The Boy and the Battleship

by Christopher Cummings

  “Where are your bombers?” Graham demanded, circling with his own bombers looking for a target.

  “In concrete tunnels underground,” Alex claimed.

  Graham fumed. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Where are the tunnel entrances?” he asked.

  “Camouflaged so they blend into the mountainside,” Alex replied with a smirk.

  The best that Graham could do was pretend to bomb the wall beside the desk and claim that he had caused a landslide which sealed the tunnel entrances. Alex refuted this and used his superior strength in fighters to shoot down every single one of Graham’s planes. Graham retired to the veranda feeling as though he had not planned things very well. That rankled as he considered himself to be smarter than Alex.

  I need a better strategy, he mused as he lay in bed. More planes would be part of the answer but how to deal with those tunnels? A commando raid perhaps? He drifted off to sleep dreaming of how his heroic Marine Commandos would find the tunnel entrances and sneak in, to utterly destroy the enemy fortress.

  School on Wednesday was a repeat of the previous days. Graham hardly noticed the lessons or Thelma and had accepted the fact that Cindy was not going to speak to him. To take his mind off her he sat in class and plotted how to defeat Alex. During the breaks he retailed the story of the war to his friends. Max and Peter both listened with interest and he was asked to show then the tank and aircraft.

  That afternoon after school Max and Peter went home with him. Alex was not there because he had joined the school’s army cadet unit and was at the weekly two hour training parade. The subject of cadets was a hotly contested one with Graham’s declared intention to be a navy cadet being well known. With Alex away Graham did not want to waste the opportunity, but had to spend time talking to his friends.

  Peter questioned him at length on the rules he and Alex had been playing by. Both wrote them down and made several suggestions to improve them. They also admired the tanks and aircraft and declared the airfield to look beaut. That made Graham feel good but he fretted at not being able to get on with construction. During the day he had decided on his new strategy; he would not raid with commandos, he would invade with an army. To do that I need more tanks, he decided.

  A mass-production assembly line was set up to make five more tanks. (Why five? He didn’t know. It just seemed a Trog sort of number.) In the process he gave up making the tracks so carefully and just drew them and the wheels on the sides with pen. This speeded up the production process remarkably so that by the time Alex came home Graham had six tanks and another five fighter planes.

  As soon as Alex had gone to his room the invasion was begun. Graham lined the six tiny tanks up on the floor and placed five fighters with them as top cover. He began moving the tanks a ruler length at a time towards the door of the lounge room. Just as the first tank reached the doorway Alex returned from changing. He took one look and objected.

  “The lounge room and dining room are both sea,” he declared emphatically. “You have to use ships to get an army to my country.”

  Graham disputed this but Alex was adamant. Stalemate ensued, not helped by sarcastic and rude comments from Max and Peter. Finally Graham conceded that the two rooms were indeed sea, reckoning that he had the naval power to transport an invasion fleet. Alex’s room opened off the side of the dining room so there was no other way to get there.

  Graham went and started laying out his model ships but this caused another dispute. Alex pointed at the Iron Duke and said, “That is a British ship. The British won’t help the Trogs. They will side with the poor little nation being attacked, in this case me.”

  Peter and Max laughed at the idea of Alex being a poor little defenceless nation and Graham advanced the legalistic claim that Alex had started the war by making an unprovoked air attack on his country. The dispute grew heated but Peter and Max both sided with Alex: The British would not help the Trogs. Graham was secretly pleased that they had conceded that his ships were indeed British but was stumped for naval power.

  He pointed to the grey plastic destroyer. “That is a Trog ship, not a British one; and those two subs are also Trogolitian.”

  In the back of his mind was something he had once read; a quote by some British Admiral many years before about submarines being: “Unfair, underhand, and damned un-English!” so he was happy to swap them over to the Trogs, who were obviously a lesser breed with substantially lower morals.

