RPGC in World War II
Chapter 2 First signs.
By Admiral Nagumo
RPGC Airfield: Edge
November 3rd, 1941 10:00AM
Waves were crashing against the beach, the Edge airfield was perhaps one of the nicest airfields on the island; it was a SW from Serpent so it’s been spared from many raids. It also had a small harbor; many American visitors compared it to Pearl Harbor. Dieter Silbernhertz looked at the ocean feeling a strange feeling that he didn’t feel when he was in the Afrika Korp.
“Hey are you still listening to me?” John C. Glover asked.
“Yeah, sorry.” Silbernhertz answered.
“Well anyway, this plane may feel a little different next time you fly. It’ll take some getting use to.” Glover climbed onto the wing of the Spitfire and put his arms up. “She’s all done.” Glover put his arms down and nodded a bit. “Look.”
Silbernhertz turned around and looked out of the hanger. He saw some British Fighters and Bombers land on the runway. The Ex-Luftwaffe pilot looked to his right and saw two British Carriers approaching the docks. “Hey Glover what Carriers are those?”
Glover walked out of the hanger. “Hmmm. I think I heard from a higher up that they’re Hermes and Ark Royal.”
Hermes.
Ark Royal.
Silbernhertz turned around. “Ark Royal? I heard that that it was sunk.”
“Nope, it’s here…Commander.” Glover saluted.
Silbernhertz turned around and saw the Commander. He saluted as well.
The commander saluted. “Glover, pack your things you’re being transferred to Serpent Airfield. It was hit earlier this morning and they need mechanics. You’ll leave on one of those British Short Stirling bombers at 1100 hours. Silbernhertz you’re going too, but you’re taking your aircraft, so give the things you pack to Glover to take over there.”
“Yes sir.” They said.
The Commander saluted and left. They saluted and walked towards their barracks.
“So you think the Germans will attack before we get there?” Silbernhertz asked.
“Not sure. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and they’ll strike tomorrow. It’s a three hour drive, so we should get there in 25 minutes.”
They entered the barracks and began to pack.
Leading Stirling bomber: Cockpit
10:45AM
Shorty “Slips” Johnston was at the controls of his Stirling heavy bomber, didn’t look to happy parked on this airfield waiting for his passengers. His Co-pilot Jonathan also called Jon was eating crackers and didn’t seem to notice or care.
“You know, non-naval bombers taking off from Carriers is very dangerous. It’s something that a bloody yank would do.” Slips complained.
With his mouth full Jon said “Well we weren’t on a bombing mission. We’re just transporting.”
“Yeah well…still, I would rather be bombing a German factory than coming to some beach resort.”
The bomber’s doors opened. Slips and Johnson looked behind them and saw their passengers climb aboard. Only four got in and then the doors were closed.
Glover just sat down in the bomber. He was carrying his stuff and Silbernhertz’s as well.
“Hey.” A voice called.
Glover looked to his left to see who was talking, it was the pilot.
“Alright I’m Shorty Johnston and this in my co-pilot Jonathan. Enjoy your flight.” The two pilots turned back around.
“Glover.”
Glover looked to see who called him, it was an older man in a medic uniform, but he couldn’t remember his name. “Yes. And you are?”
“Michael. I’m the head medical officer of the Royal Canadian Medics.” The medic said.
“Oh yeah, I remember you now. So they assigned you to Serpent as well?”
“No Glover. I volunteered to go. That airfield needs medics and I intend to help.”
The plane started up.
“Well we’ll find out when we get their.”
Korey, Peter, Hans, and five other Bf 109’s escorting ten Stukas and ten He-111’s, the cream of Korey’s Gruppen, were on their way to the Serpent airfield. The sky was cloudy with very few breaks in them. They were not in RPGC territory yet but they were out of their own. Hans got on the radio.
“Hptm. Von Hoth. Care to explain to us why we are launching another raid so suddenly?”
Korey answered “Well our new supplies included Panzers, aircraft, troops, pilots and a General arrived today. We should be getting our supplies later today. The plan is: we are to knock out this airfield completely, so they can’t launch a raid against our supplies. That’s all you need to know now.”
“Who’s the General?” Hans asked.
“The General is General Charlemagne.” Korey answered.
Hans was shocked “Charlemagne! He’s the General! I’ve heard about him, he’s so ruthless he would have a sweet old woman executed for beating him at a game of shuffleboard.”
“I think I heard about that.” Peter joked.
“All right knock it off. I don’t care how ruthless he is, as long as he can help us win I’m all for it.” Korey paused for a moment and looked around, he spotted some enemy planes. “Indians (German code for enemy planes) 1 o clock high…Hans, Peter follow me!”
Korey, Hans, and Peter broke off from the group to engage the enemy aircraft.
The small group of fighters: two P-40’s, three Spitfires, and three Hurricanes were sent to engage the bombers that were seen on radar. Spirit decided that it would do more damage to sneak around behind them. The only other pilots in the group with Spirit that he knew were Martinez flying another P-40, Freefall in a Spitfire, and Kid in a Hurricane.
Martinez got on the radio. “They’ll never find us in this soope.”
“Yeah. But we won’t find them either unless we get out of the clouds.” Kid informed.
The group of fighters broke into the clear; Freefall looked around then at 1 o clock spotted low she spotted them. “There they are 1 o clock low.”
“The plan was to attack them from behind…what now?” Martinez asked.
“We attack now.” Spirit ordered. “There about five minutes from the base. Damn we were held on the ground to long.”
The planes turned and lowered their altitude to engage the bombers.
“Three fighters approaching!” Martinez yelled.
“Shgail and Roy stay with me, we will engage the planes. Everyone else attack the bombers.” Spirit ordered.
Spirits group slowly broke away from the others. The Messerschmitts turned in different directions and the three allied planes split up to follow. Roy lined up the enemy plane in sights and fired, but nothing happened. Roy realized his error; he forgot to turn off the safety switch.
As he fumbled to turn it off Spirit called him over the radio “Watch out!”
Roy turned left but unfortunately he turned without thinking and the belly of his plane flashed in front of one of Bf 109’s. The German plane fired and Roy’s Hurricane exploded. Spirit watched as his comrade’s plane went down; he turned and engaged the six of the plane that shot Roy down. It was hard to line the shot but what the German pilot didn’t know was that the P-40 Spirit flew was enhanced, and none of Spirits enhancements have let him down yet. The Bf 109 began to climb and the P-40 followed. Unfortunately one of the improvements on the P-40 was a better climb rate, thus Spirit was able to line the shot and fire. Machine gun bullets tore through the tail and the plane broke its climb. Spirit saw the pilot bail out and open his parachute, but decided not to kill the pilot.
great.