Code Name Lily

FADE IN from a black screen:

By 1937, Belgium finally began to see signs of economic recovery from so much damage suffered during World War I. It was no surprise that the country wanted no part in future European conflicts. King Leopold III announced Belgium’s neutrality in October 1936. In 1937, less than a year later, this guarantee of neutrality was sent from Nazi Germany.

FADE OUT then FADE IN again

The German Government considers that the inviolability and integrity of Belgium are common interests of the Western Powers. It confirms its determination that in no circumstances will it impair this inviolability and integrity and that it will at all times respect Belgian territory… German guarantee of neutrality, October 13, 1937

FADE OUT then FADE IN again

In 1939, two short years later, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declared war. In 1940 Germany invaded Poland, and Belgium became quite suspicious of Germany’s intentions. Despite being neutral at the start of World War II, Germany invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940, and Belgium surrendered after only eighteen days of fighting, thus beginning nearly five years of German occupation, the second time they had been forcibly occupied by Germany in the twentieth century.

Screen shot of a two-story colonial house on a manicured lawn.

SHOW ON SCREEN over house shot

Cranston, Rhode Island

May 2018

Telephone is ringing. Zoom in on telephone as hand reaches in to answer. Tony Papineau (70) is shown answering.

VOICE

Dr. Papineau?

TONY

Yes, it is. What can I do for you?

VOICE

Did by any chance your parents live on Little Pond County Road in Cumberland?

TONY

Who is this?

VOICE

My name is Luke Dale, Dr. Papineau, and I own an old farmhouse on Little Pond.

TONY

My parents had a small farm on Little Pond back in the mid-40s. I was born there in ’48, but we moved to Cranston in the early ‘50s after my father died from cancer in 1953. I don’t remember much about him. I was so young when he died. Anyway, what’s the reason for the call?

LUKE (50)

Well, our second floor bedroom was too small for us here on the farm, and now that my youngest just got married, we thought about knocking down a wall between our bedroom and his to make ours much bigger. Our closet abutted his room, or so we thought. When we started taking down the wall, we discovered another small room between the two rooms. It must have been sealed years ago, because I never knew it was there.

TONY

What does this have to do with me, Mr. Dale?

LUKE

Was your father in the service during World War II?

TONY

I don’t really know. My mother never told me anything about my dad being in the war.

LUKE

Well, Doc, inside that little room we found a green metal box with an envelope taped on it with the name Sergeant Gerard Papineau, Air Gunner, B-17 Bomber, 1943. I’m assuming that was your father’s name, Gerard?

TONY

Are you kidding me? Gerard was indeed my father’s name. Everybody called him Gerry when my mother talked about him. But how did you connect him to me?

LUKE

Online, Doc. It’s amazing what you can find on Wikipedia…airmen in the Second World War, and even obituaries from the Providence Journal and other local newspapers. When I typed in Antoine Papineau, it said father’s name, Gerard. There weren’t too many Papineaus in Rhode Island, mostly in Central Falls.

TONY

My grandparents lived in Central Falls before they died years ago. What’s in the box?

LUKE

It didn’t feel right trying to open it, so I didn’t. It’s still locked, and it seems to me you should be the one to do that.

TONY

That’s very thoughtful of you. Most people would have opened the box, hoping there was money inside, or jewelry. I doubt that most people would even have told me about this.

LUKE

I’m a veteran myself, and a box labeled by a military guy in World War II sounds to me like it might have some memories close to your father’s heart.

TONY

I hardly knew him. And my mother, God rest her soul, never talked about him being in the military. How do I get this box?

LUKE

If Gerard Papineau was your father, I think you’ll remember the house. I’m here until 3 o’clock in the afternoon each day. Then I’m a guard at the ACI on Sockanosett Boulevard.

INT. Tony hangs up the telephone and walks into the kitchen where his wife Marge is baking.

TONY

Marge, you’ll never believe what I’m about to tell you?

MARGE (70)

Okay, we just won Powerball, and we’re about to buy a small island off the coast of Florida?

TONY

I wish. Do you remember the old farm in Cumberland where I was born back in ’48?

MARGE

Sure I do. Don’t tell me it’s not there anymore?

