Free Devils with Wings: Silk Drop by Harvey Black

on him. Not just thirty this time, but nearly one hundred men. He turned around to face the tall hangar doors as the flashlight of a Luftwaffe airman disturbed him.
    “Have you finished in here sir, so I can shut the doors?”
    “Yes, I have, carry on.”
    Paul took one last look around, and then strode out through the doors to his billet.

CHAPTER SIX

    In the twilight they boarded the twelve Junkers transport aircraft that would fly them to Plovdiv in in Bulgaria. The take-off was without incident. The first leg of the flight took them five hours and after a brief stopover in Austria to refuel, they continued the rest of their journey for a further five hours.
    Paul bent his head down between his knees, feeling slightly nauseous, the fumes from the engines, the cramped conditions and the constant buffeting for the last hour of this second leg were having their effect.
    “You ok sir?” asked Max, gripping Paul’s shoulder
    “I’m fine Max, I shouldn’t have eaten during the stop over.”
    “Just keep your head down sir and breath nice and shallow.”
    All were relieved when the journey was over. The paratroopers were exhausted. Although they had been sat down through the entire journey, apart from a sixty minute stretch during the stopover in Austria, ten hours crammed together on a droning transport was far from pleasurable.
    The next day they were off again, transferring from Plovdiv to a former British airfield in Larisa, Greece. The co-pilot came back and warned Paul that they were on the final approach to the airfield and would be on the ground in the next ten minutes. Paul thanked him and leant towards Max, sat opposite him, who was shouting something.
    “We’ll know what it’s all about soon sir.”
    “It all comes to those that wait Max,” he responded.
    Then to himself, “Whatever it is, it will be coming our way soon.”
    They landed and the plane taxied to the end of the runway, along one of the taxiways and onto a concrete apron where they were able to disembark. The planes came to a halt and the relieved paratroopers clambered down through the now open door at the rear of the plane, sucking in the fresh as they did so. Max stretched his arms above his head, rolling his burly shoulders, easing the tension in his rock like form. His five feet ten frame ached just about everywhere you could imagine. Paul, with his extra ten centimetres had fared equally badly.
    “Thank God we didn’t have to jump straight after that lot.”
    “That’s why they made Tante June so small Max, to encourage us to leave when we get over the target,” said Paul smiling.
    “What now then sir?”
    “One of the ground crew informed me we have that row of tents over there,” said Paul pointing to a string of eight man tents.
    “Nice and cosy, eh sir? Looks like there are a couple of battalions here already,” said Max looking at the one hundred or more tents in lines close to theirs.
    “Get the men allocated to their billets Max, and see if you can suss out the messing facilities while I go and find Regimental HQ.”
    “Meet up with you in the canteen afterwards sir?”
    “Sounds good Max.”
    “I’d like to do a final equipment check afterwards sir.”
    “Don’t you trust our Luftwaffe ground crew?”
    “They don’t know their arse from their elbow that lot sir.”
    “Very succinctly put Max. We’ll get on to it as soon as we’ve eaten.”
    “You never know what’s coming sir.”
    “What would I do without you, Feldwebel Grun?” said Paul patting him on his arm.
    “You need never find out sir,” he replied smiling.
    Paul was about to walk away but stop and turned. “Oh and make sure the platoon commanders and Unterfeldwebel’s join us as well.”
    “Will do sir.”
    Max headed over to the row of pitched tents allocated to their company and could see the men were already making themselves comfortable.
    Paul headed along a different row of tents, all neatly laid out in typical military fashion. He