After taking the beaches, we knew the drive inland was going to be a strenuous march. More platoons and companies had been trickling in over the day, an entire battalion was a thousand Thunderclan cats and over the day, we only received just one or up to three. Bluestar had some bold plans for this afternoon.
June 6th 1944, Omaha Beach Bluffs, France: 18:46
Fireheart and Cloudpaw had spent the intervening time since this morning resting up after taking the bunkers. Ashpaw's condition had stabilized but Bluestar wasn't satisfied with this morning's operations, even with the horrendous losses the entire group had faced. Her company was the only one that made it through without a single loss. Bluestar was talking to the elders about a possible breakout.
"I'm telling you, twenty six cats isn't enough, especially since you're pushing the recruits into the fight to even out your numbers, this isn't enough to get you very far." Oneeye told Bluestar that she wasn't going to get anywhere, especially with just one company.
"What supplies you are saving up for, if there is anything important, I want to get some more land as we're too close to the beach. We'll be pushed back into the ocean." Bluestar told Oneeye that she wanted to gain some ground around the beaches to feel a bit more secure.
"We're going to make a push on Carentan to link up with the cats from Utah beach, we push westward and cut them off at Cherbourg. We can get a permanent port as we don't want to stretch our frail supply lines thin, we just took this beach twelve hours ago." Oneeye explained to Bluestar about her plans for what they were going to do.
"We take the kits and have them help out." Bluestar added.
"The recruits? They're way too inexperienced and they'll get shredded out there. We're still gathering our strength and you propose we break out, we should wait until tomorrow morning." Oneeye mewed that she wasn't too sure about using the recruits as cannon fodder. Smallear appeared while walking on his cane.
"I think Bluestar and you are right, Bluestar wants to take more ground but Oneeye is right about there not being enough strength to propose such a move. I think we should still divert all of our strength to Carentan but we should give Bluestar the chance to make her move. I'm giving her two extra companies. Five jeeps and five tanks, Hopefully, Windclan will provide air cover with their planes they're launching from London. Keep the radio on you at all times if you want to call in close air support to support the breakout." Smallear told them both and proposed the solution on how they should be able to move. Bluestar looked at Smallear as she took the radio.
"How many cats should this be in all?" Bluestar asked.
"A little over a hundred, nothing too crazy." Smallear responded. Bluestar nodded before she looked at Smallear.
"Thank you, any mortar support with this?" Bluestar asked if any of these companies would provide mortar support to help clear entrenched Shadowclan cats.
"Based on the intelligence, no, no mortars, plus with the tanks, they probably won't have anti-tank support so you have the upper hand in terms of weaponry." Smallear walked away from the scene.
Fireheart looked up to hear a honking sound as someone was coming back. Goldenflower stayed on the machine gun while the kits got out.
"Fireheart, I took down my first Shadowclan cat with my rifle!" Bramblekit called out with excitement. Fireheart looked at him while Tawnykit was inspecting the jeep.
"You might make a good marksman one day." Fireheart complimented Bramblekit. He still felt nervous around him but his relationship with him was improving.
"I bet I can have Bramblekit train under your guidance but you need to talk to Bluestar about it first before she could make the decision." Goldenflower suggested talking with the leader first before coming to a decision.
"All cats in the platoon gather by me, I have an important announcement to make." Bluestar began, the platoon gathered by her wondering why she was calling for this announcement. "So we're good. "Okay we're all here? Good. I just got the agreement by Smallear that we're moving inland a bit to help improve our situation, Omaha beach isn't big enough as we could use more land between us and the ocean. We're moving out at 19:00 hours so get yourselves ready." Bluestar got off and began to walk away. Fireheart nodded before he began walking to the jeep.
"So we're moving out?" Fireheart asked. He got into a jeep with Cloudpaw, Brightpaw, Fernpaw and Sandstorm.
"Seems to be, Fernpaw is driving us to the field as it would be easier to get there than marching, we got two extra companies coming along with armored support to secure the jeeps we leave behind, we're moving in first." Sandstorm mewed. Fireheart nodded.
"Going in first, Bluestar's going mad?" Fireheart asked. Fernpaw shifted the gears as the jeep roared to life, the jeeps began to follow behind the armored tanks as they were moving out from the area.
"Either that or she wants more glory again." Sandstorm muttered, they then began to drive away as the breakout operation was about to begin.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" Fireheart asked. The cats shrugged their shoulders as they didn't know what else they wanted to talk about. Fireheart turned to Fernpaw. "Hey Fernpaw, got any interesting pictures as of today?"
"Yeah two Shadowclan prisoners we've captured, they're being sent back to the UK." Fernpaw told Fireheart what her photos consisted of. "Since it's the first day here, I might as well get more."
