Authors: Hammond Innes
Attack Alarm (30 page)
“’Plane!” yelled Langdon. “On, on,” came the voices of the layers. And the barrel of the gun began
to follow the target as it banked round and away from us. Langdon waited till it was side on to us and then ordered, “Fire!”
The gun cracked and before the flames of the charge had ceased to spurt from the barrel, it seemed, the shell had exploded. The noise of it was almost as loud as the noise of the gun. At that range it was impossible to miss. Langdon had judged the fuse range nicely. The shell burst just in front of the ’plane. The wings folded down and the whole ’plane seemed to disintegrate. The fuselage split in half. I saw men falling out. The wreckage strewed itself among the trees in the valley.
The smoke had rolled back now and exposed the whole aerodrome. It lay on the south-western edge of the ’drome like a low cloud. It was getting really light now and the high cloud above us was tinged with a delicate pink. Against that lovely colouring little dark dots darted in and out amongst each other like flies.
All round the ’drome big cumbersome Ju. 52’s circled and circled incessantly like vultures waiting for their prey to die. And amongst them the fighters droned like angry hornets. To the north-east of us there were more over Mitchet.
What would they do now? They were full of troops, not bombs—thank God! I half expected them to sheer off homeward now that their plan had failed. But they continued to circle. I wasn’t sure whether they were undecided or whether they were waiting for something.
But we were not left long in doubt. Some twenty German fighters, who were still flying in formation well above the dog-fight, went into a dive. It was Langdon who first pointed them out to us. He had been searching the sky with his glasses.
They came right down to the north of us. Only
when they were at about two thousand did they flatten out. Then they began to circle, and one by one they dived out of their new formation and came straight for the ’drome.
I had no doubt of their intention. Nor had Langdon. “Take cover!” he yelled. And we flattened ourselves in a bunch against the parapet nearest the approaching fighters. He crouched down too, but he kept his head just above the sandbags so that he could see what was happening. There was a sharp burst of machine-gun fire, and a second later an Me. 109 shot over us. The Bofors pit to the north of us had taken the full force of the first attack. From the other side of the ’drome came the sound of a similar attack.
Then came the high-pitched drone of another German fighter. The staccato chatter of guns. The cinders on the floor of the pit kicked and little holes appeared in the sandbags opposite where we lay. One of the sandbags above me fell on to my tin hat, covering me with sand. Zoom! The ’plane flashed overhead. All round the ’drome Lewis guns and Bren guns opened up, adding to the confusion.
“Layers on,” Langdon shouted above the din. “Fuller ammunition. Chester number six. Remainder stay under cover.”
I peeped over the parapet as the three men detailed sprang to their posts. A troop-carrier was just coming in to land. “Fuse one. Load. Fire!” The drone of another Messerschmitt approaching could be heard even above the noise of the gun. We must have fired at practically the same moment as the other three-inch. There were two bursts just in front of the ’plane, mixed up with streams of tracer shells from the Bofors. I saw it plunge. Then I had ducked as the pit was sprayed again.
By the grace of God no one was hit, though Langdon got his face cut by a bit of flying cinder.
Three times this happened. Each time we destroyed a ’plane. The fourth time I found myself laying. Red had been killed outright, a bullet through his head. This had happened as we destroyed the second Junkers. The third time it was Blah who was hit. He got a bullet through his arm. Fuller got one in the foot.
Three twin-engined ’planes appeared out of the north. At first we thought they were Me. 110’s. But suddenly Langdon cried, “They’re Blenheims.”
And Blenheims they were, thrown in as fighters to make weight in the emergency. They came in at about two thousand feet. And high up we saw a squadron of Spitfires dive on the Messerschmitts that had been worrying us.
Then suddenly Junkers and Messerschmitts turned for home, the latter circling the troop-carriers to cover their retreat. It was all over in a few seconds. One moment the sky was full of Jerries and the din of battle. Then the sky emptied. The throb and drone of ’planes died away. A great quiet settled on the Station, in which the crackle of the flames at B hangar was the only sound. I leaned back against the gun. Peace at last. It was over.
I think I passed out then. I didn’t faint. It was just that the reaction left my mind a blank. I wasn’t conscious of sound or sight. I came to to find Langdon getting the casualties to the sick bay. And the Tannoy was announcing: “All clear! All clear! All ground defences and gun teams will remain at the alert. All clear! All clear!”
THE END
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781448156924
Published by Vintage 2013
Copyright © The Estate of Hammond Innes 1941
First published in Great Britain by Collins in 1941
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ISBN 9780099577850