Hammond Innes: Attack Alarm

And then suddenly the leader banked. The other two in the first formation followed suit. For a second it really did look as though they were circling to land at either Thorby or Mitchet. But the leader rolled right over on his port wing-tip and then began to fall nose first; the other two followed. And then one by one the others tipped over and went down. Nobody in the pit said a word. We held our breath, waiting for the bombs. It was the first time I had ever seen a dive attack. The downward plunge had the inevitability of a preying hawk. There was no ack-ack. Not one of our fighters was to be seen. It made me feel sick. Mitchet lay defenceless on the floor of the plain between us and the North Downs. It was murder.

There they go,’ Bombardier Hood had said suddenly. From beneath the first plane several bombs fell in a cascade, their metal showing white for a second as they caught the sun. Almost immediately bomber and bombs parted company as the former flattened out of its dive. The others seemed to follow right on his tail. I thought the stream would never cease. And before the whole formation had completed its attack my eyes were drawn to the ground. It was misty with heat. Nevertheless I could make out Mitchet hangars and the criss-cross of the runways. And right in the midst of it great fountains of earth and rubble shot into the air. An instant later came the sound — dull, heavy crumps that seemed to make the earth quiver beneath our feet.

Then somebody said, ‘They’re turning this way.’ And sure enough they were coming out of their dive into formation again and banking towards Thorby, climbing all the time. For a moment my heart was in my mouth. And then all sense of fear was lost in the excitement of action. They came back straight over the ‘drome at about ten thousand feet. My impression of what happened is blurred. I remember the ear-splitting crack of the first shot. I had been warned that the three-inch was one of the noisiest guns. But even so, I was not prepared for the loudness of it. It was like hell let loose, with the flash from the muzzle and the flames flung backwards round the breech ring as the gun kicked back. I remember handing a shell to Micky Jones, who was loading. I remember, too, a brief glimpse I had of the planes when they were right overhead. My impression was of a perfect formation, of big black crosses on light-green wings and of little white puffs where our shells were bursting. Langdon’s ‘Cease fire!’ left me with a shell in my hands and a feeling of the keenest disappointment that we had not brought anything down.

‘Hallo, boys!’ I looked up. Tiny Trevors’ big bulk loomed over the table. ‘I see by the parade-ground effect that everybody is drinking pale ale. How many is it — ten? Would you like to get them for me, Micky? I had a sort of premonition I should find you all here.’ Trevors was the Troop Sergeant-Major and very popular at that. He was like a great big playful boy, and he could be charming when he wanted to be.

‘Really, Tiny, I don’t think I want any more,’ said John Langdon. ‘I ought to get back to the site.’

‘Oh no, you don’t, John. The occasion demands a drink. Besides, I want to have a chat with you and Philip.’ His roving eye fell on two Waafs standing near the bar. ‘Ah, there’s Elaine. I promised I’d meet her here. I’ll be back in a second. Make it thirteen, will you, Micky?’ He tossed ten bob on to the table in front of Micky Jones and went up to the bar.

‘Who’s Elaine got with her?’ asked Philip.

‘Don’t know,’ replied one of the older members of the troop from his site. ‘Must be new. I haven’t seen her around before.’

‘A new batch arrived last week,’ said another from the same site, whose name I did not know. ‘I saw them going through the gas chamber the other day.’

‘Fair smasher, ain’t she,’ said Micky as he got to his feet. ‘Puts me in mind of a tart I met down at Margate one August bank holiday. She had fair hair an’ all.’

‘An’ all,’ Muir repeated in the general shout of laughter. ‘Sure she had “an’ all”?’

‘Who’s coming wiv me to help carry these drinks?’

Two fellows got up. I didn’t notice who, for my attention had wandered to the two Waafs talking to Trevors. They were both very attractive. The shorter, whom I took to be Elaine since Trevors was talking mainly to her, was small and dark, with rather round features and a short straight nose. It was the other, however, who attracted my gaze. She was tall and slim with straight fair hair beneath her peaked cap. There was a certain distinction about her. The movement of her hands when she talked was expressive, and though her face was too long and her mouth too wide for beauty, she was undoubtedly attractive.

Trevors nodded in the direction of our table and they came down the gangway towards us. Elaine seemed to know every one. ‘Meet the Artillery, Marion,’ she said. Some she introduced by their surnames but mostly she used their Christian names. She stopped at me and said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. I don’t think we’ve met before.’

‘Hanson,’ I said, ‘Barry Hanson.’

‘Barry Hanson,’ the other girl repeated. ‘You’re not by any chance a journalist?’

‘Why, yes. How did you guess?’

‘On the Globe?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Oh dear, it’s a small world, isn’t it? I was on the Globe too.’

I stared at her, puzzled. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but I don’t ever remember seeing you around.’

‘No, I don’t think we ever met. I was at the City office. Norman Gale’s secretary. You probably remember me as Miss Sheldon. You used to ring me up periodically to get industrial unemployment statistics. Remember?’

‘Good God! Yes. Of course I remember. Strange! You were just a voice on the telephone and now we meet in this dump. Come and sit down.’

Kan made room for her on the bench beside him. She pushed her gas mask and tin hat under the table and took off her cap. Her straight hair fell practically-to her shoulders. She had blue eyes and a way of looking directly at the person she was talking to.

Trevors pushed past behind me. ‘Come and sit down over here, Elaine,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to these two boys.’ He sat down next to Philip Muir. The drinks arrived and were distributed. Marion Sheldon and I began discussing the paper and the various personalities on it whom we had both known.

‘It’s funny that you never came up to the office,’ she said. ‘You were quite a friend of Norman Gale’s, weren’t you?’

I explained that I usually met him either down in the Street or else at one of the City haunts. ‘I can’t think why you wanted to join up,’ I said. ‘You had a very good job and a very interesting one. And I should think Norman was a very good fellow to work for.’

‘The best,’ she smiled. I liked her when she smiled. ‘But the City notes got smaller and smaller. I began to feel I wasn’t pulling my weight. Life seems a bit dead when you’re spending six hours at the office and there’s only about an hour’s work. And that’s how I came to join the Air Force.’

‘What’s your job?’ I asked.

‘Well, I’ve been rather lucky. I only joined up about six weeks ago and I’ve managed to get into Ops. It’s really very exciting plotting the movement of all these raids. I came here about a week ago straight from the training course.’

‘Funny! We’ve both been here about the same time.’ I was just going to ask her how she took to life on an aerodrome when I realised that everyone else had stopped talking and was listening to Trevors.

‘The trouble is,’ he was saying, ‘they don’t know how they got into the agent’s hands. Either the agent himself got into the place or else somebody gave him the information.’