Another Black Box!

   The Royal Air Force Group Captain in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ I’ve never been sure whether or not he was involved with The Village. He did hang back in the kitting out room after both the Colonel and Number 6 had left. The Milkman {an agent working for The Village} then went into the kitting out room. Did he then overpower the Group Captain, or did the Group Captain help the milkman into his flying gear? If the latter, then after the milkman was in his flying suit, he would have then knocked the Group Captain unconscious so to give him an alibi. If not, he would have had to have had some kind of story to tell the Colonel, to explain why he is not in the aircraft with Number 6!
   And yet does it really matter if the Group Captain was overpowered by, or was in league with the Milkman, the story would have to be the same, wouldn’t it? And yet if the Group Captain was in league with The Village, then why the necessity for the milkman to fly the Gloster Meteor aircraft, when the Group Captain was already on hand to do the job? The appearance of the said Milkman might well indicate that the Group Captain was not in league with The Village.

    Thinking about it, if the RAF Group Captain was in league with The Village, then he could have flown the plane, and ejected Number 6 out of the aircraft as we see in the episode. Then the Group Captain carried on with whatever happened next to the aircraft, either crashing the plane into the sea, or landing somewhere else. The aircraft, its pilot and navigator having died in an accident at sea! After all, the Group Captain couldn’t have flown the plane back to RAF Gibraltar, not without Number 6 aboard, that would have brought about some very embarrassing questions. Then again, if the Group Captain had flown the plane, and was not in league with The Village, Number 6 wouldn’t have been returned to The Village!

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