BIGGLES SEES IT THROUGH

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. GINGER MAKES A DISCOVERY (Pages 26 – 42)

Biggles takes the Station Commander into his confidence to account for their temporary absence and they set off for the supposed site of the crashed Polish machine, some three hundred miles away from their base at Oskar. They fly to a point north of Lake Ladoga and then plan to fly due east from where they found the dying professor. This had in fact been some twenty miles inside the Finnish border but the crash could have been in Russia or Finland. Flying over snow covered lakes and land, Biggles soon realises that they will not find the crash that way. They will need to land at each lake systematically and explore on foot. Algy says “Seems a crazy business to me”. “Can you think of anything better?” “No”. “Then don’t be so infernally pessimistic” says Biggles. Seeing five Messerschmitt’s, Biggles decides to land otherwise the shadow of his aircraft is easily seen against the snow. They get out and explore, wearing white sheets over their shoulders. By this method they explore four lakes with no success. Stopping to rest, eat and then sleep, Ginger finds that he can’t sleep due to the intense cold and he goes out to look around. Climbing a nearby ridge, Ginger sees a flicker of light. Going to investigate, he finds it is a camp fire by six tents and he hears a language that sounds to him like Russian. There are thirty or forty men camping there. A plane arrives and Ginger is astonished to see Hauptmann Erich von Stalhein, head of the Special Branch of the German Secret Service. Ginger returns to his aircraft and tells Biggles what he has seen. “For a moment even Biggles was speechless in the face of this astounding – not to say alarming – piece of information. “My Sainted aunt!” he muttered”. Ginger says they are about a mile away. Biggles gives it some thought and thinks their only chance is to drive the men away. The Russians won’t know there are only four of them if they attack with machine guns. Biggles thinks they will think they are being attacked by Finns and run. If they then destroy all the supplies, the men will have to leave to get fresh supplies. “Isn’t it a bit thick to open fire on a sleeping camp?” put in Ginger. Biggles laughed sarcastically. “What d’you think this is – a Sunday-school party?” Forget it. This is war, and a surprise attack is what every general dreams about”. “I think we ought to give them a chance” protested Ginger. Biggles thought for a moment. “Maybe you’re right” he said slowly. “If we wounded any of them, we should find ourselves cluttered up with prisoners – unless we just left them to die, which isn’t a nice thought. I’ll tell you what. We’ll try shooting high first. If they bolt, so well and good, but if they return our fire we shall have to let ‘em have it and no argument. After all, it’s our lives against theirs”. Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Smyth go to attack the Russian camp. Biggles takes petrol and starts by sneaking up and setting fire to von Stalhein’s plane. The four men then open fire and in a minute all the Russians are in flight in panic with bullets whistling about their ears. Biggles goes to the tent where von Stalhein had been with the Russian leader and takes the papers that he finds there. They drag the tents into the fire and then throw all of the Russian equipment onto the fire. Returning to their machine, Biggles examines the papers he has taken. Most are in Russian but one in German gives information about where the professor’s body was found and the results of his experiments. The papers show that the enemy have no more idea where the crash site is than they do. Biggles suspects that the Russians will get fresh supplies and return. They need to get busy.