Spitfire Ringers Read online

  “Absolutely. It is as good as anything we ever had in New York,” replied his brother. “Thank you for dinner again, Mr. Eriksen, this is a real treat.”

  “It is my pleasure. We can only hope that what you say about occupation is true. He seems very good on the attack at the moment and stands to occupy nearly all of Western Europe.” Mr. Eriksen said with the enthusiasm trailing off in his voice. “Nevertheless, he must be stopped. That is why we must get you to Paris as quickly as possible. The retrofitted ship is still somewhat fit for the king. There should be ample space, as the passenger list merely contains the King, his family, servants, and the crew. There will be fewer than 50 people on the whole ship. The royal outfitting of the ship should be comfortable, but not opulent by any means. You need to be at the dock tomorrow morning at 07:45, sharp. Here is a little bit of money, have the hotel set up a taxi to ensure your arrival. I do not know what your duties will be, but I do know that you will be serving the King himself. The trip will have some danger from the Uboats. The Battle of the Atlantic still rages, but this is a secret trip by the King, and I’m sure the

  Royal navy will take every precaution. It seemed like the safest way to get you to Europe.”

  “Does he know who we are?” inquired Payton with an aim at getting straight to the point. “I don't think he can cause us trouble in the US, but he will eventually talk to the President, and we don’t want to lose our citizenship. He may not intend to, but he could say something that would get us in trouble.”

  “An astute question, my young friend, and one with good foresight. The politics of the US have made your adventure somewhat of a risk to your status as US citizens, but my guess is that FDR is only biding his time until he can get in to this war. At that point, it won’t matter who you fight for as long as it is one of the Allies. However, to make sure you are safe, I have arranged for fake passports for you. The King thinks you are young students at McGill, but your parents are in Britain on business, so you are going to join them. Your names are Ryan and Justin Stewart. You might do well to spruce up a little on the surrounding area to make your cover pass. You should be able to easily enter both England and France with these Canadian passports. If you run in to trouble, dash to Ireland with your American passports. The Irish are officially neutral, so you shouldn’t have any trouble there.”

  The waitress returned again carrying a huge tray of desserts, which all three customers waved off. Mr. Eriksen quickly paid the check and began to rise, “I must be off. My wife and children are expecting me at home. I enjoyed our dinner, and I wish you the best of luck in your adventures. If you are ever back this way, please do not hesitate to look me up. Your fight is a just one, do not forget that or let politics get in your way.”

  “Thank you, again, sir, hopefully things will go smoothly.” Payton and Dylan intoned at the same time. Mr. Eriksen just chuckled to hear them both as he walked out of the garden.

  Chapter 2

  May 10th, 1940

  With at least an hour left until they were to meet Anne, Payton and Dylan retired to their room. Payton figured it was time to let their father know of their plans.

  Dear Dad,

  I know that Dylan and I haven’t written in a while, but I guess you could say we have been busy since graduation. I’m not totally sure how to tell you this, but we are on our way to Europe. The week after graduation we enlisted with Colonel Sweeney. I’d like to tell you that he is in the military, but he is just a well-connected mercenary. He is an American, and a patriot, but he isn’t willing to wait around for his government to declare war. He says he has talked directly with FDR about it, but he may just be a braggart. Even so, we signed up. He has arranged for us to go to France and start fighting the Germans. Since we know how to fly, we got the best possible deal and will fight with the French Army Air Force. They are apparently flying the Curtiss P36 Hawk, an American plane. It has a powerful Pratt and Whitney engine (Colonel Sweeney said it could muster 1200 horsepower!) so we should be flying faster than we ever have before! It will be better than when we used to steal your old bi-plane for sure.

  It also has six machine guns. We’ve had our regular rifle training at school, but neither of us has fired anything from a plane. It will feel weird to shoot down another plane. It seems like every flyer everywhere should root for all other planes to stay in the sky, otherwise a day might come where it is their turn to go down. It would be sort of like when the whole country was rooting for Jesse Owens. When he won, we all won. When one aircraft stays in the air, all pilots win. We heard that the Messerschmitts have cannon as well as their machine guns, so hopefully the Hawk will stand up.

