Tinian

 So, a while ago, I ran a post that contained this picture.

Source

It contained the caption "Tarawa.  The US cleverly planned on invading at low tide (shown). Tide was so low the landing craft couldn't make it even to the beach.  The Marines had to wade almost a mile to shore.  The Japanese had machine gun emplacements all the way around the lagoon.  I knew a man that was in that invasion.  He wouldn't talk about it."

I made a mistake there.  It's all correct except the next to the last sentence.  I just found out the man I knew wasn't in the invasion of Tarawa.  Here, as Paul Harvey used to say is "The rest of the story".

When Mrs. J and I retired from the Air Force and moved to the 'Burg, we bought a wine store and sold Texas wines.  There weren't a lot of Texas wineries in the entire state, and 5 of them (Bell Mountain Vineyard, Sister Creek Vineyard, Grape Creek Vineyard, Becker Vineyard and Texas Hills Winery) were within 30 miles of us.  At the time, the large distributors didn't see much market for Texas Wines other than Messina Hof in Bryan/College Station and Llano Estacado in Lubbock.  Given that, I would regularly go and pick up wine from the above mentioned wineries to stock our store.  As such, I got to be good friends with the owners and staff of each.  

To be frank in all but Becker Vineyard, the owners WERE the staff or at least part of it.  It was a pretty symbiotic relationship that developed.  The distributors wouldn't stock their wine so it was hard for them to get traffic and be able to sell their wine.  It was hard for us to have unique Texas wine in stock to sell and we were on Main St in the 'Burg, so we got a LOT of traffic. So, win/win.

This went on for a year or so then, Mrs. J got a good Idea.  "Juvat, why don't we start a tour company and offer tours to the local wineries?"  Win/Win/Win. The wineries got more traffic, we made more money, the customers could taste/drink wine without concern for driving.  A good deal all round.

So, it's a Saturday morning and I'm picking up my tour group.  I've got my "uniform" on. A white polo shirt with a red& blue collar for color.  Pick them up at their quarters and give a short intro, my name, the wineries we're going to (all 5, but no word that that's all that are available, salesmanship doncha know) and the order we'll visit in.  There were 3 couples all in their mid 20's. Nice, enthusiastic and fun.  This is going to be easy.

First up will be Grape Creek vineyard.  Grape Creek at the time was owned by Ned and Nel Simes (pronounced Sims).  Great folks in their late '70's.  IMHO, they made one of the best Merlot's I have ever tasted.  Ned and I kinda hit it off as we had both been in the military.  Given his age at the time, I could surmise that he'd probably served in WWII. He was pretty circumspect, but he did say he'd been in the Marines.

However, I could tell that he didn't put up with a lot of BS.  Which I always respect.

So, we've arrived at Grape Creek and I'm giving my short spiel about the owner, types of wine and recommendations for tasting.  I mention that Grape Creek's Merlot was one of the finest I'd ever had and they should try it.

As you may suspect, I am on the cusp of learning a VERY important lesson.

So we enter the winery, there are no other customers, so Ned comes out and meets and greets.  He asks what wines they'd like to try.  Based on my recommendation they all said "Merlot".  Ned pours the six tastes + one for himself.  He's swirling and sniffing and discussing what he smells.  In other words, educating the guests on wine as well as doing a bit of salesmanship.  

Having completed that, he pushes the tasting glasses to the guests.  I'm standing next to one of the ladies as she swirls, sniffs and takes a big taste.

Then promptly spits it out, unfortunately and with uncommon accuracy, all over my once white shirt., while saying, in a loud Voice, "This is the WORST wine I have ever tasted in My LIFE.!"

My jaw drops.  I happen to glance at Ned and hope to never see a face like that again.  At that point, I knew exactly what a Marine in Combat in WWII looked like.  As to my guests, they recognized that their friend may have committed a bit of a Faux Pas. So we beat a hasty retreat to the Limo where I asked: "What the heck was that?"  I'm pretty sure, but not positive that was what I said.  It might have been a bit stronger.

The young lady said "That was my first taste of red wine.  I like sweet wines like Boone's Farm."

