Authors: James Holland
The farmer and his wife brewed coffee and gave them
bread while Anna examined Bell and Chevannes. Bell's wound was clean enough - a
bullet had gone through his upper arm, but no bones had been broken. Chevannes'
head, however, was a mess. His right cheekbone had been smashed, and a large
gash had been torn in the side of his face, leaving the eyeball to hang loose.
As Anna removed the bandages he screamed again. 'He needs pain relief,' she
said.
'I don't have any,' said Tanner.
Neither did the farmer - not morphine at any rate -
but he did have whisky. 'Take it,' he told Anna. 'Get him drunk.'
They made a bed of sorts for the lieutenant and laid
him in the back of the first truck, then poured one of the five-gallon fuel
cans into the tank. 'Change back into your own uniforms,' Tanner told his men.
When they continued on their way north, Tanner and
Anna were alone in the cab. She yawned and leant her head on his shoulder. He
could feel the warmth of her body against his. If they managed to reach
Andalsnes,
he wondered whether she would
come with them to Britain. He hoped so.
'How are you feeling?' he asked.
'I don't know. Tired. I can't stop thinking about last
night - getting through the town. And about Larsen. It seems so incredible.'
'Yes ... yes, it does.'
'I thought he was going to shoot you.'
'No,' said Tanner. 'He didn't have it in him. He liked
us too much. In any case, it's one thing shooting someone from a distance -
they're not real people, just objects - but quite another killing someone when
you're face to face. It's not impersonal then. I suppose it was a bit of a
gamble, but I was pretty certain he wasn't going to fire.'
She smiled at this. 'Always so rational.'
'What was he saying to Nielssen at the end?'
'Larsen? He said he'd had to do it. That they had
threatened his family. And then he kept saying, "I should have turned you
in at Okset, but I was trying to protect Stig." Then Nielssen said,
"Some protection that was." And that's when he killed him.'
'What did he mean by that?'
'I asked Nielssen a moment ago. Apparently they had
been hiding at a farm in a village called Okset, north of Elverum. It had belonged
to Larsen's cousin. The Germans had turned up and searched for them. They had
even been led by the same officer - Zellner?'Zellner? Bloody hell.'
'Yes, him,' Anna continued. 'Nielssen hadn't seen him,
but Larsen did and recognized him when you first captured him in the fight
above our farm. Anyway, although Larsen had the perfect opportunity to betray
them there and then, he hadn't wanted to get his cousin into trouble and kept
quiet while Zellner and his men searched the place. After the Germans had gone,
they took his cousin's truck, crossed the river and headed north. But at that
point Larsen realized the Germans would have seen them from the other side of
the river.'
'And put two and two together,' said Tanner.
'Exactly. And since then he worried not only about the
fate of his wife and daughters but also his cousin and his cousin's family.'
'Christ,' said Tanner. 'What a bloody mess.'
'Enemy aircraft!' A shout from behind.
'Damn, damn, damn!' cursed Tanner. Pasture still
stretched a hundred yards or more to their right, while on their left the
ground sloped down towards the river. They were hopelessly exposed. He felt
Anna's hand grip his arm. 'There's no cover,' he said, 'We've got to hope for
the best.' He pressed his foot on the throttle. 'Can you see them, Mac?' he
shouted.
'Yes, Sarge. Four of them coming up behind, straight
down the valley!'
'Can you tell what they are?'
A pause, then Bell said, 'They're bloody
Messerschmitts, Sarge, 110s.'
'Christ, this is bloody suicide,' he muttered. The
four planes were upon them now. Tanner looked through the side of the cab to
see two lines of bullets kicking up the ground to their left. The bullets of
the second aircraft raked the ground in front of them, while those of the third
were way too wide. But those of the fourth cut a swathe across the road from
right to left, clattering and pinging into the bonnet of the truck. Anna
ducked, Tanner swerved, then righted the truck, but the
Opel was spluttering, steam hissing from the radiator.
Ahead, the four aircraft hurtled onwards down the valley until they
became dots, then disappeared from view.
'Will they come back, Jack?' asked Anna.
Her hands were shaking, Tanner noticed, as she moved a strand of hair
from her face. 'Doubt it,' he said. 'They would have started turning back
towards us by now. They've probably gone on to attack Andalsnes.'
With the engine coughing, he rolled the truck off the road and brought
it to a standstill. 'Bollocks!' he said, smacking the steering-wheel.
He jumped out of the cab and ran to the other.
'We are all right,' Nielssen called out. 'They missed us entirely.'
'That's something,' said Tanner. 'Our truck's had it.'
'Get into this one quickly,' said Nielssen.
Tanner ordered McAllister and Chambers to take the spare wheel from the
ruined Opel, while he and Derigaux lifted out Chevannes.
Within ten minutes they were on their way again, Tanner and Anna now
beside Nielssen in the cab. 'How much further is it?' Tanner asked Anna. To
their left, the river had developed into a narrow lake.
'About sixty kilometres,' said Anna.
'We can't stop,' said Nielssen. 'We've got to risk it.'
'Those bastards'll be back, though.' Tanner sighed heavily, tapped his
fingers on his knees, then sighed again, this time even louder. 'Jesus,' he
said. 'This is going to be close. Damned close.' They passed a small column of
shattered and burnt-out vehicles left beside the road. Several blackened
corpses lay spreadeagled to either side.
'As if we needed reminding,' said Nielssen.