  We know that there are risks, both of getting killed and to our standing in the US Army, let alone our US citizenship. I am glad to let you know that at least some in the US Army see the possibility of entering in this conflict, or are at least hedging their bets. Lt. Colonel Bradley cooked up a story about playing baseball so that we could quietly leave West Point. It would have been nice to try out for the Dodger’s and play like the story he made up, but this is more important. He instructed us to learn everything we can about flying and engaging the Germans and to report back regularly to him. If the US enters the war, then we will have a leg up in our training and can share that with others in the service. It might prove invaluable since the Germans started training their Army and Luftwaffe long ago, and they now have more than 9 months of battle testing. If we must go to war with Germany, then we must be prepared. The “Sitz Krieg” is over and so our commitment to the greater service of our country must now include fighting for another country.

  I am sorry to have to write you this letter. I could not write it to Mom, so I hope that you will break the news to her gently. In the end, Dylan and I both hope to return safely, and I believe we will. We’ll see you and Mom again as soon as we can. I will write as often as possible to let you know where we are and what we have been up to.

  Love,

  Payton

  ***

  As Dylan and Payton wandered in to Deporte a few minutes late, they saw Anne and her friend sitting comfortably in a corner booth waiting for them. In scale, the bar tended towards cozy, but it was certainly big enough for the dozen or so patrons evenly divided between the classic long oak bar with brass fittings and the five or six booths situated against the brick walls opposite the bar. Heavy dark wood beams held up the ceiling and ran the length of the bar, giving a somewhat dark but charming ambience. Deporte looked like the type of place that could hold a boisterous crowd on the right occasion, or a smaller place where patrons could sit comfortably and converse. On this night, the latter was true as the few groups talked quietly amongst themselves. It did not require a translator to realize that most of the talks centered on the invasion of France. Much of the world surely talked of the same thing. Hitler was moving west.

  Anne turned and raised her hand to wave the boys over to the booth where she and her friend sat side by side. Both girls stood to greet the twins when they neared the table. Anne had been wearing an overcoat and hat earlier in the day which had allowed just a hint of what was underneath, so it was just now that the boys could see how pretty she really was. Her long chestnut locks were parted at the side, rolled up in the front and curled down the back just above her shoulders in a very fashionable way. When she smiled her high set cheeks flared out and showed a slight dimple. She was slender and stood at just over 5’5” in her heels. Her few freckles just added to her appeal as prettier than the girl next door. She smiled with her eyes as Dylan and Payton greeted her.

  “Anne, we are so glad you made it. It is nice to see such a familiar face on an otherwise interesting day.” said Dylan.

  “Interesting is a delicate way of putting it.” replied Anne “I would have said dreary. At the very least this may bring the whole world to bear on Hitler. Now the West can’t ignore or appease him. Excuse me, where are my manners? This is my very good friend Donna Henri. Donna, these fine American gentlemen are D
ylan and Payton, though I can’t for the life of me tell you which is which.”

  “I’m Dylan Anders” he said as he reached out to shake the absolutely beautiful girl’s hand. “We are hard to tell apart, but it becomes easier the more you get to know us, I promise.” Donna’s classical beauty stunned both boys as she stood to meet them. She stood a couple inches taller than Anne with wavy dark brunette hair and contrasting shimmering blue eyes. She epitomized the tall and lithe model ideal. The twins shared a knowing glance saying that they had stumbled on to an evening with two contrasting but exceedingly beautiful girls.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you both as well. Anne so kindly invited me tonight so that we both might have a distraction on this dreadful day. The invasion has the whole campus buzzing, and especially those with familial ties back to France,” Donna replied. It was evident by the way she looked down as she said the last sentence that she did indeed have family in France even though her accent was definitely still French-Canadian. “I am hoping that this unwarranted attack will help bring the US in with the Allies. After all, France is America’s longest standing ally, dating back to your war for independence, and other than Canada, Great Britain is your closest ally.”

