Double Cross in Cairo by Nigel West Read Free Book Online

namely (War Substantive Lieutenant), (Temporary Captain), Acting Major B. F. Cuselthwaite to translate some regulations into Italian and Greek. At the end of this task the gallant major was summoned by telephone to go along to another office. As he was going out of the door he said to CHEESE : ‘When you have finished with that bumph, pin all the papers together in their proper order and put them on the second shelf in that cupboard. Lock up the cupboard and give the key to the sergeant next door.’ Cuselthwaite then went off to his colleague’s office. CHEESE finished sorting out the papers and in so doing caught sight of an engagement padcum-diary, just alongside the blotting pad on the major’s table. His first glance was no more than cursory but as he was about to pick up the collected bumph, he recollected seeing the words ‘8th Army’. So he went to look again and saw the following entries for Tuesday 12 January:
    â€“ 1000Hrs Conference GHQ. 8th Army War game. (S says Monty wants full details re road and rail freight services? how soon get started, maintenance, reliability.
    â€“ 1315Hrs Lunch, Dick, Turf Club.? Golf Gezira.
    â€“ Ring up Air Q Movements re seats Col S / Benghazi. Try BOAC if no can do. 2 seats 18th.? how much.
    â€“ 1845Hrs Ring Angela re dinner Dolls 13th. Dick re. flat 13th. NAAFI re. whisky and gin. Any van der Rumm?
    â€“ Strickland – port facilities what naval personnel available – if any – whose responsibility? Not ours!
    â€“ 2100Hrs Joan, Continental.
    â€“ CHEESE noted other entries, the significance of which escaped him. However, on thinking things over on Friday evening, he came to the conclusion that he would verify the date as to the 8th Army, although he could not understand what ‘War game’ might mean. On Monday morning a colonel, whom he had not seen before, pushed his head round the major’s office door ( CHEESE was doing some translations) and said, ‘B. F., don’t forget those draft schedules for that bloody war game tomorrow.’ The major replied: ‘They’re all OK, Sir. I don’t think Monty will catch us out this time!’
    In expanding CHEESE’S circle of friends, SIME gave approval to another of Simpson’s ideas, that he should cultivate a BOAC employee who would act as a conduit for information that, in one proposal, would identify the First Army at Tripoli:
    Through his British Airways employee friend … [ CHEESE ] has met a pilot of the Airways run from Cairo to Cyrenaica. This pilot … call him James from Portsea, Hants. … was introduced to the
Amie
1 a few weeks ago. Used by the RAF, has been lent to BOAC for a rest from operationalduties, having had two years in the desert on bombers, now engaged upon flying freight planes. At a party this week he revealed to the
Amie
that he wanted to get back to work in the RAF again. Said that there was little or no fun in transporting supplies to Benghazi and bringing back staff officers. Didn’t mind bringing back ‘woundeds’, they were only too glad to have a quiet life for a time; but the staff officers were so fussy and must have their silly little ‘brief cases’ with them; instead of putting the blasted bags with the rest of their kit. Best crowd that he carried were some ‘commando wallahs and parachute blokes’ who threw a terrific party on the way to Benghazi. They were full of fun and terrifically keen to get cracking with the preparations for what they referred to as the ‘Triploli tea party’. Some of them were hoping to meet old friends whom they thought were now posted to the First Army.
    A fourth tale dreamed up by SIME in January 1943 was intended to disclose inadvertently the supposed whereabouts of the aircraft carrier HMS
Indefatigable
, relying on CHEESE’S friend who worked for BOAC.
    CHEESE meets BOAC friend in January 1943. They speak of this and that, running the