Disclaimer: I do not own/profit off of The Lord of the Rings, which belongs to their respective owners.
(Cue IL-2 Cliffs of Dover Blitz: British Theme)
"Oh, now they're angry. Spiders 1 and 2, attack the enemy at points Alpha and Bravo!"
"Affirmative!" respond the airmen in each Mosquito, noticing the Uruk-hai rushing for the wall.
Setting up the perfect angle of attack, each Mosquito takes a side of the battlefield and launches all eight of their rockets in a radial pattern, blowing apart a significant portion of the Uruk-hai on each side of the advancing army and creating a state of chaos amongst the enemy as they try to reorganise their formation from the attack.
"All rockets successfully hit the enemy! It looks like they're just rushing, so the formation will be weak."
After gaining some more altitude, the Mosquitoes set up another attack run, this time planning to use their guns to weaken portions of the army. After setting up another attack run, the Mossies dive on the troops, taking out large swathes of orcs with gunfire and scattering their already terrible formation across the battlefield, allowing arrows from the Rohirrim to pick off some more orcs.
"Strafing run was a success."
"Remember what Flight Lieutenant Harris said about the explosives, don't release them too close to the wall or else it'll get destroyed."
"I'll remember that, mate."
Another transmission is received from the ground. "Aight, this is ground control. Spiders 3 and 4, I believe you are the blokes carrying the bombs. Drop them in the densest portions of the army, which we'll mark with the searchlight."
"Copy that."
The other two Mosquitoes set up their own attack run and dive on the battlefield, making sure to drop their 500 lb bombs in the thickest parts of the army which they can clearly see with the help of the searchlight. After a few seconds, the bomb fuses go off and the resulting explosion is so enormous that the airmen question how a 500 lb bomb could create such an explosion, also noting the large radius of dead Uruk-hai appearing as the smoke clears.
"All units, this is Spider 4. The bombs successfully hit. Blimey! I've got shrapnel damage on the right wing. Engine 2 also seems to be leaking fluid."
"Spider 4, get your bloody bum back to base immediately. The timed fuses were supposed to only account for the blast radius of a 500 lb bomb, yet the resulting explosion looked like a blockbuster bomb."
"All air units!" calls the voice of Charlie. "The enemy is placing ladders at the wall! Destroy them with your machine guns! Do not use cannons or explosives! Falcon Leader, stay above and watch for reinforcements."
"Roger that. Don't shoot at the top!" informs James.
"Copy that," replies Travis to ground control.
This time, James is able to descend in altitude to attack the enemy down below. Finding one ladder amongst the many, he opens fire with his machine guns, destroying the wooden ladder and killing several Uruk-hai caught by the bullets, pitching up afterwards to avoid an embarrassing crash into the wall. I really hate gun convergence. Looking behind him, he can see other Spitfires and Mosquitoes doing the same, preventing many other Uruk-hai from scaling the wall. Setting up another attack run, James proceeds to launch more 303s from his Spitfire, destroying another shoddily-crafted ladder and causing more Uruk-hai to fall down from the wall.
"Ground control, I've destroyed two ladders," reports James.
"Spiders 3 and 4, more troops are moving in at points Alpha and Bravo. Send them some rockets!"
"Affirmative."
"This is Spider 4. One of our engines is a bit leaky today, so we'll RTB after this one."
Having already set up another attack run, the Mossies throttle forward and launch more rockets into the Uruk-hai, blowing them up and creating mass confusion within the army, allowing for more arrows from the Rohirrim to make their way into an Uruk's abdomen. The Mosquito with the oil leak turns east and flies away from the battlefield, having taken damage and expended all of its ordinance. Setting up a run of his own, James aims for the troops at the front, mowing down a large wave of Uruk-hai with machine gun and some cannon fire. Pulling up at the last second, James gives himself time to gain some altitude and scan the surrounding area. By now, the rain has stopped, quelling any worry about water damage to their aeroplanes.
"This is ground control. The enemy is advancing on point Charlie, all covered in shields like how the Romans used to do it. All units, use only your guns and strafe them!"
"Roger that."
"You sound like a bloody football commentator," remarks one of the Mosquito navigators.
"All units, this is Falcon Leader. Currently, no reinforcements from either side have entered the battlefield. Out."
Pointing his plane's nose in the direction of the testudo formation, James hoses the front of the formation with machine gun fire, allowing archers at the top of the tower to gain an opening within the formation. More aircraft follow suit afterwards, with the Mosquitoes attacking longitudinally and causing the most damage to the formation using their cannons, which is now consisting of fragments of shields, the corpses of Uruk-hai, and the remains of a battering ram.
"Alright, since we've disrupted the main parts of the formation, feel free to go and strafe the torches some more."
"So 'torches' is the new slang for the buggers on the deck?" asks James.
"Yeah, it sounds better than whatever 'uglies' is."
Processing that information, James sets up another run to attack the remaining Uruks at the causeway, finishing them off with some machine gun fire.
"All units, they've got bloody huge crossbows, around 4 of them, and are grappling onto point Charlie! They've also got more ladders! Spider 5, destroy the crossbows with your rockets. I'll outline them with the searchlight."
