The Longboats

Three weeks had passed and I received the new gas masks I had Doc research and they looked very similar to the British ones of World War One. Made of canvas with the filter attached to the front where your mouth was so it could be changed while you wear it and glass fittings to see through. They looked effective but only using them would prove if they were any good or not. Helmets finally started being issued to the troops and they looked similar to our steel pots but with a different design around the bottom. Anything covering their heads would be a good thing because those cloth hats were just not doing anything to protect them.

I also got several machine guns from Hennisons armory that was unlike anything I had ever seen but when I tried them out they worked beautifully but had a very slow rate of fire. The belts were made of canvas like an old World War Two water cooled gun and could be reloaded many times over and reused. As I walked towards the back of the lines to find something to eat I saw the Skipper coming towards me with anger in his look

“GUNNY!” He yelled as he stopped in front of me, close enough to smell his breath. “I have bad news.” He looked at me with his hands on his hips.

“I found the spy and I think she is the master spy from what I can tell.” He was breathing deeply as if out of breath but it was because he was so angry.

“Who is it? Do I know her?” I asked.

“YES!” He said loudly. “I had been around the foundry and armory and on occasion I see new faces, which is nothing new because of the large influx of people we have in our town but I saw the SAME face every time I would see NEW faces!” He paused to look at me for a second then continued.

“So I got with Jackson and Hennison in the Great Hall while she was nearby and we discussed a secret weapon to stop the Greeks with. Of course it was fictitious but none the less I did it to catch the spy.”

“OK! Who was it?” I asked again.

“Wait a second and I’ll tell you.” He took a deep breath. “We spoke of this weapon as if it was going to be ready in three days. And THEN....” He paused, looking at me intently. “Your BABY SITTER, Sara, disappeared from the building. SHE is the one I kept seeing around every time I saw new faces. So we followed her to the edge of town leading towards the wood going to the south west. Once she was there she met one of the new people, a man, handed him something then turned to leave. That’s when I had the Hardcore nab both of them.”

“SARA?” I asked taken aback. She had been with us for years taking care of my children.

“What better position than right next to the king?” The Skipper asked as he cocked his head at me.

I felt betrayed at my trust in her.

“It took everything I had to keep the Hardcore from killing both of them right on the spot, but I took them back and locked them up in the jail house we had built for drunks.”

“WOW!” I shook my head in disbelief. “Have you contacted Yngvildr yet on this?”

“I sent runners out to find her and have her meet us here.” The Skipper turned to look around. “I can’t believe it!” He shook his head. “All this time, right under our noses!”

“Well. We’re going to have to interrogate both of them and find out how deep this goes. If there’s one in our flock there will be ten.” I said as I went to the cooks bunker and got in the long line for chow.

“Go back, see what you and the others can find out from her and this other guy and let me know. I don’t want to leave the front, I think the Greeks are getting ready for another push at our lines.”

“How do you know?” The Skipper asked, squinting his eyes at me.

“I send out patrols every night and they get to the very edge of the Greek trenches because they have no listening post out and last night they heard a few of them complaining about another move in a few days. They also complained about their new leadership. Seems that French Officer is acting the same as they did in nineteen fifteen.” I said as I untied my mess tin from my belt.

“Are you hungry?” I asked him. “The cooks here make good chow, Skipper.”

“OH! No thanks. I want to get back as soon as possible so I’m on the next train out of here but I’ll report any findings to you soon.” He slapped me on my shoulder and was gone.

After about thirty minuets in line,I held out my mess tin and the cook dipped some thick soup with meat and vegetables into my mess tin that I patterned after the Germans in both World Wars. It was perfect for this kind of army and could be cleaned and carried with ease. I also received a large piece of bread then carried it back to the front line trench near the communicators where I sat and ate in silence.

Hagan had his fleet move out as soon as the sun came up but he feared it would be just like it has been for the last two weeks, nothing to see. They sailed to Calais then went in circles for a few hours with no results. He wondered what the Greeks were up to by not showing up for two weeks when he heard his look out on the main sail yell down.

“Sail on the horizon!”

