The Longboats

The trenches were eight feet deep, just as I had shown the work crew in the planes with the firing step at the six foot mark so the soldiers could fire over the top. Every fifty to seventy-five yards they put a bunker in place for the troops to get out of the weather when there was no attack. I had them dig it in a zig zag fashion to keep the enemy artillery from zeroing in on one spot, making it more difficult to have a direct hit. Communication trenches, which were narrower, ran to a second line of trenches fifty to one hundred yards to the rear where food would be served and carried forward to the troops as well as aid stations for the wounded.

With the train that arrived a few hours ago we now had our artillery in place with the three newest guns in one battery pounding the Greek lines. I also received four wireless telegraphs that worked on frequencies with a nob on the side to change channels (so no more wires to loose) and a pair of rough looking homemade binoculars. I had contacted the Germans and Saxons on both flanks, informing them we were in place with more reinforcements on the way and asked them for a situation report.

The Saxons were not hit hard and seemed they had only repulsed a strong probe into their lines but the Germans were in full retreat from Berlin until they got to the prepared trenches at the town of Havelberg where they stopped the Greek advance. Gerhold, the king of Germany, informed me they had massive casualties but were able to hold the line in the small town against three Greek attacks. He also gave me some information that was alarming on their weapons. He said they had a weapon that fired continuously without stop, which I can only assume was a machine gun. These Greeks have a new member on their team from my own era and was producing modern weapons and tactics. I sent a message to Sigmund to contact Hennison and the Doc to come up with gas masks, I can only think the Greeks will have that very soon with this new fellow on their side.

In the rear the Skipper informed me there were fifteen thousand troops waiting in Skavateland for the train forward. I told him to have them stop at a small town called Osnabruck and be held as reserve. We can hold with what we have here but if they break through in any place in the line we have nothing to plug the hole with without them. I would also use them to rotate the troops from the trenches if we were here that long. He said Hakon was not very pleased at not going to battle. I still needed to get in contact with my naval squadron because they have been silent.

Hagan was on his ship with his binoculars scanning the horizon for any sign of the Greek ships he had fired on yesterday but he didn’t even see a smoke plum from them. His six other schooners were separated from him by one hundred yards and they were in a column with his ship in the lead. Turning, he looked at his ship, as he has done many times before noting the sleekness and beauty of it. With the steam engine and sails he could get up to about twenty four knots which was still faster than the new Greeks ships he encountered. One thing he still has to get use to was the ship had no oars and that was what he had grown fond of on the longboats. It did, however, have eight guns on board and every sailor knew how to use them with rifles, pistols and their axes in their belts, they were ready for boarding parties as well.

He was using only half his sails so they could move slowly in the sea while searching for the Greek fleet but he had to make a turn to go back towards Calais. He was about to give the order to come about when his lookout on the main mast yelled down.

“SAIL AHEAD!”

He turned and focused his binoculars finding several sails in the distance on the port bow and thought they were about ten miles out heading this way.

“How many?” He said under his breath. “And what guns do they have?”

Bringing down his glasses he turned to his pilot.

“Come about one eighty!” This would have him going back past Calais towards their own waters. He noticed all six boats following him then looked up at his main mast and nodded.

“Hoist the colors!”

A few seconds later their new national flag went up the mast quickly. He did not wait to have one made for him once he saw the King hold up that picture. He had his sail master make one for him and all his ships. Turning he saw all the other ships hoisting their colors. A light blue flag with a Viking longboat in full sail in the center and fifteen stars circling it. To him it showed who and what they are to anyone that saw it.

Dunkirk was twenty miles past Calais and that was where he would turn to face the enemy, in his own waters. It took an hour to make it back to his original starting point then he had the ships turn around and sail on line. At his command they would all turn left, or port side to meet the enemy with a broad side of his guns. He scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to a crew member.

“Send this main command.” The crew member ran down a flight of steps called a ladder and into the wireless room. He just sent the message they were waiting for, he has met the enemy off the coast of Dunkirk.

