The lull (Nathan/James[maybe])

[MAJ Patterson]

There had been a definitive lull in the war for the past month almost. Both sides had halfway called a cease-fire for the holidays and to limp back and nurse their own wounds. Patterson had for once finished his morning paperwork for new supplies before the morning was over, so he figured he would take a look around his wonderful unit and see how things were coming along. Ever since that Corporal had tried to kill himself last week Patterson had been in a snooping type mood and now they had a new pilot in the unit.

He had slid his briefcase under his desk and gazed out the window. The skies were clear, the constant smoke had faded in the air, and the never ending sound of combat coming closer was nearly non-existent. Patterson cracked his window a bit to let in some fresh air before he headed out of the building. His trusty HQ Sergeant hot on his heels, updating the Captain on the new events of the day, it was the first time Giles had finished giving him the news before they had hit the door, and with that Patterson had a change of heart.

"I'll drive today Sergeant." Patterson stated as they walked over toward his jeep. He hoped in without using the door which widened the eyes of the few people in the area, smiles went around and then everyone set about what they were doing. "So tell me Dean..." he said over the loud rumble of the engine coming to life. "...When is our so called 'great' air superiority gonna give us a foothold to the west so we can move in on these SS soldiers that keep threatening our supply lines." he said as he glanced over. Giles was almost speechless, he hadn't heard anything of that nature in over a week, but it was still a rather valid topic.

Patterson whipped the jeep around and headed out to the airfield. "We can ask them when we get there, course if we could get some radios in the field it probably wouldn't hurt huh?" the HQ Sergeant's mouth was still gapping a bit, but he was responsive with a nod non the less. They zipped on down the empty street, many faces looking upon them twice as Patterson had a routine and almost never broke it.

They came to a halt in front of the main hanger and jumped out. Well if there is any place to get an answer this is it. The pair of them thought as they strolled up to the side door. Cochrane snapped to and yelled out ATTEN--SHUN! as the pair pushed through the door way. "Where's Kni-" Giles was halted by his Captain's hand upon his shoulder, glancing at Patterson and then to where he was nodding toward. "Here he comes now." Patterson said in a low voice. His lead pilot was across the hanger, seemed to be supervising some kind of small mechanical operation, but Patterson was no buff when it came to the fight in the air.

[Nathan Whyte]

Nathan was delving deep into the belly of the Albemarle that was being stripped in front of him. A small torch was clamped between his teeth as his hands delicately moved wires too and fro, searching for the link along the metal shaft. He squeezed his hand around a slender pipe and gave it a gentle tug. As if by magic, the doors on the bottom of the plane lurched gently. Nathan pushed it back again, and the motion reversed.

Smiling around the metal in his mouth, he moved along the bench on the inside of the plane. He thumped the next panel along and removed the torch from its perch. ”Plant,” he called, swallowing the spit that had accumulated, ”This panel needs to go.” The airman hurried over with a small toolbox in his hands. Nathan straightened himself as he heard Cochrane’s strong accent call out from the main body of the hangar. Nathan did a quick turn, walking towards the rear door of the plane. He climbed out on to Terra Firma and began quickly marching over to Captain Patterson.

He threw his right arm up in salute, and instantly became very aware of the large oil stain on his camouflage ground-fatigues. He ignored it, though, keeping perfectly still at attention for a brief moment before bringing his arm back down to his side. ”Good morning, sir. What brings you to my little hangar?” Nathan noticed the jeep parked outside of the hangar, and smiled on the inside. It looked like he may have a test subject.

[MAJ Patterson]

Patterson was glad to see that even though their Aviation Company had been mostly grounded in the war so far, they still found ways to improve for when they would be needed. "Carry on airman." Patterson muttered to Cochrane as Nathan neared. Patterson snapped his arm up and slowly dropped it when the pilot came to a stand still in front of him. "Long time Pilot. How have things been going?" Patterson asked. The only action he knew of the man encountering was a rather brief dogfight in the mountains that ended almost as elusively as it had began.

