Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty
    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty
    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty
    Ebook143 pages1 hour

    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty

    By Ian Hall

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Edinburgh, October 1940...
    When Nazi troops march triumphantly along Princes Street, James Baird feels drawn to watch the parade.
    It’s his punishment, for at 20 years old, and a Philosophy student at Edinburgh University, he is ashamed he has done nothing in the defense of his country.
    Behind him, he cannot look at the high ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, for they are festooned with garish red swastika banners.
    Sickened by the music and swaggering Nazis, James soon takes refuge in the Edinburgh University bar, determined to drown his sorrows before returning home.
    As his new role in German-controlled Edinburgh is revealed, James is determined to fight the oppressors in any way he can.
    When he is approached by a member of Military Intelligence (the newly formed S.O.E.), James at last finds something he can get his teeth into. But as he begins life as an undercover agent, each day brings new challenges, and increased danger. Once committed to the S.O.E., life for James Baird will never be the same again.
    In Avenging Steel, we follow his adventures as a nation struggles against the rule of Nazi jackboots, and begin to rebel against German rule.
    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty, is a fast-paced adventure on the streets of Edinburgh. High-octane, it never stops until the final page.

    Thus begins Avenging Steel, a new WW2 Alternative History series set in the streets of Edinburgh, and the countryside of Scotland.

    “Avenging Steel: The First Collection”, is the first 3 novellas in the series, all together in a bumper, budget bundle.
    Includes...
    Avenging Steel 1: The Fall of Edinburgh
    Avenging Steel 2: The Nuclear Option
    Avenging Steel 3: The Final Solution

    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty is the latest installment in the saga of James Baird, Secret Agent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIan Hall
    Release dateAug 18, 2016
    ISBN9781370141456
    Avenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty
    Author

    Ian Hall

    Ian Hall is a former Commander Officer of No. 31 Squadron (1992-4), as well as being the editor and writer of the Squadron Association's three-times-a-year 32-page newsletter. He is the author of Upwards, an aviation-themed novel currently available as a Kindle download. This is his first full-length historical study, having previously penned a 80-page history of No 31 Squadron's early Tornado years.

    Read more from Ian Hall

    Related to Avenging Steel 4

    Related ebooks

    War & Military Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Modest Man

      Oct 17, 2019

      The Modest Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      Finding Facts In Fiction

      Mar 12, 2021

      Finding Facts In Fiction
      10 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Nov 17, 2021

      The Old Un’s Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lamport Hall

      Mar 7, 2024

      Lamport Hall
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Apr 5, 2023

      Readers’ Letters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Feb 23, 2022

      Great Read
      6 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Sep 11, 2020

      Dear Paul
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Supreme Act Of Trust

      Aug 10, 2022

      The Supreme Act Of Trust
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Aug 25, 2021

      ✻ How quickly time flies! It is already ten years since the death, on 22nd September 2011, of the much-loved British comic actor Jonathan Cecil (19392011), once described by the Spectator as ‘one of the finest upper-class-twits of his era’. Upper-cla

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 2, 2021

      * Our radio correspondent, Valerie Grove, has just unearthed a shaming letter she received from the great comedian Barry Cryer in 1970. At the time she was, briefly, standing in as TV previewer for the Evening Standard. ‘Dear Valerie,’ wrote Barry, ‘

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 30, 2021

      * Have Oldie-readers who wear glasses ever thought where specs come from? The answer lies in a new book, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, by Travis Elborough. Elborough, himself bespectacled, traces the history of spec

      6 min read

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Mar 12, 2021

      Your LETTERS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Readersʼ Letters

      Jul 27, 2022

      Readersʼ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Giving Lincolnshire Its Due

      Jun 29, 2022

      MAY we play a word-association game? I say ‘Lincolnshire’ and you reply... Yes, you might struggle to find anything to say about the ancient shire of that name. Perhaps ‘cathedral’ and ‘cabbages’ will float up through the mist of memory. I doubt many

