Battle of Britain by James Holland

Author:James Holland [Holland, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141961132
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

16

Fall Out

In the Mess that night, neither Archie nor Ted said a word about what they had done. Of course, it was obvious that they’d fired their guns, but Ted had told the others that they’d just been practising against patches of cloud, doing beam attacks and sharpening their deflection shooting. Archie said little. He hated lying, always had done, and he left early, muttering about having a headache and wanting an early night. But he knew the CO knew: he’d caught his eye at one point, and had looked away guiltily, but not before seeing the flexing cheek muscles of a man barely able to contain his anger. Darn it, darn it, he thought.

He struggled to sleep. He couldn’t believe he had actually flown over to France and shot up those enemy aircraft. Had that really been him in that Spitfire, hurtling over the French coast at a hundred feet and more than three hundred miles an hour? I must have been mad, he said to himself again, for about the hundredth time. And then there was Mac. My God, but they were for it, no doubt about it. He clutched his hands to his head. No, no, no! He realized he was more terrified of facing the CO than he was of being confronted by a horde of enemy fighters.

Ted stumbled in an hour later.

‘You see, I told you it would be fine. Mac didn’t say a thing!’

‘It’s not fine, Ted. He knows.’

‘Rubbish. He’d have hauled us in already if he did.’

‘Ted, he knows. I saw his face and he was absolutely livid.’

‘You’re imagining it. Relax! We’ll be fine. You’ll see.’

Archie rolled over. What was the point of arguing? But he knew. He knew that Mac knew. And he also knew that, come the morning, they would be for it. Mac had threatened them with the chop and Archie was certain he would stick to his word.

A little while later, as he lay there, eyes wide open, staring at the dark wall and listening to Ted’s light snoring, Archie could not remember ever having felt so miserable.

The following morning, things at first did not seem quite so bad, and, as they joined the others in the Mess for some breakfast, Archie wondered briefly whether perhaps they had got away with it after all. Perhaps – perhaps – Ted’s boundless optimism had been justified.

Such fleeting hopes were soon dashed, however. As they were about to head down to dispersal, Reynolds came over, his face ashen, and said, ‘The CO wants to see you in his office now, boys.’

They followed the adjutant in silence as they walked over to the main building, into the hallway, along the corridor and then stood in front of the CO’s office. Reynolds looked at them, sighed, then said, ‘Deep breath, chaps.’

‘Thanks, Uncle,’ said Ted.

Archie felt so nauseous he could not speak.

Then they were standing before Mac’s desk as he sat there looking over a couple of sheets of paper. The morning sun poured through the window, illuminating the dust motes that swirled idly on the air.

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