"Heres the thing Nathan, we have a couple of hangers full of planes..." Patterson smiled as he said it. He was very proud of his unit, he just wanted to bring more glory. "... we just have to find a way to get you guys in the skies. Tell me what you need to make this happen and I will see to it as best I can." he meant every word of it. After hearing that his counterpart on the British side might have gone a bit mad he knew that now he needed to step up his game more than ever. "Correction, Giles and I will see to it." he added with a firm tug on his Sergeant's shoulder. Giles just smiled in a sarcastic type manner, never saying a word.

The SS were still threatening the MSR to the west and Patterson was completely fed up with only getting a third of his orders from high Command. There was no way they would hold this base in Northern France if they had nothing to do it with. Given they weren't on the front at the moment, but as things had been going so far, only small skirmishes were popping up here and there and on a small scale, every single piece of equipment, every shred of gear, every bullet, every man, had to know that what they had to fight with was gonna be available when the time came.

[Nathan Whyte]

Nathan nodded as the Captain spoke. A pilot held next to no use in the course of a war if he had to stay on the ground. Nathan was infuriated, but being an NCO, his word had next to no meaning at all in trying to organise some sorties. The times he had been up in the, providing aerial cover for the infantry, nobody had shown up. Of course, Nathan had to complaints of seeing the war through alive, but he wanted it to end before his friends went the inevitable way.

”What we need,” he began, half a dozen different factors circling his brain, ”Is perhaps an Airborne Company? Our two Albemarle’s over there aren’t with anything in a dog-fight. I’ve sent a requisition in for one of those P-40E War Hawks, but so far, I’ve heard nothing about it. I’m hoping that one on the next shipment over the Atlantic is going to come my way, but I’m not too hopeful. Those birds carry everything I could want for a spot of tank-busting. Perhaps you could grease the hinges of the machine?”

He had a quick look at the transport in a corner, and licked his lips gently before carrying on. ”I was wondering, actually, sir, could I perhaps borrow that Jeep of yours? You see, when Armstrong Whitworth first built those planes over their, they were designed as medium-bombers. When we turned a load of them into troop-transport planes, we took out the bomb racks and disconnected the bomb-bay release. Now, the Willie’s jeep of there is just over five foot wide. The plane is almost seven in the fuselage. I think, and this is a big think by the way, we could put a Willie’s onto a tray and drop it into enemy territory. If I’m right, that’ll allow us to get infantry, including Radio Op’s onto the ground and from there, they can direct us onto the enemy. We have a makeshift tray made from some packing palettes over their, but we need a jeep to check measurements. Seeing as you’re here, would you mind handing yours to us? If it works, I reckon we’ll be able take a couple of Nazi airfields in quick succession, and that should set us up in a nice position for some aerial raids on the enemy’s train yards that are oh so numerous in this area.”

A brief shout came from the plane, indicating that the reconnection was done, and Nathan gave a brief acknowledgement with the back of his hand. ”You did say you wanted us in the air…”

[MAJ Patterson]

Nathan knew what he wanted and was one of the few not afraid to ask for it. But that is what Patterson wanted, he wanted to know what was needed, whether he could get it or not. "Airborne company huh?" he said rubbing his chin a bit and walking past the pilot to rest his hand on the side of the wall and lean on it. He peered out into the vast bay where the birds were kept. "That is something I've been trying to figure out these past two months, as soon as I know something, you will know something, but I will promise you this now, I will see that we get them, one way or the other." he said over his shoulder. There really was almost no point in having aerial troop transports if you had not troops to go with them, they were just taking up space.

"The War Hawk is a different story, they are in VERY high demand. There aren't that many on this side of the world in operation at the moment, but I will keep it in the back of my mind." Patterson knew that the likelihood of the 3ID getting their hands on a War Hawk before the year was out was just about zilch. He would keep it in his thoughts, but he need to worry more about what they could get their hands on instead of wasting requests on things he knew were to far out to ask for.

