Jinnie drove her Lexus up to the gate of the Warminster Specialist Weapons School and showed her and her sister’s orders to the armed guards manning the barrier. The lance corporal read the papers and marked them off on this tablet computer. Before raising the barrier, he said, “Good morning, Ma’am. Follow the road straight in front of you, third left, second right, you will find the Direct Fire Support Division and the Sniper Wing is located there.” Jinnie drove in and counted the junctions and took the third on the left and then the second on the right and found themselves in front of a low-rise block with Direct Fire Support Division on the board in front of it and below it said Machine Gun Wing; Anti-Tank Wing; Sniper Wing. Jinnie looked at her sister and said, “This looks like the right place, Sis.” She parked in one of the marked visitor bays and they got out, grabbed their small bags from the car’s boot and headed inside the building.
Just inside the entrance was a table that passed as a reception desk, and behind it sat another lance corporal. This one, though, had a PC with an LED screen and said, “Good morning, Ma’am,” to Jinnie. “Which course are you here for?” Jinnie answered, “Sniper Refresher Corporal.” To which he sniffed loudly and asked, “Name, rank and number.” Jinnie answered, “Dame Jinnie De Luca, major and I no longer have a number.” Penny added, “Penny Chivers, captain, and I also no longer have a number.” The lance Jack looked up from his screen, assed them both in their civvies, was about to say something, thought better of it and returned to his screen and keyboard before saying, “Ah yes I have it, course CD 178-92B. You have been allocated rooms 1011 and 1012 in the York accommodation block, outside turn right.” He handed them photo passes before continuing “Your pass is your door key. Always keep it with you when in Waterloo Lines. You will find unmarked work fatigues in the wardrobe, please put on, your course starts at 11:00 hours sharp in this block, room 2018. That’s up those stairs,” he indicated to a staircase in the corner and added, “second floor.” With that, went back to whatever it was he had been doing on his PC before they had interrupted him.
The sisters headed to the accommodation block and were pleasantly surprised to find it was a modern building and the allocated rooms were ensuite. They emerged five minutes later dressed in fatigues that Penny said she was amazed were a perfect fit. Jinnie replied, “I wonder if they got the sizes from the Portsmouth Wrens? They have got the photos from the passes at the Cross.” They walked back into the DFSD building, past the reception desk and straight up the stairs to the second floor where they quickly found room 2018 and entered through the open door. Already in the room were three GIS sergeants and Irena who wore the uniform of a Podpolkovnik (lieutenant colonel) in the Slovenian army.
Irena hurried over to them and greeted them in English, saying how happy she was to be seeing them again. Jinnie complimented her on her English, saying how it was now really good and had she been working on it since they had last met. Irena replied that she had been working with a number of British military advisers and instructors setting up the Slovenian National Army and the only way to communicate had been in English or Italian as none of the British spoke Slovene.
As they chatted a warrant officer and a colour sergeant entered the room, and everyone came to attention. The WO2 told them that the special course they were about to undertake would have two purposes, refresh them in the arts of snipping and actually firing the weapon accurately at long distances with special ammunition. The other part was working as a team with the sniper firing the weapon, but the spotter doing everything else from security to report on the fall of shots. Colour Sergeant Patterson then said he wanted to understand how well the snipers understand their weapons and pointed to cases containing three of the latest sniper rifles, the L115A4, an upgrade version of the L115A3 that Jinnie was familiar with, but with an improved chassis and foldable stock for easier concealment.
The CS paired the snipers up with GIS sergeants and told them to strip the weapon against the clock. With the weapon in pieces the next order was to clean it to his satisfaction which they all achieved. Finally, it was reassembly of the weapon again against the clock. With the girls all finishing within seconds of each other the CS said, “Not bad, I can see you have all handled the weapon before, so after lunch we’ll see how well you can fire it down on the range. I hear you will need to be accurate to at least a mile, so we will start at 150 yards and work up to 2,640 yards. As they walked to lunch Irena asked, “How many metres is 2,640 yards” and Penny replied, “About 2,400 metres.”
