THE LOST VIKING SAGA

The predicted rain eventually fell and had not yet let up the next morning as the Norsemen stood on a slightly damper drill field. Their individual fighting knives had been distributed and now the men stood in loose groups around the table marveling at the differences between them and the weapons they had grown accustomed to over a life time of use. They were instructed by MacGrieve to form a tight circle around William who stood in the exact center as he began to speak.

“I know these differ greatly from the blades you are used to, but it is my hope that you will find them much more effective in use for the methods I will be teaching you in the days to come. You will all agree that much has changed in this time from where you come from. Different times sometimes require adaptation in order to overcome new obstacles. I would have you consider this knife,” he said emphasizing by holding his own fighting knife high over his head. “And the techniques in unarmed combat I will teach you to be your primary tools to assist you in completion of Operation Thor’s Hammer. Rifles and guns can be effective, but I find hand to hand engagement much more satisfying. These skills are what we will focus upon. I am told that you have been made familiar with many of our modern weapons and that is all well and good. From here on out we will use the handiest weapons God has provided to man…your minds and your bodies.”

William began first with schooling the Norsemen in the proper grip of the fighting knife. As he demonstrated the flexibility the grip allowed when in close quarters, the men audibly expressed their elation over the potential the knife offered. From the basic instruction, William moved on to teach them so many uses and operations that they were consumed the remainder of the morning with the practice of each one. For an uninformed bystander, the group must have seemed like escapees from an asylum as the men slashed and stabbed their knives through the air at invisible enemies. Their movements were synchronized under the direction of William as he called out every stroke with the name he had associated to it. With a word, the Norsemen would sweep their knives upward or plunge them downward, switching hands as directed, to teach them to be versed with either regardless of their dominant hand.

After lunch, the rain had slackened, but the grass was left slick and treacherous under foot. This worked to William’s advantage as he spent the time guiding them through a great variety of maneuvers to use when the ground did not afford stability beneath their feet. With every new skill William exhibited, a new confidence arose among the men that Thor’s Hammer could not help but to succeed. The small, weak appearing man had given them a new vigor and confidence that their presence in this time was indeed divinely ordained. Olaf was pleased to see the change in his men’s attitudes. It would make his responsibility in their endeavor easier to execute. His men had always loyally served him in battle, but, in these extenuating circumstances he confessed he was hesitant that they would remain as loyal. It was an overwhelming position they found themselves in and the Norsemen had met the challenge with their signature courage and resolve.

While the men rested and reviewed their language lessons in the time between the evening meal and bedtime, Olaf and Ebbn would meet with Colonel Brundige, John, and William to pour over drawings and diagrams of the opera house in Paris where they would carry out their mission. In addition to the layout of the opera house, Olaf studied the layout of the Paris streets to plot out escape routes from the city. This proved to be a challenge as the streets zigzagged and intersected at strange improbable angles. Olaf became convinced that the Frenchmen had no sense of the rational. There was no order or discernable logic to how the streets were lain out. This was only the beginning. Once they had mastered the Paris charts, their attention turned to the maps depicting the French countryside they would have to navigate both to and from their target.

It was decided early on in the planning that they would take a different route to the city than they would when returning to the Normandy coast. Throughout the time the Norsemen had been training, Brundige had been in communication with the resistance movement in France, seeking their direction upon the best routes to take that offered the least amount of contact with German patrols and checkpoints. Ebbn proved himself quite adept reading and interpreting the different features of the maps. One fascinating aspect for the two Norsemen was the incredible number of what John described as photographs. These, he explained, were taken by the craft that flew in the sky. Fitted with cameras that took snapshots as they soared above the landscape, the photographs often revealed troop movements and strong points in the German defenses between the coast and Paris.

“These photographs are quite useful for figuring out landmarks,” Ebbn explained one evening. He laid a photograph next to a feature on the map, matching it to the contours. “See? The map shows this area as wooded, but the photograph reveals it even more heavily forested than indicated. This is indeed a masterful innovation.”

