"Harry, check the back." The others came in. "Tie them up." I took Heine's hat and replaced the comforter I wore. I searched them but they had nothing on them that would help us.
Harry returned, "Nothing out there and no beer left either." He sounded rueful. It explained why the barman had gone. There was nothing left for the Germans to steal. I looked at my watch. The barman had left before ten thirty. I guessed that was curfew and, from what the German had said, the time they had to be back inside the compound. If the German army was anything like ours then the sentries would try to help out any comrades stuck outside.
"Harry, you are the same size as the other one, put his hat on. Sergeant Poulson we will pretend to be the Germans. Slip over the road as soon as we have their attention."
"Sir."
"Harry, just sing in German and sound drunk. 'Lilli Marlene' will do. Leave the talking to me. Lean into me as though I am supporting you. Have your sap ready. Sergeant you keep your Colts trained on the two sentries. If we don't subdue them you will have to shoot them." He nodded. I said, loudly and in German, "Right, Kurt, let us go!"
I sang with Harry and we were deliberately slow as we staggered and did the drunk's tango across the road. Three steps forward, two steps back. An occasional pirouette. We kept our heads down. With the rain it was understandable. As we began to cross the road I glanced up and saw the two guards approaching, "Hurry you idiots. Heinrich told us you would be late. The Feldwebel will be here soon with the relief. Get a move on."
"Come and give me a hand, Kurt is a dead weight." I giggled as though drunk, "I think he has pissed himself."
The two Germans obligingly put their rifles down to help me as we approached them. I deliberately staggered a little and the two of them ran to catch what they thought was a falling Kurt. Harry was a big man and he brought his fist up in an uppercut. I swung my sap and it smacked into the side of the German's head. Harry gave his man another tap with the sap and we dragged them into the guard hut.
Sergeant Poulson and the others joined us, "Quick tie them up. We only have minutes. Scouse, you and Ken get their rifles and caps. The relief will be here very soon. Go and patrol outside."
This complicated matters. The relief would be missed, eventually. It shortened the time we had to do what we needed to do. We had barely tied them up when I saw the three Germans approaching us. I took out my Colt and we waited in the shadows of the guard hut. Shepherd and Fletcher were on the road. The Feldwebel stood less than ten feet from me under the shelter of the guard house lean to.
"You pair, what the hell are you doing?" One of them must have made the mistake of turning for the Feldwebel said, "You are not..." As he raised his rifle I shot him in the head. The other two swung their rifles but four silenced bullets ended their lives.
"Get them in here. Hewitt, take Groves, Shepherd and Fletcher. Put these two Germans in the bar with the others." They picked up the unconscious Germans and headed back across the road. I grabbed the grenades and ammunition from the three dead Germans whose bodies were stacked up inside the guard hut. "Sit them around the table and turn up the oil lamp. George I want this place booby trapping. When they come to see where the last watch is they will look through the window and when they open it we will have warning that they are on to us." The last thing I did was to take any papers they might have from their jackets. They might prove useful.
"Sir."
I stepped outside while they set the scene. My four men raced back from the bar. The rain had eased. I looked towards the main buildings. The vehicle park was to the left of us and opposite was the building which had been marked with an X. I hoped it was not guarded. The barracks were on the other side of the compound behind the headquarters. I guessed that there would be no one there during the night.
My men came out of the guard hut. George was the last one out and he carefully set the booby trap on the door. I pointed to the vehicle park and Harry led his men away. I began to trot down to the mysterious building. The place was eerily quiet. As we approached I saw that it was not guarded but there was a padlock. We had no bolt cutters. We stood next to the door. The lock was a good sign. I nodded to Scouse. He took out some wires and within two minutes had the lock opened. He slid back the bolt and we pulled open the doors. There was little light but we saw, ahead of us a tank. It was the M4 and it was still on the back of the low loader!
I whispered, "Right Ken, take Fletcher and Crowe, do your stuff."
"Sir."
