Bombers Moon

The wedding didn't change anything right away, for example, Leo didn't move out of the dormitory, and couldn't, so as not to delay the assembly time.After a few leisurely rainy days, the southwest wind swept away the clouds, and all tasks resumed.Cargo ships carrying vital supplies were still being harassed by German submarines, and the navy was struggling to cope.Despite the continued bombing of shipyards and submarine docks by the U.S. Army Air Forces, those deadly submarines continued to emerge from under their concrete shelters.After every shift, a few familiar faces always disappear, and new faces come in after a few days, all of them are dazed and nervous.Seasoned pilots, including Chuck, had learned to ignore it.

But the change came when Chuck didn't notice it, very slowly, like a thin sapling growing out of the cracks.Summer cautiously crawled along the moor, where the metal scrap piled up behind the hangar not long ago had somehow been covered with weeds and moss.Leo talked more, like a person who keeps his head down and suddenly finds a wonderful scenery ahead, so he always wants to bring up the topic, but unfortunately he is no longer involved in Chuck and Jody's bar night, so wait After Jody was politely turned down by the girl in the radio department, it was only Chuck who could drink with him, echoing Jody's sighs and convincing him that it wasn't the end of the world.

The biggest change came in early June. It was a sunny day with a fresh southerly wind. Chuck led the team to Regensburg. The goal was the industrial area that produced bearings and fighter parts. This was the first wave Offensive, the British bombers will come again after dark, and the raging fires lit by the daytime bombing in the city just show them the way.If something is missed during the day, it probably won't escape the carpet bombing at night.

Before reaching the sky over Regensburg, the bomber fleet had already suffered an interception and lost four B17s, all of which crashed in Germany, with little hope of recovery.Another six bombers were shot down while dropping bombs, and just as Chuck gave the return order, two anti-aircraft shells hit his "Flying Fortress", one engine on the right stalled, and the other engines stopped while flying over France. Not very cooperative.They once considered making an emergency landing in France to avoid crashing in the strait, but the B17 barely survived, flew sideways across the dangerous sea, and landed on its belly in a barren field more than ten miles east of the Beacon Hill base. .After safely leaving the plane, Chuck discovered that the anti-aircraft gun had directly penetrated the bomb bay. If they dropped the bomb five minutes later, they would probably be blown to pieces by the high-explosive bomb he brought.

The bomber that accompanied them from Pearl Harbor to Beacon Hill failed to get another chance to be repaired, and was scrapped directly. The mechanics cut the steel plate, removed all usable parts, and left the empty shell in the weeds.A brand new B-17F was transferred to Beacon Hill and handed over to Chuck.

Along with the big bird came a group of American journalists invited by London to spy on life in the barracks.They sniffed around the dorms and lounges, smoking cigarettes, scribbling in little notebooks, watching with interest as Chuck drew a lion on the new plane with a paint bucket, asking him why he chose this pattern, what is the meaning.The photographer lugged a tripod and a bulky camera, propped Chuck, Jody, and Leo next to the wing, snapped the shutter, and gave them a thumbs up.

When Chuck proudly showed off the newspaper clipping that featured the photo, Louie took one look, praised the bomber, and made no further comments.

"What about me?" Chuck leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.

Louie handed him the clipping. "Congratulations, Sergeant, you look just like you always did in the photo."

This was the pilot's lounge on duty, and the two occupied a desk with a phone and two rickety armchairs.The others were playing, concentrating on the suits and stakes, and no one gave them a second glance.The earlier redrawing of the "friend" boundary clearly reassured Louie, who was willing to keep Chuck by his side again.

"I want to find a picture frame to frame it." Chuck carefully folded the thin piece of paper and put it back in his body pocket.

"Vanity is dangerous."

"This is the first time I've appeared in a newspaper, and you'd want to do the same."

"The pursuit of fame is not what a gentleman does."

Chuck pointed to himself, "Tobacco grower, remember?"

"Can't forget."

Over at the card table, someone made a frustrated sound, the clink of coins, and the rustle of a reshuffle.Chuck tugged at the lint on his sleeve, pretending to study an indelible stain: "Can we have a drink tonight?"

Louis glanced at him, "I have a task tonight."

"I'll wait."

"It's late, if I ever get back."

"I'll buy a good beer and wait."

"whisky."

"As ordered, sir."

