Two miles south of the island of Sicily a team of four MI6 specialists are in the middle of a daring rescue and recovery mission. The four extraordinary individuals are Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.
Hut 17B, Hanslope Park, Buckinghamshire was the closest thing that I had to a real home during 1942. We had been away almost six weeks and I had forgotten just how much I had grown to like its simplicity, its security, and its Englishness. It was good to be back. I lay back on my bed and marvelled at the fact that just four days beforehand I was rowing hard to reach the Blackburn flying boat...
Mediterranean Sea, Two miles south of Sicily, August 1942
With the German motor launch closing in on our position I put my back into the oars and row hard for the flying boat. Madeline positions her cloud of darkness between us and the launch to try and cover us from their search light. As soon as we come alongside Doctor Jackal climbs up into the plane while Sven and Madeline pass up the prone figure of the Blenheim’s navigator. I jump up and talk to Captain Almond, I ask him if we can ditch the dinghy and he gives me the thumbs up.
By the time the I have jumped back down into the boat, Sven and Madeline are passing up the Blenheim’s gunner so I grab both camera rigs and get ready to pass them up next. In under a minute we are all onboard and the doors are closed. Madeline shouts to the pilot;
Get us out of here!
Captain Almond doesn’t need to be told twice and he opens the throttles on the planes engines and we lurch forwards. As we begin to pull away the motor launches search light finds us and is followed by the chatter of machine gun fire. We glimpse tracer rounds flying past our starboard wing just as we begin to lift up into the air, and I am sure that there was a twitch in Henry’s eye, but we escaped without incident.
Just under thirty minutes later and we are taxiing towards a dock outside of the Port of Valletta. We are met on the dock by a gaggle of medics, doctors, and military personnel including Captain Hurleman. Doctor Jackal makes sure that his patients are handed over and well cared for, and Sven passes the camera rigs to Captain Hurleman who has them loaded onto one of the waiting trucks and driven away.
Hurleman is genuinely pleased with what we achieved and thanks us profusely, he then drives us back to our barracks. Once we arrive Doctor Jackal heads for the shower block to clean up while the rest of us head for the Officers Mess and a well earned night cap.
Late the following morning, just as we are all sat together having breakfast, Captain Hurleman arrives and hands us all blank report forms. Lieutenant General Dobbie wishes to have a full written report from each of us before the end of the day. We spend the rest of the morning pulling together four stories that are based heavily on the truth, but omitting any incriminating statements. When we are finished Doctor Jackal cross references them and declares himself satisfied but Madeline, who has passed her keen analytical eye over them too, gets us to change the timings to make them more realistic.
With our forms completed and signed, Doctor Jackal heads for the hospital to check in on his patients. Sven says that he is heading out to investigate the island once again. That leaves Madeline and I to carry on with our recent exercise regime. When Doctor Jackal gets to the hospital he finds Airman Smith is conscious. Smith thanks Henry for rescuing him and for saving the life of his friend Jones. Henry tells Airman Smith to get some rest and as he is leaving he is greeted by a man who introduces himself as Doctor Parsons. Doctor Parsons is the hospitals Assistant Director of medicine and he tells Henry how impressed he is with his work last night. He asks if Henry wishes to stay on at the hospital. Henry declines politely, but does stay on for the afternoon to help out.
At the appointed hour a truck arrives at the barracks and a Private greets us and hands Doctor Jackal our orders. He then drives us to the docks where we transfer to a motor launch and are taken out to one of the small islands in the mouth of the harbour. The submarine base was a hive of activity, there were two docked subs and one of them was being prepared for departure. We boarded and were greeted by Captain Robinson, as he was showing us to the officers mess he said that he had heard about our rescue of the two aviators. He actually thanked us, his cousin was a pilot on the island and he was impressed with our actions.
Captain Robinson told us that our journey should take approximately ten hours, Doctor Jackal asks the Captain if he can have a tour of the submarine and Captain Robinson says that he will get his Second Officer to show us around. At the end of the tour we are shown up onto the top of the conning tower and watch as the submarine pulls out of the harbour. Eventually, the Captain asks us to go below and so we return to the officers mess just as the boat begins to dive.
After an uneventful ten hour journey we feel the submarine begin to slow and surface. The Second Officer collects us and takes us up on deck to meet with Captain Robinson, when we get on deck we can see a large British destroyer just off of the port bow. They launch a boat and we say farewell to HMS Undine. One the deck of HMS Porcupine we are met by Captain Stewart who asks us for our orders, Henry hands them over and the Captain gives them a brief glance. He tells us that we will be shown to quarters and that we are due to arrive at Gibraltar in twenty five hours.
At oh eight hundred hours we are met by a Private on the Gibraltarian dockside who hands us another set of orders, this time from Captain Ledman. The orders state that we are due to fly back to England first thing tomorrow morning. The Private drives us to the local barracks and issues us with rooms for the night.
Hanslope Park, England, August 1942
We are met at the airfield by Captain Ledman, who is very pleased to see us, and we are driven back to Hanslope Park. Captain Ledman drops us off and informs us that we will be joined by Major Hoffman for a full debrief first thing in the morning. And so we head home, Hut 17B. It was good to be back.
In the morning we are joined by both Captain Ledman and Major Hoffman and they begin the debrief. Doctor Jackal delivers a perfectly accurate description of everything that has happened since we left England. They are very interested in every use of our powers, and ask us several questions about how we used them and through questioning it becomes apparent that Sven needs to examine a wider variety of animals to maximise his powers potential.
The debrief takes all day and by the end of it both of the MI6 men are impressed by how well we have gelled together as a unit. At the end of it all Major Hoffman looks around and says;
Tomorrow we will get back to our main mission. Looking for the source of your powers.
After breakfast the next morning Captain Ledman tells us what MI6 know about the mysterious chemicals that gave us our enhanced abilities. MI6 had discovered through its network that there was something important on a train travelling through northern France, they had an agent in the SNCF codenamed Duplix, who diverted the train to a preordained ambush site and that is how the British captured the wolfshead barrels. They knew that there was a high risk that Duplix would be discovered but it was a risk they had to take. Duplix was captured by the Germans before he could relay any of his information.
Which means that MI6 have no idea of the wolfshead barrels departure point or destination. They believe that Duplix is being held in northern France and they are coordinating with the local resistance to try and locate where he is being held. Once that information has been discovered the plan is for our unit to fly into northern France, link up with the local resistance leader, either rescue Duplix or at the very least debrief him and then escape across France to a port on the west coast where we can be exfiltrated.
We all sit back taking in the scale of the task in front of us, but the only thing going through my mind is that I will be going back to my beloved France. And even better, I might get to kill some Germans there. Major Hoffman leans forwards and interrupts my reverie;
You will be flying in by glider. Dubois, that will be your responsibility. But you will all be required to complete basic parachute training. Just in case! You know!
Hanslope Park, England, September 1942
The plan is for us to take off at twenty two hundred hours and be towed for three hours, we will be released at oh one hundred hours and glide for fifteen minutes before landing in the Bois de Maurupt. It is then approximately a fifteen mile hike to the pig farm of the Fortefane family north of Bar-le-Duc in the Foret de Massonge. There we will make contact with the local resistance leader who is known as Le Blaireau.
Captain Ledman then issues us with the required statement and response for contact with the resistance;
Le Blaireau est un adversaire redoutable!
Il est aussi fort qu'un bœuf!
We all smile at the ego of it all, all of us except Sven. It is at that moment that I realise that Sven can’t speak French, so I translate for him;
The Badger is a formidable opponent!
He is as strong as an ox!
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