Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Avenging Steel 6: The Long Way Home
    Avenging Steel 6: The Long Way Home
    Avenging Steel 6: The Long Way Home
    Ebook147 pages2 hours

    Avenging Steel 6: The Long Way Home

    By Ian Hall

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It is February 1942... German troops have held Britain for over a year.
    James Baird, a 22 year old student has joined the S.O.E. and has proven his worth in the resistance against the Germans in Edinburgh.
    After 6 weeks training in Canada, James has served in the African desert, and 'rescued' his father from Palestine.
    But after missing his 'boat home' while in Rabat, Morocco, he's forced to take the long way home... It's not going to be easy, and it's going to test his training to the full.
    Avenging Steel 6 is the latest in the saga of James Baird, Secret Agent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIan Hall
    Release dateJan 3, 2017
    ISBN9781370792207
    Avenging Steel 6: The Long Way Home
    Author

    Ian Hall

    Ian Hall is a former Commander Officer of No. 31 Squadron (1992-4), as well as being the editor and writer of the Squadron Association's three-times-a-year 32-page newsletter. He is the author of Upwards, an aviation-themed novel currently available as a Kindle download. This is his first full-length historical study, having previously penned a 80-page history of No 31 Squadron's early Tornado years.

    Read more from Ian Hall

    Related to Avenging Steel 6

    Related ebooks

    Alternative History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Retreading The City

      Nov 2, 2023

      It’s hard to pinpoint when and how inspiration strikes for a novel, but I know exactly when it did for The Detective. The Waiter and The Cook were the first two books in my Kamil Rahman thriller series about a disgraced policeman from Kolkata who co

      6 min read

    • Article

      Reading Behind Bars: Eleven Essential Books About Prison

      Apr 15, 2022

      Be warned: It ain’t pretty. The post Reading Behind Bars: Eleven Essential Books About Prison appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Schlemihls and Water Sprites

      Apr 17, 2018

      Schlemihls and Water Sprites
      5 min read

    • Article

      Edward Wilson

      Dec 3, 2020

      Edward Wilson immigrated to the UK from America after serving in the Vietnam War. After his teaching career ended, he became the author of eight highly acclaimed books, including the Catesby spy thrillers as well as standalones. ‘Portrait of the Spy

      6 min read

    • Article

      Finding Facts In Fiction

      Mar 12, 2021

      Finding Facts In Fiction
      10 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Nov 27, 2019

      THE Reading room
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 9, 2017

      I tend to buy used books in bunches, which means the haul from some expeditions stays buried for weeks, months, years even. For this entry, I highlight three finds that, breaking custom, I bought and read almost immediately this year: Hugo Charteris’

      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 1, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Oct 20, 2021

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 18, 2021

      Letters
      3 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jul 18, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Nov 17, 2021

      SIR: I must applaud William Cook (Who was Blackie the donkey?, October issue) in maintaining the tradition of never allowing the facts to mar a good story. Don Mackay arrived at Jarandilla de la Vera first, not in the wake of Hugh Whittow of the Sun.

      5 min read

    • Article

      May Fiction

      Apr 19, 2022

      A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (HarperCollins, £14.99) IF YOU DIDN’Tknow that Sophie Irwin once wrote a dissertation on Georgette Heyer—the queen, and possibly inventor, of Regency Romance novels—then it wouldn’t be hard to guess f

      2 min read

    • Article

      Voila, Miss Dior!

      Sep 8, 2021

      Voila, Miss Dior!
      5 min read

    • Article

      Science Fiction And Fantasy

      Dec 3, 2020

      John Ironmonger Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2020 Hb, 276pp, £16.99, ISBN 9780297608233 Heloise was born in 1759, when Halley’s comet was in the sky; her father, a French nobleman and astronomer, named her after the god of the Sun. Her family are caught up

      4 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Dec 13, 2023

      SIR: I found Dunphy's cartoon about incompatible typefaces (November issue) most amusing, not least because it reminded me of a verse I wrote during a few moments of boredom in a meeting at which typefaces suitable for exhibition posters were being d

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Lonely Grave

      May 8, 2018

      Reuben Louis Goldberg—Rube Goldberg as the world knew him—did it all: He was an engineer, cartoonist, sculptor, author, inventor, and—for just a very brief time in 1919—a war correspondent. Born in San Francisco on July 4, 1883, Goldberg as a child w

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 2, 2021

      * Our radio correspondent, Valerie Grove, has just unearthed a shaming letter she received from the great comedian Barry Cryer in 1970. At the time she was, briefly, standing in as TV previewer for the Evening Standard. ‘Dear Valerie,’ wrote Barry, ‘

