Code Name Apple
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: My code name is I Don't Own Castle. Rating: K Time: The year 1919, mostly.
Kate accompanied Rick to the CMBs' base at Bjorko Sound. Eight boats would be on the mission. The recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Agar, in one boat, would lead the other seven through the minefields, shoals and islands going to Kronstadt. He'd wait outside the Red base to lead them away. The CMBs would attack in two waves. Although Kate had tried to talk Rick into staying with Agar, he went with Lieutenant Dayrell-Reid in CMB-88.
Before they reached Kronstadt, however, one boat broke down and had to be left behind while the crew tried to make repairs.
Once they left Agar behind, the three boats in the first wave roared past the guardship for the naval base, the destroyer Gavriil, passing it easily. One boat fired its torpedoes at the submarine depot ship Pamyat Azova. The ship was hit and quickly rolled over and capsized at her moorings.
Dobson meanwhile headed for the berths where the battleships were, but by this time the defenders were alert, and the boats began taking fire. Dobson fired two torpedoes at the battleship Andrei Pervozvanni. There was one hit, and the ship began to take on water.
Lieutenant Dayrell-Reid was hit as they ran for the harbor exit. Castle manned their one machine gun while Dayrell-Reid's second in command, Lt. Steele took command.
In the confusion, Castle saw two CMBs collide. One began to sink, but the other stopped to pick up the crew. One CMB was hit and blew up and a second was hit and sank just as it reached the harbor's exit.
In all, three CMBs were sunk and two damaged. Only Commander Dobson's boat came through relatively unscathed. And ten men were dead, Lieutenant Dayrell-Reid having died of his wounds.
Kate met Castle when the surviving CMBs returned. She put her arms around him and sobbed.
Aerial reconnaissance the next day confirmed that the submarine depot ship had been sunk and the battleship, an old one, but still outgunning Cowan's force, had been damaged.
On a bright summer's day, with blue skies and warm sunshine, Lieutenant Dayrell-Reid was buried in Finland. Castle, there with Kate, thought that it was for too nice a day for such a grim event.
After the funeral, Lieutenant Commander Agar approached Rick.
"Captain Castle, may I talk to you, sir?"
Rick laughed.
"Please. I'm only called captain because I command a warship. Otherwise, we're both Lieutenant Commanders. You should call me Rick."
"Then you must call me Augustus, not Gus, please."
"What can I do for you, Augustus?"
"Commander Dobson has been put up for the Victoria Cross, our highest decoration for valor. Everyone on the raid is being put up for some medal or another, except for…" Augustus stopped.
"Except for the American navy officer." Rick finished for him.
"We approached your people, unofficially, of course, about giving you a medal. We were told, unofficially, that since America is at peace any reminder that there are Americans fighting here and there around the world would not be welcome. We're very sorry…"
"Don't worry about it, Augustus. I'll manage just fine."
Rick and Kate went back to Stockholm where Kate monitored her agents reports. They decided that the sinking of the submarine depot ship Pamyat Azova was quite important as the ship had held all of the Red Baltic Fleet's spare torpedoes, spare parts and tools. As only the submarines and destroyers had left Kronstadt so far, it pretty much knocked he subs out of the war. The Andrei Pervozvanni , although only damaged was also out for the rest of the war.
The most important result of the raid was the shock to the morale of the Red Fleet. Never very high to begin with, morale dropped precipitously.
The Thomas Ford was anchored in Bjorko Sound with most of Cowan's force when Castle saw a new ship entering the sound. He thought she was just as ugly as the aircraft carrier, but this one radiated power.
"What is that thing?" He asked Kate.
"HMS Erebus, a monitor."
"A monitor? Like our ironclad ships during our civil war?"
"Exactly, although this one is a bit larger and better armed. She's a bit over seven thousand tons but is armed with two fifteen-inch guns, the same guns that are mounted on our most modern battleships. She was designed to shell enemy coasts, such as German occupied Belgium during the Great War. Recently she's neem in north Russia supporting Allied troops and White Russian armies there."
"I'd love to take a look at her."
Kate laughed.
"You're in luck, Yank. I just happen to know the admiral whose squadron she's joining. A fellow name of Cowan. But you have to promise me that you'll stay on the ship if and when she goes into action."
"Anything you say, Kate?"
"Anything? I'll remember that later." She said softly.
In two days, Rick was aboard HMS Erebus as it headed into action. Kate had been left behind as the captain of the Erebus refused to allow a civilian to accompany his ship into action. They were sent to bombard the Red held fort at Krasnaya Gorka, or Grey Horse, that was being besieged by the 1st Division of the Estonian Army.
Castle watched as the Erebus fired shells weighing nearly a ton to a distance of just over 22 miles. In spite of the shelling, the siege of the fort was unsuccessful, and Castle returned to his ship and to Kate.
He sat in his cabin looking at the message that had just been sent to him. It should have made him happy, but it didn't. He got up from his desk and knocked on the door to Kate's cabin.
"Yes?" She said.
"Can you come to my cabin?"
"Of course."
Once there he told her about the message.
"I've been promoted to full Commander."
"That's wonderful and you very much deserve a promotion." She gave him a quick kiss.
"There's a problem. I'm being relieved of the command of the Thomas Ford and sent to shore duty."
"Where?"
"I'll be on the staff of ComYangPat, that's Commander, Yangtze Patrol, Shanghai, China."
'What an amazing coincidence." She said.
"Coincidence?"
"It's not well known yet, but the Bolsheviks are negotiating with the Baltic Republics to make peace. My service will no longer be needed here. I've been reassigned to the British Consulate in Shanghai?"
"You're going to Shanghai, too?"
"Yes. How are you traveling?"
"I can't get on a military transport. They're still jammed taking troops back to the US from Europe. I'll have to take a second-class passage from England to the US."
"Second class? Nonsense. I shall book two first class cabins for us. What then?"
"A train across the US to San Francisco, that's the main port on the west coast."
"Oh, good. I've always wanted to see America."
"Then across the Pacific. Stops no doubt in Hawaii and the Philippines, then to Shanghai."
"First class all the way of course. Oh, when we're in England you can meet my parents."
Castle thought for a moment.
"You didn't have anything to do with me getting this assignment, did you?"
"Why, Richard, you seriously overestimate my powers."
THE END
Author's note: As with all my historical writings, everything you've read here actually happened, except for the fictional things. You'll have to figure out which is which.
Next up is Call Me Ishmael. Shades of Cops and Robbers, it's another bank heist. This time Alexis is in the bank with a man with an unusual name.