CHAPTER 56
The bus was quiet that morning, Ashley seeming a little lost. Pete was driving, so I made my way down to where the young man was staring out of the window. He’d said nothing over breakfast, and apart from a quiet ‘morning’ nothing at all since we got up. I slipped into the seat beside him.

“Bit quiet today, son”

He looked down at his hands. “Bit thinking to do, Mr Barker. Not much sleep last night”

“You seemed to take that place hard, lad”

A quick, searching look at my own face, and then his gaze was back out of the window.

“Not what I expected, Mr Barker. I mean… Look, we did the Holocaust at school, history like, and it were all a bit long time ago, far away. Not real, like. Then they gave us the book, the diary, and the lads laughed at me cause they said it were a girly book, all mooning over young lad. No action, like. I think they wanted Nazis kicking door in every five minutes. And I just kept reading. It were the contrast, like”

He shook his head. “Look, we spoke about Dick Turpin and that, and my sister and Mam, and that were it. I read the book, and I kept seeing ‘Chelle there, hiding, like, and still trying to have a life. That were thing about book: she were, Anne were just trying to live normal life in place that had stopped being normal. That were thing, and then you and your mate put it right at home, about pub and about…. About Mam and ‘Chelle, and then that place. Mr Barker, I did some more reading, on internet like, after we did book at school. I wanted to know what happened to her”

Again the inspection of the passing scenery. “That were what did it, Mr Barker They don’t even know which one was her, just shovelled them into hole, and… what happened to your friend, the one who were there with you?”

“Harry? Oh… Look, son, not nice. Simplest put, because he could drive tank, tracked vehicles and all, they asked him to drive bulldozer. There were that many dead, you see. People like Julian and Charles, aye, did their best, but they kept dying for far too long. Harry said…”

I needed a few deeper breaths first. “We could smell the place before we saw it, son, it were that bad, and Harry said he couldn’t get smell out of his boots, but there were none gash, spare, like, because we were running ahead of supply chain, logistics, aye? And then we were on boat back, and it were too late, and, well, Harry had had enough. You’ve got a bit of an idea why now, son. Things don’t just stop. They leave scars. Dad were same, after his war”

He looked across at me, brow a little furrowed. “Lads at school, they’ve got no bloody idea how lucky we are, Mr Barker. Here: I’ve got a tissue”

I hadn’t noticed the tears, but Susie caught the redness of my eyes when I moved back to sit by her, and once more no words were needed.

We took lunch in some place called Rendsburg, which had a copy of Middlesbrough’s transporter bridge crossing the huge Kiel Canal. There was a spacious cobbled area called something like ‘parade place’, with statues of people I had never heard of, with a not-bad restaurant with a name like ‘Watch’. It was Ernie’s turn to be pensive.

“Last leg now, Ginge. Up to border and finish”

Pete coughed. “Not quite, lads. Still got to drive up to the ferry in Denmark”

“Aye, Pete, but happen it’s last leg of tour we did in forties. Hey, Ginge, I wonder if that place is still there, that Japtown”

Ashley looked up at that one, clearly puzzled. “Japtown?”

Ernie grinned, as old humour took away old pain. “Aye, son. What it were, like… Look, I need to explain what we did, and why. Iva---Russians---he were coming fast through East Germany as it became, and Monty had taken surrender of all the jerries in the West, but brass were worried Ivan was going to try and get into Denmark. So we had a little race. Fitters gave our engines a boost, took off governors like, and we went hell for leather up this road to beat the Russians. That right, Rodney?”

“Oh yes, dear boy! It was rather a wild ride, I can tell you, and I could see out as we drove. And there was a bonus, as well”

He grinned, and there was more than a hint of the man who had spoken to us on entering Germany. Not enough.

“You will not believe this, Ashley, but the Germans wanted to make us an offer. They surrendered to Monty, and once again in Berlin so that Ivan could get his pound of flesh from them, but they still had a remnant of government. All the remaining top Nazis had trotted off to Flensburg, which is where we are headed now, and they offered to assist in a smooth transition to a new government”

The young man laughed out loud. “What? They wanted a bloody job?”

Matthew barked one of his laughs. “Not just a job, dear boy! They were offering to be the new government of Germany for us! Do carry on, Rodney!”

“Yes indeed. So, our rather rapid advance not only cut off Ivan’s intentions towards Denmark, but ensured a nice, full bag of senior German luminaries. I do believe, Matthew?”

