King of the Commandos
Oh frabjous day! Thanks to Nee-sama and the Collective, I am now the proud owner of the first two Gimlet books! *Joy* ^_____^
The Gimlet books, for those who don't know, form one of W.E. Johns' two not-as-popular-as-Biggles series, both pretty damn similar to Biggles in terms of ethos, setting, and extreme cases, characters. (The other, of course, being the Worrals series, which Johns wrote to encourage interest in the WAF in the same way he wrote Biggles partly to encourage interest in the RAF.) The Gimlet series follows a group of four crack commandos - 'Gimlet' King, 'Cub' Peters, 'Trapper' Troublay and 'Copper' Collson (yeah, I'm loving the excessive use of nicknames too) - who are largely mix-and-match versions of the Biggles characters. As Johns puts it, Gimlet's methods are rather less 'gentlemanly' than Biggles' - which means More Two-Fisted Nazi-busting action!!! Also big explosions and Actually Shooting People. Probably fewer giant squid however, though I'll keep you posted on the squid-count as I go through.
So, without further ado, let's all load our revolvers, check our gelignite and put up our fists for...
King of the Commandos (1943)
which I have in a lovely first edition, though without dust-jacket, and for Very Good Reason related to the apparent scary collectability of this book.
Characters
A special section, since it's the first of the books. I'll bung any references to the characters' backstories, physical descriptions, skills etc in here, for future ease in fic-related checking.
Captain Lorrington 'Gimlet' King, D.S.O., M.C. and Bar, of Lorrington Castle, Devon - commander of the Special Service Troop of the Combined Operations unit, No. 9 Commando, whose shoulder cypher is a wildcat, and hence known as 'King's Kittens.' Slim, medium height, good-looking, with a 'quiet, unassuming, almost gentle manner', not more than about 25; fair auburn hair, blue eyes: 'the brightest, most startling blue that he had ever seen. It was not a soft blue, but rather had the hard gleam of burnished steel in sunlight.' Soft, well-modulated voice 'with a pronounced what is known as Oxford accent'. I...excuse me for a minute, I feel the need to go and fangirl somewhere quietly. Did Johns write this character just for me? Ahem. Walks with a slight limp which he's rather sensitive about after a smash during the Battle of Britain when he was in the air-force; originally a regular Guards officer, but found it boring and so got himself seconded to an Air Force squadron. Used to motor race and fly before the war. A bit of a dandy, never gets excited, and gets progressively icier as the situation gets worse. In action he's 'like a panther what's been fed on quicksilver.' Copper and Trapper refer to him as 'Lorry' between themselves, but they'd never let him hear them do it.
EDIT (08/09/08): p.27: Honestly, why do I write these summaries? I seem to miss out half the important information. Gimlet is reputed to have injured his leg when he 'collided with a Jerry' in the Battle of Britain, and now walks with a limp ('but he kids himself that no one notices it'; no such luck, as Cub goes so far as to wonder if he has a wooden leg.) His father was a V.C. in the Great War, and his grandfather a V.C. in the Boer War; both had red hair. Uh, thanks for the trivia, Copper.
Corporal Albert Edward 'Copper' Collson - cockney (uses rhyming slang - ohhh yes.), 6'2", fresh-complexioned, early 20s; ex-policeman with the Met in the River Police, twice winner of the City Heavyweight Championship. Brought up 'rough' - father died when he was young, leaving Copper to look after his invalid mother; initially taken in hand by an uncle who gave him 'an intensive course of instruction in petty crime, with the result that he could pick anything, from locks to pockets.' Uncle subsequently sent to prison for five years, showing the young Copper that Crime Doesn't Pay and inspiring him to work his way up from errand boy into the police force. Joined up after the house which he inhabited with his mother in Wapping was bombed, out of a desire to get his own back on the people who were hurting London.
Private 'Trapper' Troublay - French Canadian (French accent gets more pronounced when he's excited), 'lean and dapper', dark complexioned, black haired, with a small black moustache; 'a trifle older' than Copper; a scar, 'stretching from the left ear to the chin, disfigured what otherwise would have been a handsome face'. Spent ten of his early years in the backwoods as a trapper and prospector, hunting in the company of Indians. Exception sight and hearing, deadly shot, moves with absolute silence when he wants to. Carries a bow and arrows (used to silence Nazi sentries silently), two heavy service revolvers strapped low on his thighs, and an Indian skinning knife for close work, 'which he could wield and throw with fearful dexterity.' He once used it to kill a bear he was fighting with, which left him with the long scar.
