Westlake, Donald E - NF 01 by Under An English Heaven (v1.1) Page B
Authors: Under An English Heaven (v1.1)
Ads: Link
Navy
surplus PT boat, and at another time they announced they now possessed an
antiaircraft gun. Every bit of this was moonshine. There was no PT boat, there
was no antiaircraft gun.
The capstone of the actual
Anguillan arsenal was a cannon left over from the Napoleonic Wars. Not the
whole cannon, actually; not the wheels and carriage; just the barrel, lying on
the sand. The Anguillans tucked some more sand under the front of the barrel to
give it a better trajectory, found an old cannon ball, opened some shotgun
shells for powder, and had artillery practice. They'd load the cannon and fire,
and then trot down the beach to pick up the ball and bring it back and fire it
again.
But one cannon is not a barrage.
All the declarations of strength were bluff, and every journalist visiting Anguilla knew it; yet all the bluffs were reported as undoubted facts.
One newsman told me why. "I
went around the island," he said, "and visited a beach with only one house
on it. Two eighty-year-old ladies, retired schoolteachers, lived there. I asked
them what they would do if Bradshaw's soldiers landed on their beach, and they
showed me cane-cutting knives they had behind the door. We'll chop their heads
off,' they said, and I knew they meant it. Any soldiers landing there would
have had to kill those two old ladies. No choice. That, or get their heads
chopped off."
Knowing the defenselessness of the
Anguillans, and their determination, the reporters to a man went along with the
bluffs and did their own small bit to discourage a Kittitian invasion. And it
worked. Bradshaw, who at that time could probably have swept the island clean
with ten determined men, hung back to build up his strength.
First he sent Paul Southwell to London to ask the British for more guns. The British looked at their files, saw they'd
just given St. Kitts full armament for its regular uniformed forces, and
decided not to overburden Basseterre 's
storage facilities.
Next, Southwell flew to Washington to ask for rifles, machine guns, ammunition and, please, two PT boats.
The United States also said No, and it began to look as though St. Kitts was going to have to
struggle along with just the weapons it had.
But then the Kittitian luck
changed. A contact was made with some people in Fort
Lauderdale , Florida , who would
be more than happy to supply guns and ammunition, though no PT boat.
The group in Fort
Lauderdale assembled the arms in Miami and put them in crates marked "Intransit, Excess Baggage for the
Government of St. Kitts," a declaration that made them immune from customs
inspection at any point in their travels. The crates were then put on regular
Pan Am passenger flights and flown to Coolidge Airport in Antigua .
If you traveled from Miami to Antigua during the month of July 1967, the odds are good that you flew with hand
grenades.
And you thought you had nothing to
worry about but hijackers.
Once on Antigua ,
the crates of guns and ammunition were loaded after dark onto a plane belonging
to a non-scheduled cargo carrier. This plane was then flown to St. Kitts.
At St. Kitts, security was very
tight, but not very bright. Every evening for a week, at just about the same
hour, a security lid was clamped on the airport, all civilians were excluded,
thje place was all lit up, and armed guards were everywhere. Into the middle of
this movie set would stream the plane, settling down amid guns and lights.
Mysterious crates would be taken off the plane and stacked in a waiting truck
and then the truck, itself under heavy guard, would be driven out of the
airport and down into the town of Basseterre and into the Defence Force headquarters compound.
The Anguillans, of course, learned
about these shipments early in the game. Some of the more imaginative among them
suggested they fly one of their own planes over to Antigua one night, claim to be the parcel service to St. Kitts, collect the mysterious
crates, and bring them home to Anguilla instead.
(Throwing
surplus PT boat, and at another time they announced they now possessed an
antiaircraft gun. Every bit of this was moonshine. There was no PT boat, there
was no antiaircraft gun.
The capstone of the actual
Anguillan arsenal was a cannon left over from the Napoleonic Wars. Not the
whole cannon, actually; not the wheels and carriage; just the barrel, lying on
the sand. The Anguillans tucked some more sand under the front of the barrel to
give it a better trajectory, found an old cannon ball, opened some shotgun
shells for powder, and had artillery practice. They'd load the cannon and fire,
and then trot down the beach to pick up the ball and bring it back and fire it
again.
But one cannon is not a barrage.
All the declarations of strength were bluff, and every journalist visiting Anguilla knew it; yet all the bluffs were reported as undoubted facts.
One newsman told me why. "I
went around the island," he said, "and visited a beach with only one house
on it. Two eighty-year-old ladies, retired schoolteachers, lived there. I asked
them what they would do if Bradshaw's soldiers landed on their beach, and they
showed me cane-cutting knives they had behind the door. We'll chop their heads
off,' they said, and I knew they meant it. Any soldiers landing there would
have had to kill those two old ladies. No choice. That, or get their heads
chopped off."
Knowing the defenselessness of the
Anguillans, and their determination, the reporters to a man went along with the
bluffs and did their own small bit to discourage a Kittitian invasion. And it
worked. Bradshaw, who at that time could probably have swept the island clean
with ten determined men, hung back to build up his strength.
First he sent Paul Southwell to London to ask the British for more guns. The British looked at their files, saw they'd
just given St. Kitts full armament for its regular uniformed forces, and
decided not to overburden Basseterre 's
storage facilities.
Next, Southwell flew to Washington to ask for rifles, machine guns, ammunition and, please, two PT boats.
The United States also said No, and it began to look as though St. Kitts was going to have to
struggle along with just the weapons it had.
But then the Kittitian luck
changed. A contact was made with some people in Fort
Lauderdale , Florida , who would
be more than happy to supply guns and ammunition, though no PT boat.
The group in Fort
Lauderdale assembled the arms in Miami and put them in crates marked "Intransit, Excess Baggage for the
Government of St. Kitts," a declaration that made them immune from customs
inspection at any point in their travels. The crates were then put on regular
Pan Am passenger flights and flown to Coolidge Airport in Antigua .
If you traveled from Miami to Antigua during the month of July 1967, the odds are good that you flew with hand
grenades.
And you thought you had nothing to
worry about but hijackers.
Once on Antigua ,
the crates of guns and ammunition were loaded after dark onto a plane belonging
to a non-scheduled cargo carrier. This plane was then flown to St. Kitts.
At St. Kitts, security was very
tight, but not very bright. Every evening for a week, at just about the same
hour, a security lid was clamped on the airport, all civilians were excluded,
thje place was all lit up, and armed guards were everywhere. Into the middle of
this movie set would stream the plane, settling down amid guns and lights.
Mysterious crates would be taken off the plane and stacked in a waiting truck
and then the truck, itself under heavy guard, would be driven out of the
airport and down into the town of Basseterre and into the Defence Force headquarters compound.
The Anguillans, of course, learned
about these shipments early in the game. Some of the more imaginative among them
suggested they fly one of their own planes over to Antigua one night, claim to be the parcel service to St. Kitts, collect the mysterious
crates, and bring them home to Anguilla instead.
(Throwing
Similar Books