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Strange History Of Plastic Paddies

      Jun 2, 2021

      Just before he died, John le Carré, an embodiment of Englishness in his writing, took Irish citizenship. In one of the last photographs of the spy author, he was wrapped in an Irish flag. Le Carré – real name David Cornwell – joins a tradition of Eng

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books & co

      Nov 10, 2023

      by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe This historical biography chronicles the story of America’s Astor family across several centuries, showing how they rose from beginnings in the fur business, purchasing property and dazzling American society, bef

      5 min read

    • Article

      My Glorious Dog Days

      Nov 16, 2022

      My Glorious Dog Days
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      May 4, 2022

      * With the Platinum Jubilee upon us, it’s time to look forward to the 70th anniversary of the Young Elizabethan, too. Founded in 1948 as Collins Magazine for Boys & Girls, it was renamed the Young Elizabethan to celebrate the Queen’s Coronation. In 1

      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Mar 9, 2022

      The Oldie, 23-31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk SIR: I thoroughly enjoyed A N Wilson’s memories of Auberon Waugh (March issue) and his piece reminded me of the

      6 min read

    • Article

      Books & co

      Nov 13, 2020

      Reads to indulge in this winter indoors Edited by Paul Addison & Jeremy A Crang Intriguingly subtitled ‘Home Intelligence and British Morale, September 1940-June 1941’, this book investigates the controversial role of the clandestine intelligence gat

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 14, 2022

      Limberlost begins with a whale, not a marlin: an almost-mythical beast at the mouth of a Tasmanian river, troubling the waves with its fluked tail. But Robbie Arnott’s third novel carries echoes of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece. As its hero pits him

      3 min read

    • Article

      Somme Song

      Feb 12, 2019

      Somme Song
      3 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Feb 9, 2022

      The Oldie, 23-31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk SIR: Like Gyles Brandreth, my husband and I are great fans of Bargain Hunt. As well as enjoying the banter betw

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 28, 2022

      I was intrigued by the short story in the November issue's Anniversaries section regarding the peaceful transfer of power from Henry III to his son Edward I –the first such occasion in English history. I wanted to know more about why this particular

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Apr 5, 2023

      Is there anything more heart-warming than a church kneeler? And now this most British of things has found its biographer in the shape of Elizabeth Bingham, the leading authority on Anglican church kneelers and founder of the website parishkneelers.co

      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 3, 2024

      Books
      16 min read

    • Article

      NANDOR FODOR & THE TALKING MONGOOSE

      Sep 7, 2023

      Throughout the 1930s, the world’s newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a ‘talking mongoose’ or ‘man-weasel’ who had allegedly appeared in the home of a peculiar family living in a somewhat dilapidated Isle of Man farmhouse. Gef was s

      11 min read

    • Article

      May Fiction

      Apr 19, 2022

      A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (HarperCollins, £14.99) IF YOU DIDN’Tknow that Sophie Irwin once wrote a dissertation on Georgette Heyer—the queen, and possibly inventor, of Regency Romance novels—then it wouldn’t be hard to guess f

      2 min read

    • Article

      On The Hobbit Trail

      Jun 28, 2023

      On The Hobbit Trail
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Avenging Steel 4

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Avenging Steel 4 - Ian Hall

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

      Copyright © 2016. Ian Hall. Phantom Gavel Publishing; Smashwords Edition.

      Published by Ian Hall at Smashwords

      ISBN- 9781370141456

      All rights reserved, and the author reserves the right to re-produce this book, or parts thereof, in any way whatsoever.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Avenging Steel

      4: The Tree of Liberty

      Ian Hall

      (From The Tree of Liberty)

      By her inspired the new born race

      Soon grew the Avenging Steel, man;

      The hirelings ran — her foes gied chase

      And banged the despot weel, man.

