The Light Over London(51)

“Up, girls,” Bombardier Barker ordered, her voice wavering as though she didn’t quite believe her own command. “If I see you hit the ground one more time—”

A tower of water exploded into the air as the first of the Dornier’s bombs fell into the Thames. Four more explosions followed in quick succession, rattling the roof they were standing on and stealing Louise’s breath. A flash of fire and a plume of smoke bloomed through the night air, and where a building had once stood on a corner less than a quarter mile away, there was a void. Smoke billowed through the empty shell of a building as fire licked at the neighboring structures. Even from the rooftop, Louise could hear the whine of a fire engine.

Louise’s eyes met Vera’s across the predictor box, the two women frozen for a moment with the reality of being in the middle of a real bombing. They could be killed at any moment, cut down by machine-gun fire or blown up by a falling bomb or crushed as the building collapsed. Then her eyes snapped to her commanding officer. Bombardier Barker, the loud, brash woman who’d given them no ground during training, was slumped against a wall, pale in the faint moonlight.

“My God. My God,” Bombardier Barker muttered over and over as Captain Jones went to deal with Williams and Hatfield, who were arguing in heated whispers over something.

“Ma’am?” Louise prompted, trying to snap the woman back to attention.

The woman’s eyes were unfocused, terrified. “An entire building . . .”

“Bombardier Barker,” Louise said sharply.

Her commanding officer lifted her eyes and met Louise’s. “That was a block of flats. We passed it on the way in.”

“I know,” said Louise, forcing down the bile rising in her throat.

“There were children playing outside.”

“I know.”

Bombardier Barker shuddered. “I can’t—I can’t—”

Gritting her teeth and breathing the acrid smell of smoke through her nose, Louise swung around. “Mary, what’s the read?”

Mary ripped her eyes away from Bombardier Barker. “Still in sights.”

“Nigella, Charlie. What do we have?” she shouted.

The two women sprang into action.

“Read!”

“Read!”

“Fuse one-six!”

“Waiting on your call, Captain,” said Catruse.

“Engage, Gunner,” Jones ordered.

The sound of the gun firing ricocheted off the surrounding buildings, and they all held their breath. This time, the shell exploded right on the tail of the plane. Smoke streamed off of it, a white ghost in the spotlight.

“Come on, come on,” Louise muttered, her eyes fixed on the hobbled plane.

Slowly, the pilot rounded and pointed the nose back out to the east.

“Yes!” Hatfield and Williams shouted as Lizzie jumped up and down.

A hand fell heavy on Louise’s shoulder. “Good instincts, Keene,” said Captain Jones over the clang of the gun being loaded again.

She glanced at Vera who, with raised brows, tilted her head to indicate over Louise’s shoulder. Bombardier Barker was slumped, legs splayed out on the ground, a pool of vomit to her side.



The Luftwaffe kept them at work until a rosy dawn broke out over the capital just after six thirty. Captain Jones, who had ordered Bombardier Barker off the roof in disgust, had deputized Louise to march the girls back to their billet. In truth, it was more scramble for sanctuary than march. The wind had picked up around three, chilling them all through despite the summer season, and by the time they poured into the canteen Louise was grateful for the mug of tea one of the orderlies shoved into her hand.

“What a night,” Mary said, stretching her neck this way and that.

“Ten hours straight,” said Vera. “And all of that machine-gun fire.”

Charlie glanced around before leaning in. “Did you see Bombardier Barker?”

“What happened to her?” Nigella asked.

“She’s never seen combat,” said Charlie with a shrug. “Cartruse told me he overheard Captain Jones talking to another officer about it. He was worried back in Oswestry.”

“They should promote Louise, at least to lance bombardier,” said Lizzie. “You jumped right in.”

Louise blushed, pleased to hear the compliment. “I just got us back on track. You all know what you’re doing.”

“Bet we showed that Colonel Nealson,” said Charlie, with a grin. “B Section with two direct hits and five planes turned around.”

As they sat drinking their tea and nibbling on biscuits, the adrenaline of the night started to leave them. Louise could see the moment each of them hit a wall of exhaustion.

“Time for bed, I think,” she said as the canteen began to fill up with ATS girls readying themselves for their day’s work.

“I feel like Dracula,” Mary moaned.

“You’ll start looking like him too if you’re not careful,” Lizzie teased.

Louise hung back for a moment, smiling as the girls bickered and made their way out of the canteen. Finally it was only her and Vera.

“You know, Lizzie’s right. You should put in for a promotion as soon as you can,” said her friend.

Louise scoffed. “I’m hardly commanding officer material.”