"Okay so long as you live that long." Fireheart told Fernpaw while the column drove behind the tanks. The planes went overhead as they were bombing away terrain ahead of them.
"Those planes are surely doing some work ahead." Cloudpaw mewed. Fireheart giggled a bit before he asked.
"Who has the radio that Bluestar received from Smallear?" Fireheart asked.
"Oh, That's Dustpelt, he's going to call in for air support." Fernpaw told Fireheart who had the radio. The tank then stopped as this created a bit of a traffic jam.
"What's going on?" Fireheart asked, he never got back to Fernpaw.
"Tanks said the road ahead is contested, the Shadowclan cats might have Panzerfausts, they're going to take a safer route so they don't get ambushed, it's up to us to clear the route ahead." Dustpelt told the group that it'll be up to them if they were going to make progress. The cats disembarked to begin the trip ahead if they were going to assault the ground. Dustpelt was the first to look around as the other cats followed, then all of the sudden.
"Machine gun!" Whitestorm shouted, the cats dove into cover as they didn't know where the machine gun fire was coming from.
"It sounds like a 34 not a 42 from earlier." Frostfur told the group that they were staying behind cover. Goldenflower was firing at the machine gun nest with her M1919A4.
"Machine gun sounds like it's coming from the manor, I think we should take it." Fireheart told Frostfur where the fire he believed was coming from.
"Yeah I'm going to send a group of cats to flank around and blow their way inside of the manor to take out that beast." Bluestar told Fireheart as she had a plan to deal with the monster. "Rookies, your job is to flank around and silence the machine gun. Lead them Fireheart."
"Yes Bluestar." Fireheart mewed. Whitestorm tossed Thornpaw some dynamite to be used to breach the wall. "Rookies on me, we're moving out." Fireheart called out to the apprentices, he led the way while Cloudpaw, and the others followed. Brightpaw decided now would be a good time to cover themselves so the Machine gun didn't turn on them. She tossed out a smoke grenade to blind the machine gunner.
"Let's move!" Cloudpaw called out, the seven cats began moving through the smoke while the others were kept engaged on the machine gun. Thornpaw was the first to reach the manor, and he began to set up on the manor with the brick of explosive he had been handed to him. He sets up the time for when it will explode and runs back to the group. The wall exploded from the brick of explosives.
"Nice job Thornpaw." Brightpaw mewed with a smile. Fireheart looked at Thornpaw and began to speak to the other apprentices.
"Okay let's move." Fireheart told the group. They began to move to the hole in the wall while the machine gun was still engaged with Goldenflower. Cloudpaw was the first to enter and fired off two shots with the M1 Garand. Another cat turned the corner and Cloudpaw fired two more shots off, taking down that second cat as well, the others entered the manor house and began to look around. Cloudpaw noticed some files before he took those, could it be possible intelligence? He stuffed them into his uniform before he decided to move out. Fireheart came to the window to signal to Bluestar that the machine gun was taken out.
"He's through, let's move." Bluestar mewed. The platoon began to move up as the other platoons were arriving on foot to secure the jeeps, only two jeeps would still be driving.
"Woo, so far so good, we lost nobody." Longtail began, he was conscious about losing cats especially with what happened this morning.
"Okay, keep on your mark." Bluestar mewed to Longtail. They approached a small barn. "Longtail, Brackenfur, make sure the barn is clear, maybe we can use the height to our advantage."
"You got it." Brackenfur responded. He opened the door with his grease gun and began to look around with Longtail. So far, no one was inside. "All clear." Brackenfur told Bluestar. Longtail began to climb to the second floor of the barn along with Brackenfur to get an overwatch above. The other cats came around the corner as two machine guns opened fire on the group.
"Machine guns!" Frostfur shouted. The other cats ducked behind cover while the machine guns were spraying away at them. The first machine gun on the right was suddenly blown up, the cats turned to their right as a Sherman had made its appearance.
"Not so afraid, our tanks are here!" Brindleface shouted. The tanks were moving up as several Shadowclan cats came to provide fire support in the place of the machine gun. The Sherman turned its gun and fired, blowing up the group of cats that were trying to fire at them.
"Nice try." Longtail shouted. He pointed his Springfield at the second machine gun nest and lined up his sights. "Now let's see how someone would like to take your breakfast." Longtail fired the shot and took out the machine gunner, the second Shadowclan cat grabbed the machine gun and resumed firing. Longtail stood there without flinching and fired the second shot, taking out the second cat.
"Guns silent, check the bridge for bombs." Brackenfur decided to let Bluestar know if there was any explosives holding the bridge up.