He looked up and saw him pointing to the starboard, bow; (a forty-five degree angle to the right front). He took out his binoculars and focused them until he could see sails but these sails were not Greek! There were three ships and the sails were a purple color with white trim and they didn’t seem as large as Greek ships. Dropping his binoculars to his chest he squinted his eyes as he leaned on the railing shaking his head.

“All hands stand by!” He yelled and the crew scrambled to their stations and waited.

“Come ten degrees to starboard.” He yelled which would bring his ships in the direction of the unidentified ships. He was running at half speed on steam with only the foresails in the wind and he knew they would reach these new ships in only a few minutes. As he drew near he noticed a large white flag on their main mast that was as long as the ship itself. He supposed they wanted to make sure we knew they did not want to fight, he chuckled. As they drew near he gave the order to stop.

“Come about on their heading and all stop!” His ship turned and came alongside the strange looking ships. They were narrower than the Greeks and single deck with oars and one main mast with a huge sail.

“Who are you?” He yelled with cupped hands over his mouth.

“We have come to speak to your king about an alliance!” A lone man standing on their railings shouted.

He saw them dressed in what he can only say was past clothing. They seemed to be wearing loose fitting pants with a loose shirt and no shoes. Some that stood near the pilot were wearing the old style helmets similar to what he and his men threw out several years ago, before fire arms.

“Where are you from?” He yelled.

“Can we meet on your ship?” Came the reply.

Hagan turned to his crew and ordered them to lash their boat to the other but had eight men go below to bring up rifles in case it was a trick and stand on deck to be seen. After they had come together one of the men from the purple boat jumped across to his and shook Hagans hand.

“I am Tribune, Valerius Quintus Fidenas, commander of the Roman navy.” He smiled. “And I have come to offer our support to your king in the fight against the Greeks.” He then looked around at Hagans ship with wide eyes but was a little apprehensive at how Hagan looked with his long hair and beard. Hagan also noticed him and all his crew had short hair and were all clean shaven.

“You have wonderful ships, sir. I have seen nothing of the likes of them before.”

“Yes, well. We like them and they are fast and maneuverable and we carry a big kick with our swivel gun.” He pointed to his forward firing deck gun.

“Amazing!” Fidenas said as his mouth opened with wide eyes. “I had versioned things that we have heard about your people but NOTHING like this!” He looked at Hagan as if a child.

“May I ask that you show me around?”

“Of course.” Hagan took him on a tour of his ship, pointing out his wireless that Fidenas just shook his head at with amazement when he found out they could communicate back to home base. Fidenas acted as if he were going to jump for joy when he had completed his tour.

“We can SURELY defeat the Greeks with such magnificent weapons of war!” He said.

“Not so fast!” Hagan said “The Greeks have just about the same thing we do at this point in time. AND they out number us. If you want to join the fight I have to take you back to home port to speak to our king. Only he can tell you what to do and how to do it.”

At that they both agreed that Fidenas could stay on his ship for the trip back to port, he wanted to see the ship as it sailed and how it worked. The other Roman ships followed but Hagan had to reduce speed to a crawl so they could keep up. It took much longer than expected to return home and it was dark by the time they tied up to the docks.

Scott had been the one that created the telegraph along with several others in the company that had worked as linemen for the telephone company when they were civilians. Making a telegraph was easy but that battery was the hard part and when he finally figured it out he then made the wireless telegraph and tried in vain for years to make a light bulb but to no avail. It was failure after failure with the light until he nearly gave up except when another Marine walked in for a visit and saw what he was doing and told him to try a thinner filament inside the bulb. When he did that it was as if Christmas had come early and all the gifts were for him; the light actually worked! In his excitement he ran to the telegraph shack and sent a message to the Gunny then ran to find the Skipper who came with him to his work area in the foundry. A bright shining light bulb was burning at his work table as it sat inside a light fixture.

“All we need now is a telephone!” The Skipper said as he stood there and smiled at the thought of a lighted town.

“That is on the way too, Skipper. Been working on that as long as this damn light bulb.” He paused showing the Skipper his invention of a telephone operated by batteries.

