Machine Gunners - Chapter 1

1 - Chas wakes up in an Air Raid Shelter after the 'all clear' has been
sounded. He goes to the house to find his dad (who is an Air Raid
Warden) talking about the raids that night. He tells Chas that a German
Bomber plane crashed at Chirton.

2 - Chas has the second best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth.

He collects everything he can to do with the war.

3 - Chas gets to the scene of the crash. He trades insults with a family
of “West Chirton rubbish”, who have one engine in their wrecked
house, then he leaves.

4 -The other engine is being guarded by Fatty Hardy, the local

policeman. Chas lies to him saying there is an “unexploded bomb” in a
street nearby and distracts Hardy long enough to try and get a bit off
the engine, but it doesn't work and Hardy chases him off.

5 - Chas goes to the woods in West Chirton to hide from Fatty Hardy.
As he climbs through a load of brambles he finds the tail end of a
Heinkel 111 - German bomber plane.

6 - Chas dreams that he will be on the local news as a hero for finding
the plane.

7 - Chas then sees that the dorsal machine-gun is still there!

Machine Gunners - Chapter 2

1 - Chas tries to remove the machine gun from the crashed German
bomber but it’s stuck. The dead German airman in the plane causes him
to be sick.

2 - Chas rushes back home so he can change for school. His mother
notices how pale he looks and notices he's lost the basket.
3 - At school Mr Liddell notices that Chas isn't his usual self. This is
because Chas can't stop thinking of the machine gun.

4 - Chas needs a means of carrying the machine gun as it’s so heavy.

So Chas asks Cemetery Jones (the undertakers son) to help him as he
needs Cem's bogie to move the gun.

5 - Cem eats his food in a very strange way and says his bogie has a
guy on it, however he eventually agrees to help.

5 - They go to the plane at night time. On their way to the woods they
meet Audrey Parton who is the local Tomboy. She comes from a 'posh'
background and is quite demanding. She's also fair and honest.

6 - When they get to the plane the small saw Chas has taken from his
dad’s tool chest takes ages to cut through the gun mounting. Audrey
and Cem panic when they see the body and their flashlight gives their
position away to Fatty Hardy, the local Air Raid Warden.

7 - The gun finally falls off and they hide it up the trouser leg of their
Guy (Fawkes). However they see Fatty Hardy accompanied by a
woman, two boys and a dog.

8 - Tears of rage fill Chas' eyes. To be so close to having a gun......

Machine Gunners - Chapter 3

1 - Just as Chas, Cem and Audrey are about to be discovered by Fatty

Hardy there is a sudden air raid

2 - A lot of description of what it’s like to be in an air raid including the

sound of airplanes, bombs falling, anti aircraft guns and Chas' hatred of
the Germans and his fear of death.

3 - They sneak Cem's bogey with the machine gun hidden in the Guy
back home but Chas's dad gets hold of them and throws them into an
air raid shelter.

4 -Mrs McGill and and Mrs Spalding are in the shelter moaning about
children's behaviour and it is a very uncomfortable night.

5 - Chas' dad puts the bogie in his greenhouse and Chas hides the
machine gun in one of the heating pipes.

6 - At school it is clear that other collectors had been to the plane. Cem
had picked up bullet canisters. However the worst bit was that Boddser
Brown, the school bully, had found the plane and robbed the dead
pilot’s body of a flying helmet, photos and money.

7 - Boddser Brown is a large, strong, cruel and violent bully and Chas'
sworn enemy.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 4

1 - Stan Liddell is called by the Headteacher to his office as the

policeman wants to speak to Stan, not the Head! The Head is very
unhappy about this.

2 -In the Head’s office, Stan realises that the policeman is an ex pupil
who isn't in the army as he was badly hurt at Dunkirk. He asks Stan to
accompany him to Chirton Woods.

3 - The police show Stan the German plane that has been completely
vandalised by masses of children. Almost every part of the plane that
can be stolen has been and the dead pilot’s body has been mutilated.

4 -However the main point the police make is that a heavy machine gun
has clearly been sawn off its mounting and that the 2000 rounds of
ammunition that were with it have now also gone.

5 - They explain to Stan that this type of gun can blow a hole in a brick
wall at quarter of a mile and that they think it must be a grammar-
school gang as the operation clearly took planning.
6 - So Stan needs to help them find the gun and fast. otherwise they
"could kill 20 people without even knowing they'd done it."