Trapper and Copper are, according to Johns, 'more than ordinary comrades' - though Copper started off rather skeptical of Trapper's odd accent and odd weapons: 'they had first met at the training centre, but it was not until the raid on Glamfjord Power Station, in Norway, that they had hooked up in the arrangement known in the Commandos as 'me and my pal'; wherein two men make a pact to stand by each other through thick and thin. They had been through the carnage at Dieppe together, as well as in several smaller raids...'
Nigel Norman 'Cub' Peters - slim, seventeen, nerves of steel; 'two years of hard living and desperate enterprizes had left their stamp upon his face, which was thin, and set in rather hard lines', Accidentally ran away from a famous public school ('Brendall's School', near the Essex marshes) on hearing from a soldier newly shipped out of Dunkirk that his father and only living relative, Colonel Lionel Peters D.S.O of the Buffs, had last been seen lying wounded on the beach. Slipped onto a boat to France and was cut off there after the retreat; with a French boy, Louis Morelle, organised a group of kids (les poux gris du Nord) to collect information on the German movements and to carry out sabotage (each member having a codename: 'The Falcon', 'The Snake', 'The Fox' etc., and, course, 'The Cub.') Carries a small arsenal of lethal weapons.
Plot
Copper and Trapper are introduced, waiting on the shore of France for Gimlet to come back from a little sabotage job; they are accosted by Cub, who tells them Gimlet's been captured. They weigh in to rescue him, which they achieve in impressively bloody fashion. Gimlet insists that Cub accompanies them back to England. There, Cub explains to Gimlet what he's been doing in France for the last two years (setting up a gang of kids, the Grey Fleas of the North, to collect information on Nazi movements and carry out sabotage, if you skipped the last section...), and asks to be dropped off there again as soon as possible, please. He also mentions that the gang have found out about a secret POW camp where several important prisoners believed in England to be dead are actually being kept. Gimlet tells him there's been no report of his father's whereabouts since Dunkirk, and that he's too young just to be left to run wild in France doing such dangerous business - but he can be assigned to the Kittens as guide and liaison officer with the Fleas if he wants. Cub jumps at the chance.
Back in France a few days later, the Commandos, under Cub's guidance, make for the forest of Caen. They are met by some of the Grey Fleas, who are overjoyed the see Cub again, but who reveal the grim news that their leader, the Fox, has been captured, and is to be publicly flogged next morning in Caen to make him talk, and shot if he refuses. The commandos and the Grey Fleas join forces to rescue the Fox from the Germans, with liberal use of semi-automatics and smoke-bombs. They make for the secret POW camp, stopping off on the way to blow up a German troop train and an ammunition train, which makes Gimlet more chipper than he's been all book so far. The first swipe a train, then get a lift on the barge of a Young Female Friend of Cub's (look! Girl! First and only one in the book!) Arriving at the town of Le Mans, they find out that the Germans are today shipping some conscripted French workers off to Germany, along with tankers of patrol, barrels of brandy etc. Gimlet decides to sow a little confusion, so sets fire to the petrol and brandy in a most showy manner and swipes a German staff car while he's at it. (Foot-note: Cub gets inadvertantly drunk on brandy fumes, and is sick nearly on Gimlet's shoes. Gimlet calls him a 'disgusting brat' and probably means it. Ha.)
The team arrive at Chateaudun (where the Mystery Internment Camp lurks, in the Chateau), dump the car at an abandoned aerodrome, and dispatch The Girl and her uncle (who's been acting as their chauffeur) for the North, to await their return to England. Cub's sent off to the town to scrounge up some food and information, but is recognised by the German officers as being from Caen; he manages to spin them a yarn about the reasons for his presence, but they decide to keep an eye on him and send him up to the Chateau. Meanwhile Gimlet et al, hiding out in a disused chapel, are discovered by the Friendly Local Curé, who tells them Cub's been captured, gives them details of the prisoners at the Chateau, and offers to help them out. They see Cub signalling them in morse code from the top of the chateau's ancient tower.
