A Right to Bear Arms by Richard Savin

Author:Richard Savin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-08-29T15:56:43+00:00

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At Northolt, Lovett’s commandos had walked in through the front gate without a problem. Park had been in Kingston for three days and had already managed to get a handful of newly assembled Hurricanes over to Brooklands. On the streets around Lancaster Gate an astute observer would have detected a number of five-ton trucks, canvas-backed, with their rear curtains pulled together. Inside, soldiers from the Chelsea Barracks sat patiently waiting for Churchill’s speech as the signal to erect barriers on all the roads leading to and from the Legation building. No one would be allowed to come or go.

In Hull the only difference to the daily routine at the German-occupied docks was that the transport drivers had not turned up for work. Instead a representative of the Transport and General Workers Union had presented himself at the Kommandant’s office and served notice on him that there was a nationwide strike of all transport drivers. The Kommandant demanded to know how long the strike would last but the Union rep only shrugged and said he didn’t know – he was only the messenger not the decision maker. The docks would be notified in due course. Ten minutes after he walked out through the dock gates a van drew up outside. Four men emerged from the back of the van and set up a picket. They took a brazier, a bundle of wood and a sack of coke out of the van and proceeded to light up a fire. When a German guard on the other side of the gates asked what was happening, the driver of the van laughed out loud. ‘It’s a picket, Fritz,’ and he wagged a finger at him. ‘Nichts drivers go in – nichts drivers come out. Alles kaput Fritz!’

In Downing Street, Armitage and James sat in Halifax’s office and waited for Bevin and Dalton to return with Anthony Eden. There was no doubt about Eden’s loyalty; he was a member of the Churchill family and had been Foreign Secretary for Chamberlain until he’d resigned over the Munich appeasement – but for security reasons they had kept him in the dark. They knew he would fall in with the plans so there was no reason to tell him; the fewer who knew, the smaller the risk the plot would be uncovered and the Germans tipped off.

By three o’clock the word was out that Parliament had voted almost unanimously to reject the Paris Treaty in its current form and renegotiate the terms. But there were no journalists in the press gallery; they had all scurried back to their offices as soon as the statement of the resignations had hit the floor of the House. In Fleet Street reporters and editors were frantically trying to get out a special edition.

Two hours later it would hit the streets in time for the home-going commute: ‘BIG SHAKE UP AT NUMBER 10’ the Evening Standard bannered. ‘HALIFAX RESIGNATION – BEVIN, EDEN AND DALTON TAKEOVER’ the Daily Mail shouted. Beaverbrook was silent on the matter – he sat on the fence to see which side Humpty Dumpty would fall.

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