Sword Beach (Combined Operations Book 6)

by Griff Hosker

  He nodded, "Right sir. I won't."

  I put the rifle to my shoulder. I peered through the sights. The two targets were suddenly bigger. I saw the car being driven around and a regular got out of the driver's side. Osborne pointed his Colt at him to move him out of the way. The soldier backed off towards Major Rose, his hands in the air. They were going to drive away. I had to shoot and shoot quickly. I had only used the rifle four or five times. I could not afford to miss and so I aimed at Osborne's chest. It was a big target. He climbed into the driver's seat.

  "Now!"

  I squeezed off one bullet and then loaded a second. The windscreen of the car shattered. Harris dropped to one knee. Davis had hit him in the leg. I saw Osborne look in my direction and then the car started to move. I fired the second round. This time there was no windscreen to weaken the shot and I saw Osborne's head explode like a ripe plum.

  Fletcher needed no urging and as Davis and I put our rifles over our shoulders Fletcher hurtled down the slope to the camp. By the time we got there he was applying a bandage to Reg's head. Major Rose was downing a beaker of something. From the smell it had to be whisky.

  Reg smiled, "I reckon we owe you two our lives, Captain." Two of the infantry had their rifles aimed at Harris. He was being bandaged by a third soldier. Reg pointed. There was a Mills bomb lying by his feet. "Osborne told Harris to throw the grenade at us. They were three fine shots."

  Major Rose said, "What the hell happened, Tom?"

  I told him what I knew. "We will have to question Harris here when the hospital has finished with him." I went over to him. He was crying. "Give me something for the pain! For the love of God!" He pointed an accusing finger at Davis. "You have crippled me you bastard! I'll have you!"

  "He saved your life, Harris. I told him to kill you. It's still not too late." I pointed my Colt at him and pressed it between his eyes. "I am certain that no one here will say anything if I just shoot you now!"

  Fear filled his face. "You wouldn't do that!"

  "Wouldn't I? Forget waiting until the ambulance arrived! What happened up there? Talk!" The cocking of the Colt made him speak.

  "We kept going slow so that there was a gap. I pretended to fall. When the Captain came to help me Osborne threw the grenade and we took cover. They are alive aren't they?"

  I pointed to the dead soldiers whose bodies we had covered. "They aren't nor are two of your mates where you booby trapped the trail. You are going to hang for murder!"

  His face filled with terror as my words sank home. "It was all Osborne. It was Charlie! He has a contact in London for the guns! It was a nice little earner. I didn't shoot anyone. It was Charlie."

  "And the booby trap?"

  He looked down, "That was Charlie too. I kept watch!"

  "You are a liar!"

  The bell of the ambulance hurtling up the road ended the conversation. A police car pulled up behind it. As the ambulance men carried Harris into the ambulance I said to one of the policemen who emerged. "This man is responsible for the deaths of four soldiers. He needs watching."

  The sympathy which had been in the policeman's eyes evaporated. "We'll watch him. If you gentlemen could come down to the station and make a statement." He turned to the young constable who had stepped from the car. "Wilkinson, you go in the ambulance and keep an eye on him."

  "We will sort out the statements when the rest of our men arrive. We have two more injured men." I turned to the ambulance men. "There are two soldiers up the road a ways, towards the mine. They need help. I have left some medics with them. This piece of scum is not worth bothering with."

  "Right sir." They closed the doors and drove out of the camp.

  I looked up as Sergeant Poulson led the rest of my men into the camp. They had improvised stretchers for the two dead men. He said, "I see you got one of them sir. Where is Harris?"

  "In the ambulance."

  Sergeant Poulson seemed to see the dead bodies of the regulars for the first time. "Bloody hell sir, what a mess!"

  It was. The car was now covered in the blood and brains of the dead Osborne. I nodded, "The sooner we get to France the better. I have some anger and it needs to be taken out on Germans."