TONY

Oh, it’s still there alright. That’s what that last call was about. The guy who owns it now, a guy named Luke Dale, had some interesting news. It seems they’ve just become empty-nesters and tore down a wall off their bedroom to enlarge it. The guy found another small room between his and where his son’s room was. He thought there was just a closet between the rooms. Anyway, in this small room there was a locked metal box with my dad’s name on it.

MARGE

What kind of a metal box?

TONY

He said it was the size of a toaster oven. It had an envelope taped on the cover with the name of Air Gunner Sgt. Gerard Papineau. I didn’t remember my mother ever telling me my father was in World War II.

MARGE

She never mentioned that to me either. So, what was in the box?

TONY

Can you believe this guy didn’t open it? He said it had a padlock on it, and once he found my name and address on the web, I should be the one to open it.

MARGE

Wow, that’s a first. So are you going to go get it from him?

TONY

I thought I’d take a ride over there this afternoon, after I stop at the office to finish packing up my stuff. My retirement’s starting off with a mystery already.

INT.

Tony leaves the kitchen, walks back to his office, unlocks the safe, and removes a piece of paper. He shuts the safe door, and looks at the paper.

EXT.

Windshield of Lexus SUV:

Country road leading to a farmhouse with horse corral on the side. Tony climbs steps on front porch and rings doorbell.

LUKE

You must be Dr. Antoine Papineau?

TONY

The house looks in good shape. Call me Tony. I don’t practice dermatology anymore, so I don’t need people to be so formal.

LUKE

Come on in. Before we go too far though, can I see some kind of proof that you’re the right guy I’m looking for?

TONY

I brought my baptism certificate from 1948 from St. Joan of Arc Church on Mendon Road. I hope that’s enough. It has both my mother and father’s name on it, and the date of my baptism, which should match the time we owned this property. You can see the address on the certificate.

LUKE

Perfect, you’re the guy.

INT.

They walk upstairs by way of the living room.

TONY

Oh boy, does this bring back memories from way back. Even though I only lived in the house for about five years, I remember it like it was last year.

LUKE

Come on, I’ll show you where we found the secret room.

INT.

Luke shows where wall was knocked down, and small room appeared.

TONY

I remember we had three bedrooms and a pretty big bathroom with double-door closets in the bathroom.

LUKE

That’s the way we had it too, until my son got married and moved to Houston. We don’t need two guestrooms, so we decided to make our room bigger. There was nothing else in the room but the metal box. It’s downstairs in the kitchen. Which bedroom were you in?

TONY

My brother Bill and I shared this one across from the bathroom. It was nice, kind of small, but nice. The one your son was in belonged to my two sisters. They were older.

INT.

Luke notices Tony’s eyes watering up as they left the upstairs area down to the kitchen. Green metal box is sitting on the kitchen table.

LUKE

You’ll need a hacksaw or some metal cutters to get the lock off.

TONY

I’ll let you know what I find. I can’t wait to find what’s in there.

INT. KITCHEN

Tony picks up the box, and sees that it is light.

TONY

Well, you can rule out gold bars. It’s too light for that.

EXT. DRIVEWAY

Tony waves to Luke, puts box in rear of car, and drives off.

Tony pulls in his driveway, and hits garage door opener. He takes box to his workbench and gets hacksaw to get lock off. He opens the box. He takes out two medals with ribbons…hard to read as medals needed to be cleaned and polished. He places them aside and pulls out a journal written on black and white essay pad. Scans pages and sees handwritten writing.

INT. OFFICE

Takes medals and journal, and walks into house toward his office. He pours himself a glass of apricot brandy on ice, and sits in his lounge chair with the journal. He begins to read.

Show action scenes from B-17 bomber and local scenes in Belgium as Papineau talks:

VOICE OF GERARD PAPINEAU

My name is Gerry Papineau. On August 23, 1943, my squadron was assigned to fly over Belgium to Hamburg, Germany to bomb the shipbuilding factory there. American fliers did day raids, while the RAF flew raids at night. As many as ninety B-17s bombarded Hamburg that day under Operation Gomorrah, an eight-day assault operation day and night. Our B-17 had three gunners. I was the one in the tail, the other two being in the ball turret and the waist gunner.

