Now we turn at once and start on our long homeward trail. Exhilarated with a glorious feeling of success, so contented and glowing with joy that I am not affected by the fact of being over a hundred miles from friendly territory, I sit on my seat with legs gaily swinging, and read d.i.c.kens, write letters and verses, drink tea and eat sandwiches, and chatter incessantly to the pilot, who, in his satisfaction, does not mind.
"You"ll get something for this--if we cross the lines all right!" he says with his usual restrained optimism.
Charleroi sparkles on our left. Near it at La Louviere flashes an aerial lighthouse, whose presence I record on my note-book. Having found our way to Namur by map, we seem to return by a curious kind of homing instinct. We know where we are as if by second nature. Indeed so little do I trouble that I mistake Courtrai for Roulers, but it makes but little difference. Such confidence have I in our safety, so lovely is the moon-drenched night, so friendly are the undefended skies, that we fly on and on as in a stupor of utter bliss. We know that if we return we are famous, and we know we will return. Song and laughter, and rich thoughts of far-distant London and its proffered glories when next comes leave, fill my drowsy brain. I hug the pilot"s arm affectionately. At twelve o"clock he was at Dover, now scarcely eleven hours after he is coming back from Namur. How wonderful it is--how wonderful he is!
Ypres flickers to the left with its ever uneasy artillery fire. In our ease we do not even trouble to cross the lines as soon as possible, but fly on parallel to them, some five miles on the German side. At last we turn and cross slowly over the white blossoms of the ever-rising, ever-drooping star-sh.e.l.ls.
Back towards Dunkerque we fly, and the pilot says over again to me--
"You did jolly well, old man. You"ll get something for this--if we land safely!"
I wonder what his conditional clause will be when we are on the ground--"if you live to get it"--probably!
Soon the welcome landing T glows far below us. We fire our white light: at once the white light rises from below. "Charlie," the raid officer, is faithfully on the watch, as he must have been now for long hours, awaiting our return.
We glide downwards, and in a moment of exultation the pilot, to my everlasting regard for him, sweeps a few feet over the aerodrome, yelling with me in utter excitement--
"_Horray! Horray! Horray! Horray!_"
I lean far over the side screaming out my joy in this mad whirling rush over the gra.s.s. On roar the engines: we sweep swiftly upwards again, and turn, and land.
As soon as the machine has stopped crowds press round us. A Ford car is waiting to take us over to the headquarters.
"Oh! d.a.m.n good," says the pilot. "We hit it--but I take no credit for it. It was this child"s show--he did it!"
"Bilge! You were great, sir. I never saw such steering!"
In the jolting little car we whirl across a bridge, alongside the ca.n.a.l, and across a second bridge to my beloved camp, and our beloved C.O.
His words of congratulation at the news would be reward for a hundred such trips.
"Well!" he says at last, "I suppose you did it by compa.s.s!"
"No, sir! By landmarks!"
When at last I walk back alone, under the starlit sky, to my cabin, it seems utterly impossible to believe that I _have_ been actually to Namur--that I have actually travelled over three hundred miles since I last walked along that path a few hours ago. It seems incredible that my soft right hand has actually this night caused damage and brought death to that far, far remote place, which even now is in a state of confusion. Vividly I realise the amazing wonder of flying; vividly I feel the strange fascination of night-bombing, with its long journeys and sense of domination--its sense of being almost divine.
Five weeks later, to the mapping office comes the intelligence report--
"_A Rapatrie reports:--On the night of September 29th Allied aircraft successfully attacked the Luxembourg bridge at Namur, which was badly damaged. 17 German civilians were killed._"
IX.
TRAGEDY.
"No gold of poetry will deck this tale, This gloomy record of an awful night; With pleasant words my fear I will not veil, Or hide the horrors of the fatal flight.
So all seemed peace to us as we flew on, When suddenly the hand of heartless fate Pa.s.sed lightly over us, and then was gone, But it had left a legacy of hate."