***
Jinnie rather liked the new A4 rifle. It was lighter than the A3 and it had shot consistently where it was aimed after a couple of minor adjustments to zero it in. Luka Novak, her spotter, had called her first shot in the windless indoor range as a metre and a half high and a metre to the right of the bull at 150 metres. A little adjustment to the daytime sight and the second shot had been fractionally right of the outer, but still about 500 millimetres high. Another tweak and the 3rd shot was a bull, as were the fourth and fifth. The indoor range instructor said over her shoulder, “Not bad, now, I want two clips all hitting the bull,” and stepped back to his high-powered binoculars mounted on a tripod stand.
To her left she could see and hear her companion snipers going through a similar process. Two more clips of five later, only one shot of which had missed the bull but had been an outer, Jinnie relaxed and caught her sister’s last two shots hitting the bull. The CS called ‘cease firing’ and said, “OK ladies, you can shoot at 150 yards in daylight, but so can just about any squaddie worth his salt when he’s been through our 10-week course. Next up is doing the same at night, so switch to the low vision night-sight and we will go the same thing with the lights out.”
Jinnie switched sights and told the CS she was ready. Once everyone was ready the lights were turned out. Jinnie went through the same process of adjusting the sight. This time it took three bullets before she was happy and consistently hitting the bull. The CS then had them clean their rifles, as Jinnie would have done anyway, before telling them he wanted them on the Long Outdoor range at 08:00 sharp the following morning, we wanted to see how they performed whatever the weather, over longer distances and ultimately with the ‘special’ American ammunition. He suggested they go and eat and get an early night as tomorrow was going to be a long day.
***
The group split up with the ladies heading for their officer’s quarters and the GIS to the NCO’s block. Dinner wasn’t available in the officer’s mess until six, so they agreed to meet then. Jinnie found a smart uniform had been laid on her bed ready for the mess. Looking at it Jinnie saw that although it had her rank badges on it, there was not a single item to indicate a regiment, Jinnie chuckled, that was normally reserved for the SAS.
Having plenty of time before dinner, she put on her civvies and FaceTimed the twins, who were delighted to see her. She explained that she might not be able to speak to them every day she was away, and she really didn’t know when she would be home as the business might take longer than expected. The twins only worry was that they had nearly finished their bedtime book and Izzy didn’t know where the next book in the series was. Jinnie told Izzy where to find it and the crisis was averted.
Jinnie changed into her mess uniform and hung everything else in the wardrobe before knocking on her sister’s door. Penny was in her mess uniform as was Irena who was sat on the bed chatting to Penny about her position in the Slovenian army. She was now on the General Staff in charge of all Special Forces. They arrived at the Officer’s Mess at six and were shown to a table and handed menus. Irena said, “This reminds me of my time at Sandhurst, we are not so formal in Slovenia, and I think we have got it wrong. I think some of our generals need to experience a full regimental dinner, it bonds the officers together.
The meal was good, but not as good as the Trattoria Trevi, but as usual Jinnie was disappointed with the coffee. Opening the wardrobe to put her mess uniform away, Jinnie couldn’t help noticing that a clean set of fatigues was hanging there and the used set had gone. She wondered who was sorting things out for her and how they knew when she wasn’t in her room.
***
The group gathered just before 08:00 at the range as ordered and weren’t surprised when the colour sergeant arrived promptly at 08:00. They were quickly in their individual lanes each with a sergeant instructor overseeing them and instilling range discipline. Jinnie had always enjoyed shooting and this took her back to her competition days and she effortlessly slipped back into the routine of requesting permission to fire, firing the designated number of rounds at whatever target appeared, checking the weapon was clear and saying so loudly. Her instructor quickly had her building up the distance and by mid-morning when they had a short break she was consistently putting a five-round clip of .338 magnum ammunition through the centre of the target 500 metres.
While having a quick drink of water the women discussed their morning so far and realised they were progressing to a coordinated program and were all at the same stage of the course. Jinnie was quite happy with her spotter Luka, a man of few words, but always able to report accurately her fall of shot and relay the wind speed and direction from the digital anemometer in the sniper kit. He also had a laser range finder but as Jinnie was firing at fixed distance targets this wasn’t in use at present.
