HULS
Stan overtook his formation and dropped into place. The flight was
deployed with the Jerries perched up above and around waiting for the
Yanks to go home. Below lay the fields of Holland.
"Are you clear, specials?" Stan called.
"All clear," the boys called back. That meant they had zoomed down and
ditched their tanks in a way the Germans would not notice.
Flak was coming up and a flight of FWs were worrying the Fortresses and
Liberators below. One big fellow was out of formation and having a tough
time. Fifteen FW's were after it.
"We'll go down and have a crack at those FW's on that Fort," Stan
called. "So long, Sim, see you at mess!"
One after another the six special Thunderbolts zoomed down upon the
FW's. They came down in a screaming dive and their first burst sent five
FW's smoking to earth. Instantly the whole battle changed. The flocks of
Jerries up above were taken by surprise because this was not according
to the book. The Yanks should be keeping altitude, holding them pinned
to the sky, and they were due any moment to start running for home.
Stan and his crew covered the limping bomber and she began to pull up
into place where her flight had slowed to help her. Up above, the
Jerries cut loose and the Yanks got a crack at them as they tried to
filter through. For five minutes the sky was a battlefield, then the
Thunderbolts up above had to leave. They broke off and headed for home.
Behind them they left the wreckage of eleven Messerschmitts and
Focke-Wulfs.
With the bombers, O'Malley was putting on a show which reminded Stan of
the old days. He was stunting so wildly and slamming lead so fast the
Jerries began giving him a wide berth. Stan began to realize that their
mission was not to be any picnic. One Thunderbolt went down, slashed
open by a cannon shell. No chute blossomed out beneath it as it twisted
and rolled toward earth.
There were too many Me's and Focke-Wulf fighters. They were everywhere,
stabbing and diving, slashing at the bombers and ganging up on the
fighters. Stan realized that his flight should have had at least thirty
planes in it, and he began to suspect someone back at headquarters had
marked this down as an experiment, figuring upon losing only six planes.
Another Thunderbolt went down and then another. O'Malley was still
taking care of himself and Stan was doing all right, but his gasoline
gauge was leering at him and its needle was rolling steadily around.
When the fourth Thunderbolt broke into flames, Stan knew it was time to
go home. He probably would not make it, but there was a chance.
"O'Malley! Stan calling. Head for home!"
Looking through the smoke and the bursts of flak, Stan saw nothing of
O'Malley. The Irishman had been in the midst of a fight a few minutes
before, but now he was nowhere to be seen. He checked the bomber flight.
It was going in for its bombing run and the batteries on the ground knew
just where the automatic pilots would take over for the run. They were
putting up a box barrage at that point.
The Forts and the Libs rode into that blazing inferno of fire without
wavering or shifting formation. Stan saw bombs dropping, sticks of big
fellows. A Fort directly below him was plowing ahead when a puff of
smoke enveloped its tail. The smoke swirled away and there was the Fort
without any tail at all, only gaping holes where the rudder and the high
tail had been. The Fort sagged over and went into a terrible dive. One
after another chutes blossomed out until Stan had counted six. That was
the number alive in the Fort, the others were dead.
Stan laid over and made a sweep, ducking in and out of the flak. The
Jerries had pulled away and gone back to their fields for more
ammunition and more gasoline for the interception of the Forts and Libs
on their return trip.
Looking about, Stan saw nothing of O'Malley's ship. He headed for home
with a grim frown on his face. Everything went well until he reached the
channel. He met no German fighters and had a fair tail wind. But his
gasoline supply was very low. The needle kept bouncing off the empty
peg, riding clear, then dropping back. The English coast was a long way
off.
Stan was flying at twelve thousand feet and that gave him a chance to
drift a long way, but not far enough if his gas ran out. Steadily he
drove toward the friendly shore. Below him the channel looked cold and
choppy.
Thinking of O'Malley added to his gloom. When you work with a man in the
air, you expect the day when he does not return with you. But when the
time comes it is a stabbing shock. Stan and O'Malley had seen so much
action and had tackled so many tough jobs, they had come to feel they
always would pull through.
Glancing at the gas gauge Stan saw that it registered empty, and the
needle was not showing any signs of movement. He glanced down at the
gray expanse below him and frowned. His ears strained for the first
break in the steady throbbing of the Pratt and Whitney radial.
The engine kept hammering away for a long time. Stan checked his Mae
West suit and made other small preparations for a bath in the channel.
Then the engine sputtered, smoothed out, then sputtered again. With a
wheezing blast it went dead.