--_The Ordeal._
"To-night an attempt is going to be made to sink blocking vessels, filled with cement, in the harbour mouths at Ostend and Zeebrugge. It is intended, as a distraction, to land specially trained men on the Mole, where they are going to burn down and destroy everything they can.
"The whole plan has been under consideration for weeks, and has been carefully worked out. We have been given the task of lending a.s.sistance by two methods--by desultory bombing, and by dropping flares. I have here a number of cards--one for each machine. On these cards are given the exact details of the duty given to that machine. If you follow them exactly the aerial operations will work without a hitch. Roughly, the idea is like this: From 10 o"clock till 1 A.M. machines will be bombing Zeebrugge Mole and Batteries incessantly--as one machine finishes, another will carry on. Then, beginning from one o"clock--when the bombing parties will be attacking the Mole--you will begin to drop parachute flares to help the people on the ground to see what they are doing. A great flare will be lit on a vessel twenty miles north-west of Ostend to show that up to then operations are proceeding satisfactorily, and also as a final check for time.
"This is a great opportunity for the Squadron. The work given to us, if carried out satisfactorily, will be of enormous value to the Naval units. I know I can rely on you to do what is required. Now this is the list of the machines: First machine--Pilot J. R. Allan, Observer P.
Bewsher--bombs Zeebrugge Mole from 10.30 to 11.30--drops flares at 1 o"clock...."
The Wing Commander reads on his orders in the crowded mapping office.
When the long and detailed list is completed, we pour out into the twilight, wildly excited. Long had the secret been kept: no one knew much of the plans.
The first thought which came to my mind was that of the marines and sailors, somewhere out there in the chilly North Sea, who were in a few hours to steam into an absolute inferno of death. I felt how terrible would be my feelings if I had been one of them--and they were volunteers. Then comes as a light relief the thought of the solitary German sentry at the tip of the Mole, and the rude shock he was going to have. Then the pilot to whom I was allotted claimed my attention.
He was a freckled, red-headed youth, brave, fearless, capable--easily the most popular man in the squadron--a pilot with a wonderful reputation as a night-bomber; he had behind him the record of innumerable successful raids, when, in spite of all difficulty, he had successfully driven home the attack. He was a Canadian from Montreal, and the finest man I had met in the services. I was proud to have been given the opportunity to act as his observer.
He joined me with my own pilot "Jimmy," now acting as Squadron Commander, and so, to his chagrin, unable to take part in this raid.
"Here"s Paul! Well, what do you think of it?"
"Hum! I"ve never been to Zeebrugge. An hour over the Mole sounds pretty beastly. What I don"t like though is that wait--eleven-thirty to one,--that sounds pretty foul to me!"
"Jimmy!" he says, turning to my pilot, "I have got the wind up! I don"t know why! I don"t like the idea somehow. I tell you frankly I"m windy about it!"
"That"s funny!" I remark. "I nearly always have the wind up--you ask Jimmy--but I haven"t to-night. I am rather looking forward to it. Of course I have the usual cold feet, like I do before every raid, but nothing bad. I reckon I"ll be all right with _you_!"
Only a week ago I was in a convalescent home at Peebles in remote Scotland, amidst the fir-clad hills, and now in the wide shadowy plains of Northern France I prepare to start for a fierce night of midnight attack and hostile defence over Zeebrugge.
To-night we are to fire no "carry-on" light, for whatever the weather may be the raid must be carried out to a.s.sist the naval attack from the sea.
A mist lies over the sea and land, and scarcely in the darkness can we see the black line of the sh.o.r.e. A red and a green light glows in the mist at Nieuport and fades. It is the first "hostile aircraft" signal of the night, which little the Germans know is going to be such a frenzied one and so devoid of rest. Again at Ostend glow the lurid signals in the mist, and again near Blankenberghe. It is only ten. Not yet can we fly on to Zeebrugge. We decide to fly right out to sea past the Dutch frontier, to turn in over the border, and come back to Zeebrugge a few miles inland from the coast.
