BIGGLES GOES TO WAR

by Captain W. E. Johns

III. DANGEROUS GROUND (Pages 32 – 41)

It is a November evening as the three aircraft fly across Central Europe. Biggles is worried about taking Ginger on this mission as he has no real experience of war-flying. The plan is to refuel at Weisheim, where the landing ground is to be marked with the usual white circle. When Biggles approaches the landing ground, he is suspicious as no one is there and a close aerial inspection reveals that a series of wires have been stretched across the ground at a height of not more than two feet. Biggles decides to fly away and he then sees “a dozen or more men, most of them in uniform, had run out from a clump of trees and were staring upwards”. “I’d give a lot for the pleasure of shooting you up,” he thought savagely as he regarded them, then he and his colleagues fly to the north. Flying a suitable distance away and running low on fuel, they land in a large field where Biggles explains to Algy and Ginger what he has seen. Biggles has had the foresight to make alternative plans: before they even left, he cabled a man called Jerry Banham who used to be in 40 Squadron. Jerry is now the Shell Company’s agent in this part of the world and Biggles has asked him to bring a load of petrol to this location. With perfect timing, Jerry arrives with a lorry load of petrol. It takes just under an hour to refuel and Biggles pays Jerry out of his own pocket. Jerry leaves and Biggles tells Algy and Ginger that he plans to fly off at the first streak of dawn.