On the night of 16th April, the group of allied aircrafts flew over the mountains of Germany. Below them, a ravenous mountain river flowed wildly while the pilots looked forward in their seats. Their target, the dam and the industrial area.
The escorts were full of fuel and their guns full of ammunition. 5 inch high velocity aircraft rockets or HVARs were equipped underneath their wings. The bomber Mustangs and Thunderbolts on the other were equipped with ordinance. The Mustangs carried 500 pound bombs under each wing and the Thunderbolts carried 1000 pound bombs under each wing and an additional 500 pound bomb under fuselage respectively, carrying about a 1000 pounds and 2500 pounds of ordinance per respective plane.
These bombs weren't ordinary explosives. This group was equipped with armor piercing explosives, courtesy of the Royal Air Force, in order to dish out the most amount of damage to the dam before they move towards the industrial area to cause further havoc.
There was only a slight change to the plan. One Northrop P-61 Black Widow had joined them for the mission. Its main purpose is to detect the enemy fighters to give the Mustangs and Thunderbolts enough time to prepare and being equipped with a SCR-720 Mk.X search radar the night fighter excelled at that role.
Following the drills they have conducted for the past 2 days, they flew close to the mountain surface, taking sharp turns as they made their way towards the target in a formation, with Hiccup placed in the front to lead them ahead.
"Just like the Pacifics." Toothless commented, while flying as Hiccup's wingman.
"Yeah." Hiccup replied to his friend.
After another few minutes of flight, Hiccup suddenly announced,"We're about to reach the target! Get ready!"
The pilots stared ahead, in front of them, the figure of a long large white dam became more and more visible as they advanced and the planes pitched upwards.
On the dam, Nazi soldiers patrolled around half minded. The recent developments of war has left them shaken up and unsure, but they kept doing their duty as diligently as possible. Some soldiers were taking a break, smoking cigarettes or having a sip of their beverages. Suddenly alarms rang out, startling the soldiers as they looked around.
The alarms kept going, declaring their impending doom as they all rushed to their positions.
"Nach oben nach oben!"
"Flugzeug!"
Shouts rang through as the Nazis prepared to fend off the incoming attackers.
The bright beam of light from the searchlights cut through the night sky, momentarily illuminating the several planes in the air as the warbird climbed up in altitude. The soldiers immediately rushed to their positions, some hopping on the AA guns, others taking control of heavy machine guns while the rest just aimed their guns at the sky as they all open fired.
Within moments, the sky was littered with flaks as bullets zipped through the air, all in attempts to stall and potentially take out their enemy.
Hiccup frowned as he guided the group. All the pilots were expecting this kind of resistance, but that didn't help to calm the terror when a flak exploded just feets away from their plane, or when a bullet zipped past their canopy. But despite all that, they continued.
Following their training, the squadrons separated once at a desirable altitude, letting the bombers soar up higher while the escorts dashed down to take out the defenses.
"Hold on tight, boys!" Hiccup yelled through the comms, encouraging the pilots to keep going as he led them towards the dam.
The flaks became more and more dense as they moved forward. The shrapnels from the flaks zipped past them, some even hit their planes, but thankfully didn't manage to penetrate the metal skin.
The pilots of the Mustangs open fired, trying to suppress the enemies as they broke the formation, flying independently to avoid getting hit by incoming fire. The machine gun and small arms fire got more intense as they came too close to the dam to be affected by flaks, and with their target this close, some of them let loose their missiles.
The HVARs soared through the air before colliding with the dam, some hitting near the AA guns, some here and there around the dam. The resulting explosion sent the German soldiers in disarray. Multiple of their AA guns were taken out in an instance, and many of them were injured, and some even dead as the Mustangs passed over them. But the worst was yet to come.
The bombers dove down. With the Germans in disarray due to the first attack, they now had the perfect opportunity to strike. Rushing downwards with high speed, they prepared their bombs. Below them, the Germans were trying to gather up themselves, trying to recover from the blow.
