Read Online Damned Good Show by Derek Robinson - Free Book Online Page B

it as you like.” That got a brief laugh. “At the moment, our job is to patrol a short beat—the German coastline between Holland and Denmark. A hundred-plus miles. But to get there you fly nearly four hundred miles. No landmarks in the sea, so good navigation is important. Get your sums wrong and you might overfly Holland or Germany. This will be indicated by anti-aircraftfire. If you observe shellbursts in your vicinity, make an excuse and leave. You are searching for ships, not shrapnel.”
    He talked about the Roosevelt Rules, about neutrality, about the crucial importance of positively identifying warships as German before dropping any bombs. He talked of what to do if British antiaircraft guns shot at them: fire off signal flares in the colors of the day. “You never know,” he said. “It might work.” But stay well away from the Royal Navy, he said. Sailors were notoriously quick on the trigger, and he had scars from the last war to prove it. As for German fighters: they never went to sea. But if you met a Hun, keep in close formation and your gunners’ crossfire should make him think twice about attacking.
    This was useful stuff, but not thrilling. So Rafferty ended on a note of brisk patriotism. “I envy you chaps,” he said. “You’ve got the best bomber in the world. Best crews. Fighting for the best country. I began with Shakespeare, so I’ll end with him. Henry V, before Agincourt, sees his army. ‘This happy breed of men,’ he says. And Henry knew what they were fighting for: ‘This precious stone set in a silver sea.’ Of course we won! How could we lose? And with chaps like you, we’ll win again.”
    That seemed to go down well. A few men actually smiled.
    â€œAny matters arising?” he said. Feet shuffled. Somebody coughed. “Anything? Anything at all.” Silence. “Well, then …”
    â€œOne small thing, sir.” A tallish officer took a pace forward. Strong features. Thick hair. Deep, confident voice. “Those lines from Shakespeare. They’re not
Henry V
. They’re
Richard II.
Act two, scene one.”
    â€œOh.” Rafferty was taken aback. “Not Henry, you say. But still … um … relevant, surely?”
    â€œNot relevant to Agincourt, sir. Wrong century.”
    â€œI meant relevant to
patriotism,”
Rafferty said smoothly. “To
England.”
    â€œRelevant to treachery,” the pilot said, “if Shakespeare is to be believed. But of course the king doesn’t speak those lines. He’s not present. The speech comes from his uncle, John of Gaunt.”
    The officers relaxed; they were enjoying this. Rafferty was outgunned. He gestured: carry on.
    â€œWell, sir, Gaunt makes such a fuss about ‘this sceptered isle’ in order to contrast its past with its present, which he says is rotten andhe leaves no doubt who’s to blame: the King! Richard has pawned the country. England, Gaunt says, ‘is now bound in with shame, with inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds: that England, that was wont to conquer others, hath made a shameful conquest of itself.’”
    â€œInteresting,” Rafferty said.
    â€œSmashing speech,” the pilot said. “But I wouldn’t describe it as a ringing endorsement of the Crown.”
    â€œYou were an actor, I take it.”
    â€œBriefly, sir.”
    â€œAnd your name is …”
    â€œGilchrist, sir.”
    â€œAre you as good a pilot as you were an actor?”
    â€œI was a lousy actor, sir. That’s why I became a pilot.” It made them laugh. Rafferty smiled, and dismissed them. He had recovered his poise, but he still blamed Gilchrist for spoiling his talk. He blamed Shakespeare, too. The Bard had let him down.
2
    Rafferty told the Wingco that the new boys seemed a reasonable lot, although one, a chap called Gilchrist, was rather full of himself. A bit