"Thornpaw, Mousefur, check the bridge for explosives." Bluestar ordered. Mousefur and Thornpaw went down into the gulley to check the legs of the bridge for any bombs.
"There's two over here." Thornpaw told Mousefur.
"And I found another two." Mousefur responded. The two of them looked down as there were a bunch of wires connecting the bombs together. "Someone's going to blow the bridge up."
"Okay cut the wires, I'll watch you." Thornpaw told Mousefur that he'll cover her. Mousefur got out her knife and began to saw away at the wires in an attempt to get them apart so when it was activated, the bombs wouldn't explode. After what seemed to be an eternity to cutting the wires away, she finally was able to cut them.
"Thornpaw, the wires have been cut, start removing the bombs." Mousefur ordered. Thornpaw nodded as he began to remove the bombs from the bridge while Mousefur ran back up the stairs from the gulley.
"Bluestar, the wire has been cut and Thornpaw is removing the bombs." Mousefur told Bluestar that Thornpaw was in the process of removing the bombs.
"Okay good. All tanks forward." Bluestar ordered, the tanks began to roll forward as Thornpaw was removing the last bomb from the bridge. He looked up to see the column of five tanks and two jeeps rolling across the bridge with several cats hitching a ride on either the tanks or the jeeps with the others following behind. Thornpaw then got out of the gulley and followed them behind.
"We actually did it, we're moving forward." Longtail told Brackenfur as the two of them were riding on the back of a Sherman tank like a mobile steed.
"Yeah we're pushing forward, like Bluestar is loving every moment so far." Brackenfur responded. They heard a rumbling and all the cats looked up. A bomber had been taken out of the sky as one of its wings was on fire.
"One of the planes is going down so there must be anti-aircraft guns nearby." Bluestar mewed. She turned to the rest of the platoon with these words. "Remember, every plane we lose only makes our job even harder to accomplish." The group moved out nearby to what seemed to be more of the village. Fireheart looked at the group as he was ready to split off and find what seemed to be the anti-aircraft guns.
"Cloudpaw, Brightpaw, Fernpaw and Dustpelt you four are on me." Fireheart called out. The five cats split off to look for the anti aircraft guns and report them back to Bluestar. They were heading right while Bluestar was going to take the long way around. They then got behind some crates to several Shadowclan cats. Fireheart got out his binoculars while Fernpaw decided to set up her BAR with Dustpelt to maintain cover fire.
"Well this isn't their guns but we found their ammunition storage." Fireheart began. Cloudpaw placed his rifle next to his uncle.
"You think they're here or nearby?" Cloudpaw asked.
"Nearby possibly, we found their ammunition storage. We blow it up here, we can deny them their ammunition to their anti-aircraft guns." Fireheart told his apprentice. Suddenly the Shadowclan cats were brought down as a fire-fight had begun as Bluestar was beginning to engage the Shadowclan cats in the area. "Bluestar's beginning the engagement, support her." Fireheart raised himself up and began firing. The other cats raised themselves and began firing away as well. Shadowclan cats were being cut down from two different directions as the tanks moved up. One of the tanks fired a high explosive shell and blew up some of the ammunition. The remaining tanks joined the fun and began blowing up more of the anti-aircraft ammunition. Within two minutes, the ammunition was blown up and the storage went sky high, exploding everywhere. There was nothing left. Fireheart looked out ahead and ordered his group to move out to Bluestar.
"Oh Starclan, I'm loving every moment of this campaign so far." Bluestar laughed as she watched the destruction all around her.
"I know you blew that ammunition storage to bits, I don't think Jerry will have anything to keep the anti-aircraft guns firing. Now we just need to destroy the guns themselves." Fireheart mewed to Bluestar. Bluestar nodded.
"Well let's send the jeeps in first to provide machine gun fire while the tanks blow up every last one of those anti aircraft guns. And we better do this fast." Bluestar told Fireheart. Goldenflower looked at him while Bramblekit was keeping the lookout.
"Well hop in Fireheart, there's room to provide some flanking cover." Goldenflower offered. Fireheart climbed into the jeep with Fernpaw while Cloudpaw was going to guide him, Brightpaw and Brackenfur ahead to flank around to make sure Shadowclan wasn't hiding among the flanks and ready to ambush the tanks.
"Okay you three turn to the left." Cloudpaw instructed. He, Brightpaw and Brackenfur huddled against a wall waiting for Shadowclan cats to come around the corner. Two cats came around the corner carrying Panzerfausts. Cloudpaw and Brackenfur left their cover and began firing, quickly tearing the cats down. The jeeps arrived as Goldenflower's jeep came around the corner, she sprayed the M1919A4 onto a bunch of Shadowclan cats and tore them down, the other jeeps followed behind when an explosion was heard. Cloudpaw turned his head to see that one of the guns had been blown up. "They got one but the main battery is up further. Let's move." Cloudpaw instructed. He motioned for Brightpaw and Brackenfur to follow him.
