Wood and Daemon nodded and introduced themselves with each batch of men. It would seem that the entire team was now here, which meant that it wouldn't be long before their first mission arose. Wood had his doubts about some of the men, especially the clumsy man Toto. He seemed a little... unreliable. However, if he passed basic, that was about the best they could ask for. Air warfare was still new, especially on the scale that was happening over the British Isles.
Wood thought back to the training he had gotten from the British officers after basic. As a bomber, their job was to hold in formation and for the gunners to keep any strays off their backs. They would always be provided some sort of fighter escort, but the sky could become a flying mess of metal and bullets all too quickly. And if their plane went down, they went down too. Wood shivered a bit as he thought this and sat back down on his box outside. Some of the men brought weapons and ammunition. They'd need a few final tunings before their first mission. Daemon followed him out.
"Where do you think we'll be flying first?" Wood inquired of Daemon, offering the man a smoke from his pocket. Daemon took it and lit the cigarrette, taking a pull before responding.
"Germany, obviously. Where? Who knows. Plenty of military targets and train infrastructure to target. Not to mention all their troop locations in France... Holland... Italy... Hell, even Africa, although I hope they spare us the dry desert air." Daemon says with a chuckle. Wood nods as he puts away his cigarettes.
"Fair enough. I have a cousin in the army. I suppose he'll have to do the... liberating for the two of us. And hopefully we'll both come home." Wood mutters at the end, as he plays with a pencil tucked in his jacket.
after a long 30 minutes 2 men enter the plane each sweaty and tired "morning or.. uh evening? anyway, I'm Ryck your engineer and this is my friend Gaz the coms guys," he said wiping his forehead and taking a breath "sorry for the lateness, the bathroom sink broke causing a mess and we were the closest nearby" he said taking one last breath in before letting Gaz speak "I heard our first mission will take place over at Europe Germany, we have to destroy some ammo depots, we will have p-47 's as escorts" he said sitting on his station "rest well, it will get busy tomorrow"
Cariciok[3156777] · #23
Name: Cariciok Desired Position: Tail Gunner
Cariciok reporting for duty. I got here as fast as I could. It was a girl by the way. We named her Meredith. As you might guess, the Mrs. wasn't too happy about me being ordered to a job such as this so shortly after leave was over and Meredith entered this crazy world. I am here though nonetheless, ready for whatever orders we have.
Marshal checked where he would get a position in, the think of that he is going to go there and shoot other planes gets all over his mind, "What if I f**k up?.." He says to himself.
He hears some voices, new voices, looks like he wasn't the last one to arrive, he chuckles at the thought and stands still there, so.. it is happening.
"Sadly, that's all i been told, command is afraid of "spies" as dumb as it sounds so they are being very secretive. they will send the rest of the info tomorrow morning." said Gaz with a sight. (time skip to the next day)
Cariciok[3156777] · #28 · edited
Caricok shrugged with an unsurprised look upon his face. "Well, can't say that's ultra surprising, not having much more to go on. Reminds me of the time in Croatia..." He paused a moment then continued. "But hey, that turned out okay enough, if you were to ask anyone other than Harley, our engineer. I'll tell you all about if after we come back safe." Cariciok chuckled at himself then headed to his bunk in the barracks, thinking to himself he better get some rest before the madness that would be tomorrow comes.
"Right into Germany? Well, hope they'll let us fly high then." He said with a look at Wood. Wood simply nodded and closed his journal, picking up his rucksack.
"Right. Captain and I will be here bright and early. Gaz, make sure you're here. I'll need your assistance making sure the radio is running smoothly and plotting out the expected path, since you seem to have heard the word." Daemon added as some of the men began to filter toward their barracks. Wood and Daemon closed up the bay hatch to the plane and headed towards the barracks.
The barracks smelled of men, leather, and smoke. At the base of every bed was a chest with a latch. No locks, since officers were permitted to come in and see what they'd like. However, now that they were fully soldiers out of boot camp, they were at least afforded the blessing of not being forced into early morning drills. Wood and Daemon took bunks next to each other. Wood picked his bunk up and sat it down and Daemon slid his next to it. Wood looked up.
"I figure it'll make for a nice table to play cards. Or," Daemon paused and pulled a rolled-up map out of the back of his pants. "Try and figure out where we'll be headed tomorrow."
Wood smiled and brushed off his chest, looking at the other men filter in. Some immediately began setting their items in the bunks. Whenever they weren't flying, they'd be staying here. At least until they secured some airstrips in France or Africa. Then, who knows where they would go. Wood held two corners down as Daemon looked at the map. He took out a pencil and a piece of twine.
"Well, let's see. We know we'll be in Germany somewhere. I took a look at the fuel allotment. We should be able to fly about 1,100 to 1,200 miles, give or take. So, that's about... this much." Daemon said, measuring the twine against the map's mileage indicator.
