Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Eighty-One
30th March 1962
Incheon, Korea
Standing at the rail, Louis saw that crowds of people who watching the Battleships come into port. They had traveled in radio silence halfway around the world and had announced their arrival by pasting what was believed to be several Chinese Divisions and a few costal batteries. They had fired a few salvos of the experimental anti-personnel shells and it was yet to be seen just how effective the things were. Louis understood the concept of airburst. He also understood that the Navy liked redundancy, evidently the Admiral had as well. So, they had fired a few salvos of high explosive shells to make sure that whoever was ashore was really unhappy.
Not that it was an entirely one-sided affair. All the Battleships had taken hits from coastal artillery and missiles. Mostly it had done little more than scorch the paint, but the Rhineland had taken a troubling hit on the face of her Caesar Turret. It was still trying to be ascertained just how much damage the 42cm guns had taken. The SMS Baier had one of her radar arrays completely destroyed which was considerably easier to fix.
“Looks like we get to be heroes” Louis said.
“Perhaps” Udi replied.
“What do you mean? Perhaps?”
“Look for yourself” Udi said, and he pointed to a section of the pier that already had a ship moored to it. Louis recognized her, the SMS Prinzessin Marie. The vast white ship with the red cross painted on it was a hive of activity, helicopters circling, and ambulances lined up on the pier. There was a war going on and they had played only a relatively minor role in it so far.
As the SMS Brandenburg passed the hospital ship, Louis saw men sitting on the deck staring back at him. These were the lucky ones, those who weren’t injured badly enough to die if they were forced to wait. Even so, they looked like they had been run through a meat grinder. Then it occurred to Louis that these were men from the 3rd Marine Infantry, Udi’s Division even if he was currently on detached duty.
Cholsan, Korea
“The Chinese weren’t sure what to do with him, so they brought him here” Parker said.
The rest of the Squad was trying to wrap their heads around what had happened. For as long as the 1st SFG had been around Jonny had been there. Everyone knew that he was the toughest bastard in their outfit, larger than life and indestructible. Yet here Jonny was, just one of a still unknown number of men killed when the road had come under heavy shellfire. They were able to identify him with his dog tags, otherwise he would have been too much of a mess.
“It’s like God is watching and rolling the dice” Huck said, “Sooner or later, your luck runs out.”
“My mom would say that God had less to do with it than just taking too many chances” Ritchie said, “
No one disagreed with that. They all knew that Jonny had pushed his luck a thousand times and had always come out ahead until this. He had also been outspoken in his belief that their mission to China was a shitshow waiting to happen. Time would tell if he was correct or not. Either way, they all had a bad feeling that Jonny wouldn’t be the last one to be sent home in a box.
Mitte, Berlin
To Emil’s astonishment, BMW was happy with the results so far in the ongoing Motorcycle Grand Prix season. They had even discussed incorporating features from the racing motorcycle into the upcoming model year. If only the rest of Emil’s life could have similar examples of clear-cut success.
Maria and Zella were fighting again. This time it was the sort of battle that Emil knew all too well that as a father he would be on dangerous ground if he got involved. Still he didn’t like having his wife and daughter at odds with each other. It seemed that Maria had learned a few things about Zella’s personal life recently that she didn’t approve of.
When Emil had pointed out that while Maria had some good points, Zella was legally an adult and that Maria was overstepping her bounds by trying to assert control of her. He had earned himself a withering look from Maria. After that he had stopped trying to mediate between the two of them. That didn’t stop the two of them from complaining. Zella thought that Maria was controlling, old-fashioned and closeminded. It was an extremely ironic thing to believe about Maria. At the same time, Maria thought that Zella was irresponsible, selfish and immature. Emil didn’t disagree with Maria, but he knew that Zella would be forced to grow up eventually.
It all came to a head when Emil got a call to the phone line in his office. It seemed that Zella had landed in the hospital and she was afraid of Maria’s reaction when she learned what had happened. She had waited until she knew Maria had left for work and made the call. It had been when Emil asked the obvious question that Zella had gotten vague and evasive.
Minutes later, Emil had arrived at the hospital only to get intercepted by Oberstarzt Berg. He knew the Doctor worked closely with his brother and specialized in “Female issues” so it was hardly a surprise that she would be involved.
“The last thing Marcella needs right now is for you to be judgmental” Berg said, “She is going through an extremely hard time and there is already a great deal of self-recrimination involved. That is usually true in a case like this.”
“I get that” Emil replied, “How is Zella? Can you tell me?”
“She is young, and I expect a full recovery, eventually” Berg said, “Did she tell you what happened?”
“She was reluctant to say exactly, she was in the hospital because she started bleeding unexpectedly” Emil said, “She went out of her way to avoid her mother which says a great deal.”
“I’m not surprised” Berg said, “She gave me permission to speak for her in this matter when you got here. The word she couldn’t bring herself to use with you is miscarriage. As I said, try not to be judgmental and do not bring that up with her before she is ready.”
“I see” Emil said, knowing how Maria would react to this. Stepping into the hospital room, Emil saw Zella staring at the ceiling. Her eyes were puffy, so he knew that she had been crying. He could recall many times when she had been a child and had done the same thing when she had a particularly bad day. Emil sat down in the chair beside the bed. Back then and probably now as well, Zella would talk when she was ready to.
