Right of Reply

by John Harris

  ‘We think it’s the Chorniye Kazach,’ he told Hodges. ‘If it is, she’s a submarine mother ship.’

  ‘What’s that? A depot ship?’

  ‘“Mother” is a better description. Fuels them and supplies them. But if she’s here, it stands to reason there are submarines here, too.’

  ‘Did the helicopter see any?’

  ‘No. But radar’s getting blips now – quite distinct ones. Even sonar’s picking them up now, so they can’t be too far away. Probably below surface just over the horizon, following us by radar. They’re on the same course.’

  Downes’ smile died and his face became grave. ‘If they get the word “Go”, Horace,’ he said, ‘there never was an invasion so badly placed for its jump-off as this one. Huff-Duff’s been reporting foreign-language transmissions from them for some time, so I think we can safely assume that our estimate’s a sound one.’

  Hodges sucked at his empty pipe for a moment. ‘Any idea what they’re saying?’ he asked.

  Downes’ grave face broke into a grin again. ‘Data regarding the weather,’ he said. ‘They seem to be subjecting the atmosphere round here to a hell of a lot of tests. They don’t normally wear out the ether with this sort of activity and they certainly don’t send information of this kind by radio. It’s simply logged and evaluated at the end of the trip. What’s more, from what we know about this area, it’s all a bit suspect because it doesn’t match. So – assuming that everybody aboard her isn’t a bloody fool – I’d guess they’re using anything they can set their minds to, to hide information of a different kind.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘Us. I suspect they’re discussing us in some sort of code.’

  Hodges nodded. ‘As if we haven’t enough worries,’ he said, ‘with what Leggo turned up the other night and what Drucquer produced yesterday.’

  He glanced quickly at Downes. ‘This trouble among your people,’ he said. ‘The hammer and sickle on the gun turret. Duck turning back. Anything else? More serious, I mean.’

  Downes grimaced. ‘There’s been no disrespect to officers,’ he said. ‘But I’ve been aware that things have been far from normal.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘No direct insubordination, but there’ve been a few refusals of duty.’

  ‘Could you itemise these things?’

  ‘Given an hour or two.’

  ‘I’d like you to. I think also, in the circumstances, I’d like to speak to commanding officers of brigades. That includes you, of course, and Group Captain Neville. Can you arrange it?’

  Downes smiled. ‘Of course. Easy enough by helicopter. Always frightens me to death but I expect they won’t mind too much.’

  As he left the cabin, Hodges turned to Leggo who was working at the desk.

  ‘Can you arrange a conference for this morning, Stuart?’ he asked.

  ‘Of course, sir.’

  ‘Nothing big. Just the brigadiers and the Navy and Air Force people. I feel, with things as they are, we ought to talk.’

  ‘I’ll arrange it, sir.’

  Hodges stared through the porthole for a moment. The rain had continued most of the night in a steady and sickening descent, the water bubbling in the scuppers, while every overhang had dripped its weight of water to the deck. In the deck parties, tempers had grown frayed and nerves had become on edge, the men looking pinched and cold in spite of the temperature and the fact that they were sweating and drained of energy under their oilskins.

  A swell had got up now, too, and the seas were big and ugly so that the masthead lifted to the sky. The few soldiers who were visible looked seasick and unhappy, and even the sailors looked frayed and nervous.

  An albatross had joined the ship and was trailing it, clinging like foam to the waves to knock off the spray with its wide wing tips before sliding down the far side, inches from the surface of the water, slow and dignified and divorced in its magnificence from all the folly of the humanity in the great grey ships.

  Staring at the convoy heaving in slow curtseys, Hodges felt faintly depressed. One of the Malalan launches had disappeared during the night after signalling that its engines were giving trouble and, as it had turned to follow Duck back to Pepul, the Malalan force had closed up to fill the empty space.

  As he watched, a string of bunting fluttered at the masthead of Leopard. The British ships responded immediately, but there was a noticeable pause before the Malalan vessels ran the signal up.

  ‘Not finding communication easy,’ Hodges observed, as the flags came down again.

  He swung round, suddenly angry. ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘there’s been a war going on almost all my life and all the politicians do is tell us we ought to stop it. As though we enjoy it! We do the dirty work and all they do is sit on committees and make sure they’re not personally involved.’

