Fogbound Encounter 6


By Katzmarek


Author’s note
No doubt those acquainted with this part of history will be puzzled by the inconsistencies with recorded 
events.
My explanation is simple, I goofed the timeline. 
Relying on my memory is not an exact method of writing historical fiction.
The last airship raid happened on the 19th of September 1917. Armistice occurred on the 11th of November 
1918.
A year seemed a long time to expect Eliza to wait for her Kimi, especially at 18, which is a lifetime at that 
age.
Particularly in a city filled with eager young doughboys.
Therefore I have taken extraordinary liberties with the true events to make them fit the story I wanted to 
write. ‘Mills and Boon’ meets ‘Boys Own Adventure’ some wag wrote. 
Technical details are mostly true, however, at least as I remember them. 
I’ve not tried to depict other accents. It’s just too easy to make a mess of it. Assume Scots are speaking in a 
Scottish brogue and so forth. Think Billy Connolly. 

K

Eliza thought Mrs. Smyth must spend her every waking hour baking. She seemed to pour forth an endless 
stream of cakes, tarts, flans and pies, in between batches of biscuits and Scottish muffins. The pantry was 
stacked with preserves of every kind as well as chow chows and chutneys and homemade sauces.


Indeed, it seemed that this corner of Scotland remained untouched by war, if you ignore the shortage of 
young men. 


The backbone of the regular British army came from areas such as Strathclyde. Regulars that were almost 
all now lying somewhere in Belgium and France. Villages, such as Galston were now devoid of their able-
bodied menfolk and in every second cottage lived a widow.


The abundant agricultural resources of the area were almost entirely worked by women. Now, however, 
slowly being supplemented by German prisoners of war.


Someone at the Ministry of Farm Production, alarmed at the shortage of agricultural labour came to the 
conclusion that there was thousands of idle POW’s sitting around with time on their hands. Able-bodied 
men at that. 


For the most part, prisoners were only too happy to get out of their camps for a bit of healthy work. Any 
thing to change the daily view of barbed wire and guards.


The Naval POW camp at Galston was for enlisted men. The Officers were held elsewhere. The men at 
Galston believed it was so the Officers could be better treated and it was rumoured that they enjoyed 
Cognac and a daily ration of Cigars.


Enlisted men were expected to do manual work, while the Officers weren’t expected to get their hands 
dirty. An Officer was an Officer despite what side they were on.


The men at Galston were mostly U-boat crews, with a smattering of the Hochseeflotte. (Germany’s main 
battle fleet.)


Kimi was disappointed that none of the SMS Wiesbaden’s crew was lodged there. He still held out hope 
that his Father may have survived. Alas, there were none. There were plenty of men from the light forces, 
though, Destroyers and Light Cruisers and a few from the SMS Blucher, the Armoured Cruiser demolished 
at Dogger Bank.


Indeed the tattered cap legends read like a memorial to the famous ships that fought, and were defeated by 
the Royal Navy. SMS Scharnhorst, SMS Elbing, SMS Emden the famous raider finally hunted down and 
destroyed off the Cocos/ Keeling islands in the Indian ocean. SMS Koln, SMS Karlsruhe caught up the 
Rufiji River in East Africa. SMS Dresden, SMS Berlin scuttled off Tierra del Fuego after the Falklands and 
the armed Hamburg-Amerika liner SMS Cap Trafalgar sunk in the South Atlantic by the more heavily 
armed Cunard liner HMS Carpathia, which was set on fire.


They all had heard of the Spartakist revolt in Berlin, the mutiny of the fleet and the raising of the red flag 
over some of its best units. News came of food riots, arrests and demonstrations. It all disturbed and 
demoralised them. The war was coming to a close but few had any idea what they would be going back to.


Kimi knew his shipmates were gone, indeed most of the Nordenham flotilla was destroyed. L70’s sister 
ship, the L71 still existed and some that didn’t take part in the ill-fated attack were left, but many of their 
more experienced crewmen had been drafted into the assaulting ships. The Airship Service never recovered 
from the loss of these personnel.


In France, the Marne battle had petered out and the ‘Schturmstaffeln’ (Storm Units) with their ‘Bergmann’ 
submachine guns had been driven back to their previous positions, and beyond. The big American infantry 
brigades had put victory beyond Germany’s reach.


Warrant Officer Jock Smyth approached Kimi as he paraded one morning for assignment.


“Kasemann,” he bellowed, “step out!”


The two U-boat men on either side of him seem to shrink away a little as Kimi jumped forward in a brisk 
step.


“You’re assigned to me! Fall in! I have work in the village for you.”


This was not unexpected, as he was nearly always required to work, either in the bicycle shop or the motor 
garage. 


“There’s a couple of tractors for you today, Kimi lad, and a motor lorry that’s broken an axle,” the WO said 
as they passed the disinterested guards, “I think it’ll need a bit of welding up. That should take you all day. 
I’ll send your lunch over to you.”


