Take or Destroy! Read Online Free PDF

mole fourteen times - seven there, seven back. I measured it every time.’
    ‘How many paces?’
    De Berry leaned forward. He had a fly-whisk hanging from his wrist and was smoking a cigarette in a long amber holder. ‘Couldn’t we assume that Colonel Hockold knows what he’s talking about?’ he said.
    Bryant turned to stare at de Berry but when he drew on his pipe and said nothing, Murray touched Hockold’s arm. ‘Go on,’ he urged quickly.
    Hockold drew a deep breath. ‘We want a ship which can place my troops on the outside of the mole - ‘
    Bryant was immediately hostile. ‘That’s a matter for the navy, I think,’ he growled. ‘Why not go in alongside this single ship here -- Giuseppe Bianchi -- and blow her up with a time fuse. She’ll probably take the others with her. You could then make for the depot, blow that up en route, and finally head out into the desert.’
    ‘Without vehicles, petrol or water?’ de Berry asked.
    ‘They’ll have to expect casualties.’
    Hockold drew a deep breath. ‘There’s just one snag with that plan, sir,’ he said, and Bryant’s head jerked round. ‘The Germans have dragged the hull of an old lighter across the entrance. There may even be two now. It’s blocked. And the prisoners of war have to be released first or they’ll go up with the ships. Two thousand of them. Do we have to accept that many casualties?’
    Bryant was silent and Hockold went on. ‘There’s only one way to do it: We have to put a ship against the outside of the mole and go across it.’
    Bryant frowned. ‘It’s not possible. It’s shallow water.’
    ‘There’s one place - here -’ Hockold pointed at the chart ‘- where the water’s about nine feet deep. I gather the Germans dredged it and, until the harbour was cleared, moored a lighter there and unloaded across her.’
    Bryant frowned. ‘Why can’t we go in close and shell the ships through the harbour entrance?’
    ‘Because there’s a big sand-bank with a wrecked freighter in the way. There are also three Italian 47s - here, here and here -which could effectively stop anything smaller than a destroyer. The only way it can be done is by getting aboard the ships and placing charges.’
    Bryant frowned. ‘What’s the opposition?’
    Hockold pushed forward a sheet of paper containing numbers and names of units. ‘There are also the 47s. They’ve been well sited and, in addition to firing to seaward, every one of them could be worked round at a pinch to fire towards the Roman arch. And it’s round the Roman arch that we have to have a strongpoint, or no one will get into the town to destroy anything.’
    Murray took up the story, feeling that Hockold was battling against too much rank. ‘We’re proposing that a lighter or something goes alongside the mole at the point Colonel Hockold suggests and that the following vessels lay alongside her.’
    ‘What following vessels?’ Bryant tossed a file across. ‘Take a look at that, and tell me where they’re coming from.’
    Murray didn’t bother to pick up the file and Bryant went on coldly. ‘When the army make demands of the navy they should make sure of getting a soldier who knows something about the sea.’
    ‘Or an admiral who knows something about the land,’ de Berry murmured.
    Murray leaned his head on his hand, saying nothing, and Hockold stared in amazement as the two men glared at each other.
    ‘Support fire’s out of the question,’ Bryant growled, staring aggressively round the table as if challenging them to dispute his words. ‘Force K lost a cruiser and a destroyer and two cruisers damaged. Valiant and Queen Elizabeth were damaged by Italian charioteers. Jackal, Kipling and Lively went in May and Sikh in that damn’ silly raid on Tobruk. We’ve also given up everything we can spare for the other end of Africa, yet we still have to keep the men and supplies flowing without interruption through the Red Sea and make sure the Levantine convoys come