Commando- The Complete World War II Action Collection Volume I by Jack Badelaire

Author:Jack Badelaire [Badelaire, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781641196543
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2019-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The Ruins Of Calais

0700 Hours

For more than two hours, Bowen, Johnson, and Marie watched the Germans clean up the aftermath of the rescue attempt. Bodies were collected and taken away, and a heavy-duty recovery vehicle was brought in to flip over and haul away the wreckage of the lorry. With the aid of their telescopic sights, the three watched the hotel as uniformed men, both SS and Wehrmacht, came and went constantly.

As with all security breaches, the Germans immediately set up roadblocks and marched patrols up and down the streets, closing the figurative barn door after the horse had run off. SS and Wehrmacht troops postured with their weapons, coal-scuttle helmets pushed low over their brows to give them a glowering, dangerous look. Unlike any accident in a peacetime city, none of the watchers in the ruined building saw a single curious civilian come by, angling for a look at the show. Given the mood the Germans were in that morning, any French citizen who dared show a curious face could expect to catch a bullet with it.

As the sun rose above the rooftops, the reality of their situation became impossible to avoid any longer. They were two uniformed British soldiers and one French partisan alone and without most of the supplies necessary to sustain any kind of prolonged clandestine operation in the heart of an occupied city. They had no food beyond a couple of chocolate bars stuffed in their trouser pockets, no potable water, only one set of batteries for their torches, and their arms consisted of three bolt-action rifles with a standard ammunition load of 100 rounds apiece, their pistols, and six grenades.

If they were discovered, even with the vaunted British rifleman’s high rate of disciplined fire, the best they could hope to accomplish would be a short firefight before being overrun, with the last pistol bullets saved for themselves. A female partisan, especially one as young and attractive as Marie, could only expect rape, torture, and death at the hands of the Nazis. As for Bowen and Johnson, snipers were not typically shown any shred of compassion or mercy by their enemies. As Bowen had made a pact months before with Lynch when they’d departed for their first mission to Merlimont, so too had he made one with Johnson, to take each other’s lives if the alternative meant capture and a painful death. Right now, each of them was considering that fate somewhere between a dangerous reality and a grim inevitability.

“So,” Bowen finally said, “what are we going to do?”

“One of us must reach the rally-point,” Marie answered. “I should go.”

Johnson looked at her in disbelief, his ruddy features obvious in the light of dawn, even with the burnt cork smeared all over his face. “Naw, Miss. You can’t go all that distance. It’s far too dangerous. There’s Jerries all over this city.”

Bowen shook his head and pointed at Marie. “You dumb berk, she’s the only one of us who has a hope of moving around in the daytime, and she’s bloody French.

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