All went well until we neared Peuplingues. I heard voices and, peering down the road, I saw a German vehicle. It was a check point. That way was out. We could not go back the way we had come. I waved the others to my left. I had the map in my head. There was another route. We would have to head for the coast and the village of Escalles. It was close to one of the gun emplacements and there would be Germans there but it could not be helped; the road block showed that they were seeking us at Peuplingues.
We crossed fields which had not been ploughed. There had been animals in these fields before the war. Now there were craters. This area had either been shelled or bombed. It was handy as we would have somewhere to shelter if we saw anyone. We heard traffic on the road ahead and I waved the men to the ground. Khaki was as good as black at night time in a field; especially one which was as uneven as this.
I bellied up to the hedge which was next to the road. The farmer who had planted it had wanted to stop the withering winds from the sea. It was only a low one. It suited us for the rest of the section all made the safety of the hedge and had somewhere to hide. I waited until the road was quiet. I was about to move across when I heard two vehicles approach. I took shelter once more. This time they stopped and the drivers turned off their engines. I heard a match strike and then smelled German cigarette smoke.
I glanced at my watch; it had a luminous dial. It was ten o'clock. We had two hours to get to the beach which was now less than a mile away. There were Germans to the east and north of us and now to the west. I wondered if we should head for the other rendezvous point. I turned and looked at the Lieutenant and Daddy. I pointed through the hedge and shrugged. The Lieutenant pointed to his gun. Daddy shook his head and made the sign for 'patience'.
Then the Germans spoke. "Are you certain the radio message said that the Englanders were coming this way?"
"Yes Feldwebel. The Oberlieutenant said that they were Commandos and they had automatic weapons."
"Well I can see no sign of them. If it was the same Commandos who blew up the gun they must be lost for they are moving in circles. We will wait another half hour and then back track to see if we can find them."
I was the only one who would have understood the words. Perhaps that was a good thing. The others would be terrified if they knew that we had been seen. I wondered where and when. Ten minutes later I had my answer.
"There they are! Open fire!"
There was a sudden rattle of rifle and machine pistol fire and then the heavy bark of an MG 42. They were not firing at us. I cocked my gun anyway and then took out a grenade. I saw the others do the same.
"Cease fire!" I could smell the cordite in the air and I heard the moan of a wounded or perhaps dying man. The Feldwebel spoke again but this time it was in English. "Hands up!"
I heard a voice that I recognised, it was Sergeant Jack Johnson. This was the other team. It was our old section. "All right Fritz, we have a wounded man with us!"
I turned to the others. They, too had heard the sergeant. I decided to risk rising. I needed to know how many we faced. I did it slowly. As my head cleared the hedge I saw that there were two Kübelwagen. They were on the other side of the road, about twenty feet away and the Waffen SS were looking towards the cliff top. One Kübelwagen had an MG 42 attached to a metal pole next to the driver. There were four Germans that I could see. I turned and made the sign for two vehicles and four men. The Lieutenant waved the men to their feet and, like me they peered over the top. I could not see Sergeant Johnson and his men. I had no idea how many there were. From Jack's words at least one was wounded.
Just then I heard the Feldwebel say, "Shoot them they are not in uniform!"
I threw my grenade at the machine gun, fired my Thompson and shouted, "Down lads, they are going to shoot you!" The Feldwebel turned at the English voice behind him. Every gun in our section opened fire and tore into the Germans. I saw my bullets strike the Waffen SS Feldwebel. His body danced as tough a puppeteer was working him. There was a crump and a wall of air knocked us to the ground as the Kübelwagen was struck by my grenade. I lay for a moment, winded. I had been lucky. Shrapnel did not care who it struck. I rose to my feet and, groggily, clambered on to the road. The Germans were all dead. One had been torn in two by the combined fire of two Thompson machine guns. Daddy joined me as we searched for our friends. We found Sean and Sergeant Johnson. They were bandaging Corporal White and Percy Cunningham. Wally looked to have injured his arm but Percy's left leg appeared to have taken a number of bullets. I left the Lieutenant to ask the inevitable questions and to administer first aid..
