(SA) Day of the Jackdaw

The ninth story is entitled The Day of the Jackdoor by Denver Morgan. England, 1944.

The tide is turning. The once victorious German armies are in retreat. Staley, the heart of industrial Germany, slows almost to a halt under the incessant aerial bombardment. The invasion of Europe is only a matter of months away.

The preparation and planning is painstaking, and the men of MI6 Special Services Unit play a vital role. This is the story of Lieutenant John Williams, who joined special services some three months before the Normandy landings.

Is it done Lieutenant Williams? Oh yes, Williams. Now, why have you volunteered to join special services? I see from your file that you've worked in intelligence since the beginning of the war. Done a very good job from what I hear.

Don't you feel perhaps you'd be better employed at London headquarters? Sir, the war's been going on for nearly five years. I've seen no action in that time, believe my friends have been killed. I feel something of a fraud staying in London.

Hmm... Application for Mr. Francis fluent. Yes. At university I majored in languages, and before the war I spent a number of holidays in France with my mother. She used to paint there. Really? Was she Laura Williams?

Yes, that's right. Hmm, I've seen a number of her works. She's well, I trust. And no, she died some three months ago. Oh, I'm sorry. And your father? Well, he left my mother when I was a small child and hardly knew him.

I see that you're single, any friends to marry? I do have a fiancé in Scotland, sir, but... or we don't intend to get married until the war is over. You're going to join this unit is probably a very wise decision.