Chapter 3

He was born in a tiny town on the eastern tip of Aberdeenshire. Today, one can find the faint remains of a World War Two airbase. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the tiny town WAS the airbase. His Da was the local barrister ... an educated man and therefore always suspect.

At least he was scots by birth but, more than that, he was Scots by right. The Austin Clan are the descendants of the first illegitimate sons of the House of Gordon, a Scottish clan. The chief of the clan was the powerful Earl of Huntly, and now also the Marquess of Huntly. Descent by the Bar is still descent. Charles, the barrister, married an Irish lass ... a right fine redhead with the fire in the belly to match the fire on her head.

She was a lusty wench. David, the second son was never a son of Charles. Bastard to the Bastard Bar, he was. The airbase had a surfeit of handsome and young officers ... the barrister was away ... the lass did play ... and caught. Charles never knew until the Davie lad was born blond ... and left handed.

Never ... not since 1158 ... had there been a left handed Austin. Still, he was accepted. Stranger things have happened in this world and the next. "It's a wise child who knows its father."

When the war ended in Germany, there were still numerous Germans in Norway ... and they were pissed. The Third Reich ... a promise of a greater Germany to last a thousand years ... well!! The single crew, members of Luftflotte 5, loaded up the Junkers 188 with twenty-four 125 kg bombs and flew off the runway for the last time.

The flight across the North Sea, and return, was well within the range of the twin engine aircraft. Luftflotte 5 had made many raids over Scotland, striking cities, towns and military installations throughout eastern Great Britain. One particular raid left eight homes standing of over 11 thousand homes before the strike. The planes knew the way.

The war was over ... children in the streets ... adults in the Public House ... celebrating the end of Eight long years of terror and privation. Backyards with Stanton shelters, a precast steel reinforced tubular structure used mostly at airbases were once again planted with roses instead of vegetables ... a bad move.

Britain was years away from self sufficiency. Parliamentary Allotments Acts insured that Victory gardens, or Dig for Victory Allotments were continued well past 1950. As the realization spread that Britons were still dependent on the Americas' for survival the roses came down and the veggies went back in. Clean up in the larger industrial towns left large tracts of land available for gardening. It's a sad fact that explosives and blood fertilize the soil very well.

Meanwhile, the Junkers 188 was over the Black Sea, droning its way across sunlit waters.

The highest recorded British temperatures for the middle of May came on 12 May 1945, as the UK basked in both the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and heat that reached 30.6C in London. The entire month had been HOT.

What darkness there was, resided in the hearts of the four man Luftwaffe crew.

At the airbase, no one was paying a bit of attention to the radar ... why bother? ... it's over ... let's all be friends again.

An often ignored or unbelieved fact was the average officer in Hitlers' Army was banned from membership in the Nazi Party ... but this crew ... bent on vengeance ... were old school Nazis.

The navigation was spot on, they came in low over the celebrating Brits ... the bomb bay doors opened ... the 24 one hundred and twenty-five kilogram bombs tumbled out of the bay and smashed the life out of a great many innocent civilians ... two of them were Charles and David...