Behind Enemy Lines

by Hosker, Griff

  The Lieutenant waved Ken and Polly around to the back door. We went to the front door. I was just about to open when I heard a German voice from inside. “I will check on those lazy swine outside and then I am turning in. See you in the morning Gerhardt.”

  I heard something mumbled which suggested the speaker was some way away. I waved the Lieutenant to the other side of the door. A shaft of light shone on the path. I waited until the Feldwebel had closed the door before I put my arm around his neck in the Japanese stranglehold. I used the Luger behind his neck to add extra pressure. He was a big man and he struggled but he eventually went limp. I dropped him to the ground and quickly bound his arms and legs together behind him. I rammed his cap in his mouth and used cord to tie it in place. While the Lieutenant kept watch on the door I dragged him to the wall and laid him beneath a bush. With his grey uniform he would be hard to spot. Just then I heard the roar of a Junkers transport. Someone was landing and they were landing late. Could this be the Gestapo?”

  The Lieutenant had his hand on the front door. I listened and could hear nothing. I nodded and he opened it. Stepping inside we quickly scanned the interior. We could see nothing but upstairs we could hear voices. I turned, with Luger pointed as I sensed a movement from our right. It was Ken and Polly. They held up their hands in apology and made the sign for all clear. The Lieutenant pointed to the left. There was a short corridor and I could see a shaft of light from stairs leading down. I moved forward.

  When I reached the opening I looked down the stairs. I could see nothing but I heard someone humming. That must be Gerhardt. I began to move down the stairs. I knew that the odds were one of the stairs would creak no matter how careful I was. I was lucky. It was towards the bottom when one creaked.

  “Is that you Steppi?”

  I continued down laughing, “No you fool, it is me Hans!”

  “Hans?” I could hear the suspicion in his voice but by then I was at the bottom of the stairs with my gun pointed at him.

  “Hands up and you will not be hurt!”

  “Kommando!”

  I nodded, “And you know that we mean business.”

  The Lieutenant had appeared behind me. He said, quietly, “Curtis, tie him up.” I saw that the key to the cell was obligingly hanging up on a hook. I saw the racks of wine to my left and right. “Poulson, open the door. Harsker, keep watch at the top of the stairs. Your German might come in handy again.”

  “Sir, we have less time than you think. The Feldwebel said the Gestapo were coming tonight and I just heard a transport land.”

  “Right. We work quickly then. Let’s get the prisoner out and to the beach. Harsker you will be the rearguard. Do you want the Thompson?”

  “No sir. I have a Luger as well as my pistol. If I use the Luger it might confuse them.”

  I went up the stairs as quickly as I could. I took out the two potato mashers and, after breaking the porcelain tops, attached one to the inside handle of the door. I tied a cord to the other one. When the others arrived I would rig a booby trap on the door. I heard something being dragged below me and then a door shutting. Ken came up the stairs. I pointed to the front door. He nodded and opened it. The Lieutenant led Maurice, the resistance leader. He looked to be in a bad way. He had been beaten. He would slow us up. I pointed to the front door. He and Ken put their arms underneath the Channel Islander’s arms and helped him down the path. Polly raced up. He had the key in his hand. I pointed to the front door and then as he followed the others I finished rigging the booby trap.

  I closed the front door. The others had disappeared. I hurried across the road. I soon caught up with them. We did not follow the same path we had taken to get there. We went down the road. The Lieutenant hoped it would confuse them. Maurice was in a bad way and we were not moving as swiftly as we had expected. It would take twice as long to reach the beach and the submarine. I heard the sound of a vehicle coming down the road and we quickly headed in to the woods. It did not pass us and I wondered if it had gone to the house. Was that the Gestapo?

  Polly took over from Ken who raced ahead to signal the submarine. I hung back in case we were being followed. We were just passing the house with the party when I heard the dull crump from behind us. Someone had triggered the booby trap. It had served its purpose. We now knew there would be pursuit. Polly and the Lieutenant could go no faster. I waited in the dark. I heard in the distance the sound of loud voices and from the airfield, the sound of klaxons. Men were being mobilised.