"Hmm. Frankfurt is within bombing distance." Wood said, pointing to one of the cities. Daemon nodded.
"That's a pretty large target for our first run. Not to mention the large civilian populace..." Daemon countered.
"A little past that is the city of Wurtz.. wortz...." Wood stammered
"Wurzburg. Deep uuhhhh sound when you see that." Daemon said, pointing to the umlaut. Wood raised his brows at this comment.
"I taught languages. I was a teacher back home in Michigan." Daemon explained. Wood shrugged and looked back at the map.
"Mannheim... Dusseldorf. Cologne. Bonn.... Plenty of big cities." Wood finished as he leaned back on his cot. Daemon put the map away and tucked it into his chest, before moving it back.
"Yeah. Too many. Best to wait for command to tell us where we're going tomorrow." He said as he laid back for a moment. Wood sat up and opened his chest. He set a deck of cards on it.
"Want to play?" He asked. Daemon nodded. The pair began to deal.
Cariciok[3156777] · #30
Cariciok, approached the two, carrying a fold up chair. "Mind dealing me in? I probably won't be able to rest right away. I can't stop thinking about Meredith and Judith. A few rounds of cards might distract my mind."
"Sure. More the merrier." Wood said as he deals a hand to Cariciok. "Meredith and Judith? Wife and Daughter? Sisters? Family or friends?" Wood inquired as he traded one of his cards in for another.
Gaz enters the room and calls everyone together "Listen up, here is the mission briefing" Gaz said opening an envelope. "Departure time is from 6:50 to 7:50, primary target: docks at city of Antwerp (alt:15,000) Optional target: power station at Zeebrugge (alt:15,000) Bomb load:10x500lbs ETA to English coast:10:00 Friendly activity: p-47 squadron we are to join up with 2 more bombers. heavy flack is expected, and Luftwaffe fighters are expected." Gaz passed the envelope so everyone could get a Look.
Cariciok[3156777] · #33
"I guess cards will have to wait, but yeah Judith is my wife and Meredith is my newborn, she turns 28 days old today," exclaimed Cariciok, as he grabbed the envelope to take a look. He briefly glanced through the briefing and shrugged. "Seems straight forward enough."
Wood took a copy and, seeing he had an extra, passed it over to Daemon. Wood scraped all the cards into a pile and shoved them back into the box. He tucked it quickly into his chest before reading over the briefing.
"Well, Daemon and I will try and make sure that you get back to your family in one piece." Wood said as he flipped the page over. He frowned.
"Guess we have to pound the coast a bit before we can create a foothold." Wood mumbled as he looked at the numbers. They had a few targets and a few planes assigned. It seemed easy enough, they would just need to be very accurate with their bombing runs. They'd have two or three runs given the amount of bombs per plane. So a couple of sweeps and then they had to head home.
"Nothing too special. I'd rather a night time run but I don't get a vote when they decide these things." Daemon said with a smile as he put the file under his pillow and laid back. He closed his eyes and sighed. They'd be flying into combat soon. Who knew if they'd come out the other side.
Ryck comes in and takes a look at the briefing "seems easy enough. for our current plane, speaking of which" he sat on the top of his bunk bed. "i inspected our plane, i won't lie to you guys, we might Aswell be flying, a hot air ballon, the coms, hydraulics and oxygen are outdated, the gunner have M-2 .50 caliber machine guns but no ammo feed, the fuel tank and engines are outdated and clearly used. and the plane itself is lacking in armor plating." he said laying down.
Cariciok[3156777] · #36
Cariciok eyes, Wood and Damien in turn, stating "I hope this doesn't effect your desire to get me home safe to Mer and Judith gentlemen. Perhaps we can at least install some oxygen and ammo feeds tonight?"
Ryck chuckle at their comment "we need funding for that, they won't just give us good equipment for us to die and waste it" he said standing up "if we want to improve our current situation we got to work for it"
"Guess that just means the escort will have to do it's job to keep us up in the air if they want us to make it back in one piece. If our funding is relative to our performance, we better try and hit all the targets today then." Daemon said as he listened to Ryck describe the plane. Wood sighed. Looks like some of the nice equipment he had seen earlier had been... requisitioned by someone else. Well, as the war went on, those supplies would hopefully be easier to come by. For now, they had to make due with what they had.
"The gunners can handle reloading. If they need an extra hand, Wood can drop back and help where needed. He may be the co-pilot, but as long as I'm alive and kicking the plane stays in the air. I guess the first priority is... well, all of it. But we'll have time to figure it all out when we finish this mission. All I know for sure is we have enough fuel and ammunition to safely see us through the mission. Nothing else is promised." Daemon said as he responded to Cariciok's concerns. He was concerned too, given the scant armament of their plane. But he wanted to keep the men calm and focused as much as he could.