Maurice

Wartime story

Maurice

Maurice was the chargehand to our group.

He was always calm even during emergencies

When I had to attend to a situation where there could be an explosion, he ensured that I was calm and in control of my emotions “Keep your mind on the job in hand and don’t think about the possible outcomes” 

One day when discussing the past one guy said don’t you know Maurice's past no I didn’t

Maurice has a ‘Distinguished Service Medal’. He was a one-man submarine pilot. Three times he went up the Norwegian fjords, to plant explosives to German shipping.

On his last trip, He was dropped off from a submarine at night three miles off the Norwegian coast, just after sunset. He made his way to the shore then began to look for a safe place to hole up for the day.   He had a map y towards the anti-submarine net with a few possible places marked from information passed by the Norwegian resistance, he had been trained to read a map using a dim blue light.
He found a spot just before dawn, the area was full of scrub and small bushes, there were bushes by the water's edge with overhanging branches. The only thing was that there was a German camp just behind.

He manoeuvred his craft under the tree branches and found himself a hollow and settled down to wait for darkness to return.

Late in the afternoon, a party of German troops made their way along a path behind; they had some dogs with them. He prepared his knife ready, should one of the dogs catch his scent and give the game away. No, they passed noisily on their way.

It was a busy fjord with military; freight and fishing boats passing during the day

As the light faded, he prepared to set out on his mission. 

He had twenty-four limpet mines in pockets either side of him. He checked the timers, they had a two-hour fuse; he had to switch them on as he attached them to each ship, the timers were not accurate, that meant they would go off haphazardly, creating the maximum confusion.

Now it was dark enough for him to move out from his hiding place, and slowly make his way upstream keeping close to the sides. As he entered the narrowest part of the fjord, he saw lights; 

    

He didn’t remember anything on the maps or resonance photos of anything in this area, an anti-submarine net had been installed; he would have to cut his way through.

He put on his breathing apparatus and made to dive when a ship appeared, he could see the navigation lights and the dim light of the control room, it could be a warship, they would lower the net for her to pass through.

As the ship passed, he dived and moved alongside and followed her through.

He began to work round the little harbour setting two limpets to the larger ships and one each for two smaller boats which looked like patrol boats. The one he had followed in was, in fact, a destroyer, it was now tied up, he planted his last two limpet on that. Now to escape.

Still submerged he made his way towards the anti-submarine net. One of the ships he had mined earlier had set sail. He waited and followed it through the net.

Once clear he pulled across to the side. 

As he reached the side the first mine exploded followed a minute or so later by the second one. He could now hear further explosions from the harbour area. 

The stricken ship veered across the fjord, tipping over on its side as it sank, blocking the way for any ship except the two disabled patrol boats.

Now to find a safe place to hide, he looked down close to the mouth of the fjord. He saw an old dilapidated boathouse. It was in an isolated spot and would take his craft.

Once inside he broke radio silence to send a single two-word message “Happy Birthday”.

He listened for the reply “Aunty is 24 God bless her” meaning his get-away submarine would be out at sea looking for his signal from 22.00hours for four hours. If he hadn’t made contact by 02.00hrs they would leave and he would be left to his own resources.

As it got dark he made his way to a prearranged headland. 

He scanned to open sea for a sign of his transport,

A faint steady blue light; 

He couldn’t tell the distance, using his blue light sent out a Morse Code ‘V’ (three one-second flashes followed by one three-second flash) a wait of five seconds and the ‘V’ was returned.

Then the blue light remained on to guide him.

Once at the awaiting submarine willing hands pulled him aboard, he was whisked away below decks to the ‘officers mess room’ given, a change of clothes and a warm meal.

His mini-submarine had been hauled aboard and taken into the hold, the submarine submerged and made its way for home.

Nearer home they surfaced stopping out at sea off the Northumberland coast a motor launch came out to pick him up, A second boat came for the one-man submarine, that was loaded onto a Royal Navy truck and covered with a tarpaulin and whisked away

Maurice was taken to a Royal Marine base near Edinburgh for debriefing. 