  ‘Bit strong that, isn’t it, sir?’ Leggo protested.

  Hodges took a deep breath. ‘Yes, I suppose it is,’ he admitted. ‘But there is something in war, in spite of all that these mass peace movements say. There is some mystique in courage, self-sacrifice and unselfishness, Stuart, though, of course, it never makes up for the rest of it. But it’s something we know about and something they’ll never know about and never understand.’

  He seemed to refer to the politicians and the committee men – the unnamed ‘they’ – as though they were his personal enemies. He felt and sounded faintly rebellious and he knew it, and he decided it was time to change the subject.

  ‘What do you make of it all, Stuart?’ he asked. ‘Not just the pamphlets – everything. World opinion. Our equipment. These divided loyalties. We’re set on a collision course and God knows what could happen, and I’d like to hear someone else’s views in case they’re different from mine.’

  Leggo frowned, aware how lonely Hodges felt but unable to help him.

  ‘General,’ he said, ‘I don’t know what to think. I hate the idea of being involved in precipitating a third world war, but it still makes me squirm to see my country being pushed around. I wish I could be more helpful. I wish I knew the answer, sir, but I don’t.’

  ‘No,’ Hodges growled. ‘And neither do I, Stuart, apart from just going ahead as we are doing and hoping for the best.’

  Four

  The senior officers of Hodgeforce entered Hodges’ cabin warily. They knew why they’d been called to Leopard and they’d brought with them whatever hasty notes they’d been able to make on the subject. It was a gloomy gathering, not improved by the grey filtered light. It had been raining again for an hour now, and as they gathered round the table, their eyes on the maps, they could hear the gurglings and tricklings of water in the scuppers, while the air, stifling in spite of the fans, gagged in their throats in the humid heat of the afternoon.

  Hodges arrived a few minutes later with Leggo, Admiral Downes and Group Captain Neville, the head of the RAF liaison group. He waved a hand and the others sat down. Reading, the tank brigadier, and Rattray, the Marine, two solid-looking men with rock-like faces who, together with Ricketts, the Parachute commander, another man of the same mould, had become known throughout Hodgeforce as the Three R’s – Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic – sat separately at the back of the cabin, curiously alike in their toughness and confidence. Downes lounged on the chintz-covered settee under the porthole, one hand draped languidly across the back, casual and apparently indifferent. Brigadier Calhoun, a short sturdy man with bandy legs and a florid complexion above his thick neck, sat in the armchair, and Brigadier Dixon, a tall thin bespectacled man, sat neatly on a stiff chair at the end of the table. Neville, the RAF officer, sat with his legs astride his chair, his elbows on the back, a small man with a sharp-featured face who reminded Hodges vaguely of a terrier at a rat hole.

  As the conference started, Hodges allowed Leggo to open the ball, and he gave a short report on the subject of the pamphlets and on what he’d seen in Victoria Square before the convoy sailed. When he’d finished, Hodges leaned back in his c
hair.

  ‘Right, gentlemen,’ he said briskly. ‘I’ve been making enquiries about all this, as you know, and I’ve found out that this attitude of objection seems to run right through every unit in this command. In some I’m sure it’s nothing more than a dissatisfaction with pay. In others, it’s a problem of Reservists who’ve been kept waiting around too long, while their jobs are in danger back home. Nevertheless, because you’re nearer to it than I am, I’d like to hear what you have to say.’

  Reading and Rattray dismissed the suggestions of disaffection briefly. There’d been nothing among their own units, although they’d seen pamphlets, and Hodges turned to Calhoun.

  ‘Cal,’ he said. ‘How about you? You must have had some thoughts on this. The report from your brigade isn’t a very rosy one.’

  Brigadier Calhoun considered for a moment. He was newly promoted and very troubled by all the signs of unreliability in his command.

  ‘I don’t like it, General,’ he admitted. ‘I’d like to tell you I had no worries, but that wouldn’t be true. I have. There’s been a lot of sullenness and I’m afraid I don’t trust a lot of my people. In fact, I have grave fears that radio links will fail. I don’t feel the men who’re due in first are going to refuse – there are too many Guardsmen and we’ve got Rattray’s Marines, and I think they’ll carry the others with them – but I don’t like the idea of them being out on a limb all the same, with a lot of bloody fools letting them down from behind.’