"Sergeant Poulson, there should be a tool kit on the M4. Find a spanner and open the drain plug on the petrol tank." It was only the Germans who used diesel. As the Americans found out when they used the M4 they burned so easily their crews called them Ronsons.
"Sir."
I went to the low loader. There was little of value in the cab. "Hewitt, see if you can find anything which will explode or burn. Stack it under the low loader." There was an office and I went in. There were boxes of files and paper work. I carried them out and laid a trail to the office from the tank. The office was made of wood and it would burn. I saw they had a duplicator machine, Gestetner, it used an alcohol based fluid. I found a large bottle and I soaked my trail of files.
When I returned to the M4 I could smell the petrol which was a viscous, shimmering snake spreading across the floor. Hewitt was stacking blocks of wood beneath the low loader. I went to the door and checked outside. All was silent. Ten minutes later Groves and Fletcher climbed out of the tank.
Peter Groves nodded to the turret, "Shepherd is just finishing off, sir." He took a German grenade and, breaking the top he jammed it beneath the track close to the pooling petrol. He looked up at me. "I found it in the bar. Seems a shame to waste it."
"Well done, Groves."
He patted his battledress, "I have another one sir. Oh and Shepherd said he is setting the timers for fifteen minutes."
"That should be enough time to give us a head start. Sergeant take the section to the vehicle park. I will come with Shepherd when he has finished." I took the opportunity to unsling my Thompson. If we had to leave in a hurry then we would need all the firepower we could muster.
Ken climbed out of the hatch, "We have sabotaged the engine, the tracks, the barrel and the last one is with the ammunition which they obligingly left."
"Any charges left?"
He held up one two pound charge."But I have no detonators left."
"We will use a Mills bomb as a detonator. We rig it across the door as a booby trap in case someone comes before the bombs have gone off."
We used the thin parachute cord we favoured and made it so that anyone opening the doors would set off the grenade and then the charge. Hopefully that would ignite the petrol which had now reached the door. We hurried towards the vehicle park. Forty five minutes had elapsed since we had entered the compound. I wondered why they had not investigated the dead Feldwebel. We almost tripped over the three dead Germans by the side of the road. We hurried on and found two dead German sentries. They each had a bullet hole in the head. I took their field caps and sand goggles and added them to the ones we already had.
Polly was waiting, "Sorry about the three Germans, sir. We saw them heading towards the gate. We used the silencers."
"You did right and I didn't hear a thing. Where is Harry?"
"I haven't seen him yet. Probably still disabling vehicles."
"Spread out. The Kubelwagens were at the far side of the compound. Slash any tyres you see on the way through."
Our daggers were sharp and I heard the hiss as air came from punctured tyres. I heard a, "Hist!"
I saw Peter Groves waving at me. "Follow me."
I reached him, "This way sir. We have three Kubelwagens. They all have a machine gun. We have immobilised the rest." He laughed, "We peed in some of the tanks."
That was even better. The vehicles would start but stop within a few miles.
I reached the Kubelwagens. Handing the field caps and goggles out to those who did not have th
em I said, "Will they start first time?" The men donned them and put their comforters away. As a disguise it was thin but better than nothing.
Harry shrugged, "Sorry, sir, there is no way to find out. We have cans of water and fuel in the back. One of them had a warm engine. That will certainly start. They all have full tanks. They should get us where we are going."
"Right, get aboard. You all follow me." I took off my Bergen and stuck it in the back seat. "Scouse, get on the machine gun. Shepherd take Fletcher's Tommy gun. Your job is to watch the other two cars. If they get in trouble then let me know. Have your silenced Colt close to hand. Remember do not fire unless I give you the order. We will try to use as much bluff as we can eh?"
"Sir."
I placed my Thompson next to me and close to the gear stick. I turned the engine over. It sounded inordinately loud but after a couple of splutters it started. The other two did the same. Ironically Harry's took the longest to start. I saw lights coming on in the Headquarters building. The charges were due off in five minutes. It was time to make a hasty exit. I put it into gear and put my foot down. It leapt away towards the gate filled with dead Germans. We were on our way home! We just had almost eighty miles of enemy occupied and rough terrain to negotiate.
