Right of Reply

by John Harris

  ‘Thank God for it,’ Hodges had agreed, as though saying amen.

  None of them had questioned the decision, none of them had commented on it. They, who had been at the apex of command, the men with the power of decision, had felt they could leave all that to their juniors.

  To Hodges it was a moment of sadness, in spite of his relief. Somehow, in his heart of hearts, he knew the new Government would have no time for him. They had offered to alleviate hardships until enquiries could be made into the question of Services’ pay, and in a flurry of signals had let it be known that there could be an amnesty, while making it quite clear at the same time that any further transgression would be severely dealt with under the Army, Navy and Air Force Discipline Acts. It had been received with relief in Hodgeforce, but not one man in the fleet had doubted for a moment the meaning of the last sentence. There would be no further trouble, and the armed squads of Guardsmen had been stood down.

  To Hodges, however, it was not the end. They had already heard – by those curious Service channels that pass across the oceans – that Burnaston was not to be Chief of Defence Staff for the new Government, and if someone as powerful and able as he could be jettisoned, Hodges knew they would have no time for him. Probably Downes would go the same way. He knew that retirement wasn’t far away, but somehow he wasn’t sorry.

  An aircraft screamed overhead, gleaming and polished, its long snout catching the light as it turned, and Hodges watched it for a moment, suddenly feeling too old for swift decisions. He needed to see his wife and children again, and he was looking forward to the garden he had taken pleasure in laying out at his home near the coast in Sussex. He just hoped it wouldn’t affect his son’s career in the Army, and that the women of the village wouldn’t be too unpleasant towards his wife.

  Downes was watching him carefully, and he knew that Downes knew what he was thinking. Probably, Downes was thinking the same things. Perhaps they’d both come to the end of the road.

  Colonel Leggo’s attitude was one of unquestioning relief. He had known all along that what they were about to do was wrong, and the only thing he could feel now was gladness that they hadn’t done it.

  He had been composing joyous messages to Stella Davies for two days now, wondering if he dared approach Hodges for permission to send a personal telegram. He had finally rejected the idea, realising she’d have learnt long since what had happened and would have guessed the problems that faced them all. She’d wait, he decided.

  For Colonel Drucquer the decision to call off the operation brought relief mixed with anxiety. He suspected that, after the great lack of necessities that Stabledoor had turned up, there’d be a tremendous reshuffle in the Army. The new Government was pledging itself to look into the mistakes and the shortages and, inevitably, one of the things that would be discussed would be the disaffection among the troops. If it hadn’t actually begun in the 17th/105th, it had certainly been found there. The pamphlets which had started Hodges’ enquiries had been discovered among Drucquer’s own men and the shooting incident which had brought the whole thing to light had been in the same small section. An enquiry would go deep into the trouble, and he knew he’d be called to account for it, though he felt sadly that he could hardly be held responsible. Only a few days before the incidents he’d been in Hong Kong.

  He knew there’d be a few compulsory retirements flying about and he prayed that he would not be among them.

  There was no feeling of joy whatsoever in Captain White as the ships turned northward. Somehow, he felt they’d been let down. And curiously there was no feeling of pleasure either that he was returning home. He’d enjoyed his return to uniform and, while he loved his wife, he felt somehow that his last adventure with the Army had been a fiasco from beginning to end and one that nobody could be proud of.

  Lieutenant Jinkinson was busy airing his grievances and, of the lot of them, he was the most vociferous in his protests that he’d not been allowed to do his duty.

  Sergeant Frensham, as usual, said very little. He’d not much time for politicians or for anyone outside the Army. He didn’t particularly look forward to going back to his job as an electronics storekeeper. It kept him close to his wife and family but it wasn’t much of a job for a man, and he wasn’t particularly proud of it and had felt for some time that he needed a better one. Still, he thought, he hadn’t descended like so many men he knew to being a commissionaire. That was the very bottom, opening and shutting doors for men who weren’t fit to lick his boots and running errands for girl typists. That sort of job could go to those who wanted it, but not to Sergeant Frensham.

