A tale of two worlds

The Battle of Horst’s Ferry.

Part Two.

A great cheer went up from the defenders, only to be stifled as they saw the looming shape of the zeppelin bomber appear!

HMMS Elgar’s crew had some luck with their Gatling gun (they had fired the RA crew by this point) in damaging the front weapon of the lead spider but disaster struck as their engine conked out!  Unable to use their main weapon, the crew valiantly swept the approaching Prussian units with their machine guns as behind them units began to fall back.

The last of the attack ships swept by the semaphore tower, small arms fire bouncing off it as it approached.   The British would have loved to have tried to board men by jumping off the semaphore tower into the hull but the movement dice didn’t allow it!

However, the ship then landed just adjacent to the ferry ramp ready to disgorge hordes (well, a dozen or so) crack troops and a secretive agent!   The refugees who by this time had almost reached the ramp milled around in horror as they saw their escape route blocked and got in the way of the Berkshires and Bombay infantry trying to get to the ship, led by the Corporal astride a horse he’d ‘borrowed’.

Meanwhile the bomber approached nearer as the Prussian infantry began their breakthrough with the second spider tank, and met the second line of defence at the rear of the ferry buildings. The Prussian assault troops leapt from their landed craft across the ramp, sweeping the ferry with flamethrowers that killed most of the crew, including Captain Shamrock. Luckily massed fire from a small unit of Indian infantry and the remaining crew killed enough of them to force their surrender. While they were taken prisoner and herded onto the boat (including the secret agent..) in front of an avalanche of refugees , soldiers and horses the remaining rear-guard poured everything they had at the bomber. “Java’ Thwaites put down his cup for only the second time that morning and pulled his signalling pistol slowly from a pouch.

The bomber came closer and obviously was about to ram as he fired into the ship, his phosphor flare setting two crew alight but alas not saving Semaphore tower 21, which with the great noise of tearing steel girders and splintering wood fell sideways over into the canal. The falling wreckage killing a number of the remaining rear-guard as they fled, firing over their shoulders.

The last of the refugees aboard and as many of the soldiers who could get to the ship in time, the ferry departed intact. None of the settlers had survived the assault and the Indians had been quite hard hit too. None of the naval brigade managed to escape, as HMMS Elgar and the first Spider mutually destroyed each other.

However, climbing aboard the ferry having survived a tremendous dive into the canal was signaller Thwaites, still clutching his best china cup. He had however lost the matching saucer…so the gloves were really off now.