COMRADES IN ARMS
Book First Published on 8th December 1947* - 227 pages
* This information is taken from a letter
from A. P. Watt & Son to W. E. Johns in my collection
Original price 6 shillings 0 d (72 pennies)
This contains six short stories. Three of the stories are
Gimlet, Worrals and Biggles stories respectively, then there are three other
war stories.
The Gimlet, Worrals and Biggles
stories are unique to this collection and are not to be found in any other W.
E. Johns' books published.
The
first edition dust jacket showing the original price of 6 shillings
This
1951 second edition dust jacket also shows the same original price of 6
shillings.
AN ORIENTAL ASSIGNMENT
A "King" of the Commandos story.
This
story runs from pages 7 to 61. Gimlet, Cub, Copper and Trapper are asked to go
to French Indo-China (now Vietnam) in this war time story. The reason is to collect
an unusual form of Hevea braziliensis or
rubber tree. Sir Lionel Radnor had cultivated a strain of sufficient hardiness
to be grown in a temperate climate. He destroyed the lot apart from 20 seeds,
which he hid. Later, he was captured and tortured by the Japanese until he
died. Word has reached British Intelligence via Radnor's chief native
assistant, Charla Song, as to where the seeds are hidden. They have been hidden
in a hollow elephant in the Oriente Hotel in Saigon,
but that is now being used by Japanese Officers. Gimlet and his men fly out with Biggles and Ginger (so this is
technically a Biggles story as well) who will return to pick them up in two days. Making their way to
the Oriente Hotel proves easy but the seeds are not
in the hollow elephant. Contacted by a Chinese relative of Charla Song's, Chang
Chu, our heroes learn that Charla had moved the seeds and re-hidden them. He
too had been tortured and executed by the Japanese. In Charla's demolished
house, a Chinese proverb - "By still water in a garden is happiness
found" leads Cub to twenty planted rubber tree saplings. These are the
missing and priceless seeds! Chased by the Japanese, Gimlet and his commandos,
accompanied by Chang Chu escape to rendezvous with Biggles, Ginger and Algy (both Biggles and
Ginger get a few lines on the last pages of the book) and to a lengthy flight home.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
(This story was originally published in three parts as
"Seeds of Trouble" in "Boy's
Own" Magazine dated July 1945, August 1945 and September 1945)
ON THE HOME FRONT
A "Worrals" of the W.A.A.F. story.
41 pages – from page 63 to 103 inclusive.
The story is in five parts, each headed with a Roman Numeral
I.
Squadron Officer Joan Worralson arrives at No.
21 Balloon Wing with Flight Officer Betty Lovell on the instructions of Air
Commodore Raymond of the Intelligence branch.
They have been sent to investigate the complaint of an aircraftwoman
named Norma Day. Norma’s friend, Doris
Marchant, has been found drowned and Norma rejects the Coroner’s verdict of
“found drowned”. Norma says Doris didn’t
drown herself and she was a good swimmer, so she wouldn’t have accidently
drowned - it was murder. Norma tells a
story about how, she and her friend were on duty manning their barrage balloon,
when, on two occasions, it appeared to be hit by a smaller balloon carrying
something. On the day of her death,
Doris had gone off to investigate but Norma had been unable to go with
her. Doris had not returned and her body
was found in the River Ouse, just where a stream called the Niddy
flows into it. Norma shows Worrals on a
map where their barrage balloon is stationed and where Doris’s body was
found. Worrals decides to do some aerial
recognisance.
II.
In less than half an hour, flying at one thousand feet, Worrals and Frecks survey the ground on a westerly course from the
barrage balloon. This is the direction
where any mystery balloon would have come from.
Finding the stream known as the Niddy, Worrals
notes that it runs past an old Elizabethan mansion. The map tells them this is Gresham
Grange. Frecks
sees a man on the roof of the place.
Back at the airfield, Worrals rings the Inspector at Burnham Police Station
and makes enquiries about Gresham Grange.
The police say it is empty. Apparently the building has a sliding roof as a previous
owner had an observatory installed.
Worrals is suspicious of Gresham Grange and decides to go and have a
look around it that night. She decides
to get permission to take Norma Day with her, so she can act as a look out and
get help if Worrals and Frecks get into any trouble.
III.
It was nearly 9.00 pm when Worrals, Frecks and
Norma set off. Stopping the car outside
the wall to the estate, Worrals gives Norma her instructions. If she sees Worrals fire her flare gun, or if
they are not back in two hours, she is to go to Wing Headquarters and see the
Wing Commander who will get in touch with their Chief at the Air Ministry. Worrals has spoken to them all on the phone
in advance, so they know what the girls are doing. Worrals and Frecks
climb the wall and then follow the River Ouse and then the Niddy. Frecks says that
what happened to Doris might happen to them.
“That is what I’m hoping will happen – that is, up to a point,” replied
Worrals coolly. “The end should work out
differently though. Doris was alone, and
unarmed. She wasn’t ready for
trouble. We are”. An air raid siren goes off in the distance
and shortly after a German plane passes over the old house. It returns and then Worrals and Frecks see a balloon released from the top of the
house. It is soon lost to view in an
Easterly direction. “Travelling on a
west wind that balloon will in due course arrive over Holland or Germany,” said
Worrals in a low voice. Worrals sends Frecks back to Norma to tell her to go and alert the
authorities.
IV.
Worrals explores further whilst Frecks is gone
and discovers that the stream has been confined in banks of brickwork so that
it took the form of a canal. Frecks returns and the two girls see a car come quietly
round the far end of the house, apparently from the garage. In due course, four men are seen by the car
and they speak in German. Worrals runs
forward and shoots out the tyres to stop the men leaving and at the same time Frecks fires the flare signal into the night sky. A gun battle with the men then ensues and the
girls are forced to retreat from the bushes to the river behind them. Attempting to cross the river, Frecks is apparently hit and both girls are carried away by
the current down the stream. They lose
their guns in the icy cold water.