“You are correct, Ebbn,” replied Brundige. “There are many applications to using cameras. Here, these were just couriered over to me from the developers.”

The Colonel laid a series of twenty photographs upon the table in sequence. Ebbn and Olaf’s jaws dropped slightly as they realized what they were.

“These are of us the day William began his training,” stated Olaf with wonder.

“Indeed they are,” answered the Colonel. “You did not even notice the man with the camera as he moved around the drill area. So engrossed were all of you in testing your newly learned skills, he went unnoticed by every one of you.”

Ebbn broke out in hearty laughter. “Look here, Olaf. It is Bjorn the Giant being subdued by Eovind the Small. I had not noticed on that day that they were paired together.”

“They weren’t at first,” interjected William. “I put them together about halfway through the exercise to see what would happen. As you can see, size does not always give the advantage. Eovind quite easily bested Bjorn. In point of fact, Bjorn never had a chance.”

Olaf picked up one of the photographs near the end of the series. Peering over his shoulder, John saw that it was of Olaf and Kalf. In stark black and white, father and son stood side by side, engaged in one of their many conversations relayed by hand signals. Olaf held the photo for some time, his expression unreadable, before saying, “I would very much desire to have this photograph if I may, Colonel. “

Brundige glanced at the photograph and smiled.

“I see no reason why you shouldn’t. Every father should have a photo of his child to keep close to his heart.”

“That is where I shall keep it then,” Olaf replied, placing the photograph carefully in the left breast pocket of his tunic.

On the seventeenth day of William’s training, a lorry pulled onto the drill field, where four soldiers deposited six wooden crates along the edge of the grassy area. The Norsemen congregated around them, curious as to their contents. William opened them to reveal an array of what he explained were all of the German hand weapons that they were presently aware of.

“Many lives were put in danger acquiring these for us. I felt it extremely important that you train in disarming opponents who carry the same weapons you will be dealing with. Now…where are my volunteers?”

Five soldiers stepped onto the grassy area led by the young soldier, David.

“Here we are, Major, sir. Ready and waiting.”

“Very good,” William said, and began passing out weapons to the five men.

“Disarming a man holding a firearm is a sticky wicket.”

William observed confused looks on the faces of the Norsemen.

“I apologize. I did not mean to use an unfamiliar turn of phrase. Let me backtrack. Disarming a man holding a firearm is one of the most difficult maneuvers that you can put into play. More often than not, they have a round loaded in the chamber, and possibly their safety off. If they are pointing a weapon at you, it is highly unlikely that they don’t plan on using it. The disarm techniques I will show you afford the least amount of possibility that you will be hit by the bullet if the enemy pulls the trigger. The thing to try to do at all costs is to incapacitate him before he is even aware that you are present. More often than not you do not have that option so we will be focusing upon engaging an enemy who knows you are there and is intent upon subduing you.”

The men were lined up in groups before each of the weapon bearing English soldiers. William showed them his tested technic on each of them. Soon it was their turn to make an attempt. Ready was called, signaling the English soldiers to take up an aggressive position facing their attacker. The first run through had disastrous results. All five Norsemen would have been shot had the weapons been loaded with live rounds. Even with the blanks that were fired, the noise and William’s illuminating points on where they failed afterwards had a very sobering effect. The next time through, one out of five men was successful in disarming their opponent. After that, three out of five succeeded, until, at the end of twenty or so passes through the lines, all five men disarmed their opponents without a shot being fired. William’s smile beamed even brighter at the end of that round. His smiled widened all the more when the Norsemen were able to disarm again and again with flawless precision even when different weapons were presented to them.

By the afternoon’s completion a considerable crowd of soldiers and civilians had massed around the drill field. They watched in wonder as wave after wave of Norsemen advanced toward the armed English soldiers, disarmed them, and then moved to the rear of the line. William was ready to call a halt to the day’s training when Theobrand asked permission to try something new.

“What is it you want to try, Theobrand?” asked William with his characteristic calmness.