Patterson's eyes widened a bit at this enormous request. "Lemme get this straight pilot." he said as he pushed himself from his perch on the wall and walked over to the man, standing no more than a foot away from him. Yeah, Patterson was in his personal space, but if he faltered now, there would be no use, confidence was needed to pull off such a stunt. He glared at the man with slightly squinted eyes. "You want to drop MY JEEP out of the belly of a plane?" Patterson breathed hard as he rolled the idea around, glancing briefly at Giles, who's mouth had still yet to close. "Not only that but you want to do it on a make shift contraption that, as far as I know, has yet to be tested?!" This was an absurd idea to him, but jeeps were one of the few things they could get a hold of. The pilot had better come up with something good if he didn't want the Captain to crawl up his hind end.

[Nathan Whyte]

Nathan nodded his head as the Captain talked about the War Hawks, giving a little moan showing that he knew what Patterson was going on about. All the good gear never got to the frontline. It was always the reserves and HQ that got it.

The next thing was a bit of a shock, but Nathan held his ground, keeping his eyes fixed on the Captain. It wasn't often the Kiwi lost an argument, and he wasn't planning on now, least of all surrounded by the other pilots and crew of the division. "Drop it? No, not today at least." He explained, making a small square-ish hand gesture. "I want to do the measurements, and check it will fit. We have the fork-lift. If it does fit, then we'll order a proper metal tray in with the 'chutes, but we'll just be wasting resources if the plane won't take it." The Captain seemed to have got the wrong end of the stick, but Nathan was sure he had been clear enough. "If you don't want us to use your jeep, then we could probably wait for some more to arrive, but that will just be stalling when we could be saving the lives of your men. Hell, if it works, this could save the lives of hundreds, even thousands of Allied guys. The plane has the power to move the jeep, but I just need to know if it fits, first."

He took this chance to step back as he stook out an arm and grabbed Cochrane. "Why don't you fetch the pallete over? I'm sure we've put enough screws in to support a jeep's wait, eh?"
A brief nod was given in return as the Airman picked up a set of keys and scurried off. Nathan returned his attention to his commander. "So, Captain, are you willing to be a hero?"

[MAJ Patterson]

Patterson rolled the idea around for a moment but there was no need. From the sound of it, the highest the jeep would get off the ground would be only a few inches onto the palette and then maybe a couple of feet into the plane. If it can't handle a fall from such a small height he didn't want to be utilizing it anyway. "Pilot load her up. I am aware of the advantages that this ability would allow us, I didn't make it this far for nothing you know." Patterson said with a slight nod, not being too serious, but not joking either.

"Giles pull her on around back. They will guide you in, just follow their lead, they know what they are doing." Well at least this one seems to he thought. Paterson nodded to Giles as he tossed him the keys. Giles looked a bit perplexed as the keys went airborne but snapped back to reality in time to fumble them some and catch them before they sailed into the cracked concrete bellow. "Let's hope the tests go a little better huh?" He said as he turned back to the pilot. "I may not be the easiest man to get along with, but I learned the hard way along time ago that you can't know it all. So I listen to the men about the fields they are trained in, don't let me down Knight." the Captain was in every manner serious. He was already getting the paperwork in line to get a semi-new Corporal out of his unit due to cowardice, but, in a fitting manner, Patterson was having a hard time finding the kid. That was neither here nor there at the moment.

"Impress me, and try not to scratch it up."

[Nathan Whyte]

” Impress me, and try not to scratch it up."

Nathan smiled at this as he turned around, walking over to the large doors at the front of the hangar, closely followed by the forklift. Giles drove the jeep round, through the door, directly in front of the palette. Cochrane hopped from the drivers’ seat, grabbing a triangular prism of wood and placing it against the battered wooden tray, the dark blue paint it had once been covered in peeling off, revealing the grey wood underneath. Nathan took a final look at it before turning and climbing into the plane, hoping it would hold.

