Issue One: The Desert Bastards
Chapter One: A Thousand Miles From Home
The desert stretched forever.
Not a tree.
Not a river.
Or even a road.
Just sand. Endless sand. The sort of place that could swallow a man and leave no trace he had ever existed.
A battered British jeep bounced across the dunes beneath a merciless African sun.
The four men inside looked less like soldiers and more like pirates.
Their uniforms were faded and stained with months of dust and sweat. Their faces were hidden behind thick beards. Goggles sat permanently around their necks. Arab headscarves protected them from the sand that found its way into everything.
They had been in the desert too long.
Far too long.
Alfie Briggs spat over the side of the jeep.
“Another day in paradise.”
Billy Hughes laughed.
“You’ve said that every day for three months.”
“Aye,” said Alfie. “And every day I mean it less.”
The jeep lurched violently over a ridge.
Behind the wheel, Alfie wrestled with the steering wheel as though he were fighting a wild animal.
The vehicle rattled and groaned.
Every bolt seemed ready to fall off.
Yet somehow it kept moving.
Just like its crew.
At the rear sat Jock McLaren.
No one knew much about Jock.
Nobody knew if he had ever been frightened.
Nobody knew if he even could be frightened.
The giant Scotsman stared across the horizon with narrowed eyes.
Then suddenly he spoke.
“Stop.”
The laughter vanished immediately.
Alfie slammed on the brakes.
The jeep slid sideways in a cloud of dust.
“What is it?” asked Tommy Reed.
Jock pointed.
The others followed his finger.
Half buried in the sand sat the remains of a German truck.
The desert had already begun claiming it.
One wheel stuck out at an impossible angle.
The canvas cover had long since disappeared.
The whole thing looked like the skeleton of some giant animal.
Billy grinned.
“Treasure.”
The men climbed down.
In the desert nothing was ever wasted.
A dead truck might contain water.
Fuel.
Food.
A spare part worth more than gold.
Tommy followed the others toward the wreck.
He was the youngest among them.
Still young enough to remember what England looked like.
Still young enough to think the war might have an ending.
The others had been out here longer.
Long enough for the desert to get inside their heads.
Alfie climbed into the shattered vehicle and began searching through the remains.
A moment later he shouted.
“Jackpot!”
Billy hurried over.
“What is it?”
Alfie held up a battered tin.
Billy’s face dropped.
“Tea?”
“Tea.”
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then all four men burst out laughing.
The laughter echoed across the empty desert.
For a brief second the war seemed very far away.
Then Jock stopped laughing.
His eyes had moved beyond the truck.
Beyond the dunes.
Toward the western horizon.
A dark smear was beginning to appear against the sky.
It grew larger every second.
Billy saw it first.
“Oh no.”
Tommy swallowed.
The approaching wall stretched from one end of the horizon to the other.
A mountain of sand.
A moving monster.
A desert storm.
Jock climbed back into the jeep.
“Move.”
Nobody argued.
Nobody needed to.
The desert had just declared war.
Chapter Two: The Devil’s Breath
The storm hit like the end of the world.
One moment the four men were racing across an open desert.
The next they were swallowed whole.
Sand hammered against the jeep.
The sky vanished.
The horizon vanished.
Even the sun disappeared.
It was as though someone had thrown a giant blanket over the earth.
Alfie gripped the steering wheel.
He couldn’t see ten feet ahead.
The wind screamed around them.
“Anyone see where we’re going?”
Billy laughed.
“No!”
“Good.”
“What do you mean good?”
“If you can see where we’re going, we’re probably dead.”
The jeep struck something hard.
All four men were thrown forward.
The engine coughed.
Then died.
Silence.
Not complete silence.
The storm still roared outside.
But the engine was gone.
That frightened them more.
For a few seconds nobody moved.
Then Alfie tried the starter.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Billy removed his goggles.
“That’s not good.”
“No,” said Alfie.
“It isn’t.”
The four men climbed out.
Immediately the storm attacked them.
Sand stung their skin.
Their scarves whipped wildly in the wind.
Even breathing became difficult.
