Chapter 12: News.

    Jennings is driving. I'm up front as well. Pyre and Navittas are in the back of the truck. It's damn hard to see out here right now. Our goal isn't so much to get to Walid's place, as to make sure we aren't spotted by the Germans. At this point, we're running at about 80 kph. A damn fine way to get seen. But speed right now is more important. Offroading isn't comfortable. We're going over many a sand-dune. Then a thought occurs to me. We've got German uniforms. If we end up being seen by Walid... oh shit.

     One of our tires blows out. I forgot about the escarpment. We get out.

     “WALID! STOP SHOOTING!”

     “You are late my friend! I shall come down! Do you need assistance? I saw smoke from the harbour from here!”

     “Damn right we need assistance! Klaus has been hit!”

     “Who is Klaus?”

     We get Klaus out. He's breathing, but barely. We get the truck into the Cave.

     Walid sets to work. Didn't know he was a medic.

     “Tut tut! Don't you people know anything about medicine?!”

     We look at him kinda... gawk eyed, I suppose the yanks might say.

     “No.” we say, simultaneously.

     He mumbles a number of what I assume are Arabic profanities. He gets Pyre to help him as a nurse of sorts. I'm glad Klaus is unconscious for this. I would not envy him.

     Navittas, Jennings and I are all waiting outside the impromptu operating cave. All this damn waiting. I look around Walid's cave – there's a radio, a couple beds, and a small armoury. Some food, too, not too much though. Probably a day or two's worth. Makes sense. We've got nothing to do right now. Time to just rest. Exhausting work, war is. Times like this are few. I decide to turn on the radio. It's Mozart.

A few hours pass. We've been asleep. Walid has woken us. Klaus will survive. It's time to debrief him. He's got a cigarette in his hand. Don't blame him.

     “My name's not Klaus, by the way.” he says.

     “Of course it isn't. I'm not Hans either.” I say.

     “If you must know, my name's Reginald Meyers.”

     “Right, Reg. So, did you turn up any juicy details on that carrier?”

     “A number of things. I can't be sure if intelligence doesn't already know this, but, that those aircraft carriers came in is a very bad thing. They're much ahead of schedule. I think Mussolini's been getting those magitech engineers to do quite a bit of work. The good news is, if our navy can hit that shipyard, they lose a large chunk of infrastructure. The bad news is, now there's aircraft carriers to deal with. And you can bet they'll defend that place with more than enough firepower. It'll be tough. As for the Zeppelin itself, it's good to have it out of the way. But those other two, they're going to make life hell. They probably can't strike the Russians, not with the mines of the Dardanelles in the way, but if and when they can, we can assume the Soviet Caucasus is gone. Right now, what we really need, is the US. The soviets can't do it on their own. Or even with us. If Hitler conquers to Moscow, well... we'd better brush up on our German.”

     At this, I'm worried. But he's right. If the Germans conquer Russia, we have completely and utterly lost the war. At least, without the United States, it will be...

     At the end of all that, we hear a news broadcast on the BBC. News from the front. El Alamein has been captured. Cairo's next. I wonder what happened to Laura. I need to know.

     An aura of despair kind of sets in. No one is in a good mood right now. We relax though. Take our pleasure in the little things. We have some chocolate. We have a fair amount of other supplies, too. We make it into something approaching nice. It's sweet, at least. And we're alive. Everyone that matters.

     I decide to break the silence. “For all our dire straights, men... we have done a fantastic job. I'm proud to have served with you. Non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.”

     We have our rum ration. A toast to the victorious dead. We get a good night of sleep, for once.

Chapter 11: Escape

     The Wehrmacht's hot on our heels. We're half a step ahead. Need to find some place to hide. Mud brick houses aren't good enough. All we have is a Schmeisser and a Kar98. Scarcely forty rounds between us. This is not good. We're zigzagging through these streets. Worse yet, I'm running out of breath. We hear the Germans yells, they sound like Wagnerian knights. They're terrifying. Gotta get out of here. Those men that were on the tank... they weren't like this... were they?

