(Ok) "Alright boys! Uncle Sam has sent us some new babies, the P-51 Mustang! State of the art, can fly circles around the best German fighter we've ever encountered. These bad boys have proven themselves against Jap Zeros so you can be damn sure these thing are gonna outperform anything Jerry's got. Now, Command has said that since the Mustang has proven itself against the Japs, they are gonna be sending them over here so the Hellcat can take charge. All that means is the more for us." Lieutenant James McRoy announced to his assembled fliers. "And y'all are in luck, for Command has also transferred the first Mustang Ace over the Pacific over here to show y'all how to fly." That's when Sergeant Matthew Smith came rolling in on his P-51, 11 Rising Suns painted on the side of his plane to show he wasn't to be messed with. Hoping out of his plane as it stopped, he looked at the soldiers before him, "You guys look like you just came over from stateside. Wouldn't surprise me. I'm Sergent Smith. I was part of the 5th Fighter Wing of 8th Flier Battalion, I shot down 6 Jap Zeroes over Somoa on a single engagement, then 5 more as the caimpaign went on. As you can see, me and Blood Rose here came out in one peice. Let me get some things straight, the P-51 is the best thing to come out of America's plane factories, ever. Period. These bad boys could likely fly to Moscow or farther with only one land and refuel needed to make it back home, they can turn on a dime, and outclimb, out manueovure, and shoot anything in the air that we've encountered to this day. And from fhe sounds of it, we're going to be using them for bomber escort and strafing runs. But that isn't what you guys wanna see or hear, I bet you wanna see this baby work, no?"
The Nazi's hijacked the radio signal using equipment from one of the vans they arrived into town with. Pretty soon, the entire town could hear this message Rene spoke in French for the sake of the villagers. "Attention, this is Oberfuher Rene Schneider speaking” he spoke with a voice smoother and richer than the finest honey. "We have arrived in your town today due to an alarming report from a prior visit to your fine establishment almost four years ago. As you all should be well aware, we are currently visiting for diplomatic reasons with your mayor. Because of my job, and as harsh as this might sound, I must have my men enter your home and conduct a through search. If anything out of the ordinary is to be found, rest assured, it will be dealt with. That is unless, you have something to tell me and my men that will make the conducting of a search unnecessary. I might also add that any information that makes the performing of my duty easier will not be met with punishment. If you inform me of anything right now that could be valuable, it would actually be met with reward. That reward being this town and your family will cease to be harassed in anyway by the German military during the occupation of France. We’ll be located nearby the town hall and we shall only be here for several hours. Of course, violence is heavily discouraged. Any individual threatening or harming any German soldier will be dealt with professionally and quickly. Any Jewish refugees or individuals in the town are to come to us on peaceful terms, or we will be forced to perform something that nobody would like to happen. Thank you for your cooperation, Heil Hitler.”
Using P-35s as examples, Matthew showed the group just how much better the P-51 Mustang was. After landing, Matthew began showing them how to fly the plane, which wasn't too difficult as they were already trained pilots, it was just a matter of learning where the controls were. That's when they got their first assignment after being called to the briefing hall. "Alright people!" The Lietenent yelled to get everyone's attention, "We are going on a very short mission, just a small hop really. We are to fly bomber escort to Por-de-Calais, then we are to escort the bombers to the Rhine here." He put a tack on the map in the middle of the Rhine, "Here, you will pass off the bombers to the squadron known as the Red Tails, you'll know them when you see them, trust me. Then, you are to return home, where you can catch some z's before our next mission, a simple strafing run in Normandy. But don't worry, there's plenty of excitement coming." The Lieutenant held up a packet, "Trust me, within a week we will be flying into the heart of the Reich itself, probably Berlin or somewhere in the Ruer Valley. However, lets not get too ahead of ourselves, our mission begins at 0900 tomorrow morning. And remember, Rule #1 of bomber escort, NEVER leave the bombers unprotected. They can't move around near as well as you can. Dismissed."
