Back at MI5 Headquarters, both Emerson and St John were being interviewed in separate interview rooms. It was alleged that Emerson took secret papers out of Air Ministry and this was a chargeable offence. He denied the charges. It was alleged that he had handed them to Miss St John hidden in a magazine. In the other room, Miss St John was accused of acting on Emerson’s behalf and passing secret documents to the enemy. She denied it, saying that Emerson gave her the magazine and asked her to read a particular article and comment on it.
When the two vans arrived at MI5 HQ, ‘Document Case’ was taken to a well-equipped medical centre and put into a dentist chair and his arms secured. He received treatment for his wrist, a doctor removing the bullet fragments and a nurse dressing it. Then his mouth was clamped open and the handkerchief removed. An inspection revealed the hollow tooth with the cyanide pill. It was removed and the tooth filled expertly. Then the man was taken to an interview room. Enderby was already in another one, the cyanide pill in his hollow tooth having also been removed. The contents of his pockets revealed nothing to identify him. Enderby claimed to be an Andrew Bolton from Epsom in Surrey. He gave an address and that was all. He refused to answer any other questions.
Once John Douglas’s wound had been dressed, he was put into the ambulance and taken to the hospital. Andy went with him. At the hospital, John Douglas was ‘prepped’ and then taken to theatre to have the bullet removed. Ed turned up at the hospital accompanied by two other officers. Brief introductions all round and then Ed said, “C’mon Andy. These men will keep watch over John until he can be released. Come back with me and de-brief.” They headed out to the vehicle and drove across to MI5 HQ for de-briefing. During the de-briefing, Corporal Andy Hill was able to describe the different actions of Emerson and St. John that led to the events of the evening. He was then driven to RAF Stanmore Park and allowed to head for his billet.
The next morning, Corporal Andy Hill caught the train to Westminster and walked across to Kingsway. He checked into Air Ministry and went to the office. Getting his working files from the safe room, Andy wondered what the day’s events would bring. No doubt John Douglas would be reported in sick but he wondered if there was enough evidence on the others to hold them.
At 09.00 hours, Griffiths walked in and across to his office. He looked around and noted the empty desks before going into his office. Five minutes later his telephone rang and AVM Denby spoke to him. “Ah! Griffiths, come up to my office. There have been some developments which affect the staffing of your section.” Griffiths put the telephone down and headed out into the corridor. Fifteen minutes later he returned and asked Corporal Hill to come to his office. Andy went in and a visibly shaken Griffiths asked him to sit in the visitor’s chair. His manner was very different to the day Andy arrived. “Corporal Hill, I understand that you and Mr Douglas were involved in a plan to identify the security leak that had been traced to my section. This has resulted in the loss of Mr Emerson and Miss St John from my section. Air Vice-Marshal Denby has asked me to convey his appreciation of your part in this action. Mr Douglas was injured, as you are aware, and will be absent on sick leave for a few days. A section officer will be transferred in this afternoon from another section and you will brief him on the Red Hawk system and the spare parts recommendations that you and Mr Douglas worked out. You should be able to finish that by tomorrow afternoon and I understand that you are to return to your unit on Thursday, 27th October. Sadly, I have lost a very efficient secretary. Thank you. That is all.” Corporal Hill got up and left the office.
During the Wednesday morning he went through and revised the spare parts listings in the report to what they should be and drew up tables to give to Emerson’s replacement. A temporary secretary arrived for Mr Griffiths at about 10.00 hours and, after meeting with him, didn’t appear to be happy with her assignment. In the afternoon, the temporary replacement for Emerson arrived and was briefed by Griffiths. Introduced to Corporal Hill, he appeared cautious in his conversation with him. Andy spent the afternoon briefing him on the SAM system so that he was ready to work with the defect analysis reports and the assessed spare parts needs the next day. The ‘sick’ public servant that John Douglas had replaced would be back at his desk on the Monday.
