Red Hawk Rising

by Peter William Hall

  Similarly, on the Russian trawler anchored offshore, they were scanning the frequencies they knew the RAF used for air-to-ground communication and none of the traffic picked up related to the trial they had been sent to listen in to. A change of shift came and nothing. Instead of the drone of an Avro Shackleton there was the roar of the engines of two English Electric Lightnings as they came up from Norfolk at low level. The captain of the trawler muttered an oath as the two fighter jets passed overhead and wheeled seawards to come around and make another low pass over the trawler. They came in from the east even lower than before. At the sound of those engines, airmen came out of the base buildings to watch, as did people in the nearby villages. As the planes closed in on the trawler, the lead pilot radioed the name of the trawler, Dmitri Petrov, to his base and gave the co-ordinates. The trawler was not inside the ‘three-mile limit’ and therefore in international waters. The planes turned south and headed back to their base. On the sea wall and the beach, two men stopped what they were doing to watch the fighter planes. One, the birdwatcher, could not resist turning his camera skywards and taking a series of photos as the two aircraft passed overhead. They were gone in seconds. The two men then returned to their tasks of ‘spying’ and ‘spy-seeking’.

  Back in Air Ministry, Air Vice-Marshal Denby and MI5 Officer Hamilton were discussing their next move. “I’ll issue a notification about the trials being postponed due to technical problems. That should allay the fears of the ‘other side’ that we may have fed false information,” said Denby.

  “Fine,” replied Hamilton. “Our man went into place this week in the supply section. He replaced a person who had ostensibly taken ill.”

  “Good,” said Denby, “I’ll pull young Hill out of the JSTU for a week, starting on Monday. His official role will be to liaise with the department on the process of making sure enough replacement parts will be forwarded to the JSTU to keep the trials moving. His other role will be to liaise with your man and between the two of them we should be able to plug the leak fairly quickly.”

  “I agree,” said Hamilton. “We’ve narrowed it down a fair bit to about three persons in that section.”

  “Good,” replied Denby, “so let’s get it happening.” The two men parted with a sense of satisfaction. After Hamilton had left, Denby telephoned Group Captain Clarkson and told him what he wanted. In turn Clarkson telephoned Squadron Leader Dawson at the JSTU and explained the forthcoming detachment of Corporal Hill. Dawson was thinking aloud as he weighed up the benefits and the disadvantages of losing Corporal Hill for a week at this stage. Clarkson let him work it out, wanting Dawson to be convinced without feeling pressured and given a direct order. Dawson finally agreed with Clarkson. They hung up. At 15.00 hours a signal was received in the JSTU informing of the detachment for one week of Corporal W. A. Hill to Air Ministry supply section with effect from 24th October 1960. He was to be billeted at RAF Stanmore Park. Flight Lieutenant Gaskin had been briefed by the unit commanding officer and he called Corporal Hill into his office to give him his orders. This was to liaise with a Mr Griffiths and his staff on the supply of spare parts to the JSTU based on the data collected so far. Corporal Hill was to also look at the supply procedures and recommend any changes needed to improve the supply situation. Those recommendations were to be given to Mr Griffiths and to the JSTU C.O., with a copy to Flight Lieutenant Gaskin. Corporal Jackson was then called in to the office and briefed on Corporal Hill’s detachment. What Gaskin didn’t know was that Corporal Hill would receive further instructions from Lutterworth before he left for London. Those instructions would give him a contact name in the supply section who he was to co-operate with in finding the information leak and closing it off.

  That evening, Andy telephoned Alice and gave her the news of his detachment to London. “You’re certainly getting around with this unit,” she said. “Where do you think you will have to go next?”

  “Hopefully, the next place will be back on leave to see you,” Andy replied.

  Alice laughed and said, “That’s a nice answer,” but she knew that he meant it.

  “Hopefully, Alice, we’ll get weekend leave again in a couple of weeks’ time and I’ll be up to see you.”

  “I hope so too,” Alice replied. “This long-distance romance is not easy.” They talked on for a little longer and Andy promised to telephone her again before he went to London.