Machine Gunners - Chapter 6

1) Chas and his mother go to their shelter with cousin Gordon who has
a rifle and explains he could bring down a plane with it. The air raid
doesn't happen and the all clear is sounded.

2) Mr McGill comes home and gets his supper given to him but when
the blackout starts again he loses his meal as they dash to the air raid
shelter and they throw themselves in.

3) They hear the German planes overhead then Mrs Spalding comes
crashing in with her pants round her ankles as she'd been on the loo
when the raid started.

4) Chas tries to imagine firing the machine gun at the bombers and
bringing them down, then the raid starts.

5) In the morning many houses have been hit, including the house of
one of his classmates. Mr McGill takes Chas to see if his grandparents
are alive. The streets are full of damaged houses, burning and terrified
people. Firemen struggle to put out fires and one is trapped under
falling debris. Seville Street has been totally destroyed as had many
others.

6) They find Chas' grandparents’ house is damaged but the inhabitants

safe. Nana tells them the “Jarmans” couldn't kill Granda in WW1 and
they couldn't do it now. He sits drinking tea with a medal he got from
an Austrian soldier he killed at a battle in Italy. He thinks this
Austrian’s ghost has come back to haunt him. He talks to himself as if
he's in that war.

7) The grandparents have their things taken away and move into Chas'
house. Chas tells his dad he wants to look round before going home.

8) Clogger is a ginger haired hard nut from Glasgow who likes Chas
and laughs at his jokes. He knows about the machine gun. Chas decides
they will build a camp in Sicky Nicky's garden as no one goes there.

9) Sicky Nicky gets picked on by Boddser every day after school. He's
a quiet sensitive type. Everyone seems to bully him.

10) On the way home Chas, Cem and Clogger walk with Nicky and are
confronted by Boddser and his gang. Clogger floors two of the gang.
Boddser singles out Chas for a fight. Chas avoids Boddser’s first punch
and throws gravel in his eye. Chas then hits him with his gas mask
twice and causes huge damage. Cem stops him from striking a third
blow.

11) Chas is told that Britishers fight with their fists and his father, the
Head and even his class disown him. However Boddser is laughed at
for his bandages, his gang leave him and parents tell his mum how he'd
been a bully.

12) Chas, Audrey and Nicky are also outcasts so they go to Nicky's
very big house. Nicky's father had been a Captain of a warship but had
been killed in 1940. However there is loads of food as Nicky's mum
'billets' lots of sailors. Mrs Nichol also drinks far too much and has
relationships with the sailors in return for food off the ships. Chas
decides the huge rockery in the garden is a perfect place for a secret
den.

13) Chas asks his parents why Nicky's house is a bad place to visit but
they are too embarrassed to tell him. The same goes for Audrey's
parents.

14) Above Garmouth there were five barrage balloons and each one
had their own nickname. As Chas looked at them he saw a lone
German plane fly in and he could even see the pilot’s face. Chas gives
him the V sign as he's a Britisher.
15) Britsh anti aircraft guns start firing but the plane fires at 'The South
Shield’s' barrage balloon and sets it on fire. The British AA guns set
fire to The Wellington Windbag. The German plane also sets fire to the
Fish Quay Buster.

16) They hide bits of the Fish Quay Buster in a disused shed. They are
going to use this to waterproof their Fortress.

17) Boddser tries to get Clogger and Cem to join his gang by offering
them to see his dirty postcards or play with his railway set. Chas
realises he needs Cem and Clogger.

18) A German plane crashes into their school and wrecks it. There is no
other school available so they have time off. Chas realises they can't
build the Fortress on their own so he gets John (a 40 year old man with
huge learning disabilities) to help them.

19) Mr McGill hardly ever came home as he was working so hard as an

air raid warden. He barely washed and hardly had time to eat. Granda
had bronchitis and Nana was annoying Mrs McGill so the house was
not a good place to be. So no one minded if Chas wasn't around.

20) Cem gets his sister’s boyfriend to design him a machine gun
emplacement in return for leaving them alone.

21) Sarge notices sandbags are being stolen. Mrs Nichol notices their
shelter for the servants has been stolen. The sailor’s notice their food
and various items are being stolen.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 7

1) On Christmas Eve Chas and Clogger are in the Crow's nest of the
Fortress. Audrey was making tea and they had plenty of food. Carrot
Juice Nicky and Cem are inside Fortress Caparetto, which is now
finished.
2) The children have made rules for the Fortress and created their own
home there. John is given the seat of honour as he built the place.