Jock pulled open the bonnet.
The engine looked like every engine in North Africa.
Half machine.
Half desert.
Alfie joined him.
“Can you fix it?”
Jock shrugged.
“Can always fix it.”
Tommy smiled.
“That’s the spirit.”
Jock looked at him.
“No.”
He pointed at the engine.
“That’s the problem.”
For two hours they worked.
The storm never eased.
Sand found its way into every moving part.
Every nut.
Every bolt.
Every thought.
Billy later claimed he found sand inside his boots, his pockets and his tea all at the same time.
Nobody doubted him.
Eventually Alfie slammed the bonnet shut.
“Try it.”
Jock climbed into the driver’s seat.
The starter whined.
Once.
Twice.
Then
The engine exploded into life.
The four men cheered.
For a brief moment they felt invincible.
The desert immediately reminded them otherwise.
The storm finally began to fade as darkness approached.
The men drove until sunset.
Then stopped.
There was no choice.
Driving at night meant getting lost.
Getting lost meant dying.
The rules were simple.
The desert wrote them.
The desert enforced them.
They made camp beside a rocky outcrop barely visible beneath the moonlight.
Billy brewed tea.
Naturally.
Nobody knew where he found the water.
Nobody dared ask.
The tea appeared.
That was enough.
Tommy sat on a crate staring into the darkness.
The stars above North Africa looked close enough to touch.
Back home there had always been streetlights.
Factories.
Smoke.
People.
Here there was only silence.
“Thinking about home?”
Tommy turned.
Alfie sat beside him.
“A bit.”
“A girl?”
Tommy looked embarrassed.
The answer was obvious.
Alfie laughed.
“Knew it.”
Billy shouted from the fire.
“His girl’s probably married to someone else by now!”
Tommy threw a boot at him.
Billy ducked.
The boot vanished into the darkness.
The others burst out laughing.
For five minutes they forgot there was a war.
For five minutes they were just friends sitting around a fire.
Then Jock stood up.
Instantly the laughter stopped.
The Scotsman was staring north.
His expression had changed.
“What is it?” asked Alfie.
Jock didn’t answer.
Instead he pointed.
Far away.
Miles away.
A tiny orange glow flickered against the darkness.
Then another.
Then another.
The four men watched in silence.
The lights stretched across the horizon.
Too many to count.
Too organised to be British.
A convoy.
A large one.
Tommy felt his stomach tighten.
Billy stopped smiling.
Even Alfie looked serious.
Jock finally spoke.
Just one word.
“Germans.”
The distant engines rolled across the desert like thunder.
Hundreds of vehicles.
Perhaps more.
Heading east.
Heading somewhere important.
The four men watched from the darkness as the enemy passed beyond the horizon.
None of them knew it yet.
But they had just seen something that could change the entire campaign.
And somewhere beyond those dunes, hidden beneath the moonlit desert, an even bigger secret waited to be discovered.
Chapter Three: Ghosts in the Sand
The Germans were gone by sunrise.
Only their tracks remained.
Hundreds of tyre marks stretched across the desert like scars.
The four men stood beside the jeep studying them.
Billy scratched his beard.
“That’s a lot of Germans.”
“Brilliant observation,” said Alfie.
“I know.”
Tommy followed the tracks with his eyes.
“Where are they going?”
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
Jock climbed into the jeep.
“Only one way to find out.”
The engine growled into life.
Moments later they were moving again.
Keeping their distance.
Following the enemy trail.
The sun climbed higher.
The desert became an oven.
Heat shimmered across the dunes.
Everything looked unreal.
Mountains appeared where there were none.
Lakes appeared where no water existed.
The desert lied constantly.
That was one of the reasons men hated it.
Around midday they stopped atop a ridge.
Jock raised a pair of battered binoculars.
His eyes narrowed.
Then narrowed further.
“Well I’ll be damned.”
The others crowded around.
“What is it?”
Jock handed over the binoculars.
Alfie looked.
And nearly dropped them.
Beyond the next valley sat dozens of German trucks.
Rows and rows of them.