  Chapter 14

  Captain Marsden and Sergeant Curtis were both hospitalized for some weeks. I was given their section until they returned. When I visited them in the hospital I saw the determination written clearly on their faces. John Marsden shook his head. He had suffered many cuts to his face and been lucky not to have lost an eye. "It was my fault that they were allowed to do what they did. You were right, Tom, weeks ago. Men have died because of my mistake. The least I can do is get to France and atone for that."

  Curtis felt the same and so I tried to get the rest of the section up to the standard of mine. The rest of the Osborne crew, the four of them were shipped off. There would be an enquiry. Major Rose would chair it and their stories would be investigated. One thing was certain; they were finished in the 1st Special Service Brigade. It was for their own good. My men would take matters into their own hands. What they had done had crossed an invisible line.

  It was the middle of April when we eventually reached the camp in Devon. We had had to spend more time at Falmouth than I would have liked. Captain Marsden's section needed rebuilding. The rest of the brigade had finished their training already and Lord Lovat sought me out. "I want you to train with the Americans. It is important that we work with our American allies and both your sections needs the experience of landing from Landing Craft. The ones the Americans will be using are the same as ours."

  "Yes sir."

  The Americans, to be fair to them, were more than generous about the whole thing and my men appreciated the rations which were much better than ours. They were intrigued by such exotic items as corn and sweet potato. The steaks were seen as a luxury which most would not have eaten even in peacetime.

  We made a few practice landings on the Devon beaches without any opposition just to ensure that everyone was comfortable with disembarking. Our experiences on 523 helped. Then the order came down that we were to practise a landing on the 27th of April with guns from the heavy cruiser 'H.M.S. Hawkins' firing live shells on the beach. It was felt that we needed to simulate an actual attack on a beach. This would help for most of these soldiers had come directly from training in the States. The experienced soldiers were still in Italy.

  We met the French Commandos. They were obviously pleased that I could speak fluent French. I got on with them well. To be fair to them they did not see the need for the practice but they participated. Unlike my section and Captain Marsden's, they took little interest in the proceedings. They were just desperate to get back to their homeland and liberate it. The old railway man from the signal box came to mind.

  As usual with such exercises, especially when there were different nationalities, forces and services involved, there was confusion. We seemed to bob about on the water for longer than we should. When the cruiser began to fire it was terrifying for the young American recruits. It was the signal for us to go in. My men would be the first ashore from our landing craft but there were four other landing craft ahead of us. It was the American's show and we did not mind. In truth I was still concerned about Captain Marsden's section. There was only one sergeant and, to my mind, he showed too much deference to my sergeants. I wanted someone who was more decisive in action. Sergeant Ashcroft was a good Commando but he had been promoted too far. Perhaps I was worrying too much about them. After all I would not be leading in on the real invasion. Captain Marsden would be returned by then.

  As we headed in Sergeant Poulson said, "Those shells are remarkably close to the shore sir." He pointed out that they were striking the sand.

  I pointed to some white tape half way up the beach. "If you notice, Sergeant, there is white tape. I am guessing that the shells are landing on the other side of the tape."

  Poulson watched and nodded, "You are right, sir. Then all we have to do is to stop at the tape."r />
  That is right, Sergeant." I turned, "Get ready to land! No one go past the white tape."

  To my horror I saw the first Americans to land had raced up the beach and they crossed the white tape. Surely the cruiser would stop firing. But it didn't. I felt sick as the cruiser's seven 7.5" shells began to toss the soldiers in the air as though they were rag dolls. As the ramp began to descend I raced along it and leapt into the water. I ran towards the nearest Americans who were already moving towards the white tape. "Stop! Don't go near the white tape!"

  An American Major, with a cigar stuck in the side of his mouth shouted, "Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?"

  Fortunately he had halted, as had his men. The French Commandos stared from the ramp. I pointed at four men who were a hundred yards from us and over the white tape. They had not heard my shout. One shell hit them and they disappeared.

