Free Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis Page B

man forming the boarding parties was handed a torch, a pistol and a Tommy Gun. They were cautioned to use their non-lethal coshes wherever possible, especially as gunfire would alert the harbour defenders to the attack.
    The
Maid Honour
Force regulars were armed with a further assortment of weaponry, including their fearsome Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knives. Lassen carried a back-up Beretta pistol tucked away in the rear waistband of his trousers, in case all other weapons failed him. Faces were blacked up, so they would blend in with the darkness. One of March-Phillipps’ regulars, the Free Frenchman Desgranges, bedecked himself in a loin-cloth, complete with multi-coloured headscarf tied over his dark curly hair – in keeping with the raiding force’s piratical image.
    Night falls quickly in equatorial Africa. It was a moonless one, and the two tugboats showing no lights were able to sneak across the water like phantoms. Under cover of darkness the
Vulcan
and
Nuneaton
altered course, steaming directly for Santa Isabel Harbour. The
Nuneaton
was scheduled to take the lead, for she had further to go to reach her target and she had to launch her folbots once there.
    Four miles out from Santa Isabel the
Nuneaton
crept into the lead, SOE agent Guise taking up his place in the bows to guide her into the harbour. Even in the thick darkness he was confident he could steer the Nuneaton through the various buoys and markers, getting her safely to where she needed to be.
    Zero Hour for the attack was 2330 hours – as soon as the electricity supply to the port had been cut.
    *
    Four miles across the dark sea a group of dinner guests at Santa Isabel’s Casino Restaurant were having a fine time indeed. The merry party consisted of some two dozen diners, among whom were eight Italian officers from the
Duchessa d’Aosta
, including the ship’s Acting Captain, Umberto Valle. Beside him sat the distinctive figures of the two German officers from the
Likomba
, one of whom was the ship’s commander,
Kapitan
Specht. The stubborn and opinionated Specht had refused to attend the previous party. Naturally suspicious, it was only when that one had passed off without incident that he was willing to accept an invitation to a second.
    Zorilla remained only for long enough to ensure that all ship’s officers were present and properly seated – all with their backs to the sea – and that the alcohol was flowing freely. Around 11.00 p.m. the Spaniard quietly slipped away. Down on a hidden part of the shoreline a canoe was waiting to spirit him to safety, but no one on the terrace of the Casino Restaurant seemed to notice his departure. Too much fine drink and food was being served, as the Tilley Lanterns glowed gaily and the conversation was batted to and fro.
    SOE agent Lippett, meanwhile, had dined quietly with a Spanish friend at a quayside eatery, after which he took his customary ‘digestive stroll’ around the harbour. Final checks done – there was no unusual activity, bar the noisy party on the terrace of the Casino Restaurant – he strolled back to his hotel accommodation. The night was dark as pitch, apart from theodd flash of lightning on the distant horizon, as a tropical storm raged over what looked like the jungles of the mainland.
    Hoping that Zorrila’s voyage across the Gulf of Guinea would be untroubled by such storms Lippett retired to his hotel room and laid down to rest. Orchestrating all the subterfuge, lies and intrigue of the past few weeks had been a hugely stressful and exhausting high-wire act, and SOE agent W.25 Richard Lippett was soon fast asleep.
    But as Lippett slumbered, secure in the knowledge that he had done everything possible to prepare matters shore-side, an unforeseen and potentially ruinous drama was playing out at sea.
    It was all down to timing.
    Understandably perhaps, March-Phillipps and Appleyard had assumed that Fernando Po was in the same time zone as nearby Nigeria. It wasn’t. Perversely,