Wingmen (9781310207280) by Case Ensan

Author:Case, Ensan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, world war ii, military, war, gay fiction, air force, air corps
Publisher: Smashwords

The dogfight off Wake was short but appallingly violent. To Fred it bore no resemblance to the stories of gallant, skillful fighter pilots jockeying for position and saluting the fallen vanquished. It was much more a question of who shot first and had someone upstairs to cover his tail. When he spotted the three Hamps diving toward Bradley’s division, he knew he would have a chance to score a kill. All the ugly thoughts of dying were gone; now he had a job to do, something he had been trained for. It was tremendously exciting to be doing it.

The three Hamps appeared not to notice the Hellcats closing on them from their own left and above, but Fred could see that they were rapidly walking up on the lower Hellcats led by Bradley. They flew in a small backwards V, as though it were standard practice for a wing leader to have two wingmen, unlike Fred’s service, where it was one for one. The lead Hamp had a wide orange band around his fuselage, forward of the tail. Fred caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Patrick and Fitzsimmons pulling away, moving to the right to trap the enemy fighters between them and Fred and the skipper. That was good. They had them now. A few more seconds…

The lead Hamp was firing; little flashes of light were jumping from his wing edges and smoke was trailing behind. The Hellcats in his sights began turning and diving frantically. And now the skipper was firing, too, although Fred felt sure they were still out of range. He looked through his gunsight, and yes, they were still far away, too small to fill the sight ring. The skipper’s tracers leaped across his field of vision, and suddenly the Hamps were turning, too, away from them, to the right. One of the wingmates was slow to turn and fell out of formation. The Hellcats ate up the distance and caught them on the water, when they could dive no more.

The first to die was the straggler who had fallen out of formation. Patrick and Fitzsimmons jumped him as he turned hard to the right, and the shells cut a swath through the water, then chopped the Hamp almost in two, knocking off a wing and sending the wreckage spinning crazily into the sea. The lead Hamp with the orange band continued straight, keeping temporarily out of range. But the remaining wingman turned as if panic-stricken, to the left. That allowed Fred and the skipper to catch him. Fred could see immediately what was happening. He opened the distance between him and Jack by swinging wide to the right.

It was a wise move. The Hamp, still turning to the left, saw the skipper and frantically went to the right. He entered Fred’s gunsight, and Fred squeezed the trigger, not really thinking he could make any hits. The shells tore into the water in front of the Hamp and he weaved back to the left, like a doomed sparrow, right into the skipper’s guns.

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