The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

   I think Sarah is beginning to realise that working with psychopaths is bad for your life expectancy.   The problem with a lack of morals is that everybody is expendable with its at all expedient. However she's far too deep into the mess she's been brought up in to get out now.

The Britons; five


Any normal husband might be more than a bit concerned about his wife not coming home for the night after going out in the woods with a strange man, not least in these circumstances were there was a war going on and they lived close to a certain military target. Yet, the marriage of John and Sarah Smith was far from normal. It hadn’t in fact taken place. There was an official record of the union and (staged) pictures, but they had never exchanged vows. The two East German intelligence officers who come to Britain fifteen years ago now had first met each other a year after they were supposed to have tied the knot. Their controlling officer had gone off with John’s wife on a mission too, so he didn’t worry himself. He slept alone in their bed. Leah was over at the Royal Oak so he couldn’t even get his usual extra-martial distraction from her either. It wasn’t a good night’s sleep that John had. Aircraft flying from RAF Marham were active all night though John couldn’t be sure if some of those he heard but couldn’t see were American F-111s instead. Through East Anglia and beyond, this part of Britain was full of military airbases. There would be wartime dispersals and incoming reinforcements for NATO’s air power from across the Atlantic. During his years of HVA service on the assignments given to him and Sarah, he had never been tasked to conduct espionage operations near those US Air Force sites. He’d rarely had any contact with Americans either. He’d never been to the United States though had always thought that one day there might be a new posting across the ocean. None of his controlling officers, nor with superiors in briefings during the few visits back home, had ever broached the subject of such a thing but John had always believed that if he would pull this deception off with the British, he would do the same with the Americans. His last thoughts before he’d closed his eyes the first time had been on a hypothetical United States assignment…

It was three times that aircraft woke him up in the night. In the early hours, John was awoken again. This time it was the passage of many trucks on the road outside. Max was barking and John went to the window after seeing that the time was just after four o’clock. The main road outside was the A-47 and going along it, heading southeast, were British Army trucks. There were dozens of them. He couldn’t see much because it wasn’t light yet but he was sure he was watching the passage of soldiers. Off they were going to war, heading right past his house. He couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards. Max was begging to be let outside to relieve himself so the dog was let into the garden. John made himself some breakfast – now he missed Sarah; this was her job – and once it was light, he put Max on his leash and took him out the front of the house. John went up towards the pub and fished inside his jacket for his keys when he got there. They were missing. He looked in each pocket and was about to turn back for home when he realised that Leah had taken his set. She had her own but hadn’t said where they were, leaving John to presume that she’d given them to those two missing travellers who’d been staying at the B-&-B. He hoped to never see the two of them yet did want the keys back: both sets. There was a light on over at the village shop. John went over there with Max. The owner, Shelia, was inside talking to John’s neighbour Bill. There was only one thing they were talking about and that was the war. Bill was boasting of his own wartime service fighting the Nazis – John had done the maths before and he would have been rather old at that point, the same age as John was now – and saying that, if need be, he’d fight again now. The man was past eighty! They each said hello to John with Shelia giving Max a pat on the head. The shop owner told John all that was going on. There were restrictions on what he could buy, what she could sell and prices. It was all explained here in the newspaper, Bill added. The newspaper was one of the country’s daily tabloids, one of the several with women’s bare breasts usually exposed inside on Page 3, but instead today was just a single sheet of folded paper. There were thus only four pages: no nude ladies either. The news was all official – no sensationalism – for the first two pages while the second pair covered Transition to War. There was a statement printed from the Queen to her people too.

After buying some milk, a loaf of breed and one of those newspapers, John went back to the house. He saw the local policeman, Williams, on the way. John didn’t want to exchange chit-chat with him though he didn’t want to make a clear effort to avoid him. Williams asked if John was aware of what was going on with the government-mandated restrictions and he told the policeman that he did. Williams also asked about the Royal Oak and the B-&-B above it. Was there anyone staying there? Yesterday, John hadn’t had an answer to that but Williams had thankfully not asked it. Today, John had an answer. No, there was no one there but Leah. This was something backstopped with her so should the policemen afterwards, or maybe before if he chose to be sneaky, ask this, there was no chance of a problem erupting. John was also asked about his wife. Was she doing okay? Williams said that a lot of people were – naturally – very concerned about the ongoing war. She was okay, John told him: just tired and still in bed because of all the noise overnight. They each went their separate ways after that, John making the move to end things there. He went back to the house. Inside, he picked up the phone receiver from where it sat in its cradle. The line was dead. He knew it would be but he checked it anyway. It was just something he did without too much thought. Knowing that local service had been cut off maybe him feel better because with that, things were what they should be in wartime. He waited for Sarah to return with Morgan. He had no idea when that would be. If anyone came to the house later this morning to ask after Sarah, he would say she was still sleeping. Yet, the time got later as the morning went on. He wasn’t worried, just concerned about how long this was all taking. With it being daylight, there were more eyes out there who might see she and Morgan. Where were they? What was going on?


