East of the task force the last Flogger flying interference for the bomb and missile carrying aircraft fell into the sea, freeing up the Rafales, Etendards, AV-8Bs and Sea Harriers to set to with the formations attacking their ships, few had missiles left but they all had cannon.
The Spanish and British Harriers went south, to form a gauntlet that those enemy aircraft that were running for home would have to pass through. The French headed west, closing with the Floggers threatening their ships and causing most to ditch their anti-shipping ordnance and evade at wave top height.
Ten minutes later, F-16s out of Bodø hunted down the last Floggers to egress the area and headed for the A-50 far to the north.
The huge airborne control platform shut down its radars and ran east with its escort, marking the end of one phase of the second battle of the North Cape. It was only 7.08am local time.
Henry Shaw had remained in the situation room since being alerted to movement in the Murmansk area, many hours before. He overruled the Chief of Staff and cancelled two briefings that the President was supposed to attend, ordering that the man should remain undisturbed.
The war of attrition in Earth orbit was thinning out satellite assets on both sides, and it had been decided that future reliance on them for command and control in the battle would be imprudent. However, communications satellites had conveyed the datalink from the AWAC, and in rather less detail from the Charles De Gaulle during the E-3’s enforced absence.
“Why wasn’t I woken Henry?”
General Shaw turned at the accusing tone in the President's voice. He was pulling on a jacket as he entered the room, and everyone present stopped what they were doing. The general cast a meaningful glance around the room and they all left, with the exception of course of the Secret Service agent, who managed to do a fair to middling job of merging unobtrusively with the water cooler.
“With all due respect Mr President, if you have access to some means of influencing the outcome of conflicts far away, I hope you’ll share it. Otherwise you would have been sat here watching and just as powerless as I was.” The chief executive's indignant posture relaxed and he put out a hand to guide himself as he eased himself down into a chair.
Henry Shaw took in the pale face and shadows below the eyes.
“You look like shit… did you get much decent sleep?”
Fire returned to the older man’s eyes.
“Do not forget who it is you are talking to general.”
Henry nodded in a conciliatory manner.
“Sorry… Mr President, you look like shit, did you get any good sleep?”
It brought a chuckle.
“I had a hard paper round as a boy… and you General, are a son of a bitch. I don’t know why I keep you on. A few weeks ago I didn’t even like you.”
“Now… you like me?” said General Shaw turning back to the console before him. “Wow… you politicians sure know how to mask your feelings!”
“So how did we do up north, Henry?”
“Sir, we won… so far anyway.” The plasma screen came alive, showing the North Cape, Scandinavia and northern Russia from one hundred miles west of Andøya, to a hundred miles beyond Murmansk in the east. The time on the screen showed 04:01:23 GMT.
“The first thing you will see sir, is surface combat units west of the Kola Inlet and the location of a sizeable submarine force, submerged. Also, airborne command and control aircraft, tankers, plus all their escorts lifting off from fields east of Murmansk.”
The President interrupted him.
“Where did this information come from, I don’t see any satellite IDs up there, and the only AWAC is way west and not radiating, according to the screen anyway?”
“It’s all humint, real time assets on the ground, that is intelligence people or troops, long range recon types, and a submarine sat on the bottom somewhere nearby. Once the aircraft take off, they will disappear along the last known heading. An hour later, the world and his brother lift off from fields west of Murmansk… and by the way, Sweden entered the war on our side.”
On screen the icons for the fighter escorts, A-50 AWAC and Il-76 tankers did indeed briefly appear before vanishing off the screen to the north.
General Shaw advanced the time by an hour before setting the speed of the action at twice normal time. The General sat impassively throughout, speaking only to qualify various events on-screen. The President tried hard to emulate him, but inside his stomach churned. Every icon that disappeared in combat represented unknowable grief and heartache for families and loved ones, and death to those the icon represented. He felt tears threatening to well up as he watched the old Polish warship sacrifice itself in order that the air defence integrity of the task force remain unbreached.
When it was over the resident had to clear his throat before speaking, but his voice still cracked with emotion when he spoke, asking the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs what the butcher’s bill had been.
General Shaw did not answer him directly.
“Sir, it is early days yet in this war, a lot of people have died so far… and a whole bunch more are going to die before this thing is done. You cannot afford to go dwelling on it… any more than I can.” He could see that the strain, lack of a proper sleep and burden of responsibility was taking its toll.
“If it helps sir, try putting it into perspective. Our side lost three ships, thirty-nine combat aircraft, and a hell of a lot less in manpower than we did on Omaha Beach in the first hour of the D-Day landings, and a little more than died in homicides in this country last year. Thanks to the National Rifle Association lobby… on the other hand, the other guy lost a shit load of everything… and that Mr President is what matters, right here, right now.”
“Sir, we have defeated their air and surface efforts to open the way into the Atlantic, used nuclear weapons along the way, but they still have their boats intact for an attempt on their own… the question now is, will those same submarines use nukes earmarked for the next convoy, in breaking out? Or will they even try?”
“How badly did we hurt their air force yesterday, enough to affect the land battle in Germany?”
“Unfortunately not… oh, we hurt the hell out of them; all those regiments that came from Germany are going to have to be reconstituted. Two thirds of them are either at the bottom of the sea or decorating the Scandinavian countryside. They have forces in reserve, probably being held in readiness for their next phase… the Middle East if I had to guess. Anyway, those reserve air assets are already on the way to Germany.”
“So we are no better off, is that it General?”
“Oh, we are far better off than we were. The first convoy is unloading and supplies are on the way up to the front. We were getting low on everything. There has been some fighting on the front but our troops have had time to prepare better defence works, get more sleep than they were getting, to reinforce and re-equip.”
“So there we have it, we are now able to reinforce the line in Germany and Guillotine has a green light, the Russian insertion operation begins in one hour.”
“And the other aspects, is everything in place for them to move?”
“Our Special Forces and the Brits are ready to move and just require the transport to get there. Two Los Angeles class SSNs are in the area of the Pacific where we believe the Chinese boomer is hiding. A Sea Wolf, two more Los Angeles and the Brit boat will also be in the area in the next two days. Whilst we are on the subject of the Pacific, 5th Mechanised Division and the Nimitz group arrived at Brisbane this morning.”