3) Nicky wakes up in his house ashamed and angry to hear there is a

sailor in his mum’s room as well as in the house. He senses rather than
hears the air raid (he has a dream his dad warns him) and runs to the
Fortress.

4) The Nichol house had been been destroyed by a bomb. The front
was almost normal but the back was completely destroyed. People
believed Nicky had been blown to bits as they couldn't find his body.
Nicky tells Chas he wants to live in the Fortress so he's not taken to a
home.

5) Carrot Juice thinks they should tell the grown ups about Nicky but
Clogger says they will take him to a home which is terrible. Nicky
starts to cry really badly. Clogger decides he will live in the Fortress
with Nicky as he hates living at his Auntie’s. So Fortress Caparetto
becomes more than a game - it becomes their home.

Clogger says that he'll join Charles whenever he can, - his parents both
work full time and he never sees them in the afternoon, only in the
mornings.

6) The police think that Clogger walked out of his Auntie’s to go back
home to Glasgow. Mr McGill questions Chas about this but Chas lies.
He'd never done this before but he had lost faith in grown ups to keep
children safe - an effect of the war.

7) With John’s help they enlarge the Fortress with a second Anderson
Shelter taken from the Nichols’ garden. With three loop-holes for the
gun the Fortress is ready.

8) No one visits the Nichol house except the children as they think it’s
haunted.
Machine Gunners - Chapter 8

1) One morning Clogger is in the Crows nest and sees a lone German
plane coming in. The children fire the machine gun at it but the huge
recoil of the gun means the machine gun flies off its stand and blows a
hole in the roof.

2) The German fighter pilot is startled by the bullets and his tail fin is
then hit by British Pom-Pom fire. The pilot seems to go crazy and
attacks the British Pom-Poms and forgets to look for the Spitfires that
shoot his plane down.

3) Sergeant Rudi Gerlath (a rear gunner/observer) escapes from the

plane and crashes into a garden and twists his ankle. He hides in a
potting shed. He tries to surrender but no one is around so eventually he
falls asleep.

4) The children squabble about the firing of the machine gun and how
no-one could hold it. Clogger says they need to make a stand for the
machine gun.

5) Rudi wakes up and realises his ankle is very bad. He crawls to the
edge of the allotments but can find no one to surrender to. He lives for
five days on the scraps in the rabbit hutch.

6) Chas gets his dad to fix the telescope and pretends to his dad that
they need a big metal stand to hold it so Mr McGill makes a steel tripod
over the course of a week.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 9

1) Fatty Hardy tells 'Sarge' of a "funny case" and brings a very strange
and very religious woman who tells them her mother has been machine
gunned by “the foul servants of the beast”. She shows them a flattened
German bullet that has plunged through her mother’s roof.

2) Sarge tells her that she can't claim war damage from him but realises
the bullets couldn't have come from the lone 'Tea Time Sneaker'. Sarge
realises that the machine gun from the crashed bomber is being used by
kids.

3) Sarge goes to the lady’s house and tries to work out from what
direction the bullets had come.

4) Rudi's ankle is finally ok to walk on. He realises he must be careful

as shot down pilots were often attacked by the public or even killed.
Rudi also hates being "fastened in". He roamed the streets at home just
to be free.

5) Rudi sets off looking like a tramp. One woman feeds him scraps and
she thinks he's dumb. His uniform is so damaged and filthy he doesn't
look like a pilot anymore. He wanders until he comes to bombed house
with a large garden.

6) Rudi hides from a Police Sergeant who’s looking at the house. He

then goes to the garden for a wee. He notices a little doorway in a
mound of rubble and goes through to come face to face with a barrel of
a machine gun and four faces behind it.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 10

1) Clogger makes a concrete floor to fix the tripod to the floor so the
machine gun won't jump about when fired. However they find the
machine gun won't work when they try to change the magazines.

2) They all see Rudi come towards the Fortress and Chas almost thinks
it’s a ghost. Rudi surrenders to them and they take his pistol (Luger).
Rudi realises he has surrendered to kids and thinks he's an idiot and the
machine gun cannot fire.

3) The kids want to hand Rudi to the police at first but realise Rudi
could let slip all about the Fortress.

4) While they argue about what to do Rudi falls asleep.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 11

Lots of time passes in this chapter.