  Alex accepted this division of the fleet but then pointed out that none of those vessels had any cranes or deck space for transporting tanks. Graham had to concede he was right. Both brothers knew too much about loading heavy cargoes onto ships to dispute something so obvious.

  So the land invasion was halted at the beach and the air war resumed. Peter helped Graham and Max helped Alex. The result was another defeat for Graham, with all his planes destroyed, his airfield plastered yet again, half his new tanks knocked out and even his destroyer damaged.

  After his friends had gone home and Alex left for the bathroom Graham set to work on an idea that had instantly sprung to mind when Alex had pointed out that none of his Trog ships could carry tanks. He would build a Tank Landing Ship, a barge. As his father actually owned a real one, now used to transport cargo around Cape York Peninsula, Graham was intimately familiar with such vessels. It had once been a naval Landing Craft Heavy but was now just a merchant ship named the Wewak; bought third hand from a firm in New Guinea that had gone bust. At present it was under contract to an oil company moving stores in the Timor Sea.

  A flat piece of 3mm thick balsa 3cm wide and 12cm long was used as the bottom of the landing barge. Sides of 3mm thick balsa 2cm high were glued on either side of the hull base and another piece across the stern. The side pieces were longer at the top so that the top of the bow sloped outwards. A bow ramp of balsa was attached at the bottom by a strip of cloth which acted as a hinge. The ramp was held up by a piece of bent wire which could be moved aside. A block of 1cm balsa was glued in the stern section to represent the armoured wheelhouse. Doors and vision slits were drawn on this with ink.

  Graham was pleased with his new LCM and loaded his tanks in. He found he could just fit two tanks side by side but only two one behind the other, a total of four tanks. I should have measured it better, he thought with annoyance. He picked the model up and looked at it from various angles.

  “It would look better with a few more details,” he muttered. A history book showing photos of World War 2 amphibious assaults was referred to. The first thing which struck him was that all the landing craft in the photos had large numbers on the bows. This led to the decision to paint the model grey and to add numbers in white paint. Paint, brushes and thinner were quickly laid out on a sheet of old newspaper and within 10 minutes the model was painted. It was then slid under his bed to dry away from prying enemy eyes.

  By then it was bath time and tea time. After tea Graham returned to his desk and began making a second landing barge. This time he measured it so that it was 15cm long and was able to carry six tanks at once. The model was constructed in about half an hour. This time some small details were added. Alex kept nosing in but Graham managed to keep the work hidden. The smell of the paint was his main worry.

  By the time the second model was ready to paint the first was dry. This was because he was using a matt paint, rather than a gloss. With a very fine brush Graham added the marking ‘L 1’ to the bow of the first barge. The number did not look very good so before he painted it on the other bow he marked it out with a pen first. That gave a more satisfactory result.

  Having painted the second LCM Graham then considered his invading army. “I will need infantry, tanks, artillery and trucks to move supplies,” he told himself. Infantry were a problem. He could not think of any way to make tiny men at such a small size. Finally he just stopped worrying about them. Instead he made a small truck.

  This was made from a piece of 1mm thick balsa 1cm wide and 3cm long on top of which he glued two sm
all blocks of balsa to represent the engine and cab. Doors, windows and headlights were marked on by pen. Wheels were a problem. He tried making them from a long cylinder of 3mm balsa coloured black with an oil pen from which he sliced 1mm thick wheels. These were glued underneath but were prone to break off. He also added cardboard sides to the tray and contemplated how to put a canopy on the back.

  In the end he left the truck open. Trog markings were put on the sides and it was added to a drawer out of sight. The next experiment was to make a field gun. This was not a success. The gun had so many fiddly bits: wheels, trails and seats and so on that he gave up in disgust.

  “I will use the tank’s guns,” he said to himself. Another truck was constructed, this time with a paper canopy glued on the back. Even without wheels it looked good enough so he left the wheels off. Next he made an ambulance with a red cross drawn on the white paper canopy. Only then did he consider that it might have been a good idea to paint or colour the tanks and trucks some camouflage colour like khaki or green.

