Thomas and the Great War

The Invasion of Sodor

By dawn, the Irish Sea was quiet except for the sounds of the German aircraft carriers Graf Zeppelin and Weser loaded with Messerschmitts, Junkers, Dorniers, a Heinkel bomber, and a Breguet seaplane on loan from the Vichy Navy. The Nazis onboard, among them Hermann Göring, were desperate to take Britain by force even after their loss during the Battle of Britain two years ago in 1941 after the cancellation of Operation Sea Lion. That same year, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese forces who would do anything to make peace for America by surrender. But if the citizens of Sodor or the Isle of Man did not surrender under their conditions of being enslaved by a highly industrial country, they would destroy them...by the most devastating weapon of all time.

Around 6:15 a.m., Christopher woke up to find Thomas having left the shed. He knew from the Fat Director that he was already in the quarry sorting the trucks he forgot to take yesterday. Christopher was almost foolish for having stowed away aboard Henry's train, but he knew that he would have to stay on the island until something happened. He went back inside for Diana to tell her about yesterday's events, but she was still tired.

At Tidmouth, the main line engines were just about waking up. Edward was the first to go onto the turntable to get ready for a goods train full of wooden floorboards. He whistled to wake the engines up, but they groaned with Edward's perceived impatience.

The Sodor Regiment, like any other military base, had their own radio equipment to contact one of their own men. One of the operators who was looking out for foreigners, seemed to be picking up a signal from a battalion of planes...but none of them appeared to be British.

The German forces were getting closer and closer like the birds of prey that attacked the smaller animals in their natural habitat.

"Concentrate the most damage on their factories and shipyards," Göring instructed on the radio communications. "The Heinkel shall drop the heavy bomb on their base."

"Affirmative," replied the squad leader. He lead his comrades into what would be a great destruction of the once peaceful island.

Thomas had finished collecting the trucks and went off to collect Annie and Clarabel for the passenger run. Christopher was waiting for him on the platform...

The German aircraft advanced toward the beach of Tidmouth where they were noticed by Edward's driver, who had a pair of binoculars as Christmas present from his uncle, a seafarer. He looked, and with his sharp eyesight, noticed the mark of the Luftwaffe.

"German planes?" he asked Edward.

Edward was alarmed. "They're going to kill us!!" he screamed to the other engines.

Edward blew his whistle and the main line engines, including Percy, hurried onto the turntable without having to escape the danger by going backwards at a dangerous speed. Diesel saw the planes too, and quickly made his escape up the Arlesdale branch line. The only ones who noticed his leave were Percy, James and Eagle who took no interest in following him, they had to follow the engines who were rushing toward the safety of main line, head first. Edward left first, followed by Gordon, who went as fast as his wheels and Edward's pace could let him. A workman hurried to turn Henry around on the turntable, followed by James, who coupled behind Henry's tender and they zoomed out of the yard.

Percy was already head first, so he zoomed past the table to let Eagle be turned around. 98462 and 87546 were the last to be turned and they chased after the red engine just as a bomb dropped through the glass roof of the big station and exploded in a fiery blaze. A support beam had fallen on a hapless woman whose legs were buried in the rubble. One fighter who was a crazed pyro technician followed after the engines in his Messerschmitt, he zoomed over the blue duo and caught up with Eagle.

The fighter thought Eagle's red paint would look dazzling against the fires of his bombs, so flying over the cab, he performed a nosedive, launched the bomb and pulled up to avoid the on-coming explosion. The bomb flew straight into the firebox where it bounced deeper against the coals, further into the boiler...and Eagle the red engine had burst into flames, taking the lives of his crew and leaving a crater in the track where he was destroyed as his tender and remains were derailed. 98462 had fallen down the crater with his tender still on the rails, but 87546 had pushed him further in.

The planes flew over Ffarquhar where Thomas and Christopher had noticed them flying over before a bomb from one of the fighters dropped onto a crossroad on the street nearby the driver's house and exploded upon impact.

"What do they want from us?" Thomas wondered to himself.

Christopher knew the answer. "Nazis."

The five main line engines Edward, Gordon, Henry, James and Percy ran wildly across the countryside and into Knapford Junction where the tunnels were up ahead. Henry was reluctant to hide in a tunnel again, but this was no rainstorm, this was an attack by the enemy forces of Axis.

"When did this island become another Pearl Harbor?" thought Henry as he and the other engines stopped inside the tunnel and listened to the sound of bombs and planes exploding and whizzing over them like angry bees.

At Crovan's Gate, one of the fighters dropped a medium sized bomb through the roof of the works building where the engines were often mended. It was witnessed by Skarloey and Rheneas.

"It's raining bombs!" screamed Rheneas, and he and Skarloey ran off towards the safety of the station by the lake, taking Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima and Beatrice along with them.

At Kirk Machan, the mountain engines saw a huge bomber, none other than the Heinkel 111 flying directly above them, heading straight toward the regiment base.

"If that bomber is carrying a 22,000 ton bomb like my driver tells me about," muttered Culdee, "we're doomed."

Then he shouted to the others. "Head for high ground!"

Ernest, Wilfred and Shane Dooiney collected their coaches and went up the mountain just as the bomb fell on the Regiment base, killing eight people and leaving 23 of the staff wounded from the blast.

At Arlesdale, Stuart and Falcon were waiting for the other engines, including Duke, to start work at the mines.

"Come on, Stuart," said Falcon. "Let's see what's been keeping them so long."

They were about to look for the others when an enemy plane swooped down upon them and flew upwards to rejoin his squadron.

"What in the world?" asked Stuart. "Was that?"

Duke barged in, blowing his whistle as a warning to the others.

"What's all this?" remarked Falcon.

"We're being bombed!" Duke shouted.

They ran to the mines where the other engines were hiding.

When Thomas, Christopher, Annie and Clarabel arrived at Knapford, they found the harbour in shambles and the boat that Christopher had arrived in was covered in soot from the explosion. They looked up and saw the planes heading back to the aircraft carriers, Herr Göring had said they had done enough damage for the day.

Back at Tidmouth after the track was mended, the engines found everything in shambles; the station roof had collapsed, a hole big enough for a bird to fly through was blown through the ceiling of the sheds and the buildings were burned out, singed and completely broken into bricks of smoking rubble. The Fat Director knew that something had to be done to avenge the lives lost, but they were already sending enough men from the mainland to fight the Germans and they would do anything to conquer the entirety of Europe.

James took this as a hard blow to his vanity, especially when he found out that Eagle had died from one of the attackers, but he and the others set to work preparing for the memorial and the unexpected arrival of the War Department.