Wings of a feather

Wings of a feather

High in the skies over France at the height of Would War Two, allied forces made their way into German occupied territory. On the ground below both Allied and German forces met in fierce combat, explosions can be seen from high above as First Lieutenant John Roberts and his squadron were escorting a bomber group to their target further inland. The mission, to fight off any German plane that would come near the bomber group or die trying.

As Robert’s squadron flew in formation along with the bomber group with at least twelve other fighter squadrons covering key points in the bomber group, ready to spring into action at a given moment. Roberts held firm on the yoke as the hum of the engines was muffled by his radio unit. There were a few back-and-forth chatters from his wing-men, some discussing all matter of things from what they would do after the war, even one bight and cheery pilot Second Lieutenant Arthur Mason was bragging about how many Messerschmidt he would take out. The Messerschmidt Bf 109 was one plane Roberts had the unfortunate opportunity to encounter a few times before and knew what they were capable of.

“Cut the chatter” Called out Captain Lewis Davidge over the radio and suddenly the other pilots ceased talking. “Focus we could see enemy planes any time now, so watch your six and be ready” he said issuing the orders with the calm yet stern voice of a veteran pilot who had already shot down four fighters and on his way to earning the title of Ace Pilot. They were nearing their target when a call came over the radio “Twelve O clock high” Roberts knew this would happen sooner or later and banked his craft with the others as the orders rang out through the radio.

The cabin rattled from the stress put on it from the winds as he banked hard right taking advantage of his Mustangs turning capabilities over the Messerschmidt and pulled hard on the yoke to line up his sights with the enemy plane. The German pilot bobbed and weaved in the air trying to shake his pursuer. “Not this time punk” he said under his breath as he followed his motions trying to line up the shot. Pulling the trigger in a couple of short bursts he was managed to nip the left wing right not inflicting too much damage but that was until he saw the pilot had trouble pulling up since the bullets had hit the cable that controlled the aileron. Seizing the opportunity, he fired off a couple more shorts hitting the craft dead center and sent into a fatal tailspin.

Pulling up and away from the falling craft he turned his attention back to his squadron and that was when he his wing-man chasing down a German pilot. “Mason” Roberts called out, “Disengage and return to the bomber group.”

“I got him John, he’s mine.” Mason said as he pushed his engine to its max to catch up to the enemy plane, everything else around faded away and all that mattered was getting to kill and add a mark to his plane. Mason was still a young pilot and eager to carve a name for himself but without any thought to the cost. The German pilot bobbed and swayed dodging Mason’s gun fire.

“Come on, come on” Mason said as he tried to zero in his sites on the aircraft ahead of him and kept firing short bursts. Roberts kept as close as he could to keep an eye on his wing-man, but the longer Mason chased the German the further they got from the bomber group and could be cited for insubordination.

“Mason it’s not worth it, disengage now.” He ordered hoping that Mason would see reason but before he could react the German pilot had enough of being chase pulled up into a loop and put himself behind Mason in a matter of moments catching him off guard and very soon had Mason in his sites and fired several bursts, first in the tail fin then into the cockpit and the plane started to head toward the ground evident that the pilot had been shot.

“Mason… Mason do you copy?" He said trying to get his attention "MASON” Roberts yelled out but got no response over the radio and in a matter of moments his plane hit the ground below and exploded into a ball of fire. This enraged Roberts and only drove him to to pursue the German fighter and when he turned to head back to the battle he was confronted by Roberts and banked off when a few bursts of fire came his way.

“Oh no you don’t” He yelled out as he pursed the enemy pilot. “You’re not getting away that easy” Now he was the hunter, and the two planes flew over the French Countryside getting deeper and deeper into France. But all Roberts could think about was revenge. Two planes danced around the sky, each trying desperately to get the other before they were shot down. During the fight, the German pilot broke off to head for a patch of clouds so he could outmaneuver his attacker. Roberts could see where he was heading and did, he would deny him his chance to get one over him and fired shots at him again with the sights dancing over the target.

