Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [73]
‘What’s the matter...?’ Chris began, but the Doctor ignored him. They were right in the middle of Granville’s town square shortly before the curfew was due to begin, not a good place to stand around, especially in fancy dress. Chris tugged at the sleeve of the Doctor’s habit, but before Chris could speak again, the air-raid sirens had started. Slightly higher in pitch than those in Britain, but unmistakable.
Searchlights began probing the evening sky. In the distance, further up the coast, antiaircraft guns were firing. The Doctor grabbed Chris’s arm.
‘It’s the yellow alert. We haven’t much time.’
The first bombs dropped in the harbour. The sea wall was breached, and over a dozen small boats were destroyed, along with a handful of storage sheds. At the same time, another plane attacked the coastal road, rendering a mile-long stretch impassable. British aerial reconnaissance had been focusing on the Granville area for some weeks, at the request of the SID. As a result, the RAF knew exactly which bridges to hit to cause maximum disruption to German damage control teams.
The main purpose of this first wave was to mark out targets more clearly. Flares were dropped in key areas, drifting down to the ground underneath their own miniature parachutes. Decoy flares were also dropped to cause confusion. A pair of larger targets, Granville’s two pumping stations, were bombed, cutting off the town’s water supplies.
A bomb hit Granville’s main fire station, but failed to go off. It hardly mattered, as the (mostly French) firemen were all huddled deep underneath the building, in their shelters.
As yet there had been no casualties. This changed when a fuel storage area on the outskirts of the town was hit, killing thirty soldiers stationed there. A chain reaction started, with each of the fuel tanks exploding in turn. The fire burned for three days. In the centre of Granville, the RAF missed the telephone exchange with their first three efforts, the bombs exploding in nearby residential areas. The fourth attack was successful. It took the Germans ten minutes to restore communications with the outside world.
‘The church bells won’t stop ringing. What does that mean?’
Chris asked.
‘It means that the spire has been hit and the bell-ringing mechanism has been damaged,’ the Doctor answered prosaically.
They had been on high ground when the fuel dump had exploded. From this distance — three miles, perhaps four —
the string of explosions had been spectacular, an incredible display of air power. The earth pounded with each blast.
Night was falling, but a new sun had risen in the east, and the whole town was lit by the firelight. Cwej could hear the jangling bells of fire tenders making their way across town.
Chris glanced over at the Doctor. The little man was fascinated by the events unfurling beneath them, apparently oblivious to any danger they might be in. A couple of miles further up the coast to the north, there was a long, reverberating crash.
‘The airfield,’ said the Doctor.
‘The British don’t know about it,’ Chris observed.
‘Not the camouflaged one, the normal one. They probably think that Hartung is there.’ There was a series of distant explosions from the direction the Doctor was looking.
‘Perhaps he is. Or was.’
Isolated points on the landscape below them began to flare.
‘They’re beginning to target the town itself. There are only two searchlights for the whole of Granville. As far as I can tell, there are only three antiaircraft batteries.’
‘Without the searchlights, they’d be firing blind. Looks like the good guys will