“Attack POSITIONS!” He yelled and the crew ran to their guns to await the order to fire.

Looking through his binoculars he saw the Greek ships closing in at about a mile away and they were under full sail. So, he thought, they don’t have steam power? Or, are they waiting to use it in a flank attack? Glancing to his left and right he saw his other ships in line with him, ready for the port turn to open fire. His men on deck were watching the Greeks intently he noticed, ready to attack at the slightest command.

“Stand BY!” He yelled and a flagman waved a bright red flag to the other ships. The Greeks were still heading towards him and he counted sixteen of them, all under full sail and their crew running about their ship as if they were in a panic. He wondered what that was about when he saw the forward boat pull their sail up, revealing a large cannon on the deck of the forward ship. It swung sideways to point forward.

“By the GODS! They have metallic cartridges for their main gun!” He turned quickly and yelled.

“NOW! TURN TO PORT!” The flagman waved a yellow flag and all seven ships turned to the left and stayed in line.

“FIRE!” He yelled as he watched through the binoculars. The noise was enormously loud and carried on the water for miles. He watched as his rounds hit the forward ship and others behind it, seeing pieces of it fly into the air and the main mast splinter but not fall. Their main gun then fired and he saw the puff of smoke coming from it but the noise was carried away by the wind.

Its rounds stuck the third ship in line from him with a devastating blow to its bulkhead, the side of the ship. He saw splinters of wood and crewmen fly into the air with lines of rope flailing in the wind. Then another Greek ship started firing from its single deck gun, then another. They were firing faster than he could reload.

“LOAD! LOAD QUICKLY!” he yelled.

As they did so the Greek ship fired again from its forward gun but the round went over his ship with a loud swooshing noise to form a huge geyser behind them. As he watched them reload, he saw them loading from the rear of the gun instead of the front. He dropped his binoculars to his chest and knew he had to get this back to main command. He grabbed the first sailor near him by his arm.

“Go below and tell the wireless to send this message.” He scribbled onto a piece of paper that read: ‘Contact with the enemy. They have new breach loading swivel guns on their ships.’

“HURRY!” He yelled then saw his ships firing again with more damage to the Greeks.

“Come about, full steam!” He yelled. His ship started to turn away from the Greeks under full power. He had to get away from them or he would lose his entire fleet and leave the waters open to Greek ships only and an attack from the rear by sea.

In only minuets they had gain distance from the Greek ships and that, he thought, made them not have steam power. They were still slow and under sail only which was his only defense at this point. He had to fall back and think of another plane to destroy these Greeks because his guns were not good enough and fired too slowly.

The Skipper was in the main command building as the messages started coming in from the fleet and it did not look good. The Greeks have a new gun? Hagan said they use metallic cartridges and it appeared to be a swivel gun of some sorts. This had to be given to Hennison and start getting those new cannon made for our ships as well our we would be cut off by sea. Where did they get this from? They had to have someone come through that damn fog from our time to get something like this because it’s much too complicated for them to invent on their own.

He took the message and ran out the door down the street to the armory where Hennison was working. Showing it to him, Hennison smiled at the Skipper.

“I figured as much.” He said and walked over to a different part of the large building and pointed.

“Here ya go, Skipper!” He said as he looked at it with a passion. “Our new naval gun. Swivel mount and at least a three inch-fifty with all exploding shells!”

“How many,” The Skipper asked without taking his eyes off the gun.

“Right now we have five in the yard and four all most ready to come off the assembly line.” He walked to the end of the line. “That’s enough for all the ships we have afloat and the two in production.”

The Skipper took a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh of relief.

“OK. I’ll inform the Gunny and Hagan and let’s hope our fleet can get back here intact. The Greeks are hot on their ass right now out there and they are out gunned.”

“I’ll have these ready when they come back in. We’ll work all night if we have to but our ships will be up to par in no time, Skipper.”

“What about ammo? Is there enough?” The Skipper asked.