  “Too late,” he said, and shrugged. “I will paint the British and Australian vehicles.”

  Next he made a small jeep, then a petrol tanker, followed by a radio truck with small wire aerials sticking out of the block of balsa on the back, and a tow truck with a small wire crane on it.

  Satisfied that he had his army ready he painted L 2 on the bows of the second LCM and loaded all the vehicles aboard. They looked very warlike he thought happily as he admired them.

  At that point Alex launched another air raid which blew up two of the tanks, three of the bombers and damaged the destroyer for the loss of five Alexian bombers and four fighters. Graham attempted a return raid but was met half way by six new Alexian fighters, obviously the night’s new work for Alex. These fighter planes were twin tail boom, twin engine types like the American P38 Lightning and Alex insisted they were so fast that Graham’s could not catch them. A book settled the resulting argument. Alex held it out and pointed to the statistics:

  “Look, your planes look like Hurricanes and they could only do about 350 miles per hour. The Lightning could do over 400.”

  Graham struggled to refute this. “But didn’t the Lightning come into service late in World War 2? And aren’t we playing early in World War 2?”

  Alex read the fine print in the book: “It says here that the Lightning first flew in 1939.”

  “Yes, but when did it go into action?”

  Graham countered. “It says here that a P-38 shot down a Focke Wolf Condor near Iceland in December 1941,” Alex read.

  That clinched the argument. Graham had to accept them, but fell back to disputing the air combat odds for the dice throws. It was to no avail. The entire Trog air force was again shot out of the sky. He went to bed nursing secret hopes for his invasion fleet, hidden under his bed.

  Chapter 21

  THE GAME DEVELOPS

  On Friday at school, Graham made an attempt to speak to Cindy. His motives were not very honourable: He was feeling extremely horny and had hopes she might be induced to meet him secretly. She dashed these instantly by just snubbing his greeting and walking off. The rejection hurt and made him feel doubly guilty.

  A second blow to his hopes was delivered almost at once when he saw Thelma talking to Jerry Denham. How can I compete with a Year 12! he thought miserably. Feeling very depressed Graham went off to class and comforted himself by planning his invasion of Alexia.

  The day passed quickly enough that way. Meetings with Max and Peter at little lunch and lunch time confirmed the times for them to play. After school Graham could enjoy his usual end of week comics and chocolate, then work in the ship yards (The armament factory?). An added incentive to get to work at his desk was the knowledge that Alex, having read his comics, was also working at something in his room.

  “And it won’t be homework!” Graham muttered as he passed the doorway a second time trying to sneak a view.

  Frustrated in his spying attempts he returned to his own desk and decided he needed more tanks so he set about making another five for the Trogs. These were made to the same plans as the first five, the original Number 1 being designated the HQ tank.

  At that stage the Alexians mounted another air raid which totally defeated the Trogs, although for the loss of seven planes. Graham grumbled and pondered his strategy. At least Alex hasn’t seen the landing barges and the tanks, he consoled himself. But air defence appeared to be a higher priority so he set to work to make an air defence battery. This comprised another jeep, a second radio truck, an ammunition truck and four trucks with balsa and wire 40mm AA guns mounted on them.

  By then it was bath time and tea time after which the two boys headed off to Scouts. As usual Graham enjoyed Scouts but half his mind was on building a larger ship to carry his tanks; and on the need to be able to give his army gunfire support as it landed. His reading had told him that much. He walked home from Scouts with Max, at least as far as his house. The whole time they were walking Graham was worried that Max might say something about Cindy but this fear soon evaporated. It was apparent from Max’s conversation that Cindy had made no mention of anything to Max.

  Next morning, by 10am, Max and Peter had both arrived at Graham’s house. Graham had been busy with his chores so had not had time to build anything extra, but nor had Alex, so he wasn’t worried. Max brought with him his ships and a cardboard box. Graham eyed this with intense curiosity but Max would not reveal its contents. The decision was to first play a naval battle out on the lawn. Graham was not allowed to include his Trog ships, which he hotly disputed. So he was deprived of his two submarines. Max, on the other hand, now extracted a model sub from the cardboard box. Graham was not amused. Max and submarines were not something he wanted to be reminded about just then.

