Pat Kelleher: Black Hand Gang

“What do you think of that?” Everson said.

“They’re not the same, sir,”

“No. Jeffries’ circle doesn’t correspond to the one we’re stood in right now. It’s just coincidence, d’y’see?”

“So it’s got nothing to do with Jeffries. And when he said that he knew the way home?”

“That, I can’t be sure about. It seems he may have learnt some things from the Khungarrii. He mentioned the name Croatoan. Poilus has mentioned it too. There’s something else going on here and this Croatoan thing seems to be key, it keeps cropping up. That can’t be coincidence, it means something but I don’t know what. All I have are Jeffries’ indecipherable notes. That damn man has caused irreparable damage. But he’s left us with one thing — the possibility of a way home and I suppose for that we should be grateful.”

LANCE CORPORAL THOMAS ‘Only’ Atkins stepped out of the dugout an NCO, but it was a hollow moment. He didn’t deserve this. He felt he was deceiving his friends and the Lieutenant. He had left chaos and calamity in his wake, as Jeffries had. He took out the letter he’d taken from Ketch, Flora’s letter to him, the last post. He held it tightly in his hand as he refused to let the tears fall.

Above, the unfamiliar stars were coming out one by one; the constellation they called ‘Charlie Chaplin’ hung low in the heavens against the gaseous red ribbon that trailed across the alien sky. This new world, like Atkins’ fortunes, continued to turn, but for good or ill, he couldn’t say.

A bright point of light rose above the horizon. It was the brightest star in the sky, the star they had christened ‘Blighty’. Atkins looked towards it, held the thought of Flora in his mind and made the most fervent wish he could.

I would like to thank: Jean Spencer of the Broughtonthwaite Genealogical Society without whom I would never have stumbled across this story in the first place. I am also grateful to Bill Merchant of the Broughtonthwaite Real Ale Society for an insight into the history of Everson’s Brewery and the Everson family in particular. I am extraordinarily indebted to Arthur Cooke, author of The Harcourt Crater: Hoax or Horror? for access to his own private collection of documents, letters and diaries pertaining to the incident and especially to surviving footage from the original Hepton film. I would also like to thank the Moore Family for their permission to view the letters and diary of Private Garside. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Stephen Maugham, secretary of the Broughtonthwaite Historical Society for his enthusiasm and tireless work in tracing original documentation. I should also thank Graham Bassett and the staff of The Pennine Fusiliers Regimental Museum for providing me with exhaustive details on the deployment and movements of the “Broughtonthwaite Mates” prior to November 1916 and whose otherwise polite refusals to supply further information only served to confirm and bolster my own research. I am also grateful to Sarah Purser of the Jodrell Bank Press Office and to Michael Wild for agreeing to discuss, over a pint of Everson’s Old Fusilier, the speculations still surrounding the Harcourt event. Special thanks must also go to Jim Sherman of the War Museum of the North’s Photographic Department and Mike McCulloch of the Broughtonthwaite and District Mercury in attempting to identify soldiers and individuals appearing in the Hepton footage. I would also like to thank my wife, Penny, for her continued support, encouragement and long hours transcribing interviews. Finally, I must also pay tribute to those descendants of the men of 13 thBattalion of the Pennine Fusiliers who spoke to me privately for fear of ridicule and censure.

Any errors in this book are entirely the responsibility of the author.

Ack Emma:From the Signalese phonetic alphabet; AM. Morning.

A.M:Air Mechanic; ground crew in the RFC.

Battle Police:Military police assigned to the Front Line during an attack, armed with revolvers and charged with preventing unwounded men from leaving the danger area.

Battalion:Infantry Battalions at full strength might be around a thousand men. Generally consisted of four companies .

BEF:British Expeditionary Force. Usually used to refer to the regular standing army who were the first to be sent to Belgium in 1914. Kaiser Wilhelm called them a ‘contemptible little army’ so thereafter they called themselves ‘The Old Contemptibles’.

Black Hand Gang:slang for party put together for a dangerous and hazardous mission, like a raiding party. Such was the nature of the tasks it was chosen from volunteers, where possible.

Blighty:England, home. From the Hindustani Bilaiti meaning foreign land .

Blighty One:A wound bad enough to have you sent back to England.

Brassard:Armband.

British Army Warm:An army issue knee-length overcoat worn by officers.

Boojums:Nickname for tanks, also a Wibble Wobble, a Land Creeper, a Willie.

Bosche:Slang for German, generally used by officers.

Chatt:Parasitic lice that infested the clothing and were almost impossible to avoid while living in the trenches. Living in the warm moist clothing and laying eggs along the seams, they induced itching and skin complaints.

Chatting:De-lousing, either by running a fingernail along the seams and cracking the lice and eggs or else running a lighted candle along them to much the same effect.

Comm Trench:Short for communications trench.

Communications Trench:Trench that ran perpendicularly to the fire trench , enabling movement of troops, supplies and messages to and from the Front Line, from the parallel support and reserve lines to the rear.

Company:One quarter of an infantry battalion, 227 men at full strength divided into four platoons.

CQS:Company Quartermaster Sergeant.

CSM:Company Sergeant Major.

Enfilade:Flanking fire along the length of a trench as opposed to across it.

Estaminet:a French place of entertainment in villages and small towns frequented by soldiers; part bar, part cafe, part restaurant, generally run by women.

FANY:First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. The only service in which women could enlist and wear khaki, they drove ambulances, ran soup kitchens, mobile baths, etc. in forward areas.

Field Punishment No 1:Corporal punishment where men were tied or chained to stationary objects for several hours a day for up to 21 days. At other times during their punishment they were made to do hard labour.

Fire Bay:Part of a manned fire trench facing the enemy. Bays were usually separated by traverses .

Firestep:The floor of the trench was usually deep enough for soldiers to move about without being seen by the enemy. A firestep was a raised step that ran along the forward face of the fire trench from which soldiers could fire or keep watch.

Fire Trench:Forward trench facing the enemy that formed part of the Front Line.

Five Nines:A type of German high-explosive shell.

Flammenwerfer:German liquid fire thrower.

Fritz:Slang term for a German.

Funk:State of nerves or depression, more harshly a slang word for cowardice.