I grabbed Poulson and Barker. "Find any German stick grenades and bring them to me. We are going to leave some booby traps." While they searched I went to the body of the machine gunner. He was slumped forward in his seat which had survived the impact. After taking the maps and papers from the well of the vehicle I took the pin from my Mills bomb and then carefully jammed it beneath his bloody body. The dead weight held the handle in place. When they came to move it they would get a nasty surprise but, more importantly, we would have warning that they had discovered the ambush.
The two men came back with four stick grenades. This would be a rapid lesson in sabotage. "Watch me and then do the same on the other one." I broke the porcelain safety device and then carefully laid the grenade across the seat. I leaned in and tied the cord to the inside handle. "When Jerry pulls the door open it will yank the cord and the grenade will go up. They nodded and left. I took the last two and repeated the same but this time I put them underneath the body of the Feldwebel and the wheel of the Kübelwagen.
I saw that the others were still tending to the wounded. "Sir, I don’t want to rush you but we have a boat to catch and I can hear more vehicles coming."
He nodded. "Right lads, back to the rendezvous point."
Daddy joined me, "Harsker and I will be rearguard, sir."
"Righto. Don't be too long." Carrying a wounded man would slow them down and we needed to see how many came to find us. I guessed that the vehicles came from the checkpoint at Peuplingues. I had seen at least ten men there.
The others hurried down towards the sea; Percy and Wally would slow them down. We were close enough to the beach for us to make the boat if it arrived on time. The question remained, would the Germans allow us the time? We stopped just a hundred yards from the wrecked vehicles and lay down in the sand. The distance was far enough away for us to be both hidden from sight and far enough away to avoid injury when the booby traps went off. Equally we were close enough to hurl grenades and to fire at them.
Suddenly Sean appeared at our side and cocked his Thompson, "Can't let you two get all the glory can I?"
It was pointless reprimanding him and besides I could hear trucks coming from the direction of Peuplingues. I had already changed my magazine and I took out my last two grenades. I laid them before me. The three of us were spread out and our frontage was just twelve feet. The first truck had dimmed headlights and he came cautiously. He stopped thirty feet from the Kübelwagen. An officer waved his men forward. There were twenty of them. Another truck came from the direction of Boulogne. There were more Germans than I had anticipated.
The officer shouted, "Anyone alive?" The silence was only broken by the surf below us. "Spread out and look for the Englanders."
I was on the left and I tracked the five men who came to my side of the Kübelwagen. One of them pulled open the door and the grenade went off. The others dived to the floor but the explosion made the Kübelwagen roll back a little and the second grenade went off and scythed through the Germans who were sheltering beneath. The Kübelwagen kept rolling down the slight slope and bumped into the other one. The impact must have knocked the German grenade and that too went off.
The second truck disgorged its men and then they ran to tend the wounded. A few men came around the vehicles and headed towards the tops of the dunes. Daddy whispered, "Grenades. They will think it is more booby traps."
We hurled
the three grenades and then buried our faces in the sand. The shrapnel whistled over our heads. The screams and shouts in German told their own tale. They were confused. "Back down to the beach."
We slid backwards for thirty yards until we could risk standing and we moved slowly down the slope. Above us the leaderless Germans, for the officer had been killed, were milling around. They would take some time to continue their search. We reached the beach and I checked my watch. It was just ten to midnight. With luck we would only have minutes to wait. I glanced up at the road and saw more dimmed headlights appear. They were being reinforced. The exploding vehicles had alerted the enemy. I tapped Daddy on the shoulder and pointed. He nodded and, turning to the Lieutenant said, "I reckon we have fifteen minutes at the most, sir."
Just then a Very pistol was fired and a flare went into the air. We were all frozen like a tableau as the slowly descending light illuminated the whole of the beach. A second flare followed. I heard a German voice order them down to the beach and then machine guns sounded. Their tracer arced towards us.
