SBS, page 26
*
Up above the camp, the moon shone bright above the olive groves and the tall, waving cypresses, and cast its white light upon masses of purple carlina flowers.
Woods was struck by the beauty around him and the stillness. The road was now eerily quiet, save for the clicking of the insects in the undergrowth and the occasional howl of a distant village dog. From their high vantage point, looking down into the valley to their right, it was possible to see the lights of any vehicles. A few came into view but they did not seem to be moving in any particular direction and Woods presumed they were not yet the lights of their target. He looked away and tried for a moment to get things into focus in his mind. To gain an overview of all that had happened.
Fletcher trotted up to Woods. ‘They’re here sir. They’re coming.’
Woods waved him down. ‘Get down, man, and get in position.’
Around the bend at the bottom of the low hillock, just where they had reckoned they needed to secure the road, came a German armoured car, with a heavy machine gun mounted on the turret, manned by an SS gunner. It was followed by a lorry, an Opel Blitz, its back covered with a tarpaulin and presumably filled with armed guards. Then came another lorry. They had been informed by Eleni’s smuggled message that it was the second truck that would contain Hunter and Phelps and that they would be shackled and guarded. After this second truck came an open-topped Kübelwagen staff car containing the distinctive, black-clad figure of Oberst Hilmann and his ADC, along with a driver and an SS guard.
Woods watched them come and then, behind Hilmann’s staff car, saw a second open-topped Kübelwagen, which had not been mentioned in the intelligence. This took him somewhat by surprise, for, apart from its driver, it contained a girl in her twenties, and two more SS guards. The girl was remarkably pretty and she was clearly not a prisoner. She was not shackled or cuffed and was dressed in the manner of a respectable middle-class woman.
As the lead vehicle approached their position, Ffinch pushed down with all his might on the plunger. There was a huge sheet of flame, which, lighting up the night, seemed to leap from the road, followed by an enormous, ear-shattering explosion, and then black smoke and dust everywhere. The armoured car was hit hardest. It was thrown into the air with the full force of the blast and toppled over the edge of the cliff. As it hit the ground upside down the gunner in the turret was decapitated and the vehicle went on tumbling down the hill, with the headless body still in place, eventually catching fire as it went and incinerating everyone inside who had not been killed by blast or crash. The lorry behind it was also lifted up and crashed down on its side across the road, trapping the men inside. Within seconds those closest to the road had begun to scream in pain.
The second lorry, with Hunter and Phelps sitting opposite each other in the rear, crashed into the back of the first, which was now lying on its side and swerved right, straight into the bluff. The driver was thrown into the window and killed outright.
The first staff car careered into the side of the now diagonal second lorry, throwing forward its inhabitants with such force that two of them, the driver and an SS guard, were knocked out at once. The others, Hilmann and his young ADC, seated in the rear, were thrown forward against the backs of the front seats with massive impact and were both badly winded, the ADC breaking two of his ribs.
The driver of the second staff car, which contained Eleni and two more black-uniformed guards, managed somehow to swerve to the right and, skidding along the road, in a mountain of dust, crashed screaming into the rear of the first Kübelwagen side on, injuring all of the inhabitants. The driver came off worst, being crushed against the other car, breaking his arm and wrenching his neck. One of the guards on his side was knocked out by the impact. The other guard was luckier, smashing against the driver’s right side but the gear stick caught him hard in the knee and he screamed in pain. Eleni, sitting behind him, was the least injured, but sat in shock, unable to move.
*
The four guards in the back of the lorry containing Hunter had now dropped the tailboard and began to dismount, pushing Hunter and Phelps out with them so that, their hands still cuffed, they both toppled to the ground and tried to get up. Two of the guards started to run away from the convoy, down the road, only to be met by a hail of fire from the heavy machine gun that had been covering their escape route. They fell, dead to the ground.