“I need time for that too but I’ll have it, I think.” Scott said as he moved the light to the center of the table with a smile.

“OK.” The Skipper looked at him. “How long before we have lights in the town?”

“Not long now. We will have to run lines from the steam power house to each building then connect the light fixtures to walls and....well. We’ll have lights!” he said.

“Now! What about ships? You said you have this one connected to a battery. Can you do that for ships too?”

“OH SURE!” Scott said as he picked up his light. “See here? The wires are connected to that battery about the size of a shoe box. It’ll work for several lights and then just change the battery every once in a while.”

“I’ll go send the Gunny the news.” The Skipper said but was stopped by Scott.

“All ready did that. Sorry, I got excited.” Scott could not lose his smile.

“OK.....That’s fine. I’ll go let Sigrun know. He’ll be surprised to say the least.” The Skipper left with a gait in his step.

Ralf had been working on his guns when Gunny came up to him as he lay on the ground tightening a loose nut on the wheels.

“Gunny!” Ralf said as he slid out from under the gun carriage.

“Ralf. Just wanted to come by and see how everything its going and have a meeting if you have time.” The Gunny said.

“Of course!” Ralf wiped his hands on his pants then pulled a box over for them to sit on.

“I’ve been going over several maps of the Greek lines and I found one thing they have left out of their defensive positions.” The Gunny said as he spread out a map on the ground.

“Right here,” the Gunny pointed to the coast near Calais.

“They are weak on the coast and our ships report the coast has only a few guns to defend it while our patrols report the enemy has been building up their batteries just behind their lines. I think they are getting ready for a major push and I’d like to hit them before they hit us.”

“Sounds good to me. What do you want me to do?” Ralf asked.

“I am going to send our reserves on an end around to the coast on ships. We will land there and attack their flank and at the same time I want your guns to pound the hell out of their line because we are going to attack from here also.”

“To soften up the enemy as you put it?” He asked.

“Exactly. And we will walk forward under your fire.” He said. “The attack from their flank should throw them off guard while our frontal assault will stun them enough we can break through.”

Ralf nodded in thought.

“How many guns do we have?” Gunny asked.

“I have fourteen of the new three inch and twenty-one Parrots. The Germans have fifteen parrots and the Saxons have,” he chuckled. “Well, they have six.”

“I need you to coordinate with them when I give you the time and date this is taking place. Get the fire of all batteries going at the same time. I don’t have a date yet but I’ll get back to you by tomorrow morning on it. It won’t be long; I want to get this going and try to end this madness.”

“I understand. This is very strange to our people. A war is not supposed to be like this.” Ralf said shaking his head.

“I know and I am working on getting us moving again. But, this is how wars are fought in my time.” Gunny said as he got up to leave.

“What about the loot?” Ralf asked with a slight frown.

“Yes. The loot!” Gunny said rubbing his face with both hands. “That is something that will have to come from their country when we get there. Like I said, this is a different kind of war.” Gunny turned and left back to the forward trenches.

Just as I got back to the main trenches I was bombarded with messages from all over the lines. The Greeks were making probes in different parts of the lines all along the front with minor casualties. They were looking for a weak spot to hit us with in their main attack that would come soon. I ordered a meeting of all senior officers to discuss my plane of a flanking maneuver. We had to retire to the rear trench line due to the Greek artillery shells that came over once in a while. I also carried a message with me from Scott, my main communications man in the rear and as I read it I smiled with a chuckle. A lighted town? Lights on the ships? I’ll have to tell all my officers this during the meeting. We sat in a circle with a map on the ground in the center as I pointed to locations of our defenses as well as the coast where I wanted to land troops for a flank attack.

“I’ll get with Hagan on his ships and see if he can tow any of those Greek ships we still have in the harbor we are using for floating barges. They can carry a lot of soldiers.” I told them.

“They also still have those small mountain howitzers mounted on them also. So they have somewhat of a defense.” An officer said from the rear.