A whirring came from the forklift as it slowly drove the few meters around under the tail of the Albemarle as Nathan climbed into the belly. He checked the bolt on the release mechanism before hitting the switch. Miraculously, the door fell open, letting shafty light come into the belly of the plane. Laying flat on the leather seat, Nathan crawled to the edge and stuck his head out of the plane. He signalled at Cochrane to start raising the vehicle. There was a loud groan from the winching mechanism as it began to rise, but the jeep made its way upwards.

Using simple hand signals Nathan guided up the cargo. He could just imagine the gaze that Patterson would give him if his prized toy fell to the floor. He could imagine several months of latrine duty at the very least. ”Wait, shit, stop! Stop!”

The wing mirrors of the vehicle were the problem. They were stuck against the rim of the leather seats that lined the side of plane. Nathan chose his words carefully before calling out to the Captain, wherever he was. ”Sir, if I want to fir this in, I’ll need to detatch the wing mirrors. Is that okay?”

[MAJ Patterson]

Patterson watched with a squinted gaze as Giles drove the jeep on around to be fitted and Cochrane whipped about in the forklift. Patterson was keeping a very close watch over him, he was still a little fresh and Patterson didn't know how well he could operate heavy machinery. His prized pilot was doing a very meticulous job of ensuring that this went as smoothly as possible. To Patterson he seemed to have visions of heroism in his mind, but Patterson knew that the only reason hero's were remembered was because only a small few of them lived to tell the story.

Knight called out from the plane and Patterson walked over to the large bird feeling no need to yell over the commotion in the bay area. He stepped around the back door and peered between the Jeep and the door way to look his pilot in the face, hoping that this would give the man on the forklift plenty of time to think about his next moves while in control of the jeep. "Pilot, the manual is in the glove box, anything you feel comfortable taking apart is perfectly fine with me, just make sure you can place everything back the way it was delivered, got it?" Patterson was putting a lot of faith in his pilot, but good men built ladders when you gave them enough rope, the screw ups just tended to hang themselves with it, Patterson wanted to find out which one his pilot was.

"Giles!" Patterson spat over his shoulder and his HQ Sergeant stepped over to his side. "If there is any thing that this pilot needs, you see that it gets done." he said with a smirk as he looked around to the pilot once more. The Captain began to walk away but he stopped and twisted on his heels a bit. "Don't over do that privilege Knight, Giles knows what I mean and what I don't, he is my right hand, and it hurts when I have to use it." he winked as he turned back once more. He pondered on heading out but decided to take a seat and watch the event unfold, he wasn't about to walk three miles back to the main base area and his jeep was a test subject at the moment so he pulled up a chair and draped his coat around the back of it.

[Nathan Whyte]

Cochrane lowered the jeep, kicking up a small cloud of dust as the heavy load touched onto the concrete floor of the hangar. Resting a hand on the lip of the aircraft’s door, Nathan jumped out, landing a meter from the Jeep. He grabbed his toolkit, flipping open the metal clasps and fishing around the metal mass. His hand settled around a good sized spanner that should do the job. As a young boy, living on his farm, he had tinkered with just about every vehicle around, usually without his father’s permission.

Nodding a confirmation, he replied to Patterson with a brief ”Yes, sir!” He wanted to keep the officer in a good mood in case something was to go wrong. Hopefully, nothing would though.

He flipped open the door in the narrow space between the large doors of the plane. The wing mirror was only attached by two bolts in the Spartan design of the vehicle. This suited Nathan perfectly; the less junk in the way the quicker he could complete his job. He gripped the tool around the first bolt, and, after a small strain, undid it loose enough for his fingers to finish the job, spinning the bolt rapidly before placing it in the small dip on the dashboard. He repeated this with the second bolt before placing the wing mirror gently on the rear seat. He threw the spanner over to Giles. ”Sergeant. Do the other side. I’ll get back in the plane.”

