Travels by night.

Herr Smith, Ever watchful, has found his access to the creeks on Southampton water to be coming more and more difficult as security is stepped up. But on one attempt he observes a small boat towing a canvas clad load upriver, It appears to be a very small U-boat about 15 foot long.
Knowing this to be of interest to his superiors, he includes all the details he has in his next report.
     This too is becoming more difficult as detector vans periodically appear in the area.

The Kreigsmarine decide to send a small raiding force under the command of Lt Schultz to investigate.
They are accompanied by a scientist Dr Albert von Bratwurst, to study the strange craft and then destroy it.

Approaching the mouth of the creek, commanded by a coastal battery, Lt Schultz decides to sail past on the other side of the river and approach downstream

Patrol activity on the jetty and its surrounds puts paid to this and they are forced to creep past the enemy defences.

 They make it safely and rendezvous with agent Schmidt at the old stone circle.He agrees to wait one hour for them to give him a copy of the report and photographs.That way there will be two ways of getting the information back.

The raiders cross the river, narrowly avoiding the river patrols, the moonless night favours them.

They land safely, but can now hear motor patrols in addition to the foot patrols they expected.

Taking advantage of every scrap of cover, they move down between the road and the river, alert for any sentries.

They reach a pillbox,manned only by one sleepy lookout, and after a short scuffle, silence him.

Not quietly enough, the sound reaches the ears of a dog patrol,  They turn to investigate, alert but not yet alarmed.

They creep closer.

and closer still.

      The sentry on the jetty has his back to them, so they rush him, at the first sound of a footstep on the wooden surface, he turns, bringing his rifle down.  but is struck before he can utter a word.

  Surprised he might be, but a veteran of the BEF he is no easy target, he sidesteps the first of the attackers, kicking him into the river, then engages the second.

The noise alerts the sentry with the dog and he calls out the guard.

The Raiders are now up against the clock, Whilst the struggle on the jetty continues the German flank guard, line the hedge and distracts  the garrison with a flurry of shots.

Corporal Mckenzie on the jetty slips and is hurled into the river, Entry to the X craft is now possible and the Lt and scientist board to examine the interior, Sgt Gruber .lays demolition charges whilst his men form a protective cordon.

 It will be needed, by road and river the defenders are rushing to the scene,
Herr Smith looks nervously at his watch, He cannot risk waiting much longer.

Having made a rapid inspection of the X craft and taken several reels of photographs, The Germans fall back along the bank to their dinghies, fighting all the way. Casualties are light on both sides, in the almost pitch dark it is difficult to see, let alone hit a target.

They succeed in reaching the dinghies and crossing the river, as they step ashore Lt Schultz looks at his watch.
Any moment now, he counts down the seconds  and then!

Absolutely nothing.

Either the charges were badly set in the rush or the british managed to find them.

He and his men trudge uphill to the rendezvous,handing over the film to Herr Smith, they proceed to a safehouse, intending to sneak away when the time is right.

The E boat pick up is scheduled for the following midnight. 

Out by sea .....

a couple of months late - but here is the next installment :)

---oXo---

continued from the previous post ....

The german shore party after getting safely to their inflatables with the airmen - set off down the river ....

After about 10minutes they heard a distant chugging sound, hurriedly they pull up on the river bank and lay low, just in time too avoid river patrol boat on its way upstream ....

After another 15minutes or so paddling downstream, keeping close to the banks, they rounded a bend in the river and rendez-vous'd with their ride home, an E-Boat (a captured british MTB) moored in slight inlet.

The men scrambled on board as fast as they could as the E-Boat engines revved up .....

With all on board and below decks the E-Boat headed out down the estuary and into the open sea. However a shore battery had spotted them and started firing ....

The E-Boat made full speed and zig-zagged,  a shot fell just short of them .....

They soon out-distanced the fire from the shore battery and made way to cross the channel ....

German Airmen make their escape ......

The german airmen have been moved to a farm further down the coast - ready to make their move to a rendez-vous with a german landing party from an E-boat....

---oXo---

The airmen are transferred to the outbuilding of the farm...

British regular troops conduct a search of a nearby windmill and its barn ...

The german landing party move up the estuary towards the rendezvous point....

A patrol of british regulars along the railway line ....

The airmen and their guides cross the road .....