“This entire day you have had us face single opponents. While this has been helpful to develop my skills, I was wondering if perhaps I might face all five at one time.”

“I must warn you, Theobrand that it is no easy task, but if you are desirous to try I will give you the opportunity. I suffered many bruises, stab wounds, and broken bones before I was skilled enough to disable multiple attackers. Are you still willing to try?”

“I do not fear bodily harm. How else am I to learn without trying?”

“You have already made your point my young friend. Stand here while I direct the soldiers as to how I want them to approach you.”

William met briefly with the five English soldiers. He gave each of them an assignment in terms of how he proposed they attack the young Norsemen. The attackers formed a loose circle around Theobrand who stood straight, smiling broadly. William gave the signal to begin. Theobrand immediately disarmed the men to his left and right by dropping into a crouch, sweeping their legs and pulling their rifles from them as they fell. The man directly across from him was thrown backward as Theobrand rose from the crouch and head butted him in the chest. The two remaining soldiers, armed with pistols, brought their gun hands up, aiming at the Norseman’s head. Crossing his arms across his chest, Theobrand grabbed their gun hands simultaneously twisted sharply, watching as both weapons fell his feet before they could be fired. In the span of twelve seconds, all five soldiers lay on the ground, stripped of their weapons. The crowd around the drill area erupted into enthusiastic applause. Theobrand ignored them, instead helping each of his opponents to their feet. William clapped along with the rest, relishing in the young man’s prowess.

“That was commendable, Theobrand, commendable indeed. Well done, my young friend,” complimented William. You were simply poetry in motion.”

“You have my thanks, William. I merely desired to see if I could accomplish such a feat. I now know that it is possible. How likely do you think it that I will face such a situation on our mission?”

“I am afraid it is highly likely, Theobrand. It would do well for all of you to practice with multiple attackers. Your mission will be no easy task. The Nazis will not give up Hitler without a fierce fight. He is much like a god to them, and he does not discourage their idolizing. Fortunately, many of those he surrounds himself with are fat and lazy, but for every man like those he has at his side he has equal number of brutal, insane monsters who take great pleasure in hurting their fellow man.” William now addressed all of the Norsemen. “Take great care not to grow overconfident in your new found talents. Over confidence breeds mistakes like two rabbits breed many baby rabbits.”

The Norsemen laughed at this remark, but promptly became stone-faced and serious as William continued.

“Your enemy will furnish you no leeway for mistakes. Do not forget this. If you pass their inspection and infiltrate unnoticed, you can rest assured that once you make your move to snatch Hitler from them, they will do everything within their power to stop you. Make no mistake, they would sooner see you dead first than waste time interrogating you later. When you attack the head, the body will do whatever it can to defend itself.”

William now began pacing amongst them, grasping an arm here and clapping one on the back firmly there. He looked each man in the eye individually to drive home his point.

“You have done well in this training, better than any who it has been my privilege to teach my secret arts. I believe you are equipped to do what is being asked of you, but there will be one final test. Tomorrow you will have to yourselves as a day of rest and relaxation. I believe the Colonel has even arranged, for those of you who desire it, to offer opportunity for you to learn the game of football from a few of the lads stationed here. I have also heard rumors of a celebratory feast of some kind. The day after though, there will be no levity. I am devising a test that is designed for you to fail. I have been laboring at it for many days now and have made it as realistic as I can. I will do everything possible to make it difficult to achieve your goals in this test because I think it ill of me not to prepare you for the worst. So enjoy your time tomorrow, my Norse friends. I will refine you the day after as by fire. Now go eat some supper and clean yourselves up. You reek of Viking manliness.”

This brought another wave of laughter and good natured ribbing from among the men. As Olaf watched them leave surrounded by those who had come to watch them, William walked up and stood beside him.

“I hope I wasn’t too hard on them, Olaf.”

“Do not fret yourself over much, William. They are hardy and hale men. You said nothing they do not expect themselves. Overwhelming odds are nothing new. They are true warriors.”

“Indeed they are, Olaf. They are perhaps the exact warriors we need for such a time as this.”