BIGGLES SEES IT THROUGH

by Captain W. E. Johns

III. SUCCESS – AND DISASTER (Pages 43 – 60)

Our heroes search for the whole of the day in their Blenheim aircraft. About four o’clock, Biggles sees a line in the snow and realises it is a track made by a body of men, coming from the camp they had attacked. Biggles decides to follow the track to see how far they have gone as it may give a clue to when they will return. He notices the track turns at right angles and the snow is all trampled down where a halt has been made. Biggles realises the men have found the crashed plane – by accident – and now departed. Biggles has to land to see if the papers have been found or not. Biggles lands and they confirm it is a crashed Polish plane. Biggles, remembering the instructions for finding the papers, makes his way to a large rock under which is a cavity – but it is empty. The papers have been found by von Stalhein and the Russians. “It looks as if this is where we go home,” observed Ginger. “On the contrary, this is where we go after von Stalhein,” returned Biggles curtly. They all get back in their aircraft and set off looking for the column of men in the distance. Seeing them, but not drawing near, they turn at right angles and fly for about five minutes, during which time the Blenheim covers ten miles. Biggles then lands on a frozen lake and runs close to some sagging pines. He then instructs his crew to start cutting straight sticks. Going to a hill to reconnoitre, Biggles sees the approaching party of Russians in the distance and sets up an ambush at a narrow depression between two banks, rather like a railway cutting. There are sledge marks which show this was the way the Russians came and Biggles is convinced they will come back this way. When they do, Biggles confronts von Stalhein and the Russians and convinces them they are covered by men with machine-guns. Von Stalhein, sees what he thinks are guns but they are in fact all the sticks, that Biggles has had put all around. Algy, Smyth and Ginger show themselves with their weapons and von Stalhein is forced to hand over the papers. The column of men are then sent on their way. Biggles and his comrades return to their Blenheim and success seems assured, but heavy bombers come in from the east and a rushed take off results in the plane hitting a branch or log frozen in the ice and covered with snow. “The result was what might have been foreseen. The undercarriage was torn clean away, while the machine, buckled under the force of the collision, was hurled aside. There was a splintering, tearing series of crashes; the metal propellers bit into the ice and hurled it into the air like the jet from a fountain; the fuselage, flat on the ice, with one wing trailing, spun sickeningly for a hundred yards before coming to a stop”. The four airmen get out as fast as possible and thankfully, no one is badly hurt. Looking up, they see parachutists jumping out of the enemy bombers and Biggles calculates that there are at least fifty of them.