Chapter 6

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USAF base at Gim 11 September 9:00 PM

 The pilots called by the wing commander,  were entering the meeting room

 Brigadier General James Stewart took a deep breath and as all the pilots sat down he began to speak, "Gentlemen, tomorrow at 4:00 AM you will depart for the Louria Army camps and destroy them, we have been preparing for this operation for as long as we have arrived, and now go to sleep because tomorrow you will earn your pay"

 After this little speech the pilots went out and went to their barracks, the Brigadier General had meanwhile retired to his office and lay down in his bed waiting for the next day

 2nd Fleet Aircraft Carriers September 11 11:37 PM

 The planes were leaving from the aircraft carriers the A3Ds were already in the sky they were waiting for the F8Us

 The A3D squadron leader, while waiting for fighter support, reviewed the plan to his squadron, "We have to destroy the castle overlooking the city, we have a full moon so we should have good visibility, let's wait for the A4Ds to leave too since the structure is very large and we want to make sure no one survives"

 After 20 minutes the various squadrons began their journey towards Jin-Hark

After 30 minutes they arrive on Jin-Hark, the squadron leader's plane heads up the bomber line, the BN prepares the 12 Mk 82 bombs and says, "10 seconds to target, launch?"

 The pilot looking at the castle replies, "You can launch as soon as you deem necessary"

 Within seconds he hears, "Bomb away"

 From the moment the first bombs left the belly of the plane, Louria's fate had already been sealed

 In the space of less than a minute 132,48 tonnes of bombs fall on the castle, the mountain on which it was positioned seems to erupt from how much dust, rock and earth is thrown into the air by the explosions it goes without saying that nothing remained of the castle and the king Hark Louria XXXIV perished with its destruction

 The A4D wing commander then said, "All A4Ds, change objective, head for the port and destroy as many ships as you can."

 While all this was happening, a seemingly out of place merchant ship made of metal in a medieval port was awakened by explosions

 The Third Officer who was on watch moved to the internal communications system and yelled, "Looks like Jin-Hark is under attack, all sailors, get to your stations and try to start the engine!"

 The Captain with all the officers who were not on watch hastened to arrive

 The third officer meanwhile had come down from the command bridge and was raising the Mu flag on the ship in the hope that the ship is not attacked by this unknown enemy 

 At that moment an A4D launched itself towards the ship but seeing that it was different from the others and that it was flying the flag of an unknown nation, it got up from the dive and hit the ship close to the merchant ship which was from Parpaldia but which had not managed to raise the flag before that a bomb didn't set it off

 The Captain, shocked by the situation, exclaimed, "Are those planes?!"

In less than 10 minutes Jin-Hark had been rendered unusable the Captain recognizing the situation said, "Gentlemen the situation is dramatic we cannot send the geologists into a war, as soon as the ship's engines start let's try to return to the naval base"

 Everyone accepted the situation since everyone saw what was happening

After an hour the engines started and the ship slowly began to leave the burning port

An A3D that had remained for reconnaissance saw the ship and began to follow it when the ship arrived 10 km away from Jin-Hark the A3D reported the ship

The pilot said, "Command, unknown vessel that appears to be made of metal and uses steam, what to do?"

The BB-55's radio operator thinking the pilots had mistaken a burning ship responds, "Are you sure it's metal and uses steam?!"

The pilot replied, "100% sure, it looks like a pre-WW2 freighter and it looks like it's heading towards our fleet."

The BB-55's radio operator then said, "I ask the officers to keep an eye on the ship."

In less than 2 minutes a Lieutenant enters the command bridge and passes a piece of paper to the Admiral, "Sir, one of our planes says that there is a ship similar to a merchant ship from before WW2 and that it seems to be heading towards our fleet"

Admiral James Lemuel Holloway responded, "Tell BB-56 and the DLs to inspect the ship."

Having sent this order the 5 ships moved towards the ship

BB-56 radio operator, "Sir, can I try to contact the ship?"

Commanding officer of the radio room, "Yes, trying never killed anyone"

The Radio Operator of the BB-56, "This is the battleship USS Washington of the American Navy, to the merchant of unknown nationality do not try to resist the inspection that has been carried out if you do not want to be sunk"

In the radio room of the merchant ship La Casima the people present are frozen by what they have heard

The first officer takes matters into his own hands, "Contact the American battleship, say they are free to do their inspection"

No one replied, everyone knew that even the most obsolete battleship could still tear them to shreds

Radio operator of the La Casima, "American battleship you are free to do the inspection"

Meanwhile in Lerk Bay, home of the Louria fleet

Admiral Felix Stump had positioned the 1st Fleet in front of the bay and now everyone was waiting for his orders to make the Louria Fleet firewood

The Admiral rises from his chair and says, "Start the Bombardment."

At 3:28 AM more than one hundred guns began a bombardment which in less than 1 hour changed the local geographical map and destroyed the 400 ships of the Louria fleet

At 4:00 AM 825 planes take flight towards their targets

 The AD Skyraiders of Brigadier General James Stewart approached the camp of the main army of Louria on the Qua-Toyne front, 100.000 strong soldiers can do nothing when the napalm and the guns of the ADs begin to maul them, in mere minutes more than 3/4 of the army is dead or wounded while the remaining 1/4 retreats in disorder

 One thing, however, that the Americans could not control was the victims among the camp followers who numbered in the tens of thousands given that they lived with the soldiers, this situation is repeated dozens of times

 Meanwhile, the B-26s began to tear Louria's air force to pieces together with the F-105s which in the meantime destroyed the runways furthest from the front.

At 5:00 AM 200.000 coalition soldiers enter the territory of Louria but the artillery is silent since there are no more Louria armies to bomb but it will be very useful in the various sieges that will follow

Results of the first hours of Operation Tartarus

 Coalition

 Deaths: 6 (plane crashes)

 Injured: 19 (air crashes)

 Civilian deaths: 0

 Louria

 Deaths: 300.000 (approximate)

 Injured: 120.000 (approximate, the injured are fewer than the dead due to poorly developed medicine)

 Civilian deaths: 100.000 (approximation, between the bombing of the port and the various camp followers)

sorry for the absence but I have been ill. I will try to resume regular publication but I don't know if I will be able to with school and various illnesses

50s USA in the new world (On Hold)Where stories live. Discover now