Andrew Wareham - The Balloonatics - A Tale of the Great War

“His judgement will do for me. Horrocks knows exactly what he is doing in a balloon. You are my second hand with effect from the morning, Adams. I became a balloonist because I ran down C-in-C Portsmouth on watch in a light cruiser – we have much in common! I must talk with Mr Davies, if you will excuse me.”

Adams trotted back to the group of midshipmen, sat decorously in the corner. Peter heard a suppressed cry of ‘Made it! I’m in!’. He beckoned to Davies.

“Ready for your own blimp, Davies?”

“I am, Commander. Mr Horrocks has really helped me learn the ropes.”

“Good. As soon as we get a body you can start to train him up. On patrol within a couple of days, I hope.”

“We will not let you down, Commander.”

“I never dreamed you would, Davies. Work with Adams tomorrow, just local training flights. I shall be back in the driving seat the day after.”

“All will be well, Commander. We shall see that Adams knows all he should.”

They were too old for their years. What would become of them when the war ended, ancients in the bodies of youths?

A foul dawn with heavy rain and three quarters of a gale. Just the morning to sit in the office. Peter telephoned Troughton.

“Fit and raring to go, Naseby?”

“As much as I ever was, sir. In need of bodies to replace Davies and Norris, sir. With your permission, I would wish to keep Bracegirdle and Norris together as a crew. Davies is to go as pilot in place of Bracegirdle.”

“Make Davies as sub, Naseby. As for mids – they proliferate, crawling in their thousands like maggots! Permanently underfoot and looking for something to do. Far too many of them taken on and now we have them and can’t use them. Not much choice other than send the less likely objects across to the Brigade in Flanders and I don’t like doing that – too much like a death sentence!”

“The casualty figures are high again, sir.”

“Climbing all the damned time. No reason to suppose they will lessen. Two bright little buttons, Naseby, will be hammering upon your door this morning. Train them up and get them going – there is some suggestion that submarines are passing through the Channel to get out into the South Atlantic. Most of the long range boats are thought to go northabout presently. They could save a week in transit by passing through the Channel. Capel will concentrate on the waters towards Dover. You should send your lads out towards Biscay. Convoy cover will be taken over by other stations. It was felt that your people would do best on the distant patrols.”

“I am flattered, sir.”

“Rightly so, Naseby. Can we make Bracegirdle acting lieutenant commander?”

“I have heard tell of eighteen year old captains out in the BEF in Flanders, sir. If the army can do it, so can we.”

“Unbelievable! Before the war a man was outstanding if he made lieutenant commander at twenty-five!”

“Bracegirdle is good, sir. Can I have the privilege of telling him?”

“Do so. Send him across to me, with Norris in trail, and I shall organise transport to his station. A place in Yorkshire, Howden. God knows where it is – never heard of it myself. North of the Thames, somewhere – in the wilderness! Not so far from Hull, I think. Up to him to make a go of it. Original man was too much inclined to shut up shop if a wind began to blow – couldn’t get him up in anything more than a Force Two, believe it or not. Off that coast, it meant he was shut down four days out of five!”

“Not what we want, sir. Not what Bracegirdle will deliver!”

“Exactly! He has done a good job these few days. Arrangements have been made for an experienced Paymaster to take over as well. He’ll hold the boy’s hand as needed.”

“Excellent. Just as long as he does not try to be too helpful.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. The man in question is experienced and tactful as well. Years in on the old cruisers, from China to Cape Horn recently, chasing the Tsingtao Squadron and lucky not to catch them. Not up to weeks out on the blockade between the Orkneys and Iceland in sub-Arctic conditions – he’s more than forty. He will be happy to have a shore posting and pleased to be useful, not just pushing meaningless bits of paper.”

“Very good, sir. What’s the word on the Coastals?”

“Next year before they roll out in numbers. One or two problems to be ironed out yet. When they do come, we will probably send the surviving SS ships out to the Mediterranean, even to the Red Sea. You won’t be going with them, according to current plans. More of that on a later day.”

“Can I make Tubbs and Horrocks up, sir?”

“Tubbs, certainly. The right sort and it might placate his family – they are still shouting for blood, halfwits that they are! Horrocks… Well… Different kettle of fish there, you know… Up through the hawsehole and barely had weeks in the rank yet… Don’t know what people might say, you know.”

“Make Tubbs first, so that he is senior and must stand in for me if I am absent. Horrocks will not be so visible then. He deserves the rank if any man does.”

“Very well! Against my better judgement it is! I shall be calling in the favour one day, Naseby, probably when you make rear admiral over my head! Give them my strongest support and best wishes – if it is to be done, then it must be done well!”

A brief conversation on routine and they hung up, Peter calling for Bracegirdle.

“You and Norris are to go across to Captain Troughton at Folkestone today. In the next hour. Bags and baggage. You are bound for Howden, up on the Humber. You will take over in the rank of lieutenant commander, which is yours as of now. Go and get a half ring put up. Congratulations – very well deserved. Ask Davies to poke his head in my door.”

Davies arrived at the run, hoping to hear of promotion, delighted when told it was real.

“Might overtake old Horrocks yet, sir!”

“Possible but unlikely. He is among the next in line to be made up. Six months at least before you can look for a second ring, Davies. Ask Tubbs to come over, please.”

A very short wait – the word was out that promotions were in the air.

“Two things, Tubbs. Most important, to you, you are substantive lieutenant with immediate effect. That makes you number two to me as Bracegirdle is off to the depths of darkest Yorkshire. More significant, to me, is that we have a change in operational orders. We are instructed to patrol out towards the Bay of Biscay, searching for ocean-going submarines that have broken through the Channel and are en route for the Atlantic. They will be making speed on the surface as much as they can and we are at minimum to drive them under and slow them. A day of submerged travel will cut a hole in the length of time they can remain out on station. I want a proposal from you for how best we can organise five blimps on patrol without unnecessary overlap. I will be happy to listen to unconventional suggestions. A full, written scheme for tomorrow, if you please.”

“That’s not much time, sir!”

“It is all the time a lieutenant needs, Tubbs!”

The boy managed to laugh as he made his departure.

Horrocks came in, was promoted and shook his head in amaze, wondered if he might not end up an admiral.

Bracegirdle left, sat solemnly in the front seat of a tender; Norris, balanced behind, tucked in between suitcases and a trunk under the canvas tilt, yelled his goodbyes and prophesies of good hunting in the North Sea. The boy managed to crouch into a half-stand and salute as he passed Peter but he could not control the grin on his face.

“I knew an American a few years ago, sir. Relative of sorts who came across to England for a couple of months. Said it was called ‘going off to see the elephant’ where he came from.”