The Longboats

General Hendricks stood on the parapet looking forward at the Greek army as they gathered only a few yards away from his trenches and there were thousands of them. From their look, they haven’t been resupplied for weeks or months with uniforms that were filthy, torn and ragged. All of the Greek soldiers looked tired and worn with some being held up by their comrades that were not wounded but just too weak to stand. They had the look of a defeated army.

As he stood there looking on, their commanding officer came forward from the rear of his troops, walking straight to him and halted a few feet from where he stood. The Greek General saluted then stood at attention, waiting for Hendricks to say something but Hendricks was without words at the sight.

“General!” Hendricks started, searching for words. “Do I have the honor of addressing the commanding officer of the Greek army?”

“Yes you do, sir!” The General said as he looked on with a very tired face.

“Do you surrender you army to us, sir?” He asked, trying to stay formal.

“I surrender my army on the entire front to you, sir.”

“Please! Stand at ease.” General Hendricks moved toward the General, sticking out his hand which the General took.

“I have sent the call to our cooks to prepare food for your men. I understand you have not eaten for several days?” Hendricks asked.

“That’s correct, sir. I appreciate your kindness.” The General could stand no longer and wavered in place, as if to fall. Hendricks grabbed him and held him up while one of the other Norse troops brought a chair.

“General.” Hendricks said as he looked down on the tired old man in a tattered uniform. “We have an entire nation to build. Will you be part of it?”

The General looked up slowly at General Hendricks with a blank face and a furrowed forehead.

“After what my troops have done to you, you still want us to be part of your growing society?” He leaned back in the chair looking at General Hendricks as if he were crazy.

“Everyone is welcomed into our society, General. Something we tried to tell you a long time ago but you refused to listen.”

The General lowered his head.

“It wasn’t us that refused to listen.” He simply said, then hung his head as if so tired he could hardly move. “I am glad this senseless war is over.”

Hagan had his boats in an inlet near Amsterdam when he got a message that the Greek army had surrendered to General Hendricks only a few moments before. He was still skeptical about the Greeks so he kept his boats in the inlet for safety in case they attacked with that damned dreadnought. Then he heard his radio squelch with a voice coming through it from the rear.

“Boat squadron one, come in!”

Hagan leaned over to take the microphone from the operator.

“This is boat squadron one, go ahead.” He said, then leaned on the bulkhead as he listened.

“Orders.....hold position but do not go neutral. Be on lookout for Greek dreadnought. We have no word on their surrender at this time.” The voice said through crackling noise.

“I copy, be on guard for Greek war ship, roger.” He said then returned the microphone to the operator.

As he turned around, he saw several of his crew looking at him intently.

“Send a message to all boats to be on the lookout for the Greek dreadnought. They have NOT surrendered yet and may attack.” He saw them turn and go about their business as the radio operator sent the message.

“Where the hell are you?” He said to no one as he scanned the open ocean to his north west for his foe.

The Skipper and I were sitting at the long table in the Great Hall when we got the word about the Greek army surrendering to General Hendricks. I sat back with a deep sigh of relief and a smile on my face knowing that the war was nearly over. We still had to find that Greek dreadnought and see if they would surrender as well. I did not want any more casualties this late in the war, so finding this monster was a must for all of us.

A soldier came into the Great Hall, stopped near me and saluted, handing me several messages from our allies, Gerhold from the Germans, Major John Welsh of the English and Fiete of the Saxons, all reporting that the Greeks are surrendering to them and requesting food and medical help. I sent a reply to give them what they can and if they run short let us know so we can resupply them as quickly as possible. I also said that we want to welcome them into our nation as friends and not enemies.

“Seems things are going our way at last, Gunny!” The Skipper said as he leaned over the table, reaching for a pitcher of mead.

“I hope so, Skipper. If this is the end of hostilities we can start to build a completely new society from the ground up.” I looked at him with a questioned face.

“Should we introduce democracy or continue with this monarchy?” I asked him.

The Skipper stopped pouring his mead but still held the pitcher over his cup as he looked at me.

“That’s a damn good question, Gunny.” He set the pitcher down and took the cup to drink.

“I’ve been thinking of that for a long time now, Skipper.” I said as I leaned on the edge of the table in thought.

“I was thinking that they could vote on their leader like we do, every four years. Then vote on their local leaders as well. How do you think they would take that?” I asked. “Just like we do back home, I mean.”

“I don’t think they would take it too seriously at first, I really don’t.” The Skipper said as he stared at the table.

“We could introduce the voting system into the small villages first but that would cause a problem with the local leaders I think.” I said. “They would not be too happy to leave office.”

“I agree. We’ll have to introduce it slowly.” He paused looking at me as he leaned forward.

