BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA

What is Erich von Stalhein doing in Australia? Surely not, as appearances would suggest, doing research on marine life in tropical waters with a group of harmless scientists! Once again Biggles and his Air Police find peril, adventure, and final success in foiling a Communist plot.

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published March 1955

The “BIGGLES” Books by Captain W. E. Johns – Page 2 – featuring 45 books.

TITLE PAGE – Page 3 – This page has a small vignette of a kangaroo

CONTENTS – Page 5

ILLUSTRATIONS – Page 7 – (six illustrations by Stead, with one as the frontispiece and the other five facing pages 26, 63, 94, 127 and 158)

I. A PRESSMAN SETS A POSER (Pages 9 – 20)

Biggles is called into Air Commodore Raymond’s office at the Special Air Section of Scotland Yard and he is handed a newspaper clipping. It shows a group of seven men standing on a sandy beach. “The subjects were in tropical kit, creased, dirty, shrunken and generally disreputable. They were hatless, and all needed a hair-cut and a shave”. Biggles recognises Erich von Stalhein amongst them. (Erich von Stalhein, of course, being Biggles old arch enemy, although when he was caught at the end of the previous book – Biggles Foreign Legionnaire – he was just released, “in spite of all that was known of his sinister activities and associations there was no case against him, either, for the simple reason that nothing could be proved”). Biggles thinks he may also recognise one of the others in the photograph, but he just can’t place him. The photo was taken on the north-west coast of Australia and was spotted by Major Charles of Security Intelligence “in a batch of newspapers just in from Australia”. Biggles says von Stalhein is becoming a nuisance. Raymond says he is a menace. “Then why don’t you do something about it?” asks Biggles. “I’ve told you before that we’ve no case against him; nor shall we have while he’s clever enough to keep on the right side of the law”. (This line must have been written by Johns shortly after the above quoted line from the previous book). “With the result that I spend half my time looking for him and the other half dodging him” replies Biggles. Raymond says that in Australia they recently had a hurricane, known locally as a ‘willie-willie’. Three pearling luggers from Broome, on the coast of Western Australia, failed to return to port, so aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force were sent out to look for them or any survivors. A ship’s lifeboat was spotted and supplies rushed to the spot where it made its landfall. A local newspaper reporter took the photograph, much to the annoyance of the men who said they were scientists and didn’t want any publicity. “The spokesman of the party said they were a scientific expedition studying marine life in tropical waters. Their ship, the See Taube (German for “Sea Pigeon”), out from Hamburg, was caught in the storm and cast ashore on an island. The seven were the sole survivors of a crew of twenty-two. The ship was pounded to pieces on a reef, but by good luck a lifeboat was washed up more or less intact. Having patched it up they set a course for the mainland”. The men were four Germans, two Poles, and a Britisher who said he was simply a member of the crew. Von Stalhein’s name did not appear in the newspaper article. The men were flown to Darwin and a few days later an aircraft, chartered by a good Samaritan in the south, turned up and collected them. They have now disappeared. Raymond wants Biggles to catch up with von Stalhein. “Surely this is Australia’s pigeon?” asks Biggles. He is told “Australia is part of the British Commonwealth, and as such it is also our pigeon. Of this we may be sure. If von Stalhein is in Australia he’s not there for our good”. “But you’re not seriously expecting me to find von Stalhein in a place the size of Australia?” asks Biggles. “The prospect of finding a man, or even a small army of men, in a place the size of Australia, strikes me as having about as much hope of success as a boy looking for a lost peanut on a shingle beach on a dark night. I once had occasion to fly over a stretch of north-west Australia, and what I saw didn’t make me pine to see more of it. I know it isn’t all like that, but there’s plenty that is*” (a footnote then tells us * See Biggles Works it Out). Raymond says they must know what von Stalhein and his party were doing. Biggles says he will do his best and he asks for the name of the reporter who took the photograph, the name of the pilot who sent out the S.O.S. and the pinpoint he gave on first spotting the boat at sea. He also asks for information about the plane that collected von Stalhein and his party and the name and address of an Australian Security Officer with whom he can get in touch with, should the need arise. Biggles returns to the Operations Rooms to pass on “the latest intelligence to his team of pilots”. Biggles says that he will start by looking for debris from the ship that broke up as some of it might have been cast ashore, so he will start by looking for the island near where the life-boat was first seen. “This seems to be a more hopeless job than most of those that come our way,” remarked Algy. Biggles says “I’ll take Ginger with me in the Sea Otter we used on that West Indian job*” (a footnote tells us * See Biggles in the Blue). Biggles says “Algy, you and Bertie can trundle out to Darwin in the Halifax. We’ll travel independently and meet there”.