is the size of the army that might be coming over that's important. The Major was on the money; we need to know who is coming over."
With his pipe now drawing Daddy had had time to think, "The Corporal is right and any road up we have a job to do. There's blokes with more brass on their collars who decide these sorts of things. We just do our bit." He pointed with his pipe at me, "And another thing while I remember Tom and me have decided we all ought to speak a bit of Frog and Kraut. It might come in handy. Every spare minute Professor Harsker will run a language class."
Surprisingly enough they all seemed keen.
Lieutenant Reed came by, "Everything ticke
ty boo, Sergeant Grant?"
"Yes sir, we have our objectives. The lads know what we are to do. Sorry you won't be with us this time."
He nodded his agreement. "They are short of French speakers and they have put me with another section this trip. Harsker here is as good as any. I won't lie. I wish I was coming with you boys but next time eh? You need to go to the Quartermaster and draw your rations and ammunition. We are to board the MLs as soon as it is dark. We sail overnight and we will wait off the south coast of Kent tomorrow. The intention is hide up in the river close to Rye and set off again after dark. German reconnaissance aeroplanes have been flying over our bases. You will all be issued with camouflage nets."
Polly said, "Two days on an ML sir? That seems a long time. They are only little boats."
"I am afraid so Poulson. With so many German aeroplanes flying overhead we don't want Fritz to know there are almost twenty launches waiting to pop over. At least we only have one night in the Channel. Anyway, chaps, if you are all done you had best pop over to the QM."
We had been on raids enough times to know what was useful to take and what was not. You could never have enough ammunition and Mills bombs. You could forage for food and find water. You could improvise shelter but you couldn't conjure up ammo. We made the men pack their Bergens in front of us. There was no rush. We were the first ones at the stores. Daddy and I went around and added extra ammo and grenades in the Bergens which had less in them. When we left, hefting the camouflage nets, all of us had full packs. We headed for the harbour. There was an empty building we were using to assemble while we waited for dark.
"Tom, you are a good scrounger, take Gordy and see if you can rustle up some grub eh? We'll get some from the Navy but…"
I dropped my Bergen and weapons, "Righto Sarge. Come on Gordy. Grab a bag eh?" As we left I said, "We'll just go and give the MLs the once over. It is always good to know where they are."