  “Sound reasonable to me, and I wish it were so” Payton responded as he thought her statement all the way through. While Dylan tended to be more outgoing, Payton tended to allow his analytical though process more sway, but both could certainly share the other’s strength and play the socializer or the thinker when necessary. “The problem is that many in the US remember the last war, what it cost, and see this as strictly a European problem. There are plenty of isolationists in the country, and notably in the Senate. Roosevelt is no war hawk, but he is looking for a way to stop Hitler. FDR just needs to convince the rest of the country that we need to join the war, especially before re-election. Unlike Hitler and the fascists, FDR can’t just declare war and invade. That is a definite plus for democracy overall, but it means it will take a little longer in this case. I do believe it is only a matter of time before the US enters the war, and when it does there will be plenty of young men willing to fight.”

  “I hope you are right, but how would you know? Are you willing to fight?” Anne commented half in jest.

  “Actually, yes.” Payton replied rather dryly. “And I don’t say that lightly or to try to impress you. I’m sorry if we gave you the wrong impression when we met earlier, but we are not students anymore and we came to Canada for a couple of days waiting for a ship across the Atlantic. We graduated from the United States Military Academy earlier this month and then signed up to fly against the Germans in France.”

  “I’m terribly sorry for joking, then” Anne said, showing that she was more than just a little embarrassed. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just teasing.”

  “That’s okay, Anne. We know, and we are not exactly broadcasting our intentions while we are here. If we are caught by United States military officials, we could be banned from future military service when the United States enters the war and lose our citizenship. At the very least that would make it hard to travel since we would be nationless individuals.” explained Payton.

  “Nationless? What does that mean?” Donna asked.

  “It means no passports and no place to land.” Dylan explained. “But enough of that now, we just want to go and do our part to stop Hitler. I believe you called the day dreary earlier, why don’t you brighten it by telling us a little bit about yourselves. Where did you come from? How do you like McGill? Anne, you said you had a brother in France, but that is just about all that we know about you.”

  “I’m not sure that anything I have to say will brighten the day, but thank you for asking. My family has a ranch in Alberta where we herd cattle. My older brother in France is my only brother. He signed up for the Army as soon as Hitler invaded Poland and England declared war. He knew that we’d be in the war as soon as England declared. The realm always sticks together, I suppose. He’s a first lieutenant since he attended McGill here before me. He studied history and I’m studying art. Father always said that we’d be the first two in our family through university. He never went, but he’s done a remarkable job building the ranch up. It’s twice as big now as when his father ran it.”

  “So, you’re a good old-fashioned cowgirl after all then?” Dylan teased.

  “Yes, but only in the most Canadian sense of the term!” Anne shot back playfully.

  “I tell her the same thing all the time.” Donna offered. “And I’ve visited her on the ranch. She rushes around there on her horse like she was born on it. Seeing her around the city here you’d never guess it, but she keeps up with the men on that ranch as easily as she pleases. I don’t know how she does it.”

  “Well that is funny to hear, I never would have guessed either.” Payton said with a laugh. “We grew up on a farm in Oregon, the northwestern part of the US, so I guess we have something in common. We don’t raise cattle, just crops, so I guess you are one up on us in the toughness department. Now tell us about yourself Donna.”

  “I’m just a city girl. I grew up not far from here in Montreal. My father is a businessman in town and I’m an only child. My parents are originally from France, having moved here just before I was born.” Donna offered.

  “She’s being modest.” Anne interjected. “Here father owns and runs the biggest newspaper in town. The journalism building on campus will probably be named after him soon.”

  “I don’t know about that. I'm not in the journalism school anyway. Anne and I are in the same art program. I truly enjoy the art history curriculum. So much has come out of Europe and especially my parent’s homeland. I hear stories about Paris in the 20’s and I long to be there. I hope the fascists feel the same. Politics should not interfere with great art, and if they destroy anything it will be a tragedy.” Donna concluded.

  “Well, I think you have reason for hope and reason for concern.” Payton offered. “I’ve heard the much of the Nazi leadership are patrons of the arts. Göring, in particular, values the arts. We had a guest lecturer at the academy who had served as an attaché in Berlin and he described Göring’s country house, Carinhall, alternately as a palace and a museum. The Reichsmarshall apparently displayed his art collection rather proudly.”

