Category: Jeremy’s War

Part Five “THE LAST BATTLE ” Ch.40 THE LOSER He lay in bed, and stared up at the flaking ceiling. The small apartment had once been luxurious, but the whole building had long since passed its peak. The area had gone down, and so had the occupants. Sometimes he lay on his back on the…

Ch.39 THE THIRD HOME COMING He opened the little white gate, picked up his small, rather battered suitcase, and walked up the long garden path towards the house, feeling uncomfortable and self conscious. How well he remembered this house! How much he had loved it in his lonely dreams! It was a home coming, after…

Ch.38 THE SECOND HOME COMING His father had been almost embarrassed to meet him. They had shaken hands. His mother had cried. And cried. His sister had been indifferent. It had not been a cheerful home coming. Emmy… Emmy had been bewildered by this stranger. Who spent hours in his room alone. Who said very…

Part Four THE LONG ROAD HOME Ch.37 JUDGMENT Captain Culpepper was uncharacteristically furious. He was striving to keep a lid on his feelings, and was finding it a hard task. “Gentlemen, the man is a hero. I am recommending him for a D.S.O., and he’s richly deserved it. I have glowing testimonials here… ” He…

Ch.36 THE LONELY SKY The lonely sky… Thirty miles on the wrong side of the lines. Cold. Wondering whether, any second, the tortured metal components spinning around, red hot, under the cowling, will simply give up the ghost, and seize solid. Any other enemy scouts? Amazingly, no. Not yet. Fuel? What fuel. It is better…

Ch.35 THE VIGIL It was nearly six p.m. Lt.Jeremy Armstrong was now officially overdue some ten hours. The atmosphere in the mess was very subdued. Mac, despite the protestations of the M.O., who wanted to transfer him to the field hospital, had walked out of sickbay, and had temporarily partly anesthetized himself with a potent…

Ch.34 DAWN PATROL Dawn. That magical time. Perfect stillness. Quiet. A world asleep. Not a breath of air. Quiet. Somewhere, far away, a hesitant tremolo. Silence. Hush. The world is asleep. Dead perhaps. No Hope. Nothing stirs. The lone musician… Be quiet. Let the world sleep. Another tremolo. Won’t go away, this one. An answer.…

Ch.33 SHADOWS IN THE FIRE It could have been a great day. It very nearly was. The day the Master Plan went into operation, and worked. Spectacularly. Until the very end. Jeremy grimaced in reflection, shaking his head in disbelief. Why…? * * * The airspeed in the dive was on the upper limit. He…

Ch.32 A PLEA FOR MERCY For the next week, the ‘Master Plan’ was continually postponed. The weather -ironically- was too clear. Baxter wanted a certain amount of cloud around, to afford concealment for the main body of thirty odd aircraft. ‘A’ Flight flew several times, and Jeremy divided his operational time between intensive flying, carrying…

Ch. 31 AN ACCIDENTAL ENCOUNTER There came a point when he started to feel bloody silly. By the time he had accidentally on purpose trotted past the entrance to her farm three times. This could go on forever. When ever he managed to get away – which was very rare – the chances were poor…