Despite being relatively safe, none of the girls felt like talking, the state of the British soldiers on the ship was horrible. Many of them were caked in dirt and sand, others were simply strewn about the deck, asleep or too tired to move. They had been preparing themselves for a barrage of questions, but it soon became clear that the soldiers just didn't care at the moment. The only people aboard who looked like they wanted to ask questions were the sailors, but they had been ordered not to by the captain. That didn't stop one or two trying to get close, but they were dissuaded by a sharp look from either Maho or Erika.
The crossing was slow, watching the results of war was a big wake up call for the girls. They had all heard about the horrors the Nazis committed, but to actually see the results of Nazi attacks, even in 1940, before they had even got up to speed, was horrifying. If they hadn't already decided to help defeat them, this would have changed their minds. Any chance to stop the horrors that were to come, had to be taken. But they knew, that for the Nazis to be defeated, some horrors had to occur.
An hour into the voyage, the quiet got too much for Maho, she had been the main advocate for joining the war, and as such wanted to begin planning. Together, her and Erika gathered all the main girls. Soon, Maho, Erika, Kay, Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe, Assam, Naomi, Alisa, Miho, Erwin and Anzu Kadotani, Ooari's student council president, were gathered on the engine block of the Porsche Tiger. Tea had been provided by Darjeeling, and snacks had been produced from somewhere by the Saunders girls.
"We've all agreed to help the British, despite the fact we'll be fighting against our own country, but we haven't had time to discuss how. We can only do so much personally, and none of us have even been to war before, we were all ready for it, given the actions by the Chinese, but none of us were really ready for it. And certainly none of us were ready to find ourselves in the largest war in human history. But we are here now, and we'll have to do the best we can. To that end, I will now hand over to our resident WW2 expert, Erwin," Maho began the discussion on a strong note, addressing everyone's fears, and soothing them. It was at times like these Miho saw the big sister that had slowly disappeared under their mothers harsh treatment.
Stammering slightly, Erwin began, "R-right, we all know that the evacuation at Dunkirk signaled the end of the land war on the Western Front until D-day in 1944, from here to then most of the war was fought in the air and on the sea. On the 10th of June this year, Italy will enter the war on Hitler's side, upon doing so they will launch an invasion of France from the south, at the same time they will signal start the North Africa campaign as the British begin an invasion of Italian Libya. They will capture the Italian Fort Capuzzo, they will then be beaten back by an Italian counter attack, things will go back and forth for a few months before in February of 1941, Erwin Rommel will be sent to North Africa, where he will earn fame and the name 'The Desert Fox'."
Erwin took a breath to allow them to absorb that information.
Taking the opportunity, Miho asked a question, "What do you want to do about that Erwin?" There was an emphasis on the name Erwin.
Erwin blushed, "Okay, yes, I would like to face off against him, I mean, who wouldn't. He's one of the greatest tank generals in history."
The girls chuckled, of course she would want to face off against the man she idolised.
Clearing her throat, Erwin continued with her history/future lesson, "However, that's too far ahead for the moment. The most important thing is the imminent Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against the RAF was very effective, it's accepted that if it had carried on the way it did then the RAF would have been wiped out. We need to prevent that, because it will lead to an invasion of Britain. However the easiest way to prevent that would be to let history take its course and for Hitler to begin the Blitz, the bombing campaign against British cities. But can we be sure that will still happen with our presence, and do we really want to let innocent people die in that bombing campaign?"
Darjeeling was the one to speak up, "As much as I hate to say it, do we want to risk changing anything and causing more trouble? And then there's the fact that the Blitz showed the world that Britain would never give up and helped increase support for them in the United States."
Silence reigned, did they try to prevent the Blitz, and possibly cause a German invasion, or did they let thousands die just to keep the timeline intact?
Ever the politician, Anzu spoke up, "Let's wait until we get to Britain, hopefully we'll meet the Prime Minister, and then we can discuss it with him."
Darjeeling's eyes lit up, "Do you think we'll meet him?" Her voice was squeaky, drawing incredulous looks from the others.
Orange Pekoe laughed heartily, "In the same way Erwin admires Rommel, Darjeeling admires Churchill. I guarantee, if Churchill were a brand of tea, her name would be Churchill."
"Orange Pekoe!" cried Darjeeling
Some of the tension that had built up drained away.
However, before the conversation could continue, a shout went up, "Land, I see land."
Soldiers who had until recently been too tired to move, were suddenly springing up and running to the front of the ship. A loud cheer went up as far in the distance, towering cliffs began to appear. None of the girls had ever been to Britain, but they had all heard of the white cliffs of Dover. Soon they would arrive, and from there they could begin to change the war.
#
Major Howard returned to them as soon as the ship docked in Dover, "We'll be the first of the boat," he informed the girls, "There's a train due to leave for London soon, a few flatbed trucks have been added to it for your tanks. If you'll follow me I'll lead you to the train." With that said, the major disembarked and walked over to a waiting car. The rumble of tank engines soon grew louder, and the clatter of tanks could be heard as the Senshado tanks began to move forward.
To reach the train station, the tanks had to drive straight through Dover, this drew many strange looks from the locals. It took quite a while to actually reach the station because so many people came to watch the convoy.
When they did arrive at the train station they were directed to the rear of the train where the flatbeds were located, to transport them to London. Working quickly and efficiently, all eleven tanks were soon strapped in and the girls had been directed to their carriage, adjacent to the flatbeds.
The major would be staying with them until they reached London. Once in London, they would be met at the station, by whom and to where they would be taken, the major didn't know.
Boarding the carriage, the major watched as the girls relaxed into their seats, he had noticed that ever since the firefight on the way to Dunkirk, many of them had been subdued. He understood this as that was their first time in a fight where the opponent was trying to kill them. He had spoken at lengtht to Darjeeling about the future, and he understood that to them, tank combat was a sport. It would take a while for them to get out of that mindset, but he could see them all adapting relatively quickly.