As I said, I learned a big lesson that I need to find out my guests preferences in wine before taking them to the wineries.  So, I took them home, refunded their money, changed out of my uniform and drove back out to the winery to make amends.  Ned had had time to cool off, as I came in and apologized and explained the situation.  He laughed, said OK and that he'd also add a bit of an interview to his spiel.  I later had an opportunity to talk to Nel, his wife.  I told her about the look.  She got very quiet and said that during the war, he'd been in on a few invasions, but had had a particularly hard time on an island she couldn't remember but that it started with a T.  The only one I could remember like that was Tarawa.  She said she thought that was it, but said it would be better if I didn't ask as he didn't like to talk about it.

So.  I thought it was Tarawa.  Ned passed away in 2004 and the Winery was sold in 2006.  I got to thinking about him as we passed the winery on our way to CStat earlier this week and decided I'd do a little googling.  Come to find out that the National Museum of the Pacific War, locally known as the Nimitz Museum, had interviewed Ned in 2002 about his experience in the Pacific.  The Transcript Entry Point is Here.  It's a little tricky to navigate, but in the top right is a download button.  Click that and the transcript will appear with arrows to switch pages.

I think the question marks contained therein were words that shouldn't be seen by children, but that was very much Ned.  

 

Source

And the T island?  Tinian, he was also in on the Saipan invasion and served time on Guadalcanal.  All three were very much the antithesis of a "Walk in the Park".  But reading that brought Ned back for a bit and gave me an inkling of what it was like.  

The Nimitz Museum is a National Treasure.  You should visit it if you get the chance.

 AND....It's off to France we go.  Overnight flight tonight arrive in Lyon in the morning and a bus ride to Provence.  Then the fun begins!  

Peace out Y'all! 

P.S.  The wine industry is going gangbusters down here nowadays.  There are close to a hundred wineries within my old wine tour route.  There are also several dozen tour companies.  

Home Layout

 

I’v signed Sarge’s leave paperwork, so he’ll be absent for a few. Headed to California, I heard, but I think that gold rush is over. I’ve got a few stories in the hopper, so all y’all will have something to read.

I have been requested to update on the new house project, so, below is the layout and dimensions of the House.

Orientation for the North(ish) is the right side, West is the top.  Lots of trees fairly close on the West side, should keep things a bit cooler. Driveway comes in from the East about 3-400 yds from the road.  Porch and garage both push the home back a bit from direct sunshine.

 

 The photo below basically has the same aspect as the blueprints, if a little further back.  The trees in the middle of the picture will remain.  The driveway will go to the right of them.  We're pondering putting a patio in that nest of trees. 

 

 

The architect is working the foundation plans and expecting completion on the 25th.  At that point, construction should start with the pouring of the slab.  

Hopefully, there won't be any major setbacks.  We'd really like to move in to a home where we'll have a bit of privacy, peace and quiet.  Which is in the plan because...  

The Great Pyrenees don't seem to like City Life.  We've had noise complaints from neighbors when we had them outside at night.  So, we brought them in.  That solved the neighbor problem, but...Mrs J and I haven't had an uninterrupted night's sleep in quite a while.  Ahh well.

We're looking forward to the new property and pray that the Great Pyrenees won't bark several times a night out there. 

Get's old....Fast!

Peace out, Y'all! 

What a week! Or maybe 5 months!

Ok, Campers,  been a great couple of weeks lately and an even better one coming up.  After that opening, I know y'all are chomping at the bit in excitement.  Right? So let's get started.

As, y'all know, back on Halloween, Mrs J and I were involved in a car accident after I had an unexpected (I'd never been diagnosed with it) Atrial Flutter* incident.  I lost consciousness at 75MPH (the speed limit there, Beans) and went off the highway and into a ditch and hit a rock embankment.  

The truck was totaled.  Mrs J was bruised and sore, but essentially ok.  I had hit the steering wheel and was unconscious for a bit, but regained it as the ambulance drove up.  Long story short, I had 3 cracked vertebrae in my neck and my sternum was broken from hitting the steering column.  Yes, we both had our seat belts on.

 Spent a week in the hospital, not because of the injuries but because of the heart issue.

But because of the bone and neck injuries, I wore a neck brace for 4 months and recently (finally!) got permission to take it off.  During a visit with my Cardiologist a few days ago, he said everything about the AFib was coming along nicely, and released me from my indenture.  I'm having another procedure, called an Ablation, done next month to, hopefully, finish up the process.  

