After Dunkirk

by Lee Jackson

  Jeremy and Claire nodded.

  “Is this about Lance?” Claire broke in, her eyes wide with anxiety. “Is he dead?”

  “Maybe not,” Crockatt replied. He introduced the third man. “This is Corporal Derek Horton. He is among the first of those who arrived on our shores via that route. They arrived yesterday. We put out word that we wanted to interview any who made their way home, to get the details of how they did it. It’s pertinent to rescuing more.”

  “I want to know about our brother,” Claire interrupted again.

  “He’s the best man I’ve ever known,” Horton broke in, his voice rough. Speaking obviously took effort. “He’s a real leader, he is.”

  He leaned back with a faint smile. “Would you believe that when we got to Saint-Nazaire, a bunch of soldiers were raiding a train full of liquor. He set it on fire so they wouldn’t get too drunk to get themselves to the docks to be rescued.”

  Jeremy stared at him, stunned. “I was there. I saw that fire.” He put his hand to his face. “We were so close. I didn’t know he’d done that.”

  Horton sighed. “That was him.” He paused and shook his head. Then he alternated his eyes between the siblings. “I wish I had some good news for you.”

  “Is he dead then?” Jeremy asked.

  “I wish I knew.” He told Lance’s story from the time the two had met northeast of Dunkirk to their rescue after the Lancastria went down.

  “You were on the Lancastria?” Jeremy jumped from his chair in disbelief. He sank back down, numb with the realization of how narrowly they had missed each other, twice.

  “Yeah, we were there.” Horton resumed his story, telling how he and Lance had found a staff sergeant by the name of Kenyon and his friend struggling in the water.

  “Kenyon? Are you serious? Is he a demolitions specialist?”

  “He is.”

  “I met him in Marseille last week. He was with a Frenchman called Pierre and a woman—Elena. He must have recognized me.”

  “I’m sure he did.” He glanced at Paul. “The three of you are dead ringers for each other.” He smiled at Claire. “You too, Mum, if you were a bloke.”

  He chuckled at his own joke and went on, “I’m glad to know Kenyon and Pierre got away. Elena, too. She’s a nice lady.” He told of François leading them across France and of his death from a Stuka attack, and he explained the mission they had undertaken with the French resistance. “We succeeded. We blew up those fuel tanks, but then while we made our getaway, we got stopped by a German panzer sitting in the middle of the road with a squad of infantry soldiers. The last time I saw Lance, I was lying in a ditch, and he was being marched away by the Germans.”

  He closed his eyes. “I love your brother. I wouldn’t be here but for him, and others might have made it home because of him.” He opened his eyes again and gazed at each of the siblings. “I hate to be the one to tell you, and I hate to put it this way, but if Lance is alive, he’s a prisoner of war on his way to Germany.” Then he grinned. “If I know your brother, he’s giving ’em hell and trying to escape right now, as we speak.” He glanced up and made eye contact with each of the siblings. “One thing I can say.” His eyes probed each of their faces. “He loved you dearly. Each of you. And your parents. He was very devoted to your family and your Sark Island.”

  On the other side of the conference table, Claire broke down sobbing, letting tears run freely. Paul and Jeremy sat quietly, their heads bowed, shoulders drooping. Crockatt looked away as though to avoid intruding on private moments. For a few minutes, no one spoke. Horton dropped his hands into his lap and hunched forward in his chair, looking helpless. “I’m sorry,” he said glumly. “I was never any good at manners.”

  “Oh, no!” Claire said. She wiped her eyes on a handkerchief, stood, and hurried around the table to hug him. “You’ve suffered a great deal,” she whispered between barely controlled sobs, “and you cared for our brother. How can we do anything but love you? You’re welcome with our family anytime.”

  Crockatt excused himself, stating that he would interview Horton further later, and Vivian brought in sandwiches. The group lingered in the conference room, eager for any detail about Lance, and Horton obliged. Then, after bidding farewell, Jeremy and Claire rode the train back to Stony Stratford together. They took a first-class compartment so they could be alone in their grief, riding in silence for most of the trip, tending to their separate thoughts. Paul had work still to do at his office and promised he would be there later and bring Horton along.