Over at the castle Cub, who has managed to give his captors the slip temporarily and secrete himself at the top of the tower, overhears two guards chatting, and learns that Gimlet's route through France has been traced, that he himself is suspected of being one of Gimlet's party, and that the girl and her uncle (en route to join the Grey Fleas in the North) are being watched. Gimlet decides to try the old Robin Hood ploy to rescue Cub and the other prisoners - to get Trapper to shoot an arrow up throw the top window of the tower, attached to a piece of a string, attached to a piece of rope, and get Cub to reel it in. He, Trapper and the Friendly Local Curé break into the Chateau, while Copper is sent off to retrieve the car. He finds the aerodrome slightly less disused than when they left it, viz. full of bombers, and the car boxed in behind a shed full of lorries. So he pinches a lorry instead. I rather like Copper's direct approach to strategy.
The old arrow-string-rope trick works, and Gimlet shins up the tower and rescues the prisoners; he dispatches them to Trapper and Copper at the bottom, then lets down the rope (so the Friendly Local Curé who provided it won't be implicated) and makes his way out of the main entrance, pausing on the way only to execute the two local commanding officers and the chap who betrayed The Girl and her uncle to the Germans. Whoa, dude, cold. They all pile into the lorry and drive for Paris, cutting a few telegraph wires and shooting up / driving through a few road blocks as they go. They intercept The Girl and her uncle in Paris, knock out their gestapo stalkers, and drive on north-west. There, they make contact with an Intelligence agent, who sorts out a plane transport home for them - coincidentally piloted by Biggles and Ably Assisted by Ginger, slumming it in a guest appearance. They get home, Cub's father is reported as being safely in Spain, Trapper makes googly eyes at The Girl (well, he *is* the sort-of-French one. What's the Eddie Izzard line on the characterisation of the French in American films? ''Allo, my name is Pierre, I 'ave come to 'ave sex with your family'?), and Copper is ordered to get a hair-cut. The end.
Lines to cherish
p.28-9. Trapper [on Gimlet] "He's halfway between a bull moose and the Wizard of Oz. They say he was born in a pink suit, spitting bullets with a gun in one hand and a grenade in the other. He threw the grenade at his nurse because she wouldn't give him a stick of dynamite to chew. Tiens! That's what they say, and it may be true."
"No, you've got it wrong," argued Copper. "It was a detonator 'e asked for, and when the nurse wouldn't give it to 'im he reached up for an ancestoral battle-axe and swiped 'er over the boko with it."
I....think I may love Gimlet King. Already. Without having met him yet.
p.44. 'Cub called, whereupon the lad reappeared, and running up to Cub kissed him on both cheeks.
"They - er - the French, do that sort of thing," explained Cub uncomfortably.'
D'awwww. Bless teenaged embarrassed Cub.
p.55. Gimlet, after making a rather narrow escape from the Nazis in a farm cart belonging to one of the Grey Fleas: 'You might ask The Grasshopper to swab his cart out, in case we have to use it again. It's filthy, positively filthy.'
Because it's impossible not to love an officer of commandos who balks at getting his uniform grubby.
p.67. Gimlet's manic cheerfulness after running along the roof of a fast-moving ammunition train while being strafed by a British plane is a joy to behold.
p.72. [Having stolen a train] "This is a lot better than walking; yes, by gad!" asserted Gimlet.
"As long as we don't meet something coming the other way," muttered Copper.
"Never thought of that," admitted Gimlet. "Still, if we do, we shan't know anything about it," he added brightly. "We are having fun."
"Some of us are," grunted Copper.
"What was that?" inquired Gimlet crisply.
"Nothin', sir."
See, this is what would happen if someone actually *did* let Bertie take command of Biggles' team. The mind boggles.
p.83. Gimlet goes for a dip from the barge. He is wearing blue silk trunks. *LOVE.*
p.85. '"I once caught cold lying in a marsh," asserted Gimlet. "For that reason I have detested marshes ever since."'
Urge...to write Gimlet-catches-a-cold fic...rising...argh...resist...
p.182. (Wow, that was a long gap of gritty, wasn't it? Bah.) Gimlet getting greeted by ostensibly a random French inn-keeper as '"Lorry, you old buccaneer!"', at which point Cub discovers the French inn-keeper has a public-school accent and is an Intelligence agent called Freddie. Heh. I really, really hope he and Gimlet and Bertie went to school together. That would be *awesome*.
p.186. '"Messerschmitt!" he exclaimed, with something like dismay in his voice.
Freddie poured more coffee.
"It's a Messerschmitt," repeated Cub sharply, thinking that he could not have been understood.
"We heard you the first time," stated Freddie drily. "By the way, Lorry, old man, have you still got that grey mare with a rat tail and flea-bitten hocks - Seagull, I think her name was?"
