Eagle Day - Robert Muchamore Page 0,71
to the RAF,’ Paxton said. ‘From our point of view it’s a pity he’s not down in Beauvais getting specific information on Luftwaffe strategy, but the information meant we knew the assault was coming our way and we hit the ground running.’
‘But now it’s time to act,’ Mews said, as he lit his pipe. ‘We’ve intercepted a huge quantity of German military traffic and the entire German command is in agreement on three things. First, Hitler is absolutely determined to launch an invasion of Britain on September sixteenth and second and third, the two critical factors in a successful German invasion are control of the skies over the Channel and the assembly of a barge fleet.’
McAfferty nodded. ‘I’m sure the Air-Vice-Marshall knows more about the air battle than I do. Henderson is getting information about the barge fleet from a source who works as a translator for their chief naval architect. As far as we can tell, the Army would like more boats but believes it will have enough to get the job done by mid-September.’
‘And that’s something we have to change,’ Mews said.
Paxton explained. ‘By early September the Germans will have to start moving their barge fleet into the harbours along the coast, ready for the invasion.’
‘Northern France is home to a dozen German fighter bases, so it’s not the ideal spot for a bombing raid,’ Mews added. ‘A daytime mission would be suicidal and even night bombing won’t be easy.’
‘We have a three-hundred-and-fifty bomber raid planned for September ninth,’ Paxton continued. ‘That’s a little over two weeks. What I need from Henderson is accurate information on where the barges are and navigational markers for the locations.’
McAfferty didn’t understand. ‘Markers?’
‘Anything that will help our pilots pinpoint the bombing zones at night,’ Paxton explained. ‘A large ship or building, a distinct curve in the river. Anything that’s likely to be visible to a bomber pilot flying through darkness at two hundred miles an hour. Good visual markers can raise the accuracy of a raid from ten per cent to sixty or even seventy per cent.’
‘The success of this raid is now Henderson’s number one priority,’ Mews added, as McAfferty jotted down some notes.
Pas-de-Calais, northern France
The Germans now practised daily on the beach near the farm. The exercise that had failed so dramatically in front of Goering a month earlier was now performed up to five times a day, with four hundred troops and up to eight barges each time.
Barges and canal boats converted in the yards at Boulogne and Calais were held in the natural harbour on the far side of the pier and tested for speed and seaworthiness by a specially assigned crew.
Another part of the beach was used to give swimming tests in the choppy waters. Anyone who failed to swim twenty metres out to a marker buoy and back again was subjected to the attention of burly swimming instructors. Their teaching technique mainly consisted of screaming in faces before throwing men over the side of a boat and whacking them with wooden oars if they tried grabbing at the ropes along the side.
Paul was fascinated by the way an army reduces men to cogs. A man lost his legs when he fell in front of a tank, several died when an unseaworthy barge caught a high wave and non-swimmers collapsed on the shore, only to be dragged back out to sea, but despite all this, the Germans kept improving.
More men could swim, the barge pilots were mastering tides and tank crews became expert in driving up the access ramps. In good weather eight barges could be loaded, taken back around the pier and unloaded on the neighbouring section of beach in twenty minutes. Soldiers repeated four cycles of loading and unloading, by which time new barges and new troops had arrived to repeat the exercise.
Paul’s love of drawing had been consumed by an appetite for money. All the regular officers and instructors on the beach were used to him now and he’d even been given an authentic black SS helmet. It was supposed to be for protection during the occasional air raids, but Paul liked it and kept it on his head unless it got really hot.
All Germans received part of their pay in French francs, but there were few shops and little to buy in them. Paul drew from photographs of wives, girlfriends, daughters and cats, and he even did the occasional caricature of a commanding officer. Taking photographs home didn’t work because most soldiers only