“Sure is. I have the rounds for them in the bunker already. Around one hundred per gun now.”

“Thanks, Hennison. I’ll go spread the word and have our guys watch for the fleet when they get here.”

King Gerhold had his troops in their trenches and was taking heavy cannon fire from the Greeks as it raked along his entire line. They were out of rifle range but those damn cannons were playing havoc on this trench. He had a few small Parrot rifles that were returning fire but the Greeks would fire three for every one of his. All he could do was sit tight and wait for it to end then hope they wouldn’t attack until he got reorganized. After that retreat from Berlin his soldiers were worn out and he had many more casualties they brought with them while on the run. He knew the Norse were on his left and were holding their part of the line so he did not want to fall back and leave them open for an attack on their left. He had to hold at all cost. The weapons he had were the latest from the Norse he received in trade for coal, iron ore and tin shipments he sent north to them and he got ammunition for each of the bolt action rifles. The equipment they had was manufactured by his people and not as good a quality as that of the Norse, but it worked.

“Here they come again!” Someone yelled from far down the trench to his right.

He jumped to the firing step looking over the top seeing a mass attack by the dark mustard yellow uniforms of the Greek army. They were spread out in a wide formation as they advanced at a quick walk towards his lines but still over two hundred yards out.

“Hold fire until they get closer!” he yelled.

Parrot rifles began to fire with the rounds sailing overhead and a screaming noise to explode into the Greek soldiers throwing earth and bodies in every direction.

“FIRE! FIRE!” He yelled and his line of soldiers opened fire with a cracking noise.

The Greeks continued to advance even with casualties mounting while his troops fired as quickly as they could then reloading to fire again. A man next to him fell to the bottom of the trench with half his face gone. These wounds were not like those he had seen in close combat with swords and axes, these were much worse and could kill a man from distance further than an arrow shot. In a way he wished for the old ways again but then it would have meant the death of his people with such over whelming odds. At least they have a chance of defending themselves with these rifles and possibly holding the Greeks at bay.

“Message from the Norse!” A runner handed him a note.

‘Hold the line. We have our artillery in place and are engaging the enemy in an attack. If you hold we can come to your support....Gunny.’

If he could hold he will and if not he will be in full retreat again but that would leave the entire flank open on the Norse left. If that happened the entire line would fail and the Greeks would walk in victorious.

“HOLD THE LINE!” He yelled as he walked down the trench. “HOLD THE LINE!”

Looking over the top he saw the Greeks only a few dozen yards away and still advancing, taking heavy casualties now as one man fell with every step they took. Behind them he saw another line of advancing Greek soldiers further back in perfect order as they walked forward.

“FIX BAYONTES! Make ready for the attack!” He yelled and his word was echoed down the line of men.

He stepped down to watch his soldiers putting on the bayonets with the clicking noised of metal against metal that and few that still had axes in their belts pulled them out, leaving their rifles leaning against the trench wall. Those still on the firing step continued to fire until the Greeks were at the parapet of the trench and jumping on top of them. He took his own ax and started swinging it, grabbing a Greek by his neck and planting his ax into his skull, another then another came in the trench and he fought until his arms were burning tired. He then felt a concussion overcome him from close explosions of artillery. Earth and body parts rained down on him and his men as they fought the last of the Greeks that penetrated the trench. Then there were loud screeching noises over head with explosions that seemed to be walking away from them to his front. The artillery shells came in faster and faster as they shook the ground forcing him and his men to crouch down in the bottom of the trench.

When the concussion of the close explosions seemed to subside, he slowly climbed to the firing step to look over the top and saw complete devastation of the Greek advance. They had been stopped by our own artillery but it couldn’t have been his Parrot rifles. They didn’t fire that quickly but where did it come from? Standing upright, he looked out over the battle field and saw hundreds of dark mustard yellow uniforms strewn in all directions, some wounded but most were killed or torn apart. Smoke still rose from shell holes created by the artillery giving the battlefield an eerie scene.