"Yes, she's still in the paddock," answered Gimlet, sipping his coffee.
"I'm expecting to go across for a spot of leave shortly. Can I borrow her for a few days?"
"With pleasure," granted Gimlet. "She needs exercise."
"That mare jumps like a cat," declared Freddie, a note of enthusiasm creeping into his voice for the first time.
"What I like best about her," asserted Gimlet, lighting a cigarette, "is the way she keeps her eyes open for rabbit holes in the park. She's never stumbled over one in her life."
"Strike me perishin' purple!" growled Copper in Cub's ear. "They're off. If they get set on horses, we're liable to be here for hours."
Just...*glee*. Really. What's especially gleeful is that this conversation is, IIRC, repeated damn near word for word between Gimlet and Bertie in 'Buries A Hatchet.' This could just be Johns repeating a bit of a limited-print-run little-read book in a mass-published much-read book, but I do like to think that Gimlet just has this conversation with *everyone*.
Untold adventures
p.9: 'the raid of Glamfjord Power Station, in Norway' that cemented Trapper and Copper's friendship.
p.10: Trapper and Copper were at 'the carnage at Dieppe together, as well as in several smaller raids.' - EDIT: On reflection, this is almost certainly referring to the notorious Dieppe Raid of 19th August 1942
p.11: the Kittens 'bumped off his [Generalobserst Gunther's] garrison in the Luvelle lighthouse.'
p.29: Copper: '"On the mole at St. Nazaire it was, with everything blazing and bangin' like somebody had taken the lid off hell. The duke [of Marlingham] - 'e was in the Navy - climbs up out o' the sea with burning oil runnin' down his pants. 'Why, hello, Lorry old man,' he says, all casual, like we was at a blinkin' garden party. 'How's the huntin'? sez 'e."' - EDIT: Again, a little reflection suggests this is like to be the St. Nazaire Raid of 28th March 1942
p.85: okay, it might not technically be an adventure, but *I* want to know how Gimlet caught a cold lying in a marsh.
Body count: Boy, here's a subheading you don't really need in a Biggles book :S
p.22: German sentry, shot with bow and arrow by Trapper.
p.24: German sentry, neck broken by Copper.
p.24: Unknown number of German soldiers, machine-gunned and grenaded by Copper.
p.51: At least one German officer and an unknown number of soldiers, shot by Trapper and co.
p.62: Another sentry victim to Trapper's bow and arrow.
p.69: Unknown number of German soldiers, when Trapper threw a grenade through the window of their signal box.
p.70: God only knows how many German soldiers when the team blows up a troop train.
p.77: One German soldier shot by Gimlet, one probably killed by Copper.
p.106: A German soldier in motorbike pursuit of Our Heroes, shot with bow and arrow by Trapper.
p.107: Unknown number of German soldiers injured / killed when Copper machine guns their car.
p.168-9: Two important bad guys, one French traitor (and a partride in a pear treeeeee) shot by Gimlet.
p.189: Messerschmitt shot down by Biggles' escourt flight.
Conclusions: Well, that was quite good fun ^_^ It did have a rather transitional-Johns feeling about it, somehow, even though he was well past that style in the Biggles books - that slightly odd feeling of lots of short stories strung together with a vague semblance of an ongoing plot. Gimlet I thought was ace (as you may have noticed), although he did tend to default into Biggles on occasion - an occupational hazard of being a Johns hero, I suppose. Trapper and Copper are quite clearly going to suffer from Algy-syndrome in the near future: they've got characteristics rather than characters, even more than Johns characters normally do. Cub started out a lot more efficient than he ended up, I felt - I can't help but feel that someone who's spent the last two years derailing trains and exploding fuel dumps shouldn't be quite so shocked and horrified on seeing a Messerschmitt shot down. Still, he's at least distinguishable from Ginger, in turns of his premature maturity (as it were...) and practicality. The large amounts of violence and death were...I'll admit, they were a little surprising, for all Johns warned us about it. It really did have a body-count almost worthy of an Alistair MacLean novel, and in the MacLean novels I've read, you still don't get the leader of the group acting as judge, jury and cold-blooded executioner of the enemy leaders. (Not that Mallory *couldn't* or *wouldn't* do that sort of thing. I just...don't remember him *actually* doing it.) That was a bit of a jolt. Still, for Gimlet King, The Outstanding Character Find Of 1943, I'm willing to put up with quite a bit ^_^
The Gimlet books, for those who don't know, form one of W.E. Johns' two not-as-popular-as-Biggles series, both pretty damn similar to Biggles in terms of ethos, setting, and extreme cases, characters. (The other, of course, being the Worrals series, which Johns wrote to encourage interest in the WAF in the same way he wrote Biggles partly to encourage interest in the RAF.) The Gimlet series follows a group of four crack commandos - 'Gimlet' King, 'Cub' Peters, 'Trapper' Troublay and 'Copper' Collson (yeah, I'm loving the excessive use of nicknames too) - who are largely mix-and-match versions of the Biggles characters. As Johns puts it, Gimlet's methods are rather less 'gentlemanly' than Biggles' - which means More Two-Fisted Nazi-busting action!!! Also big explosions and Actually Shooting People. Probably fewer giant squid however, though I'll keep you posted on the squid-count as I go through.