  "Jesus!"

  The exercise was stopped.

  The Major said, "Thanks buddy. How did you know about the tape? Have you done this before?"

  I shook my head. "I just guessed that the white tape was there for a reason."

  The exercise was stopped. The bodies were cleared and we embarked again. General Moon, who was in command, decided that we would try again on the afternoon. We sailed out into the Channel to make an approach much as we would on the actual day. We were led by a corvette, "H.M.S. Azalea". There were just nine landing craft in the column. The corvette led us out to sea to approach much as we would when we did attack France. My men and I were on the deck close to the ramps. As the third ship in the line we had a fine view of the corvette and the other landing craft.

  Gordy Barker was smoking a cigarette, "It will be a damned sight hotter when we do the real thing. The guns of the cruiser will seem like pop guns in comparison with the big boys."

  John Hewitt nodded, "I just hope that they have got their act together this afternoon. We don't need more friendly fire casualties."

  Sergeant Poulson said, "We just land and stay close to the water. We don't need to go any further do we sir?"

  I never got to answer him as a line of nine E-boats suddenly opened fire as they raced towards us from the east. I knew what they were capable of. It seemed to take everyone by surprise. "Get the K-guns out. Crowe, grenade launcher!" I shouted in French, "Commandant Kieffer,fetch your men. Fire everything you have!"

  As soon as the one hundred and seventy six Frenchmen realised that there were Germans to kill their lassitude ended and they raced to every vantage point to fire at their hated enemies. The two Oerlikon gunners swung their guns around to bring them to bear at the rapidly moving E-Boats. This was, quite literally, a baptism of fire.

  I took out my sniper rifle. I doubted that they would get close enough to use the Thompson. Before I could even aim the rifle I saw a pair of torpedoes race towards LST 531. The E-boats were so close that I knew they could not miss. I did not see the torpedoes strike as I was watching another E-boat coming directly for us. The bridge was armoured and the skipper protected but the men operating the torpedoes were not. "Fire at the E-boat! Every gun we have! Davis, shoot the crew!"

  I fired at one of the men at the torpedo tube. He was bouncing around and he was three quarters of a mile away. I wounded him with a ricochet. Davis hit a second. I fired at another of the crew and he took shelter behind the tube with the rest of the crew. So long as they were sheltering they could not fire a torpedo. The range was decreasing and the two K guns sent bullet after bullet at the bridge. The E-boat captain turned; there were easier pickings than us. I switched targets to the next E-boat. This time he was approaching obliquely, coming down the line. The corvette was firing her small guns but she was seriously outgunned. I saw another landing ship hit by torpedoes. Every one of my two sections were firing The French were all firing. We were sending a wall of bullets at them. Crowe's grenade launcher sent a spout of water up just ten yards from the bows of the E-boat. There were other easier targets.

  I saw a second landing craft set on fire. The scale of the disaster was brought home when I saw bodies of Americans drifting by. They were face down in the water despite having life vests. I saw another E-boat. It was over a mile away. I fired more in hope than expectation. I emptied the magazine. When it veered away I knew that I had hit something. I probably only hit the ship itself but it was a small victory on a day of huge losses.

  After we disembarked we trudged back to the camp. It was one thing to lose men in battle but to lose them like this seemed wrong. I felt guilty. The Americans were our allies and it had been our job to protect them. The Navy had not done enough to protect the convoy. Where were the air force? I was made to feel even worse when the Americans praised us for our defence of the ship. We had done little enough. I am not even certain that we had killed any Germans. We certainly hadn't hurt their E-boats. Even our evening meal, pork chops- a real treat, tasted like sand. When our lorry arrived to take us to our camp at Southampton I was glad. This had been an episode of which I was not proud.

  The driver was Private Larkin. As I climbed into the cab he handed me two letters. "Sergeant Major Dean was most insistent that I give you these straight away sir. He said how you might have been waiting for them."

