The Lunar Devils go to it
Major Firestreak had always hated flying. On every training flight he'd ever taken, the 23-year-old unicorn made good use of his army-issued sick bag.
But, for some reason, Firestreak hadn't suffered any nausea on this long flight across the Equestrian Ocean. Perhaps he had too many other things to worry about, to be bothered with airsickness?
It was just after midnight, June 6, 1944 and Firestreak was taking his soldiers into combat for the first time in his life. He was in charge of six Horsa gliders crammed with 150 paratroopers and 30 Lunar Engineers, due to crash-land in a muddy patchwork of Manehatten fields in only a few minutes time. His orders were to seize two enemy bridges only five hundred yards apart,six miles in land from the Manehatten beaches. After years of exhausting training and constant frustration of not being able to have a crack at the enemy, Firestreak was about to lead the very first strike of Operation Darkstorm.
It still seemed incredible to him, even though he'd known about his mission for several months, ever since his Brigadier had summoned him to a confidential meeting at company headquarters.
"You must take these bridges intact," the Brigadier told him, slapping his desk to emphasize the point. "A glider raid is the only way to do it. Land your forces right next to each bridge and overwhelm the Solar Empire defenders before they know what hit them."
"You mean a Coup de main operation, sir?" Firestreak suggested. "A sudden strike?"
"Precisely," snapped the Brigadier. "Hit hard and fast and don't fail me. The whole eastern flank of our invasion army could be at risk if you fail."
"At risk from two small bridges?" Firestreak asked in amazement. "How can that be, sir?"
The Brigadier got up from his desk and stepped over to the fireplace where a pile of logs was crackling away. He spoke quietly as he stared intently into the flames.
"The Solar Empire is still a formidable fighting machine. One of their greatest skills is organizing immediate counter attacks, even under intense pressure. There's a crack Solar Empire armored division based at a small town a few miles away from the bridges. General Drachen thinks they will redeploy within hours of the invasion starting and make an all out assault. If those tanks rip into our eastern flank, they could push the landing forces back into the waves."
"And these bridges" asked Firestreak, "are they the only route to the beaches?"
"They're one of the quickest," replied the Brigadier. "And that's why we need them. And the mastermind of Celestia's Equestrian Wall, Field Marshal Flash Sentry, needs them as well. Flash Sentry's said that any beach landing has to be repelled quickly, or the battle for the Manehatten beaches will be lost. He thinks the fight will be decided in one day. He even calls it the Longest Day, according to my intelligence sources."
"Then we'll do our best for you,sir, " said Firestreak.
"Make sure you do," answered the Brigadier, with a rare smile. "Now pick your soldiers wisely, and make your plans..."
All around him in the cramped fuselage of the glider, Firestreaks NO.1 Platoon sang songs, chatted and chain-smoked. While his soldiers tried to enjoy their last moments before going into battle, the Major went over his plan of attack. He couldn't stop himself from checking it as he had done a thousand times before, for any flaw or weakness. Firestreak knew it had to be perfect.
In a minute or two, the four engine Halifax bombers towing the gliders would release their cables, and the assault group would be on their own over enemy territory. The gliders would split into two groups, then crash-land next to their respective targets. After scrambling out of the aircraft, Firestreaks soldiers had to rout the enemy infantry entrenched around the area before the Lunar Engineers could check the bridges for demolition charges.
The assault team was due to be relieved by a strong force from the 6th Airborne Division, landing at 00:50. It was a bold plan, the sort of mission that would make most soldiers tremble in their boots. But Firestreak and his soldiers weren't ordinary soldiers.
New Lunar Republic Paratroopers were the cream of the countries armed forces. Only the Shadowy Nightmare Rangers could claim to rival them in fighting quality, but they operated outside the regular regimental system. Established as an elite division in 1942 by Major General 'Steel' Storm hoofs , paratroopers were trained to be fitter and more resolute than the average soldier. A 'para' always had his/her objective in mind and never swerved from it, no matter how tough the going. The regimental motto was a good illustration of this mental determination: GO TO IT.
To make them distinctive within the armed forces, paratroopers wore a dark blue beret - earning them the nickname 'Lunar Devils' - from Solar Empire soldiers. Their uniform carried the symbol of Nightmare Moon, this menacing touch had been suggested by no other than Princess Luna herself, showing the menacing fighting capabilities of the paratroopers.
Firestreak was a good example of the type of stallion that made it into the paratroopers. He was from a large, working-class family where money had always been short, and had worked his way up through the ranks on merit alone. Ambitious and energetic, he led his soldiers by example, joining them on the punishing Cross-country runs and route marches that were part of an everyday life In the regiment. It was a matter of personal pride that his soldiers had been chosen for the raid and Firestreak had done everything possible to prepare them.