      6 min read

    • Article

      Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels

      Feb 3, 2022

      The paradox of imagined apocalypses is that they’re always more about the present than the future. Here's a list of a few haunting and evocative titles. The post Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Lamport Hall

      Mar 7, 2024

      Lamport Hall
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Great Jester: On Simon Rich’s ‘Hits and Misses’

      Jul 27, 2018

      In the middle of his fifth collection of comedic short stories, Hits and Misses, Simon Rich writes a story from the perspective of a court jester named Havershire. “I’ve developed what the French might call une reputation,” the clowns says as introdu

      5 min read

    • Article

      World At War

      Mar 8, 2024

      By JOSEPH O’CONNOR Vintage In 1943 the Nazis invaded Rome, with the city ruled by the vicious Gestapo commander Paul Hauptmann. The Vatican, an independent country within the city, was neutral territory and off limits to Hitler’s thugs. As the Occup

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Avenging Steel 6

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Avenging Steel 6 - Ian Hall

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

      Copyright © 2017. Ian Hall. Phantom Gavel Publishing. Smashwords Edition.

      Published by Ian Hall at Smashwords.

      ISBN: 9781370792207

      All rights reserved, and the author reserves the right to re-produce this book, or parts thereof, in any way whatsoever.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Avenging Steel

      6: The Long Way Home

      Ian Hall

      (From The Tree of Liberty)

      By her inspired the new born race

      Soon grew the Avenging Steel, man;

      The hirelings ran — her foes gied chase

      And banged the despot weel, man.

      Robert Burns (1759 – 1796)

      Cover Photo:

      Also by Ian Hall, related to Avenging Steel…

      Churchills Secret Armies, War without Rules:

      Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

      A short history of the secret departments and Special Forces put together by Winston Churchill in World War 2.

      WW2 Spy School:

      The Complete 1943 S. O. E. Counter Espionage Manual

      The complete SOE manual used in World War 2 to train Allied spies and counter-espionage agents.

      Over 400 pages of authentic WW2 documentation.

      The Ridiculously Comprehensive Dictionary of British Slang

      A huge dictionary of British slang, regional slang and Cockney Rhyming Slang. Thousands of definitions, hundreds of pages.

      With a slightly comic twist.

      Foreword

      An Introduction to the Characters…

      Chapter 1 Going Out With a Bang

      Chapter 2 A Friend in Need

      Chapter 3 A Two Man Mission

      Chapter 4 Operation Dandelion

      Chapter 5 Operation Gilded Cage

      Chapter 6 Italian Holiday

      Chapter 7 The Green Fields of France

      Chapter 8 The Headquarters on the Hill

      Chapter 9 The Biggest Bang of All

      Chapter 10 Back in Good Old Blighty

      Chapter 11 All That Training…

      Chapter 12 The Sicilian Necktie

      Chapter 13 The Case of Neutral Sweden

      Chapter 14 A Man, a Bicycle, and a Mission

      Chapter 15 Measures for Desperate Times

      Chapter 16 Home in a Hurry

      On 10th May, 1940, Germany attacked British and French troops in France and Belgium.

      At that time, the British Army had more than half a million men in Continental Europe.

      By 4th June 1940, Britain had rescued 330,000 men (British and French) from the defensive bubble around Dunkirk.

      Between 15th and 25th June 1940, they rescued another 190,000 through Operation Ariel from French coasts and ports.

      In the short Battle of France, Britain had left behind 70,000 men, 450 tanks, 2500 artillery pieces, 85,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of ammunition, fuel and stores.

      The figures show Britain had 500,000 men for its defense… but with little arms, armor and ammunition to fight… Britain was ripe for invasion, and everyone knew it.

      Churchill spoke…

      … we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender…

      On 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 16, setting in motion preparations for a landing in Britain. He prefaced the order by stating…

      "As England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, still shows no signs of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary to carry out, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English Motherland as a base from which the war against Germany can be continued, and, if necessary, to occupy the country completely."

      On the 16th August the first waves of German paratroopers descended on rural England. The next day, under the cover of the Luftwaffe, tanks and armored vehicles drove ashore in numerous locations.

      Within a month Germany had captured London, Birmingham and Manchester.

      Four weeks later, Churchill’s much vaunted Battle of Britain was over.

