Channel Incident

Originally published 25th November 1982.

By Hal Jons, writing as Harry Graham. Captain Redford and his faithful bosun, Hoskins, ever belligerent where Nazis were concerned, began their war well before the official declaration after the fanatical crew of the stricken German boat, Alfeldt, committed an act of piracy by stealing the boat that rescued them.

Things didn’t look good, but this was the catalyst for Redford’s meeting with fearless Polish flyer, Jan Radek. When their stolen Heinkel crashed in the sea, he and his men were rescued by the Nazi sailors in the mistaken assumption that they were saving their own.

There I was minding my own business, stuck on the beach at Dunkirk, when Redford and Hoskins came into my life. Redford decided to involve me in his personal war – and what a war it was – running the gauntlet of E–boats to transport Radek and his team of saboteurs to and from Nazi occupied France.

Luck was bound to run out and it did. With our sturdy boat blown away from under us, we were left with no other choice but to go on the run in occupied territory. More than once I wished I was back at Dunkirk – but then I wouldn’t have met Radek’s daring and beautiful sister, Erica.