  Alex joined in with two motor torpedo boats made of balsa. They were 10cm long and only mounted two tubes but they were still a real nuisance when added to Max’s four larger torpedo boats. The resulting battle was hard fought and resulted in both fleets losing all but their battleships which were both deemed to be badly damaged. The game lasted over an hour and they all enjoyed it immensely, particularly Skip the dog, who kept running around them and sniffing the ships. Graham accepted the result as a draw and recovered all his ships, repairing a few minor damages as he did.

  The boys then went upstairs and Graham insisted they play the invasion of Alexia. This was agreed to and Alex and Max retired to Alex’s room while Peter helped Graham. By agreement they waited till Alex and Max launched the Alexian air force in an air raid on Graham’s airfield. Graham deployed his new air defence troop to support the airfield AA guns, and sent up all his fighters. While this battle raged Peter flew the five twin-engine bombers around to try to bomb Alex’s airfield.

  The decoy plan was successful but the overall strategy was not. Peter got the five bombers to their target intact but found nothing to bomb. After cratering the runway, he flew back and encountered the surviving Alexian fighters, which had annihilated Graham’s fighters. The result was disaster for the bombers.

  Peter was disheartened but Graham was not. He now moved out his landing barges and destroyer and set sail across the lounge room floor. Alex and Max immediately launched air raids with their surviving three bombers and four fighters and managed to sink one LCM and to badly damage the destroyer, but for the loss of the three bombers. Graham’s surviving landing barge reached the door to Alex’s room and disgorged its load of six tanks.

  “Go back and load up the other six tanks Pete,” Graham instructed, “Then the anti-aircraft troop.”

  While Peter did this Graham advanced across the floor with his tanks, only to be fired on by some tanks of Alex’s. These were also made of balsa and were about the same size as Graham’s but they were not as well made. They had a squarish hull with a square turret in the centre. Their guns were small nails pushed in. A quick count revealed ten of them.

  The dice rattled repeatedly and when the smoke cleared Graham had
only two tanks left and Alex had five. Graham moved his surviving tanks across the floor seeking cover but was unable to reach any in time. There was another round of firing and all of his tanks were destroyed, while Alex still had three left.

  Peter kept the barge moving and, despite two air attacks which he was powerless to beat off managed to load the next six tanks. Graham was sure he now had the game in hand. The LCM was able to cross the lounge room. Alex moved his remaining tanks to open fire as soon as the tanks were unloaded and the land battle resumed.

  Three of Graham’s tanks were hit on the first move. In return he knocked out two of Alex’s. It looked a sure thing but then Alex retaliated with his three fighter planes, claiming they were now armed with rockets and cannon. This led to a sharp dispute which Peter arbitrated. The result was that one of Graham’s tanks was considered knocked out. Then the tanks fired at each other and Alex was left with none while Graham had one.

  With this sole survivor he began an advance across the floor under continual attack by the three planes. He managed to down two of them but on a third attack his last tank was hit.

  “Go back and bring the Anti Aircraft unit Pete,” he ordered, determined to push the battle to the limit.

  The barge set out on another trip. All the way it was under constant attack from the surviving plane. By then the boys were nearly beside themselves with excitement and both Kylie and Mrs Kirk came to look. Kylie curled her lip and turned her nose up. The dice rattled as the fighter came in with small bombs. A hit! The barge was declared damaged.

  “It can still sail. We will repair it,” Graham cried.

  But his mother shook her head. “No. That is enough,” she said. “Come and have lunch you boys.”

  Reluctantly Graham agreed. They tidied up the battlefield at his mother’s insistence then trooped through to the kitchen. As scones and honey were consumed Mrs Kirk said, “Graham, don’t forget you are going to the navy cadets in an hour.”