Play up, play up and play the game.... Flashman returns

[RogerJNeilson]

Major Flashman, do sit down, we don’t stand on ceremony here. Anyway we in the RAF don’t have a lot of jurisdiction over you brown jobs. Lt Gen Giffard is ranking CIC here in Shanghai but we are winding down our operations and handing over the the Chinese over the next few weeks.

I have here a file covering the two plus years of your ‘missing in action’. Makes interesting reading….

Indeed in some respects it reads like some absurd novel rather than anything resembling real life.

Lets see…..

Refused to surrender when Singapore fell, but escaped singlehanded and crewed the small boat (stolen) up the coast… avoiding all Japanese patrols until landfall near Singora……

Hopped a goods train and travelled to Bangkok where some Chinese secreted you and you and a female companion then travelled up waterways until arriving Chiang Mai….

Raised a guerrilla group and moved across into Indochina, committing acts of sabotage and plunder….. for which the Japanese put a huge bounty on your head and you were ambushed and every member of your band was killed - apart from you.

Moving through the hill country of the north you cross the border into China and make yourself available as an advisor to Lt Gen Chang of the 14th Chinese Corps tasked with taking and holding Mengtze. Once Mengtze is taken and the way is open you move across China to Chungking where you valiantly serve the Generalissimo as a shadow special advisor highly favoured by him and Madame Chiang…… He values you so strongly that he hides the fact of your existence from us until you plead with him desperately as Shanghai will soon be retaken, to join your brothers in arms to administer the Coup de Grace to the Japanese Empire…. For some reason he agrees to let you go, perhaps because there is jealousy amongst some of his officers about your influence and he thinks they might wish to kill you.

For safety sake you travel as an English Missionary by ship down the Yangtse until you arrive at Hankow, and for some reason you discover a plot to kill you if you should continue by boat so you change to train and journey via Chengting, Peiping, Tientsin, and by the most roundabout route possible arrive in Shanghai two weeks ago, just after the city has fallen - dashed bad timing there old boy.

For the last week you have been ‘accomodated’ with the RAF Regiment detachment who have been debriefing you and putting together this file….

I trust they have looked after you in the manner accorded to a Major?

Indeed Wing Commander, almost Hilton like in quality though the locked door and the bars on the window are a new feature of hospitality. (I have certainly had worse cells in my time) I finally get a chance to speak.

If you could just sign this statement attesting to the fact that you have been well looked after?

Do I have a choice? Thought not……

Thank you……

So, what next you may be wondering……

I will see you again here tomorrow at dawn, you will have your belongings, such as they are, packed and with you. Apologies that you are still dressed as a missionary - the supply of Major’s uniforms has not been a priority in our logistical chain of supplies to date. Tonight we will again protect you in our own compound in case these jealous Chinese have got wind of your presence, we will have armed guards to ensure your safety - after all we would not want you to vanish again.

Tomorrow we will say goodbye. Sleep well Major…..


Well Flashy, dawn tomorrow eh? Sounds a touch ominous. No uniform, nothing to identify me as a combatant…… sat here in a barred room with an armed guard outside…… how do I get out of this one? Has the infamous Flashman luck run out?

Ah well, if it has it will at least be quick, not like had I fallen into the hands of the Japanese, or for that matter many of the Chinese I encountered, nor Ling Feng, nor Madame Chu, nor Valentina Teresvina….. ah memories……..

[RogerJNeilson]

Flashman's journey up the coast...... Singers to Singora

[RogerJNeilson]

Singora to Bangkok to Mengtze

[RogerJNeilson]

Mengtze to Chungking to Hankow

[RogerJNeilson]

Hankow to Shanghai... by the 'scenic' route

[PaxMondo]

[RogerJNeilson]

1st April 1945…..

Despite the terminal nature of my appointment at dawn I did manage to sleep. But a fella just cannot have a lie in with all the bawling and barging around. RAF ground types try to out do the Army MPs - guess they have a complex about not being ‘good enough’.

Not even a last meal, bundled out into the cold night with the sun just appearing over the South China Sea, a convoy of jeeps with some very well armed ‘escorts’ and a short ride along the apron….

The jeeps stop beside a plane. One of these huge B29 jobs. The WingCo who was having that chat with me yesterday is there……

‘Good of you to join us Major Flashman, glad you didn’t get lost on your journey this time’.

