The Bomber Balloon Read online

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Engineer Wegener said and hurried to obey.

  Signalman Kunischt rolled his barrel-body back to his captain. ‘We are very close to that row of farm cottages, sir, and they have thatch on the roof. When we set fire to the Zeppelin we could burn the houses and barns. There could be cattle in the barns.’

  ‘A good point, Kunischt. Get the men lined up on the road ready to march. I will deal with this problem,’ the captain said. He dusted down his uniform and put his cap straight before marching over to the cottage door. He raised a hand and knocked hard.

  A dog barked. There was the scrape of a chair as it was jammed under the handle to keep out the stranger. Captain Bocker spoke in perfect English. ‘Good evening. I am sorry to disturb you.’

  The dog barked. ‘Good evening, sir,’ the German went on. ‘Are you there?’

  ‘No,’ came the fast reply in a shaking voice.

  ‘You say there is no one there?’ repeated the German.

  ‘No. I’m not here. I’m in the pub.’

  Captain Bocker took a deep breath. ‘Is this one of your English jokes?’

  ‘I’m not laughing,’ the farmer said. ‘I have a shotgun and I’ll use it.’ His voice wobbled.

  The Zeppelin captain stepped aside so any blast from a shotgun would miss him. ‘I simply wish to tell you that my airship has landed in the field at the back of this house.’

  ‘I just ploughed that field,’ the man behind the door grumbled.

  ‘I am about to set fire to it.’

  ‘To my field?’

  ‘To my airship. But I wanted to warn you that sparks may fly and set fire to your house or barn.’

  ‘Are you one of those bomber-balloon blokes?’ the voice asked.

  ‘Ja.’

  ‘You drop bombs on women and babies?’

  ‘We cannot help that.’

  ‘And you’re worried about my old cottage?’

  ‘Ja.’

  ‘Well, why aren’t you worried about the people you drop bombs on?’ the man asked.

  Captain Bocker sighed. ‘When you are four thousand metres in the air you do not think of the people below as people. They are just targets.’

  ‘And you will be a target if I fire this shotgun through the door.’

  The German sighed again. ‘Good night to you, sir. It has been a pleasure talking to you.’

  ‘You too,’ came the reply. ‘Go carefully now.’

  ‘I will.’ The German airship captain wandered down the path to the main road where his men waited.

  ‘Are you all right, sir?’ Signalman Kunischt asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I think we landed next to a madhouse.’ He shook his head. ‘Engineer Wegener, light the petrol trail. Destroy the balloon. The rest of you… quick march!’

  Chapter 6

  Cowards and kids

  Millie and the two policemen heard the sound of tramping boots and pulled on the brakes of their cycles. Special Constable Elijah Taylor said, ‘That’ll be the army on the way to the crash to see if there are any Germans left.’

  ‘No,’ Constable Smith said. ‘The army are three miles away on Mersea Island. They couldn’t get here that quick.’

  ‘So who are they?’ Millie asked breathlessly. The crunch of the boots on the ancient road was closer now.

  ‘Let’s ask them, shall we?’ the constable said. He turned on his bicycle lamp and the marching men saw it. They clattered to an untidy halt.

  Captain Bocker stepped forward. ‘Good evening,’ he said politely, but his hand was resting on the pistol at his belt.

  ‘Good evening, sir,’ the policeman replied. ‘And where are you off to?’

  ‘Colchester,’ Bocker said. ‘It’s not far, is it?’

  ‘Six miles, sir.’

  ‘And is this the right road?’ the German asked.

  ‘It is, sir. If you would care to follow me?’

  The policemen and Millie turned their cycles towards Peldon and wheeled them ahead of the Zeppelin crew.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Millie hissed.

  ‘Peldon,’ Constable Smith said.

  ‘I know, but why?’

  ‘Because there is a telephone in Peldon and a few more special constables.’

  ‘There’s Fairhead, Clement Hyam, Charlie King, Joseph May, Horace Meade, Harry Beade and Edgar Nicholas,’ Special Constable Taylor said.

  ‘That’s right. Do you know any of them, Millie?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘They’re nearly all in this Royal Defence Army. They’ll be in the pub with my dad.’

  ‘That’s right. So when we get to the village I’ll go to the telephone box and call the army on Mersea Island. You run off to the pub and get the constables.’

  ‘What about me?’ old Elijah Taylor asked.

  ‘You guard them while I make the call.’