The leader of the Soviet commando team – he said his name was Vanya; no proper name nor rank was given – on their pathfinder mission told Sarah that she would have to bury Morgan. He’d had his throat slit to end his life, many hours after Sarah had accidently shot him. Vanya had done that killing himself. She’d watched and forced herself not to throw up afterwards. Sent with Kolya, Sarah then dug a grave for Morgan. It was something she’d been told to do on her own but it had been impossible for her. Kolya had in the end groaned, muttered curses in Russian at her, then taken her shovel from her to finish what she couldn’t. With no sleep and half starved, Sarah had been incapable. She’d been forced by Kolya to stay awake and keep watch while he finished digging, refusing to give her his rifle too. Then he wanted her to roll Morgan into the hole dug in the woods and to help him fill it in. The grave was shallow. Morgan was sure to be one day found though for the time being, his remains were hidden. Vanya had told her no when she’d suggested that they leave him inside the hidden shed that served as the commando hide: he’d told her to have some decency and bury the man whose life she was responsible for taking. A lonely grave it thus was for Morgan… or whatever his name had been.

Before finishing him off, Vanya had spoken at length with Morgan while another one of the men (Sarah hadn’t been told his name) had given the injured man several injections of Morphine. Those conversations had been in Russian. Sarah had picked up some bits but nowhere near enough to follow the conversation. The mission details were passed to Vanya and Morgan was then lied to with the promise that Vanya’s man was medically trained enough to get the bullet out. It had been an impossibly sharp bayonet edge instead of medical tools that had ended his suffering. Sarah had spent the time sure that she was to be killed. Morgan had once more urged Vanya to kill her, saying that she was crazy and reminding the commando that she was German. Germans were the enemy, Morgan had said: he’d always that they should be killed on-sight. Ever since she had met him, Sarah had been convinced that Morgan was trying to kill her, hence why she shot him, and also that he wasn’t a HVA officer like he’d said but a Soviet spy with either the GRU or KGB. Once Morgan was buried and Sarah returned, Vanya said that she was to take over from Morgan. She knew the ground better than he did and had a local connection that he didn’t. Vanya’s own pre-mission briefing had missed things that he now knew after Morgan had told him what he wanted but Sarah, plus her husband too, were needed. Who was this Leah character too? A real Briton, not an East German? He didn’t like the sound of that: you can’t trust a traitor no matter what their professed ideology was. Between them they spoke in English while Vanya spoke to his men in Russian though she was aware that each of them knew English too. Vanya’s grasp of English was ‘correct’. He spoke it in a manner which told her that he had been taught it back home in Mother Russia but never been to Britain before.

Sarah was briefed on what was going to happen. Vanya’s remarks to her last night about him and his men being ‘pathfinders’ was explained. At some point in the coming days, there would be a signal sent to the radio which by now would be assembled in the Smith household. A burst transmission of what appeared to be gibberish would be sent. The morning after that, there would be parachutists arriving. Near to Marham, but also elsewhere across Norfolk near selected airheads, there would be many of his comrades arriving. He didn’t say how many that there were nor divulge details of what would happen after they landed. His mission was to get those first arriving near Marham on the ground safely. It was a matter of placing an infrared beacon – nothing fancy – at a certain time in a series of safe places. There would be multiple drop zones, for men, weapons containers and light armoured vehicles. The sites would be in locations so that the groups of men who assembled at each would quickly form up and move towards their objectives without hinderance. In the last few hours ahead of the landings, Vanya’s men would be active in the immediate area and involved in combat if necessary. That would be the last resort, but if there were patrolling British soldiers near the designated landing sites, they had to be eliminated or at least pinned down. What was needed from Sarah and her husband wasn’t the local people contacts that they had in this area but what else they could provide. There were more weapons and equipment at that second hiding place, where Vanya would move his men too. Sarah confirmed that everything was ready there. She and her husband, maybe Leah, would act as runners and spotters for Vanya’s men while he waited to see action. It meant danger. She was asked again why she had shot Morgan. Was there a dispute between them? Sarah paused before giving an answer. This wasn’t a man whom she wanted to have a wish to kill her. She told him that it was an accident… there was enough truth to that. Vanya appeared to believe her. He told her that after she took his men to this tunnel she and her husband had stocked with weapons, equipment & supplies, she was to go back to her house. She would be taking her dog with her too: Lady hadn’t made a friend in Vanya! When she came back to meet with him again, near that second hidden location, he told Sarah that she must take care when approaching it as well. They’d go over that once again when there but it was something that she and John must remember: the risk to them of appearing unexpected when he and his men were all trapped in one place, naturally on guard against an attack, would be grave.