Stan eased the nose down to hold his speed and began sagging down a long
slope toward the channel. He scanned the choppy sea for signs of a
British patrol boat. Several of the fast rescue boats should be
patrolling the flight line, ready to fish Yank pilots and crewmen out of
the water. He saw no sign of a boat.
Slowly the Thunderbolt settled down. Floating a fourteen-thousand-pound
fighter in over a long distance is not like slipping along in a glider.
If there were any up-drafts, the Thunderbolt paid no attention to them.
She sliced on through and Stan had to nose her down to keep her from
falling like a rock.
The sea came up to meet him and he began judging the spot where he would
take his bath in the icy water. Suddenly he heard the roar of plane
motors and looked up and back. A Fort was nosing down toward him. Stan
squinted to see if he could catch the markings. He could not make them
out, but he knew the ship was a bomber returning from Huls.
There was no time for further looking. The Thunderbolt hit and hit hard,
as though she had slammed into a stone wall. She slewed around, jerked
and bobbed, slamming Stan back against his shock pad. He palmed the
hatch cover open and kicked loose from his belt and chute harness. In a
moment he was leaping into the water and the Thunderbolt was swirling
down into the sea. She lifted one wing as she slid from sight, as though
saluting him.
"Tough luck, old girl," Stan said. He got a mouthful of salt water and
began sputtering.
The Fort was low over the sea now and Stan saw that it was shot up a
bit. Then he saw the name painted on its fuselage. It was The Monkey's
Paw, the Fort Allison had taken over for the raid. He waved, and the
Fort dipped her wings. She went roaring on toward the thin black line
which was the coast.
That meant rescue unless the high waves battered him and pulled him
under before a boat located him. He was struggling to stay afloat on the
rough sea when a Spitfire began circling overhead. The Spit dropped down
lower and lower. It wove back and forth and finally it dived toward him.
Stan waved some more.
The Spit stayed with Stan until an orange-snouted speedboat appeared
over the foam-rimmed horizon. The boat came roaring toward him, guided
by the Spit. Stan grinned eagerly. Nice teamwork. Allison had radioed,
the Spitfire pilot had picked up the message, and he had been rescued.
The speedboat pulled alongside and strong hands caught hold of Stan.
"Up you come, me hearty," a seaman shouted.
Stan was so chilled he had to hang on to the arm of the sailor to keep
his knees from buckling.
"A bit chilly, eh?" a young officer asked. "Come along. We'll wrap you
in a newfangled blanket your Uncle Sam just furnished us."
"It wasn't exactly a Turkish bath," Stan admitted.
"I'll radio in for an ambulance," the officer said as he helped Stan
wiggle out of his soggy clothes and into the electrically heated
blanket.
"No ambulance," Stan said. "I'll catch a ride over to my base with
someone."
"The ambulance is the fastest way," the officer said.
"They'd take me to a hospital, and that's the last place I want to see.
Just dry my outfit if you can."
"Glad to, old fellow, and we'll have a spot of hot tea ready for you in
a jiffy." The officer turned away.
Stan drank hot tea and toasted himself inside the blanket until they
were near the port where they were to put in. By that time his clothing
had been dried by one of the machinist mate's men in the engine room.
Getting dressed Stan went on deck. They were edging in beside a pier.
Stan was the first over the side. He shook hands with the British
officer and waved to the crew, then he headed for a row of cars parked
along the street near the wharf. Picking out a car with a uniformed girl
at the wheel he walked over to it.
"Hi, Yank," the girl greeted him. "You look a bit wrinkled."
"I just had my daily bath in the channel." Stan grinned at the girl. "My
butler forgot to pack my bathing suit so I went in as is. How about a
lift?"
"This is Sir Eaton Pelham's car. I'm afraid it isn't available." She
smiled sweetly when she said it.
Stan glanced at the other cars. There were no other drivers about. He
looked back at the girl.
"Sir Eaton a kindhearted man?" he asked.
"Very," she assured him. "He carries a pocketful of cracker crumbs for
the pigeons."
At that moment Sir Eaton Pelham appeared. He was a burly Englishman,
wrapped snugly in the folds of a greatcoat. His ruddy face beamed and he
nodded to Stan.
"Jolly nice weather for one day," he said as he opened the door of the
car.
"Very," Stan answered. "How about a lift?"
Sir Eaton looked at Stan closely for the first time. "I say, a Yank
flier. What could you be doing here?"
"I was just fished out of the channel by one of His Majesty's patrol
boats and want to get back to base."
"Hop in, old man. Where is base?"
"Take me to Diss," Stan said as he climbed in.
