Bombers Moon

The noise of bombers taking off beat the windows and walls like a tidal wave.Louie lay where he was, curled up in the blanket.Chuck has been sleeping here every day recently, and the quilt and pillow smell of him. Louis touched the watch, glanced at it, and buried his face in the pillow.

He fell asleep again, completely unexpectedly, and woke up around noon.The bomber fleet has not come back, which is normal. Long-distance bombers like the B-17 often set off in the early morning darkness and finally return in the twilight.It is not uncommon for fatigued pilots to hit power lines and crash as they are getting back to base because of poor visibility.But now is not a good time to think about the cause of the crash, Louis hastily cleaned up and went out to the cafeteria.

Waiting for the bomber to return is somewhat like sitting outside an operating room waiting for the results.Some were silently gnawing their nails in the corner, some glanced at the wall clock every few minutes, and some tried their best to look relaxed, playing cards noisily and laughing louder than usual.Louie's usual routine is to make up the attendance record form owed the previous week in the duty room, and he seems to be indifferent to what is going on outside the window.

He was almost certain that Chuck would not come back to America. Once the sergeant made up his mind, he would carry it out anyway. Louie had learned that when a bull was charging straight ahead, the rope couldn't be held back. Gotta find another way to convince Chuck.Maybe the two should distance themselves a bit, they've been getting so close lately that Chuck bumped into the officer next door as he slipped out the door one morning, and had to lie that he was there to deliver a telegram.Louis didn't know if the man was suspicious, and even if he had, he didn't say it.

The pen was out of ink. Louis unscrewed the ink bottle on the table and refilled it. His index finger was stained with ink. He absently took out a handkerchief and wiped it, but there was still a smear of black.The forms were densely packed, and the content was similar. Louis drew a few strokes on the draft paper to ensure that the ink was smooth before continuing to write.

Getting off the battlefield entirely is the only way to guarantee that Chuck will survive the war, then.

Louie's nib hesitated, and the ink swam across the paper.then what?Bring Chuck back to Canterbury like last summer?The last time Louie invited a friend home was the summer of his second year of high school, and he vividly remembers how "hilarious" the whole thing had become in the end.He never met the rowing team boy again in private, and even when they occasionally ran into each other in the hallway, they pretended not to know each other, knowing full well that the other students were watching them for clues, In order to confirm those rumors that are well known.Louie never let them get away with it.William was captaining the cricket team around that time, and the students immediately found a new angle, laughing at the brothers as "good trees and crooked trees" (*note 1), a notion William hated as much as he did , Louis pretended not to care, joking that he must be the good one, but the shame of the nickname stuck with him long after he left school.

Maybe they could go to the United States. Louis has never been to the New World, so he imagined the charming fields of eastern England instead of the tobacco fields that Chuck said.He let himself dwell on this absurd idea for a few minutes, shook his head, and dismissed the idea.He stuffed the attendance sheet into the folder and left the duty room, instead of going to the tarmac, he walked towards the bar. He didn't want Chuck to think he was lying on the side of the runway all day, waiting for the bomber to come back. .

The weather began to improve around [-]:[-] pm, the clouds were thinned by the wind a little bit, and finally dispersed completely, leaving a bright and cold sunny day. There may be some mischievous crosswinds when landing, but it does not pose any danger .If all goes well, the bomber fleet will turn around in about an hour and return to Beacon Hill just before dark.Louis found a seat at the empty bar, stared at the wall clock, and tapped the glass anxiously with his fingers. There was still more than half of the beer left, and the foam had disappeared.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the fully fueled P-47 Thunder fighter jets and a small number of Spitfire fighter jets took off. This is part of the so-called "multi-layer defense". Fighters with different ranges are matched together to ensure that the bombers can be protected along the way. With the P-51, this method of patchwork as a last resort can almost be given up.These P-47s and Spitfires would patrol the strait, ready to shoot down Nazi planes trying to intercept bomber groups.Louis couldn't sit still anymore, paid the bill and left, and rushed back to the base. Seven or eight ground crews had gathered at the gate of the hangar, all looking up at the sky. The ambulance transformed from a truck was ready, in case there was a bomber If you make a forced landing, you will drive over immediately.Just after five o'clock, as if someone shouted "turn off the lights" in the background, the sun went out and dusk fell like a heavy curtain.Louie glanced at his watch. The bombers were five minutes late.