     We burst through the door of some house. A woman is in here. She's screaming. Can't let her scream. I get Pyre to get a pillow, make sure she won't keep on screaming. Baby's screaming. God dammit why did it have to be kids. I hate kids.

     Then everything is quiet.

     The jackboots of the Wehrmacht eliminates the silence with earth-shattering clonks. All the weight of the world is upon us. We're dead silent. As are the people we're with. There's nothing for it.

They break down the door of the house immediately opposite us. We've still got their uniforms. I'm making a huge gamble.

     “Da drueben Komraden! Komme! Komme! Los!”

      I motion to Pyre to start booking it. We're running in some kind of direction. No germans have seen through us yet. It looks like my ruse worked. The simplest distraction is often the best.

     We keep on going. There's no real reason to run so fast. So we just keep at a light pace for now. Make it look like we're out of breath... well, we are out of breath. But it's still working.

     We start walking. We don't know where we went. I mean that both literally and figuratively. Where the hell are we?

     I tell Pyre to start looking for Kuebelwagens.

     We keep on sneaking around. I think we make pretty good Krauts. Then three German soldiers come up to us and start raising hell.

     Jennings, Navittas, and Klaus. Klaus is unconscious. They're carrying him between each other. I take Klaus's pulse. His cauterized body isn't leaking much. But his pulse is still weak. He might get through this. My responsibility. Shouldn't have let this happen. Petersen... that bastard.

     “Bloody glad to see you're still round here gents. Situation, Jennings?” I say. His eyes are bloodshot. He's tired. I'm tired too. It's getting late. No sleep last night.

     “Sir, looks like everybody in the company we liberated is either dead or recaptured. I wouldn't envy them. We need to get to Walid's place. We can either walk during the night, or try something gutsy. Considering Klaus' situation, I'd recommend trying to capture a truck. Preferably one with some gas.”

     “Roger. Let's find a road.”

     We're in back alleys right now. We get to the outskirts of the city once more. There aren't many convoys coming by, which is both good and bad. It's about 8:00 now. I'm damn exhausted. Hungry, too.

    Jennings and myself are on one side with Klaus. Navittas and Pyre are on the other. There aren't a whole lot of people around here right now. Looks like the Wehrmacht has gone someplace else for the night. The sun is setting to our rear. Jennings and I start talking.

     “Did you know anything about Petersen?”

     “No more than you. He hid it well. Every time we tried talking to him, he played himself well. The man was slick like grease. He had us fooled from the start. Bastard knew he was playing us. Bastard knew just what to do. None of us picked up on it. You didn't either.”

     “Damn right I didn't. But I bloody well should 'ave. I'm in charge. I take the heat. It's my damn job. Dammit.”

     “Sir, we're only human. If court-martials are involved, I'll stand with you. None of us knew. None of us were close enough to him. Frankly, none of us liked him. The man was a fuck-up to our eyes. We finished our objective under the direst of circumstances. We took down a crew of thousands in return for a single company of POW's, using captured (and now destroyed) equipment. I don't think command has a single complaint to make, except that we've done our job better than anybody else in this damn war. Intel especially. Bloody bastards.”

     “...Thanks Jennings. I needed that. Ninth layer.”

     “Ninth layer.”

      Over the horizon we see something coming. Black smoke. Exhaust. We get ready. Gas trucks always come in last.

      We're behind a couple of abandoned houses. Navittas and Pyre spot the convoy. They're heading the right way. So are some Wehrmacht to meet them. This is one of the side roads they're liable to take.

     Large number of Panzers coming through. Mostly panzer III's. Two Tigers. Those things are dangerous, as you well know. A few up-gunned Panzer IV's, and a few Stugs. We cannot get detected. If we are, we're dead.

