by Griff Hosker
"That is as good a plan as any. Gordy, you take the rear, Tom lead on."
We crossed another field. I was glad that the weather had been fine of late. A muddy field would have left tracks for the Germans to find. I heard the sound of an approaching vehicle and I sprinted to the low hedge which ran along the side of the field. I waved my arm for the others to drop. Bill Becket landed next to me. He was one of the fittest men in the section. I put my finger to my lips.
As the vehicle was coming from the direction of Gravelines and might be looking for us I cocked my Thompson. It was a slow vehicle. I was desperate to sneak a view but that might have ended in disaster. As it passed us I began to slowly rise. I watched as it trundled down the road. I risked a peek over the top. It was a German truck. I glimpsed soldiers in the back and I ducked quickly back down. I waved the others forward and, as they did so, I began to work out what the truck meant. Had they been looking for us they would have had a Kübelwagen with them. The lorry was transporting Germans from Gravelines. Were they heading for Calais? It was only a few miles down the road. It was just possible that they were sending reinforcements to the invasion camps.
"Sarge, I reckon we go down this road a ways. I think we can risk the road and make better time. We will hear them and the lights on their lorries are dimmed."
I saw him chewing his lip. "Well you have been behind enemy lines more than I have." He turned to the others, "If you hear anything then throw yourselves in the ditch and stay there!" They nodded, "And another thing, we double time!"
With rubber soled shoes we made no sound at all as we ran down the road. It was easier than running across a field as we did not have to keep looking down. Miraculously we did not see anyone for an hour and made good time. I was at the front and I smelled the fires. There was something ahead. I held up my hand to stop the others. I looked for an entrance into the field on our right. I saw one just forty yards ahead. Relieved that I had found a way off the road I took the section into it. I waved the men into the field and when Daddy arrived I spoke in a whisper. "There is something on the other side of the road, Sarge. It could be just a patrol but it might be something else. I smelled smoke."
"Right then. We move down the edge of this field and find somewhere to lie up." Turning to the others, he said, "Keep in a crouched position. I want no one above the level of the hedgerow. Follow the Corporal."
It was agony to run like that but we had no option. I spied, set back from the road about sixty yards ahead, a bombed out building. I made for it and the others followed. It had been a house or a small farm. That must have been before the war. Now it looked like it had been damaged for some time. It was certainly empty. Two roosting pigeons fluttered noisily off as I went in. I cursed my lack of caution. If there was a sharp eyed German sentry close by then he would have heard the disturbance. I held my breath as I waited for a challenge. There was none.
It did not take long to establish that it was empty and that it would be a good place to rest. I went to what had been the back door and scouted around. There was an untidy mixture of wrecked buildings, broken machinery, and bushes to the west. We had a way out if we needed it. As I waved the others in I saw that dawn was about to break. We had barely reached our sanctuary in time.
Sergeant Grant nodded his thanks to me. "Becket, you and Connor take first stag." He pointed to a half wrecked staircase. It led to the partly demolished first floor." Get up stairs. The rest of you get some grub and then some sleep."
I shrugged off my Bergen and took out my canteen. I needed water. I was dehydrated. Food could wait. Sergeant Grant took out his pipe. I shook my head, "If there are Krauts nearby Sarge they will smell English baccy for sure."
He nodded, "You are right. Ford was right too. This is a bit of a cock up."
"I wouldn't say that. We have established where the German gun positions are."
Just then we heard the rumble of approaching German aero engines. We went to the back of the house and saw the shapes of bombers above us. They were returning from a raid on England. I realised that they were very low. "They are landing Sarge. There is an airfield nearby." I worked out that we had passed one, to the north, during the night. This was a second. Sure enough even as we watched they lowered their landing gear. They flew over us in the direction of Lille. We did not see them land but I knew that the bombers' field could only be four or five miles to the east of us. "That is useful intelligence Sarge. We can report two airfields. There was one at Oye-Plage and the other must be yonder, towards Lille. Less of a cock up now, eh Sarge?"
"Aye. We had better get our maps updated and then let the other lads copy them. Bearing in mind what happened to Smith and Griffith, we need to prepare for the worst." It did not take us long but, even so, dawn had fully broken by then and it was daylight. "Sarge?"
"Yes Becket?"
"I reckon you ought to come and see this."
I followed Daddy and we carefully climbed the half wrecked staircase.
"Bugger me!"
I looked over his shoulder. Across the road were lines of tents and the smoking chimneys of mobile field kitchens. It was a German camp. It was just four hundred yards from where we were. During the night we had passed within shouting distance. We had found one of the Corps or Armies which were going to invade England.
"Well Sergeant, it looks like we have some valuable information after all." I had brought my map with me. "That is Marck to the west of us and I saw a sign before we turned off for Offerkerque. That puts the camp here." I drew a cross on the map. "Now all we need is to identify how many are in there."
Daddy nodded, "You two, count the tents and see if you can work out how many men are in each one."
"How do we do that, Sarge?"