I am giving him my full attention, whilst still looking for the post in the ground and the firing squad…

‘Lt Brors and his crew are rejoining his unit who have redeployed to Gunzan…. his plane needed some attention after a quarrel with some flak over Saishu-To, so he has been awaiting its restoration to flying capability for a few days. He has agreed to let you use the USAAF as a personal aid to getting you more directly to your final destination. Do please board at your leisure, you will be met at Gunzan by your next escorts. I trust our paths will not cross again. It is, by the way, ages since we have had any of our lone bombers intercepted by Japanese fighters as they rejoin their squadrons. Farewell ‘Major’ Flashman.’

A clipped salute, a smart turn and he is gone, I catch something under his breath as he turns that seems to end with …..tard…… hmmm.

I am escorted to the plane, urged to climb the ladder and once inside the hatch is shut. The crewmen throw me a spare flight jacket and motion for me to sit as the engines make any communication without the intercom impossible. Bump bump we leave Shanghai and China behind…..

[RogerJNeilson]

weird posted 3 times....

[RogerJNeilson]

very weird

[Alfred]

Was the young female left at Chiang Mai or did she too fall at the ambush. Or perhaps she was a new Mata Hari?
 
Alfred

[RogerJNeilson]

all valid questions - the answers to which are not to be found in the manual.......

Suspense........

Roger

[RogerJNeilson]

2nd April 1945 - the journey continues

Well we arrived in Gunzan with no intervention from the Japanese - I have to say I did keep checking through the available observation points on the journey. Banking over the harbour on the approach to the airstrip you could pretty well walk on the amount of shipping in there - almost all look to be troop transports of one kind or another. Landed and we taxi past row after row of Superfortresses as overhead a range of fighters swept back and forward. Dropped pff before the plane was taken to its berth I was immediately escorted to the guard house where I spent a few hours sat being deliberately not talked to by anyone. Eventually I was escorted out and driven in a jeep down to the waterline where a waiting Catalina had its engines running and as soon as I was aboard we were off. Later that day landing at Fusan harbour I again am escorted to a set of naval buildings and ‘accommodated’ again in a locked and secure room for another overnight hotel stop. Whatever is happening is being kept very quiet and certainly they don’t want to mislay me……

I am able to look out of the window at the even vaster array of shipping here.

[BBfanboy]

The view from the cell?

[RogerJNeilson]

I have checked with Flashman, there should be at least another 50 ships out there.....

Roger

[RogerJNeilson]

3rd April 1945 an offer is made….

Collected from my ‘hotel’ still in my missionary kit, and decidedly the worse for wear now. I am driven to Allied HQ in a jeep crewed by two Gurkhas and a Korean - he does the driving. The Gurkhas sit with weapons casually draped but pointed at me in the most offhand manner as I sit in the front.

I am escorted in and they wait with me in an anteroom until I am summoned by the door opening and an HQ type coming to meet me. I follow him through into a fairly crowded room, I am guessing that Fusan has not very expected to be the HQ for the Allied war efforts. Across a desk sits a Brigadier General - I stand casually - after all I am not in uniform and he waits the obligatory period of studiously ignoring me - then curtly tells me to sit. The chair creaks alarmingly.

‘Ok Flashman, you will now give me your undivided attention and will not interrupt.

I have read your file and we have a small problem as to what to do with you. I will paint you two distinct pictures of your future.

Flashman is a daring, resourceful hero who has helped in numerous ways in the war effort, has almost fought his own private war on several occasions and upon his return to Uk will be feted as a grand war hero, for whom doors of opportunity will open.

Flashman is an abject coward who deserted his post, went on the run, engaged in numerous criminal activities that probably hindered the war effort. He was finally tracked down near Tsinan by members of the Chinese Army who summarily executed the criminal.

Now next to no-one knows who you are since your arrival in Shanghai, and your transportation here is strictly unrecorded in any manner that will survive the next day or two.

My own view is that the first description of Flashman is a total fallacy. You have shown the only motivating factor you have is saving your own skin, you are amoral, generally lazy and about as trustworthy as a Cobra - and that is doing the Cobra a disservice.

So we have a choice, or rather you have a choice. I am about to make you an offer - and you can choose. Either you agree to do what we request, or else you will have died back at Tsinan and any evidence of your presence here will be destroyed - including of course the skin that you seem very very keen on saving.

I do applaud the fact that you are saying nothing, merely listening and - no doubt - calculating how you can get away from this.

But I have not yet painted the other choice you have….. it is this. You work for me from now on, and you do whatever tasks I require. Make no mistake, this is sanctioned from the highest level, a member of the Royal Hosehold no less.