Sean said, "Make that five minutes, sir! Unless Navy gets his finger out we will be up shit creek without a paddle!"
We had two wounded, one of them seriously and we had at least twenty odd Germans coming for us. I saw the Lieutenant looking indecisive. "Sir, like Dunkirk eh? Take the wounded out into the water to meet the ML. Navy won't let us down."
"Good idea. Smith and Ford, take Cunningham and Corporal White out to sea. Just leave your heads showing above the water."
"Sir, I can make it on my own."
"Just do it Corporal. The rest of you back to the water and lie in the surf. The foam may hide us."
It was a good idea and we backed into the water and then lay down. I had one grenade left and, before I left the dry sand I took out the pin and placed it underneath a flat rock. "Get a move on Tom!"
"Coming Sarge." I hit the water none too soon for there was a rattle of machine gun fire. They had aimed at where we had been stood and the bullets whistled harmlessly overhead.
"Hold your fire. Keep them confused!"
I heard Norman shout, "Sir, I can hear the ML!"
The Germans must have realised we were lying down for they began to aim at the edge of the sea. Their first volley hit nothing but a shout from Gordy told me that they had adjusted their sights. He had been hit.
"Open fire."
We had the advantage of the light from the burning vehicles behind them and we let loose with our Thompsons. The .45 bullet is a man stopper and the line of advancing Germans was forced to lie down too. One must have disturbed the rock covered grenade and I saw his body flung into the air as shrapnel hit the men on either side.
"Into the sea while they are recovering." As we crouched to retreat we fired again and then moved west. There were more volleys from the Germans.
I saw Ken Curtis fall into the water and, firing one handed I ran to him. "Leave me Corp I'll slow you down!"
"We leave no one behind. " I slung my Thompson and hoisted him over my shoulder in a fireman's lift. I drew my Browning and aimed at the three men who ran at me. I fired as though I was on the range. I fired four shots and three fell. I turned and began to wade out into the blackness. I saw a lightening of the dark and I knew it was the ML.
Bullets zipped into the water behind me. I was nearly deafened as Curtis emptied his magazine from over my shoulder, "Got you, you bugger!"
We were the last two and I heard the others urging us on while emptying the last of their magazines at the Germans. I was chest deep in the sea when I reached the bow. I had no strength left to lift Curtis but the others hauled him up and, as the ML reversed I was pulled to safety by Sean and Daddy. Daddy shook his head, "Always the bloody hero eh?"
If we thought we were out of the woods we were wrong. We had certainly disturbed the wasps' nest. The young lieutenant who commanded the Motor Launch tried everything he could to extricate us from our predicament. While Percy and Wally were taken below decks he gave full power as he thundered west. There were too many Germans who knew of our presence for us to escape without pursuit. We all changed our magazines; we only had one left each and I had no grenades.
I sat amidships with Daddy and Sergeant Johnson. Daddy asked, as we checked our guns. "What happened?"
He shook his head, "A cock up from start to finish. We found a mine field and Davis set one off and blew himself up. It wasn't the Lieutenant's fault, Davis was just clumsy. He rushed it. We headed south, to take attention away from the guns and from you lads. We were lucky at first and we hid up during the day in a little wood. Then we headed towards the rendezvous. That was when we hit trouble. The Germans were all over the roads like fleas on a dog. The Lieutenant did well until we ran into a large patrol. He and Golightly took the two new lads and headed inland to draw them off and we headed for the beach. They were waiting for us. That was where Wally got it. McKinley was good. He should be corporal after this. He was rearguard all the way. We managed to avoid trouble and we decided to head for your rendezvous point. We had almost made it when we ran into those Krauts. If Tom hadn’t shouted then we would have been dead."
Daddy nodded, "What do you reckon happened to the others?"
He shook his head, "Only two outcomes, dead or in the bag. He was a good lad was the Lieutenant. He just didn't have Tom's luck."
