World War Two RPG

"A Leap of Faith"
Operation Husky
Tunisia
July 9, 1943
1800 Hours

The tension hangs in the air as you are assembled on the airfield to make last minute checks of your equipment and weapons. Many Soldiers go over their weapons one last time or readjust their gear constantly. You all know you are going to be the first US Parachute Regiment to make a combat jump into enemy territory and the honor couldn't go to a better group. Colonel Gavin will be sure to lead you all through what will happen. You all have your orders and the unit leaders are making their last checks on their men...

Bill walks about the ready areas when he notices his friend and fellow squad leader, Frank Cress, checking over his gear. "Hey Frank, did you hear anything from Dave I think? The sarge hooked up in the HQ of Dog Co yet? I haven't seen the guy myself other than that final briefing in the hangar bay!"

Frank looks up, "No what happened? I heard one of the 'Sky Train Boys' shot himself in the foot to get out of the Operation. Can you believe that? We get a chance to finally see action and he shoots himself in the foot!"

"Nah, but I heard tell that a certain guy named West is pretty handy with that new Bazooka he just got issued with. I mean, how much training did that guy get? Hell, I can do some good shooting on a good day of hunting in Wisconsin, but from what I heard, West would put me to shame on a target range."

"Shit! If he trained any more than the rest of us with that hunk of metal he must have been shooting rockets day and night. I wonder who he got to be his loader during those all night training sessions? Those HQ Section guys could listen in on what the officers or discussing though he may not know anymore than what they told us at the briefings."

"I bet Dave or you may have heard about that one I bet. Really Frank, I didn't know that part, interesting, then I just bet if, whats this guys first name... Thomas or something?? He might be able to talk to some of the HQ platoon guys and get the real scoop on intel of what we may be running into, be it tanks, infantry, maybe some SS God forbid!"

Frank coughs, "I'll see if I can talk to him. Maybe weasel a little information out of him."

"Ya Ya, I know Frank, when you have time and see the guy, just give me a heads up, And make sure if you see any tank crews about, ask if they ever met my brother, would ya? It means a lot to the family and me." Bill says smiling.

"Anything you need. You might need a can opener to get inside of those tanks though."

"Thanks bud, you watch my back when the action gets going over there, and I'll watch yours, O.K.?" Frank replies, miming shooting a Garand.

"I'll see you on the DZ Bill."

West looks around as he slings his musette bag from his legs and stuffs his last extra pair of socks in it. He looks at the bazooka on the ground and wonders if he'll see it again.

"Hey Miller. You might as well take this thing to our plane to get packed in the equipment bags."

"Yeah, Hopefully it makes it near us."

"I know, make sure you have all the ammo we're supposed to have. I don't want to come up short in a fight against tanks." West says.

"Yeah, I got me as much as I can carry." Miller replies smiling.

"Well I need to get my carbine slung, can you pick it up for me?" West asks, shrugging underneath his gear.

"James I can't even open my fly to piss, let alone bend over." Miller says laughing.

"You're right." West says as he tries to figure a way to pick up his carbine.

"Alright Frank, get your squad moving and see if they have any extra Bazooka rounds to pack in for West, it may help us!! The pace is picking up so we need to get on the plane and get settled down here..... Got it Cress??"

"Yeah, except he has all the rounds he needs and that they are going to give him, he ain't from our platoon Bill."

Bill nods and walks back to his squad as they are struggling to stand up and check each other over one last time before boarding the planes.

"I don't know if Tom can fit anymore rounds on his person. He is practically a walking rocket round as far as I have heard. He took as many extra rounds as his musette bag could hold."

"My boys are probably waiting for me on the plane. Have fun with the HQ boys."

Frank tugs on the brim of his helmet and nods. "I hope those Navy boys are awake." Frank calls back over his shoulder as he begins one final check down with his Corporal.

40 minutes later...

Its been about 10 minutes since you've boarded the C-47s and they took off and grouped for trip to the drop zones. The feeling of taking off as the first American airborne forces to jump into combat is elating and you all spare quick thoughts to your training trying to remember the basics. Things won't be as easy as a simple training jump. Thats just the beginning of a few uneasy thoughts that begin to build in your minds...

What the HELL!! Thinks Ryker as he finally wakes up from a sleep to conserve energy and calm his thoughts down a bit. s over and notices Lieutenant Allan slumped over.

"Allan!! Allan!! talk to me...MEDIC!! Get your ass over here! Where is the guy?" Ryker yells out as he attempts to stand up.

One of the squad guys yell back "Oh God! He's dead Sarge!"

As the chaos inside the C-47 is bathed in red light Ryker looks around and notices the scared faces of us squad and others as the front man yells and tries to give them the proper commands in the place of the Lieutenant. Everything is bathed in an ugly green as the light turns from red to green.

"Alright, check your gear, see who is behind you and start getting out of the plane like its going down, it may just do that! I'll be the last guy out, so go go GO! Good luck men and I'll see you on the ground!" Ryker yells. Everyone hooks up in a frenzy and Bill swears that they are checking their gear as they jump.