So in a moment you can tell me which you choose. Either you agree to do whatever you are ordered to, or we reverse history, you ‘die’ on the Chinese mainland and your missionary clothing and your body feed the sharks after a short trip over the Yellow Sea in that Catalina you flew in yesterday.

A throw of the dice, but they are loaded. Either death within an hour or the chance to come out of this war with boundless opportunity and still be alive…..

A simple nod will suffice…..

Yes I rather thought you would see that as the better option.

So that is concluded then, I will see you again here in two hours, that will give you time to shower, change into uniform, and have some food. From now on the team that brought you here are your own little section. They will take you to your quarters - not that luxurious but they will do for now - and they will return you here for our next discussion.

By the way Flashman, welcome back to the Army, and please note carefully your section will obey you because you are their officer, but they are MY men and they have their own clear instructions if what you do does not fit with what i want you to do.

Next time you enter this room you will be in uniform, and I expect you will not have forgotten either how to stand to attention, nor salute….

Dismissed.

[RogerJNeilson]

3rd April - later in the day - now what?

Good salute Major, and very impressive uniform, almost as if it is the first time you are wearing it. At ease, please sit down.

Congratulations by the way, I was sure that you would try and escape out of the back window and drop to the ground. Good thing you were still in your Dog Collar gear, it got a bit messy I gather when the Gurkhas had to remind you to behave yourself. They are good fellows, very well trained and well above your level of shenanigans. I am sure they and you will find a modus operandi to avoid any further chance of injury to yourself. I chose them as of course the Gurkhas are totally loyal to the Crown and in no way could be suborned by any criminal thoughts you might choose to dangle as bait.

Now, to business. I currently have no immediate operation for you so I have arranged for one of my staff to bring you up to date on the progress of the war. I suspect your Chinese period will have given you some fragmentary awareness that needs filling in. You are free to wander Fusan provided you remain in uniform at all times and are escorted by your bodyguards, indeed it would be good for you to familiarise yourself with the place and what is here. As soon as I have a mission for you I will summon you for a briefing. Your Korean driver is also an interpreter and does have one or two other talents - he does not like the Japanese much.

Am I permitted a question?

Of course we are now in a normal discussion.

I am of course pleased to be still alive, but why has all this been arranged for me? You make no secret of the fact you dislike me?

Major Flashman, I dislike lots of things, I dislike lots of people, I dislike intensely some of the other combatants in this place. I do recognise their abilities and their strengths. You are only motivated by one thing, survival. You have no loyalty, no care for others except in so far as it can help you. All we need to do is recognise that total focus and motivate you with it. You will be forever between’ a rock and a hard place’ and hopefully your criminal and atavistic mind will be able to look at some problems we have in your own distinct way… you are an instrument to be used by me. Provided you do what you are asked to do, and prove yourself as a useful tool you will remain on my staff and more or less out of harm’s way. If you cease to be useful you will either meet with an accident, or perhaps die a glorious death as the first British officer to land on Japanese soil.

You will be party to much that is secret, you will have access to all manner of senior discussions, and thus you have been made a BIGOT, and your section are aware of this.

Sorry your face betrays that you did not understand that last piece of information. All staff involved in sensitive planning for an invasion are given the designation of BIGOT. A BiGOT cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands, your bodyguards are under absolute instructions to kill you in the case that this could happen.

For now Major, you are dismissed. Do please enjoy the entertainments on offer in Fusan…. Report here tomorrow to Major Fitzwilliam for your history lesson.

[Capt. Harlock]

IIRC Flashman was never a major in British service; he was catapulted to colonel in Flashman at the Charge. However, he was apparently a major in the tragically unwritten exploits in the American Civil War.

[RogerJNeilson]

Has Flashman an ounce of honour and family tradition he would be feeling proud that he could yet gain a higher rank than any of his 'Illustrious' ancestors. He still has time to collect a higher rank and a lot of gaudy medals.... but he has to live through the next few months first.....


Roger

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: RogerJNeilson

Has Flashman an ounce of honour and family tradition he would be feeling proud that he could yet gain a higher rank than any of his 'Illustrious' ancestors. He still has time to collect a higher rank and a lot of gaudy medals.... but he has to live through the next few months first.....


Roger

I expect the opposite - he will meet American tycoon Milo Mindbender on the docks of Fusan and become involved in some "Quid Pro Quo" bargaining to the detriment of both Allies and Japanese, and the benefit of Milo Mindbender and his agent, Flashman.

[RogerJNeilson]

Milo is still engaged in his European operations..... but only for a month or so.....

Roger