Just a note because I realized after writing it some people may not understand, the term "Jabo" is an abbreviation of the German word Jagdbomber (Fighter Bomber in English) and is pronounced Ya-bow. Onto the story
The atmosphere inside the bunker was uneasy. A few of the men had been frantically asking Robin and the others who’d fallen back what the enemy numbers were, the weapons they had, if they had armour or other support. Outside of knowing tanks were in the area and that there were also paratroopers running around, she and the others didn’t know too much due to the sudden start and stop in the fighting.
Some of the men were jumpy, yelling that they’d seen something, arguing with one another. A Sergeant came into their bunker and began criticizing the troops for their behaviour, everyone became more orderly under his command.
“Reinforcements are coming up from the south and east, we only need to hold this bunker line for a few hours. If we can do that, our tanks will arrive and force the EUF back out of the forest allowing us to potentially launch a strike to reclaim parts of the Academy City.” The Sergeant said.
Robin found it to be an excellent speech, it managed to rally the nerves of everyone in the bunker because they all knew that there actually were armoured divisions that had been sent to the south earlier in the retreat.
Looking at her watch, Robin realized it was broken, likely during the strafing attacks. She figured it was around eleven a.m. judging by the amount of time that had passed since the horrible experience. Once again looking around the bunker, she felt sure that the thick concrete walls of the bunker would hold out, and that the line would hold strong.
Squinting along her mg sight, she constantly scanned the flooded zone along with a sunken road that led up to their position. Constantly having to wipe sweat and dust from her eyes, the bunker had become incredibly humid and dark as the generator keeping the vents and lights running failed. Taking another look around, she noticed her heart was pounding from the anticipation of the incoming attack, she knew every other soldier probably felt the exact same way as they leaned into their weapons, ready.
Expecting a ground attack, Robin as well as everyone else remained silent as a sudden call came out.
“Air attack!” a voice screamed.
The EUF was determined to deny them the ability to fight in that way.
“Jabo! Fighter bombers!” another man yelled, able to identify the incoming aircraft.
Robin lowered herself to look up through the concrete slit and she was able to make out a horizontal line of three aircraft diving at their position.
The sun reflected off their surfaces as if they were made of bare metal as they streaked down over the marshes and began their attack run. There was absolutely nothing Robin or anyone could do, though she and a few others armed with machine guns tried to perform some anti-air fire, but the aircraft was simply too fast, it was a futile effort.
The flak cannon began firing, Robin could watch as the tracers snaked through the air toward the incoming planes. To her amazement, some of the shells found their target and smashed into a wing of one of the fighters. The aircraft began to pull its nose up and bank away sharply as fire began to grow on the wing. The other two planes, undeterred, continued coming at the bunker line.
At probably one hundred metres in height, she watched as the bombs under the aircraft’s wings detached and fell towards them. Throwing herself onto the floor, the bombs fell short but skipped along the ground like stones right into the bunker line. One bomb skipped straight through the gap between the bunkers and exploded behind them, and one made a hard impact on the roof of Robin's bunker but didn’t explode until behind the line. The other two bombs detonated and Robin looked out of the slit to assess the damage.
She could see that one of the bombs had hit the bunker to their left, it was covered in dust and smoke, but also appeared to have survived the hit. Throwing herself on the floor again as the sound of more planes diving began to become louder, another eight waves of fighter bombers came and attacked them.
The flak had hit another aircraft during the earlier waves, Robin saw this. The aircraft was hit in the engine and both wings causing it to explode in the air. Unlike the previous hit fighter, this one didn’t lift from its attack and continued straight at the bunker line, smashing into the ground left of Robin’s bunker straight into the vehicle depot. She couldn’t see the impact, but felt the force of the explosion from that side of the building, knowing ammunition and fuel had just been detonated.
Looking up again, she peered out the slit right as another bomb exploded in the slit trench in front of her. Many pieces of men, weapons and clothing all mixed together in the shockwave. Giving up looking out of the slit after this, she just sat with her back against the wall with her hands over her ears to try and protect her hearing.
Many pieces of shrapnel and concrete blasted through the apertures and ricocheted around the interior, hitting some of the men, but not wounding them. One of the loaders for the anti-tank gun, a young boy who looked only 17 broke down and began screaming.