     Those Tigers drive by; the ground and buildings shake. The 60 tonne monsters churn everything in their wakes. Behind them are recovery vehicles; they're towing a number of Panzers. Of curious note are a pair of Shermans and a pair of M3 Grants. One of them's a command tank. Big antennae for the radios. Three of those recovery vehicles together are towing a final knocked out Tiger. Those things must be a nightmare to maintain. Magitech can only go so far. A few half tracks go by. We duck out of the way for these ones. Can't let them see us. Last comes a pair of trucks with a large number of barrels. We wait for the first truck to go by.

     I give the instructions by hand-signals. I toss my last potato masher as far as I can (which is about two blocks down, through a number of alleyways.) Navittas lines his sights. I duck back in. One shot. Two kills. Boy's a damn good shot. The Wehrmacht's heading in the wrong direction. We dump out the bodies. We turn off the lights. We load up Klaus's body. Maybe our luck's finally turning up.

  

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.

  

Chapter 9: Fortuna Fortes Adiuvat.

    Adrenaline's pumping through my veins. The Germans have been distracted pretty well. Our disguises are working. We're walking through the streets. Can't get through the checkpoints. They aren't looking for us... but we can't stay in these clothes though. Need to change into some civvies.

     “Sir.” it's Klaus. He's bleeding. Not sure how bad it is. Need something hard. Whisky.

     “I told them nothing. I think he was more interested in making me feel it than anything else.”

     “I couldn't ask anything more from you than that. There'll be a medal for you when we make it out.” I tell him. Not much, but it's something.

     “One more thing. That ship is going to be on high alert. We're running out of time.”

     “Right. We still have a job to do. Gents, plan's still on. Petersen's probably told them everything, but that doesn't mean we can't throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix.”

     We were still speaking when we turned a corner. Immediately we doubled back. A tiger tank was less than thirty meters from us.

     I peak around the corner.

     It isn't running.

    The Tiger's turret doesn't turn fast. The 88mm shells are heavy. The sights are extremely accurate. Jennings is driving. Klaus is taking it easy on the hull's machine gun. Pyre is in the gunning seat. Navittas is loading. I'm commanding.

     Jennings doesn't know the tank. He's having a hard time. We plow right through a mud-brick house. I'm sure they're pleased.

     “Orders sir?!” Jennings asks.

     “Get us to the harbour!”

      I open the cupola. There's smoke coming from the harbour. Lots of gunfire too. Our troops are going straight for the Zeppelin and they don't even know it -- this is perfect!

     “Sir, we might have a problem up ahead.”

     Checkpoint. A number of machine guns. A small guard house beneath an overpass.

     “Gents! Prepare to argue with them!”

     Navittas loads an HE shell.

     “Loaded!”

      I look through the view ports. I give the order. The tank stops.

     “ARGUE!”

     The HE shell blows the guardhouse to pieces. Klaus unloads the machinegun on the overpass.

It's over in thirty seconds flat. After all is said and done, all we hear are their screams. We lay another shell into the overpass as we keep on going. We hear the bang. But then we hear a crash. The entire overpass smashed to the ground. I think Navittas shed a tear. We don't have time for that now though.

    The Harbour is a mess. We're behind the Jerries. They're across from our boys. Our boys are losing. There are a few other tanks. A panzer IV, a Stug III, and a few half tracks. I figure our boys could use a little help right about now.

     Pyre plants a shell in the Panzer IV. Klaus starts gunning the Jerries down by the score. The StuG III turns to face us. I order Jennings to angle the tank to the shot, and the crew to brace. They hit us. I hear the shell hit. A great metallic clang. Pyre loaded another shot. The Stug fired again. Still not through the armour. Can't let them hit us again. “FIRE!”

