The Ack-Ack Girl by Chris Karlsen

Author:Chris Karlsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical War romance, World War II Romance, World War II London, Women in War, World at War romance
Publisher: Books to Go Now
Published: 2021-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The next afternoon

Never had Ava regretted being right more than this day. Betty called out as soon as the first Messerschmitts came into view. Everyone had manned their posts early that morning, no one left except to use the latrine. They ate lunch at their posts on pins and needles, waiting to see if there’d be a repeat of numbers like the day before.

They’d have been grateful for those numbers.

Chris had described the enemy as a swarm of bees attacking his squadron from above and below. Today, Ava would describe the planes as a massive flock of giant blackbirds. In a matter of seconds, they blocked the sunlight. The planes on the outside edges of the formation didn’t fire on the teams. The planes on the inside did.

A round pinged off the predictor nearly clipping Kitty. “Damn, that was close.”

Maude called out the target line of the plane that fired that round.

“We’re on him, Sweetie,” Tommy, the loader, yelled back as they shot the offender down.

Betty screamed as her binoculars flew from her hand and she went down. Ava feared she’d been hit but a moment later she was up again. Shaking one hand, she grabbed another set of binoculars.

Tommy had been hit in the arm and struggled as Sam assisted in loading the two-stone round into the barrel.

“Takeover my post too,” Ava told Kitty.

Ava used the cutout Maude had made in the sandbags to crawl out of the bunker. It took less time than trying to climb over them. B-Squad would be there to replace the injured but until then, Ava could lift the round so both of Sam’s hands were free to fire.

Tommy saw what she intended and pulled her onto their square and over to the stack of rounds. “I can still help.”

“Don’t need it. Get yourself out of the line of fire,” Ava said, already lifting a round to Sam. Careful to stay out of the way of the gun’s recoil, she gave him two before Broadbent came running with the B-Squad gunners.

Something stung Ava in the hip as she dashed back to her bunker. She looked down and didn’t see anything so she knew she wasn’t shot.

Two women of B-Squad carried the stretcher with Tommy to the hospital tent and immediately returned for Maude, who’d been hit in the leg. Another from B-Squad lay in Maude’s spot and acted as caller.

Finally, the planes stopped coming. The sting Ava had felt hadn’t stopped. With the sky clear again, Ava saw the blood that stained the front of her trousers. She pulled her shirt out of her trousers to see the cause.

“Get to the hospital,” Broadbent ordered, seeing the blood-soaked hem of the shirt.

“I don’t think I’m shot. I don’t know what this is,” Ava said.

“Get to the hospital. Let them have a look,” Broadbent repeated.

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