The reconnaissance photos showed the fjord completely blocked for large boats and only small fishing boats still untouched.

Wild Rose

December 2019  

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

One of my best friends in high school was "Maurice", so this title drew me in. Whereas my Maurice was turned down from joining the military, the one in this story is quite the hero, it seems. Do you know how his sub was powered? Battery or engine? Also, is it true? Whatever the case, I enjoyed reading.

[Wild Rose]

No I have no idea about the engine;
I can vaguely remember them being introduced from the cinema newsreels.
Yes it is true; we had an ex-army regular hr joined the engineer's regiment from school and knew how to find peoples army history
One of our labourers had been an RSM in a guards regiment

[augustus]

Helping to set the record straight, the one man mini subs were powered by a battery.

[augustus]

A super adventure story. Well written and a joy to read. Thank you, Wild Rose!

[Wild Rose]

The thanks are really to the man who told me Maurice's story, so that I could write it
Pleased that you like it

[Katrina Mckeown]

I never usually read stories based on War, it was your title Maurice’ that caught me! I did find this a very interesting story and I’m so glad they noisy dogs didn’t alert to his whereabouts!

[Wild Rose]

It was based on the history of an old friend > Passed on by another friend who was a boy entrant to the Army from an orphanage and knew Maurice from their army days

[Katrina Mckeown]

That’s so endearing, really lovely, I love historical stories of days gone by :)

[Wild Rose]

I am in the process of writing an historical novel (Not so much of a love story) 'The birth of an Empire'

[Katrina Mckeown]

That sounds like it will be epic! Very excited for you will you be publishing your Novel outside WritersCafe, and if so put up a link as where we can purchase a copy? :) 🌈

[Wild Rose]

Very much still in the writing/ research stage

[Katrina Mckeown]

That’s fine I understand, it can take decades to finish a novel, I have patience I can wait lol . Hopefully won’t take you a decade though, but yes even some short stories can take a bit of research etc. All the best of luck 🍀 :)

[barleygirl]

Quite frankly, I could care less about the details of war & I would never otherwise read about them. But this is the most mesmerized I've ever been, reading about a war situation. Your writing is so clear & logical & compelling, adding all the necessary details to paint a fulsome scene, but not overdoing anything that would slow down the pace. I found myself in the flippers of this guy, imagining what a hair-raising assignment this must've been! Definitely one of your best stories! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Wild Rose]

Thank you Margie, I appreciate that not every one is interested in war, I was three YO when the war started. Any way
Thank you for reading and your comment
Maurice was my charge hand for some time. The nicest calmest person I have met> We had a plant to look after, when the temperature controller went wrong it was the equivalent to disarming a bomb. An autoclave at high pressure and temp. running at one degree Celsius below a point where an uncontrollable chemical reaction would take place > Keep calm and your mind on the job in hand was his instructions, and he watched to see how you reacted. OK
All the plant workers had been taken off and my labourer/apprentice was not allowed to stay with me

[barleygirl]

In the movie "English Patient" there's a scene where an Indian man disarms a bomb & that kinda sets the tone for how I envision the hair-raising quality of doing such work!

[Wild Rose]

In my case I knew how the system worked and all the possible faults
Check for water in the air supply - 10 seconds
Check the thermocouple - replace - 5 minutes
Go out and check the controller

[KWP]

I'm interested to know how you came up with the idea to write this. Marice, a man with nerves of steel. I get the feeling this is not fictitious.
You had me worried for him the whole way through. You have presented the story in a very factual manner, which, I guess, is how Maurice would look at his job, step by step. You painted great visuals in my mind the whole way through.

The only thing I thought was - we know from the outset that everythig turns out well for Marice - perhaps fo a bit of suspense you could rearrange it so the reader is uncertain of events unfolding.

I enjoyed this very much X

[Wild Rose]

Thank you > Yes it is a story of a friend I knew

[Wild Rose]

Well yes we knew he had returned > He was my chargehand - We worked in a chemical factory as Instrument technicians > keeping the wheels working