I'm not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV, but apparently, they run a tube up one of the blood vessels in my leg into my heart and do something up there in one of the other chambers of my heart to get that fixed.  It's an outpatient procedure, so shouldn't (Please, Lord!) be difficult.    

But everybody seems confident, so...full speed ahead. 

I found it interesting, that after the Doctor gave me the release blessing, I was released from my restriction on driving.  Didn't have to go beg for mercy from TEXDOT, just saw that my name was no longer on the prohibited list. 

I got to drive home!  Wow!  Big Smile on my face.

And all this came about just in time.

Mrs J and I are flying to France on Wed, 8 Apr, to go on a wine cruise on a river there .  Over the past few years, she has set up a few of these with the winemakers we know in our area.   They, in turn, invite their wine club members to sign up. While cruising, the winemaker conducts wine seminars and the guests get to enjoy tasting his wine, what's not to like? Mrs J has set up a few of these in the past and they're gaining popularity, so it's a win/win for ALCON.

And they're fun.  This one will be on the Rhone River in Provence.  Nice scenery, nice friendly customers, nice wine...what's not to like?

Our boat on the Rhone River

 

So, I think there's internet on the boat, and will keep you up to date if so. But, it you're hearing the sounds of silence, the lack thereof might be explainable.  

We'll see.

Peace out y'all! 

*When Mrs J read this article this morning, she corrected me on the medical diagnosis.  Given that she was there and conscious and I was there but unconscious,  she was correct.  No surprise, she usually is. 

 

More War Game Stuff ...

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

"Beg to report, Sir! All objectives have been seized. We lost one tank, sucks, but the Krauts lost beaucoup scout cars and halftracks. We also destroyed a number of anti-tank guns."

So yeah, picked up where I left off yesterday. Finally got past the airfield and on to the final objective, a large village with a big church which could be seen from the airfield. Orders were to capture it. So I did, without losing anybody, which is always good.

I've started using a couple of tactics which seem to be working well.

• Avoid motoring down a road. The enemy will cover those as they're the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B. They like to cover the roads with dug-in anti-tank guns. Which sit low to the ground and usually only take one or two hits to make your day very bad indeed. DAMHIK
• Avoid charging across open spaces. Just because your tank is very fast, the ability of a gun crew (whether in a vehicle or on the ground) to track you and put a round into you is pretty high. As the computer can't think like a human, it will follow set patterns.
• If you get hit, start backing up, very quickly. Then try and figure out where the shot came from. If you look first, that second round will ruin your day.

So far, it's been a learning experience ("learing" for you folks in Minneapolis/St Paul). Which I suppose is the point as I've never served in a tank unit. (Reminds me, I need to get a screen shot of a tank blowing up for juvat, usually it's one of mine getting blown up so I forget to grab a screenshot. I'm too busy trying to figure out where the shot came from. It's the guy you didn't see who kills you.)

Now this game is what is called in "Early Release," which on Steam (where I get most of my games from) means that a product is playable, just not ready for prime time yet. If you buy it in Early Release, you DO get all the updates as they come out. If you wait for the full release, the price usually goes up. I don't mind being a "guinea pig," it's what I spent the last few years of my career doing, beating up on software trying to get it to fail. Which usually just means using it for its intended purpose.

For a combat system that might involve firing more missiles than the ship can carry and seeing how the software handles it. (In early versions, before deployment, that answer is usually "not very well." I had a software puke tell me "that's not a realistic test." The Navy guy standing next to him asked, "Based on your zero years in the Navy?" Heh.)

Anyhoo, if something crashes, the game will immediately grab logs, screenshots, and whatever else it needs and sends it off to the developers. So far this beast has only crashed a couple of times on me, and within a day or so they publish an update.

So, airfield secured, time for the next mission. Now the solo missions are coming out slowly, after all, they need to program the AI as well as everything else in the game. If you're playing against other humans the problem is simpler, from a programming standpoint. So, what's my next mission?

In the solo world there are only two American missions, neither of which is very easy, both of which can take hours to get through. As the enemy never seems to react quite the same way all of the time and might set up a hundred yards or so away from where you saw him last time, the game is very replayable (sic).

So let me see, let me see. Ah, there's a new German mission!