“Message from the Norse.” A runner hand him a small sheet of paper.

‘You can thank me later. Saw you were in trouble. Gunny.’

The sides of his lips curled into a smile as he knew then that it was the Norse artillery that saved him from being overrun. The speed they were firing was faster than these Parrot rifles so he must have a dozen of those new artillery guns he spoke about. He leaded against the side of the trench then slowly slid down to a sitting position, still smiling.

Hagan had his ships pull into the harbor one at a time with the damaged one going first. The crew of one ship that sank on the way back was then let off with orders to report to the Skipper for reassignment. The Greek naval gun fire had damaged one of his ships so badly that it took on water several miles from here and sank to the bottom of the fjord. When his ships pulled into the harbor and tied up, Skipper was waiting on him as he came ashore.

“Commander Hagan!” The Skipper held out his hand and they shook. “I got your messages on the Greek guns and we have a solution to that problem.”

The Skipper spoke to him about the new naval guns that were near the docks and had to be mounted to all his ships by tomorrow morning. The two new ships were not due to be ready for another few days but the work crews were working on them day and night.

“Did these Greek guns turn on the decks of the Greeks ships?” The Skipper asked.

“Yes! They could turn them in any direction they wanted to fire them.” He said. “And they reloaded VERY quickly too. They got two or three rounds off for every one of mine.”

The Skipper walked him to a large building near the docks and had him go through the door first. As he entered he stood in awe at the sight. Sitting in the center of this large ware house were nine deck mounted naval guns with huge springs in both sides of each barrel.

“These were made just for ships.” The Skipper started. “They have springs on the sides of the barrel to absorb the shock of firing and all the ammunition is explosive shells. One thing about them,” he paused and looked at Hagan. “They are small caliber because of the ships decks. If we made them larger the ship would have come apart with the blast of the guns.”

Hagan walked around each gun running his hand along their sides with a smile on his face.

“These will do as long as they have the exploding shells.” He looked into the Skippers eyes. “The Greek ships are slow compared to ours but sturdy and heavier. I saw a few today with two decks and oars and they all had sails. I didn’t see any smoke from any steam driven engines.”

“How did they maneuver?” The Skipper asked. “Were they nimble or clumsy?”

“About in between I would say. They seemed like good war ships and took a lot of damage from what I could tell. My round shot was penetrating their hull but I don’t think it went through them like theirs did to my ships.”

“Well. We have one hundred rounds of ammunition for each ship. Do you think that will be enough?” The Skipper asked.

Hagan sighed deeply as he looked at the new deck guns then nodded.

“Yes. But for any extended period of time we will need to have more on board.”

“Good! The work on your ships has already begun. We will need to get you back out there by tomorrow morning and I have one more thing.” The Skipper showed Hagan a drawing of his ships. Along the side of the ship was a dark color that ran from forward to aft.

“What’s this?” He asked.

“Iron plating.” The Skipper said.

Hagan looked at it for a few seconds.

“This will slow us down considerably!” he said. “But it will stop their shot from a distance. I don’t think it would stop something at close range. But GOOD!” he said and nodded his head.

“When?” Hagan looked at the Skipper.

“The new ships have it on them already. Would you like to see them?” The skipper turned and went to the end of the docks where the two ships were being fitted with the deck guns.

“Impressive, Skipper. Very impressive.” Hagan smiled as he scanned the iron sides of the new ships. “And I see they have the dragons head like the others on the bow.”

“Yes and I noticed your flag as you came in as well.” The Skipper smiled. “THAT is impressive I have to say!”

King Oswald walked down the trench line talking to his men, every few yards he would step up to look over the top and scan the field to his front. His men had the Sharps rifle he had received from the Norse but he wanted the bolt action rifles. He just hasn’t made any trade deals with them as the Germans did and, again he regretted his past actions. Now he has older weapons trying to hold a trench line against the Greeks with everyone’s family just a few hundred yards to the rear of him.

