Mission to Britain by J. Eugene Porter

Author:J. Eugene Porter [Porter, J. Eugene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781791382698
Published: 2019-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

14

30 March 1942

Achnacarry, Scotland

• Joint Chiefs of Staff order Pacific Ocean divided into two commands: Pacific Ocean Areas (Adm. Chester W. Nimitz) and Southwest Pacific Area (Gen. Douglas MacArthur).

• Christmas Island is occupied by the Japanese.

It was late in the afternoon when the staff car bearing Captain Jameson, James, Gunny, and Corporal Williams arrived at the Commando School. James loved the countryside of Scotland which was so different from his home in the Arizona mountains. Here the mountains were green with large lakes, or lochs as the Scots called them, interspersed between each mountain range. It was like God made a flat earth and then bunched it all up like some tablecloth with folds and valleys that soon filled with water. They stopped at villages along the way for tea and lunch and enjoyed talking to the locals who had never met Americans before.

The key to these interactions was carefully listening because the Scots version of English was difficult to understand. The captain enjoyed lunch at the town of Crianlarich where he had some lake trout and a beer at the only pub in the village. People stared at the Americans and asked all sorts of questions as to when they were going to see more Yanks in the area. Jameson politely informed the people about the need for secrecy regarding troop movements, and this got everyone agreeing on the need to be quiet. The men were sad to go because the quality of the food in this village was some of the best they had encountered on the entire trip.

Arrival at the Commando School was uneventful. The newcomers were expected by the support staff, who quickly located Colonel Vaughn who was formal in his greeting.

“Captain Jameson, I’m Colonel Vaughn, commander of this facility. Welcome to our humble home. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your Marines. A fine lot of men with great skill and passion. You should be proud of them.”

Jameson was surprised by the warmth and praise because he had been told by Lord Mountbatten how abrupt and precise Vaughn was. “Sir, thank you for your kind words, I’ve not spoken to Captain Flannigan since we last saw each other some weeks ago, so I’m glad that he and his men have made a positive impression on you and your command.”

Vaughn invited the captain and lieutenant—whom he had been warned about—to be seated at his conference table, and an orderly quickly appeared with tea. “Your man Flannigan is quite a resourceful individual and so are his men. They have participated in several aspects of our training and have done top notch work. They are excellent with all sorts of weapons and seem to be in tip-top shape. We ran them ragged the past few days in the high country, and they did as well as or even better than many of our top recruits.”

Vaughn described the past two weeks of training and what was involved in these exercises. He informed Jameson he would like to recruit at least one or two members of Flannigan’s team as instructors, especially in small arms training.

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