With that Bill shuts up and gets the remaining guys in his stick to get out of the plane as he stands up. As he leaves the plane, Ryker wonders how many guys will make it to the ground. As he finally exits the door the wind whips into his face and he can see the chaos around him as he notices that they are barely over the coast and that the fire is coming from the ships at sea. He can tell all ready that his stick will be scattered. With a sputter he makes out the plane he jumped from turning around as one of the engines dies. God I hope Allan makes it back to Africa. Bill hopes.

As the number five man in line Sgt. Cress can just see out the door of the C-47. "It doesn't look too bad out there," Cress thinks to himself. "It could have been a lot worse." The plane rattles and shakes as the pilots try to avoid as much flak as possible and still find the DZ. "How's it look?" Pvt. Orbell, behind Cress, screams into his ear.

"Kinda Rough!" Cress shouts back.

"No kidding," Cress grins at this response.

Before he can respond the plane gives a violent shudder and he is thrown into the metal seat pan. Climbing back to his feet Cress pats himself down and realizes that he is fine. "I hope no ones hit," he thinks. The last burst must have unnerved the pilots because the green light flashed on and S. Sgt. Peters was out the door. Cress shuffles closer to the door and all of a sudden he was in the open door frame staring out. "Here goes nothing," he thinks and leaps out into the night in proper Paratrooper fashion. (Random chance of injury 10% Roll:59) On the up-swing he can see a plane careening to the Earth. Looking down Cress sees the ground coming up fast and makes ready for a landing. His feet hit the ground and he flops onto his side. Scrambling to his feet he frees himself of main and reserve chute and takes a bearing of his surroundings. "Welcome to Italy," he says aloud to no one in particular.

West barely made it out of the C-47 and nodded at Sergeant Ryker as he passed him. It was too dark and Ryker wasn't looking. Regardless he followed the other troopers out the door and kicked his legs straight, waited the time for his reserve chute, which he didn't need (Random chance of injury= 10% Rolled: 86.) and he looked around him as German AA guns were still firing, almost wildly around him. He needed to find the equipment bag and fast. His bazooka was in there, and he felt better when he was holding it. Before he knew it the ground came up to meet him and he hit it bent legged and flopped over properly. The chute was dragging him a little but he quickly worked to stand up, and he fought back and pulled his lines and chute together. Pfc West had just arrived at Sicily...

Pvt Miller had been right after the other Miller in the platoon, West's assistant bazooka man. Miller exited with a bit of a bad exit as he hit the slipstream and his parachute furled out and caught the air, he began spinning around as his lines untwisted. He reached up and helped them along as he floated down the short distance. He could see other parachutes around him and looked down as he noticed he was headed for a small patch of trees. He tried to steer away from them but there these parachutes only had so much steer in them and it was too late. Miller scraped down through the trees branches and leaves breaking or scratching him as he went down and he stopped. (Random chance of injury 10% Roll:9 It was more like a random event, in this case he gets stuck in a tree.) He looked down and noticed it was only fifteen or so feet. He could just cut them and hope for the best, but all the thicker tree limbs were that way too. Pvt Miller sighed as he realized his first combat jump was all ready off to a bad start.

Bill walks towards the left stand of trees where he thought he saw something, (Spot, DC20, Rolled: 4) he doesn't see something as much as he hears it. (Listen, DC15, Rolled: 18) Ryker looks up, almost laughing a bit, because it reminds him of his "tree time" when he did his first training jump... But this is combat Ryker thinks to himself, no time to daydream now.

He can see Miller, cursing as he uses his lowering rope to bring himself to the ground.

"Hey, is that you Miller? Are you ok? Just some scraped skin and all from the tree bark, or do you feel anything more serious? I don't want to cut ya down and cause more injuries."

"Is that you Sergeant Ryker? I'm a bit lost, I don't see anything else from up here." Miller replies.

Bill takes a quick look around to see if he can spot any other troopers, be it his troops or someone from another plane, As well as looking for the enemy.

"Where in God's name am I?" Sergeant Cress said out loud to no one in particular.

"Your in Italy...where else would you be...France?" The response came from his left.

Staff Sergeant Peters materialized out of the dark with a massive grin on his face. "I meant where in Italy Benny." Cress was still frantically assembling his M1.

"Uh I would guess Sicily. Get that thing assembled so we can get out of here. Its quiet and kinda spooky."

"You afraid of the dark Sarge?"

"No just being alone with you works me up sometimes. Lets try and find the others." Staff Sergeant Peters surveyed the surroundings for any signs of others before setting off in the direction of the planes. Cress followed him and got one last word in on the conversation, "Wise-ass!"

'Were in God's name is everyone?' Sgt. Cress thought to himself. So far only five men, including himself and S/Sgt Peters, had arrived from the entire platoon. His own assistant, Cpl. Jamie Bynum, and Pvt. Alec Gist, from his squad, plus Pvt. Edgar Harding from first squad had formed what could be considered a perimeter around the rally point. Cress figured that this probably wasn't the rally point but it was the closest that they could to the actual rally point.

"Sarge I see something," that was Cpl. Bynum.

"What is it?"

"It looks like a trooper. Maybe one of ours." But just in case Cress heard the safeties flick off of four rifles.

"Who goes there?"