“Will Mrs. Smyth be making it?” Kimi asked.


“Aye, venison pie, she made. From the Laird’s estate I don’t doubt. Generous to a fault, the Laird.”


“Do you mean a deer broke its leg near the highway again?”


“Now lad, I won’t hear that kind of talk,” said the WO, grinning.


They arrived at the garage and Kimi looked over the work he had to do. The two tractors both had engine 
problems and then there was that blasted lorry. He decided to work on the tractors first.


The Fordson appeared to have dropped a valve, the McCormack a simple ignition problem. He started work 
on the latter.


Although he was supposed to have a guard, the WO disappeared. Probably to have ‘a dram or 3’ at the 
local tavern, he supposed. Kimi liked to work alone and he liked the little garage. The arrangement suited 
him fine.


Later, in the office of Colonel Monroe, camp commandant, Jock Smyth was giving the Colonel a brown 
parcel.


“You’ll get caught one of these days, Jock. You’re too damn clever for your own good,” the Colonel told 
him.


“Oh leave off Andy, you’d be no stranger to a moonlit hunt, yourself.”


“Ah well, I was a bit younger in those days, Jock. This is no game for an old buzzard like you! Y’know the 
old boy wouldn’t be above filling your arse with birdshot.”


“Aye, but I can still skip like a young buck when I have to, and the old Laird’s aim is not what it was. I can 
give the venison to the cook for the Huns if your conscience is troubling you.”


“No, no. That’s all right. I won’t trouble you to walk all that way back to camp.”


“Now, there’s just one favour I want to ask, a little one.”


“Jock!”


“A very little one, COLONEL Monroe… sir,” the WO leaned closer.


“What would you be after?”


“Well you know the village has been without a mechanic for quite some time. Ever since Jimmy Lauchlan 
joined up. Y’know he went down in the Invincible?”


“Yes, of course I know. What is your point, Jock?”


“Well I know this young lad…”


Back at the garage, Kimi had completed the work on the tractors by lunchtime. He was eagerly waiting for 
Mrs. Smyth to deliver his lunch. Mrs. Smyth’s lunches were one of the better perks of the job.


Right on schedule, around noon there was a knock on the door. Kimi was in the back, washing up and 
called for Mrs. Smyth to come on in.


Instead of the WO’s wife’s Scottish accent he was answered by a different voice with all too familiar 
home-counties vowels.


“Kimi, is that you?”


Kimi rushed out of the little washroom, his hands dripping with soapsuds, to find the shocked face of his 
Eliza before him.


Soundless he moved to her and wrapped his arms around her. Still too surprised to speak, Eliza buried her 
face in Kimi’s shoulder and held him.


“I didn’t think… oh god… I… “ She tripped over her words.


“Eliza… when did… I mean… I didn’t know…” Kimi replied.


Kimi lifted up Eliza’s face and kissed her, at first uncertainly but then with increasing confidence and 
passion.


“Now you wouldn’t be fraternising with an enemy, would you Eliza?” came the voice of Mrs. Smyth.


The two lovers flew apart as if electrocuted. Mrs. Smyth bellowed with laughter.


“You two…” she shook her head, “don’t forget your pie, Kimi. Eat it before it gets cold.”


“You knew he…” Eliza started to tell the older woman.


“Of course I did. Now you won’t breathe a word now, will you? And don’t take Kimi away from his work.”


“Of course not.”


“Good, well I’ll be running along now. I’ve got some calls to make. I’ll be back in an hour,” she told Eliza.


After Mrs. Smyth left, Kimi and Eliza resumed kissing. In the office at the back of the garage there was a 
desk and chair and Kimi sat down and pulled Eliza into his lap.


Eliza’s eyes became moist with tears as she told Kimi she’d thought he’d been lost with the L68. She told 
him about the reports in the newspaper claiming the whole flotilla had been destroyed.


Kimi told her about his adventures after the Chief had thrown him out when the stern of L68 had hit the 
ground. He said he couldn’t remember much of the fall but told her of the farmers, the bull and the old 
Police Sergeant. Kimi giggled when he told her of the pursuit of the bull across the paddock, and his falling 
into the cowpats.


She, in turn, described her life at the hospital, the various patients and her room at the top of the stairs.


“That Rosy,” she said, “She has so many boyfriends, I don’t know how she keeps track of them.”


Kimi brushed away and errant lock that fell across her face. 


“So how many boyfriends have you had?” he asked.


“None, silly… I mean… just one… all this time. And I’m sitting on his knee.”


They kissed some more. Kimi flicked her teeth with the tip of his tongue and she answered him by parting 
them a fraction. Kimi pushed his tongue past to seek out hers.


“Mmm… Mmm,” she parted, “where did you learn to kiss like that? That’s what Rosy does.”


“They call it French kissing,” he explained, “ you don’t have much to talk about in the barracks except 
girls… and what you do.”


“Did you talk about me?”