  ‘What about the officers?’

  Calhoun shrugged. ‘Nothing much,’ he said. ‘There’s one officer under arrest in the 4th/74th. He says he’s prepared to resign his commission rather than be involved in an operation he doesn’t believe in.’

  ‘Background?’

  Calhoun pulled a face. ‘Not Army,’ he said. ‘But the boy’s good. Radio specialist. Just the sort of man we want. Brainy, perhaps a little too sensitive, perhaps a little too conscious of the rights of other people and the other side of every question. But that’s rather infectious everywhere these days, and most young people have it in their minds.’

  ‘They shouldn’t in the Army,’ Hodges commented.

  Calhoun shrugged again and Hodges frowned. ‘Do you expect any more?’

  Calhoun looked worried. ‘Greatorex of the 20th/62nd says he suspects there’s a movement of some sort in his mess. He’s heard rumours and there’s been a certain amount of cliquishness among the younger members. Pike says he’s had reports from his RSM of trouble among the sergeants. I understand you you know all there is to know about the 17th/105th.’

  Hodges rubbed his nose and turned to his other brigadier. Dixon, in command of the Reserves, was one of the brains that Calhoun admired so much.

  ‘Same sort of problems as Cal, sir,’ he said in a casual manner. ‘To paraphrase the Duke, nothing among the top people but we might pick up a private or two.’

  ‘Can you be more precise?’ Hodges said sharply. He wasn’t sure that he liked Dixon very much and he tried very hard to force down the feeling that it was envy for Dixon’s brain. Dixon had come into the Army from Cambridge, and he had an honours degree in science. His promotion, in an army of technology, had been rapid, but Hodges sometimes wondered if the Army didn’t demand more of a man than merely brains, and he had a feeling that while Dixon believed firmly in his scientific instruments, he didn’t take enough trouble with his men.

  Dixon was shrugging. ‘A little worrying from the 71st/86th,’ he said. ‘One or two men under arrest. A few of the Reservists in the 19th/43rd presented a petition. Several–’

  ‘What was the petition?’ Hodges demanded sharply.

  Dixon waved a hand. ‘On there, sir,’ he said, indicating a pile of documents he’d brought in with him. ‘Said they were tired of hanging about. Wanted to go home. There was a bit of trouble from the National Servicemen, too.’

  ‘About pay?’

  ‘About pay. Refused to take orders from the NCOs until they were on the same rates. They were both squashed pretty quickly.’

  ‘What’s your opinion in the event of action? How will they support the Guards?’

  ‘They’ll support them, sir.’

  ‘To the limit?’

  ‘Of course, sir.’

  Hodges stared at Dixon. He wasn’t sure that he didn’t prefer Calhoun’s anxiety to Dixon’s almighty confidence. His own view was somewhat different, because there appeared from the pile of documents in front of him to be more cases of disloyalty in Dixon’s brigade than there were in Calhoun’s. He turned to Downes.

  ‘Admiral?’

  Downes’ report was brisk, incisive and direct. ‘The ships have been infected for a long time,’ he said. ‘Since the alliance with Russia, they’ve been regularly into Baltic ports and they’ve picked it up there, and it’s spread. There’ve been cases in every ship under my command. The pamphlets were obviously delivered in Pepul by liberty boats and boats carrying non-urgent signals and mail. There’s obviously been a great deal of dissatisfaction over the pay cuts and the methods taken to explain them to the men. I think also there’ve been a lot of agitators – as I think there must have been in the Army and Air Force units – who’ve been forced into the Service by unemployment at home, the National Service Act and the calling up of Reservists. These last are men who’ve had the opportunity to become thoroughly versed in trade union activities, and they’re trying to apply the same methods in the Services. A few members of the Party even, by God, even a few Ban-the-Bomb-ers.’ Downes looked a little sick. ‘There’ve been incidents in several ships – small refusals of duty, that sort of thing – but the worst trouble’s been in Duck. The starboard watch failed to obey an order to fall in to clean ship and locked themselves in their messdecks, and intimidated the men who disagreed. I replaced the commanding officer and arrested four men, but as you know she’s dropped out with suspected sabotage. I don’t think it’s finished, and it could spread. It’s not very difficult to include subversive messages in fleet signals. I also found out about the meetings in Pepul. I understand some sort of code signal’s been arranged.’