Prior to deployment the game sends you to the hangar. Not sure why it's called a hangar, that's where one stores aircraft, I probably would've gone with "motor pool" or "tank park." But that's just me. Anyhoo, it looks like this when you first enter -

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

You click on the gray box with the plus sign to select one of the vehicles listed above the white bar which says "Add Vehicle." You can have up to five vehicles, provided you have the points.

Also note that some vehicles (like the Panther and the Tiger) don't become available until you've progressed further in the game. I haven't played against real humans yet so I'm not sure how that works. Baby steps for me, baby steps. I don't want to wander into the arena and have people say, "Look at the newbie, has no clue, let's kill him quick."

And humans tend to be far nastier opponents (and more clever) than any computer AI. Now in some games the make the AI challenging by letting it cheat. It will never run out of ammo, it will kill you first time, every time, and always knows where you are. I haven't experienced that yet in this game.

Which I like.

Now in  the next screen you see your tanks all ready to go.

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Here you pick your platoon, so to speak. You get X number of points to spend and as you get further into the game, you get more points. For this mission I have 2,000 points, which as you can see above, I have misspent. The Pzkw IV Ausf H is a better tank than the Ausf G. Why I picked two Gs and three Hs is beyond me. (I went back in and corrected that, I now have five Pzkw IV Ausf Hs to deploy and fight with.)

Once you pick your platoon, you deploy to the field and the "fun" begins. For this mission, which I haven't started yet (still celebrating the capture of the airfield, not ready to get my ass kicked again, just yet), there are four objectives. Here's the in game map -

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

From what I gather, as I start paying attention to the details of the game, the dashed orange lines around the objective (numbers in diamonds) are where one can expect to make enemy contact. I'm not sure if the areas outside of that are clear of the enemy, but I don't know yet. I don't have enough hours under my belt yet. My platoon is within the orange circle. I added that, the game shows your vehicles as little arrowheads.

As I went into the game, I noticed that there are four supply dumps. Four. Which lead me to believe that I will be expending a LOT of ammunition. Another thing you get at supply dumps are "repair kits." If your tank takes damage, you can repair it. (Note that if you're immobilized where the enemy can see you, you probably won't get a chance to fix anything. A second shot will be coming in shortly. DAMHIK.)

Here's the statistics for the Pzkw IV Ausf H - 

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Now the Stuart carried 81 rounds of anti-tank ammunition, the Pzkw IV only carries 40 rounds of anti-tank ammunition. (Listed under APCBC above, APCBC = Armor-Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped, which you can read all about here, provided, of course, that you want to learn esoteric armor things. I do, you might not.) Bigger rounds take up more space, in case you're wondering.

So you have fewer rounds, and as the game gives you five main battle tanks, expect to meet main battle tanks, which might take more than one round to kill. So more ammo dumps says to me, harder mission. And as one progresses, one expects to see harder/tougher missions.

One more note on those repair kits, you get three but they can be replenished at a supply dump, they are also medical kits. If a crewmate gets wounded, he can't do his job. Bad thing if your loader, or for that matter anyone in the crew gets hurt. Can't drive, can't shoot, can't do lots of things. So you can also "repair" a crewmate.

Anyhoo, I've gone on far too long about this stuff, which many folks will probably skip. Which I don't mind, remember I blog for me, if y'all like it, well that's a win-win. If I get one or two people who enjoy the post, hey, I'm happy.

And lately we've been making thousands of spambots happy.

Bless their little hearts.

Like I said, next week is going to be busy and probably hectic, looking forward to the three flights and eleven hours to get to Fresno. (Yes, that was sarcasm, how could you tell?) But at the end of the day, I get to see LUSH and two of my grandkids. Maybe The Naviguesser might make an appearance as well, he lives a couple hours away. The Nuke is flying in for the weekend so it should be grand.

I might not be blogging much, we'll see.

If I'm not online, have fun, stay out of the liquor cabinet, and empty the trash on your way out. (Looking at the pilots out there ...)

Ciao!

The Airfield

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Just a quick post today, I've been trying to recapture an airfield all week in this game and am steadily improving. I start out with four M5 Stuart tanks and am up against a mix of German scout vehicles and small tanks, think Pzkw II. There are a bunch of halftracks wandering around as well. Many of them pack nothing stronger than an MG 42, but ...