"Get some filthy Shadowclan cats!" Goldenflower shouted while she continued to pepper away with the machine gun. Shadowclan cats tried to fight back or fall back to where the main anti-aircraft battery was. The second gun exploded as the tanks had appeared and were getting closer.
"Yeah that's it, come along." Fireheart mewed as the tank column was getting closer to their ultimate objective. The tanks rounded the corner as their machine guns began opening fire to clear a path for the Thunderclan cats to follow in behind. Fireheart nodded as he and the others got off of their tanks and began to run up ahead. "We're advancing, let's finish this task." Fireheart and his group opened fire while marching along side their tanks. The tanks got to the church as Cloudpaw was the first to greet the Shadowclan cats there.
Knock knock, who's there? Thunderclan!" Cloudpaw shouted, the tank opened fire and destroyed another anti-aircraft gun. More time would go by as more guns were taken out. The Thunderclan cats cheered as the last gun was finally silenced.
"We did what we needed to do. Now our planes can hit their targets!" Bluestar shouted with excitement. The other cats cheered and they had taken no losses probably due to the tanks providing the support and most of the heavy lifting. Another jeep pulled up with Ashpaw and the elders. Smallear got out of the jeep and walked up to Bluestar.
"Smallear, the breakout was a success, we advanced a kilometer inland and suffered no losses, we took out an AA battery in the process." Bluestar told Smallear who was impressed with this.
"Very good Bluestar. I was wondering what to do with the company and we thought many days worth of rest would be good as you're all on logistics duty, we're moving the platoons you have to help take Carentan move onto Cherbourg. You've fought hard over the past day and you deserve the rest. We'll begin a plan to breakout once Windclan takes Caen, for now, set up camp, repair the street so supplies could get through and hold off any counter attacks that would drive them back." Smallear instructed Bluestar what her objective would be for the next several days. Bluestar nodded and the tanks began to roll on ahead to set up defenses until more reinforcements were going to land and move up to take their place until they rested and were able to fight once more.
"Okay I understand." Bluestar responded. Smallear nodded and walked away. Bluestar pulled out a crate as Fireheart walked over with a worried look on his face. "Bluestar, Cloudpaw has something for you and I was worried about it when I was reading it over." Bluestar took the files and began to read them over.
"He's a much more powerful threat than before in Italy. How he got a hold of Shadowclan is my biggest question." Bluestar knew who she was talking about.
"Yeah Tigerstar from what his new name is, has been a Shadowclan member for a while now and brought back all of Brokentail's old cronies that we worked so hard to get rid of." Fireheart told Bluestar about the information they had gathered. They were shocked about this revelation.
"Tigerstar is going to do everything he can to use all the Shadowclan cats in Riverclan to try slowing down our efforts. If he wants to follow Kitler's inner circle of mass slaughter, then we will have to fight extra hard." Bluestar responded before she began to walk away.
"Looks like things are beginning to fall apart for us." Fireheart told himself. Bluestar was trying to go out on one last blaze but what was her intentions, was she going to get herself killed? Fireheart knew he needed an answer to this madness.
The next few days would go by, we were steadily gaining ground around where we landed. The beach landings were secured and we were slowly moving inland. Smallear was keeping us in the second line of defense while we were trying to learn about Tigerstar even more. Fireheart was too scared to question Bramblekit about Tigerstar and his personality so it was up to whatever intelligence that we could find.
We fought on in small skirmishes, getting victories along the way when we pushed into the coast and up to Cherbourg. Smallear and the elders were still planning our breakout but that wasn't going to happen until Windclan took Caen. Come July and we were still the only ones making progress while Windclan was still held up at Caen. Cloudpaw is getting antsy for something major to happen when it comes to getting something done.
Finally on July 20th, Windclan finally took Caen after what seemed to be an eternity of fighting and we found out more about Tigerstar but it wasn't enough. Smallear gave the news that something big was going to happen in a few days' time while we got ourselves reorganized. This is what we were waiting for, the breakout.
[A/N]: Hey everyone, this took a while as I was getting bored, it seems to be that hours of endless combat could put a strain on one person's mind and the end was three paragraphs of rambling. This however, can predict the next couple of chapters to come. Thunderclan's breakout from Normandy is about to come and they'll be speeding on ahead. See you until the next chapter when the cobra will spit the tanks at Shadowclan. See you later.