War Brothers

by Patrick Slaney

  ‘I am cancelling all activities planned for this afternoon as an emergency has arisen which needs to be resolved. Both the entrances have been sealed off, and the guards have instructions to allow nobody in or out. I would be obliged if you would stay in your rooms.’

  ‘Are you able to tell us what the emergency is all about?’ the naval Captain asked.

  ‘I will be able to tell you all about it once the situation has been resolved,’ the Colonel answered. ‘You are now all dismissed.’

  As I was leaving the room, Major Richards called me over.

  ‘Please join us in the Colonel’s office, Markus.’

  When we were all seated the Colonel addressed me.

  ‘I have seen the message that was pinned to your wardrobe, and I would like to suggest a possible way of resolving the issue, but it will need your co-operation. Are you willing to help?’

  ‘Of course I am willing to help, but what will be involved?’

  ‘We would like to set you up as a target to see if we can flush out the person who sent you this note. They have stated that you must ‘watch out’ if you go outside, so we want you to go for a walk outside this afternoon. It should be easy to spot anybody if they follow you,’ Major Richards explained.

  ‘What happens if he shoots at me from the house?’ I asked, not too impressed with their suggestion.

  ‘We will give you a route to follow and we will have sharp shooters placed, at strategic points, to cover where you will be walking. We have already called in extra guards. They will cover every possible place the culprit might hide in,’ the Colonel explained.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of it, but if you think it will work I am game.’

  ‘That’s settled then; let’s work out the finer details of the plan to ensure that we don’t lose one of our agents.’ The Colonel smiled at me. ‘You can look upon this as a training exercise.’

  On a plan of the estate, we worked out the route that I should take, and they established where they would need to place their sharp shooters.

  An hour later, with everything in place, I set out on my walk along the selected route. I had a horrible tingling feeling in my back as I was expecting to receive a bullet between my shoulder blades at any minute. It was very difficult to walk in a relaxed manner knowing that someone unknown might be stalking me. I felt naked as I was used to having my aircraft around me when I was going into dangerous situations.

  As I was getting close to the entrance steps to the underwater ballroom, I spotted a sudden movement. Instantly I worked out that any sudden movement must be danger, so I threw myself to my left. A gun went off, and I heard the bullet whistle by me and thud into a large flower pot. I heard a shot from a rifle behind me, and my attacker fell backwards down the steps to the ballroom.

  A number of khaki clad figures raced past me and piled down the steps. They came back out dragging a man dressed in khaki that was wounded and moaning with pain. I went over to have a look at the person who had tried to kill me. It was the old Corporal who had picked Major Richards and I up at the train station, and brought us to Witley Park. He was the last person that I had expected to see.

  When the house had returned to normal, and the extra guards had left the premises, the Colonel called us all together.

  ‘I can now explain to you what happened today,’ he said. ‘Markus received a threatening note which had been pinned to his wardrobe with a knife. The note stated that if he went outside he would be killed. It also called him a rather unpleasant name. This afternoon we used Markus as bait, and we managed to lure the culprit into revealing himself. Luckily Markus wasn’t hurt when he was attacked. The attacker was Corporal Kane who, as you all know, is the driver who takes you to and from the station. He was injured during the arrest.’

  ‘Do we know why he wanted me out of the way,’ I asked.

  ‘Very sadly he learnt yesterday that his only son had been killed fighting off a German attack in the deserts of North Africa. I am afraid that the news pushed him over the edge.’

  ‘Are you satisfied that the culprit has now been caught, and we can relax?’ Vic asked.

  ‘Yes, he was clearly acting on his own and nobody else was involved,’ the Colonel answered.

  ‘Let’s all go and have a beer in the dining room. Markus has certainly earned one, and I feel that I need one,’ Major Richards said, much to the delight of the assembled group.

  Vic and Brian wanted to know all about my involvement in the afternoon’s action, and we drank until dinner appeared. I was treated as a hero for my role in the whole affair.

  Needless to say, a vacancy arose for a driver and Corporal Kane was removed from the estate. I sympathised with the Corporal and how he must have felt as a result of losing his son. The fact that he was quite old and had served in the last War had probably saved my life as he wasn’t very nimble in his old age.

  Chapter 23

  I quickly settled back into my routine. The following Monday, six new trainees arrived at Witley Park, and the facilities went from being adequate to totally overcrowded. The winter weather wasn’t good enough for us to spend much time outside, so we had to entertain ourselves indoors. We also had to stay within the confines of the estate, so tempers started to fray as we all got bored.

  One very pleasant addition, on the entertainment side, was the showing of a movie on every Saturday evening. As well as the movie they used to show us a copy of Pathe News. It wasn’t the latest copy with the news being a few weeks old, but I loved watching it as it reinforced what Major Richards had told me, Germany was losing the war. It obviously was bound to be biased as it was giving the allies progress in the war.

  One of the new recruits was a twenty seven year old female, Francette Tranquet, who had lived a lot of her life in France prior to war breaking out. Her father was French, and her mother was English. I found her very attractive and good fun and we gravitated towards each other. For the Saturday night movie, we used to sit beside each other, and she used to help me out with some of the longer and more obtuse words.