The other two, mere boys in SS uniform, looked terrified and uncertain. They raised their weapons and for one moment Hunter thought they might shoot him and Phelps where they were, crouching in the dust, still trying to stand up. But then he caught the eye of one of them and, as he finally made it to his feet, just shook his head, nodding so that the boy would notice the numbers of andartes who were now descending the hillside to swarm around them. One of the boys dropped his gun and raised his hands. The other just stared at him. In that instant Hunter spoke to the first, in German, holding up his hands: ‘The keys and you live.’
Not needing to be told twice, the boy fumbled at a ring on his belt for the key to Hunter’s handcuffs and finding it, undid the lock, freeing him. Hunter grabbed the Schmeisser he had dropped and, turning to the other guard, who was still trying to understand what was going on, gently squeezed the trigger. The man stared at him for a moment and then dropped dead. Hunter turned back to the boy and pointed to Phelps. ‘The key. Undo him.’
Quickly the German, fumbling in his fear, undid Phelps’s handcuffs and as Phelps was soothing his cut wrists, Hunter dealt the German a hard blow on the back of the neck with the butt of the gun, which knocked him unconscious.
With the guard lying at his feet, Hunter pushed the Schmeisser into Phelps’s hands and grabbed the other man’s gun from his dead grasp. He turned to Phelps, who was looking around himself, still a little bemused.
‘Phelps. Stay here. Stay on watch. They’re all friends. Greeks. Andartes. Go with them and they’ll look after you.’
Phelps nodded. Then, without a word, aware that time was everything, Hunter dashed forward to the second staff car.
As he did so, the final lorry screeched to a halt behind the second staff car and, quicker than the Greeks had expected, the tailboard dropped and six Germans began to drop from inside on to the road. However, no sooner had their boots begun to hit the ground, than the rear machine gun on the hillside opened up, spraying them with a belt of bullets. The men danced and fell, writhing and jumping in the contortions of death, like so many black-clad puppets.
*
Woods had been watching the whole thing unfold with great care, keeping his eye on Hilmann’s staff car in particular. As it smashed into the rear of the lorry, he raced down the slope and, hitting the road, dashed towards it, his right hand firmly on the trigger guard of his Sten. He was determined to make sure that no trigger-happy Greek would shoot Hilmann before they could take him prisoner.
As Woods got to within about ten yards of the car, he was able to see that the driver had come round. Seeing Woods, the man began to fumble at his belt for a pistol. Woods squeezed the trigger of the Schmeisser and shot him in the chest. The guard beside him was still a little groggy, but he started to raise his gun and Woods gave him a short burst from the Schmeisser.
Hilmann meanwhile had managed to force open the door at his side of the vehicle and had climbed out. Now he too went for his gun. His holster was open and in seconds he had it out and pointed at Woods as he dealt with the second guard. He was about to shoot when there was a shot that knocked it clean from his hand. Woods looked round to see Andrea smiling at him. The colonel yelled and grabbed at his fingers, one of which had been shot clean off. Woods shouted to Andrea and another of the Greeks, ‘Don’t kill him. We need to take him alive.’
The colonel’s young ADC had finally managed to get out of the car and was leaning against it, holding his side in pain. Woods decided he was no threat and was beginning to wonder whether it might not be worth saving him too, when Yanni walked up behind the boy and shot him once with a Webley revolver in the base of the skull, spattering the upholstery with blood and brain tissue. Woods walked over to Hilmann, who was staring with horror at the body of the ADC.
‘Herr Oberst. Now it seems you are my prisoner.’
The German scowled at him. ‘Maybe, Captain. But not for long. My men in Heraklion will soon be on your tail. And we will take reprisals for every man you kill or hold prisoner. For that poor boy. There was no need for that.’
‘Really? I don’t think you quite understand, Colonel, do you? Should I tell my friends about your reprisal plan? They might be inclined to kill you now rather than wait. Come to think of it, perhaps that would be the best thing.’
Hilmann said nothing.
One of the andartes approached Woods. ‘This the German you want, Kapitan?’
‘Yes, this is the one.’
‘So now we can kill all the others?’
‘Well, let’s just see who is alive and who isn’t, shall we?’