  When the train was well out of London and into the countryside, Claire said, “I’m so glad we came. That Corporal Horton is a wonderful person. We must stay in touch with him. He is family now.”

  “Agreed,” Jeremy replied. “He gave all the credit to Lance, but I get the feeling that he deserves a lot of it too. I hope someday we can hear the full story with the two of them together.”

  Claire nodded and wiped her eyes. She smiled, and then teared up again as her thoughts returned to their missing brother. “We kept talking about him in the past tense, but he might be alive. We must cling to that hope and pray that he comes home safely.”

  Jeremy nodded distantly while staring out the window at the passing villages and rolling fields. The train’s rhythmic purr brought a hypnotic effect. More minutes passed, and then, to relieve the distress, Claire asked, “Did you see in the news that the Germans dropped their first bombs on England two days ago, against our shipping?”

  Jeremy nodded. “It’s as Mr. Churchill said, the Battle for France is ended, and the Battle of Britain has just begun.” He sighed. “We know we are in strange times when we use a bit of news like that to lighten the mood.” Then he leaned toward Claire and touched her face. “I want to say thank you.”

  Claire regarded him, once again on the brink of tears. “For what?”

  “I know you can’t acknowledge what I am going to say, and I don’t want you to.” He paused, searching for the right words, and felt the return of composure as he spoke. “I know you had something to do with generating my mission to France. I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was, without you, Ferrand Boulier would likely be dead, and his network destroyed. Now it’s a valuable asset, and I got to see Amélie again. That wouldn’t have happened for a long, long time.”

  Claire gazed at him through teary eyes. “Oh, little brother,” she cried, hugging his neck and kissing his cheek. “I love you.” She clung to him for a time. “Things will work out for you and Amélie, you’ll see.”

  Jeremy adjusted himself in her arms so that his shoulders lay flat against the back of the seat. He stared up at the ceiling. There must be a way to use that network to find Lance and bring him home.

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  EAGLES OVER BRITAIN

  Book #2 in the After Dunkirk series
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  As WWII intensifies, the German Luftwaffe attacks Britain from the skies in a major air campaign. With no allies at hand, she stands alone.

  Individual American pilots, ignoring US neutrality laws, rush to aid England and join her fighter squadrons.

  As the Battle of Britain rages on, British pilots are joined by these, “The Few”, as well as refugee pilots from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other embattled nations.

  The story of the Littlefield family continues in the next installment of the After Dunkirk series.

  Click here to purchase EAGLES OVER BRITAIN now

  Eagles Over Britain

  Click here to purchase EAGLES OVER BRITAIN now

  Author’s Note

  The tapestry that is the history of World War II boggles the mind in contemplating what is generally known about it. Common knowledge of it is a tiny fraction of the full scope of accomplishment by courageous men and women who sacrificed their fortunes and their lives to bring in the cause of freedom. I learned that in researching for this series of books of which AFTER DUNKIRK is the first. For example, little is known about the sinking of the HMT Lancastria, and I have taken particular pains to describe that tragic event and pay respect to the memories of those lost, those who suffered through it and survived, and their affected families.

  When my publisher suggested that I write about the war, and despite that the genre always appealed to me, I was sure that all that could be written probably had already been published. When I dug in, I found myself awed by the contributions of people at critical turning points in the war—there were so many of them, but their names are seldom known or mentioned.

  One such person was Yvette Lundy, a Resistance fighter who died in late 2019. An article about her appeared in the news in late 2019. I found her story intriguing: as a schoolteacher in Épernay, France, she had been a forger, producing false documents for refugees from the Nazis, and she worked with the Possum Escape Line to help downed pilots, separated soldiers, and escaped POWs evade capture. Eventually she was arrested and held in the notorious Ravensbruck prison camp, being released at the end of the war.

  In researching the Possum line, I learned of myriad other networks across Europe. Some were set up to help refugees and escapees; others to engage in sabotage. Many were developed with outside help from the Allies. Others sprang up independently. One book I acquired for research covered a single network. That book was 800 pages long, and each page listed entries: names, dates, and places; no narrative details.

  Isolated stories abound. The English Channel Isles’ lie very close to France, one of which is Sark Island. Only recently has it changed its government from a feudal to a democratic form. And yet, through most of its history, the people of Sark have loved their way of life and their governing system. During the war, the real Dame of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway and her husband anticipated that Germany would occupy the Isles, and they planned to meet that challenge. A sad note about their story is that they lost a son during the Blitz.

