Chapter 27
2030 Hours
September 15, 1942
The Road between Saffron Walden
and Debden Village, Essex County
35 Miles Northeast of London, England
Stretching from the Thames River estuary in the south to the Suffolk coast in the north, the landscape of southeastern England began along an irregular coastline thrust into the turbulent currents of the North Sea. The terrain continued west as the flat, featureless marshes of East Anglia. In Essex County, foggy lowlands gradually evolved into verdant hills, knolls, and glades. Yeomen, through the labor of a hundred generations, had transformed the shire’s primal forests into picturesque farms and pastures.
From time out of memory, the soil in western Essex County had been fertile and well drained, supporting the industry of farmers, shepher