They also carry infantry who tend to have Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks (German version of the bazooka). Those infantry are sneaky bastardos and love nothing more than to let a tank drive past and then shoot them in their weakest armor, the rear.

Of course, the Panzerschreck wasn't bad against the frontal armor of a Stuart, so I've got to keep an eye peeled for those guys. In the screenshot above my platoon has captured a supply dump, which was needed. You can see there's infantry there as well, those are my guys. I try not to outrun them because they are very good at suppressing their German counterparts.

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot
(Map in lower right corner enlarged)

In the map above the orange circle is where I started after the most recent in game save, this only happens at certain checkpoints, I'm sitting on the checkpoint where this happened. Up until Thursday I never managed to get here with more than two tanks. But now that I'm used to the game, and know where most of the German hidey-holes are, I made it to the first save point with the entire platoon.

Thursday evening I actually made it to that supply dump (circle in yellow) with all four Stuarts intact. Got everybody refueled and reloaded with ammunition then pushed on to the main area of the airfield (the "3" inside the diamond above).

Came around the corner and WHAMMO! Damned anti-tank gun took the lead Stuart out, then proceeded to pick off the rest of the platoon one by one.

So this weekend, now that I can get to the supply dump with a full force, I plan to take the damned airfield. I just need to smack that AT gun. Little bastard doesn't look much bigger than a 50 millimeter, but with the light armor on the Stuart, that's all it takes.

Break a leg!

Next week things could be quiet around here, I'm off to California. LUSH claims to have a computer, so I might be able to log in there and blog from California. Otherwise it's just the cell phone. Which is nice, but ...

It's still a cell phone with that wee keyboard and me with my fat fingers!

We'll see how it goes!

Evacuation Day

Invasion de la Ville de Québec en 1775
F.H. Wellington (PD)

Quebec, January 1776

Seamus was helping carry a wounded officer and kept looking back towards the city. It was evident that the enemy was not going to pursue Arnold's force into the teeth of the snowstorm.

"Hey!" hissed the man helping carry the wounded captain, a man Seamus didn't know.

"What is it?"

"We can put this lad down, he's dead."

The two men shuffled off the path they were following back to their bivouac. Seamus knelt down to look at the man he had been carrying. For the second time that night, Seamus looked into the glazed eyes of a corpse. The man was indeed dead.

"You two! Get a move on!" came a voice from the path.

Before Seamus could say a word, the man he was with spoke, "Cap'n's dead, Major. Probably bled out."

"Very well, Sotheby, get back to camp. It seems that General Arnold is determined to lay siege to the city."

"I thought the General was wounded? Was it minor?"

"No, wasn't minor, but the man is determined. The doctors have patched him up as well as they could, but for now the General is determined to stay in place."

The man then turned to Seamus and held his hand out, "Hiram Sotheby, from Norfolk, down in Virginia."

Seamus took the man's hand and introduced himself, "Seamus McTeague, Sergeant, from Acton in Massachusetts."

"Stay well, Sergeant. I've got to find my boys, you should find your own lot. I fear it's going to be a long winter."

Seamus nodded as the man continued down the path. He looked down at the form of the dead officer, the body already being covered by the snow. He wondered what the man's name had been.

"Should have asked," Seamus said to the storm. Then began his own trek back to camp.

The evacuation of Boston
William James Aylward (PD)

Boston, March 1776

Sergeant Andrews and Corporal Thomas Holloway were herding their men and others down to the docks. The orders had come down, both men were still in shock. General Howe had ordered the evacuation of Boston. The navy would endeavor to take away as many loyalists as they could. Those colonials remaining behind had been ordered to turn over to the Crown anything which might be of use to the rebels.

Andrews and Holloway had helped supervise that effort, much was stored in the many empty buildings around Boston, empty because their owners had fled to the besieging army outside of Boston.

"Damned waste of time, Sarge." Holloway groused as another wagon load was unceremoniously emptied onto the floor of a warehouse.

"I know, Tommy, I know. We should be burning all of this, at the very least dump it into the harbor. Leaving it here will just delay the rebels getting ahold of it."

"Critical of the General's plan are we, Sergeant?"

Andrews came to attention as his company commander walked into the vast, mostly empty, space.

"Well, Sir, I ..."

"It's alright, Sarn't. I happen to agree with you. But if we fire this lot, the rebels will think we're burning the town and may start shelling us. Then we'll probably all perish here."

