Chapter 195: Chapter 172: Into the Trenches!

Near Ashville, Alabama, the United States of America
February 14th, 1834

"Five minutes until we breach! Check your gear and get your tin cans on straight!"

Private Do Viet Ho, who hailed from Pennsylvania, gripped his Robinson Shotgun tightly as he leaned on a nearby earth wall, carefully making sure that the Samuel Rifle slung on his back wasn't hit with any dirt. He adjusted his steel helmet and double-checked his gear as ordered by his NCO. Above the tunnel he and his unit were residing in, the ground periodically rumbled from artillery fired by both sides. As he dusted himself off, the private felt a hand clasp his shoulder and turned around quickly. When he did, he saw an African American Marine grinning widely at him, "Jittery?"

"A bit."

"This ain't even your first battle though," Private First Class Charlie River from Jefferson said as he inspected his own equipment.

"Even still."

The Vietnamese-American Marine was noticeably quieter than his comrades, in part due to his slight accent when speaking English. Private Ho knew that the other Marines didn't judge him due to his... unordinary accent. It helped that one of America's heroes was Asian, as it created a generally positive reception towards Asians in the United States. However, he personally liked to speak as few words as possible. Especially before a major operation that would most likely result in thousands of casualties.

Private Ho's sergeant, a clean-shaven white man from Virginia, shouted just as the miner's lamp above their heads swayed from another ground shake, "Three minutes!"

He didn't have a watch on him, but the private quietly counted down the minutes in his head. Next to him, one of his Quebecois comrades was muttering a prayer while clinching his cross necklace. PFC River fiddled with a knife and strapped it to his belt as he looked at the tunnel's exit point. More and more shells pounded the ground and despite the relatively calm demeanor of most the Marines, Private Ho knew that they were nervous. After all, they were playing the most critical part in the whole counterattack against the British and were being sent on a high-risk mission that would result in many of them being injured or dead.

The Army Engineers managed to create an underground tunnel that started from the American western defensive lines all the way to the British trenches that were a kilometer away. How they handled such a project was beyond him, but from what he had heard, the Engineers spent days and nights calculating the distance between the American lines and the British lines, dug underground to bypass "no man's land," and reinforced the hidden tunnel to the point that it would make a coal miner blush. Apparently, more than a few of them worked in mines before and knew some tricks to keep the underground tunnel from collapsing on itself. It was a tight squeeze, with almost 4,500 Marines of the 5th Marine Brigade, 2nd Marine Division lined up literally back to back in the dimly lit tunnel. However, it was the safest way of directly attacking the British trenches and causing chaos in the British ranks while avoiding British artillery guns. Of course, they would be alone by themselves for some time as their Army counterparts advanced to reinforce them, but the Marines knew what they signed up for when they joined the branch. The daily life of a Marine was never easy, in fact, it only got harder with each passing day. Thankfully, the first one thousand that were breaching into the enemy trenches (like Private Ho) were armed with some of the newest toys that ARPA cooked up: Robinson Shotguns, the perfect guns to clear trenches with speed and efficiency.

And now, the time had come.

"Listen up!" Sergeant Ted Williams growled, "The Engineers are going to create an opening for us to enter the British trenches in one minute! When they do, I want no one to retreat. All of you are going forward and clearing the trenches from the damn Brits, Ports, or whoever the hell is there. Once we have the trench line, we hold from any counterattacks and wipe the bastards from this Earth! Am I understood?"

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"OORAH!"

"Good. Now let's give them hell, courtesy from the Huns!"

Private Ho opened the tube for his shotgun with a lever near the hammers of the shotgun and placed two shots into the tube. After the shots were secured, he flipped the main tube of the gun back into its resting position and cocked the two hammers. There was only one trigger, which meant that he had to pull the trigger twice to fire both barrels. But opening up the gun and reloading weren't too difficult, and the weapon provided him with plenty of firepower. He plugged a bayonet into the shotgun and prepared for the signal with both of his hands fiddling the stock of the firearm.

A small explosion occurred towards the very end of the tunnel (the Marines were told to stay a distance away from the area and they reluctantly obliged), creating an opening and letting a rush of air into the underground tunnel. Sergeant Williams blew his whistle and charged, with the other Marines following closely behind his heel. The Vietnamese-American was towards the very front of the group and let out a small "Oorah!" before jumping into the enemy trenches. As Private Ho exited the tunnel, he was met with clouds of smoke drifting through the battlefield, the smell of blood, and the din of artillery and rifles created by both sides.

The sudden appearance of the American Marines had completely caught the defenders off guard. As Private Ho fired two consecutive shots to down a pair of his opponents, he realized that the two soldiers were Indians, not British. He quickly reloaded his shotgun in a matter of four seconds and pushed forward as he fired two more shots, downing three additional Indian troops. The Indian soldiers barely had time to swing around their rifled muskets when the Marines emerged with their space clearing shotguns. Within minutes, nearly a thousand Marines were in the trench line and mopping up the broken British colonial troops with ease. While the private realized that the British placed their Indian troops towards the very front with inferior firearms in order for them to take the brunt of the fire from the American lines, he had no time to ponder upon that thought as he ducked deeply into the trenches and switched out his shotgun for his Samuel Rifle. He fired an entire magazine and was sitting down to reload when British artillery shells exploded around the trenches the American Marines were occupying.

He took a deep breath as the shells rocked the trenches and caused a few Marines to collapse. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the soldiers of the American Army rushing the first line of British trenches, supported by the dozens of American artillery guns that were pouring fire on the British lines. Private Ho steeled his nerves and swung his rifle to fire more shots towards the British.

The Army needed some covering fire, after all.

+++++

AN: Charlie River is the grandson of James River from Chapter 109.

L.C. Smith Shotgun are the Robinson Shotguns of TTL.

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