“Hopefully, Alice, we’ll get weekend leave again in a couple of weeks’ time and I’ll be up to see you.”
“I hope so too,” Alice replied. “This long-distance romance is not easy.” They talked on for a little longer and Andy promised to telephone her again before he went to London.
At about the same time, Commander Rice was travelling on the London underground when he caught sight of a familiar figure. It was the person he knew as Bill Enderby. He was no longer dressed as a seaman but wore a smart business suit and bowler hat and carried a leather document case. He was clean-shaven. Rice had been reading a newspaper and now lifted it up again before Enderby could see him. Rice knew that he would have to follow Enderby and see where he went. The train pulled into Baker Street Station and Enderby rose and hurriedly left the carriage. Commander Rice folded his newspaper and headed for the doors. His way out was blocked by a rather large old lady with a walking stick, struggling to get out of the carriage and onto the platform. She was being helped by an old man who was struggling to help her. By the time Rice was able to get off the train, Enderby had disappeared. He headed for the nearest escalator and hoped that he had picked the right one. At the concourse, there was no sign of Enderby and Rice headed out into the street. There was no sign of Enderby there either. Feeling frustrated, he headed back into the station and bought another ticket to West Hampstead where he lived. The next morning at the office, Rice put in a report on his sighting of Enderby and then an alert was sent to all police stations in the Greater London area.
Chapter 15
Friday morning (21st) passed without incident at RAF West Sanby. In the afternoon Corporal Hill took two of the progress clerks over to the squadron control room as part of their training. In it were located the radar screens and the missile control unit. The operators sat at the screens and monitored the aircraft movements on the radar screen. They wore headphones and were in contact with a sector controller. Corporal Hill introduced the airmen to the duty corporal who then started to explain the operation. The left headphone received the conversation at the sector and in the right headphone came the time every five seconds. Suddenly, the airman at the right side screen raised his right arm and everyone stopped speaking. He turned and said, “Unidentified aircraft coming towards the coast. It has failed to answer sector requests for identity.” The corporal picked up the telephone to the duty officer and reported the situation. He received an order to lock a flight of missiles onto the aircraft. The atmosphere became intense. Heavy cloud cover had been building up during the day and it may be hard to spot the aircraft. The corporal moved to a control panel and asked the operator for the co-ordinates. The operator called them out and these were fed into the missile control unit and the flight of missiles locked onto the aircraft. The telephone rang and the corporal answered it. He was told by sector that two Lightning fighters had been scrambled from RAF Coltishall to find the aircraft. The operator called out the co-ordinates and flight direction every thirty seconds. The information was fed into the missile control unit and was relayed to the fighter pilots. The tension grew and no-one spoke except the operator. The minutes passed as they all waited for news from the fighter planes. By now the aircraft was crossing the coastline of Lincolnshire. Suddenly, the operator turned in his seat and called out, “Civilian airliner — the Lightning pilots have sighted the unidentified aircraft and received a response from its pilot. Sector advises it is no threat.”
“Thanks, Tommy,” said the corporal. He then telephoned the duty officer who ordered the missiles back to ‘ready’ status. There was a general sigh of relief. If the Lightning fighters had not found the unidentified aircraft, the next order would have been unpleasant to carry out.
One of the progress clerks asked the question, “Would it have been shot down if they hadn’t found it?”
The duty corporal replied, “We’re here to protect England. What if it had been a Soviet bomber sneaking in with the heavy cloud?” The young airman remembered the report of a civil airliner that had crashed in fog a few months previously and wondered at the report of “Unknown Cause.” He stayed silent as the reality of their work sank in. They went on with the training exercise.
***
It was Saturday afternoon (22nd) and the unit had worked that morning. Andy had checked with RAF Nocton Hall about visiting times and he drove down to Nocton Hall and was permitted to visit Jamie. Jamie had been transferred to one of the wards in a series of buildings laid out behind the hall itself. When Andy arrived in Jamie’s ward, he noticed that Yvonne was already there. The nurse showed Andy to the bed and asked them to talk quietly for the sake of other patients. When Yvonne turned to greet him, Andy noticed the shine in her eyes and wondered what the cause of it was. It didn’t take him long to guess. In the course of the three-way conversation, Yvonne asked Andy if he and some unit members would go to the dance at Parfleet St Peter to give it extra support. Andy agreed. After twenty minutes, Andy excused himself and left since it was obvious that the couple’s only real interest was in each other. He was thoughtful as he drove back to base.
That evening, Andy and his mates drove across to Parfleet St Peter and parked the car