“What about you!” He asked with a slight smile. “What are YOUR thoughts on giving all this up?”

I shook my head as I smiled at him.

“To give this to someone else would be a blessing!” I said. “I want to explore the world and see what’s out there!”

The Skipper laughed.

“Like Leaf Erickson?” He chuckled.

“Exactly!” I said then raised my cup for a toast and we drank.

“Excuse me, sirs.” A woman stood near the table dressed in dirty clothing from her work shop.

“Yes, what is it?” I said as I stood.

“Greg and Mac sent me to tell you about the new war ships.” She said.

“What about them?” the Skipper asked.

“They said the diesel engines won’t be ready for more than six months and besides. The ships won’t be ready for another year.”

The Skipper and I looked at each other with blank stares, then started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” She asked.

“It doesn’t matter! The war is over! We will use these ships to explore the world.” I told her as she frowned at me.

“But I thought we needed the ships as soon as possible!” She said.

“OH! We still do but it’s not an emergency now so tell them to just keep at it until they are done.” I told her.

She shrugged her shoulders then turned and left.

The Skipper refilled his cup the raised it.

“To exploration!”

General Hendricks sat with the Greek General as they watched the Greek soldiers stand in line for the food that was prepared by his troops.

“My troops called your men the Longboats!” The Greek General said as he looked at the ground with a slight smile.

“Why is that?” General Hendricks asked with a cocked head.

“Your flag!” The General said with a smile. “It has your old style long boat on it so they called you the Longboats.”

“Interesting.” General Hendricks said, then turned his eyes back to the Greek soldiers waiting in line for chow. He wanted to make sure they did not try anything foolish like an ambush so he had hidden dozens of machine guns nearby just in case they wanted to be foolish.

“What will become of us, General?” The Greek General asked.

“What is your name, General? I forget in all the confusion.” Hendricks asked as he sipped from his tea, looking at the General for any sign of foul intent.

“Panagiotakis.” He said without looking up.

General Hendricks wrote it into his small note book he took from his breast pocket.

“I’ll have to write that down; I’ll never remember it!” He told him.

“What will you do with us, general?” General Panagiotakis asked again.

Hendricks sat for a moment in thought, sipped his tea then looked at the General intently.

“I will have to wait for my king to decide.” He picked up the tea pot and poured more into the Generals cup.

“More food?” He asked him. “Are you still hungry?”

General Panagiotakis shook his head no then looked at Hendricks.

“When this gets back to Greece, it will cause much anger from my superiors.”

“How so, General? I mean, will they try to raise another army and come back?” Hendricks was curious.

“I think they will.” He said as he looked at the ground.

“Then we will have to stop them so you can go home in peace.” Hendricks smiled at him as he looked up.

“I fear we will have to help you.” Panagiotakis said with a smile.

Hagan sat in his boat sipping tea as he watched his crew throw a small ball back and forth until it went over board and several dove in to retrieve it with laughter from the rest. He smiled as they fought in the water for possession of the ball then throwing it back on board. He thought of how he could use this boat to sail further along the coast just to see what was there, do some trading with whoever he met then sail back home and sell it all for profit. To explore the unknown was a desire of all Norse it seemed and sailing into the unknown was only for the brave and Odin would be watching. When this was all over he intended to sail across the great ocean that has never been crossed just to see what was there.

“SHIP AHEAD!” He heard the lookout yell from forward.

The entire crew stood in silence trying to see what the lookout pointed out and just at the edge of the point of land sticking out hiding the inlet, they could see the huge Greek dreadnought at full stem coming around the point.

“BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS!” He yelled out as he leaned down to a small window to give orders for the engines to start.

“Hagan!” A crew woman yelled and he saw her pointing at the Greek ship.

Their guns were turning on the bow, coming around to point at them!

“START THAT DAMN ENGINE!” He yelled again into the window.

“She won’t start!” He heard the engineer yell back. He noticed the other boats had started moving into an attack position, leaving him behind.

“Man the gun!” He jumped from his perch on the small bridge to the lower deck then made his way to the swivel gun to help with the ammunition being brought up from below.

A swooshing noise with what felt like air pressure passed over them and an instant later the water erupted in a huge geyser from one of the Greek shells.

“Hagan! Their bearing down on us!” A crewman yelled as he handed another shell to the gunner.

“Just fire the damn gun!” He heard his gun begin to fire with the empty brass shell pinging onto the deck as it was ejected.

A vibration in the deck told him that his engines had started and they were beginning to move. Leaving the ammunition line he went back to the bridge just as he saw the main two guns of the Greek ship point straight at him, then a bright red/orange flash.

“Gunny! Message from Amsterdam!”

