Free The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins

showed him how far we've got Prepare me an outline - nice and brief One page only and type it yourself I don't want anyone else
     
     
getting wind of this thing Not even in the Department
     
     
.
     
     
At that precise moment Lieutenant-Colonel Kurt Steiner was up to his waist in the freezing waters of the English Channel, colder than he had ever been in his life before, colder even than in Russia, cold eating into his brain as he crouched behind the glass cupola on his torpedo
     
     
His exact situation was almost two miles to the north-east of Braye Harbour on the island of Alderney, and north of the smaller off-shore island of Burhou, although he was cocooned in a sea-fog of such density that for all he could see, he might as well have been at the end of the world At least he was not alone
     
     
Lifelines of hemp rope disappeared into the fog on either side of him like umbilical cords connecting him with Sergeant Otto Lemke on his left and Lieutenant Ritter Neumann on his right
     
     
Steiner had been amazed to get called out that afternoon Even more astonishing was the evidence of a radar contact, indicating a ship so close inshore, for the main route up-channel was much further north As it transpired later, the vessel in question, an eight-thousand-ton Liberty ship Joseph Johnson out of Boston for Plymouth with a cargo of high explosives, had sustained damage to her steering in a bad storm near Land's End three days earlier Her difficulties in this direction and the heavy fog had conspired to put her off course
     
     
North of Burhou, Steiner slowed, jerking on the lifelines to alert his companions A few moments later, they coasted out of the fog on either side to join him Ritter Neumann's face was blue with cold in the black cowl of his rubber suit 'We're close, Herr Oberst,' he said 'I'm sure I can hear them.'
     
     
Sergeant Lemke drifted in to join them The curly black beard, of which he was very proud, was a special dispensation from Steiner in view of the fact that Lemke's chin was badly deformed by a Russian high-velocity bullet He was very excited, eyes sparkling, and obviously looked upon the whole thing as a great adventure
     
     
'I, too, Herr Oberst.'
     
     
Steiner raised a hand to silence him and listened The muted throbbing was quite close now for the Joseph Johnson was taking it very steady indeed.
     
     
'An easy one, Herr Oberst' Lemke grinned in spite of the fact that his teeth were chattering in the cold 'The best touch we've had yet She won't even know what's hit her.'
     
     
'You speak for yourself, Lemke,' Ritter Neumann said 'If there's one thing I've learned in my short and unhappy life it's never to expect anything and to be particularly suspicious of that which is apparently served up on a plate.'
     
     
As if to prove his words, a sudden flurry of wind tore a hole in the curtain of the fog Behind them was the grey-green sweep of Alderney, the old Admiralty breakwater poking out like a granite finger for a thousand yards from Braye, the Victorian naval fortification of Fort Albert clearly visible.
     
     
No more than a hundred and fifty yards away, the Joseph Johnson moved on a north-westerly course for the open Channel at a steady eight or ten knots It could only be a matter of moments before they were seen Steiner acted instantly 'All right, straight in, release torpedoes at fifty yards and out again and no stupid heroics, Lemke There aren't any medals to be had in the penal regiments, remember Only coffins.'
     
     
He increased power and surged forward, crouching behind the cupola as waves started breaking over his head He was aware of Ritter Neumann on his right, roughly abreast of him, but Lemke had surged on and was already fifteen or twenty yards in front
     
     
'The silly young bastard,' Steiner thought 'What does he think this is, the Charge of the Light Brigade?'
     
     
Two of the men at the rail of the Joseph Johnson had rifles in their hands and an officer came