During his lunch break, Andy purchased a postcard of London and posted it to Alice, letting her know when he would leave London — and that he missed her.
In the afternoon office mail, there was an envelope for Corporal Hill. In it was a memo from Hamilton with advice on how to contact John Douglas. There was also a congratulatory sentence in the note as well. Douglas had been released from hospital and was resting at home. He had a small apartment in Westminster and after 17.00 hours Andy caught the underground to Victoria Station and walked to the address given. The door was opened by a MI5 operative who was protecting John Douglas. He was introduced as Dave Johnson and he headed out to get some take-away food for the three of them. John Douglas had his arm strapped up so that his shoulder would have a chance to heal. “Good to see you, Andy. What have you heard?” John said.
“Only that Emerson and St John won’t be going back to work in Air Ministry. What do you know?” Andy asked.
“Well,” said John, “it turns out that Emerson was recruited by the Communists while he was working with them in Yugoslavia and acted as a mole until he was in a position to be of use. St John was in love with Emerson and did what he wanted with the promise that they would be able to buy a nice house in the home counties and get married if she helped him with the drops. At her age the biological clock was really ticking and she agreed to his suggestion. As Griffiths’ secretary, she had access to his minutes of meetings and passed relevant information to Emerson. The man you called ‘Enderby’ proved to have a cyanide capsule in a hollow tooth and under administration of Sodium Pentothal we learned his real identity and that he is from Moscow. The other man had the same treatment and is working for Russian intelligence. Sadly, Moscow won’t get our list of information but we have plugged the leak. Our bosses are pleased.”
Andy smiled his agreement and said, “Griffiths isn’t happy. At least he wasn’t snooty with me this morning. I return to my unit on Thursday afternoon.” He thought, “Well, at least that is the last of Enderby for me.” Shortly afterwards, Dave Johnson arrived with the food and they settled down to eating. An hour later, Andy took his leave of them and headed back to Stanmore Park. He had made a friend who told him that any time he was in London he could stay at his apartment.
***
Late Thursday afternoon, Corporal Hill drove out of RAF Stanmore Park and drove back to RAF West Sanby. He arrived during the evening and reported back to his section the next morning (Friday). Routine orders showed that there was to be a station commander’s parade on the Saturday morning (29th) and that the JSTU would be working that day. There would also be a domestic site inspection by the officers responsible for each barrack block. That meant that everyone not on duty would be cleaning and polishing their rooms and their equipment. Andy knew that he had to let a disappointed young lady know that he wouldn’t be able to attend the charity ball with her.
The domestic site inspections were at 08.30 hours. By 09.30 hours, personnel had formed up and were marching to the parade area. Since there was no parade ground, the station personnel, along with the squadron and JSTU, paraded on the hard-standing in front of the squadron hangar. The day dawned with a clear sky. Overnight the temperature had dropped as the cloud cover had been driven inland by a cold continental wind. Fortunately, personnel were not carrying rifles for this parade and were able to wear gloves. Even so, the woollen gloves of the NCOs and airmen were not enough to prevent the hands getting cold. Having marched onto the parade area, personnel were stood at ease awaiting the arrival of the station CO. Corporal Hill and others were screwing up their toes to keep up the blood circulation. Hands behind their backs, they rubbed their fingers to keep some warmth. The wind chill factor was high and as breaths were exhaled, they for
med small clouds of condensation. Fifteen minutes went by and no CO. The officers arrived and waited at the edge of the parade area. Another fifteen minutes passed before the CO’s Vanguard car turned through the gates onto the airfield. As the car pulled up, the parade commander called the parade to attention. There was almost relief to have some movement of the limbs, not that it was much. The parade commander called the officers to take station and they marched onto the parade and took station in front of their sections and units and the parade handed over to the CO. The flag was raised, the padre said prayers and then the parade was called to “Open Order” ready for inspection by the CO. A young National Service airman keeled over in a faint and a sergeant moved to his aid. The CO gave a cursory glance and started his inspection. He seemed impervious to the cold and a few persons muttered under their breath. Finally, the parade was over and each section marched off under the control of a Senior NCO to their dismissal point on the domestic site. By that time, it was nearly 11.00 hours. People hurried inside and out of the cold.
