Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

4TH AUGUST 1940

--------------------------------------------------------BERBERA, BRITISH SOMALILAND---------------------------------------------------------
It was not even at 7:00am, and was already a hot and sunny day in Berbera, the capital of the foreign territory of British Somaliland. Above the skies of the city, a flight of RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers was on patrol. In one of these bombers, Flight Lieutenant Robert Owens was flying the bomber above the skies of Somaliland, along with fourteen other Blenheims. Along with him were his navigator-cum-bomb aimer, a pegasus, Bulky Buster, and his gunner, Swift Wind, a unicorn. His bomber was the only aircraft that had only one human crewmember. While there were a few other ponies in the squadron, his particular plane was the only one which had only one human on the crew.

(fifteen of these)

Lately, everyone stationed here in Africa had been on edge since the bombing of French Navy vessels in Algeria, and that was concern that the Axis would try to retaliate for the attacks, since France was basically under the control of Germany at this point. "So far, nothing visible in the skies. You guys see anything from your views?" asked Owens.

"Nope, all clear from my point of view." replied Buster, and Wind soon replied that he also hadn't seen anything. So far, their patrol had gone without anything eventful since they had taken off around an hour earlier. They still had a lot of fuel and weapons on board, and they had around seven hours left on their patrol. As the bombers lumbered around the city of Berbera, in the desert surrounding the city, they saw some dust clouds. At first, they thought it was normal, as it could have been the wind. But there were numerous clouds, and the wind was not blowing, which made them suspicious.

"Serpent 8, this is Serpent 1 here. Do you think you can check out those clouds? I have a feeling about them." said the commander of the squadron, to Owens.

"Roger, Serpent 8, I'll go check it out." said Owens, as he began turning the plane away from the rest of his squadron to check the commander's suspicions. As he flew a little lower to check what this was, he felt explosions in the air, around his aircraft, and he realised what he had encountered. It was a large formation of tanks. But they didn't seem like the models used by the Germans. They seemed quite small for German tanks. Whatever country operated them, they were definitely not British models.

(around ninety to one hundred of these)

"Serpent 8, its a huge tank company! I can't tell what kind they are, they're not German tanks, but they're not British ones either! They're firing at us, and heading towards the city! We gotta stop them before they take Berbera!" said Owens.

"Roger that, Serpent 8, we're coming to help you, hold on!" said Serpent 1, as the other Blenheims flew towards the position of Owens' plane. Meanwhile, Owens was trying to guide his plane away from the deadly shots being fired by the enemy, while his comrades flew towards him as fast as they could without destroying their planes.

"Buster! Get ready to drop the bombs, we need to stop these tanks!" said Owens, shouting to Bulk Buster, as he opened the bomber's bomb bay doors.

"On it, Owens! Working on aiming them right now! Already got two bombs ready to go!" said Buster, as he began to aim the bomb. A few seconds later, he gave the confirmatory message. "Owens, drop them now!"

"Dropping now!" said Owens, as he pressed a switch, and two bombs dropped out of the plane, heading towards the tanks. Soon, impact came, as the bombs hit their targets, destroying six tanks in one swoop. Thankfully, the other Blenheims in Serpent Squadron had also come to their aid, and soon, tanks started to be destroyed fast. However, the pilots had estimated that around 100 tanks were in this one company alone, and they had also been able to figure out what country and type they were.

These were Italian tanks, to be precise, Carro Armato M13/40 medium tanks. They had heard that these had entered service with the Italian Army only a month earlier, but weren't expecting them to be deployed into battles so early. These tanks, being smaller than the German Panzers, were much more nimble, and hence were a little harder to hit successfully. However, the desert made the tanks slower, which helped the lumbering Blenheims go at them more easily.

As the bombers continued to inflict some damage on the tanks, that was when Serpent 1 shouted, "SHIT! ITALIAN MACCHI FIGHTERS! ALL PLANES, GUNS OPEN, NOW!" As Owens watched horrified, he saw a large number of Italian Macchi fighters converging on the bombers. They had no means of self-defence apart from the 7.7mm machine gun in the port wing, and a Vickers K gun in the dorsal turret, since their plane was a Blenheim Mk. I, and not one of the newer Blenheim Mk. IVs.

"Alright, Wind, get ready! I hope you have enough ammunition, we're going to need to last a fight against those Italian planes!" said Owens, getting ready to pull some evasive maneuvers with the heavy and slow bomber.

"Roger that, Owens! Already loading the dorsal turret!" said Swift Wind. "Here they come!" shouted Wind, as the Macchis closed in on their plane, and Owens quickly put the bomber into a steep descent, as one of the Italian fighters headed towards them at full speed. As the Macchi began firing as it flew over them, Wind fired at the Macchi, which was hit, and began spiralling down towards the desert in flames.

"We've called for backup, but they might not be able to get here in time!" radioed Serpent 1. By now, two of the fifteen Blenheims in the Serpent Squadron had already been shot down, and the others were having a rough time dealing with the Macchis. However, it was a losing battle. Fifteen minutes later, of the thirteen remaining bombers, seven of them had been shot down, including Serpent 1. By that time, backup had still not arrived, and the pilots already knew it was a losing battle.

"Alright, guys, we gotta get outta here! Those Italians are gonna kill us all if we don't retreat! We better head towards Egypt, we'll be safe there!" said Owens, as he and his remaining airmen set full throttle, and began flying away from Berbera, heading towards Egypt. They knew that they were being cowardly, leaving behind the territory they were supposed to protect like that. But it was the only way, and they knew that one day, Britain would either have Somaliland back to itself, or the countries it comprised of would be independent.