After the break it was back to shooting at targets at increasing distances. By lunch they were at 1,000 metres and all three were consistently scoring bulls. After lunch it was back to the range and further shooting at longer and longer distances. Jinnie knew the original version of the rifle had been designed to kill first time at 600 metres and to lay down sustained suppression fire at 1,100 metres. However, the latest versions had been used over much longer distances with kill shots at up to 2,500 metres. Jinnie had never been called on to fire that far and doubted she could make a successful shot over that distance. By late afternoon they were all constantly hitting the target at 1,500 metres and a smiling colour sergeant called a halt saying, “Good shooting ladies, now I want you back here at 19:30 for a bit of night practice. Tomorrow we will try the special US ammunition and we have secured a few RIBs from Italy, which have actually been used in the Med, for you to practice on.”
After dinner, a tired Jinnie was back in her lane with the night sight fitted to her sniper rifle. After a full day on the range, she was feeling tired and a little stiff but determined to do her best. Without the night sight it was impossible to see the first target which Luka informed her was at 850 metres and there was a wind of 0.1 metres per second from right to left. Jinnie adjusted her aim accordingly and was satisfied to see her bullet reported as clipping the centre of the target, the next four shots all went through the centre eventually producing one big hole. As she and Luka studied the retrieved target the CS said, “What do you want, a bloody round of applause, there’s a new target waiting.” It was just after 22:00 hours and Jinnie and the others had successfully, consistently hit a target at 1,700 metre in the growing wind, which was bringing in bursts of rain, the CS called it a day and told them to be back on the range at 09:00 as the range marshals had a ‘bit of setting up to do’.
***
After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast the three snipers were waiting in a persistent drizzle when the colour sergeant arrived. He greeted them with, “Good morning ladies, I understand that where you are going it shouldn’t be raining, but you need to be able to overcome all conditions so let’s get on with it. I am told that you are unlikely to ever be nearer than 1,000 metres of your ultimate targets and more likely at extreme range, more likely a good old British mile so it’s back to the daylight sights at 1,700 metres with the special ammunition. The armourers have loaded all the clips with it for this morning and say in trial it is a little harder to handle than the conventional rounds you have been using. Right then, positions please.”
Jinnie got into the prone position in her lane, loaded the five-round clip she was handed and called ‘ready’. Down the range, a large RIB with a target painted on the bow started to move from right to left. Trying to compensate for the movement and wind Jinnie’s brain calculated where she should aim and squeezed the trigger. She was a little disappointed when the shot fell a metre short of the target but in line with it. Quickly recalculating for what was obviously a physically heavier round, she fired again and this time the bullet hit the target and surprised her when it exploded blowing the bow off.
Luka was quickly in her ear pointing out there was also a target on the outboard on the stern, This time Jinnie was ready for the explosion that rendered the outboard useless. The RIB seemed to be on some sort of trolly and it was wheeled off only to be replaced by another, this time travelling left to right. Two more shots took out its bow and large Honda outboard. Jinnie ejected the used clip and inserted the next that was handed to her. This time the second was a different design and had two outboards on the stern, but they both exploded with what Jinnie thought of as a satisfactory bang. Her sergeant called for her to cease firing and as she did she heard explosions from the other lanes even through her ear defenders.
The CS called them together and said, “Unfortunately, we are short of the explosive ammunition. I propose we use all we have so that you can familiarise yourselves with it. I understand an ample fresh supply will be available for your mission, but it is only now being manufactured in small amounts and will have to be shipped across the Atlantic before your mission can take place. Now ladies, I have been instructed to tell you that you are required to report to Vauxhall Cross tomorrow at 10 o’clock. So, let’s get on and fire the remaining rounds then you will be dismissed.”
***
The twins had been delighted to find their mother at home when they arrived home from school on Wednesday afternoon and wanted to know if she had finished her ‘business’. To which Jinnie had to honestly reply no, and that she didn’t know how long it would be before she had to go away again. Willie said that reading their books was better with her, Izzy was good, Daddy not as good. But Mummy was best, she always remembered where they were in the story.
The following morning, Jinnie arranged to meet Penny and Irena at Potters Bar station and all to travel to the Cross together. Penny had suggested to Irena that she stay with her rather than a central London hotel as she had planned, and she had jumped at the idea. She knew Dan, having stayed there when she was learning English and, hopefully, it would give her the chance to visit Hadley and see the twins who had been little more than babies when she had last seen them.
Irena was impressed with the train into London and the quick switch onto the Underground. It was her first time on the Tube, never having gone into London on her previous visit and being driven everywhere. She was shocked at the numbers commuting even though Penny explained they were really travelling after the peak. When they emerged from Vauxhall Tube station Irena immediately recognised where she was and laughingly said, “At least this time I will understand what the receptionist is saying to me, and you won’t have to translate everything.”
