They had a go at the harbour from three miles out. His daughter is apparently still there, but almost everyone else was moved out six months back. I’m really not quite sure why she hadn’t gone with the others, but there it is.’
‘She will be Seigneur now,’ I said. ‘Lord of St Pierre. They had a woman once before, back in the thirteenth century. She used the male title. Simone will do the same. She has a great respect for tradition.’
I thought of her for a moment, out there beyond the horizon in the old manor house that had been the Seigneurie for untold generations. It had been a long war. She must have been lonely. Lonelier still, now that her father was gone.
It was almost five years since I had seen her. On a dark night in July, 1940, to be precise, a fortnight after the German occupation of the Channel Islands. I had gone in by submarine and landed from a rubber boat at La Grande Bay at the eastern end of the island. It had been as abortive a business as most similar exploits were at that time. I’d seen Simone and her father at the Seigneurie and discovered there were no more than two hundred Germans on the island. I was to be picked up a couple of hours before dawn and had begged them to come with me. They had refused, as I had known in my heart they would, but Simone had insisted on accompanying me to the beach. I remembered that now, and her face a pale blur in the darkness.
‘The thing is,’ Henry said, ‘we’re losing rather a lot of ships in the Channel area, starting six months ago. The same time most of the remaining population was evacuated, you’ll notice. Quite a shock when we discovered what it was.’
‘Secret weapons at this stage of the war?’
‘Good God, no. We knew about this thing as long ago as Anzio. The Germans were late getting into the underwater sabotage field of things with frogmen and so on. Rather surprising when you consider the Italians really started it all. Anyway, they did come up with a lethal little item called Nigger which they used with some success at Anzio.’
‘And now they’re trying it in the Channel?’
‘That’s about the size of it. All they’ve done is take a normal torpedo, scoop out the warhead and fix controls. There’s a glass cupola to protect the operator who sits astride the thing with a live torpedo slung underneath. The general idea is to point it at the target, release the second torpedo at the last minute and try to swerve out of the way.’
‘And where did they get the men to play that kind of game?’
‘The Brandenberg Division mainly. They seem to have provided the nearest thing the Germans have to our own Commandos. Some are survivors of Otto Skorzeny’s Danube group. Those frogmen of his gave the Russians hell up there.’
‘And you think they’re operating from St Pierre?’
‘Until three weeks ago at least.’
‘You’re certain of that?’
‘We’ve got someone who was there until then who says so. A man called Joseph St Martin. Turned up on the French coast near Granville in an open boat. Says he knows you.’
‘Oh yes, he knows me all right.’ I touched the bridge of my nose gently where the bone showed crooked. ‘He broke this for me when I was fourteen.’
‘Did he then?’ Henry said softly. ‘As a matter of interest, I’ve got him up at the house now.’
I frowned. ‘You’re moving fast aren’t you?’
‘No other choice. You must go in the day after tomorrow. The Navy tell me that if we miss that particular tide, conditions won’t be right for another three weeks.’
‘Let me get this straight. The general purpose of this affair is for me to get ashore, find out as much as I can about the Nigger operation and get off again, presumably during the same night?’
‘That’s about the size of it. I’m hoping the information St Martin can give you will help you to find your way about. There are still people on the island you could contact. Miss de Beaumarchais, for example.’
I sat there frowning as I tried to take it all in. ‘And you really think that this is important, Henry, at this stage in the war?’
He held up the famous letter. ‘The Government evidently does. If the Germans decide to fight in the Channel Islands instead of surrendering, this Nigger installation could wreak havoc with the ships of any invading force.’
‘And what about Fitzgerald? Where does he fit in?’
‘He’s a good man, Owen. Decorated three times. He’s been on the staff of the 21st Specialist Service Raiding Force for the past couple of years. They’re a mixed bunch. American Rangers, French and British Commandos. They specialize in small boat work, underwater sabotage and so on. Fitzgerald has raided across the Channel on twenty-three separate occasions.’
‘Are you including the time they blew up the empty lighthouse in Brittany and all those landings on uninhabited islands off the French coast and deserted beaches where they never saw a soul and no one saw them or was that another unit?’
‘Now you’re being bitter again.’
‘Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ve as much respect for the genuine Commando units as anyone. Those boys who just hacked their way through to Luneberg yesterday, for instance, but outfits like Fitzgerald’s are something else again. The nearest thing to private armies we’ve had since the Middle Ages, living off the fat of the land and operating out of country houses. Put them all together and what have most of these special service units really achieved?’
He smiled. ‘Well, for one thing, they’ve provided employment for some very awkward customers.’
‘Like the King of the first four hundred?’ I shook my head. ‘The family must be proud of him, fruit salad and all and still time for his Medal of Honour, don’t forget that. All right, tell me the worst. What’s he supposed to do?’
And I couldn’t believe my ears when he did tell me. Fitzgerald and five companions were to enter the harbour at Charlottestown in two-man Rob Roy canoes. The intention was to fix limpet mines on everything in sight and to get out again without being discovered.
‘For God’s sake, Henry, what’s the point? It’s raiding for raiding’s sake,’ I said when he’d finished. ‘They’ll be lucky if there’s anything in the harbour worth bothering with.’
‘Perhaps so and you’re entitled to think that if you want, but let me make one thing clear. Originally this wasn’t our party. Combined Operations are behind it. I only heard about it quite by chance and made immediate representation through channels. I thought of you, naturally, and your unique knowledge of the island and persuaded them to modify their plan.’
‘Well that was nice of you. May I ask who’s in command?’
‘You are by virtue of seniority, but no situation is likely to arise in which you need to exercise such authority. You will land alone and will have your own task to perform. Major Fitzgerald and his men will look after themselves.’
‘As long as he doesn’t start to hear bugles blowing faintly on the wind,’ I said. ‘He looks the kind who wants to die, sabre in hand, trailing clouds of glory if you ask me.’
‘Oh,
