He is gonna catch her in an uncompromising position with that pilot she was dating before. Fighter pilots are studs.

:-j

Post that fly boy to the Russian Front! :arrgh!:

I think she's has to worry about some american paratrooper trying to drop in on her!

Mr. deBunsen,

Is your PM box full? I am attempting to reply to your PM. :cool:

Kpt Lehmann, I have eventually received your PM, thanks, but I think my reply might have failed ?

LS

I clamber into the soft leather front seat and immediately the car is pulling away.

"Here we go, Sir!" and off we roared.

The driver turned to face me.

I'd seen some sights on the last mission but this was a shock so close.

His face was neatly divided in half by two scars, not those cosmetic, neat duelling scars that the Prussian officers give each other, but two deep almost parallel diagonal wounds running from his right eyebrow across a broken nose to the left corner of his lip.

He noticed my look

"..oh that , Sir, a bit of bayonet fighting around Eben Emael, when I was with the 4th. That big Frenchie and me both ran out of ammunition in the tunnel. He went for the face...and I went for the chest."

"Range of 2 centimetres, Sir, not kilometres"

"The rest of the lads will be tearing up Russia by now, while I'm here on coastal duties.

I had nothing to say as this gefreiter expertly shook out two English 'Victory' cigarettes from his pack, lit them both and passed one to me.

I was warned once never to mix it with the infantry, back at Kiel.

Besides I liked his style.

"What's your name, Driver?"

"I'm Paul, Sir."

No rank, no surname, this guy could almost be a u-boat man.

Well I'm..

"Rollie, Sir. Everyone calls you that at base. You're the U-46 just in, the girls all listen out for you all. And I hear everything.."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

I suppose you boys have quite a tale to tell...

The Driver looked at me sourly.
He steered expertly around a corner and turned across to me.

"We did ok, Sir"

In three weeks they had sent the enemy running

Paul had clearly got to grips with the Frenchiies and his facial scars spoke of some sort of military argument. He caught my look again.

"It wasn't all fun and games, sir.


LS

I suppose you boys have quite a tale to tell...

The Driver looked at me sourly.
He steered expertly around a corner and turned across to me.

"We did ok, Sir"

In three weeks they had sent the enemy running

Paul had clearly got to grips with the Frenchiies and his facial scars spoke of some sort of military argument. He caught my look again.

"It wasn't all fun and games, sir.


LS

Has the captain gone on extented leave???

As long as he doesn't go AWOL for too long the brass and fanclub won't mind

Paul flipped his cigarette butt out of the window, having lit another one from the glowing ember.

Unheard of behaviour for a private soldier driving a staff car.

The next thing he'll be offering me a damned drink!

..."Care for a toot of proper German schnapps, Sir?"

The insolent landser was offering me a hipflask with one hand as he took a sharp bend at speed with the other.

Despite myself I smiled, but there were limits, and besides I was suddenly very tired.

"Not just now, I'm going to catch a quick nap. Old Uncle Karl certainly knows how to put away the vodka" I mumbled.

"Hah!" Paul turned at me and gave me a broad grin. It was terrifying. With those scars it looked like his face was splitting open like a baked potato.

"Water, Sir"

"What..?"

"The Admiral was drinking water from a different old vodka bottle. He's done that to the last three skippers who've come in, so the girls tell me. At least you made it to the car on your own Sir!"

I gaped dumbfounded, and then joined in his laughter.

"Get some sleep, Sir, I'll wake you up when we're nearly there..."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

Wow!! Thats all I can say!! Amazing!! Its taken me since yesterday to read them all!! This story has made me (finally) install SH3 on my new computer and play it with a nice new graphics card!! lol!!

Keep up the good work!!! :rock: :rock:

"We're nearly here, Sir.."

"..What...?"

Paul, my driver was shaking me roughly with his right arm.

"I said that we're nearly here , Sir"

"How long have I been sleeping... I must.."

"Better take a pull of this, Sir, and out came Paul's flask, and this time it's fiery spirit charged down my throat. And then the rasping gasp of the V cigarettes.

"Almost as bad as the french horse sweepings, they call cigarettes.

My driver elaborated on his theme of inter-army tobacco rivalry.

"Of course when the Amis come, the market will drop right out of this stuff, and that dreadful Yak dung the boys are smoking in the Ukraine."