While Irena’s name was found on the computer and she was issued with an ‘accompanied visitor’ pass, Jinnie and Penny stood to one side chatting. Out of the corner of her eye Jinnie saw a door on the other side of the turnstile line open and a familiar large figure emerge into the lift lobby. Jinnie suddenly realised it was ‘Big Willie’, whom she hadn’t seen for years. Breaking off from her conversation with her sister she called out “Willie” and headed through the turnstile. Willie heard his name being called and looked around, saw Jinnie coming through the turnstile line and strode over throwing his arms around her and hugging her. Eventually released, Jinnie said, “Hello Willie it’s years since I last saw you. It must be when I left here to have the twins.”
They stood chatting until joined by Penny and Irena. Jinnie introduced Irena in German and Willie switched to German and asked if she was German. Irena replied, “No, I was born in occupied Slovenia and fought to free it.” Jinnie explained that Willie had been in the German resistance, had been betrayed by a Nazi agent and escaped by the skin of his teeth. She explained that he was employed to run the in-house shooting range and train MI6 operatives to use handguns. Willie smiled and said, “Jinnie is the best shot I know with a Glock, male or female. You really should see here shoot.” “I have,” replied Irena, “but only with a sniper rifle and she is exceptional. I thought Penny was good, but she is better.”
“Do you have time to come down to the range?” asked Willie. “I have several Glocks and some excellent coffee. I remember you are an aficionado.” “I would love to,” replied Jinnie, “but we have a meeting with ‘C’ about a mission and I have no idea how long it will take. I promise if it is over quickly we will come down. I’d like to fire a Glock again it’s some time since I did.”
***
The ladies exited the lift on the executive floor and were greeted by ‘C’s PA who led them through her outer office to ‘C’s inner office and to his glass meeting room where he sat with an American naval officer, an RAF officer, whom Jinnie thought wore the uniform of an Air Commodore, and her old friend from school Greta who worked in mission planning with Penny. ‘C’ introduced the American as Commander Collins, naval attaché at the US Embassy, Air Commodore Hickman, and Greta the new head of the Special Mission Planning Group. Taking a seat around the meeting room table ‘C’ suggested they help themselves to tea or coffee. Seeing Jinnie eyeing the coffee pod machine with suspicion, he winked at her as his PA slid a mug of his Jamaica Blue Mountain in front of her.
‘C’ started the meeting by explaining the mission was still going ahead, but had been delayed a week or ten days because of the shortage of ammunition. Turning to Irena he said, “I realise that you may wish to go home and rejoin the party a day or so before the action starts, but if you wish to stay in the U.K. and travel with the sisters that is perfectly acceptable. Your spotters have returned home and will be joining you on the eve of the mission.” Penny smiled at Irena and said, “If you want to stay in the U.K. you are more than welcome to stay in my spare room, I will have to work but you will be able to see some of the U.K. I know you didn’t get to see much when you were here before as it was difficult because you were only learning English then.”
Irena replied, “I think I would like to stay. I am owed a lot of leave and I want to see the sites of London; Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s, The Tower of London, Trafalgar Square. I have seen it on the TV and I never thought I would get a chance to see it. Besides I haven’t seen Jinnie’s twins yet.” “Right,” said ‘C’, “Greta will take that into account and organise your travel alongside Jinnie and Penny. Now I’ll hand over to Greta who will take you through the plan.”
Greta cleared her throat and started off saying, “I can’t give you a kick-off date for this mission, as you heard that depends on the US delivering the required ammunition. I hope that Commander Collins may have something further to say on that later. The infiltration is rather easier on this mission than some. The RAF will fly you from Brize Norton to Catania in Sicily, from there you will be transported to the port and the Italian Navy will take you and the landing party out to a US submarine. The submarine will transport you to the coast of Tunisia where you will be landed close to the beaches that have been identified as the launch points of the illegal immigrants’ boats to Lampedusa.”
