Greetings

[Porpoise]

11

Overnight the Jutland Division had been released into NATO control and Holst's warning order meant the 1st and 3rd Brigades were ready to move as soon as the word came. The 2nd Brigade in North Denmark would not be prepared to move until the next day. In the early hours of the morning the highways were jammed with Danish military vehicles headed south to reinforce the northern bank of the Kiel canal. The plans for these moves were quite up to date and my pre-dawn morning was fuelled by coffee as I checked, verified and signed out plan after plan for moving 15,000 Danish troops to positions that I was convinced they would be trapped in.

Day Three

On the dawn of the third day Viseadmiral Fuchs gathered us together again to deliver some awful news.
"Early this morning," he began in a carefully measured voice, "the transport flight with our commander, General Mason-Clarke returning to resume command of Allied Forces North, was shot down over the North Sea. All on board are missing and presumed dead. I will continue to assume command here as I have done for the last few days, with General Major Holst as my deputy. That is all."
When the General's death was announced I heard a sharp sob beside me, but when I turned to look at Kapitein Vos she looked as icy calm and collected as she always did. McHenry was standing immediately behind her, as he often did and I found myself staring angrily at him. Several others in the small crowd looked visibly upset and anxious, and if I had to guess I'd say I must have looked as anxious as any of them. I cornered the J2, my opposite number in intelligence, to find out more. A Belgian airborne battalion was being transported from Brussels to Oslo to reinforce southern Norway and Mason-Clarke had taken the opportunity to hitch a lift. A flight of MiG-31s had penetrated our air defences at high altitude and high speed and halfway across the North Sea the two groups of aircraft had met. The MiGs had destroyed 3 C-130 Hercules aircraft and damaged 4 more before escaping undamaged. On board one of the downed Hercules aircraft was our General, his aide, the crew and 70 Belgian paratroopers. The remaining 5 C-130s continued on to Oslo where they deployed a depleted half battalion of demoralised Belgians who refused to leave the airport.