‘It felt a bit cold, putting it in writing. I thought you’d rather hear in person.’ He looked sober. ‘Poor kid.’
‘How’s his mam?’
‘Shot to pieces. You know she doted on the lad.’ He folded up the rest of his chips for later. ‘How old were the men who survived the plane crash?’
‘I don’t know yet, but quite young. The rear gunner looked twenty-five or twenty-six, perhaps. The pilot was even younger – younger than me. No more than twenty-two, I’d guess.’
‘Family?’
‘The gunner had a wife. I don’t know about the other boy. He didn’t regain consciousness while I was with him.’ She rubbed her arm. ‘I don’t even know if he’s still alive. It was touch and go after his surgery, the doctor said. Once the RAF arrived, they shooed us out like the meddling civilians they obviously thought we were.’
Don took up a pencil and licked the end. ‘Well, what can you tell me that I don’t know already? Names?’
‘Only of the survivors, but you’d better not print them before the families have been informed. Besides, they’re Polish names. I can barely pronounce them, let alone spell them.’
‘Tell me the story from the beginning then.’
‘I was on duty at the ARP hut when I saw the crash,’ she began.
‘In your uniform?’ Tony asked.
‘Obviously. Why, what has that to do with anything?’
He grinned. ‘Nothing. I just like to imagine it.’
‘Ignore him,’ Don said. ‘Was it only you who saw this crash?’
She flushed slightly. ‘No, Charlie was with me – the village vet.’
‘Your sweetheart?’
‘My… friend. We heard a Wellington flying low in the fog and wondered that all the training crews from the base hadn’t been grounded when the visibility was so poor. The next thing we knew it had gone into the side of the mountain and burst into flames. That was when I ran into the village and sounded the alarm. A few of the men offered to join a rescue party and up we went.’
Tony raised an eyebrow. ‘Youwent up?’
‘I was the warden on duty. It was my responsibility to coordinate the rescue party.’ She shuddered. ‘I don’t regret it, but… there are things I wish I hadn’t seen.’
‘Did you see the bodies of the men who were killed?’
‘One of them. Only it wasn’t really a body – not any more. And one of the men, the pilot, had some horrific injuries. I won’t forget his face in a long time.’
And yet Topsy had barely flinched, although Bobby had needed to force herself to look at the poor man’s burned face. She had always thought of herself as the strong one out of the two, but her friend had really proven her mettle last night. People could surprise you.
‘This is good stuff, Bobby,’ Don said, scribbling away. ‘I can already see the headline – “Dales village in daring mountain dash to rescue wounded airmen”.’
‘Just please don’t mention me.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Gosh, I don’t know. I suppose it must have been about midnight when we got to the summit, or a little earlier perhaps. It had felt like night for hours, with the weather being so bad. The fog was a real pea-souper, and you could barely see for drizzle driving into your eyes.’
Don looked up from his notes. ‘Doesn’t sound like weather to be flying in. Do you know why they weren’t grounded?’
‘No.Charlie tried taking the officer who showed up to task about it, but he wouldn’t tell us anything, of course.’
‘Well, what happened when you got up there?’
‘There was a bit of a battle. Two of the men who’d gone on ahead with the stretcher were veterans of the last war. One of the injured was delirious, speaking Polish, and they thought he was a German spy. They tried to stop Charlie from treating him, but the man recovered enough to tell us they were Free Poles. Then I went on ahead to speak to the doctor while the men brought the injured pair down the mountain. Sumner House has been fitted up as a hospital, although it hasn’t been opened to patients yet, so we took them there and a surgeon from Skipton operated on the pilot to remove the metal shards from his belly.’ She pressed her palm to her forehead, feeling dizzy as she remembered that hellish night. ‘Reg’s wife Mary and Lady Sumner-Walsh acted as nurses, and I did the same for the doctor who tended to the other man. And that’s the end of the story. After that, a lot of Tillys turned up full of RAF people and they took over. I don’t know how the men are now, but the gunner, at least, is expected to make a full recovery.’
