The shepherd door Frederick Forsyth

Title: The Shepherd
Author: Frederick Forsyth
Publisher: Jacob Dijkstra’s uitgeversmaatschappij BV;
Place and year of publication: Groningen, 1979
Number of pages: 35
Number of chapters: no chapters

Description of main character:

The main character is Frederick Forsyth. He is a RAF-pilot (Royal Air Force). In this book he flew in his little Vampire fighter from Germany to England, because he wanted to be at home with his parents at Christmas.

The problems the main character must handle:

The main problem is that while he was flying above the North Sea he noticed that he didn’t hear anything in his headphones. At the same time he saw the compass needle was drifting round the clock. He tried to contact North Beveland and later Lakenheath, but the radio was dead. What must he do now? And who is the shepherd?

My opinion:

It is a very nice book. This book is very technical and I am not, but it is a very exciting book. There is a shepherd that brings him back to an airport. But who is the shepherd? That becomes clear in the last sentences of the book. I think the shepherd was a ghost. The persons in this book are really human. They celebrate Christmas Eve and some have drunk too much whisky.
But I can advise other people to read this book.

Contents:

I have made a small summary from every 15-20 pages

Pages: 1-20
Frederick Forsyth left the Royal Air Force base in Celle, Germany on Christmas Eve in 1957 in his little Vampire fighter, because he wanted to go to his parents to celebrate Christmas. He knew the flight details and all went well, until he reached the North Sea area. Then he noticed that he didn’t hear anything in his headphones. At the same time he saw the compass needle was drifting round the clock. He tried to contact North Beveland and later Lakenheath, but the radio was dead. He remembered the words of his instructor Sergeant Norris that he had to reduce speed to give maximum flight endurance. Four of the main instruments of a pilot are electrically operated. That left him with only two pressure-operated instruments, airspeed indicator and altimeter. He felt very lonely. It is possible to recognise certain towns or the coast when the weather is good and there is daylight. But it was dark now. And he can only recognise the lights. Then a new unexpected enemy entered the field: fog! That made it impossible to land safely. And he did not have enough fuel to fly back to Holland. He didn’t want to bale out either, because it is impossible to bale out of a Vampire with an ejector seat. The last possibility was to try to attract the attention of the radio scanners by flying in small triangles so that they could send another aircraft to bring him down. That plane is called a “shepherd”. After ten minutes and two complete triangles still nobody came. He even began to pray and with only 5 minutes flying time left he knew for sure he was going to die that night. Then at once he saw a shadow of another aircraft. It was flying very slow and much lower. When he slowed down and came nearer he saw that the other plane was a piston-engine aircraft of an earlier generation. He followed that plane and saw that it was a De Havilland Mosquito, a fighter-bomber of Second World War vintage. He thought it was one of those old planes that are used for shows. He saw the pilot giving him a sign to follow him. By giving signs with his fingers it was clear he had only 5 minutes fuel left. They remained diving straightforward. The pilot told him to lower his undercarriage by giving signs with his fingers. When they moved down he saw the letters JK painted on the Mosquito. They flew in the fog bank and then Frederick suddenly realised that the Mosquito was flying without lights. In the meantime the altimeter was reading zero and there was no fuel left. The shepherd pointed that he had to land. He could not see anything at first, but he did and then he saw lights and felt that he touched the deck and the Vampire slowed down until…

Pages: 21-35
… it stopped. Just in time, because there was no more fuel! The pilot of the Mosquito greeted and went away. After ten minutes an old car came to bring him to the mess buildings. The driver is surprised that he could land in this weather without instruments. Frederick told him about the shepherd, but he didn’t understand, because he had landed at Minton’s storage depot that has no GCA-system and no aircraft. The man in the car had heard his engine so low and therefore had switched the lights on that hadn’t been used for many years. Minton is very old. There are only two people. Most of the people working there are on Christmas leave. Frederick made a phone call to the nearest RAF-airport, Merriam St. George, but they had closed at five and never got an emergency call. And their GCA-system had been shut down since five o’clock! He made another phone call to RAF Gloucester, but they told him that they do not use Mosquitoes any more. They went out of service and now they use Carreras. Now Frederick came to the conclusion that an amateur has bought one of the Mosquitoes and saved him. Then he went to his room, nr.17. He took a bath, ate his bacon and eggs and started to talk a bit with the old mess steward. Then he suddenly saw an old photograph on the mantelshelf. On the photograph was a young man and behind him the silhouette of the Mosquito fighter-bomber. The mess steward told him that the pilot was Mr Johnny Kavanagh, an Irish gentleman, and one of the best pilots there had never been. So Frederick thinks Kavanagh had bought a Moquito and saved him. The steward continued that during the Second World War Johnny Kavanagh had often brought some crippled bomber back to its RAF station. Frederick felt very thankful that Kavanagh was still doing so, but the steward’s last words before he left his room were: “Mister Johnny went out on his last patrol Christmas Eve 1943, just fourteen years ago tonight. He never came back. He went down with his plane somewhere out there in the North Sea. Good night, sir and Happy Christmas.”