Fuel tankers.
Supply vehicles.
Armoured cars.
More than enough to support an entire army.
Tommy took the binoculars next.
His mouth fell open.
The Germans hadn’t simply crossed the desert.
They had built a town.
A hidden town.
Camouflaged nets stretched across enormous fuel dumps.
Tents filled the valley floor.
Mechanics worked on vehicles.
Soldiers carried crates.
Smoke drifted from field kitchens.
The whole place buzzed with activity.
Yet from a distance it vanished into the landscape.
Like a mirage.
Billy whistled.
“That seems important.”
Alfie nodded slowly.
“Very important.”
The four men dropped behind the ridge.
Nobody spoke for a few seconds.
Finally Tommy broke the silence.
“We should report this.”
“We should,” agreed Alfie.
Billy frowned.
“But nobody’s going to believe us.”
The others knew he was right.
A hidden German supply base of this size sounded impossible.
Headquarters would want proof.
Hard proof.
Photographs.
Evidence.
Something more than four dusty soldiers pointing at a map.
Alfie looked back toward the valley.
Then smiled.
Tommy didn’t like that smile.
He had seen it before.
It usually meant trouble.
“What are you thinking?”
Alfie grinned.
“We get closer.”
Tommy stared at him.
Billy stared at him.
Even Jock looked slightly annoyed.
“Closer?” said Tommy.
“Much closer.”
“What if they see us?”
Alfie shrugged.
“Then we’ll drive away very quickly.”
The plan was ridiculous.
Naturally they agreed to it.
An hour later the jeep sat hidden behind a rocky outcrop.
The men continued on foot.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Every movement mattered.
The valley grew larger.
The Germans grew clearer.
Soon they could hear voices.
Engines.
Laughter.
A mechanic hammering metal.
Tommy’s heart hammered against his ribs.
One mistake and they were finished.
They crawled the final few yards.
Then stopped.
The hidden base lay directly below them.
It was even bigger than they had imagined.
Fuel drums stretched as far as the eye could see.
Hundreds.
Perhaps thousands.
Enough fuel to keep Rommel’s army moving for months.
Billy quietly removed a camera from his pack.
A precious piece of equipment.
He snapped one photograph.
Then another.
Then another.
The shutter clicked.
Tiny.
Almost silent.
But to Tommy it sounded louder than artillery.
Finally Billy lowered the camera.
A grin spread across his face.
“Got it.”
The mission was complete.
Now all they had to do was leave.
Unfortunately, the desert had other ideas.
A voice suddenly shouted below them.
German.
Angry German.
The four men froze.
A soldier stood beside a truck staring directly toward the ridge.
Tommy felt every drop of blood leave his body.
The German pointed.
Then shouted again.
This time dozens of heads turned.
Alfie sighed.
“Right.”
“What now?” whispered Tommy.
Alfie stood up.
“Now we drive away very quickly.”
The first rifle shot cracked across the desert.
Chapter Four: Running for Home
The second rifle shot cracked through the morning air.
Sand exploded beside Tommy’s head.
Nobody waited for a second shot.
“RUN!” shouted Alfie.
The four men scrambled down the ridge.
Behind them German voices erupted into chaos.
More rifles opened fire.
Bullets snapped overhead.
One struck a rock and showered Billy with stone fragments.
“Move! Move! Move!”
Tommy had never run so fast in his life.
The hidden base exploded into activity.
Soldiers appeared from every direction.
Engines roared into life.
Orders were shouted.
Sirens wailed.
The secret was out.
The Germans knew they had been seen.
The jeep appeared ahead.
Beautiful.
Dusty.
Battered.
Perfect.
Jock was first to reach it.
He threw himself behind the wheel.
Alfie jumped into the passenger seat.
Billy and Tommy practically fell into the back.
“GO!”
Jock didn’t need telling twice.
The jeep leapt forward.
The tyres sprayed sand in every direction.
Behind them German vehicles poured from the hidden base.
Armoured cars.
Motorcycles.
Trucks full of soldiers.
The chase had begun.
Tommy risked a glance backwards.