*
Hunter could see the injured passengers of the second car now. It was protected from the forward machine gun’s fire by the two crashed lorries in front of it and from behind by what had been his own truck, but as he watched, a group of andartes came down the slope, making straight for it. Hunter ran across to Eleni and yelled at the men on the slope, ‘Don’t shoot. Hold your fire.’
Eleni had come out of shock and was now moving, trying to get out of the car, but her door was jammed. Hunter spoke to her in Greek: ‘It’s alright. We’re friends. You’re safe now.’
As he said it the guard who had been in the front turned to him and levelled a Luger pistol at him. Reacting fast, Hunter raised his Schmeisser and opened up, hitting the German and shooting him dead before he had time to fire. Then, looking away to his left he glimpsed Hilmann. The colonel was holding his hand, which was bleeding, and was talking animatedly to Woods. For a moment Hunter was tempted to shoot the German dead. But in that same moment the injured guard from the second car came round and instinctively grabbed for his gun. But Hunter moved faster and again fired first, hitting the man in the head.
Eleni, still trapped in the car, sat, white-faced and shaking, just staring blankly at the two dead men. Hunter grabbed her and pulled her through the door of the Kübelwagen. Then, holding tight to her arm, he moved with her towards the hill. As he did so the place exploded in a hail of bullets, as the andartes struck the column in earnest, killing any of the enemy they could find.
Hunter walked a little distance up the hill and found White, who was leaning against an olive tree changing the magazine of his smoking Sten gun. He handed Eleni to him. ‘Look after her. She’s been through a bit of a hard time. And she’s in shock. Just stay with her.’
The big man smiled at him. ‘Will do, sir. Come here miss. Best you sit down.’
Hunter left her with him and returned to the road where chaos now reigned.
The guard and the driver of the first staff car had now regained consciousness and were staggering about the road like drunks. One of the andartes, a wiry villager from Kastamonitsa named Vardas, walked straight up behind one of them and shot him at close range with his Sten gun, then turned it on the other man and did the same.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over. The noise, which up until that moment had been intense and interminable, suddenly ceased, save for the moaning of the remaining wounded and the crack of pistol shots, as the andartes walked around finishing them off with a single shot to the head.
Ffinch came up to Hunter, who was standing with Hilmann, whose arms were being held in the firm grip of two of the andartes. The German said nothing and had long since stopped struggling.
‘Good show, Hunter. Well done. Glad we got you out.’
‘Not as glad as I am, sir. Thank you.’
Ffinch turned to Hilmann. ‘Herr Oberst. I’m most terribly sorry to have interrupted your evening. Frightfully sorry and all that. Now what we’re going to do is go for a little walk and then… Well, then we’re going to get you on a boat to our friends in Cairo. And if you attempt to escape. Well, then, I’m afraid we’re just going to have to kill you.’
Still Hilmann said nothing. Merely glared and smiled. Ffinch turned back to Woods. ‘Right, Lieutenant, we’d better get a move on. Up the hillside and I’ll guide you on from there. These chaps all know the way. I’ll find Captain Woods. Take it easy as you go. It’s a little treacherous.’
They made their way away from the carnage of the road where a score of Germans lay dead, amid the wreckage of the toppled trucks and the twisted staff cars. The ghastly tomb that was the armoured car was still burning at the foot of the hill. Tomorrow, thought Hunter, there would be hell to pay.
They moved away up the hill, an extended party, Hilmann under escort and Eleni being helped by White. Phelps was back with Hunter now, where he felt at his safest, while Ffinch was gabbling away to Yanni about what a great success it had all been. Not only had they captured the general, rescued Hunter and Phelps and saved the girl, the andartes, said Yanni had picked up several briefcases from the staff cars containing not only some papers they couldn’t read, but more importantly packs of sugar, sweet biscuits and Viennese cake. Not to mention the cigarettes. Yanni was a very happy man.