"Use your brains! Find a tent and count the men who come out. Do it a couple of times and you will get an average. Then count how many tents there are. You just need a rough figure. See if you can identify what units they are too."
Becket grumbled, "I was always hopeless at sums."
"Well now is your chance to get better at it eh? Come on Tom. We'll get the others to copy your map."
It was while they were copying that my nose caught the smell of aeroplane fuel drifting from the opposite side from the camp. I had grown up on airfields and I knew the smell. It appeared to be coming from the west. "Sarge I am just going to have a shufti out of the back. I will stay hidden but there's something I want to look at."
"Aye all right but be careful. Give me your map. One of these copies has to get back to England or those two poor lads are in the bag for nothing."
I slipped out of the back and moved to the edge of the bushes and buildings. In the distance I could see wire. To my left was a hedge and the end of the land which must have belonged to the farm at one time. I kept low and ran towards it. I felt exposed but there was no vantage point from which I could be spied. I moved down the hedge line as quickly as I could. The smell from the aeroplane fuel became even stronger as I headed towards the fence. I knew what I would find but I had to confirm it. When I heard the Daimler-Benz engine fire up I knew what I would see. I crawled the last ten yards and peered through the fence at the German fighter airfield. They were Messerschmitt 109s and it looked like the squadron was about to take off. This was another airfield but at least we knew what type of aeroplanes used this one. The 109 was not a night fighter and did not accompany bombers on their night raids but they would during the day. There they would try to match the Spitfire.
I counted the aircraft and then made my way back to the others. Daddy looked at me curiously when I entered. "Well?"
"There is another German airfield at the back of us. It is filled with German fighters."
He nodded, "And this is a German Corps in front of us. We have the numbers now. The question is what to do. I don't think we could get much more information. Not without a prisoner."
I looked at my watch, "It is nine o'clock now, Sarge. The ML will be back at midnight. I think it will take u
s eight hours to get back there. That means if we do want a prisoner we will have to get one now and then take him back with us." I saw Daddy's face. "I think that is a tall order, Sarge, but that is just my opinion."
"I agree with you. I also think we will be lucky to get back without trouble. Smith and Griffiths might have told Jerry about the rendezvous."
Norm had been listening and he said, "He wouldn’t! I know Bert!"
I shook my head, "And I have seen the SS at close hand. Believe me they are hard men."
"Are you saying we shouldn’t go back to the beach?"
"No, Sarge. We have to. It isn’t fair on the ML crew if we don't. They would be waiting for us. And besides we have no other way out have we? We have to go back but I think we should leave here earlier and get to the beach so that we can check that it is safe."
"That means moving in daylight."
"I think we have to do that in any case. It is light until about eight or nine at night. We can't get there in three or four hours."
"You have thought this through, eh Corporal?"
I nodded. "The proximity of the airfield and the camp means that there will be Germans all over these roads. We will have to use fields and natural cover. That is why I said eight hours. If there were no Germans we could be there in two hours no problem."
I saw him weighing it all up and then looking at the faces of the others. "You are right. The rest of you get some shut eye. Tom and I will watch." We went to the first floor. "We need to talk. No matter what Ford says the Germans will know about the beach. They would be fools not to put the tracks on the beach and two captured Commandos together. I know Smith and Griffiths are good lads but it wouldn't take much to get information from them. The Germans are clever. What did you mean about getting there early and checking if it is safe?"
"I don't think they will open fire on ML without us being on the beach. If we get there and there are no extra patrols then the Germans know nothing about the landing beach. If there are then we need to take the offensive and hit them first. We know where the Kübelwagen came from. That is what we need to hit. The last thing they will expect will be us attacking them. They will think we are hiding. If we knock that post out we have a chance."
"That is very risky with only eight of us."
"Eight ordinary squaddies might have a problem, Sarge, but we are trained for this. We go in and use our knives. They will think they are safe on the landward side and we will have the element of surprise. We approach the post from the west. They will be looking east and north."
"You have a lot of faith in these lads."
"We trained them. We have to believe in them. What's the alternative? Give ourselves up? If we don't go to the beach, that is our only option."
He nodded, "You are right." He swept an arm around us. We were hidden from view. "This is a bit safer here. We have been lucky. I'll risk a pipe while we watch. Helps me think." We kept watch in silence. I was thinking through all the problems we might encounter and how we would deal with them.
I woke the others at three. Daddy had smoked a pipe and was a little more optimistic about our chances. "Right lads, we are heading back. Tom will lead. I will be tail end Charlie. We keep ten yards between every man. That way if Tom gets hit we can all escape."
They all looked at me. I shrugged and grinned, "I have no intention of getting shot but this way we will be harder to see. We use whatever cover is out there."
Daddy and I had eaten and drunk some water. We had refilled our canteens from the old pump in the kitchen which, miraculously, had survived. I stepped out of the back. We had heard the fighters returning not long before we woke the others and we knew that we would not be spotted from the air. That had been my worry. We had had plenty of time to study the map. By heading north east we would be travelling across fields. The only danger was from the road which ran along the coast. If Germans looked south they might see us.