  One evening after dinner I went up to my room to find Vic Biddlecome packing up his things.

  ‘I’m leaving you this evening, Markus,’ he said to me as I entered the room with a look of surprise on my face.

  ‘Where are you off to Vic?’

  ‘I am afraid that I can’t tell you where I am going, but I think it is OK to tell you that I am flying out from Croydon this evening at around midnight.’

  ‘That’s extremely sudden isn’t it,’ I asked him.

  ‘I have known for some time that I would have to leave at short notice, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. They told me at 5:00 pm that the weather was perfect, and I would be going tonight.’

  ‘Well good luck Vic. I hope that it all works out for you wherever you are going.’ I went across to him and shook his hand.

  He picked his bag up and went downstairs. I shut off the light and opened the blackout shutters and shortly afterwards saw him walk out to the staff car with Major Richards. They both got in and left for the airfield in Croydon.

  In the morning, I bumped into Major Richards after breakfast

  ‘Did Vic get off alright last night, Sir?

  ‘Yes, everything went well, and I saw him take off into the night sky over Croydon.’

  ‘When will you know if he arrived safely? I asked.

  ‘Hopefully he will be able to get a message through to us in the next few days.’

  ‘I would be interested in hearing how he got on, Sir,’

  ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything. By the way, you will be getting a new roommate in the next day or so, his name is Lieutenant Matthew Osborne. He is around your age.’

  Matthew Osborne arrived just before lunch the following day and was introduced to the others in the house just
before we ate. I felt quite an old hand as there was only Brian Wilkinson and me from the original group. Matt, as he preferred to be addressed and I hit it off from the start. Dark haired, brown eyes, he was about six feet tall and had a build similar to mine. It turned out that he had gone to Monkton Combe School near Bath where he had been a member of the senior rowing eight. We had a lot in common, and he was a much more affable roommate than Vic had been. Vic had been remarkably quiet and had a worry frown all the time, and we had nothing in common to talk about. Matt was much more outgoing and full of energy.

  The Friday afternoon of the week that Matt arrived I was called into the Colonel’s office where Major Richards and Colonel Thorpe were already seated when I arrived.

  “Good afternoon Markus how are you and Matt getting on?” The Colonel asked me.

  ‘Oh fine. We are the same age and have a lot in common,’

  ‘I have some particularly unwelcome news for you, Markus.’ Major Richards leant towards me, tapping his unlit pipe on the desk and looking unusually serious. ‘We have just heard that Vic Biddlecome was killed at the landing site in northern France. There must have been a leak of information and the German SS were waiting for him when he landed by parachute.’

  I was stunned. ‘That’s terrible news, Sir. Is there any chance that he might have survived?’

  ‘No we have had confirmation from the French resistance movement that he was definitely killed,’ the Major added.

  ‘Anyway Markus that is not the main reason that we have asked to see us today.’ the Colonel changed the direction of the conversation. ‘We want to discuss with you the plans that we have for the rest of your training. Major Richards will now give you an outline of what we have in mind.’

  ‘I have compiled this list setting out the areas that you will have to cover, so I think that it is best to use this as our discussion document.’ He put the list on the table so as we all could see it.

  The following was the list that he showed me:

  Orienteering across country using maps and a compass - at least 50 to 100 miles -Devon/Cornwall

  Survival in the open - Devon/Cornwall

  Sailing - Derwent Reservoir, Co Durham

  Knowledge of Jet engines - German and English - British Thomson-Houston factory in Lutterworth

  Knowledge of the Me262 jet engined fighter

  How to re-integrate into the Luftwaffe

  Intended activation date April 1941

  ‘I thought that I was going to do all my training at Witley Park, but you have me going all over England,’ I commented.

  ‘We wanted you here to start off with as we were taking an enormous risk in taking you on board and we needed to keep a particularly close eye on you,’ the Colonel replied. ‘You have done exceptionally well here, and we are satisfied that you won’t go running back to Germany when our back is turned.’

  ‘I am upset that you thought that I might abscond, especially when I have given my word,’ I said, disconcerted that they hadn’t trusted me.

  ‘In the business we are in the only way to get our trust is to earn it. If you hopped back to German held territory, there a lot of people you have seen in this facility, whose lives would be at risk, in fact, we would have to train a whole new bunch of operatives,’ the Major added.

  ‘When do I start on this training programme?’

  ‘You will be travelling to Cornwall on Monday to try your hand at orienteering. Your first week will be with Sergeant Paul Young who will be teaching you all you need to know about living rough. You had better learn well, because, in the second week, you will be on your own,’ the Major said, smiling at me.

  My first thoughts were:

  I must be mad to consider setting out across a part of a country that was an enemy of mine up to very recently. I still spoke English with an exceptionally strong German accent, so if stopped by the locals for some reason, I would have a major problem.

  ‘What happens if I am stopped and they discover that I am a German?’ I decided to ask.

  ‘I’ll answer your question with one of my own. What would happen to you Markus if you are on the run in Germany and are stopped by the SS?’ the Major responded.

  ‘All hell would break loose.’

  ‘So?’ the Major added.