1) Mr McGill explains to Chas and Mrs McGill that there are spring
tides and this is perfect for flat-bottomed invasion barges to land. He
tells them Hitler has to invade soon as Britain is getting stronger by the
day due to Canadians arriving to help us.

2) Chas starts to fear an invasion and thinks of Clogger and Nicky.

3) Rudi wakes up from his fever and is led to some bushes for a poo.
He has a bad cough and temperature. He falls back asleep.

4) For days Rudi battles his fever. He thinks the children look too
grown up and solemn. But he realises they are nicer than the Hitler
Youth at home. Rudi notices that Nicky was the weakest and most
nervous one.

5) Stan Liddell gets used to not going to school as it’s bombed out. He
remembers WW1 and how he fought the Germans then. He realises
they can't fight the Germans now with rifles from The Boer War and
rocket firing drainpipes. But he does have Sandy who gets some
shotguns from a farmer and 'wins' some ammo.

6) The police sergeant with a limp tells Sandy he thinks that a group of
children have got the missing machine gun. He says Charlie McGill
lives in the same street as John Brownlee and Audrey Parton and Cem
Jones are all in the third year together as was ‘The Nichol Boy’ whose
body was never found and Young Duncan who never showed up in
Scotland. The sergeant says all the families have reported things stolen
from their houses.

7) Stan Liddell goes to the observation platform on the old mill and
learns that the Germans use paratroopers to start any invasion. Through
his binoculars he notices Chas.

8) Rudi gets the 'ginger boy' to put the safety catch on the Luger and
starts to become friends with Clogger, then Nicky.

9) More time passes. Rudi has got better at English. He reads Desperate
Dan comics and notices Nicky is almost treating him like he's his dad.
Rudi notices he's less like a soldier and doesn't miss Germany or being
near death in a plane.

10) Rudi suggests they expand the Fortress to include a 'bog'. The
children steal many things including doors, sand bags and a bucket to
help. They even get barbed wire, bricks and windows to help him.
Nicky calls Rudi 'Dad' by accident.

11) The children want Rudi to fix the machine gun but he refuses as he
knows how dangerous it can be but finally agrees to do it in return for a
boat back to Germany.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 12

1) Stan is watching Chas' house through binoculars but can never find
out where Chas goes to because Chas always goes different directions
and he loses him.

2) Stan spies Boddser Brown following Chas.

3) Chas realises he is being followed and leads his follower through a

hawthorn hedge, across a water pipe, over a glass topped wall and then
through mud flats. But still the footsteps follow him.

4) In the Fortress Rudi eyes the Luger in Nicky's hand whilst Clogger
sleeps. He notices the safety catch is off.

5) Chas realises his chaser is Boddser Brown.

6) Rudi takes the Luger off the sleeping Nicky but realises that he can't
really escape as there would be a man hunt for him. He also realises
that if he got to Germany he might be shot as a deserter. He gives the
sleeping Nicky back the gun.

7) Boddser pushes Chas' head under water trying to torture him into
telling him where the machine gun is but Chas won't talk.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 13

1) Boddser is worried that despite him ducking Chas under the water
loads of times Chas refuses to tell him where the gun is. Chas pretends
to be dead.

2) Boddser lets Chas go and Chas runs over the plank bridge towards
the bombed out Nichol house where he meets Clogger.

3) Clogger fights Boddser and beats him very badly. Clogger threatens
to kill Boddser if he tells the police that Clogger is still in Garmouth.
Chas is shocked at the level of violence.

4) Back at the Fortress Clogger scolds Chas for being a wimp for not
wanting him to beat Boddser so badly. Chas says he was nearly
drowned but refused to talk. Clogger tells Chas he's proud of him and
that he's not a 'bairn' but a man.

5) Stan Liddell calls at the McGill’s but Mrs McGill won't let him see
Chas as he's so badly bruised. Stan calls at the Brown’s and Mrs Brown
tells him her son is really badly hurt but won't say who did it. Stan tells
Mrs Brown not to tell the police. He guesses that Chas won the fight.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 14

1) Chas, Cem and Clogger force an upset Nicky to show them where
his father’s boat is so Rudi can escape. They dress him as a slum kid in
a balaclava so he won't be recognised.

2) They break into the boat shed and put the boat into the water. It leaks
at first but Nicky explains the wood has shrunk and it will expand.