  On the other hand, considering what had just passed, it seemed that the Army was no longer a place for Sergeant Frensham either. It was a pretty poor exchange for all the glory he’d known in his time.

  In Banff’s sick bay, Lance-Corporal Malaki lay facing the bulkhead, gloomily surveying a spot of chipped paint.

  He could never belong to the others now, he felt. In spite of not agreeing with them, he hadn’t wished to be the one to give the game away, but someone – he wasn’t sure who – had taken advantage of his drowsiness under sedation and got it all from him.

  He wondered if any of the others would have done the same, and somehow, with that strange code of ethics the British had, he had a feeling that they wouldn’t. Snaith hadn’t agreed with what was going on. Neither had Ginger Bowen. But he felt they’d have died rather than give the others away. It was a strange British attitude that he didn’t understand, but he felt that his own instincts were the ones that were wrong.

  He became aware of someone standing by the bed and, thinking it was the sick-berth attendant come to attend to the wound in his groin, he turned his head painfully, his dark skin grey-violet with the loss of blood.

  It was Snaith who was standing by the bed, however, and he slowly put two or three paperback books on the covers in an embarrassed gesture of gentleness, and grinned sheepishly.

  ‘Hi, Joe,’ he said. ‘They told me I could come and see you.’

  As for Ginger Bowen, he was right back where he started. After the enquiry held by Colonel Drucquer all the others had been released. The affair wasn’t ended, of course, because a man had been shot, but somehow it was in everyone’s mind that not much was likely to be said about the mutiny, only about the discharge of the Sten gun. There’d be plenty said about that.

  Only Ginger had failed to qualify for the free pardon that the Government had insisted on. As they’d opened the door to let them out, Leach had tossed a final acid remark at him and Ginger’s quick temper had caused him to swing his fist in a tremendous frustrated haymaker at his tormentor. Unfortunately, Leach had ducked and it had been Corporal Connell who had received it right under the angle of the jaw. It was a slapstick ending to the affair, but neither Connell, who’d been out cold for three minutes, nor Sergeant O’Mara was disposed to listen to Ginger’s explanation and he had promptly been returned to the cells for assaulting an NCO While it would be untrue to say that his efforts alone had brought Stabledoor to its ignominious end, it had certainly been Ginger who had first set light to the fuse under it at Pepul which, with outside pressures in New York and Moscow and Peking and Berlin and Paris, had toppled it off its rails. But, probably fortunately for his character, he never learned how much he’d done to bring a world war to an end even before it had begun. And, suffering bitterly from resentment – against Leach, against Connell, against O’Mara, against the whole military system – he found himself once more painting and polishing fire buckets – this time deep in the bowels of Banff.

  Synopses of John Harris Titles

  Published by House of Stratus

  Army of Shadows

  It is the winter of 1944. France is under the iron fist of the Nazis. But liberation is just around the corner and a crew from a Lancaster bomber is part of the fight for Freedom. As they fly towards their European target, a Messerschmitt blazes through the sky in a fiery attack and of the nine-man crew aboard
the bomber, only two men survive to parachute into Occupied France. They join an ever-growing army of shadows (the men and women of the French Resistance), to play a lethal game of cat and mouse.

  China Seas

  In this action-packed adventure, Willie Sarth becomes a survivor. Forced to fight pirates on the East China Seas, wrestle for his life on the South China Seas and cross the Sea of Japan ravaged by typhus, Sarth is determined to come out alive. Dealing with human tragedy, war and revolution, Harris presents a novel which packs an awesome punch.

  The Claws of Mercy

  In Sierra Leone, a remote bush community crackles with racial tensions. Few white people live amongst the natives of Freetown and Authority seems distant. Everyday life in Freetown revolves around an opencast iron mine, and the man in charge dictates peace and prosperity for everyone. But, for the white population, his leadership is a matter of life or death where every decision is like being snatched by the claws of mercy.

  Corporal Cotton’s Little War

  Storming through Europe, the Nazis are sure to conquer Greece but for one man, Michael Anthony Cotton, a heroic marine who smuggles weapons of war and money to the Greek Resistance. Born Mihale Andoni Cotonou, Cotton gets mixed up in a lethal mission involving guns and high-speed chases. John Harris produces an unforgettable champion, persuasive and striking with a touch of mastery in this action-packed thriller set against the dazzle of the Aegean.

