Work Text:
[Bismarck]
279/CGTA
Bismarck sighed and looked at the papers in front of her spread all over the desk. There were sometimes she wished she was a simple sailor, without all the painful tasks needed to manage her ship. One of these was all the paperwork, the kind of task that could keep her awake for entire hours and force her to work around the clock. But that was her fate as a shipgirl. It was her duty to look over the ship and its crew, she needed to keep it working at all times. And for that, well, you needed to do the paperwork. Paperwork about all of the jobs which had to be done, were already finished or in progress - storage of food, ammunition, medicine, spare parts and all - and required her signature. As a shipgirl, she was one of the highest one onboard, and with the Captain was the one who green-lighted all of the operations.
It had been quiet in the last few days, only the usual trials together with the fleet, mainly Prinz Eugen. She had the slight suspicion that she might be sent together on her first mission with the heavy cruiser, that she would be the one to accompany the flagship. But no one really knew what the plans of the Admiralty exactly were. One week earlier, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were supposed to go with her. Two weeks earlier, it was the redirection of new materials for Graf Zeppelin’s ship. Talk about a mess. It’s almost like the Admiralty themselves had no idea of what they were doing. Almost. She had to take into account these shenanigans and what plans that maniac at the head of the Empire had. No one knew what target he had planned to reach, what he had in mind.
The Empire was in his grip, and only his hands. If something happened to him, there was no one to replace him. And in that case, the Empire would most definitely lose the war, consumed by inter factions conflicts. Only his so bold and even crazy plans were making sure that they could win the battles, that they could prevail in this war. Even the Admirals of the Kriegsmarine depended on him, they needed his command. He was one to manage the resources. And it was his resort to win the war. Everyone did their own part, but he was the one who gave the orders - and took credit.
She sighed and rubbed the side of her head, taking a small sip of coffee from a small cup, steaming in the light coming through the window. She loved to sit in her cabin and think over the many messages, all of the plans which involved her ship. After all, it was the biggest one in service, it was the pride of the nation. And she was the shipgirl, the head of it all. Of course she had to oblige to the commands of the Admiral and the Captain, at least when she was in battle, but in port she could do what she wanted. That meant also that she could change the timing of the crew and all of the resources onboard.
It was her small playground so to say. She needed the crew to be in the best shape possible, she needed young and strong men who could do all the tasks she couldn’t. And these tasks were plentiful. Maintenance of the equipment, shifts between day and night teams, repainting the hull, cleaning of the deck, regular exercises or - should the worst happen - being able keep the ship combat capable if she was put out of action for one reason or another. Even though her ship hadn’t seen active combat yet, it was showing signs of damage. No wonder. Putting a giant piece of metal into the salty ocean and moving it around wasn’t exactly the definition of keeping said metal in good shape. It was the opposite. Her ship would degrade slowly over the years, it would become junk slowly. And it was her job to keep that from happening.
God, so many jobs. And yet, she had to keep track. Her pen scraped across the paper, then she put the cap back on and folded up the paper putting it into a small letter. She would give that paper to the post office on her ship. Normally the railway was faster, but now that a war was around, it was safer to fly all of the letters to Command. She had used Prinz Eugen’s seaplane sometimes in the last few days, notably to get some more spare parts or some letters to and from her ship. It was a well organised rhythm.
This time would be different : she would instead send her own seaplanes. It would be the first time she would make use of the catapults. The aircraft were just out of the factory, had never been in service apart from the few test runs they had conducted in the assembly. Just like everything on her ship, only a few things had been tested. Of course she had completed her shakedown, and that in quick trials. She and Prinz Eugen had been setting course for the Baltic Sea several times, seeing if their ships performed like imagined. And she even had the chance to exercise together with U-556. The small girl who meant so much to her.
She had asked several times how the paperwork was different to a battleship. The small girl didn’t know how much of a difference there really was. That Bismarck was the flagship, that there were a lot of things to do. Whilst U-556 only had to service her small boat and manage a few dozen men, Bismarck had to coordinate a whole fleet of people who were working on her ship and outside, hundreds of crewmembers who needed to service countless different pieces of her ship. It was a literal maze of paperwork.
Just as she wanted to refill her cup with even more coffee, a knock came from the door. Bismarck frowned and looked up.
“Come in.“, she said, putting the cup down. The door opened and two men of her crew came in, one with a letter in his hands. Two officers, the ones who were there to keep track of all of the messages. And every single time one of them showed up in person, that meant that the letter was important.
“Greetings. We received this letter just a few minutes ago. Comes from Berlin.“, said the first one, giving her the letter. She frowned and nodded, grabbing the small knife she used to open letters. The paper rustled, then she pulled out the letter itself, reading it.
Her brows moved slightly as she moved through the lines, then followed by a sudden change in the colour of her face. She went pale a bit more, but it returned to a normal level again within a few seconds. She nodded, then looked back up.