      Churchill spoke to the British people from a fleeting headquarters in Ireland…

      … let us not consider this a retreat, not a farewell to our homeland, but as a gathering for a new offensive. And let me make this promise to Herr Hitler; we will return…

      Thus begins a brand-new Alternative History series… Avenging Steel

      An Introduction to the Characters…

      James Baird…

      James is our main character, our story’s hero and the book’s narrator. He was a 20-year old philosophy student at Edinburgh University, and has been recruited by the S.O.E. as an agent. His code-name is Biggles, and is used by the S.O.E. as a liaison between cells in Edinburgh. He works at The Scotsman newspaper as a writer and copy-editor. His father was in the Scots Greys Regiment, stationed in Palestine. After being ‘diverted’ from a training course in Canada, James is trying to make his way home.

      Alice Baird (Howes)…

      Alice is James’s partner in spy-crime, wife, and the head of the S.O.E. cell inside The Scotsman newspaper. She is from the border town of Selkirk, and speaks fluent German; her father having been a POW from the Great War who stayed in Scotland in 1918. She seems to take her orders from Lilith, but her actual bosses are unknown to James. Alice also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a copy-editor.

      Captain Möller…

      Gerhardt Möller is the German officer in charge of German bias/slanting for the Scotsman newspaper’s stories. James has to report their stories to Möller each day by one o’clock for his inspection. James suspects Möller has opened the hand of friendship to him, but cannot be certain. Lilith’s organization has compromising photos of him.

      Ivanhoe (Mr. Irvine)…

      Ivanhoe is James’ contact within the S.O.E. in Edinburgh, and the man who recruited him. James only glimpses the level at which Ivanhoe works, but does harbor the suspicion that Ivanhoe might be the top S.O.E. man in Scotland.

      Lilith…

      Named after the character by George MacDonald, Lilith is a beautiful enigmatic S.O.E. contact, possibly working in conjunction with Ivanhoe, but definitely also operating outside his purview. Lilith introduced Alice to James, and is Alice’s main contact. Although James seems to be in love with Alice, Lilith’s face comes to him at the oddest times.

      The Baird Family in Edinburgh…

      Veronica Baird is James’ mother. She lives for her family and rules with a slightly flexible iron rod. Frances is James’ fifteen-year-old younger sister. They live in a first floor apartment in Bruntsfield, on the edge of the Links and Meadows.

      Going Out With a Bang

      I sat in the Moroccan town of Rabat for another two days, watching the movement in the port, but nothing arrived that looked anything like my transport home. In my time at the harbor café, I’d made the acquaintance of the harbormaster, a rather odious man called Younès Feddal, who drank and smoked far too much for his own health and the people around him. I’d given him the cover-story that I was looking for a peaceful trip to Casablanca to look at the sources of silk my side-kick Ramsai had got for me, but even he had not came near me.

      It seemed I was well and truly on my own.

      I sat that evening with a nice 1937 bottle of red wine, fixing my thoughts on my future.

      I contemplated my choices as I watched Geneviève Salou and Rupert Dijold from across the dining room at the Hotel Descartes. I had three options. I could just walk away, leave the stinking hole of Rabat to itself and concentrate on my own plight. I could do a little mischief, and vanish into the night, or I could leave so much terror and confusion behind me, that Jerry would be licking their wounds for months. Taking my anger out on Jerry seemed to have the most going for it.

      With each sip of wine, and each laugh that came from the seductive lips across the room, I refined my selection. As I ordered a piece of caramelized apricot pie to finish my meal in some decadence, I’d come to a decision, then after doing so rationalized that there was always only going to be one way to leave; my training wouldn’t allow me to leave any other way, and that was with a bang.

      I feigned tiredness and yawning, headed across the cool town square for an early bed. To further cement my alibi, I slipped upstairs to my room, making more of my bottle of wine than I actually felt. Once in bed I waited in the dark until Ramsai climbed onto my balcony, as he had every night in Rabat. Within half an hour I could hear the low insect-like snore from his position. With a grin on my face, I got quietly back out of bed.

      In thirty seconds, I was out the rear door of the hotel, and slipping along through the dark shadows, down the familiar route to the docks.

      The northerly breeze was not substantial, but it would be enough to whip up a fire. I walked to the warehouse at the side of the one containing machine parts, and had the lock open in seconds. Inside my small torch illuminated rows of cardboard files on wooden racks. It took me only a minute more to locate a bottle of brandy, stored in a lower desk drawer; perfect for setting it all alight.

      I carefully poured the liquid onto the shelves, making sure it didn’t splash on me in any way; the last thing I needed for Ramsai was to leave him clues. He knew I didn’t drink brandy.

      When lit, the paper went up in seconds, and I

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1