For weeks, the six platoons had been carrying out mock attacks on a specially constructed model on the outskirts of the New Lunar City. The bridge at Manehatten -codenamed Crescent- had a detachment of 50 soldiers. Five hundred yards to the east, Ranville bridge -codenamed Eclipse- was less heavily defended and was surrounded by open country. Because of the threat of counterattack from the troops stationed at the town a few miles away from the bridges, Firestreak intended to establish his headquarters at a pillbox on the east side of the Crescent bridge, and keep the bulk of his force there. Each soldier knew his job inside out, and could take the place of any fallen comrade. The raid called for courageous leadership, and Firestreak had picked his platoon officers with great care, entrusting NO.1 Platoon -the first to storm Crescent bridge- to one of his closest friends, Lieutenant Rapidfire. If all went well, the assault would be over in minutes, without the single loss of a single soldier.
But Firestreak knew that there was some risks that were outside his control. The Solar Empire defenders were well armed with Schmeisser Sub-machine guns- known as the MP-40, -Grenades-, MG-42 heavy machine guns and, at Crescent bridge a 50mm anti-tank gun. If the gunners saw or heard the aircraft approach, they would blow them out of the sky. Bullets could easily tear through the plywood and cloth walls of a gliders fuselage, ripping into the unprotected paratroopers.
To fortify their positions, the defenders had laid a razor-wire perimeter around the fields next to the bridges. This was another reason why the gliders had to land so close to their target, to clear a path through the razor-wire. There were other, more sinister threats to the mission. The enemy had planted tree-trunks and telegraph poles around key positions all over Manehatten, linking them together with heavy cables. Some of the cables were primed with explosives. These poles, known as 'Flash Sentry's Asparagus' by the New Lunar Republic soldiers, could rip the belly out of a glider before it even touched the ground.
But Firestreak's greatest worry had nothing to do with the Solar Empire: it concerned his own soldiers. They were untested in battle. How would they perform under fire, when a second's hesitation or panic could mean death? There was no way of knowing how they -or Firestreak himself for that matter- might react to the shock of combat. But the commander placed all his trust in his soldiers and and his training. All the same, like so many other soldiers going off to war, he carried a good luck charm. The gruff major, dressed in battle fatigues and with camouflage paint smeared over his face, had a small picture of his wife and his two-year-old son.
At 12:07 the gliders dropped their towlines and got into formation, each group of three flying in sequence, one minute apart. The soldiers stopped singing, retreating into their own private thoughts as the pilots banked and turned, searching for their targets.
At 12:14, there was a shout from the cockpit of the first glider: "Get ready. We're on the approach."
Staff Sergeant Blaze of the Glider Pilot Regiment was trying to keep his course straight, aiming directly for the silhouette of a low bridge looming up a few miles ahead. With no propeller power, overburdened and at the mercy of the summer air currents, the glider was nearly impossible to control. Firestreak was sitting at the front of the glider and could see sweat dripping off the pilots forehead as he struggled with the joystick. In the eerie silence of the night, everypony waited for the touchdown, and the immediate thunder of enemy gunfire they expected to accompany it.
As soon as the undercarriage hit the ground, Blaze knew he was going too fast. "Stream," he yelled over to his copilot, indicating that they would need the emergency parachute to bring the glider to a halt. There was so many sparks and flashes coming from the landing 'skids' as they scraped across the earth, the paratroopers thought they were already coming under fire. Their glider bounced back into the air, then came crashing down to the ground with a huge crash, as the nose section plunged into a wall of razor wire and stopped dead in its tracks. The halt was so sudden, both pilots were launched through the glass front of the glider and landed, unconscious in the lush, Manehatten grass.
Firestreak was convinced that he'd been injured in the crash; he was deaf and blind. His head ached, there was total silence and he was in darkness. Soon, he heard the other paratroopers around him stirring, groaning, and checking their bodies for cuts and broken limbs. His hearing was fine -but where was the gunfire? Surely, the Maremacht must have heard the crash? Why hadn't they opened up with their MG-42'S? With his heart racing, Firestreak gingerly raised his hoofs to examine his eyes, only to discover that his helmet was rammed down over the bridge of his muzzle. When the glider bounced he must have been thrown up against the fuselage and hit his head. With a sigh of relief, he pushes his helmet off his muzzle to find himself looking up at the night sky. The glider doors had been ripped off on landing and Firestreak watched lieutenant Rapidfire's platoon staggering out into the moonlight, assembling for the attack. Only Fifty yards away, towering over a line of trees, the steel girders of Pegasus bridge stood waiting.
In a display of piloting brilliance that was later described by the commander of the New Lunar Republic Air Force as "one of the most outstanding flying achievements of the war," blaze had landed them on 'the button' within sight of the target.