  At about the same time, Commander Rice was travelling on the London underground when he caught sight of a familiar figure. It was the person he knew as Bill Enderby. He was no longer dressed as a seaman but wore a smart business suit and bowler hat and carried a leather document case. He was clean-shaven. Rice had been reading a newspaper and now lifted it up again before Enderby could see him. Rice knew that he would have to follow Enderby and see where he went. The train pulled into Baker Street Station and Enderby rose and hurriedly left the carriage. Commander Rice folded his newspaper and headed for the doors. His way out was blocked by a rather large old lady with a walking stick, struggling to get out of the carriage and onto the platform. She was being helped by an old man who was struggling to help her. By the time Rice was able to get off the train, Enderby had disappeared. He headed for the nearest escalator and hoped that he had picked the right one. At the concourse, there was no sign of Enderby and Rice headed out into the street. There was no sign of Enderby there either. Feeling frustrated, he headed back into the station and bought another ticket to West Hampstead where he lived. The next morning at the office, Rice put in a report on his sighting of Enderby and then an alert was sent to all police stations in the Greater London area.

  Chapter 15

  Friday morning (21st) passed without incident at RAF West Sanby. In the afternoon Corporal Hill took two of the progress clerks over to the squadron control room as part of their training. In it were located the radar screens and the missile control unit. The operators sat at the screens and monitored the aircraft movements on the radar screen. They wore headphones and were in contact with a sector controller. Corporal Hill introduced the airmen to the duty corporal who then started to explain the operation. The left headphone received the conversation at the sector and in the right headphone came the time every five seconds. Suddenly, the airman at the right side screen raised his right arm and everyone stopped speaking. He turned and said, “Unidentified aircraft coming towards the coast. It has failed to answer sector requests for identity.” The corporal picked up the telephone to the duty officer and reported the situation. He received an order to lock a flight of missiles onto the aircraft. The atmosphere became intense. Heavy cloud cover had been building up during the day and it may be hard to spot the aircraft. The corporal moved to a control panel and asked the operator for the co-ordinates. The operator called them out and these were fed into the missile control unit and the flight of missiles locked onto the aircraft. The telephone rang and the corporal answered it. He was told by sector that two Lightning fighters had been scrambled from RAF Coltishall to find the aircraft. The operator called out the co-ordinates and flight direction every thirty seconds. The information was fed into the missile control unit and was relayed to the fighter pilots. The tension grew and no-one spoke except the operator. The minutes passed as they all waited for news from the fighter planes. By now the aircraft was crossing the coastline of Lincolnshire. Suddenly, the operator turned in his seat and called out, “Civilian airliner — the Lightning pilots have sighted the unidentified aircraft and received a response from its pilot. Sector advises it is no threat.”

  “Thanks, Tommy,” said the corporal. He then telephoned the duty officer who ordered the missiles back to ‘ready’ status. There was a general sigh of relief. If the Lightning fighters had not found the unidentified aircraft, the next order would have been unpleasant to carry out.

  One of the progress clerks asked the question, “Would it have been shot down if they hadn’t found it?”

  The duty corporal replied, “We’re here to protect Englan
d. What if it had been a Soviet bomber sneaking in with the heavy cloud?” The young airman remembered the report of a civil airliner that had crashed in fog a few months previously and wondered at the report of “Unknown Cause.” He stayed silent as the reality of their work sank in. They went on with the training exercise.

  ***

  It was Saturday afternoon (22nd) and the unit had worked that morning. Andy had checked with RAF Nocton Hall about visiting times and he drove down to Nocton Hall and was permitted to visit Jamie. Jamie had been transferred to one of the wards in a series of buildings laid out behind the hall itself. When Andy arrived in Jamie’s ward, he noticed that Yvonne was already there. The nurse showed Andy to the bed and asked them to talk quietly for the sake of other patients. When Yvonne turned to greet him, Andy noticed the shine in her eyes and wondered what the cause of it was. It didn’t take him long to guess. In the course of the three-way conversation, Yvonne asked Andy if he and some unit members would go to the dance at Parfleet St Peter to give it extra support. Andy agreed. After twenty minutes, Andy excused himself and left since it was obvious that the couple’s only real interest was in each other. He was thoughtful as he drove back to base.