“Greek dreadnought attacking our boats. One sunk. Attack position of remaining boats.” The Skipper read the message aloud.

“By the Gods!” I said aloud. “Not now! It’s OVER!”

“Send a message to Ralf and have him hit that damn dreadnaught with everything he has!” I yelled in my madness.

“This is insane! Why do they continue to fight when the war is over?” I looked out the window as Yngvildr came to my side with our two children.

“Not good, Gunny!” The Skipper held several more messages from the operators.

“Hagans boat is gone! It says it exploded into splinters with all hands.”

I felt I had lost a brother; someone very close to me had come to their end making my heart feel as though it fell from my body. We waited several more minutes for more news as the operators wrote furiously onto their pads. More messages came in that said some of the Greek soldiers had begun to cheer as the battle took place but were cut down by our machine guns. The others, it said, sat down and did not move.

“Rolf reports that he made several good hits on the Greek ship and it is burning. Our fast boats moved in and blew holes in her side and they are watching it take on water.”

“Tell them to rescue any Greek sailors that want to be rescued. If they refuse, leave them alone.” I told him as I looked at Yngvildr then my two children.

“May be it’s over now. I ask Odin’s help to end this war.” I said as I squatted down next to my two little ones.

“I have to go for a while. I want you two to be good while I’m gone and I’ll be back soon.” I looked up at Yngvildr.

“I need to go speak with this Greek General. I need to see how we are going to take care of this matter of all these prisoners and their government.” I paused, looking at Yngvildr. “And I want answers for that attack from their ship!”

General Hendricks heard the firing from the inlet, then he heard the artillery on the hill open fire towards the water from their batteries on the hill. Plums of black smoke rose high in the still air from several locations but he couldn’t tell whose it was, ours or the enemy. On the other side of the hill he heard some cheering as the battle started but it was quickly stopped as several machine guns open fired. He was guessing his men shot the Greeks that were cheering and the others then ceased the celebrations.

“General! Message from the rear.” A runner handed him a hastily scribbled piece of paper that said the King is on his way here to speak to the Greek General.

“Well, General. Seems you will meet our King very soon. He is on his way here now.”

“I will be pleased to meet him at last. We have been at war for years and his movements have confounded me at every turn. A master tactician.” He said, still sitting with expressionless face.

“Well. It wasn’t ALL the Kings doing. He lets us make our own moves and decisions when we need to.” Hendricks told him as he looked down at the sitting General.

“You mean his subordinates can make moves without his approval?” The look on his face was genuine, Hendricks noticed and he seemed confused.

“Absolutely! He can’t be everywhere at once and if we see the enemy making a mistake, we monopolize on it, THEN let him know what we did.”

General Panagiotakis shook his head in surprise.

“This we cannot do. Everything has to be approved by our superiors first.” He paused. “You have great leadership in your ranks and your soldiers are unafraid to die. No wonder we cannot win!”

Hendricks could hear artillery firing more than three or four per second, then it fell silent with only the wind. Every soldier on the front stood trying to look over the far hill wondering what had happened. They wondered if they had lost more of their own soldiers or sailors in the last few minutes of this war and the question remained....why did the Greek dreadnought attack when they knew the war was over.

Hendricks stood near General Panagiotakis, who had stood also trying to see what happened. Some of the Greek soldiers sat in fear of reprisal from the Norse, waiting to be killed or machine gunned where they stood but nothing happened.

“General?” Hendricks looked at General Panagiotakis. “Would you address your troops and tell them that if they obey our orders, they will not be harmed and if they want to leave, they can do so. Now!”

General Panagiotakis glanced at Hendricks with a surprised look on his face as if to say something but just stood there.

“They can leave? Just like that?” He asked and Hendricks nodded yes.

“What’s the catch? Are you going to machine gun us as we walk off?” His face looked worried but Hendricks smiled.

“No! We will only house those that want to stay. If you want to go home you may do so, AFTER the King has addressed you with his demands. Otherwise, tell your men they may leave at any time but! If we see them pick up a weapon as they leave, we will open fire and kill as many as we can before they escape.”

General Panagiotakis rubbed his chin in thought while he looked at Hendricks from the corner of his eyes.

“I will address my troops, General and tell them what you have told me. I hope there will be no trickery from any of them. We have been down a long road together and that is the last thing I want for them.”

He went off to address his troops around him, then sent runners to other parts of the line to tell them the same thing. Hendricks sent messages to the other leaders telling them to let the Greeks go if they want to leave. This caused a stir among the Germans who wanted to keep them around, probably as slave labor. The Saxons agreed as did the English. Soon he saw hundreds walking away towards their own lines, stepping over their weapons and continuing towards home.

At last the war was over.