Chapter 48

It was still dark when we touched down at Kenley airfield close to Croydon in the South of England on the 5th of December 1941 after a long and uncomfortable flight from Gibralter. I said a fond goodbye to Tom, my constant companion since leaving Lourdes two weeks ago. We exchanged addresses and vowed to keep in touch. He was returning to his squadron, and I didn’t have a clue what I would be up to. Perhaps they would give me some time off over Christmas, and I could go and see my father.

I scrounged the use of a telephone, so as I could call Major Richards.

‘Hi Major, it is Markus Bekker. I have arrived.’

‘Welcome back Markus. I will send a car for you, so just wait there. Croydon is not far away from us here, so the driver should be with you in approximately two hours.’

‘Is there any news of Francette Sir?’ I am extremely anxious to hear if she is safe.

‘I can’t talk over the phone. I will tell you when you get here.’

I managed to scrounge a cup of tea and a sandwich as there was no food available on the eight hour flight from Gibraltar and I was starving. Having eaten I found a quiet corner where I would try and get some sleep.

The next thing that I knew, somebody was shaking my shoulder to waken me.

‘Are you Lieutenant Bekker?’ I looked up to see a slightly flustered female corporal standing over me.

‘Yes; are you from Witley Park?’ I asked her, trying to get my thoughts together after my deep sleep. They had obviously changed the driver since I had left Witley Park in April as I had never seen her before.

‘If you like to follow me Sir I will take you to the car.’

They hadn’t changed the rules since my previous experiences of being driven, and the journey back to Witley Park was silent. As I approached the house where I had been trained, and had spent so many weeks, I got quite excited. I had completed my mission if a little fortuitously and was returning safely against all the odds.

The Major must have been waiting for me as he came out to greet me in the hallway as soon as I went through the front door. I had never thought that I would welcome the smell of tobacco, but, as he approached so did a cloud of smoke from his pipe.

He shook my hand. ‘It is so good to see you back all in one piece Markus, although you do look a bit bruised around the face and you still have evidence of a black eye.’

‘Do you have my bag here Sir as I could do with a bath and a change of clothes?’

‘I have put you in your old room, and you will find your bag there. I suggest that you bath, change and then come down for lunch. We will start your debriefing after lunch.’

‘That sounds like an excellent plan. It’s fantastic to be back.’ I shook his hand again and went up to my room.

Suitably refreshed and with a good meal inside me I sat down with the Major and the Colonel at 2:00 pm to start the debriefing process.

I was told that Charles Johnson, the Engineer I had worked with when I was at Power Jets, was coming to Witley Park for at least two days, and my debriefing would take a minimum of a week and maybe a little more as a lot of important people from various divisions of the services wanted to talk to me.

‘Please tell me about Francette?’ I impatiently asked. ‘You said that you would tell me when I arrived and I am still anxiously waiting for news.’

‘Do you want to tell him the news Colonel or will I?’ The Major said, looking very seriously at the Colonel.

‘No you tell him Major. I prefer to give out good news,’ the Colonel added, also with an extremely serious face.

My heart was in my boots. I prepared myself mentally to receive the worst possible news.

‘Francette Tranquet went as an agent to France and was based in the small fishing village of Carentan. She was able to report back to us that you had safely arrived in Cherbourg as she actually saw you there walking around the town. So we knew that your little sailing exercise had worked out alright.’

‘But is she safe?’ I reckoned that he was avoiding telling me something awful.

‘Yes she is safe and well. She returned a week ago and will be back, to resume her debriefing, on Tuesday, in two days’ time. She has gone to see her parents in Tunbridge Wells for a few days as her father is not well.’

I didn’t mind the little trick that they played on me, just to wind me up. A broad grin broke out on my face and immense relief enveloped me.

‘I see that you are pleased with our news Markus,’ a smiling Colonel added.

‘I was so worried as I have thought about her non-stop for the past few months or since she left on her mission.’

‘With that out of the way we had better commence your de-briefing. We have specialist people who will be coming in from Monday on to talk to you; however, the Major and I want to hear your story first so as we can analyse the benefit the training had on your mission. We need to hear from you if there is anything that we left out that you needed and any other comments you would like to make. The sessions with the Major and the Colonel continued on every available hour over the weekend.

Francette arrived at Witley Park on the Tuesday as promised and we had a very happy re-union over lunch. I then had to go back into my de-briefing session and she hers until we met again in the evening.

Major Richards told us in no uncertain terms that we were to obey the rules of the house, and there was to be no ‘hanky panky’ at night!

I had been told that I would be allowed to go home to Yorkshire over Christmas, so I asked Francette if she would like to come with me and meet my father. Thankfully she agreed, so we made plans to travel on Monday 22nd as we both had the whole of that week off.

When Charles Johnson had finished his two day session with me, I was called into the Colonel’s office. When I entered the Colonel, Major Richards and Charles were sitting at the round table.

‘Sit down Markus we have a proposition for you,’ the Colonel said. This time I didn’t have to interrupt as I knew what a proposition was.

The Colonel continued, ‘Charles Johnson would like you to join their team at Power Jets as an engineer at the start of January.’

‘I asked the Colonel what you were going to do now, and he said that he hadn’t decided, so I jumped in and asked them if you could be allocated to join me as an engineer,’ Charles added. ‘You have a lot of inside knowledge about the German jet engine and you have actually flown a jet propelled plane, so you have unique experience. We would like to have that expertise available to us.’

‘I don’t know what to say. This is an unexpected bonus. Of course, I would love to join your team and assist in whatever way that I can.’

‘That’s settled then. You can go and see your father over Christmas and then commence in Power Jets at the beginning of January.’

I left the office feeling fantastic. No more combat for me. I would be doing something I loved in a safe environment for the remainder of the war, however long that was.