"They've got proper smokes with filters, that real cowboys have , and they get issued them everyday, and every soldier has a pack in every pocket. Just think of that rate of exchange, Sir, four packets of decent American cigarettes for one Mauser bullet; how can we lose with those market forces!"

"Well smoking is supposed to be bad for us, so I heard."

"Why, Sir..?"

I tilt the flask once more.

"Anyway the signs say Abbeyville, but I can't see any fighter airfield, and to be honest I think we should..."

"We're here, Sir"

A low red brick building in some small grounds. No planes. no guns.
The odd chirping of a bird, but no planes or mechanics, just some odd figures mooching around in the distance.

"Off you go, I'll be waiting here, Sir.

I stumbled out of the Mercedes, and walked bewildered across the lawn.

And almost bumped into the wheelchair.

The poor guy in it had been burned.

His hands and most of his face including his eyes were wrapped in bandages. He sat rigidly in his wheelchair; his dressing gown an unimportant adornment. On a hook at the back of the chair was the man's worth. A Luftwaffe pilot's tunic to prove it.

And suddenly I knew.

"Gustav?"

His head jerked up at this approach.

For the first time I looked up from the chair to the tear-stained girl pushing it.

"Hello Heidi"

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

"Ah, this must be my friend from the U-bootwaffe. It looks like you were right after all kamerad. Sea water is good for you. Especially when you are on fire over the Channel."

I looked helplessly at Heidi.

She looked helplessly at me, and then blurted some excuse about needing to go and fetch a nurse for Gustav's dressings.

I squatted down by his chair.

"Gustav? How was it?

He smiled. It was pretty much the only facial expression to be seen.

And then he spoke softly. The arrogance and bitterness fading away with every word. The constant raids over Britain had seen to that.

"We took quite a few, you know. Do you have anything painted on your boat,?

"Yes; a Swordfish. It was painted so that it was laughing. The crew like it and if they think it brings them luck, then it will"

"Falcons"

"I'm sorry Gustav..?"

"My wing all had screaming falcons with talons outstretched on their fronts. It's funny, I suppose. Our falcons weren't laughing, and they certainly aren't now. I'm the only one left."

"Three Hurricanes and two Spitfires, I shot down. My lads did equally as well, but one by one, over the days..."

"...how many men have you lost on your boat?"

"Only one actually, Ernst, and...dare I say it, he was killed by an enemy aircraft."

"Well I have lost everyone I started with, and more" Gustav replied

"We've had our losses, too, and ours tend to be final for everyone aboard!"

Gustav thought for a moment.

"You know, one of our 109's ditched in the sea on the second day. A young lad, and only his third flight ever. We saw him go in, and we saw him stuggle to release the cockpit cover, but we were flying overhead and we couldn't help him. He drowned alone.

"Look at me now... I'm burnt a little, but I swooped and soared in the skies, I shot down six of them, but if one of them had got me instead (instead of that damn rookie when I was out of ammunition), it would have been over quick in a big ball of flame.

"But I could never go underwater in the boats. And die like that, with all those depth charges going off.. I could never go like young Tischmann did"

"Well we're still here, Gustav, but sometimes the Allies do make us spill our coffee from time to time

The part of his face that I could see, smiled.


Lt de Bunsen, U-46

This story just gets better and better! :up: :up: :up:

Mr. DeBunsen, I am attempting to send you another PM with some information you requested of me. I am guessing your PM box may be problematic again.

"I think I was abrupt with you before..."

"Think nothing of it, Gustav"

"I was so confident, and now look at me. The last one left. Give me your hand, Herr Kaleun"

"As a pilot I had many girls, but Heidi was a challenge to me. She never gave in to me. Even when you were at sea, she could talk of nothing else but you and your men on the U-46."

"They say I'll see again, but never fly again

"My mind has changed since AdlerTag, and I don't need my eyes to see that it's you that she really loves"

"If we know one thing, kamerad, it is that life is short, and must be grasped and squeezed tight. Take her, go to her, but don't make any long promises"

And then Heidi came back with a nurse over the lawn...

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

And I went to her, walking faster with every stride.

And she came into my arms.

"I couldn't leave him on his own, Rollie, he has lost so much and been in such pain."

And then she said the words that I had only dreamed about like in Viktors cheap radio room paperback thrillers.

"But it's you that I want, Rollie. You, that I have always wanted. You. Just you"

And then we were holding each other tight, and we were kissing.

And it shouldn't have been me who was crying.

Lt de Bunsen, U-46