  In my head I visualised the others as they passed the tower. Ken would be at the beach and he would be signalling. The submarine would surface and then the crew would have to paddle to shore. I would need to leave in ten minutes. I did not have ten minutes. I heard another crump and then shouts as the first of the booby traps in the woods was set off. Then I heard the bark of dogs. Where had they come from? I considered another booby trap but there was a house nearby. I did not want to involve civilians. I turned and headed for the tower.

  As I ran I heard whistles, shouts and barks as pursuit was organised. A second crump was reassuring. I saw it becoming lighter ahead and knew that was the sea. A sense I did not know I possessed made me turn. I saw, twenty yards away, an Alsatian, a German guard dog. I barely had time to raise my Luger and fire three bullets. The savage dog was thrown to the ground but my shots would have drawn the pursuers like a beacon.

  I turned and ran the last two hundred yards to the beach. I saw the low silhouette of the submarine and the dingy. It was sixty yards away. “Poulson bring your Tommy gun and come with me!” I turned and ran up the slope to the tower. “Cover the path. They are on the way.” I took two grenades and a cord. I strung the cord across the path.

  Suddenly Poulson’s gun chattered and I heard the sound of breaking branches and cries as he hit someone. I took out another grenade. “One more blind burst and then run back to the beach. I’ll be right behind.” He fired and ran. I counted to five and then hurled another grenade high into the air. I turn and ran. I heard the sound of bullets cracking off the tower. They had set up a heavy machine gun.

  I heard Ken’s voice, “Sarge! Come on!”

  I saw that they had loaded the dingy. “Go! I will swim if I have to!”

  I knew how long it would take to paddle the two hundred yards to the submarine and with the Germans behind I did not want us to be sitting ducks. I turned and saw two Germans running towards me. I levelled my Luger and fired two shots at one and then my last two at the other. I hit the first one who fell to the ground. The other dived for cover. I ran and hurled myself into the sea. It was hard trying to wade through the surf but the sailors slowed up their paddling. I was almost blinded by the flash from Poulson’s machine gun as he sprayed the beach. Ken and the Lieutenant hauled me aboard. One of the ratings said, “We brought more paddles!”

  I grabbed a paddle and we paddled for all we were worth. I was at the rear and as the odd man had to alternate my strokes to make sure we were going straight. The extra paddles made us move much faster. I saw the flash from the twin machine guns on the submarine as they added their fire to Poulson’s. It would keep the German's heads down. We bumped into the hull of the boat and many willing hands pulled us aboard.

  I Heard Lieutenant Conklin’s voice, “Leave the dingy, Cartwright, get everyone below decks! Clear the bridge! Prepare for emergency dive!”

  I was pushed unceremoniously into the packed forward torpedo room. The two ratings hurtled after me as I heard the cover on the tannoy. “Dive! Dive! Dive!”

  The two ratings barely managed to shut the hatch before the watertight doors were slammed and I felt the submarine start to move. It was so fast that some water came in before they had sealed it. Bullets clanged alarmingly from the hull. We were jammed tightly into the torpedo room. Lieutenant Marsden said, “Everyone all right? Any wounds?”

  “No, sir.”

  “How are you sir?” I saw Lieutenant Marsden speaking with the rescued resistance leader.

&
nbsp; He smiled weakly, “Better for having escaped. Thank you gentlemen. I thought I would end my days in that cellar.” He shook his head. "You know the Gestapo were coming for me?”

  “That is why we came, sir. We couldn’t let that happen.”

  “I tried to be strong and I told them nothing but I know that I would have broken.” He shrugged apologetically, “I was a teacher! I am not a hero like you fellows.”

  One of the torpedo men said, "He is right you know. We couldn't even begin to do what you lads do."

  Ken said, “You are the heroes. We get to fight back! You have to spend your days in a steel coffin!.”

  I shook off my Bergen and placed it on the oily floor. It made a seat. I leaned against the torpedo and closed my eyes. Once the bubbles of our descent stopped it all became peaceful. Even the smell seemed a little less nauseous. Perhaps I would sleep all the way back.