     Looks like we hit the ammunition storage. It cooked right up. Klaus has run out of ammo on his current belt though. We'll have to do the rest by the coaxial gun – no way he can reload, not with those wounds. We keep on gunning the ones we can down. Only problem is, they're close. Too close.       They're on top of the tank when something happens. A shower of body parts and bullets hits the tank. I see what happens. I look out the scope. Something clicks inside me. Not sure what. It isn't good though. It's nothing I can worry about now. Gotta do this.

     A man starts pounding on the cupola. I open it up, with my luger out.

     “Judging by the fact that you shot your own men, you're either on our side, or a traitor. So, which is it?” this boy says.

      “Your side. Sergeant Arnold Maddock. XIII corps. Commando. The Graf Zeppelin is what we're after.”

     “Right. Sergeant Stephen MacDonald. You saved our sorry asses. What can we do?”

     “Anything you can do to keep the Zeppelin here.”

     “Roger. We'll see what we can scrounge.”

     We keep on going toward the harbour. It's a bit of a fool's errand at this point. But we need that ship destroyed. And fast. I start hearing German radio signals. Sounds like they're about to launch some Stukas.

     We keep an eye out for anything of use. The tanks we destroyed were out of commission. Plenty of machine guns though. Those men we liberated could surely hold out for a while... provided we could get them a few anti-tank guns. Those would solve our problems, too.

     I get over to Klaus. He's lost a lot of blood. He's out cold.

     “Jennings, stop the tank. Gotta get Klaus out of here.”

     “Sir, that seems highly dangerous.”

     “Risky but necessary. He must know something about the zeppelin we can use.”

     “...roger.” Jennings said, quietly.

      We pull Klaus from the tank. I call over a medic to tend to him, but he doesn't have much to work with. Pyre cauterizes a few of his wounds, everything the medic couldn't do. Nothing more we can do for him. Man's a credit to the army.

      Those people that were shot off the tank... they weren't much different from us. Language, perhaps. Culture, maybe. But we would have done the exact same thing in their situation. All ended up shot. All of them.

     We started combing the area. The Tank's got about a half-full tank. Gas, not diesel. Those shots that hit us made some pretty intimidating dents. If one of those had penetrated... well, I don't think we'd have gotten out without a little cooking.

     Mud brick house after mud brick house. Very bland city. Still, the ocean air is nice. It might be a bit obscured by the engine smell in the tank, but outside, it reminds me of home. Except for how the sand is. It's... different here. A different grain.

     Jennings Keeps the tank running forward. The mud brick houses abruptly end. I order him to hang a left around, to get a better look at this sheet-metal building. This one's big. A warehouse. And we know why it's big. It's an armoury. There are around twenty men in there; Pyre starts picking them off with the machinegun. The rest of them run. And then we spot just what we need.

Chapter 8: Liberations and Libations.

    I should have seen it coming. Petersen played us well. Played me well. We have the plant, this is bad. Gun still to my head.

     “Surrender, sergeant.” Petersen says. God damn traitor. I’ll get you for this. No matter what, somewhere, some day, I’ll get you for this. Knife to the throat. Cut him good. Make him feel it first though. Thinking… knife through his wrists. Split them down the middle. Let him bleed out from the wound. It’s what he deserves. The ninth level of hell is too good for him.

     I grind my teeth. “Petersen, what'd it take to grease your palms? Or were you just born a Nazi?”

     “A bit of both, if you must know.”

     Can’t get out of this mess. Not right now. Too many of them. Don’t have my guns. Have my knife. Never leave a knife behind. And not where he thinks it is, either.

     “…alright. Men, surrender.” I hand Petersen my P-38.

     The German troops surround us. This mission just got a whole lot more complicated. They march us into their trucks. Bind us in manacles. Behind our backs.

     They aren’t stupid.

     But we’re smarter.

     The German captain, Friedrich Johannes, is in charge of our interrogation. We have a bit of time before he starts though. I overhear a couple of guards saying something about a dinner party with Rommel. Probably means it’ll be easier to get out of here. Senior officers make troops stand at attention, if only a little.