That evening the twin sisters attended the charity ball in Hexham with their parents, unescorted by their beaus. The beaus and friends headed down to the village for a quiet drink and a game of darts in a warm pub.
CHAPTER 16
It was Monday morning (31st October) and Major Garasov had received instructions from Moscow. It had been reported from their London links that two of their operatives had not returned from a simple ‘pick-up’ exercise. It was also believed but not yet confirmed that their Air Ministry contact had been detained by MI5. There had been talk in Fleet Street over the weekend of shootings in a lane near Piccadilly but that it had been hushed up with a ‘D’ notice to the press. That suggested that MI5 may have been involved. Major Garasov was now to take local responsibility for all activities relating to the Red Hawk project. All agents involved would now report directly to him and not separately to Moscow. He was informed that the Politburo was concerned that their sources of information on this project had been virtually closed up. Garasov was to take action to re-open sources of information in Air Ministry and also to obtain the information that they were seeking on the Red Hawk project. Apart from acquiring a klystron, he was to obtain the wavelength that the SAM system would be operating on. The Russian military would then be able to take counter-measures to make the system ineffective. The major heaved a big sigh. There were also intimations that his friendship with the university professor should cease. He had half-expected that. At this rate, if he was not successful, he would be recalled and find that his career came to a halt. Garasov called his assistant in and they sat down to review things and try to develop strategies to fulfil the Kremlin demands.
At RAF West Sanby, life proceeded on its way. Preparations for the trials continued at the JSTU. There was an urgency to have a shake-down trial before the coming winter weather made it too difficult. They were already into November and the winter weather was starting. The personnel strength of the unit continued to increase in both technical and support personnel.
A week later (7th Nov.) Corporal Paul Rossley was en route by train to his posting to the JSTU at RAF West Sanby as a storeman. He had to change trains in Doncaster and headed to the men’s room as he waited for the connection. Leaving his luggage at the entrance he went inside. Two men followed the corporal in. As he stood to relieve himself, one of the men put him in a head-lock from behind, twisted and broke his neck and spinal cord. Quickly he dragged the dying man into a cubicle and stripped off his uniform. This was passed to the other man who changed into it and the corporal was dressed in the other person’s clothes. As someone came into the toilet, they closed the cubicle doors and waited until the person left. The person now dressed as Corporal Rossley picked up his luggage and went to wait for the train connection to Grimsby and then Louth. The dead airman was left in the cubicle and the door locked, with the killer climbing out over the top of the cubicle. There was no identification on the dead airman. The body was not found for several hours when cleaners came into the toilet area and became suspicious when there was no response to their questions.
Two days later (Wednesday 9th November), ‘Corporal Rossley’ had made himself familiar with the various sections of the unit and had been briefed on the process for re-ordering spare parts since the system was not yet operational. When it became operational, the parts would be supplied from a maintenance unit. ‘Corporal Rossley’ immersed himself in the work of the stores section. He clearly had a good knowledge of the RAF stores procedures and forms and he seemed to settle in fairly quickly. On the same day, the shake-down trial was called and the unit prepared to test both the equipment and the procedures. The missile had been loaded onto the launcher and the whole system readied for a simulated attack. The data recording section was set up with the aircraft tracking scope and voice recorders. Corporal Hill had his airmen familiarise themselves with the equipment and procedures. Following this trial and the testing of the systems and procedures, any weaknesses would be identified and corrections made before the proper trials began in earnest in the spring. The weather forecast predicted a fine day for later that week (Friday 11th).