  I looked and saw that they were both from Susan. I had had no letters since Windsor. That had been almost three months ago. To be fair I had only had one from Mum. I had begun to think that things had moved on too quickly and she was having second thoughts about me. Larkin was concentrating on the driving. Devon roads can be narrow and dangerous at the best of times. I was able to read in peace.

  London

  February 1944

  Dear Tom,

  Thank you for a wonderful day. Your mum is lovely! We chatted all the way back to London and she stayed overnight in a hotel. We went shopping the next day. I bet your ears were burning for all we spoke of was you. You are a hero! Your mum is right you need to be more careful.

  Your mum and I agree on many things. We both think the war has almost run its course. She told me about your aunt and that pilot, Charlie. I cried when I heard. That really was tragic. I don't suit black. Look after yourself.

  We had another air raid.

  There was a section blued out by the censor. I guessed it was the Dragon. Susan was not used to others reading her letters.

  I know you think this is all going a bit quickly. We are different that way. I think we were meant to meet. That means we are meant to be together. You might not know it yet but we are going to be married. It is forward of me to be the one to bring it up but your mum has told me that if I wait for you I will be an old maid. I have yet to meet your dad but from what your mum says you are just like him. I know that it will be some time before we can meet up again but I will write to you every week.

  Keep your chin up my love and your head down!

  All my love,

  Always,

  Susan xxx

  I read and re read the letter. Mum had told me of the shopping trip and how much she liked Susan. I wondered why the letter had taken so long to reach me. It was in Susan's hand. When I looked at the postmark I saw that it was April. I opened it. Church Lawton

  April 1944

  Dear Tom,

  Don't be cross! I know I have not written for some time. I am so sorry. It was not my fault. Mum was taken ill and I had to come home to look after Dad. He wasn't well. Mum had a stroke and they took her to Alsager. Dad insisted on going every day on the bus to visit. She wasn't awake but he wanted to be there. They are like your parents; very close. What with the travelling and looking after dad I had no time to write. I felt awful about that but I hope you will understand. I got all of your letters two weeks ago. They were a lovely surprise. The Dragon sent them all on with a note apologising for the delay.

  I have read them so many times and cried so much that they are barely legible any more. I can remember every word. Thank you. Windsor seems such a long time ago now.

  Mum died last week. It was a mercy.
It broke dad's heart every time he saw her lying there. Since the funeral he has hardly stirred. He does brighten when I tell him about you. I think the only thing which keeps him going now is the thought that one day he will meet you. He is looking forward to that. He keeps talking about the hero in the family. I hope you don't mind. I have told him that we have an understanding. We do, don't we?

  I never thought I would say this but I miss Operations. I knew where you were. I know that the big day can't be far away. I suppose I will read about it in the newspapers.

  I received a couple of letters from your mum. They were forwarded to me. I will write to her. She will think I am rude for not replying. This war!

  I will have to go now. I still have a lot of mum's things to sort through. I also have to write to my brother and tell him. He has it hard enough on the convoys without this bad news.

  Now that the weather is getting better I have taken to getting dad out of the house and walking. It does us both good.

  I promise I will write more frequently but you know you are always in my thoughts and my prayers.

  All my love,

  Always,

  Your own,

  truly,

  Susan xxx

  Our new camp was just ahead when I put the two letters away. Poor Susan. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to Mum. I knew that my first task after I had found my quarters was to write two letters; one to Mum and one to Susan.

  Part 3

  D-Day

  Chapter 15

  Captain Marsden and Sergeant Curtis were waiting for us as we descended from the lorry. The scars on their faces had healed but both looked thinner than before. I shook John's hand as my sergeants crowded around Ken Curtis commenting on his scars. They bantered, that was their way.

  "Thanks for looking after my section, Tom."

  "You would have done the same for me. Everything all right?"