  That evening, Andy and his mates drove across to Parfleet St Peter and parked the car near the church. It was about 8.15 p.m. and the dance had officially started. They walked down the street towards the village hall. A Bedford bus passed them and pulled up outside the village hall. Andy noted that it was owned by a company from Mablethorpe as it discharged a number of people. There were about fifteen young ladies, a dozen or so young men and a number of older folk, who probably had connections with the village. Andy and his mates paid their three shillings entrance fee and went into the hall.

  It was a typical village hall with a stage at one end. A kitchen and a room were off to one side of the hall. Along the side of the kitchen, tables and chairs had been set out. A sign warned that alcohol was not to be consumed outside that area. A bar had been set up next to the room and drink supplies were stored in the room. A line of chairs had been placed along the wall on the other side of the hall. A four-piece band on the stage was playing a foxtrot and about half-a-dozen couples were dancing. Chalk had been sprinkled over the floor to improve it for dancing. Two ladies were busy in the kitchen and were preparing supper food. To Andy it was a typical country atmosphere that he had experienced in Northumberland. No doubt more people would drift down from the pub later. Most of the older folk and the younger ladies off the bus had seated themselves at the tables. About half of the young men off the bus had sat on the chairs on the other side of the hall while the rest had headed for the bar. They were looking in the direction of the young women and commenting among themselves. “Everything normal,” thought Andy. He and his mates found a table and sat down.

  Lance went off to get some drinks. The music stopped and the band had a discussion on what they would play. At that moment, Yvonne walked into the hall. She gave Lance and the others a smile and wave and headed for the kitchen to help there. She was followed into the hall by some of the local fishermen and their wives. The band-leader called a quickstep and couples walked onto the floor. Some of the young men headed across the floor to ask the young ladies to dance. The band struck up and people started dancing.

  At Andy’s table, Dan gave a grin and got up to ask a young lady to dance. She accepted the invitation and they whirled off into the throng of dancers. “I feel a bit guilty about dancing with someone other than my Anne,” Lance said to Andy.

  “I feel a bit the same way,” Andy replied, “but if I see a lady being ignored then I’ll ask her up to dance. They don’t come to sit the night out.”

  “That sounds like a good idea, Andy. I feel that I could explain that away to Anne.” They looked around the hall and saw four young ladies still sitting so they went across and each man asked one to dance.

  Andy smiled at the two still sitting and said, “Your turn next time,” and got a “Cheeky!” reply from one of them but with a grin following. Dance followed dance, being a mixture of modern and old time, and over an hour had passed. The time was 9.30 p.m. and a supper interval was called. By this time a number of the young men and women had paired off. Andy noticed that three of the local fishermen were paired off with young Mablethorpe women. People queued up to buy some supper and the master of ceremonies (MC) started a tape recorder playing recorded music for those who wanted to continue to dance. Some of the older couples took to the floor. As Andy, Lance and Dan were buying their supper, Yvonne came across and said that she would be out after supper and to keep a dance for her. Lance said, “You can have one with each of us. We’ll look after you.”

  “Thanks,” Yvonne replied. “Talk to you later,” and gave Andy a meaningful look. He knew she wanted to talk about Jamie and this time he couldn’t avoid it. They went back to their table and had their supper. While they ate, the men who had been drinking at the pub drifted in, some of them the worse for the drink. These were mainly the Mablethorpe young men. A few minutes later the tape recorder was switched off and the MC called a foxtrot. The small band struck up and dancers took to the floor. The men from the pub asked ladies to dance and some of them refused. The refusal was clearly related to the level of alcohol that had been consumed by some. Those men were not happy and they went and stood in a group watching the dancers.