  “That says something, but then what should cause my concern?” Donna asked.

  “It’s a war with bombs. Explosions do not discriminate what they blow up. They just obliterate everything in their path. Blitzkrieg relies heavily on air support and bombs to soften up an opposing army during an advance, so anything in the way will suffer,” Payton finished saying. Silence hung over the table like a thick fog. Both the girls thought of the destruction and involuntarily lowered their eyes.

  “I’m sorry if my brother has upset you. It is just conjecture.” Dylan offered.

  “It is all right. We are glad to hear some straight answers and not propaganda. To date all we have heard is that the world needs our boys to go over and fight for freedom.” Anne said.

  “Donna, where in France is your family?” Payton asked, hoping to deftly change the subject.

  “They live in Carentan. It is a port city close to Cherbourg in Normandy. It is at the base of the Contentin Peninsula and the Douve river runs through town and down in to the channel. It is a small town, with maybe four thousand people. It is a bit inland, but there are causeways that run down to the beach, which is beautiful. It is quite lovely in summer. We went over when I was a child for a summer with my parent’s family. I have fond memories of those days with my cousins there. My father is from a big family, so there are plenty of Henri’s in Carentan. It would not surprise me if my parents moved back there one day.” Donna answered. The town sounded idyllic; the kind of place where the sun shines on grandchildren visiting their grandparents for the summer and where families would visit to get away from the rigors of life. Donna spoke of a small coastal town like thousands ringing the seas and oceans of the world.

/>   “That does sound wonderful.” Dylan grinned “We are aiming to go in to Le Havre after sailing to England. I’m not sure what we do after that, but if we get the chance we’ll have to look up your family when we get there.”

  “That would be splendid, and if you do make sure to write me back. Father has been worried sick about his family there all day. If you walk in to any shop or tavern in Carentan I’m sure you will run in to a Henri.”

  “Thank you, Donna, we will certainly write you and Anne both, if that is okay. If we have a place that you can write us, we’ll pass it along as well. Any letters that you can spare would be gratefully accepted.” Payton offered with a hint of boldness.

  “Of course, we will write back. Letters are gratefully accepted here as well. Hearing the truth unfiltered will only help our countries, so hopefully lots of the boys will take the time to write home.” Anne declared.

  With all four glasses nearing the bottom, and no one making a move to order more, the enjoyable evening that happened purely by accident of radio and invasion looked to flit off in to the darkness like a lightning bug flashing in fits and starts. Dylan paid the bill and offered his arm to Donna as they all walked out of the bar in a mood buoyed by good companionship but with a dark cloud hanging above them, even as the night sky above showed no sign of overcast and twinkled with stars.

  Chapter 3

  May 11th, 1940

  Dylan and Payton awoke early the next day and packed the few things that made the trip with them before checking out and hailing a cab. They had no reason to rush, but keeping the King waiting seemed like bad form. They reached the dock several hours before the scheduled noon boarding, and an hour before the prescribed 7:45 arrival. The slate gray ship rose above them like the thick, dense evergreen forests they knew not far from the farm at home. Both blocked out the sun rather effectively. The boys walked the length of the ship down the dock side by side in silence. Both took in the massive ship with just the slightest bit of awe. They scanned the lines of the ship more thinking about their aeronautics classes and how the water would flow around the prow of the ship than the beauty of such a ship capable of supporting a small city at sea. Air and water behave the same way whether sliced by a wing or a prow. Water is just heavier, that’s all. The twins knew that no ship this big could outrun a torpedo, but they could also tell from the shallow rake of the prow that this ship wouldn’t maneuver out of the way of anything very easily, either. Torpedoes and icebergs could outmaneuver this ship. The thought surprised neither Anders boy, as this ship started life built for luxury, stability, and steaming in a straight line between New York and London. The designer’s task did not include thinking about self-defense. With a full head of steam, though, it might outrun a Uboat.