Norsemen!
Chapter Five

The week crossing the Atlantic was not as bad as it was before with no storms this time. If the crew seemed to be getting bored, the Skipper would call a general quarters drill to wake them up. Mostly it was routine daily work of keeping the ship going heading home and the closer they got to home, the colder it became. Winter had arrived.

"Land ho!" The look out yelled.

The Skipper went to the front of the bridge with her binoculars, scanning the front of the ship until she saw a land mass. She turned to Gunny with a smile.

"We're home!" She said with a smile.

Gunny sat down in a chair next to her with a cup of coffee, taking a long sigh, he looked at her.

"Skipper. This has been a useless trip, hasn't it?"

"Yes it has,Gunny. And I'm surprised you didn't shoot those damn flying eggs to pieces," she laughed.

"Well.....I didn't really want to piss of our greatest allie," he chuckled.

"Look out! Aircraft on the horizon!"

The Skipper and Gunny both went to the windows with binoculars, looking forward. They could see three dots in the distance, obviously their escort for coming into the port. They stood there watching as they got nearer but as they grew close, they parted. The outer ones went left and right with the center one coming straight on.

The Skipper dropped her binoculars, turned around and yelled.

"SOUND GENERAL QUARTERS!!!"

The klaxon banged loudly as the crew scrambled to their positions. Gunny got out of the way so the Skipper could control the ship as the crew hurriedly went to their battle stations.

"Hard a starboard!" She yelled and the ship started turning to the right, making Gunny hang onto the bulkhead from the quick turn as it leaned sideways.

Looking out the side window, Gunny could see a black dot being dropped by the center aircraft. A bomb exploded on the port side, sending a rain of water on the ship but it was a near miss. The guns on deck began to open fire with anti aircraft and machine guns. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Who the HELL is this anyway?" The Skipper yelled loudly to no one."

"Look out: flight of nine aircraft sighted. zero, eight, zero degrees! Coming straight for us!" The look out yelled.

"What the hell?" Gunny yelled as he steadied his feet. "Where the hell are they coming from?"

As he held onto the bulkhead, Gunny made his way to the hatch to look outside and try to identify these aircraft. One just made a strafing run, flying low over them, spraying machine gun rounds across the deck with sounds of hammers beating against a steel plate. Crew members fell from machine gun positions and others on the deck as they tried to find cover. Blood started to spread making it slippery to walk, but he looked up at the plane. It had the markings of the Greeks on the lower wings and side as the loud engines growled flying over head, and he noticed they were similar to the World War Two airplane called the War Hawk, or Flying Tiger.

"How the HELL did they get so close and the Skipper back home did not tell us?" He frowned.

Then he saw the nine blue planes the look out reported and they all had the star on the wings and sides, and these the Gunny knew because he helped design them in the shape of the U.S.Navy F6F Hellcat. Someone back home must of sent them out for us. In a matter of only a few minuets the enemy aircraft were all shot down, with only one survivor in the water, bobbing up and down on the waves.

"Get that man out of the water so we can talk to him!" The Skipper yelled.

Their aircraft, nine fighters from home, circled the ship and contacted them on the radio.

"One,One,Seven! This is Lucky Bag, do you copy, over?" The aircraft radioed.

"Lucky Bag, this is One, One, Seven, we have you Lima Charlie, over." The operator said back to them.

"These guys got past us, sorry. We got here as soon as we got word. We will escort you back." The flight radioed.

"Ask them, where did the Greek aircraft come from?" Gunny told the radio operator.

"Luck Bag, any idea where they came from, over."

"One, One , Seven. No idea but we have your six." He paused. "They are waiting for you to arrive at the port."

"Look out; ship on horizon, bearing one, eight, niner degrees!" The look out yelled excitedly.

"Oh crap!" The Skipper jumped to the window with her binoculars. It appeared to be about four miles out, a thin black smoke trail from her stacks gave her away . And at four miles, it looked huge!

"Oh GODS!" She said under her breath. "It looks like a dreadnought!"