The local home guard setup their command post at the windmill, one of their patrols comes in to report ....

The germans have landed, and move slowly to the rendezvous point at the stone circle on the nearby hill...

The airmen and their guides make their way down behind the hedge; their van will be used to distract the home guard ....

The home guard from the pill box and a local patrol check out the van ... "Papers please" ....

While the home guard were distracted the airmen and one guide jump the hedge and make it part-way across the open area and hunker down in the lee of some scrub.... the home guard patrol starts to move down the road ....

One of the party who had been looking after the airmen fires his gun.  The sound of a few bursts of machine gun fire echoes across the stillness of the evening; a patrol of regulars stops to investigate

Hearing the gunfire the home guard run for cover at the nearby signal box; meanwhile the airmen and their guard run across the railway line.....

The home guard meet up with the regular patrol, neither of them have seen anything .....

The airmen make contact with the landing party .....

and then make their way up the hill to the rendezvous point ....

and then down to the boats .......

---oXo---

will the german landing party with the airmen get down the estuary and be picked up by the e-boat ?

 to be continued .......

In Freazingham by the Sea ..... what about the german airmen ?

With the german airmen still in hiding and waiting to get back across the channel members the local fascist league,were trying to find a better place to hide them than the coal cellar at the factory. Finally some success at Ronnie's Cafe ...

Clarisse: Can you help us out ?

Ronnie: Ok then, we can keep them in the cellar for a bit.

---oXo---

Meanwhile the commander for the coastal sector discusses with the local senior police officer the best way to intensify the search for the airmen ....

By the coast .....

The german midget sub worked its way up by the coast,

It spotted an MTB .....

It watched the MTB slow down and head towards it's base, the captain turned the periscope round to check the surroundings ...

a corvette, there was activity on the deck - had they been spotted ? he couldn't risk staying any longer - 'dive' shouted the captain, the midget sub submerged and turned slowly making its way back out to sea.

The Navy`s Here

Increased activity in the channel off the the Freezingham light has been reported to Herr Smith, combined with the recent increased security searches in the area,this will make it extremely difficult to get the airmen and their photographs back across the channel. He has arranged a meeting with a local smuggler, Ron Adams to try and set up an escape plan, They are to meet at the Cafe by the harbour known as Ron A`s at 7pm.

Plane down near Freazingham .....

Mr Smith (aka Herr Schmidt) the german spy had been active along the south coast; he had made contact with a group of british fascists in Freazingham-by-the-Sea; they had been put on standby as special aerial mission to take photos of the nearby MTB base was planned - the crew of the plane was instructed that if they got into difficulty they were to get the plane down as best they could to the north of Freazingham and head for safety at Nooks farm (suitable maps and code phrases had been provided).

---oXo---

The sound of ack-ack from the area of the MTB base disturbed the late afternoon calm of Freazingham, followed by the sound of an misfiring aircraft engine heading north....the home guard patrol try to figure out where the plane is going down ....

 The grounded german plane, belly flopped, but the crew get out unharmed ...

The aircrew weren't far from Nooks farm and then carefully confronted the farmer and said 'the cigar is burning' to which the farmer replied 'the ashtray is empty' - knowing they were safe they went with the farmer who hid them in the barn. The farmer carefully sent a quick radio signal.

A lorry from the town arrived at the farm, (the local 'nuns' had arrived and acted as lookout), a small group of fascists from Freazingham had arrived to take the aircrew to a safe house.

 Meanwhile the home guard had located the grounded plane and was conducting a search...

 The aircrew get into the lorry....

 A pistol shot is heard and movement seen by the hedge, the home guard move to investigate

 The 'nuns' return to the convent ....

 Having found nothing by the hedge, the home guard assume it was poachers and head back to their transport - they must get back to town to make a report by phone to the local command centre ....

One poor chap is left to guard the plane..

Meanwhile the lorry is on its way back to Freazingham,  the home guard at the road checkpoint make a cursory search of the lorry - but fail to find the airmen who are hidden under sacks of potato's from the farm

 The lorry reaches the outskirts of the town.....

The town patrol passes the factory on the outskirts of Freazingham, and head off back towards the sea front (and a pint at the Hog's Head).

 The lorry makes it way into the town ...

 Finally reaching the factory, where the airmen are led into the cellars - safe for now...

to be continued ....