England Expects el-1 by Charles S. Jackson

Author:Charles S. Jackson [Jackson f.c]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_history, sf_action
Publisher: Kindle
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The fly-past by Richardson’s Mustang two days before had obviously been a reconnaissance mission, and the kommandant of SS Special Heavy Battery 672(E) had no illusions as to the stir those photographs would’ve caused in Whitehall. He’d spent several minutes cursing the laziness and negligence of the entire flak regiment tasked with their protection, and had then spent the rest of the day running several extra, unscheduled firing drills while the entire installation remained at battle stations and orders were issued for several of that unit’s higher officers to be court-martialled.

Prior British responses to the appearance of long-range gun emplacements on the French Coast had generally been in the form of retaliatory bombardment from similar guns — something which it had to be admitted had so far been relatively effective. With the RAF all but non-existent now as a fighting force in the skies above the Home Counties, it was also highly unlikely the enemy would be able to muster enough bombers or fighters to instead launch a concerted air assault. As a return to their ‘tried and true’ alternative of counter-battery fire from railway guns seemed the most likely of any option for a British response, a round-the-clock aerial surveillance of the English coast was put into place.

The Abwehr had already identified many of the more the likely firing sites along the railways close to the Kent coastline, and the watch had been set. The height of the Dover cliffs opposing them meant great swathes of land beyond weren’t visible to observation from land, necessitating the aerial alternative. Even as the men of the Royal Marine Siege Regiment were preparing their guns, unseen eyes flying high above the French beaches had quickly spotted and identified Gladiator and reported its exact position to the battery HQ at Sangatte.

Neither Whittaker nor the rest of the work crews had the slightest inkling that anything serious was about to happen. The sounds of alert klaxons and the movement of propellant charges and those monstrous shells to the gun line from their underground magazines seemed the same as any of the drills they’d already seen that morning, although Dupont at least did note that each gun seemed to have a greater number of projectiles stockpiled behind the mount than had been normal in previous exercises.

The first suggestion of imminent danger came as several, Dupont included, noticed that in this particular ‘drill’ the crews were actually going as far as loading a shell into each gun’s massive breech. Even with the assistance of some very advanced Krupp loading equipment — designed in part by Reuter’s technical departments — it took the guns a full five minutes to lift and chamber their four-metre-long shells, each slowly rammed by heavy hydraulics into their cavernous breeches ahead of the huge brass case carrying its propellant charges.

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