Wings of Vengeance: A USS Enterprise Naval Adventure Novel (Fightin'est Ship in WWII series Book 2) by Scott Cook

Author:Scott Cook [Cook, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spindrift Press
Published: 2023-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

* SEVEN *

FIGHTING 6 – TAROA AND WOTJE

“Fox leader to A section,” Wade McClusky said confidently into his radio mic. “We’re comin’ up on Wotje. Sun’s almost up and it looks like Tojo is still snorin’ away. What say we give them a Yankee-style wakeup call!”

“Sounds good to me, Skipper,” called Jim Daniels. “Just point me at ‘em!”

“Hell yeah, Roger that!” whooped Lieutenant J.G. Roger Mealy.

“First run, we release one and only one bomb,” McClusky instructed. “We circle around and then drop the second. After that, we’ll strafe any aircraft, personnel, and structures on the base. Once we’re empty, we head back for Eagle’s nest. Everybody got that?”

All Wildcats in McClusky’s section as well as Mealy’s acknowledged. The twelve planes dove out of the sky, their Pratt and Whitney engines screaming their mechanical war cry. A dozen bombs were dropped, then another round. By the time all Wildcats had dropped their eggs, the airfield had more than one burning building.

Next, the fighters came in and strafed suspected gun emplacements and buildings with their four .50 caliber Browning M2 machine guns. The airbase at Wotje was still under construction and as such, offered little or no resistance to McClusky’s run. Within fifteen minutes, all of his Wildcats had expended their bombs and ammo and were turning back to Enterprise, leaving the way open for Spruance’s surface ships to begin naval bombardment.

“Fox-C, Fox-C,” McClusky called over his radio to Jim Gray several miles away. “Fox-A run complete. See you back on deck.”

There was no answer from Gray. This wasn’t alarming to the squadron commander. After all, Gray was no doubt in the middle of his own run and dealing with anti-aircraft fire and possible enemy fighters.

This was, in fact, the case. Gray’s report would soon illuminate the fact that of the four Marshall Islands targets of Kwajalein anchorage, Roi, Wotje, and Taroa, it was Taroa that was the big threat. The airbase there was better prepared and better armed than all of the other locations combined.

Minutes earlier, Lieutenant Jim Gray led his six-plane section down toward a small dark land mass. He’d instructed his pilots that only he and his wingman, Wilmer Rawie, would drive in and release the first of their two one-hundred-pound bombs. To get a lay of the land.

It was only when they got close and both aircraft let the first of their two bombs fly that Gray realized his mistake. In the dark and with few recognizable landmarks, they hadn’t arrived at the island of Taroa. Instead, they’d just bombed the small and mostly uninhabited island of Tjan.

“Well shit on a shingle!” Gray grumped as he pulled up and aimed his Wildcat to the southeast. “We’re at the wrong site, dammit! All aircraft… all aircraft… Fox-C leader… do not engage, repeat… do not engage. Proceed with me on zero-three-eight… shit…”

Jack Brewer couldn’t help but smile. He waggled his wings for the benefit of his own wingman, David Flynn, and clicked his mic, “Fox-C leader, Fox-C five… could happen to anyone.

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