21
Reconnaissance
\iytk April) 1940]
6 • "voc! The wireless.... We must have the
I Isix o'clock news*.. .f
JL-XThe doctor, who wore the grey-blue
uniform of the Royal Air Force, rose from a weighty
volume on anaesthetics and switched on.
'... Norwegian troops are entrenched near
Elverum, about 80 miles north of Oslo and are
resisting German attacks... .*
The ten young heads round the table were raised.
This room, where the veterinary surgeon in a French
village had had his meals, was now the mess of a
reconnaissance squadron. Its leader was no more
than twenty-five years old. To his officers he was,
affectionately, * Ginger/ but his face under the bright
hair had a marked strength and his authority was
unquestioned. Near him a few officers were either
writing letters of their own or censoring their men's.
Outside, the rain and hail beat steadily on the
window-panes.
'In Stavanger harbour a German warship has been
sunk by a Norwegian vessel.5
The bell of the field telephone quivered, became
insistent: the officer nearest lifted the receiver*
140