The German soldiers went to every household in a row to perform checks, most of the time finding nothing out of the ordinary. About half an hour after they first arrived, a middle aged Jewish man in a brown jacket was dragged across the Main Street along with eight other people, two of them being young boys and a man well into old age. The first man was the owner of the towns tavern and had a short blackish grey haircut. They were all taken into the middle of town and forced to stand in a line, all while Rene watched the entire thing happen. He then noticed something sinister occur amongst the middle aged mans arm, a very small specific detail that he managed to pick up on. "Is that blood?" Rene said quietly to himself. Before his question was answered, the tavern owner violently sprung into life after taking a switchblade from his coat and stabbing one of the soldiers in the chest before charging Rene, who stood fifty meters away next to two guards. Instead of the guards responding, Rene attacked the man first by grabbing him by the middle of his arm with one hand and popped his elbow bone through his muscle and skin until it was visible, breaking it instantly while causing extreme pain, enough for the man to drop his knife. Rene then took the Lugar from his side and pressed it against the head of the Jewish man in one swift movement and pulled the trigger that effectively blown the mans brains out, covering the Jewish prisoners in the now dead mans brain matter and blood. This caused all of the onlookers to scream in horror, especially the women that were watching. This would have greatly traumatised the children, one if the Jewish boys started to cry in horror and scream after feeling warm sticky blood stick to his skin. Not long after the scene occurred, the Nazi soldiers raised their weapons up towards the crowd and Jewish prisoners if they all decided to act with false bravado. "Anyone else?" Rene replied in French in a hauntingly casual manner. The entire town went silent. "We warned you what could happen if any German individual is harmed or attacked. Our friend here didn't get the message." Rene then looked at his soldiers as he switched back to German. "Let's get this over with." Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
"Bravo Leader comm check." Matthew said into his oxygen tube/radio to the other P-51s as they circled the airfield, waiting for the bombers to take off. The ones they were protecting for the cross-chann raid were B-17 Liberators, but they were to meet another bomber unit, one of about 500 bombers, just south of Calais after the B-17s went home. The group went through all their in-flight checks, finishing as the last of the 100 strong bomber group took off. "Sergeant, I find it strange that we're bombing Calais so much, aren't Jerry expecting the attack to happen there? Think it wouldn't be all that smart to attack there." A private said to Matthew over the radio. "Now, we don't know what Command has in mind, and I guarentee you, every inch of the French coast is being bombed to hell. And I don't want to hear you talking like that in flight, keep your mind on the mission. We all have a part to play, only those at the tip-top can really know what's going on." Matthew responded, "Alright Bravo squad, listen up, you remember how in training you were told to look in one place, see if anything is there, then move to another place in the sky? Disregard that. You must keep your eyes on a slow scan, don't stare. You'll be able to see them before they see you. Now, lets get this over with. Get in formation and lets protect these bombers."
Meanwhile, back in America Staff Sergeant Jared Katz was inside of a light peach coloured room with single wooden chair and a movie projector. Jared had sleek black hair with no beard and wore a dark brown leather jacket on the top of his green military attire. He appeared incredibly youthful despite recently turning 24. Jared was a Jewish American, his family moving to Boston in the early 1900’s from Poland. He sat alone in the room until Major Edward A. Vidrine entered the room, an old veteran of the Great War. Jared was rising out of his seat to salute him until Major Vidrine gave Jared a nice smile. “That won’t be nessacary Sergeant.” Vidrine responded before walking over to Katz. “I suppose you know why you are here?” “Not particularly, sir. I was informed by Corporal Adams to meet in this room, he never gave me any specifics about the reason why.” Jared politely responded. Vidrine nodded in response. “It’s because what I’m about to tell you is listed as Top Secret. It’s just going to be you and me in this room. Nobody else is going to be coming in.” He said before turning on the projector while closing the curtains, almost no light was in the room other than the projector screen itself coming to life. Soon, a picture was shown of an incredibly handsome SS officer came into life, blonde hair going down half way to his neck and with milky blue eyes. “Who you are seeing is