“Absolutely, old man! We turned up with our armour a little way behind, they all trotted out in best rig, Number Ones, jackboots and peaked caps, medals and even bloody spurs on some of them! And they’re dripping with greasy charm and offering handshakes and assurances, and whoops!! Our lads smiled back at them, agreed yes, absolutely, and set up shop on a moored ship. In come the jerries for afternoon tea, and they’re arrested, stripped naked for a search, and Gerald there and his comrades are sitting in their tanks in the middle of the town to make the point most eloquently. An enjoyable day’s work, one of the very few from those days”

“Aye, Mister Folland, but ‘Japtown’?”

Ernie chipped in. “That were a worry we had, son. I mean, everyone knows about Normandy and Germany and that, but war were still going on out in Far East, Burma and that. We were all shit-scared—sorry, really worried that once we’d knocked down Jerry we would all be packed off to Burma, Malaya, to fight Japs, and that town name were just a bit too much of a coincidence”

Pete was riffling through a road atlas as we spoke. “Ah! Got it! Just before Flensburg. Not quite Japtown, though: here, have a look”

He passed me the atlas, and his finger tapped at a little place just to the South of the city: Jarplund. Not quite, but close enough for young lads from Yorkshire. We got back on the bus, young Ashley driving now, and soon found the way back to the autobahn. The scenery was starting to look familiar, and in a very short time we were on a long straight road through the ominous ‘Japtown’, before dropping down quite a steep hill into a very pretty city that held very little I remembered apart from the waterfront, which we visited that evening. Our hotel was a massive modern place called ‘Central’ even though it wasn’t, and it seemed to be full of Norwegians rather than Danes.

There was a long traffic-free street of older buildings, which unfortunately held a snare for the youngsters in the form of an American burger chain, but we managed to drag them past to a proper restaurant which offered beer. The sun was out, our ride was over and demons, while not exactly vanished, had been dragged out into the daylight and shown that we were still here, still breathing. As we sat by the harbour, with its pleasure boats and cafes, I remembered one February evening by fresher water, and reached out for Susie’s hand.

“Thank, you, love. Thank you”

She looked at me with a fond smile, clearly understanding. “Rifles, Gerald. Remember? One just falls down. I owe you my life too, you know. Look at where we are, look at where we bloody well WERE. Neither of us without the other. You know, there’s something I always wanted to say to someone, so don’t take it wrong way, but there’s not just one of you here”

“What’s that, lass?”

“Simple. Just wanted to say, well---my hero. My heroes, all of you. No false modesty allowed tonight, no putting yourselves down any more. Me and Ashley there, well, we knew what you did in a way, knew from films and school and, aye, Ashley, from books, but now we KNOW. So—pass us bottle, Pete? Ta”

She topped up her wine glass and stood. “To friends, both absent and present. To friendship. To bloody well looking after your fellow human beings”

We drank, and it was right and it was proper and, in a way, it was bloody well over. We laughed and poked fun, and my beloved officers told stories that strayed far beyond taste or decency, but nobody minded. We had all been there now, and in one way or another seen that elephant.

That was when Pete’s mobile phone rang. He looked at the caller’s number and frowned.

“Don’t recognise that one”

He pressed a button and spoke brightly. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, that’s me. And you are…?”

“Oh. Oh. Oh fucking hell!”

His face screwed up, and tears started as he held the phone away from him, knuckles so white I thought the little box would crack.

“Sorry. Had to take a moment. Please…where…aha…aha… In Germany at the moment, coach party. Back in three days or so. Ah. Yes, I know Brize... Susie, quick, pen and paper. Ta! Go ahead”

He repeated back a number, and then gave back what was obviously his e-mail address, and the rest of us just sat feeling stupid and useless till it was over and the call ended. Pete sat for at least thirty seconds without speaking or moving, before slowly folding the bit of paper and slipping it into his shirt pocket.

“Sorry, folks. Sorry. That were REME”

Ashley’s face was white. “Not young Pete?”

A man suddenly much, much older nodded. “Yes. My boy. Roadside bomb. Killed one, wounded three, but he’s stable. Flying him back when they can, into Brize Norton”

He looked away from us, not seeing what his eyes were pointed at but something further away and darker.

“He’s not dead. That’s what I have right now. He’s not dead”