So, without further ado, let's all load our revolvers, check our gelignite and put up our fists for...
King of the Commandos (1943)
which I have in a lovely first edition, though without dust-jacket, and for Very Good Reason related to the apparent scary collectability of this book.
Characters
A special section, since it's the first of the books. I'll bung any references to the characters' backstories, physical descriptions, skills etc in here, for future ease in fic-related checking.
Captain Lorrington 'Gimlet' King, D.S.O., M.C. and Bar, of Lorrington Castle, Devon - commander of the Special Service Troop of the Combined Operations unit, No. 9 Commando, whose shoulder cypher is a wildcat, and hence known as 'King's Kittens.' Slim, medium height, good-looking, with a 'quiet, unassuming, almost gentle manner', not more than about 25; fair auburn hair, blue eyes: 'the brightest, most startling blue that he had ever seen. It was not a soft blue, but rather had the hard gleam of burnished steel in sunlight.' Soft, well-modulated voice 'with a pronounced what is known as Oxford accent'. I...excuse me for a minute, I feel the need to go and fangirl somewhere quietly. Did Johns write this character just for me? Ahem. Walks with a slight limp which he's rather sensitive about after a smash during the Battle of Britain when he was in the air-force; originally a regular Guards officer, but found it boring and so got himself seconded to an Air Force squadron. Used to motor race and fly before the war. A bit of a dandy, never gets excited, and gets progressively icier as the situation gets worse. In action he's 'like a panther what's been fed on quicksilver.' Copper and Trapper refer to him as 'Lorry' between themselves, but they'd never let him hear them do it.
EDIT (08/09/08): p.27: Honestly, why do I write these summaries? I seem to miss out half the important information. Gimlet is reputed to have injured his leg when he 'collided with a Jerry' in the Battle of Britain, and now walks with a limp ('but he kids himself that no one notices it'; no such luck, as Cub goes so far as to wonder if he has a wooden leg.) His father was a V.C. in the Great War, and his grandfather a V.C. in the Boer War; both had red hair. Uh, thanks for the trivia, Copper.
Corporal Albert Edward 'Copper' Collson - cockney (uses rhyming slang - ohhh yes.), 6'2", fresh-complexioned, early 20s; ex-policeman with the Met in the River Police, twice winner of the City Heavyweight Championship. Brought up 'rough' - father died when he was young, leaving Copper to look after his invalid mother; initially taken in hand by an uncle who gave him 'an intensive course of instruction in petty crime, with the result that he could pick anything, from locks to pockets.' Uncle subsequently sent to prison for five years, showing the young Copper that Crime Doesn't Pay and inspiring him to work his way up from errand boy into the police force. Joined up after the house which he inhabited with his mother in Wapping was bombed, out of a desire to get his own back on the people who were hurting London.
Private 'Trapper' Troublay - French Canadian (French accent gets more pronounced when he's excited), 'lean and dapper', dark complexioned, black haired, with a small black moustache; 'a trifle older' than Copper; a scar, 'stretching from the left ear to the chin, disfigured what otherwise would have been a handsome face'. Spent ten of his early years in the backwoods as a trapper and prospector, hunting in the company of Indians. Exception sight and hearing, deadly shot, moves with absolute silence when he wants to. Carries a bow and arrows (used to silence Nazi sentries silently), two heavy service revolvers strapped low on his thighs, and an Indian skinning knife for close work, 'which he could wield and throw with fearful dexterity.' He once used it to kill a bear he was fighting with, which left him with the long scar.