Oberführer Rene Schneider, who British and Canadian forces refer to as ‘The Smiling Wolf’. Rene was born in 1906 to two proud German parents in Nuremberg. Rene’s parents were absolutely fanatical followers of Hitler and the National Socialist movement, attending almost every meeting and even participating in the Beer Hall Putsch in 23’.” Several other photos were shown of Rene, mostly ‘official’ ones. “Once Hitler came to power in 33, Rene was immediately accepted into the SS. Despite him looking like a movie star Sergeant Katz, Rene is religiously and violently anti-Semitic. In one incident on 26th November 1936, Rene personally murdered 42 Jewish individuals in Austria, all while being supported by the SS. He even killed Jewish innocents during the Night of Broken Glass. He was offered a position as the camp commandant of Auschwitz, but Rene refused simply because he preferred to act mobile." “You want me to kill him?” Jared responded. “Precisely, or at least capture him for Allied interrogation. I suggest the former, he’s too dangerous to remain alive.” Major Vidrine responded. “How so?” “Being an SS officer, and an extremely powerful and influential one at that, he’s undergone some extensive combat training. Intel suggests that he isn’t a push over. He’s extremely charismatic and can speak nine fluent languages, he’s even more charismatic than Hitler if you believe some of the reports that we’ve been getting. However, the one thing that stands him apart. His Intelligence. He has an IQ of 198, he is an absolute genius.” “Sounds like the perfect Nazi.” Katz summed up. “He is. He follows orders perfectly and he doesn’t believe that anything he has done was a bad thing. He’s extremely dangerous.” Vidrine responded before looking at Jared. “This is where you come in, you and your squad are heading to France in three days to find and kill this bastard. Removing him will do the whole world a favour. He’s dangerous, so remember that. We kill Schneider, and we cripple an entire area of occupied France. Uncle Sam has trusted you and your men with this mission, he wishes the best for your success. Dismissed.”
(Well, would be more than 3 days if he was in America, which in itself wouldn't make since as most soldiers were either in the Pacific, in Italy, or in Britain waiting for Operation Overlord.) "We got Jerry, 2 o' clock ground." Matthew said into his radio unit. The Calais raid had been a breeze, as the Luftwaffe had been all but destroyed over the coast of France. Now, they were waiting to the north of the Paris region, waiting for the arrival of the heavies. "Convoy, looks military. You boys up for a little turkey shoot to pass the time?" That drew a cheerful reply, "Alright boys, then get behind me, we'll attack them in one row straight from behind. Follow my lead." Matthew turned sharply to bring himself behind the convoy, then called on his short spat as a dive bomber to dive at the ground, plunging at the convoy, then, flicking on his gun camera as he pulled out of his dive a mere 300 feet from the ground and tearing after the convoy, he fired three short spats of fire, destroying the back, front, and disabling another. He then pulled back sharply, climbing rapidly as the rest of his flight squadron followed, muffled whoops and hollers could be heard through the comm units as Matthew leveled out at 5,000 feet, watching as the 10 other planes strafed the convoy, tearing it to shreds before the flight caught up to him and they quickly climbed to 20,000 feet, putting on their oxygen masks, and returning to waiting for the bombers out of sight of any survivors of the convoy, Matthew grinning as he heard his flight congratulate and jostle for who got the most kills. "Now now, that was nice easy ground targets. Wermacht Jerry don't really stand a chance, what you guys should worry about is when you're flying against Luftwaffe pilots." That's when he picked out the bombers, "Friendly heavies, 3 o clock high, this is our group boys, lets get up there." (Mind the convoy being Schiender's, but he survived obviously? It would teach him a thing or two about Allied air power, and make him only want to travel at night more than likely. And it could make him think at least for the time being the P-51 is a quick ground attack aircraft)
Rene survived the sudden attack almost completely unscathed except for some wood acting as shrapnel that cut his forearm, the rest of his convoy wasn't as lucky. About 40 soldiers were killed in the sudden attack out of his 250 he currently had in his disposal, although his position allowed him to command as much as 3,000. With some portions of the town basically destroyed and grumbling all the while, Rene ordered some of the surviving buildings to be set ablaze. With that, the Nazi convoy rounded up the surviving Jews and left the town. Devastating and efficient, the Jewish civilians were then handed over to a larger group who would send the civilians onto the trains that would ultimately head to the Concentration Camps.
