Thursday 13 October 2011

chapter 10: Sink the Zeppelin!

    They're 150mm artillery pieces. Some of the largest field guns the Germans ever produced in quantity. If anything can do it, it's these. That damn ship mounts the same cannons. I get MacDonald's men to capture them and put them to good use. We have to get closer to the zeppelin. Where these pieces should be towed by horse and tractor, they're being pushed by men. These men... they're magnificent bastards. We might just make it.
    Then we saw the stukas launching. A little part of me died. It's too late. Those men we ended up butchering – what did it all matter? What was it all for? Those people on the tank – those people before my very eyes slaughtered – god dammit. Can't think about that now.
    “YOU ON THE STREET! GET THE ACK ACK FROM THAT ARMOURY AND SHOOT! SHOOT OR WE'RE DEAD!”
    They don't say anything. They just do it. Quad 20mm flak. Not much. But it'll do.
    The stukas hit the men. A few of those 150's go down. We take down a pair of those Stukas though. Ten left. Just... ten...
    The zeppelin's in sight. The 150mm guns it has are intimidating. Our 88 is more important though.
    “Pyre! Incendiary ordinance! Let's cook that damn ship up!”
    Sir yes sir! Ordinance loaded!
    I get on the gun this time. Steady hands. I line the triangles of the sight with the casemate-mounted gun. It's best cook that armoury. The first shot bounces. My heart pounds.
    “REVERSE! GET US OUT!”
    The house beside us bursts into splinters of mudbrick. It's gone. I view through the scope again. Another part of my heart drops. There are a hell of a lot of those 15cm cannons on that damn ship. I make a quick count. At least half a dozen on this side. What the hell was intel thinking?! I... I just sent a full company to its death. And... there isn't a damn thing I can do about it!
    I hear the screams of men. About a dozen of them. All dead. Macdonald's hit. The tiger's fine. Because they missed this tank.
    “LOADED SIR!”
    I fire another one. This time, my aim is true. I managed to hit one of the casemates. We should have stuck to the plan. Should have gone onboard. God dammit.
    The casemate cooks up. It's not enough to get rid of the ship though.
    Then another hit from a different gun. Must have been one of the 15cm cannons. It hit near the rudder. If we can't kill it, we'll cripple it.
    “LOADED!”
    I keep on planting these incendiaries in that ship. They keep on shelling us. The stukas have taken out more than half the men. Surprised they haven't hit us yet.
    That's when they hit us. We feel the 30mm shots hit the top of the hull. The engine's on fire. I make Pyre see what he can do. One solitary fire extinguisher for the entire tank.
    I fire the final shot and order the men to evacuate the tank. It's been good to us. But we can't stay here.
    I yell at the men manning the flak to shoot down those damned stukas. But they're dead.
    A horrid realization comes into my mind. Everybody in that entire company is dead or dying.
    There's only one artillery piece left. The tiger's useless. There's only one thing left to do.
    “Lads.... We aren't getting out of here.We have two choices: Sink the zeppelin, or surrender.
Victory or death, men. We destroy that damned ship, or we die trying. We probably will anyway. But we'll go down swinging. You men go. All I need is one volunteer.”
    “I'll do it, sir.”
    -- It's Pyre.
    “Get to Walid's place. If we aren't there within two hours of you, we're dead.”
    “Alright. Load it.” This thing has huge recoil. This time we hit the bridge.
    The ship's burning in the water. Those stukas are out of ammo. They've stopped shooting us.
    We keep firing. Three more shots before some people start coming at us. Wehrmacht.
    We run.
    As we run, we see the zeppelin. It's been battered, damaged beyond repair. The sacrifices of these men... they might not be in vain. The rudder's gone. It's dead in the water. Its guns damaged, fighter bays inoperable. We might just have done something heroic.
    But then something in my gut drops. I see something coming through the harbour.
    Two more aircraft carriers.
    They're flying Italian colours.
    I think we may have just lost the war.
  

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