Chapter 6

Moshe Attelman was about as pissed as he could be without actually shooting somebody. He was in charge of importing "the good stuff" from Canada, and he was hearing shit from higher up. "Who the hell do these 'Birdmen' think thay are? Don't they know that nobody messes with The Purple Gang?"

Criticism from higher up in The Purple Gang was usually the last step before a visit from the Tommy gun crew. Moshe was not only pissed, he was sweating! He had to stop these Birdmen goyim, before his next big run, but how? The ambush trick had failed 2 times that he knew of, so there was no point in trying it again the same way.

They had a special armored car, so there was no point in shooting at it with anything smaller than a .50 caliber machine gun. He'd have no trouble getting his hands on the machine gun, but that might not even work, based on the stories he'd heard. He needed something bigger!

That's it, he needed a cannon! One of his minions had been in the artillery during the Great War. Maybe Joey The Snake would have some ideas. "HEY, JELLY-BELLY, GET JOEY THE SNAKE IN HERE!"

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Joey The Snake stuck his head in the door. "You wanted me, boss?"

"Yeah, come in and sit down. You know something about cannons, and I need some ideas. What sort of cannon would you use to take out a super armored car?"

"That's an easy one, boss. I'd want a 37mm cannon like the limeys used. It makes a hell of a hole in armor plate!"

"Can one be mounted on an armored car?"

"I doubt it, boss. It's too heavy and kicks too hard. You could probably put in on a truck, though."

"How big a truck would you need?"

"At least a 2-ton. Something like our delivery Macks. It would have to be welded to the frame and the truck turned to aim it. It'd be a bitch, but it could be done."

"OK, let's say you were gonna do this, how would you manage it?"

"Well, the aiming would have to be done at the cannon, so there would have to be some way for the aimer to talk to the driver. Maybe they could use one of those telephone things like they use on ships. I guess your contact at the telephone company could get you one."

"OK, Joey, you talked yourself into your next job. I want you to get us a cannon mounted on a truck and test it. If it works, you'll go after those Birdmen goyim that have been hitting our convoys. You'll earn yourself a $10,000 bonus if you can get them."

"Shit, boss, thanks. I'll get them for you."

"Where do we get the cannon?"

"I know a guy in the Canadian Army that can arrange for us to steal one. It won't be cheap, though. It'll cost maybe $1,000. Can we swing that much?"

"Shit, that's steep! OK, go ahead! We gotta do something. Spend what you need to, but don't waste any. The big boys will be looking over our shoulders."

"OK, boss. It'll take about a week to set it up. I'll keep you posted."

Six days later, Joey The Snake and 6 men drove to an armory north of Windsor, Canada, and, a couple of hours later drove away with a 37mm cannon and 20 shells in the back of a truck. They took the bridge back into the US at Sarnia; it cost $250 for the customs man at the border to NOT look in the back of the truck.

The driver took them to a garage in a Detroit suburb where they modified the truck with a frame to hold the cannon so that it could fire over the cab. They rigged a drop-down panel to go in front of the cannon to conceal it until it was to be used. The back and sides of the cargo box would fold out of the way so that the sound could escape and not deafen the shooters. The work was very clever; from the outside, the truck looked like any other nondescript delivery truck and would not attract any undue attention.

Joey knew that they had to train the crew and driver, that's why he had taken so many shells. The Purple Gang had all kinds of contacts and used them to find a place where they could go to test their "self propelled artillery." They went to a lonely farm and fired several shells. By the fifth shell fired, Joey knew he had a workable system. He didn't know how sturdy the cannon mount really was, so he didn't want to shoot more practice shots than they had to. Finally, he announced he was ready for the real thing.

Eagle told the group, "Sgt. Alexander said that there is a convoy of Purple Gang booze coming in from Sarnia tonight. You want to hit it?"

They were all ready to make the hit, so they left right away. Owl drove them to the usual stretch of road they liked to use for their ambushes and found a good place to park. By now, the bootleggers knew that this was the general area where the Birdmen operated, but it was a 2-mile long stretch of road that they had to use to get from Sarnia to Detroit. There was no other route of adequate road with less than a 30-mile detour. The crooks didn't like it, but they used it. Cops closed the road to ordinary citizens from dusk to dawn every night.

The crew of Black Widow was in their accustomed places, Owl was the driver, Falcon was the front gunner, Hawk was the rear gunner, and Eagle was the navigator/commander. Now, all they could do was wait for the convoy to show up.

There was always the chance that the crooks would get smart and patrol the road with "infantry," so they kept a sharp lookout through the windows. Owl had rigged a ventilation fan to bring air through the passenger compartment while they were parked. They had to keep the windows closed to preserve the bullet-proof integrity of Black Widow, so it could get quite hot in the car with four people in there with the windows closed. The fan kept the temperature to a tolerable level, though it did force Owl to keep the motor running the whole time the fan was running. Black Widow had an extra large fuel tank, so this was not a serious problem.

They had been in position about an hour when Eagle announced, "Here they come. Yeah, there's the lead armored car, 4 trucks, and the trailing armored car. You may fire whenever you are ready, Hawk."

She let the column get close enough for her to get a good shot at the last vehicle before opening up on the leading armored car with her AP machine gun. It kept coming even though it was absorbing a lot of hits. Eagle said, "I don't like the looks of this. Owl, get ready to move out."

The next truck in line had kept up with the lead armored car, but the other two trucks had stopped. The trailing armored car had passed the last truck and was headed toward the Birdmen. Hawk was continuing to fire AP rounds into the nearer armored car without obvious result. Suddenly, the whole body of the first truck seemed to disappear.

Eagle shouted, "OWL, MOVE OUT! IT'S A TRAP! Hawk, shoot at the first truck!"

Just as Owl got Black Widow into motion, that was a sharp CRACK! sound, and something went streaking past the window on Owl's side. There was an explosion ahead among the trees, and Owl jerked the wheel to turn Black Widow farther to the right.

He didn't know how much good it would do, but Eagle dumped out smoke, oil, and calthrops behind the fleeing Black Widow. CRACK! One more shell went flying by as Owl desperately zig-zagged to avoid the incoming artillery. Eagle stopped the smoke; they had already run out of oil and calthrops. Eagle ordered, "Owl, take us home! We've got to rethink our tactics!"

Moshe Attelman was ecstatic! He had a successful liquor run from Canada he could point to the next time he heard from the higher-ups. If he worked it right, his liquor runs were safe from the Birdmen. He felt so good that he gave Joey The Snake a $500 bonus, even though he didn't kill anybody this time.