James Bond's Boyhood Adventures 7

By Pueros

(With thanks again to Erik, whose imaginative mind is behind some of the descriptions in this saga.)

Chapter 7 – V

(Jersey, Channel Islands, September 1940)

“Are you sure,” asked Stromberg in his accented English of the frightened Moneypenny, who had just denied in a quaking voice having a sister, “as my colleagues seem to recognise your face from somewhere?” “I’m positive, sir,” the scared boy answered.

Sturmbannfuhrer Stromberg turned towards his Waffen S.S. chauffeur, the young Oberjunker Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the Hitler Youth and the soldier who had been guarding the Wehrmacht transport compound and quietly discussed the position, before returning his attention to the tremulous Moneypenny. “You will come with us,” he then informed the deeply apprehensive boy, who meekly complied as the party of Germans left the schoolyard to return to the headmaster’s study to continue their interrogation of suspects. The 13 years old, now in Teutonic company, managed furtive fearful glances at his co-members of Jerm, the juvenile Jersey Resistance Movement, before departing. However, there was nothing that James, John or David could do to help but pray that their friend would not give anything away during his imminent questioning.

In the event, the three founding members of Jerm had no need to worry about the latest recruit to their organisation. Moneypenny managed to compose himself from the initial shock at being, at least partly, recognised. The boy, as he had displayed outside the Wehrmacht compound, then exhibited calm defence against enemy attack, albeit this time of an interrogatory rather than military nature. Having apparently convincingly pleaded both innocence and ignorance of the sabotage, he was eventually dismissed from the frustrated Germans’ presence, although he had had to leave his full name and address behind so that further enquiries about him could be made.

The four members of Jerm met and spoke after school before cycling home together, all living near each other in the pretty village of St. Aubin, across the bay from St. Helier. Under peacetime conditions, they all knew that they would normally be making the journey in James’ dinghy, as the weather was so lovely, not an uncommon phenomenon in this clime in early autumn. However, the small vessel had been hidden away in the Bonds’ garage to prevent confiscation by the Germans, relegating the small Austin family saloon, which no-one could officially drive in their father’s absence, to the cottage driveway.

James, John and David learned about Moneypenny’s brave and guileful resistance to his questioning, although the latter, like most youngsters still unsure of themselves, might have exaggerated his fortitude and duplicity a little. In fact, the boy had not been entirely successful, as the Wehrmacht guard, who had gained the closest view of the supposed girl saboteur, was now sure that the female had really been the 13 years old male in disguise. However, the man had been too embarrassed to say so, realising how humiliatingly deceived he had been and that he would never hear the end of the matter from his comrades when the news, as it inevitably would, leaked out. He preferred to let the brat escape than suffer such ridicule.

Blofeld and the S.S. chauffeur had appreciated Moneypenny’s very strong resemblance to the culprit but were insufficiently sure to enable Stromberg to overcome the Fuhrer’s directive, about treating the islanders well, to let the former interrogate the boy in his own special sadistic way. The Oberjunker was therefore very disappointed to see the 13 years old released to return to class. However, his disappointment was lessened when the Sturmbannfuhrer later announced that the young redhead, along with the threesome questioned earlier, remained strong suspects and attempts would therefore be made to watch them closely.

As a consequence, Blofeld determined to persuade his host and his father to allow his stay on Jersey to be prolonged indefinitely, on the basis that the occupied British might prove more troublesome than the French and so his services might be better utilised on the island. In fact, the sadistic monster’s real motive was his intense desire to see a certain beautiful quartet of boys strung naked from the ceiling of a basement in S.S. headquarters, waiting for him to inflict over many hours many horrors on their delectable nude forms, not least emasculation.

On their way home from school that day, the four members of Jerm appreciated their close call and agreed to lie relatively low for a while. They did not intend to stop being an annoyance to the Germans but concluded that further sabotage activities should be suspended for now. Instead, it was the youngest of the membership who came up with an alternative operation.

“Psychological warfare,” the 11 years old suggested during a brainstorming session, as the four friends cycled home trying to think of different options. “Psychological, that’s a big word for you,” James teased before asking “What do you mean?” “We show the Germans,” his brother answered, “that the will of the islanders is not crushed and that we’ll resist them as much as possible until the British secure victory and we’re liberated.” “And how do we do that?” enquired an interested David. “Vs!” announced John.

“Vs?” declared an incredulous James. “Yes, Vs,” replied the increasingly confident John, as the idea became clearer in his mind, “as I understand from the radio that Mr. Churchill is regularly using his fingers to display a ‘V for victory’ sign.” “Isn’t that rude?” asked Moneypenny. “It would be to the Germans if we painted them on walls everywhere,” advised the 11 years old triumphantly.

“Bloody brilliant,” David announced, “the Germans would hate that and would probably have to spend a lot of time and effort getting rid of the Vs afterwards.” “Whilst we just paint more elsewhere,” suggested James, warming to the idea of his younger brother, who was now smiling broadly at his own clever ingenuity.

“Where do we get the paint, though,” enquired Moneypenny but John was ready for that question. “Father kept a lot in our garden shed,” the 11 years old informed, “and it’s still there.” All that was now left for the young members of Jerm to discuss during the remainder of the cycle ride, around the calm blue beautiful sunlit Bay of St. Aubin, was when and where the first subversive graffiti would be displayed.

(Jersey, Channel Islands, October 1940)

At first, to the ordinary German soldier, a posting to the Channel Islands almost seemed too good to be true, with the local shops full of luxuries they had not seen for many months. Silk stockings, cigarettes, cigars, in fact almost every luxury imaginable, were available. However, once these items were purchased, they could not be restocked, as all imports had finished, and so supplies were quickly depleted. The occupiers sense of wellbeing was also gradually eroded by the increasing acts of defiance by the occupied, such as the Vs inaugurated by Jerm.