We had left London at seven o’clock in the morning, and were nearing our target by ten o’clock. We didn’t encounter too much flak from the ground heading into Hamburg, but heading home after a direct hit on the target was a different story. Fifteen bombers were lost, including ours. German fighters were attacking our plane from all sides. As the tail gunner, I had a lot of fighters coming up on us from the rear, and I was able to disable only one of them.

I was grazed by a bullet that nearly knocked me unconscious as our plane took a direct hit from another German fighter. Within minutes, the captain gave us orders to prepare to evacuate the plane. I strapped on my harness to the parachute as the plane began to spiral downward. I saw several crew members slide open the rear door closest to me and bail out.

I ended up parachuting into northern Belgium, equipped with my escape kit and little else. I had tied my white neck scarf tightly around my arm wound to stop the bleeding before I jumped. I found out much later that I was one of the lucky ones who made it safely to the ground without being shot.

I landed in a cornfield in Soiron, a small village south of Liege, and quickly hauled in and hid my parachute in a thick clump of bushes nearby. I had no clue where I was. It was still broad daylight and I was certain German patrols on the ground had spotted the parachute. I thought I’d get caught, but I didn’t. A local farmer raced toward me and had me follow him back to his farmhouse where he hid me in the attic. His name was Henri Mongeon. I will never forget it. His wife, Giselle, looked at my wound, cleaned it out, and then sewed it closed. They gave me food and told me not to make a sound in the attic as I lay on a mattress.

My French upbringing came in handy as they spoke French and Walloon, their native tongue in this part of Belgium. Late that night, I was faced with a member of the Belgian resistance who took me by car to Brussels, several hours away. He hid me under several blankets on the floor of the back seat of the car. When the car came to a stop and the motor was turned off, I didn’t want to budge. Suddenly, a woman’s voiced shouted to me to quickly come out of the car as we entered a house I assumed was in Brussels. I never saw the driver again.

The woman’s name was Lily, just Lily, nothing more. She took care of me and nursed my wound. I found out later that she was a nurse, even though she looked like she was fifteen years old. Without her help, I don’t know where I would have ended up. As my guide, she led me out of Belgium into France by car, rail and bike, and eventually into Spain, where the British consulate safely returned me to London.

I am forever grateful to Lily and other members of the Comet Line. Perhaps one day I will visit the area to personally thank her, if I get to know her real name somehow. I was a lost soul in a foreign country I knew nothing about. When I left two months later, Belgium seemed like home.

Screen flashes title in bright red colors CODE NAME LILY

INT.

Tony picks up the two medals then puts them aside as he opens his laptop computer and types in the words Military Medals. (Show this on his screen). He scrolls down photos until he comes across the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Flying Medal. Tony reads aloud the requirements for each medal.

TONY

The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest military award to a member of the United States Army (and previously the United States Army Air Forces) for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force.

The Distinguished Flying medal was a military decoration awarded by the British RAF for acts of valor, courage, or devotion to duty by a non-commissioned airman while flying in active operations against the enemy.

EXT. GARAGE

Tony rushes to garage to find some chrome cleaner and an abrasive sponge. He scrubs the medals until they are clean again. He looks into the metal box and notices a small manila envelope.

Show certificate

Distinguished Flying Medal #16752444 Sergeant Gerard Papineau, USAAF Member

Squadron 107. This airman was the rear gunner of an aircraft detailed to attack Hamburg one day in August 1943. When returning from the target area, the aircraft was hit by machine gun fire from a fighter. The turret gunner was killed and Sergeant Papineau was wounded in the arm. Although in great pain, Sergeant Papineau remained at his post. Coolly withholding his fire until the attacker came into close range; he then delivered an accurate burst which caused the enemy aircraft to break away. Later, it was seen to be on fire. On two occasions more recently, his cool and determined work has played a good part in the success of the sortie. Sergeant Papineau withstood his position until explicitly ordered to evacuate in the face of the B-17 about to crash following serious flak damage. He is truly an example of courage and resolution.

Distinguished Service Cross

Awarded to Sergeant Gerard Papineau for extraordinary heroism by distinguishing himself while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.

INT. Tony rushes to the kitchen to find Marge.

TONY

How come I never heard about this, Marge? Why am I finding out about this at seventy years old?

MARGE

I wonder if Bill knew about your dad’s military service. Give him a call.

Tony grabs the wall phone in the kitchen.