"Bombenflugzeug!" One of them suddenly yelled out, pointing up at the sky.
The others looked up and were soon horrified to see another group of aircrafts diving at them. This time with larger numbers. Some of them scrambled to fetch a weapon and shoot towards heaven in a futile attempt to stall the enemy, but it was too late.
The group broke formation and the planes spread apart as they dropped their ordinance. The bombs fell through the air and dropped on the dam's surface and exploded as the German soldiers rushed to get away from the explosions.
The armor piercing explosives, meant to take out small ships, proved to be devastating, each explosion weakening the structure of the dam more and more. Some of the bombs hit the power house. The explosion that followed destroyed the building and the generator within it.
The planes flew away, leaving the soldiers on the dam disheveled and distraught.
Far away, at the German industrial area, everyone was in a panic. Minutes after their power supply was suddenly cut off, they had started their backup generators. While the power produced by the generators wouldn't be enough power to restart all the operations in the factories, it would be enough to turn on the searchlights and other necessary defensive measures.
"Alarmieren Sie den Luftwaffe." An officer barked orders as he readied the troops.
The radio transmission from the dam, combined with this sudden power outage confirmed that they're under attack by allied air forces.
"Nun, lasst sie kommen. Sie werden die Macht der Luftwaffe spüren." The officer grunted.
Up above in the sky, Hiccup and the fighter group were quickly making their way towards their next target. Even from this far and such height, they were able to spot the industrial area.
The Black widow flew ahead of them, keeping an eye out for incoming trouble.
"That was way too easy."
"Aigh. My hands are itching for a proper fight."
"Don't jinx it guys." Toothless spoke over the comms, trying to calm down the excited pilots.
"Bogeys! Bogies at 12 O'clock!" a sudden transmission from the P-61 rang through the comms.
Hiccup looked towards the mentioned direction and spotted the incoming aircrafts. The darkness of the night, combined with the clouds and slight fog made it hard to realize how many aircrafts were approaching. But he guessed it had to be at least a whole squadron.
But something was not right. The planes were moving fast, way faster than anything he has ever seen, and were closing the distance quickly.
"What the hell are those!?" Someone yelled over the comms.
Under the mishmash of search lights, they were able to have a better view of the approaching aircraft. Hiccup's eyes widened as he recognised the enemy planes.
Messerschmitt Me-262. The German wonder weapon.
These jet powered twin engine fighter planes were much faster than any piston engine powered aircraft the allied forces used and were equipped with better armament. At the hands of a skilled pilot, these technologically superior aircrafts can prove to be death machines.
"We got bandits incoming! Prepare to engage!" Hiccup shouted in the comms,"I repeat, prepare to engage!"
The pilot glanced down on his control panel, studying the fuel gauge. "More than enough to return home." He thought.
Hiccup then detached the external fuel tanks from his plane, and every other fighter plane did the same. This allowed their planes to become lighter and more nimble. Nimbler than even the enemy jet powered planes. They were going to need this advantage if they were going to survive this.
As the planes came closer and closer to each other, both sides broke formation as they open fired on each other, marking the beginning of their battle.
At the ground, the soldiers fired their flak guns, littering the sky with hundreds if not thousands of flaks, forcing the aircrafts, both allied and axis, to maintain high altitude in order to not get hit with any of the incoming flaks.
Up in the sky, the Me-262s battled the group of fighter planes. Bullets zapped around the sky, creating a dangerous and deadly web that would cause the damnation of any aircraft unfortunate enough to get caught in it.
Hiccup kept a firm grip on the flight stick, maneuvering it skillfully to evade any incoming fire. His eyes were always focused on his surroundings, as he took in every detail of the aerial battle happening around him, and quickly declared all the data through his comms to his fellow pilots.
"On your right!"
"Martinez, watch your six!"
"I've got a bandit on my tail!"
"I'm hit! I'm hit!"
Shouts rang through the comms.