      Robert Burns (1759 – 1796)

      Cover Photo:

      Also by Ian Hall, related to Avenging Steel…

      Churchill’s Secret Armies

      War without Rules:

      Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

      A short history of the secret departments and Special Forces put together by Winston Churchill in World War 2.

      WW2 Spy School:

      The Complete 1943 S. O. E. Counter Espionage Manual

      The complete SOE manual used in World War 2 to train Allied spies and counter-espionage agents.

      Over 400 pages of authentic WW2 documentation.

      The Ridiculously Comprehensive Dictionary of British Slang

      A huge dictionary of British slang, regional slang and Cockney Rhyming Slang. Thousands of definitions, hundreds of pages.

      With a slightly comic twist.

      On 10th May, 1940, Germany attacked British and French troops in France and Belgium.

      At that time, the British Army had more than half a million men in Continental Europe.

      By 4th June 1940, Britain had rescued 330,000 men (British and French) from the defensive bubble around Dunkirk.

      Between 15th and 25th June 1940, they rescued another 190,000 through Operation Ariel from French coasts and ports.

      In the short Battle of France, Britain had left behind 70,000 men, 450 tanks, 2500 artillery pieces, 85,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of ammunition, fuel and stores.

      The figures show Britain had 500,000 men for its defense… but with little arms, armor and ammunition to fight… Britain was ripe for invasion, and everyone knew it.

      Churchill spoke…

      … we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender…

      On 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 16, setting in motion preparations for a landing in Britain. He prefaced the order by stating…

      "As England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, still shows no signs of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary to carry out, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English Motherland as a base from which the war against Germany can be continued, and, if necessary, to occupy the country completely."

      On the 16th August the first waves of German paratroopers descended on rural England. The next day, under the cover of the Luftwaffe, tanks and armored vehicles drove ashore in numerous locations.

      Within a month Germany had captured London, Birmingham and Manchester.

      Four weeks later, Churchill’s much vaunted Battle of Britain was over.

      Churchill spoke to the British people from a fleeting headquarters in Ireland…

      … let us not consider this a retreat, not a farewell to our homeland, but as a gathering for a new offensive. And let me make this promise to Herr Hitler; we will return…

      Thus begins a brand-new Alternative History series… Avenging Steel

      An Introduction to the Characters…

      James Baird…

      James is our main character, our story’s hero and the book’s narrator. He is a 20-year old philosophy student at Edinburgh University, and has been recruited by the S.O.E. as an agent. His code-name is Biggles, and is used by the S.O.E. as a liaison between cells in Edinburgh. He also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a writer and copy-editor. His father, in the Scots Greys Regiment, is stationed in Palestine.

      Alice Howes…

      Alice is James’s partner in spy-crime, girlfriend, and the head of the S.O.E. cell inside The Scotsman newspaper. She is from the border town of Selkirk, and speaks fluent German; her father having been a POW from the Great War who stayed in Scotland in 1918. She seems to take her orders from Lilith, but her actual bosses are unknown to James. Alice also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a copy-editor.

      Leutnant Möller…

      Gerhardt Möller is the German officer in charge of German bias/slanting for the Scotsman newspaper’s stories. James has to report their stories to Möller each day by one o’clock for his inspection. James suspects Möller has opened the hand of friendship to him, but cannot be certain.

      Ivanhoe (Mr. Irvine)…

      Ivanhoe is James’ contact within the S.O.E. in Edinburgh, and the man who recruited him. James only glimpses the level at which Ivanhoe works, but does harbor the suspicion that Ivanhoe might be the top S.O.E. man in Scotland.

      Lilith…

      Named after the character by George MacDonald, Lilith is a beautiful enigmatic S.O.E. contact, possibly working in conjunction with Ivanhoe, but definitely also operating outside his purview. Lilith introduced Alice to James, and is Alice’s main contact. Although James seems to be in love with Alice, Lilith’s face comes to him at the oddest times.

      Balfour…

      Code name Balfour, after the R. L. Stevenson character in Kidnapped, he is Ivanhoe’s right-hand man. He has accompanied Jamie on a few missions, and is stoic; very-straight forward.