“What if they have coastal batteries that would devastate our ships as we came in?” One asked,

“Hagan will have several ships go in the first few hours and clear out any coastal artillery they have, which he has reported is not many. They seem to think our major attack will come from here,” I pointed at the lines between us and the German positions with the stick. “Their commander is using tactics from one of our wars that failed all four years the war went on.”

“So, you know this enemy commander?” Another asked.

“No. But I know how he operates and his tactics.” I said looking at the officer. “I was waiting for him to make a mistake and to see exactly how he operates. I think I know now.”

“But if you are wrong we will have a disaster on our hands, Gunny.” An older officer said as he shifted in his chair uncomfortably.

“I know that too. This is why we will attack from here.” I pointed to the map with my stick. “The Saxons will swing north towards Amsterdam with the Romans coming across the channel and head for Paris.” I looked around at them. “We will attack the center with half the Germans on our left flanks and the other half swinging like a door to their right to join up with us.” I still looked at the map. “Then, as they center their troops on our frontal attack, we come in around their flank from the coast, south of Amsterdam.”

There was nodding in agreement and mumbling as most leaned over to look at the map closer.

“I want those fifteen thousand troops we have in reserve to follow us at five to eight hundred yards behind us for clearing operations. That means, if you come across a small group of the enemy, BY PASS THEM! The reserves will mop them up as we continue to push forward. I don’t want our lines to slow down after we have the initiative.”

“When we take their main trench, do we know what is beyond? I mean, do we know where to regroup?” A tall female officer asked.

“Yes and I’m glad you asked that.” I leaned over the map with a long stick and pointed to a town behind the Greek line. “Here, about twenty miles from the main Greek lines is a town called Dusseldorf. I want to center our left flank on that town while the Saxons will move towards the coast and to Antwerp with the Germans on our left, also having their left swing wide. We can consolidate after we make our target objective of Dusseldorf.” I looked around for any rebuttals but there were none. “As the Romans attack across the channel and head for Paris, or get as far as they can, we will consolidate our forces in a line here.” I pointed near Dusseldorf.

“Do the Romans have weapons for this kind of fight?” An officer asked.

“They will after today. Jackson has already made planes with them in trade for weapons and ammunition so they will be ready also.”

“How many will they have?” Someone said in the back.

“I don’t know the exact number but somewhere around fifteen to twenty thousand and that includes English I hope.” I looked around at the faces. “They will have their own supply so we won’t have to bother supplying them along with the Saxons. I know we may run short if we keep doing that.”

“Supply will follow us with wagons and our artillery is ready to pack up and follow close behind. They can set up in a matter of minutes for any counter attack.”

The older officer stood then looked around at all the officers present, which must have been over twenty.

“This time you are NOT going with us, Gunny!” He said flatly as he looked at me intently.

“What does that mean?” I asked, leaning back on my wooden crate.

“It means that we will not lose you in the middle of a fight because you are the only one here that has knowledge of a war of this magnitude.” He said with mumbling coming from everyone there.

“If you get killed, or even wounded, we will not know how to keep our momentum going!” The tall female officer said.

“You can coordinate things we can’t even dream of, Gunny!” Another officer said he stood next to the female officer.

I felt overwhelmed that they thought so much of me and my leadership.

“OK. I see what you mean but YOU can do this. You don’t need me to tell you how to fight and win.” I said. “Besides, the Skipper knows all this too.”

“YOU are the one we picked. Not Skipper.” An officer from the rear said loudly and all agreed.

“That’s fine,” the female officer said. “But you will stay behind the artillery for this one. You need to coordinate the entire front as we advance. And we all know how you are in a fight. You like to get into the thick of it.” She said with a smile.

“OK. I’ll have to see where I can best situate myself for this and I’ll give it all to you.” I looked at them one at a time. “It will be in your hands. To Valhalla!”

“To Valhalla” they all said at once.

I got up to leave and remembered the message from SCOTT.

“Wait!” I said loudly and turned around with the message in my hand. “I have some good news for everyone. I received a message from Scott, you remember Scott? He says he has created a light bulb. And that means we will have lights from electricity soon.” I looked at the confused faces.