"Copy that. Once again, don't aim for the top when attacking the ladders!"
The Mosquito sets up its attack run perpendicular to the wall, intending to destroy all four crossbows in a single run. Diving down onto the crossbows, the pilot fires two rockets at each crossbow, noting their relative symmetry to one another, which the pilot knows will make things easier. Immediately pitching up following the attack, the pilot turns the Mosquito around to look at the aftermath, marked by the searchlight from the tower. Meanwhile, the other Mosquitoes have gone after the three large ladders raised by the Uruks, destroying each one of them with a burst of gunfire.
"Two crossbows have been destroyed. Two still remain."
"All ladders at point Charlie have been destroyed."
"Brilliant! Spider 5, destroy the remaining crossbows with your cannons!"
"Roger that."
The pilot orients his plane towards the remaining crossbows, destroying both of them successfully using several bursts of 20mm and .303 while killing several Uruks situated around the crossbows.
"This is Spider 5. All crossbows have been destroyed."
"Ground control speaking. Now that their materiel is gone, feel free to strafe them some more."
"All units, this is Falcon Leader. So far, no reinforcements from either side have arrived. Out."
...
After many more strafing runs conducted by all of the aeroplanes, the Uruk-hai's numbers have been considerably diminished: 6,800 out of the original 10,000 troops are still alive. Taking advantage of the British support, the Rohirrim are able to cut that number further down to 6,000. However, if the Rohirrim don't receive additional ground reinforcements, Helm's Deep will likely fall in the morning.
"All units, report in," calls Travis. "It is 0049 hours right now."
"This is Falcon 2, I've spent all of my ammo."
"This Falcon 3, I'm dry as well, but I still have a bit of cannon ammo left," replies James.
"Falcon 4 reporting, I don't think I have much ammo left as well. We should get back to base before we run out of petrol."
"Falcon 5 speaking, I don't have any ammo left."
"Spider Leader reporting in, I'm dry. However, our section can still loiter around the area as my petrol gauge is reading 2/3."
"This is Spider 2, I don't think I have much ammo left."
"Spider 3 speaking, I haven't got much ammunition left."
"Spider 5 reporting, same situation here as well. Spider 4 went RTB after Engine 2 of his Mossie started leaking."
"Falcon section, this is Falcon Leader. We need to go BINGO, as our petrol is low."
"Roger that."
"All air units, this is ground control speaking. We'll make sure to tell the Rohirrim so they don't think we abandoned them."
"Alright then. Let's head back to base."
...
Cruising at 200 mph at an altitude of 10000 ft, James flies in formation with the four other Spitfires in his flight and checks his watch, which reads 0106 hours. The outline of RAF Edoras becomes visible from his cockpit, constructed simply yet functionally.
"Falcon section, this is Falcon Leader. Descend to 2000 ft and prepare standard landing procedures. RAF Edoras, this is Falcon section. Requesting permission for landing."
"Permission granted. Land in formation and make sure you don't smash into each other," comes the response from the ground.
"Roger that."
The two Spitfires at each end of the formation throttle down and get behind the other Spitfires, since the landing strip isn't very wide. Lowering his gear, flaps, and throttling down as well, James makes contact with the ground and raises his flaps again so that he doesn't bounce along the airstrip. Rolling to a stop, he can see another Spitfire landing behind him, which flips up on its nose and proceeds to smash its propeller, to which he briefly sighs as ground crew rushes over to take care of the crash, with the disgruntled pilot climbing out of the aircraft as well.
Killing the engine and climbing out of the cockpit, James can hear Travis muttering, "Lovely. I'm gonna have to do more paperwork."
Glancing to the north, James can see the corpses of several Uruk-hai and craters dotted about the fields. "What the bloody hell must have happened here?"
An infantryman arrives to answer his question. "Sir, at around 1152 hours, a light patrol of Uruks were spotted a klick north of here. As a result, the commanding officer organised a hasty defence consisting of AAA units, infantry, a Mossie, and a Hind biplane. The Hind dropped flares on the Uruk-hai, which allowed the AAA and infantry to fire upon the Uruks, obliterating around half of them. Then, the Mossie delivered some 250 pound bombs to the remaining Uruks, and after that, the infantry cleaned them up. We've got one wounded, he has an arrow in his shoulder. He should be in the medical tent where you can patch him up."
"By the way, I suggest that all of us take some rest. Personally, I don't fancy sleep deprivation," adds Travis.
"I'll be on it. Thanks for the information." With that, James runs to the medical tent, where he can see an infantryman sitting on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Nearby, James can see his medical kit, and grabs an antibacterial pad, tweezers, suture, a needle, a pair of scissors, a needle holder, disposable gloves, which he cleans with the pad, and the athelas brew.
"Relax and take deep breaths, you'll make this easier for both of us. Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you feeling?"
"Probably a six. My shoulder is being a bit of a bugger."
"Okay, I'll administer morphine then." James grabs a syrette of morphine, wiping it with one side of the pad, and injects it into the patient's unwounded arm, seeing the wounded arm relax slightly after the morphine takes effect.