The ‘shake-down’ trial started at 10.00 hours and continued for two hours with several runs by the RAF Shackleton aircraft. In between runs there were simulations of equipment parts failures to test every aspect of unit activity. Every section logged the activities during the trial and these were then worked through to identify where there were weaknesses in the systems. In Corporal Hill’s team, the airmen listening in and recording the flight and track data had a few problems of hearing and writing everything down. There were minor delays in supplying spare parts from stores but the SAM system appeared to function well. A power surge occurred during the trial and some radar parts blew. One of the parts to be changed was the klystron which left no spare in the store. The power modulator was also to be re-designed to prevent the surges causing parts to blow. On the Monday morning (14th) ‘Sarge’ raised a supply voucher and forwarded it with a parts list to the store. When the unit was stood down late afternoon, ‘Corporal Crossley’ caught the 5.30 p.m. bus into Louth.
Three days later (Thursday 17 th) the consignment of spare parts were delivered to the JSTU and checked into stores. Saturday (19th) came around and most personnel had been stood down for the weekend. The control and radar sections were working shifts as usual and other rostered personnel were on duty. ‘Corporal Crossley’ was duty storeman for the weekend. It was 12.25 hours and the drone of an aircraft was heard. In the control tower a request came from the pilot, “This is Anson WH 453 on a training flight from RAF Wattisham. Request permission to land and take-off as part of training exercise.”
Control Tower responded, “West Danby Control. Please quote your authorisation. Over.”
“Authorisation FC12G/315/60. Over.”
The authorisation number appeared to be genuine. “This is Control. You may proceed. Over.” The duty controller then picked up the telephone to call the duty officer, who then advised security and told them to be on stand-by. The Anson came clearly into sight and the yellow band around the fuselage showing that it was a trainer was clearly visible. It circled the airfield and turned to come in on Runway 205. The undercarriage came down and the plane straightened up for the landing. It seemed to drift down gently and touched down on the runway. It taxied along and then, instead of revving the engines to take off it turned off the runway and taxied across to the open door of the JSTU hangar. As it turned, a corporal was seen to push a trolley across with a crate on it. The door of the Anson opened and two persons jumped out and ran across to the trolley. They grabbed the sides of the crate and turned and pushed it into the Anson. Then both the two men and the corporal climbed into the Anson which immediately revved its engines and taxied away. The RAF police on security stand-by raced for their Landrover to try and prevent the plane from taking off. The pilot of the Anson noted that the windsock hung limply and taxied across the grass to the runway. He t
hen gunned the engines and raced down the runway to take off at the same end he had landed. The RAF police Landrover raced across the airfield to try and cut the plane off but, as it came close, the pilot pulled back on the ‘stick’ and the Anson lifted off, clearing the Landrover. As it gained height, the Anson turned and headed north-east over the sea. In the control tower, the duty officer, who had driven down to watch the Anson do its training run, picked up the telephone and requested to be connected to the nearest fighter station. The whole incident had taken about four minutes from the pilot’s request to land.
On board the Anson, the occupants were congratulating themselves, not least ‘Corporal Crossley’. The pilot continued to gain height and entered cloud where he thought it would be harder to detect them.
At the sound of the aircraft, the duty JSTU officer, who happened to be at the missile control module, had gone outside to see what was happening. He saw the whole incident and recognised the crate containing the klystron. He raced into the radar unit and told them to lock onto the Anson. Then he picked up the ‘phone to missile control and told them to lock the missile into the radar and ready for firing. He then ran across to the missile control to direct the launch from there. The officer knew that he was not following procedure but it was vital to stop the Anson aircraft. The alerted duty team calmly went through the procedure as they had been trained to do. Range and bearing were fed into the system and when the operator said, “Ready, sir” the officer gave the order to launch the missile. There was a hissing that turned to a gentle roar as the missile launched skyward. “Red Hawk rising, sir,” said the operator.
“Keep to your posts!” said the officer, as men wanted to go outside to watch the missile’s flight. Others not directly involved went outside to watch. The duty staff in the headquarters building had gone out to watch the Anson aircraft and now watched fascinated as the missile took to the skies.
Red Hawk Rising Page 39