  The Cross of Lazzaro

  The Cross of Lazzaro is a gripping story filled with mystery and fraught with personal battles. This tense, unusual novel begins with the seemingly divine reappearance of a wooden cross once belonging to a sixth-century bishop. The vision emerges from the depths of an Italian lake, and a menacing local antagonism is subsequently stirred. But what can the cross mean?

  Flawed Banner

  John Harris’ spine-tingling adventure inhabits the shadowy world of cunning and espionage. As the Nazi hordes of Germany overrun France, devouring the free world with fascist fervour, a young intelligence officer, James Woodyatt, is shipped across the Channel to find a First World War hero…an old man who may have been a spy…who may be in possession of Nazi secrets.

  The Fox From His Lair

  A brilliant German agent lies in wait for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. While the Allies prepare a vast armed camp, no one is aware of the enemy within, and when a sudden, deadly E-boat attacks, the Fox strikes, stealing secret invasion plans in the ensuing panic. What follows is a deadly pursuit as the Fox tries to get the plans to Germany in time, hotly pursued by two officers with orders to stop him at all costs.

  A Funny Place to Hold a War

  Ginger Donnelly is on the trail of Nazi saboteurs in Sierra Leone. Whilst taking a midnight paddle with a willing woman in a canoe cajoled from a local fisherman, Donnelly sees an enormous seaplane thunder across the sky only to crash in a ball of brilliant flame. It seems like an accident…at least until a second plane explodes in a blistering shower along the same flight path.

  Getaway

  An Italian fisherman and his wife, Rosa, live in Sydney. Hard times are ahead. Their mortgaged boat may be lost and with it, their livelihood. But Rosa has a plan to reach the coast of America from the islands of the Pacific, sailing on a beleaguered little houseboat. The plan seems almost perfect, especially when Willie appears and has his own reasons for taking a long holiday to the land of opportunity.

  Harkaway’s Sixth Column

  An explosive action-packed war drama: four British soldiers are cut off behind enemy lines in British Somaliland and when they decide to utilise a secret arms dump in the Bur Yi hills and fight a rearguard action, an unlikely alliance is sought between two local warring tribes. What follows is an amazing mission led by the brilliant, elusive Harkaway, whose heart is stolen by a missionary when she becomes mixed up in the unorthodox band of warriors.

  A Kind of Courage

  At the heart of this story of courage and might, is Major Billy Pentecost, commander of a remote desert outpost near Hahdhdhah, deep among the bleak hills of Khalit. His orders are to prepare to move out along with a handful of British soldiers. Impatient tribesmen gather outside the fort, eager to reclaim the land of their blood and commanded by Abd el Aziz el Beidawi, a feared Arab warrior lord. A friendship forms between the two very different commanders but when Pentecost’s orders are reversed, a nightmarish tragedy ensues.

  Live Free or Die

  Charles Walter Scully, cut off from his unit and running on empty, is trapped. It’s 1944 and though the Allied invasion of France has finally begun, for Scully the war isn’t going well. That is, until he meets a French boy trying to get home to Paris. What begins is a hair-raising journey into the heart of France, an involvement with the French Liberation Front and one of the most monumental events of the war. Harris vividly portrays wartime France in a panorama of scenes that enthral the reader.

  The Lonely Voyage

  The Lonely Voyage is John Harris’ first novel - a graphic, moving tale of the sea. It charts the story of one boy, Jess Ferigo, who winds up on a charge of poaching along with Pat Fee and Old Boxer, the men who sail with him on his journey into manhood. As Jess leaves his boyhood behind, bitter years are followed by the Second World War, where Old Boxer and Jess make a poignant rescue on the sand dunes of Dunkirk. Finally, Jess Ferigo’s lonely voyage is over.