“Message form the Norse!” A runner handed him a sheet of paper.

‘Have your entire non-combatants move to Skavateland as quickly as possible. Gunny.’

Well, this was good news, he thought.

“Get me my brother, quickly.” He told a runner.

As his brother came to him through the trench he stood nearby leaning on the trench wall.

“Message from the Norse King. We can move all our families to his land called Skavateland. Send some runners back and tell them to go as quickly as possible so they can get out of the danger zone.” His brother left in a hurry for the rear along with a dozen others.

Well, he thought in disgust, that’ll be the last he sees of his brother until this is all over. He turned to his second in command who stood by him at every turn.

“How are we on food and ammunition?”

“We have plenty of ammunition but running low on food. Is there any way we can get some from the Norse?” He asked.

He thought for a moment then wrote down a message to the Norse King.

“Here. Have this sent to the Norse. See what they can do for us.”

‘To King Gunny. Do you have any extra food?’

“Now we wait and see if they can help us....again.” He sat on the firing step taking a deep sigh. He felt nearly helpless at this new type of warfare but if things were different the Greeks would already have taken his country and he and his family would be their slaves by now. So, things could be worse. He had to hold this line as long as the Norse were there fighting with him and he knew that once the Norse gave their word they always kept it. This new Norse king told him he would hold the line to the last man and that he wanted to attack as soon as the opportunity arose. He even said he wanted to attack Greece which he thought was a fantasy but as long as they stayed, he would stay.

As I was inspecting the lines and talking to the troops a runner came running up to me with a message.

“From King Oswald, sir.” He saluted and waited for a response to the message.

“Food, huh?” I said to myself then wrote on the back of the message.

“Take this to the wireless and send it to the rear for the Skipper.”

‘The Saxons need resupply of chow. Send what you can and also their families are moving to your area. Please move quickly. Gunny.’

I continued my inspection of the troops when I came to a few women in one area that looked haggard.

“How are you today soldier?” I asked with a smile.

They stood erect when they saw it was me.

“Fine, sir. We are just tired of the waiting and want to get to the Greeks.”

“I understand but you have to understand this kind of war. We wait them out and they will keep attacking and we will keep stopping them. The more we kill here the less we have to attack later.” I told them as I slapped one on her shoulder.

“How are these new bolt action rifles anyway?” I asked just to get their mind off the present.

“Oh they are great!” One said as she held it in front of her.

“I like how they reload so fast,” another said.

“And they shoot straight too. Not like those muskets we had years ago.” The one on the end said.

“OH! So you were with us at the Valley of Death?” I asked.

“Yes, sir. I was standing next to you when Gyda was killed. I still cry thinking of her.” She looked down and I thought I saw her eyes become misty.

I squeezed her shoulder with my hand and leaned close to her ear.

“I admire you for that. Thank you.” I said then squeezed her shoulder again before I walked off. I could hear her friends next to her as I walked off scolding her for mentioning that.

I could hear the birds singing as the sun started to go down and turned to walk back to my station in the center of the lines. I saw several of my Marines in the line as well, all of them were officers now and wore their insignia with pride and each time I passed one he would stand up and salute me. I simply said one thing as I returned their salute.

“Devil Dog!”

I then found my area where the wireless was set up and the communicators sending and receiving messages from all parts of the line as well as the rear. Our Saxon friends would get their food and the Germans would get more artillery support if needed by our new guns. All we could do now was wait for the Greeks to make a mistake and we would be on the offensive chasing them back to their homeland.

“Just ONE mistake is all I ask for. Just one!” I said to myself as I sat on a wooden crate full of our new hand grenades that resembled the World War Two German stick grenades. I wanted this to be over so we can live in peace with trade in every corner of the world. I would like to see what China looks like and even England where the Romans have retreated to. They had nothing to fight this war with unless we gave it to them or traded for and I still had to send an emissary to speak to them again but the time was not right.

I looked down the trench and it started to look like the photographs of World War One I had studied for years. Boredom had already set in.