The other loader grabbed him and threw him to the ground, lying on top of him to prevent him from running. Robin felt bad for the man, but also knew that they couldn’t tolerate a breakdown of discipline.
After only two minutes, the attack was over. Cracks had formed in the bunker roof and large chunks were missing from the tops of the embrasures. Some of the masonry had finally given out and crushed some of the men's limbs, pinning and breaking arms and legs. All those poor men could do was lie on the floor of the bunker and wait for the situation to end.
Believing the bombs had finally stopped, Robin brought herself up to look out of the slit and through all the smoke and dust, she could see the bunker on the right had been partially blown open, there was a large hole in one side. The trench that had been hit was a horrible mess, with many bodies smouldering and dismembered.
Explosions and fire could again be heard starting from the left side of the bunker, out of her view. About to try and get a better look, another yell came out.
“Jabo, again!”
Robin looked back out of her slit to see new fighter bombers approaching, but she recognized the white streaks of light and vapour trails coming from the wings as rockets being fired. She had never seen a rocket explosion from an aircraft attack close up before and did not know what to expect.
The warheads were using an incendiary material that exploded with a very intense white light. As the first rocket impacted, a hissing sound could be heard as some type of material began expanding in the air, shooting small flakes of itself in all directions as they too began to expand. The white flames began to enter the slits and massive hole inside the bunker to the right as it emitted a strange hissing sound.
The rest of the rockets impacted all around the defensive line, covering large areas in the incendiary substance. One of the rockets impacted in front of the anti-tank gun aperture in Robin's bunker, the explosion blinding everyone that was inside for a moment. Robin looked towards the anti-tank gun crew and watched as the burning white fragments began pouring through the aperture.
In moments, the entire gun was covered with the blinding incendiary. It covered the anti-tank gun crew and sank into their ammunition pile. Complete panic and disorder ensued as the burning material expanded, consuming even more, including the man weeping on the ground and several of the injured men who’d been moved nearby.
The uniforms of these men peeled off in scorched pieces and their bare skin was set aflame by the burning material. The flames that had covered the anti-tank gun ammo caused one of the shells to detonate, the projectile flying and ricocheting around the bunker, maiming and killing men with every pass, the red glow of the tracer fully visible.
Someone finally managed to throw open the massive steel door at the back of the bunker and Robin hurled herself toward the direction of the light. Men were literally fighting each other to get out of the bunker. Robin managed to get through, tripping over the body of a man lying on the ground with his hair on fire. She scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could a few metres away from the structure before making a horrible mistake.
Turning around and looking back through the door and into the bunker, she was certain she was staring into something from the inferno. The interior of the bunker was a vision of Hell, an obscene sight that was going to stay with her. The white burning material was still expanding, burning alive everyone who was still trying to escape. Men rolling around and screaming in the flames, others crawling and clawing at the walls, trying to find the way out, their faces covered in smoke because their clothing was on fire.
More and more ammunition began exploding causing tracer to fly screaming from one wall to another, tearing up the bodies of men with each pass. Robin backed away from the door as a handful more men staggered out the door, their backs and legs on fire as they stumbled past her and collapsed.
Finally, unable to look away until now, the only visible thing left in the bunker was the white incendiary as it still hissed and expanded, the only audible noise from the hissing being the screaming and groaning of men, along with ammunition detonations and the last salvo of rockets exploding into their line.
Robin shook herself and looked around for guidance. Her bunker had been destroyed from the inside and the bunker on the right appeared to suffer the same fate, evident by the massive white flame billowing from the large hole blown into the structure. She watched as men from that bunker also ran for safety, or just stood there in shock. Looking to the left bunker, she saw that all its apertures were billowing the white flame as well, though she also noticed the steel door was still closed, explosions sounding from inside.
Nearby, the vehicle depot was completely on fire, a few bombs had impacted the area and the fighter bomber that had been shot down was still burning amidst the flipped and wrecked vehicles.
Robin turned around to see she was on the edge of a crater. Looking down into it, she saw the mangled remains of the single flak cannon and its crew.
By @MrPwong
