Читать книгу Our Father's Generation - F. M. Worden - Страница 14

Chapter 6

Sarah and the USA

Sarah and I went to the NCO mess and had breakfast. While eating, Commander Martin came in and informed me I had been promoted to a Flight Officer. He also gave me orders that instructed me to be a new Squadron Leader, he told me I had to be an officer to be a squadron leader, he also said I only had one experienced combat pilot in my squadron.

At the dispersal area, the CO introduced me to my new command. They were young, real young, most of the young men were 18 and 19 years old. I questioned these pilots, most of them had very little flying time, some had as little as ten hours in an aircraft. “How in the world can I make fighters of these young men? It’s murder to send these kids against the Luftwaffe.” I gave the CO a hard look, he spun on his heels and remarked as he walked away, “You have your work cut out for you.”

Sarah was standing a few feet away and she heard all of the conversation. I looked to her. She only shook her head “no.” I dropped my head and said out loud, “Dear God, I need your help.”

Sarah joined my payer, saying softly, “God bless and be with you.”

I thanked her by saying, “You’re a real jewel, Sarah.”

She walked a few feet away, turned and put her right hand fingers to her lips and threw me a kiss, I threw one back, she walked away.

I started teaching the boys what I expected from them. “We don’t engage fighters unless we have to, Hurricanes are used to go after the bombers. We dive on the formations from above; we try to break them up, dive through and get your shots in quickly, climb back for another run.” All the boys shook their heads “yes.” I could see they knew what I meant.

On our first sortie, I lost two fighter boys, one flew into a bomber, I don’t think he meant to, he came out of a dive and rammed a Heinkel before he could turn away. Needless to say all the bomber crew and my boy were lost. The other pilot clipped wings with a bomber, my boy went down with his aircraft. The others pilots got on the job training.

In the months that followed, I worked my butt off trying to protect my boys and teach air- combat. Somehow I got thru to them, I saved a lot of our kids. With a lot of praying and God’s help, I might add.

I received letters from home quite often. Allie wrote beautiful letters and always sent pictures of our little girl and snapshots of her and the baby. Oh, how I longed to hold them and see them, I got letters from Mom and Dad. My brother Frank had checked in and was safe, that made me feel better.

I got to see Sarah a lot; she seemed to be around when I had free time. I really got to enjoy her company, we talked and walked every chance we got, I looked forward to seeing her. What a nice woman. Who wouldn’t like her? She was filling a real void in my life.

My squadron had returned from a scramble. After a debriefing, the CO came and told me to take three days off. “Take this girl of yours, go somewhere away from the war for awhile,” he demanded.

I had just got to the door of my hut when Sarah pulled up in an MG Roadster. I had to change my clothing and get my kit. We were on a road south in a few minutes, the air was cold as December was fast approaching.

She told me, “We’re going to a village my father always sent Mother, my little brother and I to spend the summer months. He would come and join us on the weekends. I love it there, I want you to love it, too.”

We arrived around seven p.m. in the south coast village of Hastings. We registered in the Hotel Royal, room # 205 front. The room looked down on the street below and the small beach that was below the sea wall. We had dinner in the hotel dining room, the people there were cordial and friendly. The cook managed to fix a splendid meal. Sarah had removed her cap and let her long dark brown hair down, she was as pretty a woman as I had ever seen, her big laughing brown eyes set in an angular face, she had a smile and laugh that could light any man’s heart, I was a goner. Feeling guilty was not enough, can a man love two women at the same time? I know it’s so.

There were two other couples as guests at the hotel and twenty or so people living there. Someone put a dance record on a player {Once in Awhile by Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra.} We all had a go at dancing, a most enjoyable time for Sarah and me. By eleven p.m., we retired to our room. The next hours were spent sleeping and making love to each other, she was a most wonderful loving person, how bad I am? I was feeling guilty, I told Sarah.

“Tommy,” she said, “Let’s take this time as we can, we may not be here tomorrow.” She was right, that helped my feelings.

The next day, we walked around the village and talked to the friendly village people. We hiked in the hills north of the town and stumbled into a well hidden antiaircraft battery. From the crew we learned a lot about the defense of the south coast of the UK. There had been many troops there, but since the invasion by the Nazis looked to be called off, the men were back in training for the invasion of their own of France. There were patrols by land, sea and air, also spotters all along the coast. I asked if they had shot down any enemy aircraft. The crew chief told us, “A bomber crashed and burned a meter north of us, we were damn sure we got him.” When he told us that, all the crew let out a big cheer, we visited with the boys several more times.

The day we were to leave, we had to drive at night as enemy fighters were strafing the roads all day. It was safer to travel the roads at night. On our last walk, we entered a small jewelry shop a few doors east of the hotel, Sarah wanted to shop, I wanted to buy her something. She asked the shop keeper, “Do you have a ring with an Aquarius birth stone? I want-a keepsake to remember our days spent together here in Hastings.”

He showed us a ring with a purple amethyst stone, she had to have it. I paid the man.

“I want to buy you something, Tommy.” I shook my head no. He showed us his last German wrist watch, she purchased it and wanted my old watch, I gave in.

Back at Tangmere Airfield, my days were consumed with my Squadron, flying and air combat. My charges were learning quickly, our squadron became one of the top. The Huns were not letting up, we had plenty to shoot at. Most of their bomber boys were less trained than ours, we had many sitting ducks.

I hadn’t seen Sarah in weeks, so I went looking for her. At her quarters, I ran into her friend Maggie. “Have you seen Sarah?” I asked.

“Didn’t you know? She transferred to North Weald.”

“When did she do that?”

“Soon after she came back from your trip, don’t go looking for her, I don’t think she wants to see you anymore.”

I was dumbfounded at this news, I didn’t know what to say, I just walked away in shock.

At the airfield, I had a note to see the CO. “Tom, Headquarters wants a Photographic Reconnaissance Pilot, you want the job?”

“You bet,” I answered. I was ready for something else. I checked in at Heston Airfield a day later. I was to fly an unarmed Spitfire and take pictures of different sections of the coast of France from Antwerp to Cherbourg. The headquarters wanted to know about all about the defense the Nazis were building along the coast. My Spitfire was as fast a plane that was in existence, it would outrun anything the Nazis had. Thank God, I had to use the speed all the time. I got to see some of the pictures I took; it made me do a better job knowing what to look for.

I had been on the reconnaissance job for several weeks. I decided to go find Sarah. On the first day off, I borrowed an auto and drove to North Weald, I checked with the WAAF office. They told me that Sarah had been transferred to Hornchurch. So I was out of luck finding her this day.

It was quite awhile before I got some time off. I borrowed an auto again and drove to Hornchurch., Just by accident, I found Maggie.

“Maggie, have you seen Sarah?” I asked.

“Haven’t you heard? Sarah and two other girls were killed in a raid last May, they were in a bunker that took a direct hit.”

I was devastated; Maggie could see I was in bad shape. I sat down on the ground and covered my face with my hands, Maggie sat down next to me and said, “I’m sorry, Tom, to be the one to tell you.” I couldn’t help it, the tears flowed.

Maggie sat there with me for I don’t know how long, I was so sick I wanted to die. Maggie finally got up and said, “I have a letter for you from Sarah in my quarters, I’ll go get it.” She got up and left. Soon she returned and handed me an envelope addressed to {Tom, the only man I will ever love.}