The Black Widow tried to keep on fighting against the onslaught of enemy jets, firing all of its guns wildly. The combination of fire from both the 20mm cannons in the fuselage and the .50 cal machine guns in its upper turret gave the Black Widow a large coverage, allowing it to drive off most incoming 262s.
But eventually its luck ran out. One of 262s got a drop on the Black Widow and open fired on it. The Black Widow's right wing tore apart from the fuselage and the engine exploded as the shots from the 30mm cannons of the Me-262 ripped through the night fighter, causing its demise as the Black Widow fell down from the sky.
One of the Thunderbolts and a Mustang broke away from the fight and dove down. A 262 immediately chased after it and fired upon the Mustang. The pilot didn't even get to react as the 30mm bullets slammed into the plane's fuselage, taking out an elevator in the process and crippling the aircraft as it fell down.
Having taken out the Mustang, the 262 then turned its attention towards the Thunderbolt, but before it could engage, another Thunderbolt fired upon it, forcing the 262 to break the chase. The two Thunderbolts then dove down and dropped their bombs, the explosives soared through the air and landed along the edge of the industrial area causing huge explosions, though it didn't do any significant damage to the buildings around.
The soldiers on the ground, though shaken up, were undeterred as they fired upon the Thunderbolts. Flaks burst around them and bullets zipped by as the Thunderbolts slowly climbed back up in the air to join the others in order to fend off the German jets.
Hiccup tried to control his rapid breathing in an attempt to calm down the adrenaline induced panic that has taken over him. The situation was already bad enough and getting worked up won't do him any favors. Eventually, his breathing calmed and so did his mind.
With his mind focused on the combat, Hiccup maneuvered his warbird through the battle, as he barked out orders at his pilots.
"Tom, shake those bandits off Luke! Hangman, break left! Charles, guard Rob!" He directed the pilots, while maneuvering his way through the sky as he engaged the enemies.
The pilots followed after his directions, slowly gathering themselves up as they went for more offensive combat.
Hiccup chased after one of the 262s. "Never change targets until you take down the first one." Hiccup repeated his mantra in his mind as he kept up his pursuit. The Me-262 was fast, making it hard to keep up for Hiccup. He fired some small burst, but it did nothing to deter the 262 from its course.
Suddenly, a burst of bullets, probably fired by an allied aircraft or a missed shot from the Germans, came from the side and almost hit the 262, forcing it to turn left.
Hiccup's eyes sparkled. This was the opportunity he needed. The 262s were fast. Almost nothing could touch them if they flew in a straight line. But when it came to turns, the jets didn't excel so much in that.
Hiccup quickly turned left, taking full advantage of the tighter turn radius of his P-51 as he aimed forward and fired a long burst. The bullets soared through the air before slamming into the fuselage of the 262 as it flew straight into the bullet trajectory.
Black smoke spewed out from the damaged aircraft as it went down. "Yeah!" Hiccup cheered before he moved onto his next target.
Another 262 was chasing after a Thunderbolt. The larger propeller driven plane struggled to shake off the foe as it got hit a few times. The plane still held together after getting shot, showing proof of its excellent resilience.
The pilot of the Me-262 frowned as he kept up the chase, his jet closing in on the target at a rapid pace. But before he could take another shot, Hiccup suddenly attacked him, firing upon him. The 262 lost its left wing, its fuselage even caught on fire as the aircraft went down.
Hiccup then moved on to another target. This one was chasing after a fellow Mustang. Hiccup quickly went after it and fired a burst. The bullets missed the mark but it was enough to drive off the 262 and save the ally pilot.
Turning away, Hiccup then gave chase to his new target, while also providing support fire to his fellow pilots, driving off any bandits on their tail.
In one of the 262s, a German pilot scanned his surroundings, trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation and hold back the enemies. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye.
He looked up just in time to see a black Mustang zipping through the sky, briefly illuminated by a searchlight.
