Len Deighton 3-Book War Collection Volume 1: Bomber, XPD, Goodbye Mickey Mouse. Len Deighton

navigator, he had been keeping the calculation fresh while waiting for the question.

      ‘Now do you believe in my clear-vision panel?’ Flash Gordon asked the world at large. He had waited long enough for a word of congratulation or thanks.

      ‘Bloody good show,’ said Lambert.

      ‘I don’t believe you saw anything,’ accused Binty Jones.

      ‘A damn great night fighter, man. In fact, I think I may have hit him.’

      ‘Balls,’ said Binty. ‘There was nothing there.’

      ‘Then why were you firing?’ asked Flash. There was no reply. ‘The Gordon clear-view panel, I’m going to call it.’

      ‘Just an old-fashioned liar with old …’ Binty began the fourth verse of the song.

      ‘For Christ’s sake belt up, everyone,’ said Lambert.

      S Sweet had lost headway by the wind error back at Lowestoft and Door had been turning and corkscrewing over the ocean so that by midnight, German Time, while both Sweet and Lambert were eight miles short of the coastline, Tommy Carter in Joe for King and Fleming in The Volkswagen had reached Noordwijk, turned and were four miles along their final leg for the target. About midway between them – two miles off Noordwijk – Löwenherz was moving back over the sea. Twice he had passed within one hundred yards of Joe for King. For a few seconds his wingtip was only twenty feet from the tailplane of a Halifax but none of the crews had spotted these near-misses and to them the sky seemed vast and empty.

      Noordwijk-aan-zee is a holiday resort on the coast of Holland. In 1943 the sand was criss-crossed with barbed wire, and steel spears were hidden in the sea. The hotels had become convalescent homes and military offices and the wide sea-front that in peacetime was crowded with holidaymakers was guarded by armed sentries. The lighthouse stands on the modern esplanade and now its shaded light was switched on while the convoy moved past. The flak-cruiser Held