The first light of dawn was appearing over the French coast. We were half way across and began to believe that we would survive. I had read, at school, of the Vikings who believed in these three sisters called the Norns who spent each day weaving webs of deceit and confusion so that man would be forever trapped in their plans and plots. That night I began to believe in them. As dawn broke the lookout shouted, "Stuka!"
A line of six Stukas appeared in the east. They were not the fastest of aeroplanes but they were faster than the ML. I remembered the retreat and how we had fought them off before. "Sir, I have fought these before. We need to send up a solid wall of fire."
He shouted, "Thanks, Harsker, but there are six of them and we are short of ammo. Sarn't Johnson, your lads fire at the first one, Sarn't Grant you, Smith and Poulson fire at the second, Harsker, Barker and Griffiths at the third and we will all fire at the fourth."
Sean mumbled, "And then we are out of bullets!"
"What about the ammunition from the wounded lads?"
The Lieutenant was no slouch, "I'll get them. Johnson, take charge!"
We braced ourselves against whatever we could find. The first Stuka began its attack. The scream of the siren no longer worried us but the machine guns and the bombs it carried did. The Hotchkiss sounded powerful but it was no use against a diving Stuka. It was made to fire at slow moving ships and not diving bombers. The two Vickers however could fire five hundred rounds per minute and were belt fed. The two machine guns converged their fire and the three Tommy guns added to the wall of lead. The leading pilot was the commander and he was determined to carry out his orders. It cost him his life. The bullets of five machine guns tore through the propeller, engine, cockpit, pilot and gunner. It never pulled out of its dive. It hit the sea and disappeared from sight. The second pilot was also brave and he managed to drop his bomb before his wheel was shot away and his gull wing damaged. He headed home. His bomb hit twenty yards astern. Had we had depth charges then our stern might have been blown off.
Then it was my turn. "Wait for my command, lads." I did not want to risk missing and so I waited and when we did fire we could not miss. The Vickers' gunners had their eye in and we were bolstered by the success of the others. Like his leader we destroyed the aircraft. The remaining three were more cautious. They circled and tried to use their rear gunner to fire at us. It was not successful. They tried another attack but the heart had gone from them along with their leader. Each Stuka dropped his bombs from too great a height and they exploded noisily but harmless astern. We were still nervous and watched to the east for either more aeroplanes or the dreaded E-Boats, until the lieutenant who
commanded the boat shouted, "We are under an air force umbrella lads, we have made it." I looked up and saw the Hurricanes as they came to follow the departing Stukas.
I stood and saw the thin line that was the coastline of England. We were almost home.
Epilogue
Harwich had been bombed again. Even as we came ashore the hard worked firemen were still dousing the fires. As we approached the dock I saw the other ML. That was undamaged and the LCA. Welders were already at work repairing the damage.
Captain Foster awaited us, his arm in a sling. He shook Lieutenant Lloyd by the hand. "Well done Roger, you were the only section who completed their mission." Behind the Major I saw Sergeant Major Dean. He was smiling. He touched his beret with his swagger stick. It was a salute.
I looked at Daddy in surprise. He shrugged.
"Really sir? We know about Lieutenant Reed's problems. What happened to you?"
"They had strengthened their beach defences. We never even got ashore. They had machine guns, barbed wire and mines. There looked to be a company. We lost ten men and didn't hit a single German. We were lucky to get away without losing the landing craft. We had to head back home." He held up his arm. "I was lucky. We waited at Headquarters. We heard from the Spitfire reconnaissance aeroplane that you had damaged the rail and derailed the gun. It enabled the Blenheims to put the line out of action for at least a week. The gun was on its side and we will send another Spit over tomorrow to see the effect of the Blenheims. Well done. You succeeded in your mission. You prevented a mishap from becoming a disaster but, even so we have lost Algie and some good men."
The Lieutenant nodded towards us, "My success is down to you, sir. You gave me the best section in the whole troop. A man would have to be a complete idiot not to succeed with those men. They worked as a team and never panicked once. I would like to recommend Corporal Harsker for the Military Cross, sir. He saved not only his own section but also the men of Sergeant Johnson's too."
Commando Page 24