In the event, the Germans did not clean away the many annoying and mischievous Vs themselves. They instead made the owners of the property on which the large illegal symbols were exhibited, in a wide arrange of hues, perform the task. However, this did not prevent the young perpetrators from continuing their activities, as it seemed that most of the population secretly welcomed the acts of resistance, even if they were later forced to spend time eradicating them. The displeasure caused to the occupiers gave many locals a psychological lift, especially as the news from the British mainland, where the blitz bombing of cities had begun, was unpleasant. Even the occupying forces’ retort of emblazoning ‘Wir Fahren Gegan England’, or ‘We Travel Towards England’, on walls could not dampen resultant spirit.

Stromberg had sent some S.S. men in plainclothes, assisted by Blofeld, to check occasionally and supposedly furtively on what James, John, David and Moneypenny were up to and, especially, if they had any hand in the current irritating graffiti campaign. However, the so-called undercover observers so stood out like sore thumbs in the small community of St. Aubin that the boys became instantly aware of their presence. Jerm therefore either suspended operations whilst the Germans were around or, confidence increasing in parallel with disdain for the watchers, secretly slipped out and back into their abodes to conduct their subversive activities. However, a sudden change in Nazi policy towards the islands then made the daring young quartet reappraise matters.

Hitler had finally given up on the idea that the British might negotiate a peace. He was now resigned to a war to the finish with perfidious Albion and might have succeeded if Goering had not, in one of the major blunders of World War II, changed the focus of air attacks from RAF bases to British cities. The destruction of the RAF, now thwarted, should have made Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, successfully feasible, with German air superiority taking care of the opposition of the Royal Navy in the English Channel. Instead, invasion plans, along with the carefully accumulated ships and barges and their proposed vast cargo of soldiers, weaponry and supplies, were either dispersed for other use or mothballed. The subsequent invasion of the U.S.S.R. meant that the notion of conquering the British mainland was never again a realistic option.

Hitler, who seemed to have a particular obsession for the Channel Islands for the rest of the War, decided that a gentle approach to the population was no longer appropriate and rescinded his earlier directive. The occupiers, who had initially used the Islands mainly as a place for rest and relaxation for mainland troops, therefore set about Germanising the local communities.

The swastika replaced the Union flag. The language and nature of the road signs were changed, motor vehicles had to drive on the right instead of the left and schoolchildren were forced to learn German, incensing local people. German identity cards, strict curfews and food rationing were introduced. The occupying authorities would also not now tolerate even small acts of defiance, such as listening to radio broadcasts from London. Anyone caught perpetrating such deeds would be sent to prison or worse, concentration camps. Greater offences, such as sending carrier pigeons with messages to England, or even showing kindness to the slave labourers, later brought from the continent to work on the Islands, were punishable by death.

To make matters worse, the Channel Islanders were even made to pay the costs of the occupation, with the rate of income tax increased in order to be able to do so. Goebbels also played up the occupation of the only British territory in German hands, using photographs and newreels of German soldiers disporting themselves outside a traditional pub or alongside a tall-helmeted bobby for gloating propaganda purposes.

One October evening, just before curfew, James, the undeclared but nevertheless acknowledged leader of Jerm, called a meeting to debate whether the continued painting of Vs was worth the risk, given the newly declared penalties for being caught. However, the subsequent discussion and its conclusion were quickly to prove irrelevant, for the boys were soon to become involved in far more dangerous activities, ones that would bring Stromberg and Blofeld ever closer to apprehending them. The cause was simultaneously arriving in a remote Jersey field.

(Dinard, Brittany, France, same time)

Blofeld, deeply frustrated at the inability to ensnare his young British targets in any wrongdoing, had returned temporarily across the Gulf of St. Malo to France by fast e-boat at his father’s invitation. The senior Blofeld, of similar rank to his friend, Stromberg, but a member of the Gestapo, had caught an embryonic resistance group, betrayed by a treacherous collaborator. He had already secured virtually all of the information that was obtainable from the older members of the group, through terrible torture, including, as was his personal habit, the rape of the female members and the emasculation of the male.

Nervertheless, the Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer had wondered whether his son wanted to practise his questioning techniques on the last, as yet untouched, member of the erstwhile short-lived resistance group, a rather handsome youth aged just 16. Naturally, the 15 years old Oberjunker had felt unable to resist the invitation.

Blofeld junior, in his Hitler Youth uniform, was now alone with the older boy in the cellar of Gestapo headquarters in the French resort town. The 16 years old was at the 15 years old’s mercy, naked and suspended from the ceiling, the position for his victims of the Oberjunker’s cruel perverse dreams.

Blofeld had the usual comprehensive array of torture apparatus at his disposal and, unlike the last time that he was in this situation with a 14 years old, he did not feel compelled to refrain from using all of the items. Previously, the Germans were in the early more restrained days of occupation and the younger boy had, after all, only slashed a few tyres, to be simultaneously sodomised and castrated for his efforts, whereas the older was planning, with the adults, far more serious subversive actions. The Oberjunker was therefore looking forward to the long night ahead, although his victim would not share his enjoyment, as he would be made to regret the error of his ways.

The 16 years old did not yet know it but his younger interrogator and torturer planned to send him on his way to life in a concentration camp as a badly hurt and freshly gelded eunuch.

Meanwhile, across the Gulf of St. Malo, a former science teacher and now newly commissioned Lieutenant, whose surname was Boothroyd, had just secretly landed by parachute back on his home island. The man, who later would be much better known as 'Q', was equipped with a number of interesting innovative gadgets.

(To be continued in chapter 8 – ‘Q’)