GIMLET GOES AGAIN
Book First Published in November 1944 - 185 pages
I believe this Gimlet book was never serialised elsewhere. If anybody knows differently then please E-MAIL ME
The first edition dust jacket showing the original price of 5 shillings
A short
two page introduction sums up the story from 'King of the Commandos' and we then jump (quite literally) straight into the story as
Gimlet and Cub parachute back into France. Meeting up with the
"Fleas" again and their leader, the Fox, they are shown the body of a
dead Frenchman. This man was Jacques Catron and he was a member of the French
Underground. He was supposed to meet a contact at the Restaurant des
Voyageurs but he was shot and wounded by the Germans before he could do so
and later he died. The Fox has found out that the Nazis plan to replace Jacques
with a spy. If a spy infiltrates the French Underground, many lives will be
lost. Gimlet dresses in the dead man's clothes and goes to the rendezvous in
the place of Jacques. Jacques did not know the man he was supposed to meet and
the man did not know Jacques. At the restaurant, a German Unteroffizier arrests
Gimlet and it turns out that this man is the contact. Cub sees a man with a
pale face and it is this man who is the spy posing as Jacques. The
"German" is in reality an Englishman known as "Numero Neuf"
(number nine) and he was expecting vital information from Jacques. Trapper
arrives with the Fox having been fetched from where he was manning boats for
the commandos' escape. Numero asks Gimlet and Cub to go to Paris to find out
the information that Jacques had been sent with. Numero knows an address where
they can go to contact the French Underground. On the train to Paris our two
heroes are arrested by the Gestapo but freed by a member of the French
Underground. In Paris, Gimlet goes to the address given, but the Gestapo have
arrested everybody and laid a trap for anyone that comes along. Gimlet is
captured but Cub, who waited nearby, is alerted to the fact that something is
wrong when the pale faced man from the Restaurant des Voyageurs arrives.
Cub is able to stop a French Underground member going to the same address as he
recognised him as the man who helped them on the train by killing the Gestapo
agent. This man is called Dominique and together with Cub they organise an
escape for Gimlet and others, when a German lorry comes to collect the
prisoners. Taken to meet the mysterious Monsieur Rouge, the head of the French
Underground, Gimlet learns the vital information. The Renault motor works in
Paris are being used to produce aero engines but the Germans are holding about
100 commandos prisoner in the works to stop it being bombed. The French
Underground have tunnelled under the works and plan to free the prisoners so
the Renault works can be bombed the same night. They have arranged a cycle race
out of Paris to Rouen and by this means the prisoners will be given bikes and
got out of Paris. Once at a safe house, French Underground members will
complete the race so that nothing seems suspicious. Gimlet decides that the
escaped commandos will have to take a German airfield so that British transport
planes can land and take them all away. Returning to Caen and the
"Fleas'" HQ, Gimlet and Cub find not only Trapper but also Copper
waiting for them. Also present is Numero. Bomber command has to be contacted to
co-ordinate with the raid. The four commandos return to Paris to carry through
the plan. At the Paris railway station, the commandos have to fight their way
through Germans. The plan goes ahead smoothly with the tunnel being opened and
the prisoners being evacuated. Things then go wrong when the tunnel is flooded.
The French are forced to blow it up and leave our heroes trapped in the Renault
works. Needless to say, they manage to fight their way out. Stealing a German
car, Gimlet and Co. catch up with the escaping commandos on their bikes. One
final checkpoint has to be got through and then the attack on the German
airfield has to take place after supplies are dropped by the Royal Air Force. The German airfield is taken and it is
Biggles who is piloting the aircraft that lands first. On pages 181 onwards,
Biggles has a page full of rather banal dialogue and Ginger gets a few lines as
well. (Again, one must ask whether this makes the book a Biggles book?). The story ends on page 185 with everyone
getting home safely and Cub's father wanting to send Cub to an officer-training
unit.
Click here to see the story illustrations from this book
Gimlet Goes Again
Subtitle - King of the Commandos in another adventure with
Fighting France, and the Grey Fleas of the North.
Publication Details - originally published by University of
London Press Ltd.
Cover Illustration on First Edition
Frontispiece
Click on the Frontispiece to enlarge it
Click on the Paperback above to find out all about the GIMLET
Armada paperbacks and see the many DIFFERENT illustrations in them
The “Youth Book Club” edition reprint – click on the above
picture to find out more details