BIGGLES FOREIGN LEGIONNAIRE

by Captain W. E. Johns

XII. THE VALLEY OF THE TARTARS (Pages 137 – 149)

“For five hours the aircraft bumped its way through sun-tortured air over the oldest civilized lands on earth”. Over Iraq, Biggles picks up the pipe-line and follows it to Kirkuk and then turns north. Passing “the point of no return” (when the fuel they have remaining is not sufficient to go back) they see an old castle, “its crumbling battlements silhouetted for a moment against the sky” and a marked landing area. Getting out, Ginger knows from what he has seen “that the landscape could be nothing but an arid, dusty, barren scene of hopeless desolation”. “It could hardly be otherwise, he reflected. Fertile places are occupied, and the secret squadron, by its nature, had to be far from possible observers. The wild hillmen, out of touch with the rest of the world, hardly counted as human beings. How the pilots bore the solitude and lack of amenities he could not imagine”. “The castle, the only feature in sight, was an imposing building. Standing like a giant defying time on a spur of rock”. (“The castle, standing like a giant defying time” is the illustration opposite page 133). There are three aircraft, more or less covered by ragged khaki dust-sheets, stood in the shade of a nearby escarpment. There are about a dozen scruffy-looking men sitting around but not one gets up to offer a greeting. “None of the men had shaved for days; and if there is one thing more dilatory-looking than long hair it is an unshaven chin”. “Discipline, if ever there had been any, had gone by the board” (this expression means to fail, go to waste or cease to exist. It alludes to people or things on a boat being washed overboard). The first thing they are asked is “Where are the cigarettes?” as Leffers was supposed to bring a supply. Biggles tells the men that Leffers is dead, he had been shot at the Continentale in Alex. “Klein, (Klein was mentioned in Chapter 1 as being Voss’s Commandant) Voss, now Leffers,” muttered a disreputable looking youth. “What’s Klutz playing at, leaving us in the cart like this?” “Klutz isn’t playing at anything. He was shot at the same time as Leffers” replies Biggles. Biggles is asked “What about the other man – the feller who’s to take Klein’s place?” Biggles says he hasn’t been told about that and asks if they want him to go back and fetch him. “There was some sarcastic laughter”. When Biggles asks “What’s the joke?” he is told they are out of petrol, in fact they are out of everything except “bully and biscuits”. “Why not do something about it?” suggested Biggles. “I imagine you’ve got a radio. Why not put an S.O.S. through to Alex?” Biggles is told the radio was put out of action by Klein “to stop us bleating”. He took the output valve from the radio and carried it in his pocket. Klein has become a drunk and when he got into a plane whilst drunk, to do a bombing job, he flew into a hill. “The output valve had gone west with him”. Voss had then flown to Alexandria to report to Klutz, get a new machine and fresh recruits. He hadn’t come back. Then Leffers had gone. “Someone suggested that Raban, who was a smart guy, might do something. They knew Raban, from which it appears that they were deserters from the Foreign Legion. Ginger could have told them that Raban’s activities had also ended”. “From their conversation Ginger made it out that there were three pilots. The rest were mechanics or camp assistants. They were of mixed nationality, but all spoke either English or French, which they would have learned in the Legion”. Biggles is told the Committee have a Douglas D.C.3 at Alex for bringing in stores. It is flown by a man named Liebnitz and he was to bring petrol to them “for the next job”. Biggles asks if there is any water and he is told there is a well in the castle. Biggles asks where the nearest place to get petrol is and he is told it would be Mosul in Northern Iraq, which is some two hundred miles away. Biggles says with what is left in his tanks, and assuming the tanks of the three planes there are not bone dry, he should have enough fuel to get to Mosul. The plane he was flying was a civilian type, not a military type like the three there, which would cause suspicion at Mosul. It was too late to go now, but he could do so tomorrow. Biggles asks about food and is told to grab some from the wooden hut. In the hut, which is in total disarray, there is also guns and ammunition. “Just take a good look,” invited Biggles grimly. “And I’ve heard fellows in the services wondering why discipline is necessary! This is what happens when there isn’t any – when a bunch of men are left to themselves. It’s nobody’s job to do anything, so everybody does nothing”. Biggles and Ginger help themselves to a couple of Lugers and ammunition. When they leave the hut, Biggles tells Ginger that these men will never get out. “The Committee will see to that. The old saying, dead men can’t talk, is still true”. Biggles says when he goes to Mosul, he won’t come back, he’s seen enough. “Some of these fellows will rat on each other when they’re questioned by the police, to save their own skins. They always do”. The only snag is, Biggles doesn’t know which country they are in. Biggles is also worried about the Douglas aircraft being available in Alex and the fact that the fellows are crazy not to post a guard. The Kurds, who live in the hills are “like the Pathans and Wazirs on the North-West Frontier, they’ve lived for thousands of years by raiding the people of the plains”. “They pinch anything, from camels to corn, but the most valuable loot of all is weapons and ammunition. They can’t get those any other way; but they must have them to raid, and they must raid to live”. Given that the R.A.F once used aircraft to fight them, they hate aircraft and “one day they’ll raid this place as sure as fate”. “Let’s have a dekko at the castle,” said Biggles.