A Nightingale Sang

A Nightingale Sand Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Station Under Attack.

Looking back, it began like any normal day. The sun rose in a cloudless sky and the gentle summer breeze made the flags flutter from the flag poles. The scent of summer flowers perfumed the air. August had been uncommonly hot, and it seemed that this day, one of the last days of the month, would be no different.

The bugler had sounded the reveille just as he did every morning waking the camp at dawn. Sergeant Dixon knocked tapped on the door and placed a cup of tea by her side. Yes it had started out as a normal day.

Margaret walked across the camp towards her office mentally going over her day. A telephone rang its shrill ring cutting through the quiet morning. Glancing over towards the dispersal hut where the telephone was ringing she watched as John Thornton answered and then shouted the call to scramble. She watched in awe, as always at the speed the squadron was airborne. She watched as John sprinted towards his Spitfire his long legs eating up the ground. He patted the wing three times as always, how strange that he, like so many pilots, should be superstitious.

"God speed and stay safe please," she whispered as she watched him take off.

She continued on her way across the camp. She missed the friendship she had developed with John Thornton and she still remembered his soft kiss. Why in heavens name had he proposed to her and why had she been so rude? How she wished she could retract those words. Since then he had looked at her with disdain in his eyes, his face wearing a permanent scowl. She sighed as she entered the office would things ever be the same. Sergeant Dixon and Corporal Higgins were already hard at work when she walked through the door. Bessie Higgins had worked hard for her promotion The morning meandered along, the sound of aircrafts coming and going reminding them, if anybody needed reminding, that the war was still on.

It was approaching lunch time when the siren started wailing and a voice calmly announced over the loud speaker that the station would be under attack in less than one minute. It was not a drill and all non-essential staff should make for the shelters. All available pilots should scramble. The three women looked at each other for a second then they rose as one and headed out and ran towards the nearest shelter. The sound of enemy aircraft approaching and the anti-aircraft guns followed then as they ran cover. They sat down on the rough benches as the sound of bomb exploding nearby shock the walls of the shelter.

John ran for his Spitfire, his crew were already getting her started. The loud boom of an exploding bomb had him falling to the ground. Debris and shrapnel showered down on him bouncing of his Spitfire. He stood dusted himself down and climbed aboard. The take-off was terrifying with bullets and bombs flying and smoke from the anti-aircraft guns making visibility poor. He narrowly missed another Spitfire as he came out of a cloud of dark smoke.

He glanced down at the station below people were running for cover being chased by a hail of bullets. One of the hangers was on fire, John only hoped that the personal were not in there. Bombs were landing all over the base and he watched in horror as the ops room suffered a direct hit. They were targeting the runway with bombs landing on it leaving craters. They would have to land on the grass when they came back down. It took mere seconds for him to take in the destruction below and then he was in the thick of the fight.

The air raid shelter was packed; WAAFs were squeezed tightly together on the benches that lined the shelter. It was dark and the reinforced concrete walls cold against their back. The noise of the attack raged outside. At first there was tense silence as they listen trying to identify what was going on outside, but as the noise intensified some of the girls started praying, others wept quietly.

"I don't know about you Ma'am, but I would feel better if I was outside doing something useful. It's worse sitting here cowering in the dark," Sergeant Dixon commented.