Only seconds later, Lieutenant Rapidfire called "come on boys," and lead is platoon out of the field and over an earth embankment. The lieutenant was a powerful, athletic 26- year- old Pegasus who was a Wonderbolt before the separation of the New Lunar Republic and the Solar Empire. Screaming a battle cry that cut through the night, he waved his foreleg for his soldiers to follow and sprinted towards the bridge.
Private Helmut Romer, a 16-year-old Earth Pony novice soldier, was one of the two Solar Empire sentries guarding Pegasus Bridge that morning. He had heard the thud of something crash into a field, but thought it was part of a damaged enemy aircraft or an un exploded bomb falling to the ground. After months of New Lunar Republic air raids, he didn't pay much attention to every strange sound he heard when he was on duty. But if Romer didn't trust his ears, he couldn't doubt his eyes. His mouth fell open as he saw more than twenty New Lunar Republic paratroopers charge out of the treeline. While three of the raiders turned off to attack the pillbox with grenades, lieutenant Rapidfire led the others across the bridge, yelling their war cries at the top of their lungs. They had blackened faces, and wore full camouflage dress; their lightweight M1 Thompson sub-machine guns attached to their combat harnesses came to life as they open fired on the defenders.
Romer knew he was no match for the feared Lunar Devils, so he turned and ran. The other sentry was tougher; he managed to keep his nerve long enough to fire a warning flare into the sky. As the sleepy Solar Empire soldiers in the trenches saw the flare and realized they were under attack, the second glider smashed into the field, only yards from the first. Lieutenant Highwinds gathered her soldiers and rushed in to join NO.1 Platoon.
Rapidfire and his troops were fighting their way across the bridge, firing grenades from launchers in their combat harnesses and firing long-automatic bursts. Most of the Solar Empire defenders were to stunned or terrified to put up a fight, but some of their officers were veterans of the Eastern Front. They came to their senses, firing their MP-40'S at the attackers and running to man the MG-42'S in the pillboxes.
As Rapidfire reached the western end of the bridge, he saw movement in the nest to his right and he launched a grenade over it's sandbag wall. Before it could explode, a burst of machine gun fire from a nearby MG-42 tears into his neck. He was lifted off his hoofs by the explosion from his grenade, and slammed down onto the road, mortally wounded. The battle raged around him as he lays on the cold pavement dying, bleeding out from his bullet wound in his neck, the first New Lunar Republic soldier to be killed by enemy fire on Operation Darkstorm.
That moment, the third glider arrived, landing just north of the other two. It was another sudden stop, and Lieutenant Fleetfoot shot out the front of the glider and found herself stretched out on the grass, staring up at the stars.
"Well," said one of her soldiers, rushing over, "what are you waiting for, mam?"
Fleetfoot struggled to her hoofs and, despite the shock of the crash-landing, plunged into the battle. Her platoon had orders to assist Rapidfire's platoon and secure the western approach to the bridge. With small-arms fire buzzing all around them, Fleetfoot drove her soldiers forward. As she reached the end of Pegasus bridge, she noticed a Solar Empire soldier leap up, poised to launch a grenade. She managed to shoot him down with a burst from her M1 Thompson, but the grenade landed at her hooves and she was caught in the blast.
When she dusted herself off, Fleetfoot saw that a little bit of her right hoof was blown off and there was deep gashes all over her forelegs. Ignoring the pain, she pushed forward, firing bursts from her M1 Thompson and shouting encouragement to her soldiers as they struggled onward. Fleetfoot was later awarded the Lunar Cross for her courage.
By now, the battle was drawing to a close, but still there were stubborn pockets of Solar Empire defenders. At the eastern end of the bridge, lieutenant Misty Fly took three bullets in her hind leg from a sniper and crashed to the ground in agony. All three platoon officers had now been hit, but the bridge had belonged to the paratroopers.
At 00:22, Major Firestreak set up his headquarters in the captured pillbox. The bridge was his and, despite the odd sniper shot, there was little enemy activity. A captain from the Lunar Engineers reported that the area was clear of explosives and booby traps. In fact, the commander of the bridge garrison, Major Hans Schmidt, had ordered them to be removed because he was more worried about sabotage by the Lunar Resistance. The first phase of the mission was complete, but there was a heavy price to pay. Firestreak's No.2 and No.3 platoon leaders were severely wounded, and lieutenant Rapidfire was dead. Controlling the emotions he felt at the loss of his friend, Firestreak waited for news from Crescent bridge, and the fate of his No.4,5 and 6 platoons.