The rebel army had mounted cannon on the Dorchester Heights to the south of the town. Those guns commanded the town and most of the harbor. The Royal Navy had attempted to shell those works, but to no avail. The rebel position was too close and too high to bring effective fire to bear.

Messages had been exchanged, General Howe had offered to evacuate the town, no damage would be done to civilian property as long as they were allowed to leave unmolested. The colonials had agreed.

Although a plan had been hatched to launch an attack up onto Dorchester Heights, which most of the men were willing to try, a nor'easter had blown up the very night the attack had been planned. General Howe had called the attack off entirely. Seems his memories of the slaughter at Breed's Hill were still fresh in his mind.

Now the regulars were taking to their boats again, this time to row out to the fleet and be taken away, no one knew where. Some speculated Halifax in Canada, others New York, as that city held far more loyalists than rebels.

At any rate, they were leaving Boston, perhaps never to return. Andrews had been depressed ever since the orders had come down. As they waited on the dock for their turn to board the boats, Holloway had spoken.

Whispering so that the men wouldn't hear him, Holloway whispered, "There's that lass you fancy, Allen. Just down the way."

Andrews looked, yes, it was Lizzie Arnold, looking for someone among the crowd on the pier.

"Miss Arnold!" Andrews called out.

She heard him and turned, a smile lighting her face as she rushed to him.

"Allen, I'm so glad I found you. We're leaving the city, Canada from what Mr. Hamilton says."

"Are you sailing with us?" Andrews asked, his hopes rising at the thought of her going to the same place she would go.

"Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have papers from General Clinton, granting them passage to Canada."

"Just them?" Andrews asked playfully.

"No, silly, I'm going as well. My contract is over next month. They offered to let me stay here, but I don't know anyone but them and you and Thomas, of course."

"Sarn't Andrews! Get the men in the boats!" Captain Marston shouted from the edge of the pier.

"I must go, I will look for you in Canada." Andrews said as he turned to go, before he got far, Lizzie had wrapped her arms around him.

"And I for you."

The next day¹ the British army sailed away from Boston.

Never to return.

¹ And that day, 17 March 1776, is still celebrated as a holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Evacuation Day, we remember such things in New England.

Blood on the Snow

The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec
John Trumbull (PD)

Quebec, 28 December 1775

"I tell you what boys, when Monday rolls around, this old boy is heading south."

Seamus McTeague stared at the man, "So that's it? All of this then, for nothing?"

"Well, I don't know about calling it nothing, Sarge. We marched through that damned wilderness, hauled all those bateaux up here to Canada and, as it turns out, the Canadians don't seem all that interested in being free of King George. My enlistment is up on New Year's Day and that's it for me. I'm going home."

"The rest of you fellows feel that way?" McTeague asked, as he surveyed the men huddled around the campfire, just to the north of the walls of Quebec.

"Word has it, we're going in as soon as this storm hits. Sneaking in the back way so to speak. Heck, if Colonel Arnold can pull this off, I might sign up for another hitch. But if it fails, I dunno, Sarge. I'm worried about my wife and the children, ain't much I can do for 'em up here in Canada. If we fail, I'm gone."

Ensign Thompson had showed him a rough sketch of the plan, McTeague thought it was possible to pull this off. If the regulars and the Canadian militia inside the town couldn't see them coming on, they might get into the city and take it. With Montgomery's men included, they had outnumbered the defenders when they arrived earlier in the month. Now? Rumor had it that the defenders now outnumbered the attackers.

"Sergeant McTeague?"

"Sir?"

"You do know that it's General Montgomery and General Arnold, right?" Ensign Thompson was something of a stickler for titles.

"Sorry, Sir, I'm just not used to them being generals now. Hell, Sir, beggin' your pardon, I'm not used to being a sergeant just yet."

Thompson grinned, "Just do your job Sergeant, I'm going to need you when the attack goes in. You've seen action, this will be my first."

Seamus took no comfort in that thought, he'd rather have sat this one out.

Troop movements during the attack
Source

Quebec, Montgomery's Force, 31 December 1775

The descent from the Plains of Abraham had gone smoothly enough. Corporal Keith Adams was near General Montgomery when he heard the general hiss, "We've been spotted, I think." Adams heard church bells from within the city, though it was the Sabbath, he knew that the bells weren't calling the faithful to Mass.

