SERGEANT BIGGLESWORTH C.I.D.

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. PURELY TECHNICAL (Pages 14 - 21)

Biggles, Agly, Bertie and Ginger discuss the crimes they have been told about. Biggles notes that all the raids have been directed against British concerns and that may be significant. The man behind all this is no common thief, being a first-class pilot, navigator and mechanic. He must have an aerodrome and access to large quantities of petrol and oil. Biggles can think of only two aircraft that would have the performance necessary for these jobs. The latest long-distance British fighter called the Spur which is a two-seater is one of them, but Biggles thinks there are quite a number of people involved to do all the jobs necessary. The other was only a rumour in Air Intelligence about a new German designer called Ludwig Renkell who was rumoured to have two new aircraft under test, one a modification of the other. Biggles rings Freddie Lavers at Air Intelligence and discovers that the prototypes were alleged to be under test at Augsburg (interesting enough this location featured as the target for a bombing raid in the previous Biggles short story in 'Comrades in Arms') but they have both disappeared. Renkell has also disappeared and so has his test pilot, a chap named Baumer. Baumer had been with Rommel in North Africa and was friends with Julius Gontermann, the Nazi liaison officer between Hitler and the Luftwaffe. There has been a recent article in 'The Times' about Gontermann and Algy goes to find it. Gontermann was previously a jewel smuggler with links to America and an associate of Max Grindler a German born American. Biggles decides they need to go to Augsburg to start investigating.