Chapter 9: Bremen
The eight witches gathered in the briefing room, with Jamie at the podium. But there was a very grave air about the room, as they contemplated their mission. Bremen was no joke, it was the most dangerous target yet, save for the capital of Karlsland, Berlin. But Berlin could not be reached yet, as the defenses from the surrounding cities and the captured flak towers at the Berlin Zoo were offering heavy resistance. Just as Jamie was looking through her folders, the recruiting officer walked in with a lovely young British girl next to him. She had luscious blonde hair with curls at the ends, wore a spotless blue uniform and hat, as black leggings wrapped tightly around her legs.
Jamie's calm nature was suddenly replaced with surprise, and in indignation. "What is the meaning of this, sir? I was just about to begin the briefing."
"I know, I know, but I have a huge favor to ask." The young man, surely no older than 20, pleaded.
"Go ahead." Jamie crossed her arms.
"First off, this is Bridget Andersen, a bomber witch from 57th RAF bomb group. She's being assigned to the 8th as of today. Now, don't take it like I'm not confident in your skills, but this is Bremen and we need all the help we can get."
"How do you do, ladies?" The Brittanian girl curtsied. "Bridget Andersen from 617th BG, RAF. My call sign is Bristol Belle, and I look forward to working with you girls." She said in a pristine Brittanian accent.
"Likewise. I'm Jamie Doolittle, the commander of the 8th." Jamie shook her hand, with a slightly hard grip. Bridget winced slightly in pain, but retained her composure. Shortly afterwards, Jamie gave a short scowl at the recruiter. She was clearly upset that the higher ups were meddling with her group without consent. But like always, she had to follow orders, even if she didn't like them. Eventually the recruiter walked out, and the group began to chat and acquaint themselves with the newcomer. After about ten minutes, Jamie clapped her hands to get their attention, and began the briefing as they sat down. "Alright girls, this is it. We're going to Bremen. I know you've heard the stories about it, and it's not a great place to be. But the raids can't sustain this many losses. Somebody has to break through, and we happen to be that somebody. If we can just last long enough to drop our bombs, we'll be heroes just for that. I've also been informed that 317st BG will accompany us on this mission. Well, we leave in ten minutes. Get your bombers ready, clean your guns, and prepare for battle. Dismissed."
Everyone stood to salute Jamie, as she dismounted the podium.
Minutes later, the girls were in the hangar, preparing their bombers and getting ready for the mission at hand. As Bridget was bent over her Lancaster bombers, two young guys from maintenance walked by the open hangar. One of them, staring at her rear, did a wolf whistle and remarked, "Wowee, look at that tail!" Bridget was clearly offended by this, and began waving a wrench at them menacingly as they ran away laughing. The others in the hangar pretended not to notice, and tried to hide their snickering. Maintenance was soon finished, and the group lined up for takeoff.
Several hours later, the formation was flying through thick clouds when Jamie called out over the radio. "Alright boys and girls, we're getting close to Bremen's airspace. I want you to stay calm, I do not want anyone to be panicking or firing wildly, ok? I know you've heard a whole bunch of rumors about Bremen, but know one thing: We are going to get in, drop the bombs, and get out. If you need assistance, do not hesitate to call a bomber witch over for cover, that's what we're here for."
Suddenly, a familiar gunner's voice came over the radio frequency. "I know who I'm callin' if I need help!" He winked at Roberta, who laughed embarrassedly, and his other crew mates joked at him, in an attempt to tease him.
"Very funny, but this is serious business we're doing." Jamie sighed. "You can't just drop your bombs wherever you want, there are civilian houses in the area. If we don't get the job done right, someone else will have to come back here and clean up our mess. I do not want to see the same results as the Stuttgart raid, understood?"
"Yes ma'am!" They replied with one accord.
"Good." Jamie said. "All crews, we are entering combat zone in two minutes. Arm your machine guns and unlock safety on your turrets. Good luck to you all, and-"
Suddenly Samantha shouted over the radio, "Three o'clock high, enemy projectile incoming!"
The lead B-24 was suddenly struck by what looked like a Neuroified V3 "Wasserfall" missile, and simultaneously flak began to fill the sky with black puffs. The comm channel was soon filled with voices of the bomber crews.
"Dammit! 'Kit's Tadger' is hit and in flames, no chutes reported!" Someone yelled.
"What the hell was that attack?!" Another radio operator cried out.
"Oh god, I feel like we're being sent to die as some kind of sacrifice!" One of the bombardiers bawled.
"This is it! It's over!" A gunner cried in terror.
"Get a grip and cut the chatter people, we got more incoming!" Jamie commanded.
"More missiles incoming, type V3, code name 'Wasserfall.'" Samantha reported. "Wait... Those should've been destroyed at Essen, Krupp's factory was the only one that could produce them."
"The Neuroi learn and adapt faster than you think Sammy, that or we hit the factory too late. It's entirely possible that some of them got out before we hit the target." Jamie reasoned.
"But surely- "Samantha began, before she picked up more contacts. "V3 formation ten miles out, approaching from the south-southwest! I count at least ten of them, plus around a dozen other fighters!"
"All units, prepare to engage the enemy!" Jamie commanded.
The gunners tried to lead the targets, but the V3's were being controlled by Neuroi, and evading their fire. As they closed in, two more bombers were hit and went down in flames.
"V3 at seven o'clock low, engaging!" A ball gunner on 'Sally B' shouted. But as he opened fire at the nearby missile, it spun out of control and hit the tail section of the plane, taking a huge chunk off in the following explosion. The captain of the bomber gave the bailout order, and everyone began jumping out of the bomber. But the tail gunner had died instantly from the explosion, and the ball turret had jammed as a result of shrapnel. As was the case with hundreds of ball gunners before him, Chris had the unfortunate common experience of being unable to exit the turret due to it jamming in place and obstructing the exit hatch. Roberta flew over and went inside the flaming carcass of the plane, trying to release him from his imprisoned state. She tried to find the fire axe, but it had fallen out of the plane. It probably wouldn't have done much good, as the shattered glass would shred him up.