Trapper and Copper are, according to Johns, 'more than ordinary comrades' - though Copper started off rather skeptical of Trapper's odd accent and odd weapons: 'they had first met at the training centre, but it was not until the raid on Glamfjord Power Station, in Norway, that they had hooked up in the arrangement known in the Commandos as 'me and my pal'; wherein two men make a pact to stand by each other through thick and thin. They had been through the carnage at Dieppe together, as well as in several smaller raids...'
Nigel Norman 'Cub' Peters - slim, seventeen, nerves of steel; 'two years of hard living and desperate enterprizes had left their stamp upon his face, which was thin, and set in rather hard lines', Accidentally ran away from a famous public school ('Brendall's School', near the Essex marshes) on hearing from a soldier newly shipped out of Dunkirk that his father and only living relative, Colonel Lionel Peters D.S.O of the Buffs, had last been seen lying wounded on the beach. Slipped onto a boat to France and was cut off there after the retreat; with a French boy, Louis Morelle, organised a group of kids (les poux gris du Nord) to collect information on the German movements and to carry out sabotage (each member having a codename: 'The Falcon', 'The Snake', 'The Fox' etc., and, course, 'The Cub.') Carries a small arsenal of lethal weapons.
Plot
Copper and Trapper are introduced, waiting on the shore of France for Gimlet to come back from a little sabotage job; they are accosted by Cub, who tells them Gimlet's been captured. They weigh in to rescue him, which they achieve in impressively bloody fashion. Gimlet insists that Cub accompanies them back to England. There, Cub explains to Gimlet what he's been doing in France for the last two years (setting up a gang of kids, the Grey Fleas of the North, to collect information on Nazi movements and carry out sabotage, if you skipped the last section...), and asks to be dropped off there again as soon as possible, please. He also mentions that the gang have found out about a secret POW camp where several important prisoners believed in England to be dead are actually being kept. Gimlet tells him there's been no report of his father's whereabouts since Dunkirk, and that he's too young just to be left to run wild in France doing such dangerous business - but he can be assigned to the Kittens as guide and liaison officer with the Fleas if he wants. Cub jumps at the chance.
Back in France a few days later, the Commandos, under Cub's guidance, make for the forest of Caen. They are met by some of the Grey Fleas, who are overjoyed the see Cub again, but who reveal the grim news that their leader, the Fox, has been captured, and is to be publicly flogged next morning in Caen to make him talk, and shot if he refuses. The commandos and the Grey Fleas join forces to rescue the Fox from the Germans, with liberal use of semi-automatics and smoke-bombs. They make for the secret POW camp, stopping off on the way to blow up a German troop train and an ammunition train, which makes Gimlet more chipper than he's been all book so far. The first swipe a train, then get a lift on the barge of a Young Female Friend of Cub's (look! Girl! First and only one in the book!) Arriving at the town of Le Mans, they find out that the Germans are today shipping some conscripted French workers off to Germany, along with tankers of patrol, barrels of brandy etc. Gimlet decides to sow a little confusion, so sets fire to the petrol and brandy in a most showy manner and swipes a German staff car while he's at it. (Foot-note: Cub gets inadvertantly drunk on brandy fumes, and is sick nearly on Gimlet's shoes. Gimlet calls him a 'disgusting brat' and probably means it. Ha.)
The team arrive at Chateaudun (where the Mystery Internment Camp lurks, in the Chateau), dump the car at an abandoned aerodrome, and dispatch The Girl and her uncle (who's been acting as their chauffeur) for the North, to await their return to England. Cub's sent off to the town to scrounge up some food and information, but is recognised by the German officers as being from Caen; he manages to spin them a yarn about the reasons for his presence, but they decide to keep an eye on him and send him up to the Chateau. Meanwhile Gimlet et al, hiding out in a disused chapel, are discovered by the Friendly Local Curé, who tells them Cub's been captured, gives them details of the prisoners at the Chateau, and offers to help them out. They see Cub signalling them in morse code from the top of the chateau's ancient tower.