Chapter 10
As we raced through the gate I heard a klaxon sound. They were awake and men were spilling from buildings. I spun the wheel right as we left the compound. It was pitch black but we could not risk lights. I had to pray that I had the roads in my head. We had travelled just half a mile when there was a crump behind me. Shepherd said, "The guard hut just blew up sir! They must have triggered the booby trap."
I could hear the worry in his voice. Would his explosives detonate on time? "Don't worry Ken, your bombs will go off."
Half a mile later there was an enormous bang and then a series of smaller ones. Suddenly the night was lit up as the whole of the building erupted in flame. "My God, sir! You should see this!"
"I'll take your word for it, Shepherd. It is a bit too dark to risk turning around."
"The Germans are running around like lunatics, sir. The whole of the building is on fire and it is spreading!"
I kept my foot down as we drove on the relatively straight road which led to the coast. We had two towns to navigate our way through, Mateur and Zana. Zana was just a few miles away. I had decided to try to bluff my way through the small hamlet. We reached it ten minutes after leaving the compound. There was a glow behind us in the dark and I worried that might initiate questions. I slowed down as we approached it. I suspected there would be troops of some sort and the explosion was so loud that they would have heard it. I was right. As we approached the outskirts of the village four Germans stepped out and shone a light into my eyes.
"Are you trying to blind me fool!" I lowered my voice, "Have your Colts ready and wait for the signal."
A Feldwebel held out his hand, "Papers!"
I saw that the other three were suspicious and their rifles were levelled at us. Scouse just grinned at them. It must have disconcerted them for they could not hold his gaze.
The Feldwebel looked at the papers I had taken from the German NCO. He handed them back to me, "What are you doing out here? We heard an explosion and saw a fire. What is going on?"
I nodded, "Saboteurs. We are hunting them. Did anyone come through here?"
The four of them relaxed and their guns lowered slightly. "No, you are the first. Who was it? Arabs? The Tommies?"
"We have no idea. We were just ordered to get to Mateur and set up a road block. Of course now that you have held us up they might escape."
"We are just following orders."
Just then, the fifth German, who was hidden by their Kubelwagen stood, "It is headquarters, we are to look out for three..."
He got no further. Our three Colts came up and four fell quickly. The radio operator managed to dive into cover. Peter Groves leapt up and ran after him. I heard two soft phuts and Groves returned with his gun still smoking, "Well done Peter that was quick thinking."
I got out and waved the others forward. "Quick we need to get rid of the Kubelwagen and the men, silently. George drive it to the west end of the town, Make it look as though we ambushed them there. Scouse take the radio. It might come in handy. Take anything you can from the Kubelwagen," I pointed to the jerricans, "those especially. George, disable the Kubelwagen when you have ditched it. Peter take the machinegun from it. We can always use an extra weapon."
I waved Sergeant Poulson to join me.
"Change of plan. I have no doubt that the Germans will investigate when the radio operator doesn't get back to them. Instead of going to Mateur we will head north and then cut west. There is a road we can take which misses Mateur; it goes between two lakes. It is a longer road; about twenty miles further but we have enough fuel and, besides, we have little choice."
"Right sir."
"We might as well top up the tanks while we wait for George."
Peter Groves said, "I will set this machine gun up at the rear of the Kubelwagen sir. It will give us a sting in the tail."
"Good idea." Groves was becoming more confident. This operation had been good for him. I would be able to promote him soon.
Once the others returned we remounted and I lead us to the north. Our road cut west four miles along the highway. It would still be dark by then but soon after we would have to contend with daylight and the Luftwaffe. I counted on the fact that they would not be looking for three vehicles which were going due west. With the field caps and goggles we would pass a superficial examination but it would not take them long to find their dead men and then suspicion would be on every vehicle.