"Nein…" the pilot gasped as his eyes followed the Mustang as it zipped around, engaging in combat with their jets. "Nachtfurie…." He gasped, terrified. He quickly activated his comms.
"Nachtfurie! Nachtfurie! Ich wiederhole, es ist die Nachtfurie!" The Luftwaffe pilot yelled into his comms.
A wave of terror washed through the hearts of every Luftwaffe present in the sky as one name rang into their ears. Nachtfurie….. Die Nachtfurie,……….
The Nightfury.
Back in the battle, Hiccup's eyes scanned his surroundings, engaging in a combat with any German planes in his sight, driving them off with a burst of bullets, or potentially taking them out. A searchlight swept over his plane, momentarily illuminating the dragon symbol painted on the fuselage, under which written in nordic runes was "Nightfury".
The Luftwaffe pilots had all heard about the famed Nightfury and how the black as night Mustang had taken down many of their own over the American and Pacific theater.
Hiccup dove down, firing upon a 262 that was chasing after a Thunderbolt. The attack effectively drove off the enemy plane and the Thunderbolt dove down, bravely rushing downwards and through the flaks exploding around it. The pilot set up his sights and dropped all of his ordinance before pulling up.
He squeezed his thighs together, fighting against the g-forces as his plane pitched up and began to slowly climb back up in altitude, shrugging off the multiple flak shrapnels that hit it.
The explosive fell through the air and hit much deeper in the industrial area. The resulting explosion was huge, easily taking out a building or two down. The allied pilots cheered up when they saw the explosion, which did wonders to restrengthen their fighting will.
Hiccup was grinning at the results. All of a sudden, bullets flew by his canopy, almost hitting him. One of the 262s had gotten a drop on him and now has fixed him as a target. Hiccup quickly pulled onto the flight stick, changing his course of flight in an attempt to hate off the 262,but it remained undeterred.
A few more bullets hit his plane. While there was no significant damage, if the Me-262 closed in, he'd be a goner. Hiccup frantically moved the flight stick, his warbird rolling left and right under his command in order to evade the enemy fire.
But despite all this, the Luftwaffe pilot managed to line up his sight as he got an opportunity. But before he could strike, suddenly a hail of bullets rained upon him. The bullets hit their mark, bringing down the 262 in moments notice as Toothless flew into the scene in his Mustang.
"How was that for a kill, aigh?" He bragged and laughed.
Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle too as he heard Toothless over the comms. "Thanks bud." he thanked his friend.
"You're welcome buddy." came Toothless's reply.
Hiccup took deep breaths as he focused back into the battle. Had it been a seasoned ace in the seat of that plane, Hiccup was pretty sure he'd have been taken out by now. It was sheer luck that Toothless managed to drive off the plane before that situation could arrive.
Deciding not to dwell on the thought any more, Hiccup focused back on the fight.
Meanwhile, the battle was slowly turning in favor of the allied air forces as they slowly but surely managed to drive off the German planes. Several more Thunderbolts dove down, managing to go past the German defenses and drop their bombs.
The 1000 and 500 pound bombs soared through the air and hit their target, resulting in a series of explosions that caused the demise of several buildings and put the ground soldiers in disarray.
Hiccup grinned as he observed it all from above in the sky.
Suddenly bullets zipped past his canopy, one even hitting it and the glass shattered on impact, throwing shrapnels everywhere. Hiccup instinctively recoiled back, his hand pulling onto the flight stick, resulting his plane to abruptly raise its nose to a near vertical, causing an extremely high angle of attack and momentarily stalling the plane, as a 262 flew by it, without turning back to engage Hiccup's P-51.
While the attack was unsuccessful, the extreme g-forces due to this maneuver were too much. Before Hiccup could even attempt to try to fight against it, his vision had already gone dark and his unconscious body slugged forward, causing the plane to pitch downwards and rush towards the earth at high speed.
Toothless's eyes widened when he saw his friend's plane going down. While he wasn't sure what had happened, he was sure it couldn't be good.