  ‘I have to make sure that I don’t get picked up,’ I replied.

  ‘That’s 100% correct, and we will not be informing the local police or Home Guards that there is a friendly German on the loose in Cornwall.’ The Colonel thought that this last remark was hilarious.

  Chapter 24

  Monday morning I was up before 6:00 and ready for my lift to Bodmin in Cornwall. Just after 7:00 am, a car pulled up outside, and a female driver got out and came towards the house to collect her passenger. The car was a big step up on anything that I had previously been in and my driver obviously looked after it extremely carefully.

  ‘Good morning Sir, are you ready to go,’ she asked me, taking my bag out of my hand as we met.

  ‘Good morning, what a fabulous looking car and you obviously look after it exceptionally well,’ I said, pouring charm into my words.

  ‘Yes, it is a Wolseley 2.3 litre and I am very proud of it,’ she said, giving it a friendly pat.

  She loaded my bag in the boot and instructed me to sit in the back.

  After the two check points, where they scrutinised my papers and my orders, we headed off for the main road to the West.

  ‘Are you based locally,’ I asked her.

  ‘I have strict instructions not to talk to you Sir. I don’t know what you do at Witley Park, but we are given strict orders that we mustn’t talk to our passengers’ she explained. ‘You will have to find some other way of entertaining yourself until we get to Bodmin.’

  ‘That’s a shame, but I suppose that rules are rules,’ I replied. It seemed very strange to be sitting so close to someone and not being able to talk to them.

  It was a long time since I had been in the world that didn’t belong to Witley Park, and I watched with interest as we passed through the English countryside. For some reason, I started to think about home. Would I ever see my mother and grandad again, and help out in the bakery. Memories of Chris invaded my thoughts and what might have been if this terrible war hadn’t removed him from my life.

  A loud horn blast woke me from my dreams. I had obviously fallen asleep. There were sheep on the road blocking our path, and my driver was endeavouring to clear a way for us to pass through.

  ‘Sorry to wake you Sir, although it is probably time that you woke up as we will arrive in about ten minutes.’

  ‘I must have nodded off, and I missed most of the wonderful views. I must apologise.’

  ‘We have made quite good time, and we will be there just after 1:00 pm, so you can relax for another ten minutes’

  As predicted by my driver, we pulled up in front of the Westberry Hotel in Bodmin after a further ten minutes.

  She took my bag out of the boot of the car, saluted, and drove off leaving me in my new surroundings.

  As I was standing there looking at the front of the hotel, a uniformed man came out of the front door and approached me. I noticed the three stripes on his sleeve.

  ‘Good afternoon Sir, my name is Sergeant Young, and I will be conducting your training over the next two weeks.’ He saluted me and grabbed hold of my bag. ‘Let’s go in and get some lunch, and I will tell you a bit more about myself.’

  We approached the reception desk.

  This is Lieutenant Becker who I told you about when I checked in earlier,’ he said to the receptionist. ‘Can I have his key please?’

  He took the key and conducted me to my room.

  Once in the room he dumped my bag on the bed and turned around to address me.

  ‘Sir, my superi
ors have outlined to me what you are being trained for and your Nationality. I think it best if I do most of the talking, and that as few people as is possible, hear you speaking,’ he explained. ‘If we are out of earshot of others then there will be no problem in you talking to me. For obvious reasons, we must be extremely careful.’

  ‘Thank you Sergeant, I obviously don’t want to create a situation that will endanger you or I.’ I was unaware at that stage what would transpire in the not too distant future.

  Over lunch, he explained to me what he had been doing in the war so far. He had been part of the British army that had confronted the German invasion of Norway earlier in the year. He had managed to avoid injury and capture and been evacuated back to the United Kingdom. Once back in the UK he had been recruited into the new Commando unit and had undergone extensive special training. Finally he had been asked to get involved in teaching secret agents survival skills, so here he was, and I was his second pupil.

  ‘Compared to you Sergeant I have had a remarkably easy war. I just sat in the seat of a fighter plane and was carried across the skies.’

  ‘I like to feel the ground under my ‘pins’. I wouldn’t like the idea that there were thousands of feet of air below me if I happened to get shot down.

  ‘We did have parachutes and, in fact, I was saved by one.’

  ‘Well I will be teaching you how to create your own survival parachute on land. If you get into trouble you must be able to escape and remain under cover, wherever you happen to be.’

  ‘I am sure that I will enjoy it, just be easy on me at the start.’

  He smiled a cynical smile back at me. ‘I think that enjoy may not be the right word Sir.’ He got stuck into his lunch.

  That started a week of intensive training in all aspects of surviving in open country without the support of the local populace. The weather was wet and cold, and we left the hotel early in the morning and spent the day in the local countryside. By the time the evening came, I was very glad to get back to the warmth of my room. A car came and picked us up at 7:00 am every morning and used to take us a distance of around twenty miles making sure that it was a different direction each day. I was blindfolded at the hotel before I entered the car, so I had no idea in which direction the car went after it left Bodmin. I then had to find the way back to the hotel. This week I had the assistance of Sergeant Young, but the following week, when I did my test, I would be on my own.