“I told my Chief. He said I should have stayed in England with you,” he blushed.


“A clever man, your Chief,” she told him, “was he in…” she left the question unasked as she saw Kimi 
slowly nod his head. “Oh, I’m sorry.”


They were silent for a minute. Kimi broke it by asking,


“So, what were you doing spying on this Rosy and her boyfriend?”


“I wasn’t spying!” she batted him, “they were doing it everywhere. You couldn’t help but see them.”


“Doing it?” Kimi asked suggestively.


“No, Not that! I mean… kissing and stuff… they would go up to her room for… Y’know?”


“No I don’t” Kimi teased.


“Yes you do,” she said batting him again, “Y’know… what men and women do… when they’re married.”


“Or, by the sounds of your Rosy, when they want to be,” replied Kimi.


“The thing is,” she said, “I don’t really think she wanted any of them. She just liked having a good time 
with them, Having them spend their money on her, buy her things, and she’d, like, pay them back by… 
by… Y’know… letting them… have her.”


“Have her what?” Kimi asked, still teasing.


“Oh ha ha. You know what I mean. She’d let them sleep with her.”


“Oh sleep, you mean, Like what we did on the schooner.”


“We didn’t do that! You’re making me blush!”


“It makes you look more beautiful, if that’s possible.”


Kimi brought her face down for another kiss. This time she opened her mouth willingly, accepting his 
tongue, and the kissing grew in intensity. Eliza squirmed a little in his lap and he could feel the cheeks of 
her bottom on his, now, stiff member. He wanted to explore every inch of her body. Parting, he looked into 
her dewy eyes and told her he loved her. Stroking his face she said,


“I love you too. I wish we didn’t have to wait… I wish you didn’t have to go away. I want to be yours.”


“You are, and I am yours too. I want to be together with you, always. I… I want to wake up every morning 
with my arms around you. I… I want to share… every piece of you…”


“Yes… I want… Oh Kimi… I’ve made you… oh, I’m sorry,” she told him.


“Made me what?” he asked.


Shifting her weight on him she said,


“Your… thing… down there,” she pointed at his trousers and giggled.


“You excite me, that’s all,” he said.


“Oh Kimi!” she replied, caressing his chest, “you do too… me, of course.”


Eliza allowed Kimi to place his hand over her small breast.


“You don’t mind, that… they’re small. Not like Rosy’s… the soldiers seem to like hers… I mean, they 
stare at them… even when I’m there.”


“Sounds an interesting woman, this Rosy,” Kimi teased.


“She’s too easy,” she blurted out, “I mean, she lets men go too far… that’s what I think, anyhow.”


“So how far would you go?” Kimi asked her.


“That depends, doesn’t it?”


“On what?”


“On the man… If he’s nice… I might… let him do things,” she answered coyly.


“What things?”


“I might let him kiss me…” she kissed him again. “And touch me in… places.”


“What places?” Kimi asked her, thickly.


“You have to find out,” she teased.


Kimi pushed his hand under her Arran sweater. He whispered,


“Here?”


“Maybe.”


Kimi cupped her breast once more. This time, a lot more intimately because, he realised, she did not wear a 
bra. They fiercely kissed, once more.


Kimi caressed her with his fingertips, kneading and stroking and rubbing her little button nipples with his 
thumb. Kimi felt them swelling, becoming harder to his touch. Eliza adjusted herself in his lap which, 
didn’t make his own swelling die down.


Moving his hand, he felt the buttons of her shirt and tried undoing one.


“I don’t… think… you should…oh Kimi!” She panted.


Kimi worked about three buttons undone and inched his hand inside. At the skin contact, Eliza gave a little 
start. Kimi slipped his hand over her warm, sweaty breast and felt the rigid nipple drag across his palm. He 
squeezed it between his fingers to be answered by a shudder from Eliza.


Kimi’s mouth was dry and his body felt flushed. His cock throbbed uncomfortably in the confines of his 
trousers. Each slight shift of Eliza’s bottom communicated itself directly to the lust centre in his brain.
After another bout of kissing, he looked at her and whispered,


“Where else?”


“We can’t,” she panted, “not here… Mrs. Smyth…”


“Let me feel you… down there… quickly… please,” he said, urgently, tugging at her full skirt.


“No! I cant… wait… oh… be quick, please! Just one touch.” Kimi pulled her skirt up to her knees and 
pushed his hand under the material. Reacting to her request for urgency, he pushed quickly past the leg of 
her bloomers to the valley between her thighs. Eliza parted her legs slightly as Kimi began to rub and 
explore her crotch. Kimi took her hand and wedged it under her, on the front of his trousers. As if stung, 
she shot to her feet.


“Kimi! What kind of girl do you think I am?” she demanded angrily, pulling down her sweater. “Is that all 
you want? Just for me to lie with you?”


“Eliza I…”


“I trusted you… how could…” she said, tearfully running out of the garage.


















 
