Force 10 From Navarone

'Well, that's it, then.' Jensen affected not to notice the almost palpable relaxation of tension in the room. 'Sleep's the thing now. But first I'd like a few minutes — report on Navarone, you know.' He looked at the three sergeants. 'Confidential, I'm afraid.'

'Yes, sir,' Reynolds said. 'Shall we go down to the field, check flight plans, weather, parachutes and supplies?'

Jensen nodded. As the three sergeants closed the double doors behind them, Jensen crossed to a side door, opened it and said: 'Come in, General.'

The man who entered was very tall, very gaunt. He was probably about thirty-five, but looked a great deal older. The care, the exhaustion, the endless privations inseparable from too many years' ceaseless struggle for survival had heavily silvered the once-black hair and deeply etched into the swarthy, sunburnt face the lines of physical and mental suffering. The eyes wen dark and glowing and intense, the hypnotic eyes of a man inspired by a fanatical dedication to some as unrealized ideal. He was dressed in a British Army officer's uniform, bereft of insignia and badges. Jensen said: 'Gentlemen, General Vukalovic. The general is second-in-command of the Partisan forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The RAF flew him out yesterday. He is here as a Partisan doctor seeking medical supplies. His true identity is known only to us. General, those are your men.'

Vukalovic looked them over severally and steadily, his face expressionless. He said: 'Those are tired men, Captain Jensen. So much depends… too tired to do what has to be done.'

'He's right, you know,' Miller said earnestly. 'There's maybe a little mileage left in them yet,' Jensen said mildly. 'It's a long haul from Navarone. 'Now then — '

'Navarone?' Vukalovic interrupted. 'These — these are the men — ' 'An unlikely-looking lot, I agree.' 'Perhaps I was wrong about them.' 'No, you weren't, General,' Miller said. 'We're exhausted. We're completely — '

'Do you mind?' Jensen said acidly. 'Captain Mallory, with two exceptions the General will be the only person Bosnia who knows who you are and what you are doing. Whether the General reveals the identity of the others is entirely up to him. General Vukalovic will be accompanying you to Yugoslavia, but not in the same plane.'

'Why not?' Mallory asked.

'Because his plane will be returning. Yours won't.' 'Ah!' Mallory said. There was a brief silence while he, Andrea and Miller absorbed the significance behind Jensen's words. Abstractedly, Andrea threw some more wood on the sinking fire and looked around for a poker: but the only poker was the one that Reynolds had already bent into a 'U'-shape. Andrea picked it up. Absent-mindedly, effortlessly, Andrea straightened it out, poked the fire into a blaze and laid the poker down, a performance Vukalovic watched with a very thoughtful expression his face.

Jensen went on: 'Your plane, Captain Mallory, will not be returning because your plane is expendable in the interests of authenticity.' 'Us, too?' Miller asked.

'You won't be able to accomplish very much, Corporal Miller, without actually putting your feet on the ground. Where you're going, no plane can possibly land: so you jump — and the plane crashes.' 'That sounds very authentic,' Miller muttered. Jensen ignored him. 'The realities of total war are harsh beyond belief. Which is why I sent those three youngsters on their way — I don't want to dampen their enthusiasm.'

'Mine's water-logged,' Miller said dolefully. 'Oh, do be quiet. Now, it would be fine if, by way of a bonus, you could discover why eighty per cent of our air-drops fall into German hands, fine if you could locate and rescue our captured mission leaders. But not important. Those supplies, those agents are militarily expendable. What are not expendable are the seven thousand men under the command of General Vukalovic here, seven thousand men trapped in an area called the Zenica Cage, seven thousand starving men with almost no ammunition left, seven thousand men with no future.'

'We can help them?' Andrea asked heavily. 'Six men?'

Jensen said candidly: 'I don't know.' 'But you have a plan?'

'Not yet. Not as such. The glimmerings of an lea. No more.' Jensen rubbed his forehead wearily. I myself arrived from Alexandria only six hours ago.' He hesitated, then shrugged. 'By tonight, who knows a few hours' sleep this afternoon might transform us!. But, first, the report on Navarone. It would be pointless for you three other gentlemen to wait — there sleeping quarters down the hall. I daresay Captain Mallory can tell me all I want to know.' Mallory waited till the door closed behind Andrea, Miller and Vukalovic and said: 'Where shall I begin my report, sir?' 'What report?' 'Navarone, of course.'

'The hell with Navarone. That's over and done with.' He picked up his cane, crossed to the wall, and rolled down two more maps. 'Now, then.' 'You — you have a plan,' Mallory said carefully. 'Of course I have a plan,' Jensen said coldly. He tapped the map in front of him. 'Ten miles north here. The Gustav Line. Right across Italy along the the of the Sangro and Liri rivers. Here the Germans have the most impregnable defensive positions in the history of modern warfare. Monte Cassino here — our best Allied divisions have broken on it, some forever. And here — the Anzio beachhead. Fifty thousand Americans fighting for their lives. For five solid months we've been battering our heads against the Gustav line and the Anzio perimeter. Our losses in men and machines — incalculable. Our gains — not one solitary inch.'

Mallory said diffidently: 'You mentioned something about Yugoslavia, sir.'

'I'm coming to that,' Jensen said with restraint. Now, our only hope of breaching the Gustav Line is by weakening the German defensive forces and the only way we can do that is by persuading them to withdraw some of their front-line divisions. So we practise the Allenby technique.'

'I see.'

'You don't see at all. General Allenby, Palestine, 1918. He had an east-west line from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. He planned to attack from the west — so he convinced the Turks the attack was coming from the east. He did this by building up in the east a huge city of army tents occupied by only a few hundred men who came out and dashed around like beavers whenever enemy planes came over on reconnaissance. He did this by letting the same planes see large army truck convoys pouring to the east all day long — what the Turks didn't know was that the same convoys poured back to the west all night long. He even had fifteen thousand canvas dummies of horses built. Well, we're doing the same.'

'Fifteen thousand canvas horses?'

'Very, very amusing.' Jensen rapped the map again 'Every airfield between here and Bari is jammed with dummy bombers and gliders. Outside Foggia is the biggest military encampment in Italy — occupied by two hundred men. The harbours of Bari and Taranto are crowded with assault landing craft, the whole lot made of plywood. All day long columns of trucks and tanks converge on the Adriatic coast. If you, Mallory, were in the German High Command, what would you make of this?'

'I'd suspect an airborne and sea invasion of Yugoslavia. But I wouldn't be sure.'

'The German reaction exactly,' Jensen said with some satisfaction. 'They're badly worried, worried to the extent that they have already transferred two divisions Italy to Yugoslavia to meet the threat.'

'But they're not certain?'

'Not quite. But almost.' Jensen cleared his throat, see, our four captured mission leaders were all unmistakable evidence pointing to an invasion — of Central Yugoslavia in early May.'

'They carried evidence — ' Mallory broke off, looked Jensen for a long and speculative moment, then it on quietly: 'And how did the Germans manage capture them all?'

'We told them they were coming.'

'You did what!'

'Volunteers all, volunteers all,' Jensen said quickly, were, apparently, some of the harsher realities total war that even he didn't care to dwell on too long 'And it will be your job, my boy, to turn near-conviction into absolute certainty.' Seemingly obvious of the fact that Mallory was regarding him with a marked lack of enthusiasm, he wheeled round ideally and stabbed his cane at a large-scale map Central Yugoslavia.