*
Woods walked over to Hunter and Phelps, who were surrounded by the others. Fletcher was speaking to Hunter. ‘Bloody hell, sir. We really thought we’d seen the last of you.’ He turned to Woods. ‘Didn’t we, sir?’
‘Indeed we did. We’d almost given you up for dead.’
White spoke: ‘But the captain here insisted on going back for you, sir. In fact, truth to tell, he was leading us all down to the airfield when we heard you was being moved.’
Hunter smiled at Woods. ‘Is that so, Peter? Thank you. That was good of you. Bloody good.’
Woods looked at him. ‘You’d have done the same, wouldn’t you? Can’t give up a man without at least having a go, Jim.’
He smiled. ‘You know that as well as I do. Can’t leave a man behind.’
Hunter smiled back and nodded. They had both learnt a hard lesson on Rhodes and it had forged a bond between them that they now knew nothing could break.
They came to a halt and Ffinch told them to take a brief rest.
Dawn was coming up but none of the Greeks seemed perturbed that they might be spotted by the enemy.
Ffinch explained, ‘Jerry doesn’t really come up here. Far too dangerous for him.’
Yanni moved among them, handing out some of the German chocolate and the Viennese cake that he had liberated from the staff car. As they were eating it Woods turned to Hunter. ‘You saved the girl, Jim. Well done. That was bloody clever of you.’
‘Well I presumed we might want to save her. She looked a little out of place, sitting there. Was I right?’
‘Were you right? I should say so. Of course we wanted to save her.’
‘Why? Who is she? She’s Greek, isn’t she? Is she a quisling? A Nazi? She was at the camp. We saw her being taken to the car. But she was no prisoner. She went of her own accord. I overheard the guards talking. Something about a present for the general?’
‘Yes. Her name’s Eleni. She works… worked in the officers’ mess at the camp. They were taking her as a “present” for the general commandant.’
‘That’s what I thought they said.’
‘She, well, she looks after the officers’ needs.’
‘Oh. I get it. I see. She’s a high-class soldiers’ whore. That’s what I’ve bloody well saved.’
‘No. There’s more. She’s also our intelligence source. It’s only through Eleni that we knew they were moving you. Otherwise, you’d still be on your way to Hania.’
Hunter whistled. ‘Christ, that’s good. I had her all wrong, didn’t I? Perhaps I should thank her then?’
‘Yes, Jim. Perhaps you should. God knows what we’re going to do with her now though. I doubt she can go back undercover.’
‘Well, surely, we get her out. Get her back to Cairo if we can. She might well be of use.’
‘Really? In what way?’
Hunter smiled. ‘Well, if she’s prepared to go to those lengths for her country, who knows what else she might do for the war effort.’
‘Are you sure that’s such a good idea. She might compromise the whole thing.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so. Anyway, we’re more than a little compromised already.’
Changing the subject Woods pointed to Hunter’s bandaged head and hand. ‘I say, are you alright?’
‘Bit of an argument with an SS guard and the stone floor of a cell. But I reckon I’ll survive.’
‘How about Phelps?’
‘Hard to say really. His nerve’s totally gone. He just sort of folded up. In the camp, I mean, on the op. Just when we were right in the thick of it. He cracks. Then they beat us up quite badly. But it was really not knowing what they were going to do to us… with us, next. It was bad enough for me, but God knows what it did to him. He’s no use to us now. Or to anyone, poor bugger.’ He looked at Woods. ‘Thank you, Peter. Thanks for getting us both out.’
‘It was nothing. It was two Effs’ doing, really, and the andartes. Oh, and Eleni.’
‘So what’s the plan?’
‘Now we have to walk. Into the mountains apparently, and down the other side to the coast. It’s about twenty-five miles. Might take us two days.’
‘And what about the boat? Is Gorringe still there? I sent a message.’
Woods shrugged. ‘That’s just it. Obviously I sent Martin off with the papers and Wilson and his men with him, what was left of them. I told them to wait for a day when they got to the boat. But by the time we get there we’ll be two days late. I doubt if even Gorringe will have waited.’
