Prince spotted his opportunity. As the argument continued, he moved round to the front of the lorry. Just ahead of the lorry was a wall running parallel to the quay, no more than three feet high.

He glanced round: the argument was still raging and the rest of the prisoners were grouped together on the quayside. He knew he couldn’t hesitate. He moved quickly towards the wall in a crouching position and vaulted over it, dropping flat on the rubble. This would only take him a couple of minutes. He just needed to be careful.

‘Hey – you! Stop!’

He froze. He wasn’t sure where the shout had come from, or even if it was aimed at him. He pressed himself into the rubble.

‘Put your hands up!’

Two rifle shots rang out. The first seemed to pass way over him, but the second thudded into the wall a foot or so ahead of him, a plume of red dust spraying out. He was aware of more shouting, and it quickly became apparent that it was directed at him. He’d been caught.

The guard who’d been in charge of his group – the trigger-happy one who’d shot Henk – marched over.

‘Is this your prisoner?’ A Wehrmacht soldier was standing by the wall, his rifle pointing at Prince.

‘Yes, it’s my prisoner, so you can fuck off now.’

‘Perhaps you ought to watch your language and keep a closer eye on your prisoners, eh? Isn’t that your job? It’s not as if you lot have to worry about doing any fighting, is it?’

The guard hauled Prince back over the wall and kicked him in the back. He started to get up, but the guard pushed him down again.

‘On your knees, French scum, and face the wall.’

He heard the safety catch being released on the machine gun and froze. For a fleeting moment he thought about diving over the wall again, or rushing at the guard, but he knew his situation was hopeless.

He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Chapter 21

Lübeck; Copenhagen, April 1943

But then there was a sound.

This sound came from above, an indistinct, droning type of noise at first, which very quickly became louder and quite deafening and was replicated many times over, causing the ground to shudder. It wasn’t just the noise, either; Prince was now aware of blackness and heat enveloping him.

He assumed he’d been shot.

But then he heard the guard behind him shout, ‘What the fuck?’ followed by an enormous explosion that threw Prince forward into the foot of the wall he’d been kneeling in front of.