  A point of confusion sometimes surrounds the timeframe of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. The evacuation occurred over eight days, but in the immediate weeks following, additional evacuations took place along the French Atlantic coast. That led into the Battle of Britain which lasted for roughly three months and which British historians account for as separate and distinct from the Blitz. During the Battle, the Luftwaffe bombed RAF airfields (with an accidental bombing of London leading to an RAF reprisal bombing of Berlin). When Churchill showed no sign of relenting and seeking a negotiated peace with Hitler, he changed tactics and began bombing cities, which continued for eight months. That action was the Blitz.

  This book, AFTER DUNKIRK, limits its scope to the timeframe immediately following the evacuation until a few days into the Battle of Britain. The next book, EAGLES OVER BRITAIN delves further into the Battle; and the one following will center on the Blitz.

  Over the course of the year that incorporated the Evacuation, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz, both Great Britain and Germany changed elements of strategy, tactics, and equipment. Those elements appear in each book to the best of my understanding, characterized by how they were seen in each successive period, which might differ from a view looking back.

  On the British side, in the early days, there were more Hurricanes than Spitfires because the former had been in the inventory longer, and the latter were far more difficult to manufacture and thus took more time to deliver. On the German side, the Messerschmitt was the most capable aircraft, however, the Germans also relied on the Stuka dive bomber/fighter, Ju 88s, Heinkels, Dornier DO17’s, and other aircraft. As a result, in any given battle, an unexpected combination of aircraft might have appeared.

  During the Battle of Britain, the limitations of the Stuka as a fighter became manifest, and from thence was used almost strictly as a dive bomber requiring ME109 escort. That was not the case across the entire length of Germany’s many fronts, and Stukas strafed and bombed ships, trains, convoys, tanks... Interestingly, the most decorated of all German pilots was Hans Ulrich Rudel, a Stuka pilot.

  There is no doubt of what Churchill said of those who fought during the Battle of Britain, that so much was owed to so few. Nothing can take that away. What is little known is the radar screen and the command and control system designed and established by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. His determination and force of personality built the system of men, women, machines, and technology that allowed Great Britain to see well in advance where Germany was sending its bombers and fighter escorts and dispatch “The Few” to engage them in mortal combat at the places and times that would bring down an otherwise overwhelming, implacable foe. Of equal value was the decoding and analytical facility established at Bletchley Park that developed the ability to read any and all coded radio messages transmitted across German networks. The combined effort of all these men and women who sacrificed themselves helped win the war.

  This book is a work of fiction, but it is based on real people and events. Where I have used actual names, their actions herein are fictitious, and a figment of my imagination. I hope I have done the real participants justice

  Acknowledgments

  The people who helped me with AFTER DUNKIRK, are numerous. I put out a call for anecdotes about WWII escapes and evasions and received piles of them. I am humbled by the heroism of so many mothers, fathers, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and other relatives of that time without which, we would be living in a much darker world.

  Friends and family contributed technical knowledge. Others read and re-read either sections of the draft, or the entire manuscript, several times. Others proofread. Still more provided encouragement.

  I have expressed my gratitude to each person who helped me with this project, so rather than risk missing someone here, please accept my thanks again, here.

  I will extend my gratitude to my publisher, Andrew Watts at Severn River Publishing. He pushed me to write about World War II. I had read many books about the war and had studied it at West Point, but I had never researched it in depth, digging into the corners and crevices to find the little-known details of that history. They must number in the billions. I have probably not both read and written so much in as short a time, and a major element I learned is that if I study that epoch daily for a thousand years, I am sure that each day I will learn something new and astounding that reinforces the awe in which I hold all who participated to keep the western world free. We call them the greatest generation. They were giants.

  About the Author

  Lee Jackson is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of The Reluctant Assassin series and the After Dunkirk series. He graduated from West Point and is a former Infantry Officer of the US Army. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, splitting 38 months between them as a senior intelligence supervisor for the Department of the Army. His novels are enjoyed by readers around the world. Lee lives and works with his wife in Texas.

  LeeJackson@AuthorL
eeJackson.com