The Atlantic Express
by: justjames17
(Copyright 2004 -2007 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...
 

Chapter 43

The Fox Hound had been engaged by the surface raider Kormoran and had been damaged by a direct hit from one of her 5.9inch guns destroying Y gun on her quarterdeck. Fox Hound outgunned and afire had turned away when the U-boat Kormoran had been supplying had fired a brace of torpedos at the destroyer. The raider made good her escape but Fox Hound had signalled her position and course to Colombo, her message was relayed to the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney.

The Sydney was steaming south down the West Australian coast returning to Fremantle after escorting the troop ship Zealandia to Sundra Strait.
The Sydney, a modern 9,000 ton modified Leander class light cruiser commissioned in 1935 and armed with 8-6inch guns and 4-4inch as well as lighter weapons, was also equipped with a Supermarine Seagull seaplane for reconnaissance. She was already a veteran having seen action in the Mediterranean Battle of Cape Spada where she had sunk a modern Italian cruiser and in a latter engagement sank two destroyers. Her captain, John Collins had just been replaced by a relatively inexperienced officer captain Joseph Burnett.

Sydney immediately altered course towards the last known position of the Kormoran, the raider also a modern ship had been converted to an auxiliary cruiser to wreak havoc on merchant ships; she was heavily armed with 6-5.9inch guns as well as torpedo tubes and some 20mm anti-aircraft weapons but she was lacking the armour plate and speed to match the Sydney so it should have been a one sided battle if and when the two vessels met in combat.

The Kormoran as soon as she steamed out of sight of the Fox hound immediately set about changing her appearance, the false after funnel was removed and once well clear of Fox Hound she hove too so the crew could repaint her funnel colours to imitate a Dutch freighter, the Straat Malakka. Once her disguise was completed she resumed her journey and steamed on to the South West hoping to come upon shipping making the long voyage from Australia to South Africa, little did she know she was on a converging course with the fast steaming cruiser. Days passed and the ships converged, Sydney steaming west while Kormoran sailed South East.

Sydney steamed on and on her sleek hull slicing through the Indian ocean swells, her twin funnels sent a shimmering heat haze into the air as her engineers carefully regulated her fuel so no smoke could betray her position to the enemy. Each day Sydney dispatched her scout plane which flew in widening circles searching for the enemy ship, the aircrew were brave men having to take off and land in mid ocean in their flimsy aircraft and the skills of her pilot were amazing as he touched down on the huge swells or the heavy chop on some windy days. The crew never tired of watching the tiny aircraft lightly skim the surface and then slow to a stop while the ship manoeuvred close to attach it to the crane for raising it back aboard.

The days passed uneventfully then at 4pm Sydney sighted a ship on the horizon, her signal lamp flickered challenging and demanding the identity of the ship. Fregattenkapitan Detmers ordered the signaller to send Straat Malakka in return. The crew on the bridge of the Sydney checked the identity in their ship register and the vessel looked somewhat similar to the photo in their book. The Sydney continued to close the range steaming confidently in closer and closer, her main armament still facing fore and aft not trained on the still steaming Kormoran. She was rapidly overhauling the enemy while still demanding the secret password for the day but Kormoran stayed silent, as she didn't know the answer. Detmers hoped their subterfuge would allow the Kormoran to draw the dangerous enemy into her trap; this was her only chance in an unequal battle with the faster, heavier armed and armoured cruiser.

The unsuspecting sleek cruiser was now within 1,000 yards of the still steaming ship the enemy crew were crouched closed up behind the screens hiding her guns awaiting the order to uncover and fire. At 1,000 yards Sydney was a sitting duck and on board Kormoran there was a flurry of activity the screens dropped and her 5.9inch guns blazed away at the cruiser, her anti aircraft guns sprayed the decks and bridge hitting the seaplane and setting fire to it while the cruisers seemed stunned by the sudden and savage attack. Sydney was a sitting duck and the Germans maintained a rapid fire attempting to put her completely out of action and sink her, Sydney was hit by many 5.9" shells before she could train her guns and return fire, so savage and desperate was the Kormoran's fire.

The Sydney's first salvo passed overhead raising huge fountains in the sea some distance beyond the raider, before Sydney could fire again two salvoes hit her bridge and midships putting her forward turrets A and B out of action leaving only her stern guns in action, the fires began to flare as Kormoran took two hits one in her funnel and another in her engine room. The raider fired torpedos one hitting the cruiser, the first lieutenant ordered the Sydney to turn towards the Kormoran and the stricken cruiser turned laboriously bow on before he again ordered her to turn once again enabling her to bring her starboard torpedoes to bear. As she turned the fires in B turret reached her ready use ammunition and it exploded blowing the turret overboard and shaking the cruiser to her core. Sydney fired all four torpedoes they splashed down racing away but failed to hit the enemy as Kormoran turned to avoid them allowing the torpedoes to race past her stern.

As she turned the Kormoran's damaged engines stopped and she began to drift, Sydney broke off the action and began to limp away southwards as darkness fell. Her tired crew still attempting to put out the fires raging through her badly damaged hull. The forward magazine hatches had jammed, after the turret explosion, trapping the crewmembers working there and men were despatched to try to free them while the sick bay was filled with wounded and dying sailors. The doctor and sick bay attendants were at their wits end trying to cope with the wounded, the stench of burning and the smoke overpowered the metallic smell of blood and invaded everywhere inside her hull causing paroxysms of coughing as the men breathed the foul air.

