Len Deighton 3-Book War Collection Volume 1: Bomber, XPD, Goodbye Mickey Mouse

‘And you think Zewlinski can count the stores unaided?’

‘I’ll be keeping an eye on him.’

‘You are quite a physician, Willi. I’m very impressed.’

‘I’ve had a lot of cavalry experience and men are just like horses. I could always tell the horse-pox or colic (which just needed isolation and a rest) from the lymph cases and the strangles that have to be sent back down the line as fast as possible.’

‘To the slaughterhouse?’

‘Sometimes, sir.’

‘And you sent Kick back?’ Bach grinned but Reinecke didn’t.

‘We shan’t see him again,’ pronounced the old man grimly. ‘But I let Unteroffizier Zewlinski think he’d only be doing the extra duties for a day or two.’

‘I understand, Willi.’

Willi peered at his piece of typed paper again. ‘Two men to divisional signals course, three on the gas course, six men guarding the unoccupied gun site near the village with Rimm in charge of them. The cook that HQ borrowed is still there.’ Willi looked up. ‘He plays the accordion,’ he added significantly.

‘He wasn’t much of a cook,’ said Bach.

‘We should try to write him off and ask for a replacement.’ Bach nodded. ‘Three in hospital in Rotterdam including Kick, ten on leave, four on day pass, three on ration detail: one hundred and fourteen men present and correct.’

Bach nodded.

‘Two more bicycles stolen,’ said Willi Reinecke.

‘This time they are for it.’

‘The men who lost them are on open arrest. I thought you’d probably sentence them tomorrow after the cashing-up is done. Then they can go into Rotterdam tomorrow afternoon as soon as the second shift go on.’

‘You have informed the local civilian police? They got the last one back, didn’t they?’

‘Yes, sir, but riding a Wehrmacht bicycle is a risky business for a Dutch civilian. To get home one night after curfew perhaps …’

‘Yes, if you spot one outside a bar, unlocked and waiting to be stolen. It’s just carelessness.’

‘Exactly, sir. Either that or they are going farther afield in the back of one of the wagons. I have informed the military police office in Rotterdam.’

‘I will sentence them tomorrow. Air activity?’

‘Little or nothing.’

‘They are expected tonight.’

‘We had the alert. I have assigned Lemmers’ crew to the Freya and I have rearranged the shifts as you ordered. The best crews will take over their radars at midnight.’

‘It’s a short night for them. Let’s hope it’s to be the Ruhr, then they might cross this sector on the outward as well as the return.’

Suddenly August realized that Willi’s family lived in the Ruhr. Confused and embarrassed, he searched for something else to say. ‘Moonrise is …’; he tried to see the time from the chart.

‘Moonrise tonight is 00.30, sir. Yes, it will be nice to get two cracks at them.’

‘And sunrise is 05.46. They will have come and gone by 03.00, I would say.’

‘I told the crews that if the target is in the Ruhr it will be a four-hour shift. If the Tommis go farther than that, the number two crews will stand them down for a break and we’ll put them back on for the return.’

‘Good, Willi. You out-think me every time.’

Willi smiled. They both knew it wasn’t true, but it was nice to hear the Oberleutnant say it. They drank the hot chocolate. Willi knew that there was no more official business.

‘A good weekend, sir?’

‘Wonderful, Willi.’

‘Your small son is well?’

‘He runs me into the ground. I don’t know where he finds the energy.’

‘My two are the same. I’m glad to get back here for a rest.’

Willi looked round the Oberleutnant’s room. He felt privileged to be allowed into it. Even the senior officers who came on visits to the radar station were seldom invited here. On the wall above a desk cluttered with glue, wire and soldering equipment there was a sheet of white card upon which August Bach had been reconstructing the bones of a gull’s wing. Alongside it were pasted reproductions of Leonardo drawings of a wing and some photos of gulls, avocets and harriers in flight.

‘The sparrowhawk came back.’

‘Photo?’

‘I’m not as quick as you are, sir.’

‘It’s just practice.’

‘We got some interesting movements on the radar last night.’

‘Birds?’

‘No doubt.’

‘Log it all, Willi. We’re in a unique position that could make a real contribution. Until now the ornithologists didn’t know that birds flew at night.’

‘The operator made a note of the time.’

On the desk there was the blackheaded gull that Willi had wired and mounted. He hadn’t mastered the trick of folding the wings and he wouldn’t permit August to help, so like many an amateur taxidermist before him he had finally fixed them outstretched – gull at moment of alighting. Under the gull’s red feet he had put a nest with three blue-green eggs. Whatever its faults, as August had told him, ‘No one would guess it was a first attempt.’ Willi turned it round proudly.

‘You saw the heron just now?’

‘I’m going to get married again, Willi.’

‘That’s good, sir.’