I ran from the building and used it as cover from the German camp. I kept looking and listening towards the road which ran obliquely away to the north and east. Consequently each time I heard a vehicle I waved my arm and dropped to the ground. The others did as I did. We appeared to be hidden by the sides of the hedges and walls but we had to drop every time we heard a vehicle. It was slow going. We also skirted any farms or houses. Although I was fairly confident that we would be given assistance I did not want to risk the locals incurring the wrath of the Germans. We took detours whenever we came close to a building. We reached the coast road at seven in the evening. Despite the vehicles we had made better time than I had anticipated.
A road joined the coast road. It came from Offerkerque. Although a small road it complicated matters. There was a wood on the far side. It was not a huge one but it would hide us while we worked out our next movement. I checked the small road and then ran across. We all made it.
Daddy took out his dagger and used it as a pointer. "The Germans have a post here. They were the ones who sent the Kübelwagen after us. It is a mile and a half away. If we can we eliminate the Germans there we can then wait for the ML. It will be here in just over four hours. We will need to do a recce to see how many men there are."
"Suppose there are too many of them?"
"Then Norm, old son, we are up shit creek without a paddle and no mistake." Daddy was not sugaring this particular pill. The men had to know how serious the situation was.
I went to the edge of the wood and, lying down, peered up and down the road. It appeared to be clear of traffic. Perhaps they were all eating; it was a meal time. I waved the men across one by one and we ran into the fields on the opposite side of the road. There was a farmhouse to our right. We could not risk speaking with them and we went, instead, towards the dunes and scrubby trees. It took half an hour of stopping and starting as we heard voices and saw movement. I was glad that the sun was slowly setting behind us. When we reached the dunes our lives became a little easier. We were able to use the dips and hollows to disguise our progress.
I held up my hand when I heard the German voices in the dark. We had found the post. I slithered out of my Bergen and left my Tommy gun with Daddy. I took my dagger and bellied along the sand. I slowly raised my blackened face and, peering over the sand, I saw that there was a machine gun before me in a sandbagged emplacement. There were two Germans manning it. There were four tents further along and then another machine gun. The second was unmanned. The Kübelwagen was parked near a small track.
I turned my head to the right and saw that there were eight Germans in all. The light from their oil lamp helped me to see them clearly. They were under an awning and eating. They were quite raucous. We had at least ten men to eliminate silently. I saw a tent some way off by itself and there was a light within it. Perhaps that was an officer's tent. How many officers were there? It would be an almost impossible task for just eight of us to do. I checked my watch. It would be completely dark in an hour. The ML would be here in three. Doubts assailed me. Would these Germans have a relief? Were there others not here? The tents looked to be six or eight men tents. That suggested twenty four men. Then I thought again. The officer had his own tent as would the NCOs. Twenty men seemed a better number but it was still too many.
I made my way back to the others and then led them down to the edge of the beach. This was one was mined; I had seen the signs when I had gone to reconnoitre, and I felt safe waiting there. No one could flank us. I whispered to Daddy what I had seen. "That is not good, Tom." He looked out to sea. I think he was visualising Lieutenant Williams sailing towards us. "I think we wait until eleven. We can take out the machine gunners from behind with knives. By that time the others should be asleep anyway."
"Unless they know we are coming."
"Cheerful bugger aren't you? Well I can’t think of anything else. We try this and maybe go out in a blaze of glory." We made our way back up the dunes to wait. Our plan to escape secretly and silently would not happen. I know that I should have felt pleased that we had not just
walked back to the beach to await the ML. That would have guaranteed we were either killed or captured but this hopeless situation did not sit well with me.
The Kübelwagen's engine started at ten forty five. Daddy and I peered over the dune. The officer and three men got in the vehicle and drove off. I saw that the other machine gun was now manned. Eight of the soldiers were preparing to leave with their guns slung over their shoulders. We watched four of them make their way down the dunes towards the beach. The other four headed along the road. Presumably there was another path down to the beach there. It was a trap. They were expecting the ML. The numbers ahead of us were, however now halved. If there were twenty odd men in the camp then half had just left.
He looked at me and pointed to the two German machine gunners who were in the far emplacement. He made the sign to kill them. I nodded and, after sliding down the bank tapped Gordy on the shoulder. I took out my dagger and pointed to him. He nodded. I headed below the line of the dunes. Gordy and I would have to avoid being seen by the nearer of the machine guns. I hoped that their attention would be on the beach below. If there had been just one emplacement then we might have risked using our toggle rope or just choking them to subdue them. We could not risk noise for it might endanger the ML crew. I did not think for one moment that we would be able to kill these guards and still make the ML. What we should have done then was head away from this ambush and try to work out another way home but we were Commandos. We would dare. I was aware of the passage of time. Daddy and the others would be overcoming the other machine gun but we had to get rid of ours and then get to the beach before the launch returned to pick us up. If we were silent then we might succeed. The eight men who had gone down to the beach would have to be killed with guns and we would have to hope that there were no others waiting to catch the ML. It would be tight.