"Hiccup! Hiccup, can you hear me!? Hiccup! Hiccup! Answer me, damnit!" Toothless yelled through his comms.
Back with Hiccup, the young man was still unconscious when Toothless's yells rang into his ears through the comms. The concerned but loud yells of Toothless, combined with the noise of the various systems and instruments on the P-51 were enough to finally rupture the unconscious state of the young pilot.
The young man groggily sat up, embers of dizziness still lingering in his mind. But when he looked out of the canopy and saw that he was on a collision course towards the ground, his eyes widened and all the dizziness vanished away in an instant.
Hiccup grabbed the flight stick with both hands and yelled out as he pulled onto it, trying desperately to get back up in the air. He felt like his chest was being crushed by the G-forces as blood left his brain, making him feel dizzy once again. But Hiccup squeezed his thighs together, fighting against the G-forces as he tried to get up.
The warbird slowly pitched its nose upwards, managing to pull up and fly upwards towards the sky as it rejoined the battle.
One of the Me-262s spotted him coming up and dove down to take him out, shooting bursts after bursts of 30mm rounds at him.
Hiccup frowned and glared at the approaching enemy as blood rushed back into his brain, giving him a sense of clarity. He tugged on the flight stick and his warbird rolled and swept out of the way of the incoming fire under his skillful piloting.
With his other hand, he quickly grabbed and adjusted the sights of his plane aligning it with the descending German jet and shot one long burst. The Me-262 couldn't react fast enough and the bullets slammed into its fuselage.
The jet burst into flames as its left wing broke apart from its frame. The pilot of the jet managed to bail out just as the Mustang flew past the falling wreckage of his plane. Seeing the Nightfury coming back into the fight, four more Me-262s decided to intercept him. They all dove down at once, approaching him from every side.
Hiccup let out an angry yell, as he put his engine on WEP. The engine of his warbird roared up as the enemy planes circled around him on his way up. It was as if a dragon was challenging its opponents with its mighty roar.
The black warbird, under its pilot's guidance, evaded the incoming fire, and flew up, escaping from the mishmash of bullets. Hiccup did a barrel roll and dove back down at his pursuers. The black warbird engaged with the jets again as they all circled around it, trying to shoot it down.
For a moment both enemies and allies forgot about the conflict around them as they all watched in awe, becoming spectators to an unbelievable display of raw skill and bravery. Even the soldiers back on the ground stopped and looked up at the heavens as they watched the great black beast of metal fight off its opponents.
Hiccup evaded the incoming enemy fire as he quickly took aim at the enemy aircrafts. One after one the Me-262s fell victim to his wrath. His aim was true to its mark, as every burst he fired hit the enemy planes.
The jets would burst into flames, breaking into multiple pieces as they were taken out one by one.
The first one was taken out by Hiccup when the 262 flew ahead of him and tried to roll right and unfortunately flew straight into the position where Hiccup wanted it to. After taking out the plane, Hiccup did a stalling maneuver, causing his plane to slow down and stall momentarily as one of the remaining 262 pursuing him flew past him, completely missing him.
Hiccup quickly utilized the opportunity and as soon as his gun sights lined up with the plane, he squeezed the trigger, firing a long burst that ripped apart the enemy jet before it could even attempt to escape.
The third one fell victim as it followed after Hiccup as the pilot of the black Mustang flew higher in the sky. The 262 was fairly confident that it could take out Hiccup's P51 but suddenly, Hiccup performed a loop. The tighter turning radius of the P-51 allowed it to quickly position itself behind the 262 and the pilot foolishly tried to bank left in an attempt to lose Hiccup, giving him the perfect opportunity as he riddled the jet with bullets.
The remaining one of the four Me-262 and Hiccup's P51D circled each other. For a moment, it was as if time had slowed down around the two. The German pilot stared at the black plane with wide eyes. He could almost feel the glare of the Nightfury on himself. Engulfed in fear, the Me-262 broke the chase and tried to flee.
