RETRIBUTION

During World War II two teams of German agents are sent to England by U-Boat.
Both of their missions, if successful would absolutely devastate the British public.
One team's mission is to assassinate Winston Churchill. The other is to assassinate the entire Royal Family.

Both missions and the action of them are hidden forever deep in the files of the Official Secrets Act, so you, the reader, must ask yourself - were these missions fact or were they fiction?

But let me say, right up front, that this particular story was never meant to be written.

Several years ago, a good friend and I attempted to put together a docudrama about Canada's very real Camp X, on the shores of Lake Ontario. He was to be the producer and I the screenwriter, just like in this story.

Another documentary about Camp X had already been produced several years earlier with, to us at least, a not very interesting story line. But those movie makers had something that we did not have - for their movie, several of the real World War II secret agents were still alive.

By the time we started our version, only one was left and he died before we could even interview him. The main difference, as I see it, between a movie and a documentary is that the people in the documentary are real.

Now please let me tell you why we wanted to do this in the first place. It was to recognize and remember them as a group of incredibly brave people, both men and women of several nations, including those on the other side.

As mentioned in 'Retribution', these secret agent received no recognition, no medals and no thanks at all. So, just how do you say thank you to someone who, however remotely, risked and perhaps gave, his or her life to save yours?

By REMEMBERING THEM, that's how, so their sacrifice really means something to us, those of us who now benefit from their sacrifices.

I really don't mean to preach, but Canada's Remembrance Day slogan is 'Lest we Forget'. But how can we forget, when we have never even remembered these most secret and heroic people in the first place?

'Retribution' is my attempt to remember them, if only fictionally. In a sense, my story is a docu-novel, since a lot of it is real. The representative secret agents in the story are not, of course, but the real ones, male and female, risked their lives in complete anonymity, knowing that they faced certain torture and death if they were caught.

I feel that that they all deserve to be remembered, every one of them, in any way possible -
- Lest we ALL forget!