Bentley looked toward the shore. Beyond the dunes lay Rommel’s headquarters—and it would be heavily-guarded.
He was not concerned with the guard around the immediate precincts of the headquarters—that would be the commandos’ pigeon, and one they were specially trained to creep up on and pluck.
But what did concern him was that the Germans would have a sufficiency of 88 millimetre high-velocity guns, the famous anti-tank weapon of the Africa Corps. Their range was well over half a mile ... They could fire armour-piercing shell, and in parts Wind Rode’s thin skin was not as tough as a tank’s. He would have to wait close inshore for the commandos, for they would need to be taken off swiftly once the balloon went up. And if the German guns ranged on him, his ship would make a beautiful target, waiting out there off the beach.