“Seems like Berlin wants some men back.“, she said, flying over the paragraphs once more. It was from the one Ministry she hated, the one which sent men in their death.
The entire Empire was built on one main thing: fear. It was held together by fear of something bigger, and that was to lose again. The Chancellor knew well how he could manipulate all of the people which were in the empire, he knew that they needed an enemy to fight against. And when there had been no war, he had searched for one, one from within. And in this case, it had been a religion. A religion which had done nothing wrong, which had never done anything. But he had decided that these people were responsible for Germany’s defeat in the Great War and thus, had to pay for this. And now, they were getting separated more and more from the Empire. A lie. These people had fought, bled and died like any other German under the Kaiser’s banner during the war. They helped rebuild the country after it’s defeat and helped it prosper in the years after. But the Chancellor didn’t care.
These people were getting picked out at random, at least so it seemed. First they were sent into different parts of the cities, they were getting stashed away. But once these people were away and no one looked, they just vanished. Nobody knew where they went exactly, there were only rumors. Some spoke that they were sent in the East, where they could have their own nation. Others mentioned that they were sent into camps to work for the Empire until they would die of exhaustion. And she dearly hoped that nothing of that was true. That these camps were indeed just a myth and the people were just lost in track. That nothing happened to them.
And now, she had been commanded to deliver a dozen of her men to the next station of the police, so that they could begin the next steps. In her mind she went through the names of these men, reminding herself of the faces corresponding. These good and young men, men whom she needed in case of a war. And the Chancellor was just sending them away. But what could she do ? There wasn’t a single thing she could do to make such orders impossible. Only thing she could do was to sit and watch how the world changed around her. Just smile and wave.
Command was command, she as a shipgirl, be it a flagship, could do nothing. She could only oblige to the word of the Chancellor. Only thing she was supposed to do was to sign the paper.
“It’s a shame, really. They were good men.“, she said, leaning back. The first officer shrugged, but nodded.
“I know. But we have our orders. I was surprised actually. I thought that they checked everyone here onboard before we left Hamburg. But seemingly that was a short conclusion.“, he said. Bismarck nodded. He was also just the messenger, just a man also. He could do nothing.
“It makes me sad anyways. For me, every single man from my crew is like a part of me, and I am sad for everyone who has to leave.“
“I appreciate the thought, sir.“, smiled the first officer. She nodded, then took a sip on her cup.
“Of course I do. I would be a bad shipgirl if I wouldn’t do that. You are all important enough for me that I would catch a bullet for you.“
“I know that. But if the Chancellor himself says that these rodents need to leave this ship, then so be it.“, said the second officer, silent until now, making her frown.
Rodents. This one was talking about them like they were animals, not men. They also had feelings, hopes and dreams, they were just doing their work like everyone else on the ship. And this one was talking about them like that. She and a few others had tried to correct him several times, but they had given up after dozens or so tries. He was just way too blind to see the truth. Drooling idiot.
The Chancellor. That madman was lusting for war. He would kill them all one day. That was for sure. Only question was, when. The Admiralty, and the Wehrmacht had told him that they were all ready for his signal. But that was all bullshit. The Kriegsmarine didn’t have enough capital ships to rival with the Royal Navy or the Marine Nationale and could only do merchant raiding. The Heer, aside from it’s panzer divisions, was under motorized and was still relying on horses and trucks to carry the troops. And the Luftwaffe, even though in possession of excellent fighters, didn’t have long range bombers to cripple the enemy factories should the war drag on.
But for now, she could do nothing but keep her mouth shut. Of course it hurt her to see a few men of her crew to go, but on the other hand, she would never risk her position to help a few men. She would be decoupled from the ship and another woman would take her place, making the situation not a bit better. She would just continue on with the oath had taken and make the crew suffer the same.
"I hereby swear that I will be a proud, brave and vigilant soldier. I hereby swear to uphold the honor of our nation and its military. I hereby swear to submit to the orders of my superiors."
And because of that reason, Bismarck kept her mouth shut. It was better that way.
She nodded and sighed, picking up the pen, taking off the cap. A pen and a cap, the one thing she used most on her ship. Even her anchor was used less, so at least it seemed. She was signing paperwork again. And this time, she felt a strange pulling in her gut. This signature would seal the fate of a few men, men who did nothing wrong, who were innocent. And yet, they had to go. For the betterment of the Empire. Surely nothing bad would happen to them. Nothing would hurt them, so at least she hoped. At least so she hoped.
She would have to see what the Empire would do next, maybe these men were getting sent elsewhere. But if the way continued like now, then she would never see them again. Why was the Chancellor doing that ? She nodded and set the pen on the paper, then wrote her insignia down, the pen making sounds on the paper. She looked a few seconds on it, then folded the paper and gave it back to the officer. He thanked her, then saluted.
“For the Chancellor!“, he said, then turned around and went back out of her cabin.
“For the Chancellor…“, she mumbled half hearted, feeling how the feeling in her gut got worse. All she could do was just smile and wave.