In the carriage, he saw the commanders of each team congregate together, just as they had on the boat. He wondered what they were talking about, he debated joining them,but remembered he still had to inform the driver that they were ready to leave.
#
Assembled around the table, the commanders continued their talk from before. Except this time they were joined by Satoko Nakajima, commander of Leopon team, who had been asked to join them by Maho. Maho had had an idea during the drive to the train, and wanted to put it forward to the rest of the girls.
"Let's continue from where we left off, not the Blitz, but what do we do during the war itself?" asked Darjeeling,
"About that," answered Maho, "I've had an idea. From my knowledge, one of the weakest points about the British army during the early war, and even into the later years, was their tanks. Take the Matilda for example, it's heavily armoured yes, but the 2pdr gun isn't powerful enough to combat the German tanks. Even the Cromwell, despite it's speed and increased firepower, wasn't enough to fight the German Tigers or Panthers."
The girls from St Gloriana looked slightly offended at the bashing of their tanks, but they couldn't bring themselves to deny Maho's words.
Naomi spoke up at that, "That's why the Sherman Firefly was needed, it had the firepower to defeat those tanks, but even it had flaws. The insanely bright flash being one of them." Almost by instinct, Naomi blinked, as if to let her eyes adjust.
Kay laughed at that, "I remember the first time you fired the gun, you were convinced you had gone blind."
Naomi looked down, muttering under her breath.
As the laughs died down, the conversation returned to Maho's idea.
Miho spoke up, "What's your idea then, Onee-Chan? I presume it has something to do with Leopon team."
Maho smiled, "Yes, it does Miho. If we want to end the war quicker, and with less dead, then the first thing we should do is allow the allies to have better tanks, the easiest way to do that would be to let them have a look at ours."
She couldn't get any further as there was a clamour of disagreement, none of them wanted to sacrifice their tanks.
Maho tried to placate them, "I wasn't suggesting we give them our tanks to take apart, just that we allow them to examine them. The automobile club of Ooari will be on hand to explain things to them, and to make sure the tanks still work at the end of the day."
Now that Maho had been able to explain her idea, the rest of the girls were nodding in agreement.
Miho realised that if they were going to discuss improving tanks the someone needed to be present, someone with an almost instinctive knowledge of every tank ever made. Standing, she walked over to the table where the rest of Anglerfish team had been sitting with Rosehip. It seemed that Rosehip was regaling them with stories about her fastest attacks with her crusader.
"Yukari-san, I need your help please."
"Of course Nishizumi-dono," Yukari followed her back to the table, "Nishizumi-dono, what do you need my help with?"
The wrong Nishizumi answered, "You are Ooari's expert on tanks, correct?"
"Y-yes," Yukari stammered, honoured to be speaking to the famous Maho Nishizumi.
Miho giggled at Yukari's reaction to her sister's question, "We need your help in discussing how to improve British tanks."
"Improve British tanks? Why? And how?"
"The why is the easiest to answer, and we'll make an announcement in a second, just to make sure everyone agrees and understands. And the how is up to you and the automobile club, and probably Erwin as well," said Miho.
Understanding what her sister was getting at, Maho stood up and walked to the end of the carriage, quickly followed by her sister, Kay and Darjeeling, "Attention," she shouted, drawing everyone's attention, and ending all conversations, "Thank you, now, we all know that inexplicable things happen. This is just one of them. Now some of you may have noticed that us four commanders have been spending a lot of time talking."
There were nods of agreement around the carriage.
Kay carried on, "What we've been doing is discussing where we should go from here. None of us expected to find ourselves in the middle of the Second World War, but here we are. We've come to the conclusion that the best thing for us to do would be to help the Allies," holding up a hand to stall complaints, Kay continued, "Now I know some of you won't like the fact that we'll be helping fight our own people, but do we really want to live in a world run, for all intents and purposes, by the Nazis."
Any complaints the young girls from Japan had faded away after that realisation.
Darjeeling spoke next, "To that end, we have decided that, if we're all in agreement, we should take an active approach to ending this war. Even if it means fighting and killing. I know none of us have any real combat experience, but we all know roughly what it's like to be under fire."
The realisation that they may have to fight and kill caused many of the girls to have second thoughts about joining. None of them wanted to kill, they drove tanks for fun.
Erika spoke up from where she was sitting, "But haven't we already fought in a real fire fight? I know none of us want to think about it, but the fact remains that many of us have already killed. We don't know how many Germans ambushed us on the road to Dunkirk, all we know is that by the time we'd finished, none of them were firing at us."
Instead of reassuring people, Erika's words made many of them feel worse, especially the gunners.
Miho, seeing how they all felt, spoke up, "I know none of us want to kill, or be responsible for anyone's death, but at the moment we have no other choice. If by our actions, we can end this war quickly, and save people, then we owe it to them to try. We can all imagine what a world would be like under the Nazis, our own country wouldn't remain untouched, despite the alliance we would have with them. I stopped doing Senshado because five people almost died under my command. But I bounced back with help from new friends," Here she smiled at Anglerfish team, "I don't want to kill anyone, but if it helps end the war, and save lives, I will be prepared too, as long as my friends remain by my side."
"Of course we will Miho-san," Anglerfish team said as one.
From behind them, a voice spoke in heavily accented Japanese, "Well said young lady, well said."
Even speaking in a language that wasn't his native tongue, the voice was still immediately identifiable to all of the girls. Turning towards the doorway, the girls could only stare in shock as Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, possibly the greatest Prime Minister in British history, and the man responsible for Britain's survival, walked into the carriage.