"Roberta!" The gunner said, with tears in his eyes. "I'm going to slip a note through the jammed door, I want you to see that it's delivered to my family, ok?"
"Don't worry. We're gonna get you out of here, just don't give up! Don't you dare give up on me!"
"Please… just take the note. See that it gets to them… Now go. Don't even think about me for a second. Because otherwise I know you may not be able to live with the grief, and it will burden you all the way to Berlin. Just promise me one thing: That you will end this war, so our deaths won't be in vain."
The words had no sooner left his mouth, when a piece of broken propeller came off the engine and struck the ball turret. The shattered glass and the sharp blow knocked the man unconscious, as he slumped back in the turret. Roberta looked up to see fuel leaking everywhere, even into the bomb bay, and it was only a matter of seconds before the whole thing exploded. Though painful it was, she let go of the airframe and flew back to formation, watching the doomed bomber careening in flames, as it exploded violently. She could not help weeping for him, and even though they did not know each other longer than a few days it had felt like an eternity to her, and now he was gone...
Jamie paused to gather herself, then spoke to her. "Roberta?"
The other witches looked worriedly at Roberta, as tears streamed down her face, but she lifted her head once more and said, "Its ok. I'm going to be ok… He told me not to cry for him."
The rest of the witches grew silent, and after a couple seconds, Roberta raised her .50 cal and shouted, "C'mon girls, let's blow this thing and go home!"
Everyone cheered in agreement, as they helped to defend the bombers, and surged on towards Bremen.
The Neuroi became alarmed that the bombers would pick up speed instead of turning back, and their attack began anew once more. Samantha counted at least seventy more fighters incoming, but they were no match for the resolve of Roberta and the bomber witches. Suddenly Bridget called out over the comm system, "Permission to use special weapons commander?" Jamie nodded, and Bridget yelled "Frenzy" as she began throwing 100lb high explosive bomblets everywhere at the Neuroi. The threat of seventy fighters was proving to be minuscule against the determined bombers, as they neared their target. Five more planes went down in the process, but had the witches been absent it could have been fifty planes lost at the very least. As they neared the target, Jamie called out the countdown for bombs away. The bombers were ten seconds from releasing their payload when the Neuroi fighters began trying to ram them. They were getting desperate, and as the B-17's were rammed by multiple fighters at once, some of them careened into the other bombers, causing chain reactions and putting seven more planes out of commission. It was too late to back down now, they were already committed to the drop, and as Jamie reached zero, hundreds of thousand pound bombs began descending on Bremen. The witches also jettisoned their bomb strikes, using a large amount of energy to do it, even though they still had to fly back to Brittania. The fleet turned and fled towards the Channel, but the witches had used up so much energy that they were lagging behind, out of the gunners' defensive screen. Roberta in particular had used up most of her energy, and had to lean on Esther for support. Their assigned escape route was not very well planned either, as it told them to fly back through Stuttgart. This meant they would have to get past Pragsattel Flakturm once more, which was now back online and shooting at them with the ferocity of an angry hornet's nest.
"That's odd…" Thelma pondered. "I could've sworn my bombing run finished that thing off."
"That's the thing about Flaktowers, they're anti-aircraft bunkers. You can only silence them with attacks, but to kill them you have to take them apart piece by piece and burn the pieces up." Jamie told her.
"But on the bright side, they won't risk sending fighters after us while the flak is going on, else they'd hit their own fighters." Thelma said optimistically.
"Yeah, but we still have to get past this place if we want to get home." Jamie grumbled.
"Home…" Abigail said wistfully.
"Something the matter, Abby?" Alice looked over at her.
"Sometimes I feel terribly sorry for the job I do. The places we bomb contain people's homes, and some of them won't have a place to go once this bloody war ends…" Alice said in a glum voice.
"Well then we'll just have to keep doing our best to hasten the end of this war." Jamie announced.
"The end of this war… That's right. That's what he would've wanted." Roberta concluded.
The other witches nodded in agreement, and eventually they noticed that the flak had stopped. Soon they could see the beautiful waters of the channel, but they were dangerously close to passing out from low energy. Suddenly Samantha piped up, "Hey, there's the Ark Royal. Maybe we should just land there for now and rest." The other witches nodded in agreement, and the British captain of the Ark Royal gave them a warm welcome over the radio as they all collapsed the flight deck. They all breathed a sigh of relief and cheered as the returning B-17's flew overhead, bound for Wycombe. The flight deck crew couldn't help but laugh at the site of nine witches dog piling on each other from exhaustion, but the 8th couldn't care less. They were back in friendly territory, once more, after a long day of hard work.
"W-we made it…" Roberta said in an exhausted voice.
"Indeed." Samantha panted. "I've never been more excited to see this barge than right now."
They all laughed, as the Ark Royal's crew helped them onto escort destroyers that took them to the port, and they fell asleep onboard the ship. When they woke up, they were in the port of Deal, and several army trucks were waiting to take them back to Wycombe. The commander showed up in a jeep, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw them joyously hugging each other.
"Splendid work girls, you made me a very happy man today. Welcome back to Brittania."
The witches smiled wearily, as they all boarded the trucks and began driving back to Wycombe. It seemed like things were looking up for once, and the morale of the air crews had peaked. They thought, as long as the witches were with them in combat, they would see continuous victory, and that they would win this air war to liberate Karlsland.