Chuck kept his promise and traded a pack of cigarettes, two chocolates with their wrappers still in their wrappers, and a half-bottle of rum for a bottle of Scotch, much better than what the bar sold.Unable to find a wine glass, he stuffed two stainless steel cups into his canvas bag, the kind issued uniformly by the aviation team. Anyway, this wasn't the first time he and Louie drank from shabby containers.It was dark late in early summer, and it was nearly ten o'clock when the Spitfire squad and the Lancaster bomber squad set off.Chuck waited in the hangar, lying on a couch made of tires and beanbags, and whenever the ground crew asked him what he was doing, he would reply that his roommate was snoring too loudly.

It was nearly midnight when the fighter jet returned. Chuck was awakened by the sound of the engine, stretched his neck, picked up the rucksack and walked outside.Louie walked along the edge of the runway, took off his goggles, and froze when he saw Chuck, as if he didn't expect him to actually wait.

"Need help?" Chuck pointed to the cord of the parachute bag.

"What? Oh, yes, thanks."

Louie turned sideways awkwardly, and asked Chuck to help him remove the parachute and life jacket.The two quietly avoided the lights leaking from the hangar, and walked towards the distant wilderness in the shadows.There are no clouds tonight, a bright bomber moon hangs high above the dirt road, and glasses and decanters clink lightly in the canvas bag as Chuck walks.

"You don't really have whiskey, do you?"

Chuck took out the bottle and shook it.

"You're always surprising, Charles."

"I promised you, didn't I?"

They stopped in front of the backup hangar where Chuck had been flying the pink scout plane a little over a year earlier.The musty shed was exactly as Chuck remembered it, with dusty decommissioned planes huddled quietly in it, clinging to each other like birds afraid of the cold.They climbed onto the wing of the Blenheim closest to the door and sat side by side.Chuck opened the wine and poured out two glasses. The two clinked glasses and took a sip each.

"Where did you find single malt whiskey?"

"You can't make a magician reveal his secrets."

Louie shook his head and poured himself a second glass, "We met Me tonight

110 up. "

"How many were shot down?"

"Too dark to see, maybe zero, I guess I hit the tail of one of them, but it wasn't real damage. One of the new boys skidded off the runway, all right, but another The fighter jets are going to the repair shop."

"Be gentle with newcomers, Captain Fire."

"You're not necessarily a good friend of the cadets yourself, Captain Bomber."

"I don't need to be their good friend, I just need to teach them how to save their lives."

Louis laughed and took a sip of his wine, "That's what I did when you first came here."

"At least I don't take the new guy to the cemetery."

"That doesn't count, I was a little drunk at the time."

Chuck raised his glass: "Save your life?"

"Kindly save your life."

The metal collided with a crisp sound.For a few minutes they watched in silence at the starry sky and the field cut into rectangles by the hangar doors.Insects chirped in the grass, sparsely, after all, summer had just begun.Something was moving on the dark roof of the hangar, maybe a mouse or a nesting owl.

"I miss you," Chuck said.

Louis looked at him sideways and didn't speak for a long time. The moonlight couldn't see through the shadows in the hangar, and Chuck couldn't see his expression clearly.

"I miss summer," Louie finally said.

Chuck groped for his hand and took it, but Louie broke free quickly, "No."

"Why? No one here will see—"

"Not for that. Me."

Louis didn't finish his sentence, he drank the wine in the glass in a hurry, poured out some more, and drank it, as if he was looking for courage from alcohol.Chuck lightly pressed his hand and moved the bottle away, "I don't want to carry you back, sir, the whole base will be watching us."

The other party laughed, short and nervous, "If we kiss again, I might fall in love with you."

"Is this a bad thing?"

Another long silence.Chuck waited quietly, without prompting.Outside, the wind stopped, but the chirping of insects became louder, and the clear chirping of crickets cut through the noise.

"I told you before, 'It's easier to be cold-blooded here', remember? That's a defense mechanism, you should understand by now, don't care about anyone so you don't go crazy. I've lost too many people, Charles, and if I go through this again." He paused, then went on, "I can't go through this again, forgive me for saying this, but if you Crashed somewhere across the ocean, I'm not sure if I'll survive."

"That's what's different about us." Chuck touched the back of his hand. "If you got shot down tomorrow, I wouldn't be like, 'Fortunately I don't care about the poor guy, don't be sad'. I'd be like, 'Why didn't I kiss him when I got the chance, why did I waste so much time?'”

"Even without this war, we can't," Louis thought about his words, "continue."

"There's always a way."

"It seems that we can only tolerate each other's different views."

"Maybe." Chuck shook the bottle. Judging from the sound of liquid sloshing, there was still half a bottle left. "Do you want more whiskey?"

"Yes, thank you."

"It is estimated that you can see the sunrise here, if you tilt it to the right."

"Would you like to watch the sunrise?"

"Why not?" Chuck lay down on the wing. "I don't want to go anywhere."