On the Brink of Tears by Peter Rimmer

Author:Peter Rimmer [Rimmer, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kamba Publishing
Published: 2019-05-01T06:00:00+00:00

5

A week later, after the British newspapers claimed Sir Oswald Mosley and his fascists were history, William Smythe walked into the office of Harry Brigandshaw at the Air Ministry to tell him the plight of the Polish air force, the plea of Janusz Kowalski still ringing in his ears.

“Are you all right, sir?” The man behind the desk looked terrible.

“Tired mentally and physically, William. How nice to see you again. If you move those books from the chair you can sit down. I’ve been reading history. If we had built up Germany after the war, instead of rubbing their noses in the dirt so they didn’t have an economy, we wouldn’t be facing them now as an enemy. My wife has another house party this weekend. Quite the socialite. Why don’t you come down and help keep my sanity? Genevieve will be there with her ghostwriter. She’s writing a book, or rather Bruno Kannberg, your old nemesis, is writing a book. He was the chap from the Daily Mirror who ran me down at the Bloomsbury hospital. I don’t understand why Tina always wants people at Hastings Court. During the week I stay at the club, going home on the train each Friday. This job is nerve-wracking. Everyone agrees with Churchill we have to build the air force but nobody does anything. They all have their own pet projects for spending what’s left of the money. No one gets their priorities right. Without radar we need twice as many aircraft to keep patrols up in the air even while the Germans are sitting on the ground having their breakfast.

“Everyone says the problem belongs to France and not England. The French have built redoubts all along their border with Germany which they say can never be breached. A line of interconnected impregnable forts, so they claim. But what happens if a German armoured division goes round the flank through Belgium? All the French guns will be pointing the same way and all into Germany. After that all we have to stop them is the English Channel and the RAF. That damn bilharzia did more damage to my body than I thought. Why I’m always tired. Now, what have you got for me, William?”

“Another problem. The Polish air force.”

“Yes, I know. They are flying kites of the type I flew in the war.”

“I’ve written it all down with photographs. The pilots are first class. They need modern aircraft.”

“Who are they thinking of fighting? The Russian communists or the German fascists? As much as I’d like to help, we have enough equipment problems of our own.”

“I met one of their young pilots.”

“Good. Give him a message from me. If the Germans or Russians overrun Poland, tell him to get out of Poland and join the Royal Air Force. We’ll need every trained pilot we can get, whatever language they speak. How do you know the pilots are any good?”

“I was invited to an air display by a Jewish friend of mine. The Polish pilots are just as good as ours by the look of their aerobatics.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.