The Black Jackals. Iain Gale

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СКАЧАТЬ to be able to continue to fight this war then we have to save what’s left of the BEF. The French are sunk. I have that on the highest authority. And I do mean the highest. There is no way that we can hope now to meet and repulse a German attack in the north. We can only retreat to victory.’

      ‘So are you telling me that I should make my way to the Channel ports, sir?’

      The colonel shook his head. ‘No, I shouldn’t do that if I were you. You seem a very able soldier and I am going to give you what may well be the best piece of advice you’ll get in this war. Get yourself and your men away to the west. There’s no point in going any further north. Jerry’s already cut our communications and you’ll never get through, but he’s still chasing our tails to the west. Besides, up there you’ll be one among tens, hundreds of thousands scrabbling for a place on those boats at Dunkirk. No, laddie, the west is your best bet. If I were you I’d duck down to Arras and then head for the Somme. You’ll still find Jerries, but there may not be quite so many of them.’

      ‘The Somme, sir?’

      ‘Not the old battlefield. Further downstream, towards the coast. I know it seems unlikely, but we’ve a division heading down there now. Pulled away from the Saar yesterday. 51st Highland, General Fortune. The original plan was that if this situation arose and the French could be rallied then it would be the nucleus of a fresh BEF. But to be perfectly frank it looks increasingly unlikely that the French will stand at all. So it’s likely that we’ll have to get the Scots off as well. Just ten thousand of them. Should be easier there than with the half million up at Calais and Dunkirk.’ He paused and stared at Lamb. ‘Actually, I’ve an idea. Lamb, I want you to do something for me. And this really is vitally important. Not like Meadows’s nonsense. Communications are shot to pieces or near as dammit with General Fortune’s HQ, and we have no way of letting him know the situation. I want you to take him a message, from me.’

      He looked across at the major. ‘Simpson, write this down please, will you?’

      He looked back at Lamb and paused, then said, ‘Tell him that the Jerries have cut us off at Amiens and the French look as if they’re about to give in. Or pretty damn soon. If that happens tell him we’re going to get them all away. All of his division. The plan is to get them off from Le Havre. Tell him that they should hold out on the Somme until further notice and bear in mind that Le Havre needs to be kept accessible. The French might order him south – he’s under their command – but if he has to fall back he should make for Le Havre. Tell him that whatever else he might hear, from whatever source, even Churchill himself, ships are on their way. Tell them at all costs that they should not surrender without further orders. No surrender. Got it? They hang on until the ships arrive.’

      Lamb looked at him. ‘Are you sure it’s me you want to do this, sir? Perhaps a dispatch rider would be quicker. Or a team of them. Surely that sort of order should come from someone on the staff? Shouldn’t I try and rejoin my unit, sir?’

      The colonel shook his head. ‘No use, Lamb. Isn’t that right, Simpson? Dispatch riders are no go. Being picked off all the time by Jerry snipers. And you can forget your unit for the time being, Lamb. Very soon they’ll just be one of hundreds trying to get home any way they can. It’s up to you to do the same. Besides, I can’t spare anyone on the staff, laddie. Even if I knew where they all were any more. No, you’ll do. And that’s an order. You’ll have to do. In fact I think you’re just the man for the job. If you can hold up an entire Jerry regiment with a few grenades, Lamb, seems to me you’ve a far better chance of getting through than any staff Johnny. And I think a few more heroics might be of use to you in future.’

      ‘Yes, sir. I see.’

      ‘That’s it then. Well done.’

      He looked to the major, who gave him the piece of paper on which he had been writing, and a pen. The colonel read it over briefly and then signed it. He gave the note to Lamb and returned the pen to Simpson. ‘And now you’d better get a move on. I’m afraid you can’t show that note to anyone but the General or someone on his staff. Oh, and one other vital thing. Of course, almost forgot. To make sure that you get to General Fortune and that he believes you, tell him that Colonel “R” sent you. Just that, Colonel “R”. He’ll know exactly who and what you mean. He’ll believe you. Got it? Colonel “R”. That’s all you need to know.’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      The colonel smiled at him. ‘Good. Well, good luck, Lieutenant. Perhaps we’ll meet again. I’d like to think so.’

      Chapter 6

      It took Lamb a little time to digest what had just happened. He had walked in thinking that he was at the end of a mission to deliver a message, and had left charged with another much greater task. How, he wondered, had that been managed? How had he got himself into this mess? Now, rather than heading north to find his regiment and try to get back home, he had been ordered to take his men west by a colonel whom he knew only as ‘R’ to find a general commanding a Scottish division cut off from the main force and to tell that general that his men were to fight to the death.

      He shook his head and spoke out loud to himself as he walked from the corridor into the buzzing atrium of the mayoral building: ‘You stupid bugger.’ No one heard him.

      It wasn’t, he thought, as if he would ever avoid such tasks. He was only too keen to prove himself and would have volunteered for anything that might help his country. But this really did seem a ludicrous errand, and for all he knew as hair-brained as the last. Why, he wondered, should he really trust the colonel – Colonel ‘R’ or whatever his name was – any more than the brigadier? Certainly the man had seemed more compos mentis than Dewy Meadows, but he wondered if he had lost the ability to tell any more. Everyone seemed as mad as each other in this strange kind of warfare.

      But, he reasoned, what alternative did he have? To go against what had effectively been a direct order and not to deliver the message to General Fortune and head north to find the regiment? Who knew where that might land him? Fortune might never know to fight on. He might try to withdraw south, deeper into France. Then they would risk losing an entire division if France fell. This was not what Lamb had really expected his war to be like. He had seen himself at the head of a platoon, leading from the front, as he had done with the German column, not on an errand to find some brass hat and tell him to retreat. But if that was to be his role, then so be it. They all of them had some part to play in overthrowing the Nazis, however small and apparently insignificant or crazy it might seem.

      He found the platoon on the far side of the park, away from the area being used as a temporary morgue for the victims of the air raids. They were sitting on the grass, smoking and chatting. Bennett saw Lamb approaching and stood up. ‘Officer present. Put those fags out. Snap to it.’

      The men grumbled and stood up, grinding their cigarette butts into the grass. Lamb reached them. ‘Stand easy. We’ve been given new orders. We’re heading west.’

      The men stared at him. Corporal Mays spoke. ‘Sorry, sir, but I thought we was trying to find the battalion. Haven’t they gone north?’

      Bennett stared at him. ‘Mays.’

      ‘It’s all right, Sarnt. Yes, Mays, you’re quite right, they have, and yes, we were – heading north that is. But all that’s changed, I’m afraid. We’ve just been given an important job to do. Fresh orders from on high. In any case I doubt very much whether we’d find the battalion now. From what I’ve just been told the situation is really very fluid at the moment.’

      Bennett smiled at the expression.

      Lamb СКАЧАТЬ