"Right-o." Sir Eaton did not ask any more questions. He spoke about the
country they whirled through, but never mentioned the war at all. When
Stan got down at Diss, Sir Eaton waved his thanks aside. "Good hunting,
my boy," he said. Turning to his driver he said, "Whitehall, London.
We'll have to hit it a bit fast to be on time for my meeting."
Stan stood staring at the car as it whirled away. "Whitehall," he
muttered. "Pelham." Suddenly he began to laugh. He had hitched a ride
with one of Winston Churchill's right-hand men. And he had taken the
honorable assistant secretary many miles out of his way.
Hailing a jeep Stan hooked a ride to the camp. He walked into operations
and up to the desk. A major looked up and then started.
"Wilson!" he exclaimed. "We had you marked down as lost. Sim Jones
reported you short of gas."
"I hitchhiked back. Caught a ride with one of Churchill's secretaries,"
Stan said dryly.
The major looked at him sharply, then shoved a pad across the desk.
"Just put that in writing," he said.
Stan made his report, then headed for his hut to change into an
unwrinkled uniform. There was no one in the hut, but his things and the
belongings of O'Malley had been neatly stacked. Stan scowled.
"They gather a man's stuff up in a hurry around here," he muttered.
He put his own things back and did the same with O'Malley's. There would
be no rush about making O'Malley out a dead man. Getting into his
uniform he headed for the mess. He was suddenly very hungry.
Walking into the little dining room he halted and his mouth dropped
open. At a table, with four youngsters listening open-mouthed to his
talk, sat O'Malley. He looked up and for a moment held a big piece of
steak poised on his fork. Then he shoved the steak into his mouth and
waved a big hand.
Stan crossed the room and seated himself. There was no warm greeting.
O'Malley swallowed his steak and grinned at his pal.
"Ye're a bit late, but in time for the pie course."
"I took a bath on the way back," Stan said.
"That spalpeen--"
"Now, now," Stan cut in. "No names named."
"I said a spalpeen let you down," O'Malley growled.
"And what happened to you?"
O'Malley grinned. "Me? Oh, I had the boys tuck an extra sixty gallons o'
gas aboard. The colonel said we was to handle fixing the tanks, so I
fixed mine like that."
"You dropped out of sight at Huls in a hurry," Stan said.
"I ran out of ammunition, and havin' a spot of extra gas, I did a bit o'
sight-seein'," O'Malley explained. "An' did I get an eyeful!"
The four youngsters sighed and got to their feet. It was time for them
to shove off.
"See you when I got time to tell you how I chased a Nazi birdman right
down on a British landing strip," O'Malley called after them.
"You've been stringing the kids along," Stan said.
"I gave them only a bird's-eye view o' the life o' the great O'Malley."
The Irishman leaned back and surveyed the platter where the steak had
been. "Now jest a wee bit of apple pie an' I'll have the edge taken off
me hunger."
He ordered a whole pie. Stan ordered a steak and coffee. As soon as the
orders were placed before them, O'Malley leaned forward.
"Sure, an' I saw the strangest sight today," he began. "I wouldn't have
believed it if I hadn't seen it."
"What was it?"
"I was flittin' along over the tops o' trees an' the spires o' kirks
when I zoom out over a wooded slope with a big cleared field in the
middle o' the woods. There on that field was at least seventy Jerry
fighter planes." O'Malley paused to cram a large bite of pie into his
mouth.
"Fighter field. Did you get its location?"
"Sure. An' I thought I'd give those fellers a grand scare. There wasn't
a plane in the air, so I was safe. I zoomed up an' over an' came down in
a dive." O'Malley paused and shook his head. "You'd never believe it. I
could hardly believe me own eyes. When I came back down to scare the
daylights out o' them Krauts, there wasn't a plane on that field. They
just vanished." O'Malley looked hard at his pie and kept on shaking his
head.
"It's all right to tell that yarn to me, but don't ever tell it to a
general," Stan said. "Did they all take to the air?"
"Nary a plane in the air. It's some black magic them Krauts have
conjured up, if ye ask me."
It was clear that O'Malley was in dead earnest. Stan believed O'Malley
had seen the planes. He also believed there was some trick the Germans
had worked out to hide their fighter fields and to protect them.
"We'll have another look," O'Malley said. "I have the place spotted."
"Being able to get fighters out of sight so quickly would account for
our not being able to knock out their fighter fields," Stan said. "We'll
have to give this some thought."
"It ought to get us special duty," O'Malley said.
"I'll bet you slipped inside their warning system and caught them
flat-footed. But there must be some way they get parked planes moved so
fast."
"We'll be the b'ys to find that out," O'Malley answered.
"I doubt if we ever make anybody swallow your story," Stan said.