Without giving his inferior time to reply, Nathan stood on the seat of the car and pulled himself up into the plane, rolling on the floor slowly to get away from the edge before standing. He resumed his position on the seat as Giles repeated Nathan’s motion before stepping backwards. Cochrane eased up the jeep again. It slowly moved up, foot by foot until it got to its previous location. It carried on going, not touching the edges of the plane. It carried on going before Nathan called a stop, the top of the steering wheel almost touching the roof of the plane. He smiled. This part of the plan had gone smoothly enough, but now Nathan had to get down onto all fours. He looked along the floor of the plane. There was a good five centimetres between the wheels and the floor of the jeep. His plan would work.

”Let her down. Gently, now!”

Nathan walked down the plane before climbing out of the main hatch at the front of the plane. He began walking over to the Captain to report.

”The Jeep fits. We’ll need to get some gear in, and finish of linking everything up, but we can consider this a success.”

[MAJ Patterson]

Patterson watched from his distant chair as the group of men did as the eager pilot had asked, he remained very careful with the jeep, bringing a smile to his Captain's face. Patterson stood up and walked over to the back of the plane, still keeping a bit of distance so as to not be in anyone's way, he might have known tactics, but this mechanical stuff was out of his league and he knew it. But the job seemed to be a success. There would need to be a few adjustments made from what he could see but nothing major in any sense.

"Don't worry about the small finishing touches right now Pilot, I have a briefing to get off to." Patterson stated as he walked up. This was indeed a great asset to have and he would be putting it to great use as soon as the final product was built. "Go ahead and get any information you need and record it for future reference, I'll see that it is put into the right hands and we can get us a few more jeeps for these birds." Patterson said as he walked around the back of the plane slowly, examining the work done. Giles just sort of stood there blankly wondering how the pilot had pulled such generosity from the Captain, Giles knew now that if he ever needed anything he was coming to this pilot first.

Patterson climbed up the back of the jeep and pulled his briefcase from the front floorboard. "Lemme get this paperwork in order while you put this job in reverse." Patterson strolled over and took a seat at a near by table, slid out some supply request forms and went about filling in the small stuff to hand off to the pilot so he could fill them in for when Patterson returned later that afternoon. He also filled out two extra and slid them over and placed the rusty lamp on the corner so they would stay in place. "There is an extra in case you mess up and one for parachutes, you give me a number and I'll get them men to fill them up." he said with a wink as he closed his briefcase. "And don't get too sly on me, I have to sign them and have them notarized before they are sent off."

[Nathan Whyte]

”Thank you, Sir.” Nathan smiled, as he realised what he had just done. He was definitely proud for what he had done, this had definitely helped the Allied War Effort, and this seeming stand-still would be over soon, no doubt about it. ”I won’t try and rip you off, no worries there. It’ll take a few weeks to get these in and to work on the accuracy, but we should be dropping these over Jerry by the end of the month. He won’t know what hits him.”

Picking up the sheets, he took a few steps to the side so he could place them on a workbench at the side of the hangar, and placing a small toolkit over the top to keep the papers in place, returned to the Captain.

He turned around, and already, his airmen were moving about, getting everything sorted. The most pressing thing, was making sure the Captain wasn’t late for his briefing, at the forklift was backing off so the Jeep could be unloaded, but panels were already being riveted back onto the plane, ready to see if the doors would work in the air, and a pair of men were running off to try and find the bomb racks. They were perfect to attach the drop-trays onto when they arrived.

Nathan stood to attention and pulled a quick salute. ”Enjoy your briefing, Sir.”

[Daniel Brennan]

Moderation Post

Closed.


The following CP has been awarded;

Captain Patterson: 8CP

Flight Sgt. Knight: 8CP


~Dan