No. 204 minutes after the scheduled time, the Broncos appeared first and landed one by one.The first bomber appeared 31 minutes after the scheduled time, judging from the fiery red pattern on the nose, it was "Miss April".It was followed by the Lucky Nine and the Georgia Sweetheart, which lost half of its fin.Weary Iron Raptors landed one after another, slowly filling the tarmac.A total of twenty B-17s took off from Beacon Hill this morning and only sixteen returned.

There is no "March of the Thunderbirds" in these sixteen.

Louis rubbed his throat. It was just a nervous movement, and it couldn't eliminate the anxiety that was about to strangle him out of breath.Take it easy, he reassured himself, and glanced at his watch again, there was still time, Chuck would come.

47 minutes late, another B-17 appeared askew out of the night sky, landed awkwardly, and almost skidded off the runway.A bulldog with a star collar is painted on the nose, not "March of the Thunderbirds".

No more B-17s from the west, no radar screens, no reports of crashes or forced landings from coastal observation posts in East Anglia.

One hour after the scheduled return time, the P-47 and the Spitfire also came back, and there were quite a few of them. According to the pilot's description, they only encountered a small group of Me at sea.

109, the dogfight was over in less than 10 minutes, no one hit anyone, the light was too poor, the fighter pilots could not be sure that the "Thunderbird March" was in the returning bomber, but they were sure that the missing bomber was definitely not The ones that crashed in the strait are not good news, they probably didn't fly to the seaside at all.

The verbal reports of the bomber crews confirmed this worst guess.Although the P-51 Mustang fighter successfully blocked the Me

On 109, Berlin's ground anti-aircraft firepower was still extremely fierce, "like pouring red-hot molten iron on your face", the pilot of "Miss April" described that he saw "Baby Jazz" with his own eyes cut off the left wing by anti-aircraft guns and crashed directly , "March of the Thunderbirds" was near "Jazz Baby" at the time, though it appears to be intact. The "Georgia Sweetheart" pilot also saw the "Jazz Baby" die, and he was on the right rear, and could see the "Thunderbird March" more clearly. He remembered that the "Thunderbird" was dropping bombs at a low level, watching everything normal.And the last time he saw Chuck was shortly before returning home, and the "Thunderbird" seemed to have lost an engine and was trailing a long black smoke.Then he was me

109 draws attention.

Six pilots said they hadn't noticed the Thunderbirds, but Sergeant Denton, who flew the Lucky Nine, provided the clearest clue yet.He made sure that Chuck's plane was still in line when it left Berlin, at his two o'clock position, and they even spoke briefly on the radio. One of the engines on the right wing of the Thunderbird failed, which was not a problem for a four-engine bomber, and the remaining three engines were theoretically enough to fly her back to England.However, just as the bomber team climbed towards the clouds, the anti-aircraft artillery hit the "Thunderbird March".

The Thunderbird was falling so fast Sergeant Denton thought it was going to be a discus in half a minute, but Chuck miraculously pulled her back up again.

"You mean she can fly?" Louie asked.

"No, sir, I can almost see the hole in the fuselage from my cockpit," Sergeant Denton said, scratching his arm, and suddenly remembered that there was a bandage there, and stopped, "I don't know What exactly happened inside, but I think Sergeant Sinclair was not trying to get the plane back, but to keep her as level as possible before crashing so the crew could jump out."

Louie gripped the pen tightly so that Sergeant Denton wouldn't see that his hands were shaking. "How many people have skydived?"

"I don't quite remember, sir. I didn't count. Four."

"Are you sure?"

"Maybe five? I really can't remember."

"Did you see the 'Thunderbird' crash?"

"I see, I'm sure of that."

"Thank you, Sergeant, you can go."

The other party nodded, put on his hat, left the office, and closed the door gently.Louie dropped his pen and tried to pour himself a cup of tea, almost spilling half of it on the table.He sat down heavily and read the notes carefully. Counting Chuck, there were a total of six people on the "Thunderbird". Assuming that Sergeant Denton read it correctly and four people parachuted, the chances of Chuck surviving are still very high. big.

But the pilot is likely to be the last to leave the plane.

Louie had to stand up, open the window, and breathe in the cold wind that rushed in.He needed fresh air, and the ceiling and walls of the room seemed about to crush him.Even if the parachute pilot is still alive, most of them cannot escape the pursuit of the German Wehrmacht.Most pilots were sent to POW camps, but they could also be shot on the spot if they resisted.There was nothing more to do now, and Louie slid to the floor against the wall and sat there, shivering.

Note 1:

Louis' surname Linden means lime tree in German