At Zeebrugge glow red and green flares. We have been heard far out to sea. Two searchlights shoot up into the sky, and stand slim sentinels of blue-white light, undecided in the mist. The pilot throttles slightly, and turns the machine out to sea. It is not intended that too early in the evening should Zeebrugge be excited. Looking behind, I see that the two searchlights have been extinguished. The suspicions which we aroused have been allayed. Ten minutes past ten now. We turn to the right and begin to fly in towards the Belgo-Dutch frontier. At twenty minutes past ten we are nearly over the land, and I can just see the little creek which marks the boundary line. We make a few wide circles in order to pa.s.s away the time, and then, at twenty-three minutes past ten we turn west and begin to fly towards Zeebrugge over the land.
Upwards stabs a searchlight, and then another and another. Eight or more of them move across the sky before us. I cannot see the coast. The sea and the land is welded into one dim whole by the dark mist. This makes my task difficult, for one searchlight seems to be stationed much too far to the right to be on the coast, and I wonder whether it is on the tip of the Mole or on some patrol-boat.
The pilot throttles the engines, and we begin to glide downwards. I am not anxious about the poor visibility, because I know well that to-night the importance of our bomb-dropping lies not so much in its destructive value as in its moral effect. Keeping my eye on two powerful searchlights close together, which I feel sure are at the base of the Mole, I peer through the door in the bottom of the machine and steer the pilot with the signal-b.u.t.tons. Never have I been to Zeebrugge before, and the prospect has ever seemed so alarming that now in actuality I am not as afraid as I expected. Nearer and nearer to the wide moving beams of white light we move. I hear the scarcely-revolving engines clanking slightly to either side of me, and I can feel the gentle rise and fall of the machine in a long slow glide. A string of vivid green b.a.l.l.s suddenly rises up from the ground and lights up an expanse of sea and the shadowy line of the sand-dunes. In front of us they rise, for which I am grateful, as they give me a guide to my position.
Now the bases of the two swinging pillars of light which I have taken as my mark lie beneath my bomb-sight. I press the bomb-handle forward slightly, and climb up leisurely beside the pilot.
We glide sedate and silent between these tall blades of light which only move slightly. We can scarcely be heard, and so they do not know quite what to do. Far below flashes our first bomb. Each searchlight jerks into sudden movement. A long string of green b.a.l.l.s climbs dutifully up to our left, and falls gracefully over and expires. I lean lazily and singularly unafraid, in my seat, watching the vast scene of midnight activity with a languid interest.
We cross the coast-line again near the Dutch frontier, and turn over the sea towards Zeebrugge. Then begins a wild hour. Somehow to-night we feel that nothing can touch us. We feel that we can in safety take any risks.
Again and again we fly into Zeebrugge. Through the mist the great white beams stagger and wheel and swoop and wait. For once they do not terrify me. In the haze I see the quick flashes of the guns, and sh.e.l.l after sh.e.l.l bursts in a barrage over the Mole. In the ghostly light of the incessant green b.a.l.l.s I see the round puffs of the sh.e.l.l-bursts, actually touching each other in a long line, so closely together are they placed as a barrier.
We drop two bombs over the Mole at a low height, and, pursued by the malignant searchlights and the rapid ineffectual flashes of the sh.e.l.ls, swing out to sea, turn in once more, and drop another bomb. Again and again we do this, and so madly excited and conscious of safety do I feel that I fire a bright light after each attack to show my contempt of the defences. As the red or green light drifts down I see the searchlights leap over towards it, and far below, above the shining waters, appears a great white star-sh.e.l.l which the nervous and uneasy Germans have fired over the sea, evidently feeling that to-night there may be some unexpected trouble from below as well as from above.