“'We're passing the Navy now, we saw them a few minutes ago. They've got a problem down there. We could see the smoke from up here. Bombardier had a look through the optical gear, says one ship has been hit. No news which.”
“Right, we'll take her up to 49,000 feet. Flash warnings to Barbie Doll and Sixth Crew Member. I have something to tell the crew.” Colonel Dedmon flipped the switch on the address system. Before take off each aircraft commander had been given an Order-of-the-Day to read at a specific time. It was now that time. Dedmon cleared his throat and started.
''Men of the Strategic Air Command, today we and our B-36s are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many years. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Our task has not been an easy one. We face an enemy who is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He has fought savagely. But this is the year 1947! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United States air offensive and the heroic efforts of our Russian allies has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and. placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. We will accept nothing less than full Victory !
But the defeat of Nazi Germany is a result of our Great Crusade, not the Crusade itself. In ancient times, nations went to war in fear and trembling for to lose in war meant the destruction of their people and their culture. War was a terror to be avoided and undertaken only in dread. But more cultured and civilized nations took that away. They made war a game for Princes in which defeat was a temporary setback and victory a temporary advantage. A Prince who lost a war would claim that the issue was undecided and the verdict of the battlefield would be ignored. The result was an endless cycle of wars where those who suffered were the common people, while those responsible for the conflicts lived in luxury and comfort. Our task today is to end that vicious cycle. Our task today is to put the horror and fear and dread back into those who think of making War. Today we will teach them that if they make War upon the United States of America, they and their countries will be destroyed. Totally. After today, those who make war against the United States of America will surely know that the bombers of the Strategic Air Command will be coming for them and that SAC does not turn back.
Good Luck! Fly High! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Curtis E LeMay.”
Dedmon released the switch on the intercom and kept silent for a few minutes. Then he pressed the switch again.
“OK Guys. Let’s Do It.”
NAIADS Command Headquarters. Potsdam, Germany
National Integrated Air Defense System. The title rolled of Field Marshal Herrick's tongue with a sonorous grace. More to the point, Germany's National Integrated Air Defense System. An original creation, the inspiration of visionary German scientists, designed by good German engineers and executed with the workmanship only good German workers could achieve. And, Field Marshal Herrick reflected, if you believed that, he had a beer bottle thrown by the Fuhrer himself during the 1923 Beerhall Putsch he would sell you.
In reality, the inspiration for NAIADS had come from the British. After the armistice in 1940, he had visited the UK and seen the system the Royal Air Force Fighter Command has set up. While most of his colleagues had spent their time arguing over the relative merits of the Spitfire and Me-109E, a few had looked at the British radar system. To their surprise, they had discovered that the British radar sets were no better than the German and, in many cases, were worse. Only Herrick and a handful of others had made the leap to a great truth.
The British radars hadn't performed better than the German ones because they were better sets but because the British used the information they produced better. One day he had been looking at the vandalized ruin of a Fighter Command Operations Center when he had realized two things. One was that the British could be extraordinarily bad and vindictive losers. The other was that it was the system that mattered, not the equipment that made up parts of the system. It didn't matter whether German radars were better than British or not or whether the Spitfire was a better fighter than the Me-109 or not. What mattered was the overall efficiency of the system; the sum of the system was greater than any of its parts. If the system was good, then it would compensate for any deficiencies in the equipment.
On his return to Germany, Herrick had started preaching his doctrine to anybody who would listen. Back then, nobody had believed that Germany could be at risk from bombing so he'd been politely ignored. Then had come the American entry to the war, the movement of their forces into Russia and, most ominously, their development of the B-29. That bomber had been promoted as the ultimate heavy, the bomber that could fight its way through enemy defenses. Suddenly, people had listened to Herrick. His proposals had been dusted off, he'd been summoned to brief the great leaders on his proposed system. As news arrived that the first B-29s had arrived at bases in Russia, Herricks NAIADS proposal had been approved and funded. And what a system it was.
The basis of NAIADS was the Local Command Center. One for each major city or group of smaller towns. These controlled the point defenses for that area. Autocannon for use against low-flying aircraft, heavy anti-aircraft guns for higher-altitude threats. Wasserfall anti-aircraft missiles when they came into service. And the point defense interceptors, the Me-163 and Me-263. Herrick modestly reckoned that the rocket fighters had been a stroke of genius on his part. Not the aircraft themselves, but the system they fitted in. At the time, Goebbels had been agitating for the formation of a Home Guard Army, the Volksturm. What exactly it was supposed to achieve was anybody's guess but Herrick had backed him with the suggestion of an equivalent Air Home Guard. Take the older pilots, the ones too old or too injured for the front line, send them home to work in their towns and give them the rocket fighters to fly. It had worked, the older pilots had learned to fly on unstable and structurally unsound biplanes and treated the treacherous rocket-fighters with due respect. The Me-163 had never been anything more than a death-trap but the developed Me-263 had worked much better.
The Local Command Centers or LCCs funneled all their information to the next step up the chain, the Regional Command Centers. These commanded the fighter groups, originally FW-190s and Me-109s but now Ta-152C and Hs, that were the backbone of the defense system. As the activity in the Local Command Centers identified the enemy thrusts and the positions of the forces, the Regionals or RCCs could send their fighters in to support them. That way, both the fighters and the point defenses were properly integrated and could work together. Then, at the top of the system was the National Command Center where Herrick had the heavy fighters under his own command. These were the reserve; as the battle developed, he could commit them wherever the need seemed greatest.