      The Baird Family in Edinburgh…

      Veronica Baird is James’ mother. She lives for her family and rules with a slightly flexible iron rod. Frances is James’ fourteen-year-old younger sister. They live in a first floor apartment in Bruntsfield, on the edge of the Links and Meadows.

      Chapter 1 Jumping in the Deep End

      Chapter 2 The Tree of Liberty

      Chapter 3 Meeting the Family

      Chapter 4 Bound for London Town

      Chapter 5 New Boss; Different from the Old Boss

      Chapter 6 Auld Claithes and Porridge

      Chapter 7 A Certain Patriotic Duty

      Chapter 8 The Distant Ghost

      Chapter 9 The Morning After

      Chapter 10 Operation Whatever-It’s-Called

      Chapter 11 Ops Day Two

      Chapter 12 Bleeding Out

      Chapter 13 A Double Whammy

      Chapter 14 Requiring Desperate Measures

      Chapter 15 A Very Scottish Standoff

      In this volume I include the poem written (or collected) by Robert Burns, from which the novel is named.

      The Tree of Liberty

      1

      Heard ye o' the tree o' France,

      I watna what 's the name o't;

      Around it a' the patriots dance,

      Weel Europe kens the fame o't.

      It stands where ance the Bastile stood,

      A prison built by kings, man,

      When Superstition's hellish brood

      Kept France in leading-strings, man.

      2

      Upo' this tree there grows sic fruit,

      Its virtues a' can tell, man;

      It raises man aboon the brute,

      It mak's him ken himsel, man.

      Gif ance the peasant taste a bit,

      He's greater than a lord, man,

      An’ wi' the beggar shares a mite

      O' a' he can afford, man.

      3

      This fruit is worth a' Afric's wealth:

      To comfort us 'twas sent, man:

      To gie the sweetest blush o' health,

      An’ mak us a' content, man.

      It clears the een, it cheers the heart,

      Maks high and low gude friends, man;

      And he wha acts the traitor's part,

      It to perdition sends, man.

      4

      My blessings aye attend the chiel

      Wha pitied Gallia's slaves, man,

      And staw a branch, spite o' the deil,

      Frae yont the western waves, man.

      Fair Virtue water'd it wi' care,

      And now she sees wi' pride, man,

      How weel it buds and blossoms there,

      Its branches spreading wide, man.

      5

      But vicious folk aye hate to see

      The works o' Virtue thrive, man;

      The courtly vermin 's bann'd the tree,

      And grat to see it thrive, man;

      King Loui’ thought to cut it down,

      When it was unco sma', man;

      For this the watchman crack'd his crown,

      Cut aff his head and a', man.

      6

      A wicked crew syne, on a time,

      Did tak a solemn aith, man,

      It ne'er should flourish to its prime,

      I wat they pledged their faith, man.

      Awa’ they gaed wi' mock parade,

      Like beagles hunting game, man,

      But soon grew weary o' the trade

      And wished they'd been at hame, man.

      7

      For Freedom, standing by the tree,

      Her sons did loudly ca', man.

      She sang a sang o' liberty,

      Which pleased them ane and a', man.

      By her inspired, the new-born race

      Soon drew the avenging steel, man;

      The hirelings ran--------her foes gied chase,

      And banged the despot weel, man.

      8

      Let Britain boast her hardy oak,

      Her poplar and her pine, man,

      Auld Britain ance could crack her joke,

      And o'er her neighbours shine, man.

      But seek the forest round and round,

      And soon 'twill be agreed, man,

      That sic a tree can not be found,

      'Twixt London and the Tweed, man.

      9

      Without this tree alake this life

      Is but a vale o' woe, man;

      A scene o' sorrow mixed wi' strife,

      Nae real joys we know, man.

      We labour soon, we labour late,

      To feed the titled knave, man;

      And

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1