Worrals tries to get to the brick sides but she is thrown back into the
current. “Even at that dire moment the
thought flashed into her mind that this was what must have happened to Doris
Marchant”. Further down the stream,
Worrals is able to get Frecks to a small bit of beach
that she had noticed earlier. Frecks is not badly hurt.
A man comes running from the direction of the house and sees the
stranded girls. He stands with an
automatic in his hand ready to shoot them and Worrals throws sand in his
face. Norma arrives on the scene and
takes a running jump into the back of the man, sending him headlong into the
river. When the man tries to drag
himself out of the river on the opposite bank, Norma snatches up his gun and
shoots him. Several men come running towards
the girls and Worrals says “Great Scott!
It’s the big chief himself” as Air Commodore Raymond arrives. Raymond says they have picked up three dead
Nazis and two live ones. “There’s
another in the river here,” said Worrals.
V.
The following morning, Frecks has a strip of
surgical plaster on her cheek. Air
Commodore Raymond says the men were spies and the difficulty with spying is not
getting useful information, but getting it out of the country without the
method being spotted. The Germans were
using balloons with radio units in that could be picked up by enemy radar. An aircraft could then shoot it down and
retrieve the message. Worrals says that
all credit has to go to Doris and Norma.
It turns out that the man Norma shot was the person who killed
Doris. “We know that because the Nazi
who is doing the talking has told us all about it, to escape personal
responsibility” says Raymond. Worrals, Frecks and Norma get a lift in the Air Commodore’s car as
Worrals and Frecks are going to take Norma out for
lunch in town.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
(I believe this Worrals story was never published
elsewhere. If anybody knows differently
then please E-MAIL
ME)
THUNDER OVER GERMANY
A "Biggles" adventure.
This
story runs from pages 105 to 135. Air Commodore Raymond brings a 16-year-old
Air Training Corps cadet called Peter Masters to see Biggles. Peter knows the
location of a huge German petrol store in the Black Forest as he used to live
in Germany when his father was in the Diplomatic Service. Taking three Mosquito
Aircraft and Peter with him, to act as guide, Biggles leads Flight Lieutenants
Algy Lacy and Bertie Lissie and Flying Officers Ginger Hebblethwaite and Tug
Carrington on a bombing raid. The dump is successfully bombed. Biggles
estimates that it contained a million gallons of oil. Attacked on the return
journey by a Focke-Wulf 190 and then 18
Messerschmitts, Biggles and his colleagues have to use all their flying skills
to get home safely. As they reach the English Channel
they meet a huge force of German aircraft but Biggles still has a surprise in
store.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
(This story was subsequently published in the Daily Mail
Newspaper in 1950 – from 18th March 1950 to 13th May
1950)
THE CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
A story of U-boat warfare.
17 year old
Jack Carrington lives on the island of Trinidad. When exploring the remote
Porpoise Island for coconuts, Jack comes across a hidden German U-boat
refuelling. Seen by the Germans, Jack flees under fire and dives off a cliff.
He hides in an underwater cave he discovers. Later, he ties a punctured can of
oil to the submarine, in order for the leaking oil to leave a trace in the sea
as a method of locating it and then gets back to a Fleet Air Arm marine
aircraft base to report his findings. They send out ships and aircraft and sink
the submarine. Returning to Porpoise Island and the hidden cave, Jack finds the
skeleton of a dead pirate and just over a hundred gold coins.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
A NIGHT OUT
A story of a sabotage raid.
Pilot
Officer Kazi Mahomet meets up again with his old
childhood friend, Flying Officer Lance Lorimer. Both of their fathers had
fought side by side, and died fighting for their regiment in India. Lance now
carries out sabotage operations in Germany and Kazi
gets to go with him. They fly to Germany, land and then blow up a Railway
Bridge just as an ammunition train goes through. They then have to fight off
the Germans to get back to their plane and fly back to England out running
German planes. Ditching in the sea just off the English coast with a holed fuel
tank, Lance and Kazi are picked up by the Navy. As
they are close to the coast they are able to tow in
and save their plane before it sinks.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
A ROUTINE JOB
A story of the commandos.
When 15 year old Hubert Fairfax is rescued from a canoe on the
Mediterranean Sea he has an interesting story to tell. His father had been
working in Rome at the outbreak of the Second World War and had been arrested
and interned. Hubert, who spoke fluent English and Italian, has been forced to
join a Fascist propaganda department but used the opportunity to gather useful
intelligence. Learning of a new secret submarine base being built by the
Germans at Casagrande, Hubert had stolen the plans for the base and set off for
Malta to bring the important information to the attention of the British.
Hubert is asked by Colonel "Buster" Brown, of "Buster's
Bulldogs" to act as scout on a commando raid on the submarine base. Hubert
suggests that they could also use the raid to liberate his father and other
internees from Castelvero, just 4 miles away from the
base. The extra men could then be armed to help in the attack. The plan is for
a two pronged assault, Hubert, going with a dozen
commandos to free the internees and then attack the submarine base from the
rear. Whilst the Germans are distracted, the main commando force will then
attack from the sea. This happens, the base is destroyed and Hubert is reunited
with his father.
Click
here to see the story illustration from this particular story in ‘Comrades in
Arms’
The dust cover of the book shows pictures of Biggles, Worrals and
Gimlet.
Comrades in Arms
Publication Details - published by Hodder and Stoughton
Frontispiece
Click on the Frontispiece to enlarge it
The original artwork for this frontispiece is in my private
collection and is for sale
http://www.biggles.info/Artwork/
French edition 1948