Over at the castle Cub, who has managed to give his captors the slip temporarily and secrete himself at the top of the tower, overhears two guards chatting, and learns that Gimlet's route through France has been traced, that he himself is suspected of being one of Gimlet's party, and that the girl and her uncle (en route to join the Grey Fleas in the North) are being watched. Gimlet decides to try the old Robin Hood ploy to rescue Cub and the other prisoners - to get Trapper to shoot an arrow up throw the top window of the tower, attached to a piece of a string, attached to a piece of rope, and get Cub to reel it in. He, Trapper and the Friendly Local Curé break into the Chateau, while Copper is sent off to retrieve the car. He finds the aerodrome slightly less disused than when they left it, viz. full of bombers, and the car boxed in behind a shed full of lorries. So he pinches a lorry instead. I rather like Copper's direct approach to strategy.
The old arrow-string-rope trick works, and Gimlet shins up the tower and rescues the prisoners; he dispatches them to Trapper and Copper at the bottom, then lets down the rope (so the Friendly Local Curé who provided it won't be implicated) and makes his way out of the main entrance, pausing on the way only to execute the two local commanding officers and the chap who betrayed The Girl and her uncle to the Germans. Whoa, dude, cold. They all pile into the lorry and drive for Paris, cutting a few telegraph wires and shooting up / driving through a few road blocks as they go. They intercept The Girl and her uncle in Paris, knock out their gestapo stalkers, and drive on north-west. There, they make contact with an Intelligence agent, who sorts out a plane transport home for them - coincidentally piloted by Biggles and Ably Assisted by Ginger, slumming it in a guest appearance. They get home, Cub's father is reported as being safely in Spain, Trapper makes googly eyes at The Girl (well, he *is* the sort-of-French one. What's the Eddie Izzard line on the characterisation of the French in American films? ''Allo, my name is Pierre, I 'ave come to 'ave sex with your family'?), and Copper is ordered to get a hair-cut. The end.
Lines to cherish
p.28-9. Trapper [on Gimlet] "He's halfway between a bull moose and the Wizard of Oz. They say he was born in a pink suit, spitting bullets with a gun in one hand and a grenade in the other. He threw the grenade at his nurse because she wouldn't give him a stick of dynamite to chew. Tiens! That's what they say, and it may be true."
"No, you've got it wrong," argued Copper. "It was a detonator 'e asked for, and when the nurse wouldn't give it to 'im he reached up for an ancestoral battle-axe and swiped 'er over the boko with it."
I....think I may love Gimlet King. Already. Without having met him yet.
p.44. 'Cub called, whereupon the lad reappeared, and running up to Cub kissed him on both cheeks.
"They - er - the French, do that sort of thing," explained Cub uncomfortably.'
D'awwww. Bless teenaged embarrassed Cub.
p.55. Gimlet, after making a rather narrow escape from the Nazis in a farm cart belonging to one of the Grey Fleas: 'You might ask The Grasshopper to swab his cart out, in case we have to use it again. It's filthy, positively filthy.'
Because it's impossible not to love an officer of commandos who balks at getting his uniform grubby.
p.67. Gimlet's manic cheerfulness after running along the roof of a fast-moving ammunition train while being strafed by a British plane is a joy to behold.
p.72. [Having stolen a train] "This is a lot better than walking; yes, by gad!" asserted Gimlet.
"As long as we don't meet something coming the other way," muttered Copper.
"Never thought of that," admitted Gimlet. "Still, if we do, we shan't know anything about it," he added brightly. "We are having fun."
"Some of us are," grunted Copper.
"What was that?" inquired Gimlet crisply.
"Nothin', sir."
See, this is what would happen if someone actually *did* let Bertie take command of Biggles' team. The mind boggles.
p.83. Gimlet goes for a dip from the barge. He is wearing blue silk trunks. *LOVE.*
p.85. '"I once caught cold lying in a marsh," asserted Gimlet. "For that reason I have detested marshes ever since."'
Urge...to write Gimlet-catches-a-cold fic...rising...argh...resist...
p.182. (Wow, that was a long gap of gritty, wasn't it? Bah.) Gimlet getting greeted by ostensibly a random French inn-keeper as '"Lorry, you old buccaneer!"', at which point Cub discovers the French inn-keeper has a public-school accent and is an Intelligence agent called Freddie. Heh. I really, really hope he and Gimlet and Bertie went to school together. That would be *awesome*.
p.186. '"Messerschmitt!" he exclaimed, with something like dismay in his voice.
Freddie poured more coffee.
"It's a Messerschmitt," repeated Cub sharply, thinking that he could not have been understood.
"We heard you the first time," stated Freddie drily. "By the way, Lorry, old man, have you still got that grey mare with a rat tail and flea-bitten hocks - Seagull, I think her name was?"