  The Mercenaries

  Ira Penaluna, First World War pilot, sees his airline go bankrupt in Africa and grabs at the chance to instruct pilots in China. But Ira hasn’t reckoned on the beat-up, burnt-out wrecks he is expected to teach his students in, or on the fact that his pupils speak no English. Though aided and abetted by an enthusiastic assistant, an irresponsible Fagan and his brooding American girlfriend Ellie, Ira finds himself playing a deadly game, becoming embroiled in China’s civil war. The four are forced to flee but the only way out is in a struggling pile of junk flown precariously towards safety. Will they make it?

  North Strike

  It is 1939. The Royal Navy urgently needs information about German raiders. There is only one place to get it…the port of Narvik and only one man capable – Magnusson. A story of the daring, outrageous exploits of a spy rescuing British prisoners from the Altmark and swept up in to the German battle for Norway.

  The Old Trade of Killing

  Harris’ exciting adventure is set against the backdrop of the Western Desert and scene of the Eighth Army battles. The men who fought together in the Second World War return twenty years later in search of treasure. But twenty years can change a man. Young ideals have been replaced by greed. Comradeship has vanished along with innocence. And treachery and murder make for a breathtaking read.

  Picture of Defeat

  It is 1943 and Naples has been looted by the Allies and Axis powers alike, its priceless art treasures coveted by some of the most corrupt criminal minds in Europe. But under the orders of Field Security, Tom Pugh must save the paintings of Detto Banti, no matter what the cost. In this tantalising read, one man stands against a tide of wilful destruction and greed, trying to save a past for the people of Naples’ future.

  The Quick Boat Men

  Edward Dante Bourdillon is a man whose fate is linked to the oceans. His parents perished on the waves and, brought up by his uncle who owns a boatyard, Edward leads a life in love with the sea. That is, until he sinks his uncle’s yacht. Soon our hero is bound for Cape Town on an old tramp steamer. From earthquakes to shipwreck, it seems his fortune is turning sour until forgiveness and World War One looms on the horizon.

  Ride Out the Storm

  The Allies, faced with a shameful defeat, are trapped between the onslaught of the mighty German army and the tumult of the ocean waves. Those that do not die face capture and surrender to the Nazis. But only nine days later more than a quarter of a million men have been rescued and placed safely on the shores of England, saved by an amazing assorted flotilla of barges, tugs, rowing boats and dinghies. This is the incredible
story of a mass exodus across the Channel. John Harris tells the miraculous story of Dunkirk.

  Right of Reply

  Struggle, scandal and mutiny run riot in Right of Reply, set in the 1970s in a whirlwind of a political crisis. An invasion is planned by a convoy of British troop ships sighted off the coast of West Africa. A Khanzian base is at stake. The British claim sovereignty but sedition is in the air. Can the British government turn back before it’s too late? John Harris leaves us on tenterhooks.

  Road to the Coast

  It’s South America and a fugitive Englishman is caught in a military revolt against a tyrant. Harry Ash is a wanted man, fleeing the police and revolutionaries. After being bombed, he meets a beautiful woman, Grace Rodrigo, and steals a car to take her with him before realising they have a stow-away who could very well endanger their entire escape plan. John Harris pulls off a triumph of an action-packed narrative full of the kind of tension that will have you on the edge of your seat.

  The Sea Shall Not Have Them

  This is John Harris’ classic war novel of espionage in the most extreme of situations. An essential flight from France leaves the crew of RAF Hudson missing, and somewhere in the North Sea four men cling to a dinghy, praying for rescue before exposure kills them or the enemy finds them. One man is critically injured; another (a rocket expert) is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital secrets. As time begins to run out each man yearns to evade capture. This story charts the daring and courage of these men, their rescuers and a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences.

  The Sleeping Mountain

  The sleepy red-roofed Italian island of Anapoli, its lazy, leaning buildings pushed against the jagged harbour, dreams on peaceably by the sea. It is here that Tom Patch, an easy-going British artist, finds himself, discarding his mistress and in love with Cecilia. Even the Mayor of Anapoli basks in the sun, listening to goat bells and the rasp of mandolins. But above the unsuspecting residents hangs a malevolent volcano; a terrible destructive power seething below its crust. And the volcano is about to blow.