“The light bulb is something that uses electric current, like the telegraph but it will light up a small glass globe for lighting. We will not have to use candles or lanterns when we get home.”

I could see the confounded looks coming from them.

“Well. You’ll see when we get home. It’s not something that will change the outcome of the war, just something that makes life a bit easier, that’s all.” I said then waved my hands and they disbursed, still frowning at the thought of a light bulb.

Hagan took out his ship and two others, leaving the others behind to patrol closer to home when he got the message from Gunny to patrol near the port of Amsterdam for any sign of the enemy. He has gone past that area many times but had never gone into the port its self so this would be interesting. As he started passing the small islands that made an alcove for ships he kept on the lookout for any sign of the Greeks on shore or at sea. When he got to the last large island he turned south into the inlet towards Amsterdam and started to see many ships masts inside the harbor and they all seemed they were moored or tied up to the docks. Using his binoculars he could see there were at least two dozen tall masts in sight with activity around the docks.

“What is it?” One of the crew asked as he stood there next to him.

“Lots of Greek ships in there.” He said without removing his binoculars. Then he noticed they had spotted his three ships steaming towards them from the smoke out of his tall smoke stacks.

“Sound general quarters!” He yelled and the crew manned their fighting posts in only a few seconds with the gun crew already loading the swivel gun while the others went below to arm themselves with rifles and axes.

He waited to get closer to see if they would come out to meet him but all the Greek ship stayed in place so he ventured closer when he saw the white puff of smoke from a shore battery to his left. The shell went wide and over his ships to explode harmlessly over a hundred yards away.

“FIRE!” He yelled and the swivel gun commenced firing rapidly.

Every time the gun fired he could feel the deck vibrate with the smoke drifting away behind them on the wind. He stood on the upper deck watching his rounds hit the Greek guns one by one until there were only two left.

“Come about! Let’s get out of here before we wake them up!” He grinned.

The Skipper got off the train just as the Gunny was going to get on.

“Gunny! I was just coming to see you about this attack you proposed.”

“OH! I was going to see you and Jackson about the Romans and English.” The Gunny smiled then motioned for him to follow him to an area they could talk.

“Have the Romans showed up yet for the weapons and what did they trade if they did.” The Gunny asked.

“Yes they showed and we got a ship load of gold and silver. In return we gave them ten mountain howitzers with ammunition and the knowledge to make their own along with three thousand Sharps rifles and ammunition and ten crates of grenades.” The Skipper said.

“I hope you taught them how to use all that.” The Gunny cocked his head in question.

“Absolutely. And Jackson sent a dozen soldiers and three officers with them to train with them for the next few days AND to stay with them for this attack. They also have a wireless so they can communicate with us during the assault.”

“DAMN! I forgot all about that. I’m glad you remembered.” The Gunny said.” That would have been a bone head mistake on my part.”

“I also had many messages from your front line officers demanding you stay out of this one.” The Skipper said while watching the Gunny’s reaction, which he clearly saw that he was not happy with.

“Well I....” The Gunny tried to say.

“Well NOTHING!” The Skipper said. “You KNOW they are right! If you even get wounded this attack will slow to a halt and may even result in a major Greek counter attack.” The skipper paused. " And if I had to go in your place, the rear would fall apart!"

The Gunny took a deep breath then sighed loudly while he looked me in the eyes.

“Skipper. You and I have chewed some of the same damn dirt in Viet Nam when you were a second lieutenant. And you know I never tell my troops to do anything I won’t do myself.” He looked at the ground. “But you’re right. They are damn good soldiers but they don’t know how to coordinate all this yet.” He nodded.

“OK.....I’ll have a command CP that will follow this attack from about five hundred yards back. But NO further behind than that.”

“I know. I’ve heard you yell at NCOs and Staff NCOS before that you can’t lead from the rear. But in this case, you ARE the rear.” The Skipper put his hand on the Gunny’s shoulder with a smile. “These people need you more than they need me or Jackson. They chose you.”

“OK Skipper. Let’s get this thing on the road. What do you think of launching this attack in three days?”