Instant regret.
The entire horizon seemed filled with Germans.
Billy looked too.
“That’s more than I was hoping for.”
Alfie checked the map.
“We only need to stay alive for eighty miles.”
“Eighty?” shouted Tommy.
“That’s the spirit.”
The jeep bounced violently across the desert.
Every dune threatened to tear it apart.
The suspension groaned.
The engine screamed.
Yet somehow it kept going.
Jock drove like a madman.
The vehicle skimmed over ridges.
Slid around rocky outcrops.
Disappeared into valleys.
Several times Tommy was certain they would crash.
Several times Jock somehow avoided it.
A burst of machine-gun fire tore through the air.
Bullets ripped across the sand.
One punched through the jeep’s windscreen.
Another struck the bonnet.
Billy grabbed the Lewis gun mounted in the rear.
“About time.”
He swung around and opened fire.
The weapon rattled furiously.
German soldiers scattered.
One motorcycle overturned in a cloud of dust.
Billy laughed.
“Still got it.”
Then the gun jammed.
Billy stared at it.
The gun stared back.
“Oh.”
The Germans were gaining.
Fast.
Armoured cars handled the rough terrain better than the jeep.
Every minute they drew closer.
Tommy looked at Alfie.
“What now?”
Alfie’s eyes drifted toward a rocky canyon ahead.
Then a grin appeared.
The dangerous grin.
The one Tommy hated.
“Jock.”
“Aye?”
“Drive through there.”
Jock looked.
Then smiled too.
“Good idea.”
Tommy immediately knew it wasn’t.
The jeep raced toward the canyon.
The walls narrowed around them.
Rock rose on both sides.
The Germans followed.
Exactly as Alfie had hoped.
As the jeep emerged from the far side, Alfie grabbed a small box from the rear.
Explosives.
British explosives.
The sort usually reserved for bridges.
Billy’s eyes widened.
“Oh, this is clever.”
Together they planted the charges against a towering rock formation.
Then they ran.
A few seconds later the leading German vehicles entered the canyon.
Alfie pressed the detonator.
The explosion rolled across the desert like thunder.
Rock collapsed.
Dust filled the sky.
The canyon vanished beneath thousands of tons of stone.
The Germans disappeared with it.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Billy cheered.
Tommy joined him.
Even Jock allowed himself a smile.
For the first time all day they had breathing room.
Not much.
But enough.
By nightfall the distant outline of British positions appeared on the horizon.
Nobody had ever been happier to see sandbags.
The guards nearly fainted when the jeep arrived.
The four men looked like ghosts.
Dust-covered ghosts.
A colonel met them personally.
“What happened to you lot?”
Alfie handed over the camera.
“Found something.”
The photographs were developed immediately.
The colonel studied them in silence.
One image.
Then another.
Then another.
His face changed.
The room became very quiet.
Finally he looked up.
“My God.”
Tommy exchanged glances with Billy.
The colonel turned toward a staff officer.
“Get these to headquarters.”
“Sir?”
“Now.”
The officer ran.
The colonel looked back at the four exhausted soldiers.
“You boys may have just changed the entire war in North Africa.”
Nobody knew what to say.
So Billy said the first thing that came into his head.
“Can we get some tea first?”
The colonel laughed.
For the first time in days, so did everyone else.
Outside, the desert wind continued to blow across the darkness.
The war was far from over.
In truth, it was only just beginning.
Writer’s Note
Thank you for reading another one of my books.
The inspiration for Union Jack came from the television series SAS: Rogue Heroes. I loved the idea of ordinary British soldiers operating in the harsh deserts of North Africa, surviving on courage, determination, and a bit of madness. While this story is fictional, it is inspired by the real men who fought in some of the toughest conditions of the Second World War.
Issue #2 is already being planned, and the Desert Bastards will be back for another mission soon. These stories take a fair bit of time to write, so you’ll have to bear with me while I get the next adventure ready.
Until then, thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoyed meeting Alfie, Jock, Billy, Tommy, and the rest of the crew.
See you in the desert.
To read more of my stories you can read them here.