Greta continued, “The Italians and Tunisians have been working together to identify these beaches and although the Tunisians won’t say so, they are turning a blind eye to this mission they are. You will not find any opposition from their army or police; they have been stood down from the beaches. There is an advanced party from E Squadron already in situ, and they have set up hides that overview the three launch sites. They have also established a camp to sleep in during the day. I can’t tell you anything about it as it is like all things SAS, more than top secret, except they are to be withdrawn for the actual mission and will be replaced by Italian special forces who have an excellent relationship with the Tunisians. One last thing, the people smugglers position armed guards about half a mile from the launch points. I understand the hides are much further away, but if they come poking around, the regiment are under strict instructions to not let them anywhere near.”
“Thank you,” said ‘C’. “I’m sorry it’s only a general briefing, we can’t be more explicit until we have all the pieces in place, and we are currently short of one major one. However, I will add one point, this mission will be undertaken in uniform. You will be issued with MTP camouflage gear, warm weather for day, and temperate for night. Irena, I’m sorry but as far as the Tunisians are concerned this is an Italian operation with British assistance, so we will be issuing you a British uniform with the appropriate officer patches. Now perhaps Commander Collins can update us on the status of the ordinance.”
An embarrassed Collins said, “The latest news I have from American ordinance is that it will be seven days minimum before the ammunition is manufactured, apparently it is proving a little difficult. As it is so new they have had to set up a production line at the Iowa plant. This is the first batch run and you will be getting the first rounds once the production run has been quality assured. Once we have enough for your requirements, it will be flown to Scilly then production will continue with some going to our sniper school and a stock being built up at the Milan storage facility in Tennessee. If you ever need more we should be able to supply it from storage.” “Thank you, Commander,” said ‘C’. “I don’t think we need to detain you ladies any longer, I’m sure we will be in touch when we have the ammunition and we can kick the mission off.”
***
The three ladies headed for the basement range and found Big Willie busy at his computer in his office. “I hope we are not interrupting anything important,” said Jinnie. Willie looked up and replied, “Not really. I was checking training records to see who was due for a refresher course. I am delighted to say we are nearly up to date. So, I have plenty of time to let you loose with a Glock or two. In fact, it is so quiet I think I might take some of the holidays I am due from last year, if I don’t take it soon I will lose it. My deputy can look after things next week.”
Willie took a key from his pocket and opened a heavy steel door in the wall behind him, revealing racks of revolvers, pistols, and ammunition. He wandered inside and came back with three Glocks and a couple of boxes of 9×19 ammunition and three spare 17-round clips. Looking to Irena he asked, “I take it you are familiar with the Glock; I know the others are.” “Not really,” replied Irena, “at home we use a Smith and Wesson M&P.” “It is very similar,” said Willie “No problem, I’ll show you how it works and how the range works.”
Jinnie found some ear defenders and took a lane. She was surprised how familiar the pistol felt in her hand considering it was over five years since she had fired one. Like every gun she had ever had on a range run by Willie, it was in perfect condition and had a faint smell of gun oil. She aimed down the range and pulled the trigger a couple of times to check it was unloaded and to get a feel of the action which was beautifully smooth. She removed the clip from the hand grip and loaded it and a spare with 17 rounds each. As she did so she became aware of laughter and giggles coming from the lane to her right, obviously Irena and Willie were getting on well.
Jinnie slipped the 1st clip in the gun and fired the full clip at targets at 10 metres, 15 metres and 20 metres. From the first shoot she felt good and knew she was hitting the target again and again. After the first clip she wound the targets in and replaced them with fresh ones. Before shooting again she checked the targets and was a little disappointed, she had scored several 9s amongst her tens. In her competition days if she had fired 17 rounds she would have been disappointed with one nine.
Determined to do better she fired the second clip. This time when she wound in the targets it was all tens, even if one was cutting the line. She took the clips out of the pistol, checked they were empty, aimed the gun down the range and pulled the trigger several times to ensure all the rounds had been fired, despite her counting shots. She took off the ear defenders and headed out into the corridor and discovered she was first to finish her two clips. She was shortly joined by Penny who said, “I enjoyed that, it so long since I shot a pistol, it was good to do it again. How did you get on?” “Not so well with the first clip,” replied Jinnie, “but the second clip was much better.” Before she could add to the story Irena and Willie appeared smiling and laughing. Penny asked, “How did you get on?” quickly adding, “with the Glock.” Irena answered, “Pretty good, it is very similar to the S&W” then she added, “Willie has volunteered to show me London while you are at work.”
In Chapter 26 – Waiting for the call
© WorthingGooner 2024