Next, James pulls the arrow out of the patient's arm, eliciting a small cry of pain. Noticing no signs of infection, James sighs in relief as he wipes the wound with the pad. After that, he pours some of the athelas brew onto the patient's wound, causing the bleeding to stop and also cleaning the would as well. Preparing the suture and needle, James rolls up the sleeve of the patient's wounded arm and weaves the needle in and out of the wound with his tweezers and needle holder until the suture is able to fully close the wound. Snipping off the excess suture with his pair of scissors, James gives a final wipedown of his equipment before dismissing the infantryman to rest, heading off to his tent as well after putting away his supplies.
...
As the sun starts to become visible across the brightening dawn sky, James awakes to the sound of Nigel improvising on his trumpet, who notices the rising sun and immediately switches to Reveille. Not really caring all that much, James scarfs down a quick breakfast and walks over to the commanding tent to get an idea of the plan for the day and possibly the results of last night's battle.
"Alright then, mate. Have you got any news from last night?"
"Yeah. We sent another flight of Spits and Mossies after you took your rest, and the enemy's numbers are currently estimated to be around 3,000. Well, they returned a little ago, and according to them, the battle is going quite well for the Rohirrim."
"If I remember correctly, our infantry have never led a flight of aircraft like this. Of course, there are some bits and bobs they can work on, but for the most part, I think the leadership's pretty solid."
"I can agree with you on that. We were lucky not to have any mid-air collisions in such a confined space."
"To be fair, we each took our turn and stayed above the fort when we weren't attacking, where there was plenty of space."
"By the way, I can remember Gandalf saying that he will bring reinforcements at sunrise, so right now, I would like for us to fly to the battlefield and see how it's doing right now. In addition, you can patch up anybody in need when the battle ends. I'm guessing two Spits and two Dakotas would do for now. I've already told ground crew to prepare the aircraft, you're flying as well."
"Okay. Where are my medical supplies?"
"One of the Dakotas has them. You'll be able to use them when we arrive." At this moment, the airmen can hear the sounds of the Dakota's engines starting up.
"Alright then, I guess it's time for us to go," says Travis. "Get your gear on and meet me at the taxiway."
Following his friend's instructions, James heads back to his tent to get himself changed in his flight gear. He then walks over to the assembled formation of two Spitfires and the two Dakotas on the taxiway, recognising his own aeroplane and climbing into its cockpit. From there, he turns on the magnetos and the engine, letting it roar to life as he carefully adjusts the mixture to make sure the engine doesn't knock, closing the cockpit as well. Once they are given the signal, the aeroplanes taxi to the runway, where they are given the signal to take off. As the aircraft speed along the runway,James thinks about what could come after this battle, knowing that Sauron would be a more dangerous opponent than Saruman.
...
A flash of intense light comes into view as the airmen begin to partly see the fortress of Helm's Deep, however, their vision strangely isn't obscured by the light. As the light subsides, the airmen can see reinforcements charging at the Uruk-hai, which appear to have been dazzled by the light and are subsequently slaughtered by the charging Rohirrim.
A message comes from ground control. "Unidentified aircraft, you are flying in British/Rohirric airspace. Please identify yourselves."
"Ground control, this is Group Captain Walker speaking from No. 147 Squadron of the RAF. I am leading a flight of four aircraft, including myself. Two of us are Spitfires, and two of us are Dakotas."
"Roger that, sir. Ground reinforcements have arrived and are annihilating the remnants of the enemy. I'd advise not to perform strafing runs right now to avoid friendly fire."
After the reinforcements are able to kill a large number of Uruk-hai, the remaining bits start to run away into the forest. James notes that the reinforcements are not following them into the forest, wondering if the forest was part of Fangorn. His theory is proven true when he can see the trees violently swaying around after all of the Uruks enter the forest. Upon the defeat of the remaining forces, the reinforcements enter the fortress to presumably store away their horses. A few minutes later, they can start seeing soldiers walk around the aftermath of the battle, surveying the weapons and body count.
"Alright, I think we can land now. Land at the innermost field and try not to run over any bodies."
"Roger that."
James proceeds to throttle down and dive, trying to position his plane to allow for a nice and easy landing. Lowering his flaps and gear, James makes contact with the ground, controlling ground looping with some rudder, seeing the other planes land as well. Upon turning off his engine and exiting the cockpit, James searches the two Dakotas for his medical kit, finding it and his special waterskin of athelas brew. Leaving some of his flight gear in the cockpit of his Spitfire, James starts walking to the fortress with the rest of the airmen. Upon entering the fortress, the airmen all part their own ways to perform their tasks, James included, who wanders around looking for the wounded.
Suddenly, Éowyn rushes up towards James and starts stroking his face, breathing a sigh of relief and hugging him gratefully, to which James hugs her back, realising that both of them have started to develop feelings for each other.
Facing each other, James says, "It is fortunate that I survived. However, we must remember those who fell last night defending this fort."
"Indeed. Had it not been for the brave soldiers who gave their lives last night, we might not be meeting here in victory."
Concluding their small conversation, James and Éowyn head off in their own directions, the former having spotted a gathering of wounded whom he can tend to.