The complex is made out of a variety of materials. Some of it’s sandstone, some of it’s concrete. It was probably some old fort, fought over hundreds of times. These Germans are the newest owners. The Germans strip searched us. They took my sock knife. A Skean Dhu. Not very comfortable. But it was my great grandfather’s. Would have been damned useful. “Ye shan’t separate a Scot from his sword” my grandpa used to say. Pyre and I have a cell to ourselves, Navittas and Jennings somewhere else. Klaus was brought directly to the interrogator, or so I surmise.

     “Sir, they made a mistake” Pyre whispers. “They must not have known that I’m a flame knight.”

     Even I had forgotten about that.

      “Okay Pyre, you know your abilities better than I, what’s the plan?”

     “Simplest ideas are often the best ones. Just wait for my signal -- you‘ll know it when you see it… have to escape now sir. We either escape today or we‘re held for a long, long time.”

     A few hours passed. Klaus was being interrogated. Can still hear his screams. He’s close. He’s not talking. He’s screaming. Only screaming. Guess that’s what traitors get. Amate proditionis sed proditorem odite. This is a bitter pill to swallow. Still… he might be our best chance.

     Some jackboots clonk down the cell block’s hall. They must be bringing Klaus back. Pyre, whatever you’re planning, you have to do it fast.

     They went to the room next to ours. I hear Klaus’s voice in the scuffle. Gotta do something. He knows too much. Can’t do anything. Not yet.

     “Follow my lead.” Pyre whispers to me.

     Pyre starts a fire. Beds. We yell for the guards’ help.

     “Hands against vall.” pidgin English. Great.

     It’s too easy. They come right in. We’re no use to them dead, I suppose. I get on the wall. There are two of them. They have manacles. When One takes Pyre’s hand, I see a small flash of light. The other one’s distracted by the scream. I kick his knee. Break it. Trip him. Pyre’s burned this other guy’s hands good. He’ll never pull another trigger. He’s still screaming. Pyre breaks his nose while he’s on the ground, screaming stops. I could swear I saw him smiling while he did it. Just who is this lad? I wonder what the Magitech academy taught him…

     We take their keys. The other guards no doubt heard the screams. Take their guns. Magazines too. Lugers. Fantastic.

     We Get Klaus and the rest of the squad out of their cells. Tell them not to look at what we did. Bad way to go. Have to act fast. Alarm’s on.

     We’re running. Lots of empty cells. Good cover. We find a few compatriots. No idea who these guys are. But better to let them escape too. A few of them die. But none of us do. We’re lucky.

    Armoury’s heavily defended. Worse, they have grenades. Potato mashers. One of them nearly gets us. Kick it back in. good thing it’s a T-junction. Small crater formed. Love the sandstone.

     Give Navittas my gun. Give him a wink. Armoury grate’s making it awkward to throw those things. There are about five of them in there. One of them’s arming a machinegun. I see Navittas using his magic. One of them is about to throw a masher when he fires. Man looks like he’s in an electric chair, only standing. Explosion is perfect. Kills them all.

     Get their Schmeissers. The other boy’s we’ve liberated are itching for pay-back. Give ‘em all we can. Tell them to Make lots of noise. We have a whale to hunt. I keep Klaus close to me. This armoury has most of our stuff, too. Even the Frogsuits.

     The fighting’s brutal. Use grenades to tunnel through the sandstone. We’re losing men. We just need to get out though. We find some stairs. Perfect. We toss a satchel charge down. Explosion shakes the foundation. A bit insane. But it works. We’re on the ground floor. Motorcade’s not too far off. Let the boys make that distraction. Too obvious for us. We get ourselves a few more uniforms first. Raid a barracks. No navy uniforms, but this deception is good enough. We’re out. Gene Kruppa eases on the drums.