We made good time on the road. It was well used. We passed huts and small villages but the locals kept themselves hidden. As the dawn broke from the east my heart began to sink. My original plan had been to disappear in the mountains before dawn. That idea was now out of the window. We reached the crossroads close to El Alia. We turned west. Already we could see Lac de Bizerte. There would be a garrison at Bizerte. We could run into their patrols. That was a town we would avoid at all costs.
Thin grey dawn did not brighten the day over much but, at least, there was no rain. We pushed on. The Kubelwagen was not a comfortable vehicle but it was speedy and we ate up the miles. We had one more obstacle before we passed the lakes, Menzel Bourguiba. I suspected there might be a garrison there but it was a much smaller town than Mateur. Scouse pointed to the left, many miles away, "Sir!"
It was a scout aeroplane and it was over Mateur. They were looking in the wrong direction. I slowed down and stopped in a defile where we would be hidden from view. The others gathered around me. "Take on water, and refill your vehicles with fuel and water. The spotter plane is well to the south west. We hit Menzel Bourguiba soon. I will try to bluff our way through again but I think they might be on to us. Stay close and if we have to hit them then hit them hard. The reason I didn't picked this route in the first place is because there is one bridge across the river which joins the two lakes. It is a bottle neck. Have grenades ready in case they try to stop us."
I saw my more experienced Commandos exchange looks. This would be more than a little tricky.
"Ready?"
"Yes sir."
We started the cars. Dawn had now finally broken and I saw the small town, a sprawl of huts and humanity, spreading out below us. We moved sedately towards the town. It was morning and there was a market on. The throng of people slowed us down. I saw uniforms of the Afrika Corps but they looked to be off duty. Where was the road block? Some of the soldiers waved at us and we waved back. The locals got out of the way of the three Kubelwagens which were the only motorised vehicles in the village. Once we had passed through the village we saw the bridge and, to my dismay, there was a German presence. There was a half track. It had six men lounging around it and there were two men on the heavy machine mounted at the front. Although it was not totally blocking the bridge it would be a tight fit to
get across it. I also saw the antennae of a radio. They would seek confirmation of our identity.
"Have grenades ready. This could be tricky."
"Right sir!"
A lieutenant stepped forward with his hand up, "Halt! Papers. Where are you going?"
"We are heading for Mateur."
He looked at me suspiciously. "Then you are going the wrong way."
"Am I? It is these signs they are either in Arabic of French. Should we turn around?"
"Wait, let me check these papers."
"Of course and thank you for keeping us straight!"
I saw the Germans relax. I had a grenade between my legs. I took out the pin and held it loosely. I nodded to Scouse. We both threw our Mills bombs at the same time and I grabbed my Thompson and sprayed the men on the bridge. "Duck!" The two grenades had fallen inside the half track but we were so close that, when they exploded, our vehicle rocked.
I dropped my gun and floored the accelerator. We leapt through the gap, scraping along the side of the half track and the bridge. Behind us I heard the machine guns from the others as they ensured that no one was left alive. As we reached the other side and turned slightly left I saw the grenades the others had thrown under the half track. It lifted up and fell into the river. More importantly it took half the bridge and one parapet with it. They would struggle to get heavy vehicles across the bridge. We had bought a little time but we had shouted where we were. The Luftwaffe would soon be hunting us.
"Are either of you hurt?"
"No sir."
"Sorry I didn't get a grenade off."
"Don't worry Shepherd, we didn't need it."
We had less than fifty miles to go and I could see the mountains ahead. We had to move quickly and work out how to deal with aeroplanes. I saw that there were trees covering the mountain sides. If we could reach them then we had a chance. The road, however, was not a good surface and it twisted and turned. We were no longer able to maintain our speed. However it took the Germans more than an hour to send an aeroplane to the right place. We saw their Fieseler Fi 156 Storch aeroplanes, all three of them, buzzing like flies in the distance but it was not until we began to ascend the twisting road towards the mountain that one headed closer to us.
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