  Suddenly the tannoy sounded, “Rig for depth charges! Silent procedures.”

  Polly asked, “What does that mean?”

  The leading hand began to tie a rag around his ears. “That means, my old cock, that Jerry is up top and he is going to drop depth charges. If I were you I would put something over my ears. The concussion is something wicked!”

  I reached into my Bergen and took out my spare socks. I pulled my comforter over my ears and jammed the socks inside the hat. I saw Maurice looking for something. “Sir, if you use your jacket and tie it around your head with your tie.”

  “Thank you, sergeant. It appears I am ill prepared for an attack under water. This will be a novel experience for me.”

  “And for us.”

  The socks and hat dampened the sound a little. More importantly they stopped the concussive effect. I was not prepared for the first explosion when it came. It was not so much the explosion which was a dull sound seemingly far away that hurt us, it was the waves of concussion which followed. Even with the socks it still felt painful. I followed the example of the leading seaman and placed my hands over my ears as well. That helped and the second depth charge was not as painful. I knew that we could expect no help from the RAF this time. It was night time. Cynically I realised that it did not matter to those who had sent us what happened now. If the submarine sank the Germans would still be denied their information. Lieutenant Conklin had told us that five of the S Class submarines had all been sunk in the first two years of the war. We were expendable.

  There was a lull and I wondered if we had escaped. Polly went to speak but the leading hand put his fingers up to silence him. Suddenly there were six explosions in seemingly rapid succession. There was a flickering of the lights and then it all went dark. My claustrophobic fears surfaced. If the batteries died we would sink like a stone! Dim emergency lights came on and I breathed a sigh of relief. Had we been able to talk it would have helped but we had to remain silent. Each man was alone with his thoughts and his fears.

  There was another gap between explosions and concussion. None of us thought that it had ended. I worked out that the ships who were hunting us were doing sweeps. I did not know exactly how they were finding us. It was probably some underwater Radar, a little like our ASDIC. The next pattern made the whole boat shake and one of the pipes running the length of the torpedo room burst, showering us with a liquid. One of the hands leapt to his feet and dexterously turned a spanner to stop it. We had two more attacks and then I felt us sinking. The pressure on my ears grew. The pain increased but the effects of the depth charges diminished. We heard them explode but they did not hurt as much.

  Suddenly we hit something. It was the bottom of the ocean. The 'Sunfish' leaned over and then stopped. I saw the ratings all lie down. Again, I worked out that we had descended to the bottom to sit out the attack. We were trapped on the seabed. I copied the ratings and rested my head on my Bergen. Before I used it as a pillow I took out my canteen and had a good swig. Dehydration would be as much of a problem as anything else. I looked at my watch. It was less than an hour since we had descended and the attack had begun. I wondered if the batteries were fully charged. We would find out eventually. The life of the batteries would determine when we would surface.

  I stared at the top of the submarine and pictured the ships above us. They would be like circling wolves around an injured animal. We would have to move eventually. Would they wait us out? Gradually the depth charges stopped. I prayed they had run out but I knew that would not be the case. We were too close to St. Peter Port. They would send for more. When daylight arrived I had no doubt that they would use aeroplanes to drop more charges on us. The Channel was suddenly not as deep as I might have liked.

  An hour later I heard the faint hum of the electric motors starting up. I felt us begin to rise and, I suspected, move. The ratings sat up and I saw some of them removing their rags from around their heads. I left my socks in place. I was taking no chances. We kept rising. I desperately wanted to speak but I was used to obeying orders. The last order was for silent procedure. I almost jumped out of my skin when the watertight door was opened and the young midshipman stood there. He came over to Lieutenant Marsden. I leaned in to listen as he spoke.

  “The captain is taking us up to periscope depth. He is going to try the radio to get some air support.”

  The Lieutenant nodded, “Thanks for the information. Have we suffered much damage?”

  “Some of the batteries were hit and we have men with burns but if we can surface we can use our engines.”