Chapter 7: Lies

     There are a few checkpoints from here to the aircraft carrier. I can do a pretty good German accent. Still, this is going to be difficult. The Kübelwagen’s a good touch though. Comfy, at that. I’m riding shotgun. Jennings is driving. Petersen’s in the middle, Pyre and Navittas are crammed in with him. They’re not particularly happy about that, I think.

     The first checkpoint is about a kilometer out of town. (You’ll forgive me if I translate for this chap now)

“Guten tag Unterfeldwebel.” -- Good day, sergeant. “Ausweispapieren, bitte.” -- identity papers, please.

     I hand him my papers, as do the rest of the boys. Make or break for us. Gene Krupa’s on his drums again. He goes into his office, then comes back out. The sun’s cooking us. Hopefully that masks the real sweat.

     “Wo waren Sie?” -- where were you guys? He asks.

     “Wir waren von unser einheit abgetrennt. RAF. Wir müssen mit deine befehlshabender Offizier sprechen. Wir haben wichtige Information.” -- so here’s our cover story: We were separated from our unit, thanks to the RAF. We need to speak to their commanding officer, because we have important information.

    “Okay. Gehen Sie in, erste Recht, dann beachtet die Schilder.” -- First right, then follow the signs.

    “Danke.”

    Seems everything’s going well. Good thing nobody blew our cover. We’ll take that first right all right. Then we’ll do our own thing.

    We have to make a pit-stop for the boys. We stop at a café. Good coffee. Just what we need. Keeps us on our toes. Especially since we hadn’t enough sleep last night. We gotta pass the time anyway. Can’t very well do the mission until we make contact anyway. Petersen’s got the shits. A couple Kriegsmarine officers come in while we’re waiting. The signal’s simple. Cross the knife and fork. See if one of these guys is the plant.

    “Hans?” A man behind me says. His shirt’s black. Has a blue collar, white stripes.

    “Ja, Klaus, das bin ich!” -- We’ll play our parts. I stand up and give him a good handshake.

    We chat it up for a while in German. When the morning rush ends, we switch to English. Quietly.

    “Good eggs, eh chaps?” he says.

    “Indeed. Klaus, what‘s going on?” I say.

    “Well, they’re putting out faster than scheduled, it looks like. They worked throughout the night. The commander’s not dumb enough to stay for long. Too easy for us to sneak in.” He took a sip of his coffee.

    “Okay then. I don’t think we’ll be getting through that way then… all the same, I think we can still pull this off.” I took a sip.

    “You have frog suits, yes?”

    “In the trunk. Along with the rest.”

    “One problem: I doubt you have enough explosives to crack the tanks from the outside.”

    “What do you suggest?”

    “Well, here’s the thing. I have a few Kriegsmarine uniforms I can get you. But probably not enough for all of you. That might look too suspicious. From there, we can plant a number of them on the fuel tanks, and the engines.”

    “Bigger is better. Remember that. We should also try to plant some in the magazines.”

    “You’re right. But we’ll need a distraction.”

    “I think Navittas can handle that.”

    “Roger” Navittas pipes up. “What’s the signal?”

    “Pyre will send something burning over the side. It’ll attract attention, but yours will do much more.” I say.

    “Righto. I’ll take a pair of satchels. One on each side should create enough confusion, and it’ll attract them far enough away to get them off your asses.” Navittas finished his tea.

    “Sounds like a plan. Those shaped charges will do damage, just not sure if enough. It‘s a big ship. Pyre and Petersen, You’ll get the Magazine. Jennings and I will get the engines. Klaus, You going to be able to get out okay? Or do you want to come with us? -- I doubt you’ll be of much use on a ship that’s been destroyed.”

    “When I can, I’ll join you. Barely five seats in a Kübelwagen. I might be able to procure something on site though. Jerry does like his motorcycles. I‘ll retrieve Navittas when it‘s necessary. The crew has the night off. It shouldn‘t be too heavily guarded, except for those on the welding crew.”

    “Alright gents. Schmeissers for everybody. Navittas, don’t get any guns wet. Cartridges won’t fire. Find somewhere to keep them dry. We’ll scope out the place today.”