Finally, he got in close enough to see the markings clearly on the German fighter, he wanted to see every detail of this plane as it went up in smoke. Firing another burst he scored a direct hit, but it tore off the wing and went flying away and right into the wing of Robert’s aircraft. Cursing under his breath as his plane took just as much damage. Both pilots were now on a collision course for the Auvergne mountains up ahead. Pulling up as much as he could to get any lift out of the remaining wing and the tail fins to keep himself as steady as possible. “This is going to be unpleasant” he said softly as his plane finally contacted the ground and skidded over the surface scraping all manner of plants before coming to a rest just a few hundred yards from the lip of the now extinct volcano.

Once the plane came to a stop, he did a check of its radio to see if he could call for help but as he flicked the switches to see if he could get a call out to allied forces the radio failed to operate. Checking again he could see he had power, but the radio was history.

“Damn” He hit the dead radio frustrated and so pushing open the canopy, he got out and tumbled unceremoniously to the ground. He looked around but he couldn’t tell where he was. In the distance, however, the smoke could be seen from the plane he shot down.

“If I’m lucky his radio is still intact, and I could use it to call for help” he said to himself as he readied himself for the walk.

 Grabbing his gun from his holster he began the trek to find the pilot and finish this once and for all. It took him what felt like forever to each the wreckage of the German plane. It had landed in the heart of the extinct volcano and coming up over the ridge he saw the plane and its pilot a few yards off. From this vantage point it looked like the pilot had wrapped some bandages around his right leg and showing signs of pain as he finished dressing the leg before turning his attention to his radio that lay next to him with some wires leading to the plane.

“Just my luck, your injured that certainly takes the sportsmanship part out of this fight” He used what little foliage was there mask his approach. Roberts approached from behind till he came up right on him.

“Hold it” he ordered with a stern voice; the German pilot had his radio unit in hands, but he was trying to fix it. Hearing the voice behind him he dropped his radio and reached for his pistol, but Robert’s fired one shot on the ground next to it forcing him to back off from the gun. Standing up to turn and face Roberts he could see his leg was faltering and threatening to give way at any moment, so he ushered for him so sat down.

“Nicht schießen” said the pilot “What did you say? Asked Roberts “Nicht schießen” the pilot repeated holding his hands up and head down. Sensing he had things under control he walked closer and picked the German’s pistol. Examining it closely he could see it was a Luger. He had seen a few that had been taken from prisoners but not held one himself.

Holstering the gun, he kept his own Colt M1911 aimed at the pilot. “Do you understand English?” he asked hoping for something other than German to which the pilot nodded “A little bit” he said with a thick German accent as he tried to use what English he had remembered from before the war.

“Good, now we are getting somewhere” he said as he looked at the radio briefly then back to the pilot. “Does it work?” The pilot took a moment to respond, recalling how to say the words he needed.

“It ah no work, need power” said the German pilot as Roberts let out a sigh. “My plane still has power; we can take it there to get it working” He looked around for a moment to find something to brace the pilot’s leg for the walk back to his plane.

“I’m going to treat your leg, so if you try anything I will kill you. You understand?” The pilot nodded his head and so he holstered his pistol and found a piece of the plane that had come from the wreck.

“This should do” he said as he went over to the German and used some straps from the pilot’s pack to secure it to his leg. “There that should do it” Used his own pack to secure the radio and groaned as it weighed him down “Oh that’s heavy” he complained before helping up the German. Both men grunted as they started to walk out of the crater.

A few minutes went by, and silence was getting to Roberts, he had to talk even if it was the enemy. “So, what’s your name?” he asked as he carried him along. “Leutnant Ludwig Hagelstein”

“Oberlue… I’ll just go call you Ludwig and I am First Lieutenant John Roberts; you can call me John.”