But the landings around Crescent bridge had not gone smoothly. At 00:20, Lieutenant Wave Chill , commanding No.6 platoon, came down 300 yards from his target. The two gliders that were supposed to precede him had drifted off the landing zone. Lieutenant Soarin and No.5 platoon came down half a mile away, while Lieutenant Lightning Streak's No.4 platoon landed eight miles off-target. Even though his platoon was alone Wind Chill didn't hesitate to attack. The Solar Empire defenders could hear the rattle of gunfire at Crescent bridge and were already alerted to the imminent attack. A long burst from a MG-42 almost stopped them, but sergeant Shadowstorm, according to Wind Chill the platoons most capable stallion, was ready with a light mortar. An expert shot, he scored a direct hit on the machine gun nest and No.6 platoon was able to resume the attack.
As No.6 platoon stormed the bridge, screaming their war cries and firing their M1 Thompsons, the Solar Empire defenders jumped out of their trenches and ran into the night. By 00:26, Firestreak had news on his field radio that Pegasus bridge was secured. He ordered No.6 and his platoon to wait for No.5 platoon to dig in then join the defenders at Pegasus bridge. Soarin's soldiers in No.5 platoon had arrived moments after the attack and were rather disappointed to miss out on the fight. With both bridges captured, the greatest threat to Firestreak's mission was a counter attack from the Solar Empire in the small town a few miles away from the bridges. According to intelligence reports, there was even the possibility that the garrison there had a number of medium tanks - and the paratroopers were only lightly armed. Firestreak estimated his reinforcements from the 6th Airborne would arrive by 01:00, but he was well aware that these soldiers could be delayed; high winds and inaccurate navigation were the curse of many Operation Dark storm parachute missions. If an attack came before the relief force reached them, Firestreak's soldiers would simply have to hold their ground.
The first skirmish wasn't at Pegasus bridge, but at the eastern end of Crescent bridge, when soarin's soldiers shot and killed a passing enemy patrol. Minutes later, they ambushed a staff car that was racing towards the bridge. The passenger turned out to be no other than Major Hans Schmidt, returning to base after enjoying a night out with his Manehatten mistress. His injuries were treated carefully, despite his ranting about the 'Solar Princess' and the general hopelessness of the paratroopers situation.
At 01:00 there was still no sign of the reinforcements. Firestreak sent Wind Chill and his platoon to take up positions around the road junction leading to Pegasus bridge.
"You'd better take a PIAT with you," he warned his officer. "Our guests will be here soon. "
There was already a steady rumble, like approaching thunder, coming from the heart of the town. The Solar Empire garrison was warming up their tanks for action.
At 01:30, Wind Chill and his platoon noticed a tremor in the earth beneath them. The sound of engines and shouts was getting louder, and suddenly they saw the menacing shape of a Solar Empire tank lurch out of the darkness along the road. Two other tanks and a body of infantry followed in the rear.
"I think you're the stallion for the job," Wind Chill whispered to Sergeant Shadowstorm, sending him forward with the PIAT as he straps the anti-tank weapon to the right side of his combat harness. With every nerve tingling, Shadowstorm dropped into a trench and takes aim at the at the lead tank. It was a Solar Eclipse Mk. IV, 24 tons of hardened steel, rumbling towards the bridge at walking speed. Shadowstorm carefully adjusted the sights on his PIAT. This was the only weapon the Paratroopers carried that stood a chance on stopping a tank.
The Projector Infantry Anti-Tank was the New Lunar Republic's version of the normal infantry bazooka. It was powerful but difficult to load and could only penetrate the thick hull of a Solar Empire tank at short range. Shadowstorm knew if he missed, or if the shell bounced off the steel hull of the tank, there would be no time to reload. As soon as he revealed his position, the tanks machine gunner would cut him down. If he missed, the tank would force his fellow paratroopers from the bridge, and the Solar Empire would have a clear road to the Manehatten beaches. The sergeant could feel the sweat breaking out across his back as the tank relentlessly pushed towards him. He had only seconds to play with, to make the most important shot of his life.
Waiting until the last possible moment, Shadowstorm fired a shell 'point blank' into the side of the enemy tank and watched it explode into flames. It was a hit, the blast set off a chain reaction , as the shells and ammunition loaded inside the tank
began to detonate. For twenty minutes the area around the enemy tank was a fireball, lighting up the sky. The other Solar Empire soldiers thought the explosions were all the work of the enemy,and decided they must be facing a large, heavily armed force. Their commander ordered an immediate retreat.
A few minutes later, the first reinforcements arrived from the 6th Airborne Division. Captain Spitfire was among them.
With the arrival of the relief force, Firestreak's mission was accomplished. General Stryker later presented him with the DLSO, the Distinguished Lunar Service Order, for his bravery on Operation Dark storm. In a few hours, the Manehatten beach landings would begin, without any risk from enemy armored battalions from the east. The Lunar Devils had scored the first victory for the invasion, and proved their mettle beyond any doubt