3) Next day they load the boat ready for its departure.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 15

1) In his shelter Chaz is told of the massive damage being done by Mrs
Spalding. She then tells them she thinks she's heard Church bells
ringing that is the warning sign for an invasion.

2) Chaz fears the Germans. For a second he thinks of befriending them

but realises you can't befriend Nazis and he wants to fight. So he leaves
the shelter to go to the fortress.

3) Mr Jones takes Cem and his wife from their shelter to the Irving
Tomb but Cem doesn't want to go and runs to the Fortress. Mr Jones
doesn't bother to chase him.

4) Mr Parton takes Audrey and his wife to his fancy car filled with fuel
he bought on the black market. He tells them they are running despite
Winston Churchill's orders to stay put. But Audrey jumps out and limps
to the Fortress.

5) In the Brownlee shelter John is terrified and runs to the Fortress but
Mrs Brownlee follows him.
6) Mrs McGill searches her house for Chaz but finds Granda and
Granny who are waiting to fight the “Jarmans”. Mrs McGill is
desperate to find her son.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 16

1) Garmouth is on fire spreading smoke and confusion everywhere.

People are starting to flee the area.

2) Stan confirms with other army units on the coast that there has been
no invasion.

3) After dealing with bombed houses all night Mr McGill learns from
his distraught wife that Chas has run off into the night.

4) Mr McGill throws his wife out and mans his phone.

5) The children want Rudi to get the gun to fire but Rudi realises that
kids should not be playing soldiers, but he repairs it anyway.

6) Stan and Sandy are told the Germans have landed and get ready for
battle.

7) Stan realises the “Germans" are in fact Poles come over to fight for
us and argue with the Poles who want to fight the Germans.

8) Nicky and Rudi bump into a queue of refugees that Fatty Hardy is
questioning to see if anyone is a Nazi saboteur. Nicky pretends Rudi is
his deaf and dumb parent.

9) Just as Rudi and Nicky are about to be captured, John bursts in

terrified and the duo escape.

10) Rudi escapes in his rowing boat and rows out to sea, but soon
realises there is no invasion and has to row back as it’s 300 miles to
Germany.
11) The poles are ordered by head command to check the whole area
for German parachutists.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 17.

1) The people of Garmouth realise there is no invasion but the four sets
of parents hassle the police to find their children.

2) The Polish Corps are deployed by Fatty Hardy to search the Heath.

3) Chas wakes up after the kids have squabbled all night.

4) Chas looks out into the mist and sees the Poles and thinks they are
"Germans" with Fatty Hardy who they think must be captured or a
traitor (Quisling).

5) Chas fires the machine gun at them. The Poles fire back and start to
attack the Fortress. Fatty Hardy feels a total failure compared to the
über professional Polish army soldiers.

6) Rudi steps out with a white flag and surrenders to the Poles and
Fatty Hardy.

7) Rudi tells the Poles and Hardy that there are no Germans except for
him and that it is just 6 kids.

Machine Gunners - Chapter 18

1) Chas realises things are very strange as Rudi talks to Fatty Hardy
and Stan Liddell and the Home Guard turn up and start talking to the
'German' soldiers. Then all the children's parents start turning up.

2) The 'Germans' drive away! The police and parents start walking
towards the fortress. Chas fires The Luger in the air and all the police,
Home Guard and parents fling themselves to the ground. Only Rudi
carries on walking forward.

3) Clogger fires The Luger and Rudi is hit........

4) Rudi is taken away in an ambulance. The parents of the children start

to descend into squabbling over who was to blame. Stan Liddell
assumes authority as it is a military matter and the police storm off in
rage.

5) Sandy says the 'ole is great and that they want to take it over for the
Home Guard. Stan and Sandy are trying to make the children feel
better.

6) Chas tries to make sure that Clogger and Nicky aren't sent away to
him and that they can see Rudi in hospital.

7) Stan and Sandy leave the children to say their final goodbyes and
confront Mr Parton about having Black Market petrol. Mr McGill is
limbering up to give Chas a beating but says that he admires 'his guts'.

8) The children say their emotional goodbyes and are lead away by
their parents. Each of the parents blames the other children.

9) The a Police Sergeant goes to take Nicky and tells Nicky he

shouldn't be hanging round with this 'riff-Raff' as his dad was a ship's
captain.

10) Nicky tells the Police Sergeant to 'get stuffed'.