“You well know if you fire those machine guns in here we’re all dead,” shouted Sid.

The twins’ faces soured, if indeed they could sour any more as they were already incredibly sour. They knew the old man was right. The pair spun their machine guns round in their hands…

WHIZZ!

…so they could use the butts as weapons. They weren’t highly prized Nazi spies for nothing! The ladies surged forward, ready to strike Eric and Sid.

“HOO!”

But Gertrude leaped in the way to protect them. As she did so, the gorilla grabbed both Braun twins’ heads in her big, hairy hands.

“NEIN!” shouted Bertha and Helene together.

Like cracking a coconut, the gorilla clonked their heads together. CLONNK!

In an instant, the pair fell to the floor, their arms and legs splayed, forming the shapes of swastikas.

DONK! DONK!

“Nazis to the end,” remarked Sid, before turning to Gertrude. “Excellent work, old girl!”

The gorilla looked pleased with herself as she smiled broadly and beat her chest.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

But the celebration was short-lived – the fire in the captain’s cabin had now spread to his bed!

WHOOMPH!

It went up in flames.

Gertrude began crying in fear. “WHOOP! WHOOP!”

“What are we going to do?” asked Eric.

“We need to sink this submarine before it hits the Houses of Parliament.”

Eric looked at the clock on the wall. It was now just five minutes to midnight. Captain Speer was a meticulous character. He was sure to be exact in his timing and strike the Houses of Parliament dead on midnight.

“How are we going to do that?” asked Eric.

“We’ll scuttle it!”

“What?”

“Flood it! Open all the hatches, let the water rush in. Let it plunge to the bottom of the Thames!”

“How will we get out alive?” asked the boy.

“There’s very little chance of that, I’m afraid. Let me try to get you and Gertrude out of here, and then this U-boat can go down with me.”

“No, Uncle Sid!” said the boy. “I’m staying to help you! I’ve lost my mum, my dad and my granny. I can’t lose you too!”

The gorilla nodded her head.

“LOOK!” shouted Eric, pointing out of the cabin doorway to the long gangway.

Submariners were charging towards them, armed with anything they could lay their hands on. Spanners. Wrenches. Hammers.

A flame from the bed licked Gertrude’s backside.

WHOOMPH!

Feeling that her furry bottom was on fire, she yelped.

“WHOOOOO!”

The gorilla charged out of the cabin, away from the flames, down the gangway. One by one, she hurled the submariners out of her way.

“ARGH!”

None of them stood a chance against a fearsome beast with its bottom on fire!

“URGH!”

Gertrude picked them up and flung them against the side of the submarine.

“AAHH!”

However, she saved something special for her main tormentor. The bald submariner with the bushy moustache was in for a treat! Gertrude smirked on seeing him. With both hands, she grabbed him by his moustache.

“NEIN! NEIN!” he cried.

The gorilla then swung the man round and round by his moustache.

“ARGH!” he cried.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Then she let go!

The flying submariner took out some others who were running to his defence. They were knocked over like skittles!

BONK! BONK! BONK!

All Eric and Sid had to do was step over the submariners, all of whom were knocked out cold on the gangway floor. Catching up with the gorilla, the three ran to the control room.

“This way!” said Sid, leading them.

The control room was buzzing with activity.

“Parlamentsgebäude in Reichweite, Kapitän!” shouted a submariner as he looked through the periscope.

“Parliament in range!” translated Sid to Eric and Gertrude. “We’re in the middle of London!

We’re about to hit!”