Zero Night by Felton Mark

Author:Felton, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Icon Books
Published: 2017-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

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Zero Night

So far as we could see, the Operation worked like clockwork.

Captain Rupert Fuller, Royal Sussex Regiment

‘Go! Go! Go!’ hissed Captain Ron Moulson. Kenneth Searle quickly pulled the string and engaged the shorting hooks on the exposed cobbler’s workshop wiring. The perimeter was plunged into darkness, the floodlights and searchlights going out in an instant.1

In Huts 20 and 21 the four Olympia teams tensed, straining their ears for the signal from Major Cousens’ controllers to begin the assault. Nothing happened – the seconds ticked by and no order came. The men, sweating heavily, ready in their assault positions, couldn’t bear the suspense much longer. In Hut 21 Captain Doug Crawford, leading Team 4, heard the controller say something through the open door. ‘You heard “Go!”’ whispered his Number 2, Jack Hand. ‘Was that “Go!” or did he say “No”?’ asked Crawford.2 He waited a few more seconds, wracked by indecision, then made up his mind. ‘To hell with it, we go’, he said. Team 4 thundered through the hut door followed closely behind by Steve Russell’s Team 2. David Walker followed his escape partner Pat Campbell-Preston through the door and down the steps. ‘It was even quieter than before. Only fifteen seconds ago we had begun to move. Now we had action and the time of waiting had gone. This was reality and clear.’3

Four men in each team ran forward holding the scaling apparatuses like firemen while the rest followed behind in their allotted places. Moving in line, the men looked straight ahead. ‘I saw the others in front of me’, said Walker, ‘the fence above, and through it the flat plain and the little hut which would guide us when we were over.’4

In Hut 20 also, confusion over the signal reigned. Major Arkwright’s Team 1 and Captain Baxter’s Team 3 stood holding their apparatuses, blackened faces swept by doubt. Arkwright never heard any order to go; instead, through the gloom outside he saw Crawford’s Team 4 come pounding out of Hut 21 next door and decided to simply follow them. ‘Go, go, go!’ he whispered, and the two teams came through the hut doorway and charged the wire, fanning out to launch their apparatuses at their agreed places.5

The Number 5 man on Team 1, Captain Dick Tomes, was struck by how light it still was, even though the perimeter lights were extinguished. The moon was not fully up but it was not pitch black either. As Tomes ran along behind the apparatus he could clearly see the nearest German sentry, some 50 yards away in the gloom.6 He was examining the fence. Johnnie Cousens’ diversions were working like a dream – the sentries were being held some distance from the assault point by the noise of grapnels embedded in the wire being vigorously pulled by unseen hands. The fence was actually rippling as the wires thrummed and vibrated through the holes in the supporting posts. Two white-painted ladders leaned against the fence, one on each wing of the assault point, adding to the effect.

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