  ‘What sort of code?’ Hodges asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps a group of letters sent by signallers between ships. As I say, it’s the easiest thing in the world for operators to insert them in messages and to have them picked up by other operators who don’t include them in the message when they receive it. Maybe by word of mouth, by ship’s boats, or even a cheering code between ships, though that’s probably a bit old-fashioned now.’

  ‘What would it be used for?’

  Downes shrugged. ‘I don’t know. They’ve been remarkably tight-lipped and we’ve been able to find out surprisingly little. Might be anything. For instance, it might be used to indicate they were to hold back in the event of an assault. Something like that.’

  Hodges nodded, grateful for the clarity of Downes’ report.

  ‘Thank you.’ He turned to the only airman present, Neville, who thought for a while before replying. He had a red weal on his face caused by burns received in a crash after being hit by anti-aircraft fire at the time of Korea, and his hands were bright red, his fingers twisted by shrunken flesh into claws, the nails more like an animal’s talons than anything human. His injuries had in no way destroyed his spirit, however, and he had fought against doctors and Service psychiatrists to be allowed back into flying, and had led a wing at Suez, and was now one of the leading exponents of orthodox methods.

  ‘There’s been a bloody high incidence of mechanical failure,’ he said slowly. ‘God knows though, sir, with the mixed bag we’ve got, I’m not surprised. They dug up some of these blasted aircraft from all over the shop, and some of ’em are pretty ancient. But what’s worse, there are hardly a dozen alike. Presented no end of problems with spares.’ He paused. ‘That’s not all. Some of these spares have gone adrift. Can’t be accounted for. Don’t like it. Looks bloody fishy to me, sir. And we lost an aircraft due to a stupid accident when they were bombi
ng up. Nine men and an aircraft due to indifferent training. The Air Force Reserve Act was valueless. Everybody who’d served could get a pension if he was available for call-up and they all put their names down to get the money. They never expected to serve, of course, and I saw one bloke walking about with a stick. They were bloody useless, sir, and all had to be slung out again.’

  He paused in his tirade, his face angry, the scar tissue crimson.

  ‘How about the flying crews?’ Hodges asked.

  ‘Think we can count on ’em to a man,’ Neville said. ‘We did have a bit of trouble, but the AOC stamped on that a bit sharpish, and there’s nothing wrong with what’s left. The AOC’s worried about the ground staff, though. It’s come to our notice there’s been a case of a corporal in one of the ground defence units refusing duty and his sergeant trying to cover up for him. The corporal’s since been placed under arrest and the sergeant demoted. It’s a symptom and we daren’t let it go any farther, because there are too many problems over servicing already.’

  ‘Deliberate, do you think?’

  Neville nodded. ‘Yes, I do,’ he said. ‘Mutiny can mean anything from the hasty decision of a group of men to remain in their hut until they’re promised better porridge for breakfast to an uprising against and the overthrow of their officers. This certainly comes between these two extremes.’

  ‘Can you supply any explanation?’

  ‘Yes, by God, I can, sir. I think some bastards have been getting at the chaps. I know there’s a lot of dissatisfaction over pay and about what we’re doing, but I still think somebody’s up to no good. I’ve heard this right of reply thing too often for it to be an accident.’

  Hodges sat for a moment silently, then he put his finger-tips together in the form of a steeple and looked at the other officers.

  ‘Leggo here,’ he said, indicating his Chief-of-Staff, ‘has a friend ashore. From – er,’ he hesitated, deciding it might be wiser not to indicate the sex of Leggo’s informant, ‘from this source, he’s discovered a few things that might be of interest. I would normally have passed this on to you immediately, but owing to the fact that the word “Go” came almost on top of it and we were more concerned at the time with getting ourselves aboard and under way, I’ve had to postpone it until now. Carry on, Stuart.’