A few more miles slipped by, then a few more. Tanner
struggled to sit still. He wished he was driving; at least it would have given
him something to do. The valley no longer seemed beautiful; rather, Tanner saw
it as little more than a death-trap - a single road and a railway line, with
only intermittent cover. At any moment more enemy aircraft would be upon them.
So long as they had the truck they could outrun any pursuit on the ground, but
if they lost this vehicle as well. . . 'This is torture,' he said at last.
'Absolute bloody torture.'
They passed a settlement called Brude. 'How far now?'
he asked Anna.
'About forty kilometres, I think.'
'Aircraft!' yelled Sykes from the back. 'Bloody hell,
and there're lots of them!'
Tanner groaned, and leant out of the window. They were
only specks on the horizon, but he could see two distinct formations, one
higher than the other. The valley had narrowed again, and with it the stretch
of pasture off the road. A hundred yards ahead the road curved and beside it
the forest reached the road's edge.
'Can we make the curve of the road?' A thought, but
said aloud. Leaning out of the window, he saw the lower formation swooping
downwards towards them.
'Now!' he said. They were close enough to the bend.
'Sir, get the truck to the side of the road, and let's get out! Out, everyone,
quick, and into the trees!' He leapt from the cab, hurried round to the back
and, with Sykes, grabbed Chevannes' legs, hoisted him on to his shoulder and
sprinted to the trees. He had barely stepped away from the road when the first
line of bullets spat a line behind him. Laying Chevannes roughly on the ground,
he crouched behind a tree, aircraft roaring overhead, seemingly only just above
the canopy. Bullets hurtled through the branches and along the road. A line
pinged across the truck. A moment later there was a loud boom and the vehicle
was engulfed in flames, the canvas cover and wooden rear crackling loudly.
It was over in moments, the six aircraft thundering
onwards. A miracle: no one had been hurt, although as Tanner lifted Chevannes
to his feet, the Frenchman groaned with pain.
Twenty miles
, thought Tanner,
give or take.
They could walk it, but would
the enemy catch up before they reached safety? He rubbed his eyes, rubbed his
cheeks, wished he had a cigarette.
They made another stretcher, this time for Chevannes,
and on they went. For a while no one spoke and all that could be heard was the
tramp of boots. They had come so far.. . Tanner cursed.
'Come on, boys,' he said at length. 'Let's lift our
heads. We're nearly there. We can bloody do this. Just a few hours' hard march,
that's all, and we've done that plenty of times.'
'Sarge!' said Sykes, suddenly. 'Look!'
They followed his outstretched finger and there, a few
hundred yards ahead, they saw the unmistakable sign of a roadblock. Hastily,
Tanner brought his binoculars to his eyes.
British troops.
'They're ours, lads!' he said. 'They're bloody well
ours!' And he began to run towards them.
The roadblock was manned by a small detachment of
Royal Navy Marines, whose commander stepped forward as Tanner stood gasping,
his hands on his knees.
Immediately he straightened and saluted. 'Sergeant
Tanner, sir, of the King's Own Yorkshire Rangers, and Lieutenant Nielssen of
His Majesty the King's Guard.'
'Lieutenant Lindsay,' the Marines officer replied. 'Where in God's name
have you come from?'
At Lieutenant Lindsay's command post - a roughly built sangar made from
stones and branches among the pines - Tanner gave a brief account of their
journey from the Balberkamp, and stressed the importance of getting the
professor away as quickly as possible.
Lieutenant Lindsay, a thin-faced Scotsman of about
thirty, stroked his moustache thoughtfully as he listened, then said, 'We have
a dilemma, though, Sergeant. Although the port is only eighteen miles up the
track, it would be suicide to attempt the journey now. You know what it's like
- you've suffered two close calls yourself. A mile behind us, though, there's a
small village and a four- hundred-and-eighty-yard tunnel. To be honest, that
tunnel's the main reason we're here. Most of our forces are
already at Andalsnes, but what's left are in
the tunnel. We're the last outpost here. We've been ordered to cover them
should Jerry push on through.'
'How many are up there, sir?'
Tanner asked. 'Rather more than one company of Green Howards,
plus various other loose strands, so to
speak,' Lindsay told him. 'The aim is to hold off the enemy here, then slip
away tonight. The chaps in the tunnel are going by train - it's in there, ready
and waiting to go - and we've got seven trucks hidden here. There are ships
coming for us tonight - assuming they haven't been sunk.' He paused. 'I'm
sorry, it's pretty grim, I'm afraid.'
Tanner took off his helmet and turned to Nielssen.
'What do you think, sir?'
'We should wait until this evening. If we are caught
out in the open we could be in big trouble.'
Tanner nodded, then walked a few steps away.
'Sarge?' It was Sykes. 'What are you thinking?'
'I'm thinking a handful of Marines won't stop a
concerted effort by the Germans.'
'We've still got a few explosives. Could always put
them to good use.'
'You're right.' He turned back to Nielssen and
Lindsay. 'Sir,' he said to Nielssen, 'why don't you go with the professor,
Chevannes and Derigaux, and take cover in the tunnel?' Then, to Lieutenant
Lindsay, he said, 'If we can help here, sir, we'll stay with you. We've got
some explosive left we could use.'
Lieutenant Lindsay smiled. 'Yes, I'm sure you could,
Sergeant. I'm afraid demolitions aren't really my line.'
'And if you don't mind me asking, sir, what ammo have
you got left? We're almost out.'
'Enough. We've got a two-inch mortar, one Lewis gun
and two Brens, plus an assortment of rifles and a fair amount of ammo for
those. There is an ammunition train as well in the tunnel, though, so you can
get some more if you need it.'