As I recall, the gate guard at RAF Alconbury was a 527 AS F-5E in the blue/gray paint (grape scheme, I think). Alconbury was great- spotted F-5s and sometimes whomever was in for training (Keflavik/Bitburg F-15s, USAF/NATO F-16s, even F-4s), U-2s (what a takeoff- straight up), and the RF-4s (the only modern jet that ever rivaled the Jag for my fancy). Plus Mr. GLCM down the road. Then A-10s. Quite a show.

The air show was super- I still have a 527 AS patch from the 1987 show, an SR-71 patch from the 1988 show, and an “F-111F Warsaw Pact Central Heating” patch from the 1989 show. All that plus Burger King!

Can’t wait to see the aggressors in action!

The Britons; six


John went to the tunnel, what he and Sarah called Site #2, that evening. He took Max with him. His wife had told him that the leader of those Soviet commandos hiding there in the English countryside wasn’t a big fan of dogs, but John needed an excuse to be out if he had to explain himself if he came across such a situation. He was walking his dog and Max had run off after an animal, he would say if need be. John wanted the company plus the extra set of eyes & ears too. It was a long way to Site #2 and he didn’t expect to be back until the early hours. Sarah had warned him to be careful and to follow the set procedures for approaching the lair of those killers. That he did. Max got a whiff of the danger first. He brought his dog to him, calming Max, and then announced his presence as he was supposed to. One armed man in camouflage appeared before him with John quickly realising that there was another behind him. They wanted to know if he was carrying a gun. He told them he wasn’t. John was checked for a weapon regardless of what he said, quickly and effectively. The leader, Vanya, met him inside the tunnel. Once, a very long time ago, there had been a railway planned to be built through this area and the work to get that operational had seen a tunnel built under a hill. For whatever reason – John really should have looked this up at the library in King’s Lynn – the railway was never built. Thus, the tunnel was never finished. It was boarded up against trespassers and vandals. No one had been inside for at least a dozen years before John and Sarah found it. They worked to seal it to make sure that no one else could get in unless they really made the effort. It was an unpleasant place. Dark, wet and somewhere for spiders & rats to make their home. Sarah had liked it only a little less than John had. It was hidden though and useful. Every local map that John had seen hadn’t included it. It was nowhere near any paths through the woods and nature had long gone to work camouflaging approaches to it. The tunnel was the perfect place to hide in and wait out either a hunt or be poised to strike out from here to elsewhere.

When he was taken inside, John met with Vanya. Sarah had told him that the commando spoke good English but John chose to converse with him in Russian. That was a language that John had himself learnt before English. Vanya and his men had been busy in here. They had made quite a mess. John and Sarah had organised everything perfectly with neatness done for space consideration. These Soviets here so far from home had cared nothing for that. Vanya also made it clear that all of John’s other work done in his long years inside Britain didn’t mean much to him. That espionage work had only ever brought John praise when Major Gunther Rädel returned home to his native East Germany to receive commendations and medals. To Vanya, all that mattered was the immediate benefits that what and who John knew could bring to his mission. All of the contacts John and Sarah had would be burnt if necessary, even their well-hidden true identities if needed be too. The mission was what was important. Nothing else came close to second with regards to what Vanya and his Spetsnaz team were here to do. Like Sarah before him, John was surprised to find that these men were pathfinders for an airborne invasion force. He was told how ahead of a big landing in the area around RAF Marham, he would aid these men in preparing the way in for their comrades who’d come by parachute before the airbase would be overrun. That was what they were here to do, not launch pinprick harassment operations as he had believed that they wanted him to assist in. Troops would be coming in to knock this country out of the ongoing war, maybe even marching on London from Norfolk if that was how things turned out.

From Vanya, John learnt the truth about what had happened to Morgan. Sarah had told him that their controlling officer, who she confirmed was Soviet and not East German, had been shot during the initial link up with the commandos. Before he had succumbed to his wounds, he had briefed the commandos as best as possible. All of that was true. She’d just left out the bit about her being the one to shoot him! Vanya seemed to be amused at John’s discomfort at him being the one to reveal the truth instead of Sarah being honest. It broke his cold demeanor, oh so typical for every native Russian whom John had ever met, for a few minutes too. Then he was back to business. His men had all the weapons out as they checked and cleaned them. There were Warsaw Pact, NATO and civilian guns & rocket launchers here. Ammunition was plentiful. Radios, uniforms, and so much more was here. There was food and water too. John was told to rest here – it was a long walk – and he did that while these men tore through everything seeking out what they wanted. Before midnight, he would make the trip back. Sarah would have some questions to answer when he did. John was going to demand that she tell him precisely what had happened and explain why she lied to him.