  He left us and the door shut ominously once more. Any happy thoughts we might have harboured were shattered when we heard bullets hitting metal. We were being fired upon. We began to descend again. For the next hour we suffered more attacks. Even worse the air appeared to be getting fouler. Maurice, the resistance leader, began coughing. Lieutenant Marsden gave him some water. The attacks continued relentlessly. There appeared to be fewer charges but it was a shorter gap between them. How could this little submarine take so much punishment?

  We were taken by surprise when we heard the tannoy, “We are surfacing. Gun crews prepare.”

  The leading hand said, “You lads should get ready to bail out. If we are going to the surface we are in trouble.”

  I hated this. We were helpless. I wanted to be able to join the crew and fight back. We were out of our natural environment. The pressure on my ears diminished rapidly as we rose. I took my socks and put them back in the Bergen. As we ascended I reloaded the Luger. It would not do much damage to a warship but I would feel better firing it. I wondered when the watertight doors would be opened. I didn’t like the idea of being stuck here behind a sealed door.

  Once again we heard bullets striking the hull of the sub and then I heard the machine guns on the conning tower fire. We were all thrown from our feet as something, probably a shell, hit the water close to the side and the submarine lurched at an angle of forty five degrees. Polly smacked his head off a pipe and began to bleed. Even worse we started to take on water.

  The leading hand ran to the voice pipe, “Bridge. Forward torpedo room. We have been hit and we are taking on water.”

  I saw the ratings as they jammed jumpers into the damaged section to try to stem the flow of water. The watertight door opened and a Petty Officer ran. “Harris get the hatch open and these commandos on deck. You lads better put on life jackets!”

  “But, Chief, what about the Germans?”

  The Petty Officer ignored the rating. “When you get out go over the starboard side. The armed trawlers are on the port side. You will be safer in the water than in here.”

  We hurriedly put on the lifejackets as the hatch was opened. We were soaked by the water flooding in. Ken bravely clambered out first. I think he expected the rattle of bullets. I followed him. I glanced to the left and saw the trawlers. They were a mile away and one was closer than the other. Even as I watched a shell came from the forward gun and splashed into the sea behind me. The gun crew of the 'Sunfish' fired in return. It missed.

  I reached down to pull Mauric
e up. “Ken get in the water. Keep hold of this chap.”

  “I can swim, sergeant.”

  “Very good, sir, but until we get you back to Blighty we will wrap you in cotton wool.”

  Ken dropped over the side. Another shell fell. This one was closer and was on the port side. They were straddling. The next one would hit the sub. “Over you go.”

  As he disappeared I pulled the bleeding Poulson up and unceremoniously dumped him over the starboard side. “Get a move on, sir!”

  “Jump, Harsker, I will follow.” Lieutenant Marsden was struggling to get out of the hatch wearing his life jacket.

  I jumped into the sea beside the other three. The sea had mixed with oil from the damaged sub. It tasted disgusting. I realised it was daylight. I could not see any land. Lieutenant Marsden landed next to me. I checked that the resistance leader was in good hands and then I paddled round to the bow. I saw, as I reached the domed bow, another shell hit the water and make a water spout. This one was remarkably close to the sub. A tower of water rose high and showered the conning tower. The sub lurched alarmingly. I knew we could not last much longer.

  I saw that the leading trawler was just half a mile away and was almost firing along open sights. Suddenly I saw twin waterspouts on either side of the trawler. That couldn’t be us, we only had one gun. Then I heard the roar of aero engines and, looking up I saw a flight of Blenheims. They were an outdated aeroplane but more than up to the task of seeing off a couple of armed trawlers. Their machine guns shredded the wheelhouse of the leading trawler. I saw the second one heel to port as she headed away. Then there was an almighty explosion as the trawler was hit. I had seen no bombs fall and I wondered what on earth it was.

  I paddled back to the others, “What in earth is going on Sergeant?”

  “One of the trawlers has been blown up and the other has high tailed it home. There are three Blenheims as guardian angels. We are safe! We have made it!”