Read The Rat Patrol 3 - The Trojan Tank Affair for Free Online Page B

confirmed.
    "We're going to hide," Ogilvy said. "They're too fast for us."
    Troy understood now why Ogilvy had kept so close to the clouds they almost brushed the bottom of the ship. Before the FW-190s could check their climb and maneuver into position, the B-25 had nosed down and was hidden. Troy could feel the plane tipping on its side as Ogilvy circled in evasive action. It seemed to Troy that they were veering to the south. It was like driving in the fog, he thought, expecting any minute that the plane would crash with one of the Jerry fighters. He checked his watch and it was not until fifteen minutes had passed that the pilot pulled the bomber up into the moonlight again. Once more, they were alone.
    "Can't imagine what those 190s were doing up here," Ogilvy said. "Whatever it was, it wasn't us. They didn't waste any time searching."
    Troy smiled tightly. The Jerries had been waiting for them, all right, he thought, but they expected us in a C-46 and not a B-25.
    "We didn't even get a shot fired," Tully complained.
    "For that you should be thankful," Ogilvy told him.
    The B-25 skimmed on above the clouds. How much did Jerry know or guess, Troy wondered. Would he believe the Rat Patrol exterminated when the C-46 was shot down? Would the ruse take him in long enough for them to penetrate the staging area beyond Agarawa?
    "Jerry's on our tail again," Hitch cried and almost while he was calling, his machine gun began to rattle.
    Troy gripped his gun and looked back. The three FW-190s had come through almost on the Mitchell, flying in a V. Now the one on Troy's side peeled off, slipping below the bomber. Troy raked it with his gun and saw the tracers going high. One of the other fighters was climbing and the third was closing on them level. All the machine guns were chattering now although Troy couldn't get onto anything. The FW-190 upstairs came down at them with its twenty millimeter cannon blasting. In the turret, Tully's machine gun slammed away. Slugs from the 190's cannon started to spatter the top of the B-25's fuselage and abruptly stopped.
    "Got him," Troy heard Tully drawl and saw the 190 laze on its side and come drifting past his bubble. A stream of white smoke trailed from it as it disappeared into the clouds.
    Now the 190 that had been on their tail pulled up and streaked over with its cannon blazing. Slugs tore into the fuselage and left raw holes. Tully's machine gun blasted, but the fighter already was beyond them and climbing. The third enemy fighter came up at them from below and both Moffitt and Troy put their guns on it. Troy could see the fighter's tracers streaking at him. He set his jaw and kept on firing. Before the fighter reached the bomber, it yawed and its cannon stopped firing. It disappeared out of control into the clouds. Cold air was whistling into the fuselage of the B-25 from a dozen or more holes.
    "Everything okay?" Ogilvy called back.
    "Right," Moffitt, Hitch and Troy answered in quick succession.
    Troy waited a moment, then called sharply, "Tully, you okay?"
    "Two down and one to go," Tully drawled.
    "Oh no, we don't," Ogilvy said and Troy felt the B-25 nosing down. They were buried in the clouds before the third FW-190 came back, if it ever did. Troy wondered whether the Jerry fighters had intercepted the C-46 and were returning from a successful mission when they encountered the B-25 for the second time. Or had there been a leak already? Had Jerry been looking for the B-25 all the time?
    They came in over Benghazi at four-forty-five hours, flying low under the clouds from the sea. The old port town showed no lights and looked deserted. Some of the ruins from the early fighting in North Africa when the Aussies had taken Benghazi still remained, shapeless piles of debris. Ogilvy circled wide to the east and south.
    "We're going in at a restricted area beyond the city," Ogilvy said in the intercom. "They've put in a strip there especially for this landing."
    Troy saw the fire from a