  Elijah made a choking sound. ‘What if that German pulls his pistol?’ he gasped.

  ‘He won’t,’ Millie said. ‘Just tell him I’m bringing all the farmers from the pub and they all have shotguns for the crows. He’ll end up as dead as the crows if he shoots you.’

  ‘I’ll end up deader,’ Elijah grumbled.

  But it wasn’t Elijah Taylor who was in danger. It was Millie.

  When they reached the village green Constable Smith stopped and shone his torch on the Germans. ‘Now, gentlemen, if you would just wait here I will call for some lorries to give you a lift.’

  ‘You will get us a lift to Colchester?’ Captain Bocker asked.

  ‘That’s right,’ Constable Smith said quietly. He marched across to the telephone box and began to call the army base.

  Elijah Taylor turned to the girl. ‘Millie, you know what to do.’

  But as Millie walked over the dark grass the Zeppelin captain reached out and grabbed her arm. ‘And where is the girl going?’

  ‘Bed,’ Elijah said quickly. ‘It’s way past her bedtime and she shouldn’t be out.’

  Captain Bocker gave a short laugh. ‘She can stay up a little longer. We will take her as our hostage. When we are safely on the lorries and on our way to Colchester I will release her.’

  ‘And if he doesn’t?’ Millie asked, twisting in his grasp.

  The Captain sighed and drew the pistol from his belt. ‘I will have to shoot you.’

  Even in the darkness Millie’s face seemed to glow with anger. She turned to the airship crew whose pale faces loomed in the gloom. ‘Do you speak English?’

  Most of the men muttered, ‘Ja.’

  ‘Is this man your leader?’

  ‘Ja,’ Signalman Kunischt said.

  ‘Then I feel sorry for you all. Your leader is a coward and a bully. He would shoot a little girl just to save his own skin.’

  The men’s faces seemed to be pointing down at the cropped grass on the village green.

  ‘I bet some of you have kids,’ Millie said.

  ‘Ja, we have kinder,’ Steersman Korber said.

  ‘Would you want one of your children shot by a British soldier?’ Millie demanded. Silence.

  Finally Engineer Wegener spoke.

  ‘You cannot harm her, Captain. We will surrender. We will be prisoners for a while. When we win the war our friends will set us free. But we do not want the blood of a child on our hands. We could never wash it off.’

  Chapter 7

  Mac and matches

  Captain Bocker shook his head and gave up. ‘As you say, we will win this war soon and be free again. Very well, Englishman. Lead me to your prison camp.’

  Millie sprinted off to the village pub, the Plough. Moments later the special constables spilled out onto the village green. They formed a line behind the Germans to stop them escaping into the warm darkness. After their freezing trip and miserable crash the German crew did not want to escape anywhere.

  Captain Bocker ordered the Zeppelin crew to get into a line ready to march. Constable Smith came out of the phone box and said, ‘I’ll take your gun, sir, if you don’t m
ind.’

  Bocker stood straight and raised his chin. ‘I am an officer of the German Army. I will only surrender to a British Army officer.’

  Constable Smith shrugged. ‘I’m sure we can manage that, sir. Now if you would just march your men this way.’ He pointed to the Mersea Island road. The Germans moved into the darkness followed by the constables on foot or on cycles. Millie handed her cycle to Constable Horace Meade and sighed.

  Millie’s father had come out of the pub to watch the action. ‘Time you were home, young lady,’ he said.

  ‘But Dad, I want to see how it all ends.’

  ‘You’ll see your pillow and nothing else,’ he grumbled and pushed her towards their home.

  She had to wait till next morning to hear the full story. Elijah Taylor knocked on the kitchen door and Mrs Watson invited him in for a cup of tea. ‘We met the British troops about a mile down the road and handed the prisoners over. It was all very quiet. No fuss at all. You didn’t miss much, Millie.’

  ‘Our Millie was never there, was she? I only sent her out for a bag of eggs. Her father said she was on the green.’

  Elijah Taylor grinned a gap-toothed grin. ‘Your Millie only went and – ’

  ‘Watched!’ Millie put in. ‘I only watched on my way back from the shop.’ If her mum ever heard of the girl having a pistol pointed to her head she would never be allowed out of the house at night again.

  The constable nodded. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘No danger at all.’

  ‘Constable Smith was very brave,’ Millie said.

