(1981) Torpedo Run by Douglas Reeman

Author:Douglas Reeman [Reeman, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: War & Military, Fiction
ISBN: 9781407010229
Google: IcTKUAgYqB4C
Amazon: 0515076422
Publisher: Jove
Published: 1984-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

10

Rivals and Lovers

Captain James Whitcombe stubbed out a cigarette, then mopped his face and throat with a crumpled handkerchief.

Outside the room, which had been loaned to him by the Army, it was pitch dark, and he could hear nameless insects hammering against the screens. In the sealed office it was stiflingly hot, like a Turkish bath, and some hissing pressure-lamps added to the discomfort. For some inexplicable reason the electric generators had failed, and Whitcombe knew he was getting too old for this kind of thing.

They had been at it all afternoon, going over aerial photographs, checking intelligence reports and listening to the local operations officers from Cairo.

He glanced at his two companions. Beresford, characteristically slumped in a chair, eyes slitted against the harsh lamps, his hair tousled. A keen and intelligent man, but one you would never know in a thousand bloody years.

As a complete contrast, Captain Barker was still as bright. as a button, pushing ideas, blocking observations of which he disapproved and generally making a nuisance of himself. Even his voice, Whitcombe thought, it went on and on at the same level, toneless and inhuman. Useless Eustace, he called him under his breath.

But, like him or not, there was no denying the logic in his plan. For months the Russian and German naval forces had been playing a cat-and-mouse game. Hitting a convoy here, attacking a shore position or supply dump there, with the casualties too often outweighing the value of each operation.

The Russians used their massive weight, while the Germans relied on agility and ruthless determination. It was a stalemate, and while it lasted there was no hope of a major military advance on the Eastern Front with the resulting drain of German forces in the west.

Whitcombe thought of that morning, the little commander’s announcement about the Sicily invasion. ‘Operation Husky’, as it had been named in his secret files for so long. The pressure had to be maintained and increased. Mere people did not come into it. He tried to avoid thinking of Richie. A hero, a man who had done so much to improve the light coastal forces until they had become a powerful weapon. One slip had broken him, and soon he would be entirely forgotten. But was he not as much a casualty as a man who died under fire or by drowning?

Barker was looking at him fixedly, and with a start Whitcombe realized he must have said something.

`What?’

Barker smiled gently. `It is late. We are all tired.’ Except me, his voice seemed to imply. `But we must decide. I, that is we, have a lot to do. The enemy might change his arrangements.’

Beresford leaned forward wearily and dragged a map across the table.

Barker eyed him confidently. `A ship lies in a Rumanian port, safe from attack, protected more by a false neutrality than anything with real teeth. The Rumanians have encouraged a complete German occupation, I see no reason to excuse their actions or respect their non-combatant status. The Russians, on

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