Gunny looked with his binoculars out of the side window and she was right, it HAD to be a dreadnought as big as it is from this distance.

"We can out run her, make for home port and our shore defenses will cover us," She said.

"Good idea, Skipper." Gunny still watched it just as a flash of red/orange light blinked from it.

"INCOMING!" Gunny yelled.

"Hard a port!" The skipper yelled as the ship banked hard in the tight left turn. For a brief second, Gunny could see an out of focus black dot just before it hit the water aft of their ship. A huge geyser of water erupted, rocking the ship as it turned.

"Steady as she goes!" Skipper yelled out.

"Get those planes over there and see what thy can do!" Gunny yelled at the radio operator.

"Aye, sir!"

He saw the nine planes bank, heading towards the big Greek ship. They had no bombs, only machine guns but may be they could do same damage.

"Radio!" Gunny yelled. "Tell them not to spend too much time on her. I don't want casualties. They are not equipped for a sea fight."

"Aye, Gunny!"

They could hear the engines of the nine aircraft growl as they banked, heading towards the giant.

"Wish I was up there with you guys!" Gunny said under his breath.

"Come to zero, nine, zero degrees," the Skipper yelled out.

"Incoming round!" The look out yelled excitedly.

Another huge shell exploded off the port side sending a gush of water over the deck.

"Message from the rear!" the radio operator yelled over the den of noise.

"We are sending out dive bombers to your position. Direct them to target."

"Diver bombers?" The Skipper turned to Gunny with a frown.

"Yes. Something new I read a few days ago." Gunny said as he hung onto the bulkhead.

"Tell them to fly four, five, zero degrees to target!" Gunny yelled.

"Aye, sir."

"Contact that flight of fighters, tell them to fall back and wait on the bombers."

"Aye, sir."

"Look out! Incoming round!"

"Hard a starboard!" The Skipper yelled and again the ship leaned sideways, causing Gunny to hold the bulkhead tightly.

The ship shuddered, as if a giant hand slapped it on the bow, causing the front to jump upwards sharply, throwing him and everyone else to the deck. Fire came through the left side windows as the glass blew inward. There were screams of agony as smoke filled the room.

Gunny fell to the deck as the concussion hit him, sliding across the floor into an anchored table leg. The Skipper was on the deck next to him, her left shoulder was ripped open showing the bone with blood splashing on Gunny's face.

"CORPSMAN!" He yelled. "CORPSMAN! Get the Skipper!"

Gunny climbed up, holding on to the anchored table for support.

"Where's number two?" He yelled, meaning the second in command.

"He's dead, sir!" Someone yelled in the smoke.

"Oh GEESH!" Gunny said as he stood up, trying to get a bearing on what had happened.

"Damage report!" He yelled. "And get someone up here that knows how to run this ship!"

He looked forward through the broken glass. The entire front of the ship seemed to have been opened by a can opener. The bow was ripped away, leaving steel pointing to the left in shreds with a gaping hole forward. The ship had slowed to a crawl but he did not know if the engines were damaged or not.

"Where is that damage report?" He yelled out just as a Naval officer came to his side.

"Sir, Lieutenant Vox reporting, sir." He looked like he was no older than seventeen but had an officers uniform on.

"Take charge, Lieutenant. Find out the damage and see if the engines are off line."

"Aye, aye, sir!" He turned and went to work as if he, at least, knew what he was doing.

The Gunny then felt pain in his side causing him to fall to one knee as he hung onto the table for support.

"Look out: Greek ship is on fire and pulling away." He yelled with excitement.

Gunny heard that but was in too much pain to respond. He knew those bombers would do some damage but he did not know how badly they would hit the enemy ship.

"Look out: enemy ship is retreating. Flight of fifteen aircraft heading our way."

Fifteen? That means there were six dive bombers. Unless we lost a few in the fight, Gunny did not know how many bombers were sent out then he remembered that enemy pilot in the water and there was no way of rescue. He wanted to get to the radio to find out what was going on but it became dark all of a sudden and he felt limp and weak. Then blackness.

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