Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

AN: Last chapter in WWI... Probably. Maybe not. Not sure.

The next morning Canada was up early and couldn't wait to help his ground troops. He knew that they were taking a beating from the dull ache in his head. Matthew quickly got dressed and headed out for breakfast. As he walked through the halls many of the pilots stopped and saluted him. Canada smiles shyly and nodded back at them. He walked into the food tent and grabbed his usual breakfast and sat with his squadron.

"How was your ride back?" Jack asked.

"It was full of drunken singing soldiers." Matthew said with a smile.

"Lucky, mine was all grumpy boring ones." Jack said annoyed.

"So you've been moved up?" Alex asked. Matthew nodded. "Finally. It's about time!"

"And finally someone who understands." Roy chimed in. "You'll actually listen to the pilots and see what needs to be improved."

"Yeah. I just don't like being in charge of so many people, it's a lot of responsibility." Matthew frowned. It's true; he would have an easier job with the pilots than the old base commander. The man had no flying experience at all and disregarded the lower ranks.

"You'll do just fine!" Billy assured him.

"I hope so. By the way we're going to be getting a shipment of all new planes." Matthew smiled.

"Sweet! I hope we don't meet the flying circus in the skies today." Philip frowned.

"If we do, just treat them like any other German. They're no different." Matthew said. He finished the last of his pancakes and stood up to put his dishes away. The rest of his squadron did the same.

"We're going up in half an hour." Matthew announce loud enough for everyone to hear. "Check over your planes and get any problems sorted out."

"Yes sir!" The majority of the pilots yelled. The others had food in their mouths. Matthew smiled, grabbed the raw fish from the counter and ducked out of the tent to go to his room. He opened the door and set the fish down on the ground. He rooted through is closet to find his scarf and gloves.

"I didn't think I put them this far back." He grumbled pushing some shirts out of the way. The Canadian's had brushed over something soft. He moved more shirts out of the way and spotted his polar bear sleeping on top of a stack of papers. Under his chin was Matthews gloves and scarf. "Of course." He said picking Kuma up of the papers. The small white bear kept a hold on his gloves and scarf. "Kumafizzles, can I please have my stuff back?"

The bear let out a yelp of protest, but gave up the items anyways. Matthew smiled and petted his head before going to the hanger. The mechanic was already waiting for him. "Better not get any holes. We've got enough to deal with right now." He grumbled jokingly. The mechanics didn't really have much to do, but tinker with old plane parts.

"Sorry, but no promises eh?" Canada stuttered.

"What is your prediction on the outcome of this battle commander Williams?" The grease monkey asked.

"I think you'll have much more to do after this battle."

-----❄"Let us be English or let us be French, but above all let us be Canadians."❄-----

AN: didn't want to go through the whole take off thing again...

The noise from the hundreds of engines was loud in the sky like a never ending thunder. All the squadrons from his small air field were in the air as well as some from others. The planes tried to keep formation, but ended up in clumps.

Canada really had to watch his wing tips and predict what a pilot was going to do before he did it. The planes were so tightly packed in the sky they ran the risk of hitting one another. One wrong move or sudden wind could end in lost lives.

The pack of planes started to spread out picking their targets and going for the artillery guns as well and the trucks and any special facilities or underground trenches also observation balloons. Canada quickly lost sight of the rest of his squadron. He scanned the sky for enemy aircraft, but found none.

Matthew picked a machine gun post a dived down towards it. He fired hitting the ground just in front of it causing some stacked explosives to go off. He pulled up sharply narrowly missing the flames. The Canadian flew higher into to the sky and looked down for his next target.

The planes were being shot at by the soldiers in the trenches, machine guns as well as artillery guns. They couldn't fly too low to the ground for too long or risk being shot down.

The Canadian scanned the sky with his sharp far seeing violet eyes for enemy planes. He spotted a cluster of brightly coloured dots in the distance coming from behind enemy lines. Matthew pitched his plane in their direction along with some of the other allied planes who took notice of his actions. They formed a loose formation and flew for the enemy.

As they got closer Matthew realized that the German planes weren't just any old planes, but Manfred Von Richthofen's flying circus, the blood red plane at the tip of the formation. The German pilots had the sun on their backs making it hard to see for the allies.

Matthew and the allied pilots flew straight at the Germans, firing when close enough before rolling out of the way of the enemy planes. They broke formation and flew after the scattered German planes. Three allied planes went after Richthofen while Matthew flew after a bright yellow plane with speckled wings and tail.

The Canadian relentlessly chased the yellow plane despite the Albatros's ducking and diving Matthew managed to get a few well-placed shots in. The Germans pilot control was lost and he was struggling to say level in the air. Canada shot a few more rounds at the German plane. A part of the tail section broke away and Matthew manoeuvred away from the failing plane and scanned the sky for a new target.

Canada looked over his shoulder and noticed a purple plane on his tail. "Crap." He spat. Matthew pushed the nose down and rolled to the left. The enemy kept right on his tail despite his attempts at getting away. Canada looked over his shoulder to see if the enemy plane had any damage on it, but the plane was in perfectly fine condition. He looked back to where he was flying ready to pull another manoeuvre.

The Canadian spotted a two-seater German plane out of the corner of his eye. He didn't have much time to react. Canada pulled up out of the way of the huge plane, but his pursuer didn't. The purple fighter crashed into its ally and exploded. 'Merde, that was a close one.' Matthew thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly checked his gauges and realized that he only had forty minutes of fuel left, thirty with travel time. The replacement squadrons from other bases should arrive any minute.

Canada looked around at the battling planes. The colourful German planes seemed to be thinning out, but the allied ones had even less. The sky was becoming clear of planes. As the Germans retreated despite having more planes. Matthew glanced around again and spotted their replacement planes flying in and smiled. They had full control of the skies over Vimy Ridge.

The new allies squadrons took over and the others were heading back to the air field in a tight formation. They landed and refuelled and some of the planes went back into the air while others stayed back. Canada was counting the casualties and waiting for any stray pilots to fly in.

A few days later Matthew learned that the Canadian corps. had taken the ridge. They had taken the ridge in three days, but suffered heavy casualties.

AN: Wow that seemed long. Anyways some of the facts are jumbled up. The Canadians took Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, but the date Canada was flying in this chapter is the 11th, but it would make sense that fighting would still be going on trying to keep the ridge right? I'm trying to keep this as historically accurate as possible.