L4

L4

"Mr. Margolies, the following three  weeks will be  very lively ones for you, I'm afraid. As we  get closer to the moment of the Allied invasion across the Strait of Dover, which is set for the final week of June, you will find that your Clarinet task orders will be coming in at a much greater rate than ever before."

"Nightly rather than weekly, then, sir?"

"Twice nightly, I wanted  to tell you  this, Mr.  Margolies, so when it happens you do not imagine things have gone amiss."

"I perfectly understand what I must do, sir," said Benjamin.

So after a brisk shake of their hands they  descended the steps mounted inside the structure of the lighthouse and were parted, but Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay felt thoroughly soiled.

One time a  German U-boat  captain noted  that St.  Catherine's lighthouse stopped flashing for hours. It was a small matter but he noted the  start and  stop time. The report wound its  way through Berlin. One clever analyst realized the data matched the start and stop time of the Clarinet signal originating from what they thought was a nearby antenna. A second observation verified the light beam remained lined up on a target in Germany that was taken out by night bombing.

In the early morning hours of June 5 a  U-boat surfaced off the Isle of Wight. Commandos rowed ashore to raid  the lighthouse, led by an  SS captain  named Felix  Schaub who  doubled as  the political officer to ensure the crew's loyalty to the gangsters running Germany. Judith and Edith whimpered in terror when they were tied up and threatened with pistols pointed at their heads. Benjamin demonstrated the operation  of the Clarinet  system to Captain  Schaub,  but the  Germans  neither  destroyed the  gear nor tried to  remove  it to  their  submarine. Instead, Schaub identified each member of the Margolies family by name, and told them he knew they were Jews.

"Mr. Margolies," Straub  said, "this  is a  matter of  life and death for your  wife and daughter. The fate of  Edith and Judith will depend on how you answer  two questions. First, what is the target area of the planned invasion across the Channel?"

Benjamin stiffened in dismay. He was confronted with the choice of losing his family or betraying the trust Admiral Sir Bertrand Ramsay had given him. To prod him along, there was a slight nod from Schaub. The hammer was pulled back on the pistol pointed at Judith's head.