  While the dance progressed, the clock ticked on and at 10.30 p.m. the bar was closed. Young Jimmy, one of the fishermen, was getting on well with a Mablethorpe girl. They were on the floor dancing when one of the Mablethorpe men excused Jimmy and cut in. Jimmy retired gracefully to the side of the hall but it was clear that the woman was not happy with what the man was saying to her. Finally, she stopped dancing and tried to leave but he held onto her. An older couple spun passed and the man said, “Let her go and don’t disgrace yourself!” In a surly manner she was released and the young woman walked over to be beside Jimmy. Andy was at that moment dancing with Yvonne and noticed the incident. He wondered whether trouble was brewing. She was busy talking about Jamie being released from hospital soon and going home on sick leave. She talked of taking time off work to be with him. The publican and Walmar had also noticed the incident. With the bar closed, Walmar went out of the bar and walked across to where the young Mablethorpe men stood. He warned them not to cause a disturbance or they would be turned out of the hall. They nodded assent but it was clear that they were close to starting a fight.

  The time was almost 11.00 p.m. and the last waltz was called. The lights were dimmed and the multi-coloured glass globe hanging from the ceiling spun around, casting its colours around the hall. Jimmy and Tim, his mate, were both dancing cheek-to-cheek with Mablethorpe girls while some of the Mablethorpe young men had to stand and watch. As the last bars of the dance were played, they headed out of the door without waiting for the national anthem. The national anthem over, people were leaving the hall. Andy and his two mates were saying goodnight to Yvonne when the sounds of a fight came from outside. They hurried out to see Jimmy and Tim being set on by the Mablethorpe young men. The local men were still in the hall helping to pack things up. The odds were three to one. Andy looked at Lance and got a nod. They moved in and started to pull the Mablethorpe men away from Jimmy and Tim. One of the men took a swing at Lance, who blocked the blow and sank his right fist into the man’s solar plexus. Another hit Tim over the head with a bottle. It broke with the impact and glass flew in different directions. One piece hit one of the young women in the face, cutting her cheek open. She let out a scream of pain. Tim went down with a bleeding head. Andy grabbed the man and pulled him away from Tim. The man jerked himself free and swung round on Andy. He threatened Andy with the broken bottle. Andy moved back on the balls of his feet. As the man jabbed at Andy’s face Andy moved sideways from the jab, grabbed the man’s wrist with his right hand and chopped the inside of the man’s elbow. The arm folded in and the bottle cut into the man’s jacket and through his shirt into his chest
. There was a look of surprise on his face as he felt the pain in his chest and he let go of the broken bottle. Andy let go of the man’s wrist and stepped back. One of the man’s mates jumped on Andy’s back and tried to make Andy fall. Andy bent forward and then threw himself backwards in a break fall and the two of them fell. As the man hit the ground with Andy’s weight on him, he let go of Andy who brought his hands down, palms flat onto the ground, and then pushed himself upwards and landed on his feet in a typical judo recovery. Meanwhile Dan, Lance and Jimmy had dealt with the other three attackers. One of the attackers was on his hands and knees retching, another was sitting on the ground nursing a bruised cheek and a third was cowered back holding his hands up in front of himself as if to say, ‘no more!’. A crowd had gathered round the group of struggling young men with several of the fishermen, including Walmar, standing ready to intervene if necessary. There was no resident policeman in the village and the locals tended to take care of things and call the police if they thought it necessary. Yvonne had brought out a first aid kit and was tending to the young woman with the cut cheek. Tim was sitting against the wall holding a cloth to the cut in his scalp. His mother was telling him that he needed to get stitches in the wound. Jimmy turned to Andy, Lance and Dan and thanked them for coming in to help him. Walmar and the other fisherman herded the six young Mablethorpe men together. Jimmy Anderson was the acknowledged leader and also chairman of the co-operative. He took the names of the young men and then asked the injured lady if she wanted to press charges of assault. She said that she didn’t and Anderson said he would make a report to the police on the morrow. He nodded to the bus driver, “Better get these foolish young men on the bus with everyone else. If you have any trouble on the way back, go to the nearest police station or come back here with them.” The bus driver nodded his agreement and all the Mablethorpe folk headed for the bus. Anderson turned to the three airmen and thanked them for going to the aid of Tim and Jimmy.