THE RESCUE FLIGHT

A BIGGLES STORY

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published May 1939

CONTENTS

List of illustrations – Page 7 (Frontispiece by Howard Leigh and six illustrations by Alfred Sindall on pages 31, 95, 127, 149, 183 and 211)

I. PETER FORTYMORE RECEIVES BAD NEWS (Pages 9 – 21)

The book opens with the Honourable Peter Fortymore, a pupil at Rundell School, listening to distant gunfire from France as the wind direction is from the East. His friend and room-mate, Dick Ripley, comes into the room. Peter Fortymore is nicknamed “Thirty” because his elder brother, when at the school, was nicknamed “Forty” and Dick Ripley is nicknamed “Rip”. They discuss Thirty’s brother, who has been at the front for six months, fighting in the air. The two brothers used to have a motto “thick and thin”. Thirty is “nearly seventeen” and Rip is “a bit older”. Rip has been asked to send Thirty to the Headmaster. When Thirty gets there he is given bad news about his brother, Forty, whose real name is Nigel. A letter from the War Office says he is missing, believed killed. The Head himself buries his head in his hands. “Forgive me,” he said huskily. “If this is hard for you to bear, remember that it is also hard for me. One by one my boys are going out there … to the battle-field. One by one they fall. You have lost but one, Fortymore, but I have lost many”. The Head has been appointed temporary guardian to Thirty as Thirty is an orphan and the Head tells him that the title Lord Fortymore now passes to him. The Headmaster also has a letter for Thirty from his brother, which was sent to the Head with instructions to give it to his brother if ever anything should happen to Nigel. Thirty returns to his room and tells Rip the news then reads the letter. The letter talks about the loses at the front and the fact that a number of pilots are captured. It sets out the idea of having “a rescue flight”, a way of picking up fellows who have been shot down. Part of the letter reads “You remember those holidays we spent together at Berglaken, when the guv’nor was Ambassador at Berlin? Remember the old hut in the valley where we used to sleep when we went fishing? I could hide there indefinitely. Within a mile of it, at the foot of the hills, there is a whacking great field big enough for a dozen machines to land in. If I went down I believe I could live on fish, corn, and fruit for a long time. Anyway, if one day I fail to return from a show, you will know where to find me”. Thirty says he is going to France - now. For the last four months both he and Rip have been learning to fly at Barton and Thirty has done eighteen hours solo and Rip nearly as much. Thirty plans to go and get some of Forty’s old uniforms from home, get a machine and then report for duty at the first aerodrome he comes to, hoping they will believe that their posting orders have been mislaid. Rip says he will go as well. Rip’s father is over in France fighting. They only have tenpence between them. “Thirty threw a leg over the window-sill. “What does it matter how we go as long as we get there?” he observed.