Gimlet Mops Up

Gimlet #4

by W.E. Johns

Cub, Copper and Trapper are asked to meet Gimlet at 10 Brummel Square, London. Here, they find not only Gimlet, but also General Sir Saxon Craig (who they had known as "Numero Neuf" in Gimlet Goes Again). The General wants our heroes' help in tracking down the members of a Nazi Underground Movement, who call themselves the "Werewolves". Although the war is now over, they are sending prominent Britains death warrants and then kidnapping them. After a mock trial, the victim is executed.

185 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1947

About the author

Invariably known as Captain W.E. Johns, William Earl Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Eastman Johns, a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. He had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24 October 1895.

He went to Hertford Grammar School where he was no great scholar but he did develop into a crack shot with a rifle. This fired his early ambition to be a soldier. He also attended evening classes at the local art school.

In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor where he remained for four years and then in 1912 he became a sanitary inspector in Swaffham, Norfolk. Soon after taking up this appointment, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47.

On 6 October 1914 he married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. The couple had one son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, who was born in March 1916.

With war looming he joined the Territorial Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment. In August 1914 his regiment was mobilised and was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas.

He fought at Gallipoli and in the Suez Canal area and, after moving to the Machine gun Corps, he took part in the spring offensive in Salonika in April 1917. He contracted malaria and whilst in hospital he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and on 26 September 1917, he was given a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly, which he did at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, where he was taught by a Captain Ashton.

He was posted to No. 25 Flying Training School at Thetford where he had a charmed existence, once writing off three planes in three days. He moved to Yorkshire and was then posted to France and while on a bombing raid to Mannheim his plane was shot down and he was wounded. Captured by the Germans, he later escaped before being reincarcerated where he remained until the war ended.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read my way through Biggles, both as a boy and as a grown up, and enjoyed every minute of reading them, I thought I would, rather belatedly I suppose, try a book in one of Johns' other series and I came across this Gimlet title ... so here goes!

Captain Lorrington King, better known by his nickname Gimlet, had arranged a meeting at a secret location in London's Brummel Square where he was joined by his wartime compatriots from No. 9 Troop Nigel 'Cub' Peters, Corporal 'Copper' Colson and 'Trapper' Troublay. They were meeting to discuss a Nazi-organised plot that planned to kill off certain of their former enemies who had caused so much disruption during wartime; indeed they had already eliminated some of them. General Sir Saxon Craig, by then a liaison officer between the War Office and Scotland Yard was present to give out their orders.

And those orders were to find the leader of the groups that was intending to do the damage and they were called the Werewolf Organisation, due to their disguising headgear. The main problem was that nobody knew who they were. Gimlet's three compatriots were quickly inducted into the team that was to form the main body. What they quickly learned was that Gimlet's name was the top one on the list of the intended victims. Because of this Craig offered Gimlet the chance to decline the operation if he so wished.

But that was not going to deter Gimlet, it even made him more determined to uncover who the Werewolves were, capture them and thus prevent any further killings. But even before they got underway with their task, a major problem occurred but quick thinking by Gimlet prevented any damage.

And from then on it was action all the way as the foursome endeavoured to discover the leader, find the Werewolves headquarters and make the necessary arrests, or in the extreme, and they were told that as this was regarded as a military operation, they could go to the extreme if necessary and kill off any of the enemy should the need arise.

The plot wanders a little in the middle and is a trifle slow moving but the ending, and needless to say, Gimlet and his boys come out on top, is first-class and brings the whole exercise to a thrilling climax. Even Bigglesworth comes rather remotely into the action with some advice as the plot unfolds!

It may not be Johns' Biggles-type storytelling at its best but it is exciting and well worth a read ... I may even try other Gimlet titles should I come across them.

[Rosie]

i heavily support setting fire to nazis so this was a good time

[Greg Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the last Gimlet book so much that this one was a bit of a letdown. I wonder if Johns was influenced by books like The Big Four ( Agatha Christie), as this one revolves around a group of Nazi sympathizers operating in post war Britain to exact revenge on old enemies. This was in fact a genuine group, although I doubt they went about their business literally disguised as werewolves. A bit cumbersome trying to see out of a wolf's head mask when you are exacting revenge on infidels.

Gimlet books were basically thinly disguised Biggles books with a change of characters, but Biggles does an actual guest appearance in this one. The whole "church" plot seemed a bit of a far fetched, overly complicated and a highly inefficient method for spies to meet up. But, I guess it was no more far fetched than books like The Big Four, so I'll let that slide by.

Like I've said before, even a dud Johns book was still a decent read! :)