The heat of her fires bubbled the paint on her hull and superstructure as the Sydney drifted rolling on the calm sea, a pall of smoke drifted away on the light breeze as her tired and stunned crew battled on with the inferno. Below decks the men trapped in the forward magazine sat calmly awaiting their release, two older seamen and a young lad just joined. The youngster had lied about his age and was only 17 he began to sob as the heat built increasingly in the magazine, the lights had failed after the explosion and they sat in total blackness. The leading seaman felt his way to where the lad sat weeping and slid down beside him putting his strong arm about the lad's shoulders. The youth leant into the man's comforting grasp and rested his sweaty head on the man's shoulder. The two sat silently together sharing their companionship, the older man said, "It will be ok young David, they will free us don't you worry about that son."

The lad nodded sniffling and replied, "I hope so because if they don't we are going to either fry in the heat of be blown to pieces when the heat sets off the cordite charges."

The leading hand gave the lad a squeeze and leant his head against the boys then did something he never normally would he kissed the sweat wet short hair on the boy's head. The boy sat frozen in place at the touch of his mate's lips, a shiver rocked him to the core and he lifted his head and brushed his lips across the older man's cheek. The two then kissed softly while their arms wrapped about each other in the hot darkness, the lad's hand slipped slowly down until he clutched the man's penis through his pants. The man grunted then sighed and the lad began undoing the buttons of his mentor's fly.

The lad opened the man's pants and fished out his large thick soft cock, the man sighed heavily at his touch and his cock throbbed in the youth's grasp as the penis began to engorge with blood. In moments the man was fully erect and the lad was stroking his hand up and down the long thick shaft, the man moved opening his legs giving the youth full access to his genitals and he began to breath heavily. The youth suddenly had the urge to taste the man and he bent down kissing the big spongy knob, the man stiffened and moaned as the lad opened wide taking his excited erection into his moist warm mouth.

The moaning of the leading hand aroused the other sailor who asked, "What is going on it sounds like your having sex you guys?"

The lad's lips were sliding up and down the silky soft but hard boner as he gradually took all the man had to offer, the cock entering his hungry gullet as he bobbed faster and faster squeezing and fondling the hairy ball bag. The third sailor felt his way around the hot steel bulkhead till he felt the lad's body, he could hear the soft slurping as he mouthed the fat cock, he felt his way over the lad's bobbing torso to feel the boy's head then the mouth stretched wide over the leading hands dick. He moaned in frustration and had the urge to undress the handsome young seaman and maybe he could get into the act by making love to the lad's sexy young arse.

He pulled the lad up onto his knees and reached under him fumbling with the buttons of his fly, the lad didn't resist in any way and he soon had the trousers around the boy's knees as he began massaging the full fleshy muscular orbs of the lad's arse. The lad's moans of pleasure muffled by the fat prick embedded in his gulping throat spurred the man on and he inserted a spit slicked finger up the lad's incredibly tight ring. He felt the lad's rear end quiver and shake as he fingered his sphincter driving in and out rapidly; a second finger soon joined the first as their passion built. The man grasped his pulsing prick holding it firmly as he pressed his cock head into the lad's ring; a hard shove and he broached that tiny entrance stretching the lad's muscle painfully. The young sailor choked as he jerked forward onto the other seaman's fat tool, his gurgling gagging spurred both men on and the youth was soon being rooted feverishly from both ends. The lad was on fire as the big cocks took possession of his virginal body and his mind reeled with a strange mixture of both pain and pleasure as he choked on one and felt the second pole surging in and out of his pliant pussy.

His own dick limp from the pain of penetration began to stiffen as the guy's cock fucking his arse began to encounter and excite his hidden gland, never in his young life had he felt such an incredible feeling.

His dick leapt every time that prick surged up his rectum rubbing on some magical spot deep inside his arse, his dick began spitting juice on each thrust and he went crazy sucking and fucking his throat on the older man's big hairy cock. The three seamen erupted howling their pleasure and lust as their cocks erupted spewing sperm then as their climaxes waned they collapsed in a sweaty tangle on the cork tiled deck, bodies heaving as they sucked the hot air into their depleted lungs. Their final sexual urge depleted they gradually sank into a stupor as the heat built and the oxygen level dropped.

The heat kept building in their prison as the rescuers frantically attempted to open the heavy hatch alas it resisted all their attempts and the fires neared their position they were forced to leave the area.

Normally the magazine would be flooded under these conditions but the explosion had destroyed the mechanism and the crew knew it was only a matter of time before it exploded unless they could put out the inferno raging in her hull.

The crew of the Kormoran abandoned ship as the fires raged through her threatening to reach her mine storage deck; they took to the lifeboats after setting scuttling charges leaving 20 of their shipmates dead on board killed by the cruiser's gunfire. As they pulled away from their ship the Germans watched the heavily damaged cruiser slowly steam away into the darkness. Her fires were visible for many hours until eventually she vanished from sight as the lifeboats began rowing towards the West Australian coast. As they rowed the heavy boats they heard two massive explosions and they knew the cruiser had blown up when the fires finally reached her magazines.

No trace of the Sydney's crew was found, a single unidentified body washed ashore and a bullet-scarred life raft was found bobbing on the sea, when search vessels combed the area. The survivors of the Kormoran's crew were picked up and they were interned in Australia.

To be continued...
 

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Posted: 09/07/07