Back in the cockpit of the P-51, Hiccup frowned seeing his opponent turn back. He quickly chased after the German jet, diving and maneuvering his way through the battle as he chased the jet. Just then, the Luftwaffe pilot made the mistake of diving down.
While their jet powered planes were incredibly fast in high altitudes, in lower altitudes, it was significantly slower. Something that Hiccup took full advantage of. Diving through the flaks, Hiccup managed to get the Me-262 in his sights and pulled the trigger.
One final burst of bullets shot out of the guns on his plane and found their mark on the fuselage of the German jet. The aircraft burst into flames as it went down and Hiccup once again climbed up in the sky, joining the battle happening above him.
The German defenses were thinned out over the course of the engagement, and many of the 262s were forced to retreat due to the unexpected turn of events. Several Thunderbolts dove down, dropping their ordinance over the industrial area, adding further fuel to the chaos.
The soldiers on the grounds ran around in panic as explosions rocked around them. With the onslaught from the allied air forces turning out to be too much to handle, the German soldiers were soon left disoriented.
The bombing went on, until all the aircrafts have dropped their ordinance. The resulting destruction had shaken up the target to its very foundation. One explosion even set out a chain reaction, causing multiple other explosions and taking out several buildings in one go.
"Yeah! Now that's what I was talking about!"
"Whoo, whoo!"
"Hell yeah!"
Cheers rang through the comms as they all turned for home.
"The production line is still intact. Would have slept better knowing it was in rubles too, but ran out of bombs." another pilot said over the comms.
Hiccup listened to that message, and turned his head back towards their target area, looking down at the building that contained the production line. The building looked mostly unscathed.
"Turn back for home guys. Don't wait for me, I'll join you lot a bit later." Hiccup suddenly said over the comms.
"What are you going to do, captain?" Toothless asked.
"Probably something really crazy and stupid." came the answer as the black mustang broke from the formation and turned back towards the factory, diving down towards the only remaining intact building.
Down below, the Nazis spotted him diving towards them and immediately fired upon him. Hiccup skill fully maneuvered his warplane, managing to dodge the incoming anti-aircraft fire and flaks as his sharp eyes grazed over the almost undamaged building below.
His plane seeped over the building, allowing Hiccup to notice every detail of the building. Just then, he spotted a hole on the roof of the building, the outcome of an unsuccessful assault on the building. A plan quickly formed in his mind as he pitched his Mustang upwards to climb up on air.
Once he was at a preferable height, he dove down once more towards the building to put his plan in effect. It was a really stupid plan, but it was worth taking a shot.
Hiccup squinted his eyes as he adjusted his sights. Once it was done, he switched on the electronic trigger of the bazooka, holding onto it and waiting for the right time to use the trigger. His left hand gripping the steering handle tightly as he maneuvered through the flaks and anti-aircraft fire.
His eyes were focused on his target, the hole on the roof of the assembly line of the factory. Just as his sights lined up with the target, Hiccup pulled the trigger. The rocket propelled projectile shot out from its spot underneath the plane, as the Mustang pitched its nose upwards and climbed up in the air.
The HEAT projectile passed through the hole on the roof, hitting something inside, causing an explosion, setting off a chain reaction as multiple explosions happened inside the factory building and the whole building was set up in flames.
Hiccup caught a glimpse of his handy work as he retreated back, surprised by the results of his extremely stupid plan.
"WHOOOOOOO!" He exclaimed in excitement, grinning from ear to ear, seeing the results.
With the factory blown up to ruins, the mission was now over and the pilots all turned back for home, where they will wait for their next mission until the war is over.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:- Hey guys, Commander Alfa here. Hope you liked the chapter.
Sorry it took so long to get it done. I had been real busy due to college and stuff and haven't gotten around to work my books for a while. Hope you guys understand my situation.
Anyway, that's all guys. Gotta go now. Have a good day or night or whatever time of day it is at your place. Alfa out. Peace.