  ‘He’s not Constable Smith any more,’ Elijah said. ‘They told him he will be a sergeant now. And they’re going to give him a merit badge. He’s as happy as a dog with three tails.’

  Millie’s mum turned to her. ‘All that excitement in Peldon and we missed it all.’

  ‘Yes, Mum,’ Millie said and hid her smile.

  * * *

  When the autumn winds started to sweep the streets of the village with crackling leaves. Millie’s eyes scoured the skies for bomber balloons but none ever came that way again. Sometimes she would see the searchlights chasing clouds over London, fifty miles away.

  Then she would turn and race along the coal-dark, cold, dark streets. Mac spent his evenings in front of the fire these days. But one night he surprised her. As she turned to run past his house he was there on the step. His barks split the quiet air.

  ‘Shush, Mac, the Zeppelins will hear you,’ she squeaked. She turned the corner, and walked into the man who was solid as a bear.

  ‘Sorry, Constable Smith – I mean Sergeant Smith,’ she said. ‘Please don’t lock me up! I didn’t know Mac would be there tonight.’

  The round-faced, ruddy-cheeked policeman smiled. ‘Lock up a brave young girl like you? Why no. The girl that stood up to a Zeppelin captain? I should think not.’

  ‘I haven’t told Mum or Dad what happened that night,’ she said.

  ‘I know.’ The policeman nodded. ‘I knew those Germans wouldn’t shoot a girl – that’s why I let you come along. I shouldn’t have done it, I know. So it will stay our secret, eh?’

  ‘And you won’t arrest me?’

  The man threw back his head and gave a deep chuckle. ‘No, no. I’ve done my arresting for tonight.’

  ‘You arrested a German?’

  ‘No an Englishman. He broke the DORA rules. I saw him come out of the Plough pub on the green,’ the policeman explained.

  ‘Did he shout out, or slam a door, or whistle in the street, or fly a kite?’

  ‘No, he struck a match to light his pipe.’

  ‘He didn’t!’ Millie gasped.

  ‘A Zeppelin overhead could have seen that. I arrested him on the spot and he’ll appear in Colchester court tomorrow morning. We can’t have people striking matches in the street.’

  ‘No, sergeant. That’s shocking,’ Millie agreed, then she ran off home.

  ‘I’m back, Mum,’ she cried as she burst through the door. ‘And I got three eggs.’

  ‘Shush,’ Mrs Watson said. ‘Keep your voice down. We don’t want to upset your dad.’

  Mr Watson sat in the chair, staring into the fire with a face like a midnight cloud. Millie whispered, ‘What’s wrong with him, Mum?’

  Mrs Watson took her into the kitchen and said quietly, ‘He’s upset. He’s been very silly and got himself in a lot of trouble.’

  ‘What did he do?’

  ‘He struck a match to light his pipe in the street,’ Mrs Watson said.

  Epilogue

  Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, a German army officer, started building airships in 1897. The German army started using them in 1909. At the start of the First World War the German Army had seven Zeppelins.

  The first Zeppelin raid on London was on 31 May 1915. The attack killed 28 people and injured 60 more.

  On 24 Sept 1916 Zeppelin L-33 under the command of Captain Alois Bocker was shot down and landed near New Hall Cottages, Little Wigborough. Bocker knocked on the doors of the cottages to warn the people he was going to set fire to the machine. But the fire didn’t destroy the Zeppelin and the British balloon builders learned a lot from the wreck.

  Bocker marched his men towards Colchester but he was met by Constable Charles Smith. The constable stopped the German crew and called the army. With the help of the special constables in the village the Germans were led towards Mersea Island where the army took them prisoner. From that day the policeman was known as ‘Zepp’ Smith. He died in 1977 at the age of 94.

  In Britain the DORA law ordered that no lights could be shown after dark. In 1916, in York, the first person fined was Jim Richardson, who was fined five shillings for lighting a cigarette in the street at night.

  115 Zeppelins were used during the war but 77 were shot down and many more lost in accidents. There were 51 raids in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358.

  The Zeppelins were called ‘Baby-killers’ by the British people, but were too easy to hit with guns and aeroplanes, and the last raid took place in June 1917.

  The war ended in November 1918.

  This electronic edition published in September 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing

  Text copyright © 2013 Terry Deary

  Illustrations copyright © 2013 James de la Rue

  Cover illustration © 2013 Chris Mould

  First published 2013 by A & C Black

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  eISBN: 978-1-4081-9166-8

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