"Yes, she's still in the paddock," answered Gimlet, sipping his coffee.
"I'm expecting to go across for a spot of leave shortly. Can I borrow her for a few days?"
"With pleasure," granted Gimlet. "She needs exercise."
"That mare jumps like a cat," declared Freddie, a note of enthusiasm creeping into his voice for the first time.
"What I like best about her," asserted Gimlet, lighting a cigarette, "is the way she keeps her eyes open for rabbit holes in the park. She's never stumbled over one in her life."
"Strike me perishin' purple!" growled Copper in Cub's ear. "They're off. If they get set on horses, we're liable to be here for hours."
Just...*glee*. Really. What's especially gleeful is that this conversation is, IIRC, repeated damn near word for word between Gimlet and Bertie in 'Buries A Hatchet.' This could just be Johns repeating a bit of a limited-print-run little-read book in a mass-published much-read book, but I do like to think that Gimlet just has this conversation with *everyone*.
Untold adventures
p.9: 'the raid of Glamfjord Power Station, in Norway' that cemented Trapper and Copper's friendship.
p.10: Trapper and Copper were at 'the carnage at Dieppe together, as well as in several smaller raids.' - EDIT: On reflection, this is almost certainly referring to the notorious Dieppe Raid of 19th August 1942
p.11: the Kittens 'bumped off his [Generalobserst Gunther's] garrison in the Luvelle lighthouse.'
p.29: Copper: '"On the mole at St. Nazaire it was, with everything blazing and bangin' like somebody had taken the lid off hell. The duke [of Marlingham] - 'e was in the Navy - climbs up out o' the sea with burning oil runnin' down his pants. 'Why, hello, Lorry old man,' he says, all casual, like we was at a blinkin' garden party. 'How's the huntin'? sez 'e."' - EDIT: Again, a little reflection suggests this is like to be the St. Nazaire Raid of 28th March 1942
p.85: okay, it might not technically be an adventure, but *I* want to know how Gimlet caught a cold lying in a marsh.
Body count: Boy, here's a subheading you don't really need in a Biggles book :S
p.22: German sentry, shot with bow and arrow by Trapper.
p.24: German sentry, neck broken by Copper.
p.24: Unknown number of German soldiers, machine-gunned and grenaded by Copper.
p.51: At least one German officer and an unknown number of soldiers, shot by Trapper and co.
p.62: Another sentry victim to Trapper's bow and arrow.
p.69: Unknown number of German soldiers, when Trapper threw a grenade through the window of their signal box.
p.70: God only knows how many German soldiers when the team blows up a troop train.
p.77: One German soldier shot by Gimlet, one probably killed by Copper.
p.106: A German soldier in motorbike pursuit of Our Heroes, shot with bow and arrow by Trapper.
p.107: Unknown number of German soldiers injured / killed when Copper machine guns their car.
p.168-9: Two important bad guys, one French traitor (and a partride in a pear treeeeee) shot by Gimlet.
p.189: Messerschmitt shot down by Biggles' escourt flight.
Conclusions: Well, that was quite good fun ^_^ It did have a rather transitional-Johns feeling about it, somehow, even though he was well past that style in the Biggles books - that slightly odd feeling of lots of short stories strung together with a vague semblance of an ongoing plot. Gimlet I thought was ace (as you may have noticed), although he did tend to default into Biggles on occasion - an occupational hazard of being a Johns hero, I suppose. Trapper and Copper are quite clearly going to suffer from Algy-syndrome in the near future: they've got characteristics rather than characters, even more than Johns characters normally do. Cub started out a lot more efficient than he ended up, I felt - I can't help but feel that someone who's spent the last two years derailing trains and exploding fuel dumps shouldn't be quite so shocked and horrified on seeing a Messerschmitt shot down. Still, he's at least distinguishable from Ginger, in turns of his premature maturity (as it were...) and practicality. The large amounts of violence and death were...I'll admit, they were a little surprising, for all Johns warned us about it. It really did have a body-count almost worthy of an Alistair MacLean novel, and in the MacLean novels I've read, you still don't get the leader of the group acting as judge, jury and cold-blooded executioner of the enemy leaders. (Not that Mallory *couldn't* or *wouldn't* do that sort of thing. I just...don't remember him *actually* doing it.) That was a bit of a jolt. Still, for Gimlet King, The Outstanding Character Find Of 1943, I'm willing to put up with quite a bit ^_^