Chapter 5: Home at last

The trip to the coast from Brussels was boring. The escort consisted of two Wehrmacht soldiers who were not inclined to talk to me, nor to each other as we traveled. We were just outside Bruges, on a lonely country road when we came to a sudden stop, ostensibly for a hay wagon which had lost a wheel and was blocking the road. My two escorts got out to protest vehemently to the farmer, with a lot of shouting, and waving of arms, when suddenly, they were overpowered by about five men. The car door was opened, and I was roughly dragged out, blindfolded, gagged and my hands bound. I felt myself being tossed into the back of a truck of some kind, and covered with hay.

It seemed about three hours later, that I was hauled out the truck, and allowed to fall on the ground. I was forced into some sort of building, and my blindfold was taken off. It was a farmhouse kitchen. I looked up to see myself surrounded by a number of rough looking men, and three women who were armed with an assortment of weapons.

The men there were arguing about what to do with me, in a mixture of Flemish and French. It seemed to me, that it was a debate whether to hang me or shoot me, so I assumed that they were partisans of some kind. I interrupted their talk, and asked quietly in French.

"Can I speak to your leader alone please?" There was a large amount of shouting and protests, but eventually I was left with a middle aged woman.

"Are you the group leader?" I asked.

She said that she was. I explained briefly that I needed to get to England as soon as possible. She laughed. I could see that she was not convinced. I had to take a chance so I said.

"Will you take what I have to say in total confidence?"

"Of course, you are to be executed anyway, so talk while you can."

I then explained my mission in detail missing very little out, while she sat and listened. Fortunately, I could remember the name of the leader of the group, who picked us up in the channel, and I mentioned Janine and Anne- Marie. Halfway through, she got up, and gave me a glass of water, which was encouraging. After a drink she let me continue.

When I finished, she left the room, and I could hear talking in the next room. The door opened and Anne-Marie came in, she rushed over to me, and undid my bonds and we embraced. She turned to the on looking partisans. "My friend's thank you have today made a wonderful capture. We have to get Commander Nash back to England as soon as possible."

The relief I felt, was probably one of the best feelings I had felt for a long time. Anne-Marie and I spent the next two days almost joined at the hip. We just wanted to be with each other so much. She told me that it was her in Brussels that I had seen, and that they had set up an ambush to capture me, on the main road to Oostende, but it had failed as the Germans had taken another road, and it was just good fortune that this group had managed to capture me. They had killed my two escorts, and taken their uniforms and side arms.

I was quizzed about my trip to Burchesgarten and Hitler by the group. I answered as honestly as I could about everything I had seen their. Anne-Marie was a bit cynical, about my explanation of my betrothal to Elizabeth. I told her that I had taken the opportunity as it arose, but I had to admit that I did have some strong feelings for Elizabeth as she was quite a nice woman.

Three evenings later now in civilian clothes. I was taken to a field some 20 Kilometers' away, to await my pick up. It was about 10.00 O Clock at night when the Lysander came into land. It turned round into the wind ready to take off without stopping. The plane had barely come to a halt when two young ladies jumped out, and some packages were tossed out on to the grass, and I was halfway through the open door when there was a bust of firing. I was hit in both legs, but a pair of strong hands dragged me into the plane. My presence took the crew by surprise, as my photograph had been in the press, but my explanation was weak, as I told them I had been on a secret mission. It was partially accepted because of my perfect English, and the fact that they half believed my story of being a double agent which to them was partially credible. It was obvious that my name had been vilified in the popular press, and Lord Haw-Haw had made the most of my defection on his daily radio broadcasts.

On landing at an airfield in the south of England, I was met by two military policemen and escorted to the base hospital. An intelligence officer visited me, and I asked him to contact Mr. Broughton, at the Admiralty and captain S/M at Portsmouth, who would vouch for me. I was however kept under lock and key, for another 24 hours until Mr. Broughton arrived together with the Staff Officer from the Submarine Base at Portsmouth together with my uniforms in a case.

The following day, I was transferred to a military hospital near Gloucester. It was in a large park and normally reserved for VIP's. I was kept in a single room and I was able to unpack my uniforms, and I noted that I now had three wide rings of a full commander. Following that I went through three days of intensive de-briefing, with officers from the various branches of the intelligence service. I did refuse to tell them the purpose of my mission, insisting that they got the details from the Admiralty. I was well aware that the Germans would have guessed we had their codes, if I had mentioned the mission, and the fact that it had been aborted.

My cousin Jean visited me at the hospital. The news that I had defected, had been a terrible shock, and no-one from the admiralty had in any way alleviated her anxiety. Jean and I had been brought up much like brother and sister by her parents.