Italy "According to intel, Ivan is pushing in hard from Russia, with the Kraut putting up one hell of a fight. They should be pushing into Poland by the start of winter, from there, we think it'll be about a year before they're on top of Berlin, and I'm sure each one of you here know that despite what ol' Franky is sayin', the Reds are gonna gobble up as much territory as they can. That is why this squad was founded. Each and every one of you were handpicked for your explemary duty in North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy. The reason why? We are going to send you behind enemy lines to try to topple their heads in Western Europe so that any invasion will be much easier. You are also to encourage the French Resistance. If you don't, and don't do anything to meet them, you will be found and captured. Several other squads are being deployed in similar assassination, sabotage, and intell gathering and disception missions. You must encourage the Jerry to think that an attack from us will come from either Manaco or Por-de-Calais. You will each be given a cyanide pill and fake orders. We can't reveal the true landing zone for the liberation of France, that is so secret not even I know. All I know is that we are part of Operation Mattress Fortress and that you will be air dropped into France in the next few days under the pretext of another bombing raid. Any questions?" The Major asked the 8 men before him "Nothing? Then get ready and you are dismissed."
(Sure. And if you're wondering why I went with "Mattress Fortress" is that the idea is to soften up "Fortress Europe" and turn it into a mattress/pillow fortress)
(I can only picture a pillow fort :3) Sergeant Katz and his squad of about eight were flown high above France in the dead of night and were jumped out of their plane to paratroop their way to the ground. Their instructions was to seek out the French Resistance and help encourage them to fight back, all the while the American squad had to complete their own mission of assassinating Schneider. Once they hit the ground, all of them landing about five miles from each other in Northern France, roughly 200 kilometers from Paris in the Forest of Rambouillet. Once they landed ,they recollected themselves and set about finding the French Resistance in the area. Without them, the squad wouldn't last long.
Matthew never noticed the paratroopers that dropped out of some of the bombers as they opened their parachutes well below his line of sight. He kept his unit in formation around the bombers, they were heading for Berlin now, a mission his entire squad both feared and wanted. Soon, they would be flying over the German capital...
In the middle of the forest, the others landed not far from another in a seemingly remote area of occupied France. Once the others met up nearby a dirt road, as per orders, after finding their way back to civilisation, the immediately got straight to work to find the local resistance. Turns out, it wasn't a hard feat. The squad were intercepted by a young resistance scout and led the Americans back to their headquarters when he radioed for a vehicle to pick them up. Unfortunately, they were blindfolded like prisoners in order to have no knowledge of where the resistance headquarters was. While grumbling under their breath, they all agreed it was for the best if the Germans got them and tried to squeeze them for intel. Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
The resistance member pulled the blindfolds off the Americans to reveal a simple farmhouse in the middle of a field, from there, the few Resistance members showed them into the basement where a ragtag headquarters had been put together, featuring very little beyond a radio and a map lf France along with some pictures of German officers and high-ranking officials.
Jared had his blindfold removed off first to see the Resistance members speaking to themselves, all of whom seemed relieved that the Americans were on their side. Once the blindfolds were removed, they instantly began to survey their surroundings. Naturally, the picture of their target appeared on the board. (Doing practise exams, going to reply less today and tomorrow)
"Ah, welcome to France!" A resistance member said to them in English, "Welcome welcome, we are glad to receive you. How may we help? And in return, how can you help us?"
"We have been sent to your lovely country to eliminate one particularly nasty SS officer, you should know him as Oberfuhrer Rene Schneider. If we eliminate him, then the power and influence of the Germans would be much lower in Northern France. In return, we'll help you regain control and to assist the Resistance as much as possible in the war-effort." Jared replied. "I'm Staff Sergeant Jared Katz, pleasure to be of acquaintance." (Still making up a name for Katz squad)
"Jean Lafique deJonas, leader of this local branch of Resistance." Jean replied, "We were told you would have information for us relating to what we should do in the coming months leading up to the coming landing?" the dozen or so Resistance members looked at the Americans, the small glimmer of hope in their eyes for being able to play some part in the liberation of their home country.
"Indeed. From what we have been instructed, we are to aid you in any tasks that you require. This can be from anywhere ranging from assassinations, supply runs or anything relating to the matter. We still have to kill Schneider however, he's critical to the success of liberating France. Whatever the reason, we need to reduce the power of the Germans in Northern France before June." Katz said before handing over a document to Jean, written in French and English.