    The Graf Zeppelin is anchored in the natural harbour of Tobruk. Plenty of patrols here and about. Our disguises work. Nobody’s the wiser. Good thing the boys know when to keep their mouths shut. Petersen has a grim look on his face. We find ourselves a pair of benches. The sun sears our skin slightly as it starts to slowly set. Then something happens. I hear the sound of trucks, and people disembarking from them. I feel a gun to my head.

     I look to my left.

     It’s Petersen’s gun.

Chapter 6: Alea Iacta Est.

    My team is on the plane. We're parachuting in about 20 clicks south of Tobruk. We've got uniforms. A Kübelwagen, even. Command thought this one out well. Things never go according to plan, though. Fortunately, there isn't some airstrike that's coming in. No real time limit. Other than the fact that we need to have the job done in 48 hours or less. We have a plant on-board the carrier. He let us know the time frame. It's a probable ETC of resupply, plus or minus 8 hours. She's putting on mostly food supplies and fuel, with some repairs of the fuel tanks probably taking the longest.

     There are two planes. One went ahead with the equipment drop. Night drop. One man and a glider with the kuebelwagen. He's not going on the mission with us; he's there to make sure of what happens. A small mountainous outcrop. He fits the part. Abdul Walid, an Egyptian. Wears a turban. A stereotype, perhaps. But a useful deception, definitely. Hopefully he'll be able to blend in. Just hope he makes it out.

    The team is ready. Even Petersen has that look on his face. It won't be long now. The luftwaffe hasn't spotted us yet, nor have their ground forces, or so it seems. We're flying high though. This is only my second drop. First one out of training. The hum of the engines, the rattling of the plane, it all comes back. The claustrophobia. I'm short of breath. A little. Something in me is sinking. I don't think I like flying. Too late now though.

     The man at the front of the plane is yelling over the engines.

     “FIFTEEN SECONDS!”

    My heart is beating like Gene Krupa. American swing music at a time like this. I look out the window, and see some skylights. An ocean of sand. Oh boy, what am I getting myself into. This is bad. Very bad.

     “TEN SECONDS!”

     It shouldn't be rattling this much should it? Those engines look like they could go any minute, the way they're rattling. Rattle rattle rattle. All they do. They fly? I'm amazed. Gotta get out. Oh wait, that's the idea. Get out of an airplane while going around 500 km/h. This is an amazing idea. Greatest idea ever. Whose idea was this?

    “FIVE SECONDS!”

     I sigh. There's no way out but out. I can barely breathe. My lungs close for a moment.

     I feel a hand on my shoulder. It's Jennings. He has a cigar in his hand.

     “For when we make it down there.”

     All that nervousness is still there. But I bite my lip. I squeeze my thumb in my fist. I clench my jaw.

     GO GO GO!

     We're out. I'm out first. This is by far the most frightening and exhilirating thing in my life. Dead of night, we're still going. It's hard to make out those landmarks. But those lights that jerry has, plus that blue one on the ground are enough. Wind's everywhere. Our parachutes are painted black. So are our uniforms. This is the best command can do for camouflage. Once I'm in the air for a few seconds, it isn't so bad. My heart still beats, but... it's not nervousness anymore. I feel alive. Alive and hurtling towards earth like a meteor.

    The team's out.

    When we land, we cut our chutes off with our knives. Gather them, leave them with Walid. He has brown eyes. Black, short beard. Moustache, and a very good one at that. A walrus.

    “My friend,” he says. “I will be here for to-day and the 'morrow. If you survive, you are to meet me here. From here, we go to the south, and attempt to get out of the country. From there, it's up to us how we meet back up with command.”

     He never stopped smiling. I thought this curious. He even had an ornate tea-cup. Maybe he was a man who really appreciated a good cup? Well, no problem with that I suppose. We should all appreciate the finer things in life.