They came up on a palisade, part of the outer defenses, men who were carpenters before the war pitched in to tear an opening in the wall. Once they cut through that, they came upon another. More bells were sounding within the city now. The general himself helped cut a hole in the second wall. Now they were through onto a narrow city street. A two story building lay ahead.

Montgomery drew his sword, "All right lads, stay close. We need to get on them before they know ..."

A blast of canister from a concealed cannon showered the men in the street. General Montgomery was killed instantly, a number of officers were down. Corporal Adams looked to rally the men when a volley of musket fire ripped into them.

Keith Adams was down, he felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. As he lay there, trying to catch his breath, the remainder of Montgomery's party fled, living the general's body in the street, where he had died.

Corporal Adams of Albany, tried to drag himself out of the street. He was beginning to shiver from what he thought was the cold. He managed to make it only five feet before his life ended, there in the snow of a Canadian winter.

Quebec, Arnolds Force, 31 December 1775

Seamus had seen many a snowstorm in his day, but this one seemed the worst of the lot. The wind was howling, the snow was driving into their faces almost horizontally. The men were all bent over, moving into the driving snow. All wondering what lay ahead.

Seamus thought, for a moment, that he heard musket fire to what he presumed was the south. It was hard to tell as they were below the northern facing walls of the town, in what was essentially a cul-de-sac. He was praying fervently that they were proceeding unnoticed. If a defending force showed up to their front, they could scarcely miss, the men were so packed together.

He looked back at the single six-pounder cannon they had brought with them, the artillerymen had rigged a sled for it. To his front were a number of Virginians, riflemen led by their own officer, fellow named Morgan as McTeague recalled.

Ensign Thompson came up beside him, "What do you suppose all those bells are ringing for?"

"Well, Sir, my guess is that the other party, the lads with Montgomery, have been spotted. Did you hear that musket fire before?"

Before the Ensign could speak, a spatter of musketry hit the street around them, the defenders were on the walls above them. One ball found Ensign Thompson, who fell in a heap right next to Seamus.

As chaos erupted around him, Seamus dropped to one knee to check on his officer. He pulled him over onto his back and was going to pull his overcoat open when he realized that Thompson was dead, a ball in his brain.

"Come on, lads! Attack, attack!"

Seamus, recognizing the voice as Arnold's, jumped to his feet. There was a barricade ahead, becoming wreathed in smoke as the defenders gave them a volley. As General Arnold tried to rally the men to rush the barricade, he went down, badly wounded in the leg.

Captain Morgan of the Virginia riflemen led an assault on the barricade, carrying a ladder himself, he was quickly pushed back off the wall. Recovering himself he was over on the second attempt, Seamus McTeague wasn't far behind him.

Once inside, the Canadian militiamen quickly surrendered.

"All right, fellas, someone take ahold of these prisoners and herd 'em after us. We need to get deeper into the city before the British wake up!"

Advancing down the narrow streets, they met more opposition. Raising his musket to fire, Seamus pulled his trigger, the lock snapped but nothing happened. Checking his pan in the dim light, he realized his powder was wet.

Pulling his horn out to recharge his pan, he heard a shout, "Fall back, boys! There be too damned many of 'em."

With that, the remainder of Arnold's force fled back the way they came.

Arnold's column is shattered in fierce street fighting during the Battle of Quebec
Charles William Jefferys (PD)

Near Cambridge, Massachusetts - Late January 1776

Will Hensley recognized the road they were on, it wasn't all that far to Cambridge where the Continental Army had its headquarters. He wondered if he'd catch a glimpse of the famous General Washington.

"Backs to it lads! We're almost home!"

Will looked up as Colonel Knox himself came down the road. Again, he felt sorry for the general's horse, but he realized, as he stared, that like the rest of them, the colonel had lost some weight on their long trek from Ticonderoga.

Now at last, they were back from the wilds of upper New York.

Source

First thing he wanted, after a hot meal, was to get leave to go to New Hampshire and see his family. He'd been gone far too long from them. But for now, they had succeeded, he wondered what the British in Boston might think of these guns they'd brought down through so much forest and field. Will believed it spelled their doom.

The quicker an end to this war the better, he thought.