BIGGLES SWEEPS THE DESERT

by Captain W. E. Johns

V. THE DECOY (Pages 59 - 70)

In the morning, Biggles, Ginger and Tug take up a position at 20,000 feet while Algy and Tex go further north and fly at 25,000 feet. When Bertie returns in the Whitley they will protect him with Algy and Tex ready to cut off any attacking planes that try to get away. Everything goes according to plan. Bertie is escorted by the planes high above him when he comes into sight. In due course he is attacked by three Messerschmitts. Biggles dives and shots down the leading German plane. Ginger and Tug get a second and the third flies away to escape. Algy fires upon the plane and the pilot bales outs. Bertie lands the Whitley to collect the stranded German pilot and then they all return to their oasis. When Bertie arrives, he has with him, not only the prisoner, but also Taffy Hughes, Henry Harcourt and Ferocity Ferris. The German prisoner is described as "young, in the early twenties, with flaxen hair and blue eyes, and might have been called good-looking had it not been for a surly expression and a truculent manner so pronounced that it was clearly cultivated rather than natural" and he gives his name as Leutnant Heinrich Hymann. (The Nazi’s right hand flew up. Biggles nodded. “Yes, we know all about that,” he said quietly. “Try forgetting it for a little while.” – is the illustration on page 69).