“John” repeated Ludwig and he couldn’t tell why but it made him smile and it seemed for that moment they weren’t enemies in a war, but two strangers meeting for the first time. Their walk continued as Roberts found himself feeling very inquisitive asking about what life was like for a German pilot. Ludwig would speak mostly in broken English, but he was able to convey enough details that Roberts was able to understand. It was a rather slow walk to his plane and so it gave them plenty of time to talk to each other.

"What made you decide to join the war?" Roberts asked wondering how he got pulled into the war. "I was conscripted, but never saw face of enemy till now" he said before making a grunt sound as Roberts stumped his foot against a rock and jostled Ludwig’s broken leg. "Sorry" he said instinctively.

Ludwig continued. “This was second mission since joining Wehrmacht, our armed forces” Roberts nodded. “So was I, me and my buddies were all drafted, I flew in enough missions that I got a promotion to the rank of second lieutenant”

“You kill many Germans I suppose” Roberts suddenly felt his heart grow heavy and nodded solemnly. “It is okay we are at war, it is expected of us to fight even if we don’t want to, but up there in sky is kill or be killed” That hit Roberts right in the chest and he knew what Ludwig was talking about, He didn’t enjoy killing either but this whole time he saw all Germans as the same but now he was rethinking that assumption.

“I know what you mean Ludwig, up there you get scared and you become someone else, someone you never wanted to be” He hated the how it had to happen for him to realize this, but in his moment he didn’t see the enemy, he saw a fellow human.

“Do you, um any special girl, back home?” asked Ludwig in more broken English, this caught Roberts off guard and paused a moment to answer, “Ah well yes, actually.” He fished a photo from his breast pocket and showed the other man. It was a photograph of a young woman roughly in her mid-twenties with dark colored hair and soft tone skin.

“Beautiful” was all Ludwig said, warming Roberts heart at the compliment “Thank you, do you have anyone back home?” he asked in return, but the pilot shook his head with a look of sadness on his face. “You’ll find the right girl someday pal, don’t worry” The other man smiled as he heard the cheerful response.

The two would eventually make it to Roberts’ crashed plane and quickly went about hooking up the radio to his plane’s power supply. It took a few minutes to get a response but they both were elated when a voice came over the radio.

“Roberts, what’s your location over?” He was stumped and looked to Ludwig, whom luckily was more familiar with the area. “Auvergne” Repeating that on the radio and adding the detail about the crater he heard back a few moments later. “Roger that, we can’t get to you right now but there is a town south of your position, the locals there could shelter you, while we can send someone your way to pick you up”

“Roger that, I have an enemy pilot with me too”

There was a pause. “Enemy pilot?” he asked sounding worried. “It’s okay sir he surrendered” He looked to Ludwig “We’ll treat you well, don’t worry and after the war, maybe I could show you around my hometown, how’s that sound?” Ludwig simply nodded with a smile and Roberts gave confirmation that they would await the arrival of a retrieval team in the town.

With the radio call ended the two packed up some supplies that were stowed away in the plane and headed for the town. Roberts could hardly believe what was happening, this man who earlier wanted to exact his revenge upon was not malicious as he once thought and instead was just a young pilot fighting in a war like him. Easily influenced by fear and anger like he was and regretted his actions and he even found himself feeling sorry for the ones he had shot down in previous engagements.

It’s easy to be angry at a faceless opponent up in the air, and it’s much easier to kill another human but here, now, face to face with Ludwig. He didn’t see the blood thirsty German he was taught to fear, but a human being thrust into the conflict without any say in it and forced to survive at all costs. He wish he wouldn’t have to return to combat, as it would mean shooting down more pilots who probably not too unlike Ludwig, but with the reality of war was much different then he could hope for. But at least in this instance he could say that he knew the enemy was not really his enemy, but the commanders they served under and their leader who pushed them all into this conflict, and so all he could do is hope for a swift end to the war and peace could resume.