Part 1 (1/2)

Dave Dawson at Dunkirk

by Robert Sydney Bowen

CHAPTER ONE

_Hitler Gives The Order!_

The first thing Dave Dawson sahen he woke up was the combination clock and calendar on the little table beside his bed He stared at it sleepy eyed and tried to remember why he had put it where he would see it the very first thing when he opened his eyes He knew there was some reason, an important one, but for the life of hiled with the problelanced about the rooht startled hirinned broadly Sure enough! This was his room in the Hotel de Ney in Paris, France This was just a little part of the wonderful dreaun teeks ago It had begun with the thundering roar of the _Dixie_ Clipper's four engines that had lifted Dave and his father fro Island, on the first leg of the flight across the Atlantic to Lisbon, Portugal His father had been sent to Europe on a govern had consented to take Dave along The thrill of a lifeti everyin a very special kind of Seventh Heaven

To fly to a Europe at peace was so extra special It was a trip a felloould remember all the days of his life It was an adventure that he'd tell his grandchildren all about so at Bermuda, then on to the Azores, and then farther eastward to Lisbon The train journey across Portugal to Spain, then up across Spain and over the Pyrenees into France Finally on to Paris and all the beautiful things that beautiful city had to offer

Not all of the things, however, had been beautiful There were lots of things that were gris of war True, the as a long, long ways froinot Line of the French and the Siegfried Line of Adolf Hitler's nazi legions There it had re that there it would reinot Line, and eventually the ould just peter out

Yes, that was the talk you heard all over Paris, but the gris were there for you to see with your own eyes just the saically placed about the city The fat sausage balloons that could be sent up to great heights as a barricade against raiding German bombers, should Hitler ever decide to send the Corps planes that patrolled alht The arh the suburbs day after day

The lorries filled with solehtthe black out No lights on the streets save the tiny blue flashlights that the people carried At first it made you think of a crazy kind of fairyland Then the faint _cru into action, and the long shafts of brilliant light stabbing the black skies, would reht coh as yet it had not even come close But

At that moment the hts He glanced at the clock and saw that it was exactly fifteen lanced at the calendar, too, and it told him that the date was May 10th, 1940

May Tenth! In a flash the elusive bit ofback the covers and leaped out of bed May Tenth, of course! Gee, to think that he had actually forgotten Why, today was doubly i, he was now exactly seventeen years old For the other, that swell French officer, Lieutenant Defoe, of the 157th Infantry Regi to take Dad and hiinot Line!

The Lieutenant had said he would come by the hotel at seven thirty sharp That's why he had put the clock so close to his bed! To make sure he would hear the alarm, in case his dad in the next room over-slept

Heck, yes! Seventeen years old, and a trip to the Maginot Line!

He danced a jig across the room to the talland took the stance of a fighter co out of his corner for the knock-out round For a couple of lass, then whipped over a crushi+ng, finishi+ng right and danced back

”Boy oh boy, do I feel good!” he cried happily and tore off his pajainot Line Me! Oh boy!”

In almost less time than it takes to tell about it he was bathed and fully dressed and ready to go He started for the door leading into his father's room but checked himself as he saw the camera on the bureau He took a step toward it, then snapped his fingers as he reinot Line was one place where even the President of France could not take a camera For a second he was tement quickly squelched that idea He knew that Lieutenant Defoe had gone to a lot of trouble to get per of fortresses, and it would be pretty cheap to do anything that would get the Lieutenant in wrong

So he left the caht up his hat, and went over to the connecting door and knocked loudly

”Rise and shi+ne in there, Mister!” he called out ”Big doings today, remember? Are you up, Dad?”

There was no sound save the echo of his own voice He knocked again and shouted, ”Hey, Dad!” but there was still no sound frorasped the knob and pushed the door open

”Hey, Dad, get!”

An eaze The bed hadn't been slept in As a n that the room had been occupied There were no clothes in the closet, no toilet articles and stuff on the dresser, and not even any traveling bags The sudden shockbut stare wide eyed at the vacant roo?” he heard his own voice ht to hione, for cat's sake _Hey, Dad!_”

All that he got for his extra loud shout was a ry pounding on the floor of the room above He closed his Dad's door and went down the stairs three at a tiht across the lobby floor to the desk