When she’d come home earlier in the day, Sarah hadn’t lied to her purported husband. She’d just omitted a couple of details and let him assume other bits. She had opted not to confess to being the one who was responsible for Morgan’s death. She hadn’t owned up because she had been worried about how John would take it. It had seemed to be the best idea to make him believe that someone else had killed Morgan. When she’d said he was shot during the link up with those commandos, she let him carry on thinking what he initially thought when he said that he knew the meeting would be dangerous. Sarah told herself that she should have spoken the truth but then another part of her believed that he wouldn’t find out what really happened. He and Vanya were hardly likely to have a heart-to-heart, were they? This wasn’t the first thing like this she’d done before. Back many years ago, when she’d killed that man in the B-&-B above the pub which they had run up in Lincolnshire, near to RAF Scampton, she’d stabbed him to death after a misunderstanding too. John had wanted to believe then what she’d told him about that target who refused to be blackmailed trying to kill her first. He’d believe her again this time… so she told herself.

After being awake for so long, and walking as far as she did with no sleep nor food, Sarah had near collapsed when she’d gotten home. John had wanted her to bring him up to speed on everything. Sarah had to take care to give him the correct details about making the trip out to see the commandos where she had left them. They spoke while he fed her and he started preparing for his trip. She had a shower before going to sleep – she was dirty everywhere and didn’t want to put all the grime on her that in her bed – and slept throughout the afternoon and evening. John re-checked the details of how to approach Site #2 with Sarah before he left and then he was gone. Sarah ate again, snacking on some toast, as she looked out of the windows to see if there was anything going on. A column of five trucks, British Army ones, came down the main road outside just after she’d stepped back from the glass but she’d heard them and caught a glimpse plus that count afterwards. Where they were going, what or whom was inside of them and anything else which might have been important she couldn’t discover though. This could have been important – or maybe not – but she could do nothing with it. Sarah had the radio on and listened to the BBC News. Editorial control was in Government hands. There was nothing detailed on what was going on with the war. Listeners were told that fighting was ongoing in West Germany, elsewhere in Europe and throughout certain portions of the world. Britain itself had been attacked (again no details) but this hadn’t been with nuclear weapons: none of those had been used anywhere, the BBC said. There was an instruction for the public to not panic – keep calm and carry on – as well as information about the Transition to War restrictions ongoing. A warning was given to the public to be wary of strangers should they be near military sites. They should report suspicious activities to the authorities. Sarah heard the BBC put out official NATO propaganda. They were saying that Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces had committed atrocities where civilians had been killed and chemical weapons used. She turned up her nose at such filthy lies, sure that many who heard this would be duped into believing what had to be complete fabrications to enrage the gullible.

There was work for Sarah to do. In the days before the war started, after Morgan told her and John that it was coming, there had been all of those packages which had arrived. They come to the Royal Oak and the Smith family home too. Morgan had said they weren’t to be opened ahead of the conflict erupting but once it did, he had several opened up and from them had come the bits to build that radio & antenna set up within the loft. When at that first hide for the commandos, the closer one which was Site #1, Vanya had said that Sarah needed to open the rest of them up. Morgan would have known everything but he had a general idea as to what she would find. There were items that he needed brought to him. It wasn’t guns nor explosives (they had enough of those already) but electrical equipment. Leah came over from the pub and she seemed to know exactly what to do with all of this. Sarah couldn’t help but ask how she was familiar with this all and did what she did with all of the technical stuff. Her employee and lodger didn’t give any answer. What was put together was the marking equipment for the drop zones for parachutists. There were the infrared lights themselves plus the control boxes, power supply and cabling. Some of that was assembled by Leah and Sarah yet the rest of it was then split up into sets. Each set would then go in certain packs so that it was together for one person to easily use. Sarah had brought back several empty rucksacks – half a dozen inside one, thrown over her back – from Site #2. From around the house and from what Leah had taken from the B-&-B, there were further items of baggage into which more of all of this went. All of this needed to go to the commandos. There was double of everything that Vanya and his men needed too: a main set and a spare. Sarah had no idea how those commandos had come into the country. She assumed that they came by air but it could have been by boat. Either way, they hadn’t brought any of this with them. She, John and Leah too would have to deliver it to them. Leah would have to be shown how to reach each of the two commando hides as well. How long the movement of all of this gear was going to take, she couldn’t be sure. The easiest thing to do would be to throw it all in the back of their Land Rover and take a drive. It wouldn’t be the easiest of going, but their vehicle would get close enough to each site to make the journeys on foot easier. Vanya had given a firm no to that. He said that vehicle would be used only when it was needed to be, in the hours ahead of the airborne landings, and not beforehand. Sarah wasn’t looking forward to all of that walking back and forth, never taking too much at a time even if that was possible less there be a need to ditch it if someone was come across where there was no way to talk the way out of such a situation. She was thinking about that when John came home.

You mean this one amir .



Looks nice.

Went past it often enough.
- not my video. 

I didn't realise it had been demolished. Shame.