“We've got big guys coming over; that means we may have several customers at once. Get all the safe houses you can up and running. We'll need transport as well. Think either west to the sea or North to Scotland. No word as to which yet.” Scotland had never been fully pacified by the Germans although some of the large cities had a German garrison. Even there, it was a good question who was who's prisoner. The straight-edged razor wielded by a Glaswegian was already acquiring the same sort of legendary reputation as the Claymore sword had done in earlier centuries when in the hands of the Highland clans. Not that the clansmen were doing so badly either.
“Lets move guys, it looks like something really big is under way at last. It's time, more than time.”
CHAPTER TWO JOURNEYS WELL BEGUN
Flight Deck B-36H “Texan Lady “
Colonel Dedmon edged Texan Lady forward on the taxi-way. In front of him, Raidin' Maiden was doing her Vandenburg Shuffle. Texan Lady was the leader of the three B-36Hs that formed Dedmon's Hometown, the formation of bombers that would, at last, soon be on their way to real targets. Over three hundred Hometowns were flying today, most carrying nuclear weapons in their huge bellies. They were backed up by tankers, the strategic recon birds and some other assets nobody would speak about. Strategic Air Command was going to war.
Four hours earlier, he'd come out of the tunnel between the main briefing area and his crew assembly point. He'd taken a few seconds to compose himself and adopt a hangdog expression before entering the room. It was crowded, the three bombers had a total crew of almost 50 men. The more perceptive had noted his apparent depression and nudged others. Dedmon had mounted the stage and looked at the gloom spreading across the room.
“Training” the murmurs of disappointment picked up force “is NOT the mission.” That changed the atmosphere fast. Now it was tense. “We're doing the real thing at last. It's The Big One. And boys, WE'RE GOING TO BERLIN!” Pandemonium had broken out. Cheering, banging, crew members jumping up and slapping backs. Some of the Jewish members of the crews just stood with satisfied looks on their faces. The long wait had been hard on them, hearing of the horrors that had been taking place in the Reich. Dedmon saw some of their fellow crewmembers speak quietly to them. He couldn't hear what the words were over the cheering and war-whoops (mixed with a few rebel yells; they would be more common in the groups flying out of the Southern states). But he knew what the message was “We'll make them pay”.
“There's nine of us going in our formation, this Hometown, two others. Each bomber will have four Mark Three devices on board. The two escorts will help her in of course.” That was how the Hometown worked, one of the three aircraft was the bomber, the other two were there to make sure she got to her target. If necessary to get between the bomber and anything that threatened her. “That's 12 Mark 3s, all for Berlin. The three Hometowns will fly parallel courses, one to the north, one south and, hey-diddle diddle we're going straight down the middle. Drops will be spaced out evenly north and south but one of ours will be out of alignment -we're doing a ground-burst on the Reich Chancellery. We're going to take Berlin off the map. Bombardiers. The specific target data is in your packs. Read it up and get everything in place. We'll be bombing by radar, it’s more accurate than eyeball.” That was a change, the B-29s bombing radar had been notorious but the B-36s K-5 was superbly accurate.
“Flight plan is a great circle route from here to north of the Azores then another great circle across France to Berlin. We're meeting tankers out of Lajes who'll top us off for the business part of the mission. We'll be doing 35,000 feet to Lajes then doing our approach at 48,500. One hour before Berlin we're going up to 52,500, or as near to that as we can, and stay there as long as we can. Tankers will be available if anybody has fuel problems. If you're hit and hurt too bad for the transatlantic run, get to England. The Resistance there know that something's happening and will see to the extraction. Don't crash and get caught in German or France, the Nazis won't be very happy with us. Navigators, here's your packages.'“
''Gunners and EW crews. The Navy has been working hard for two years now, diverting German attention downwards. The squids have paid a heavy cost to get the Germans thinking low altitude. Now it’s going to pay off. There are very few German fighters that can get up to intercept us, in fact there's a group of Gotha flying wings and some of those long-winged Messerchmitts in France and that's about it. The Navy's hitting their bases soon, we may not have them to worry about. Gunners, if we do, remember, they have to come in from the tail. That makes us a retreating target and them an advancing one so we have the edge. Keep the pilots informed so they know when to turn. The Germans have some Wasserfall rockets as well. They're an EW problem. Pilots. Remember the Hometown settings on position and engine RPM are very precise. Don't improvise. Our EW officer, Captain Mollins, will brief you EW operators on the details.
The next few hours had been frantic. Each crewmember had read his packet and picked up the details of his specific job. Then they'd traded around so that everybody had some idea of what to do if casualties took out key people. Everything had to be checked and arranged. Even the catering was a problem. It was going to be a 48 hour round trip, 45 if things were lucky but 48 was the planning total. Regulations stipulated one meal every six hours for the crew. That meant 8 meals per man, 15 men per bomber (16 on Texan Lady) meant almost 300 meals had to be stored on the three bombers. Sometimes Dedmon felt he was running a hotel, not a military unit.
Back in the present Dedmon thumbed his intercom system
''Guys, get to somewhere you can see outside. You'll never see anything like this again. Mike would have been proud.”
The taxiway was lined with B-36s, as far as the eye could see. A shimmering cloud of magnesium and aluminum distorted by the heat rippling from the engines. Mike would have been proud indeed. The base had named after him when he'd lost his life and become SAC's first hero. It had been an early B-29 mission, before the problems with the medium bomber had become apparent. Boeing had convinced some influential people that the B-29s speed and remote-controlled guns could fight off enemy fighters. The worst raid, on the Ploesti Oil Fields, showed the Luftwaffe had learned how to dispute the conclusion and turned the raid into a deadly learning curve. Their jets were too fast for the piston-engined American fighters to keep away from the bombers.
At first, the Germans had tried head-on attacks - the closing speed was too high so they'd come in from the tail and chopped the bombers down one by one. As the path to Ploesti was marked with the graves of B-29s and the loss rate passed 50 percent, the SAC command had called the raid off. Some bombers had turned back, most of them had made it home, but Colonel Kozlowski had radioed “SAC does not turn back” and kept going with a few hardy spirits beside him. Mike had made it all the way in, the only bomber to get to the target. With two engines out and his B-29 burning he'd made his bomb run, planting a stick of thousand pounders right across the target. Then, he'd held the blazing bomber level long enough for the surviving members of his crew to jump. He hadn't got out himself, his aircraft had augered in. But, the rule he'd given his life to establish was part of the creed now. SAC did not turn back.
In front of Dedmon, Raidin' Maiden was already rolling. Dedmon turned Texan Lady onto the runway. He shifted in his seat and made a chopping sign with his hand. Behind him Chief Flight Engineer Gordon swept the throttles on number one engine up to full power. Dedmon felt Texan Lady shift to the left as the asymmetric power pushed the right wing forward. Behind him Gordon dropped the power back and ran up engine six. Now Dedmon felt Texan Lady shift in the opposite direction. Swiftly Gordon ran through each engine in turn, right then left, making Texan Lady snake on the runway. This was the Vandenburg Shuffle, intended to make sure all six piston engines were giving full forward thrust Taking off with one or more engines in reverse thrust was possible and invariably fatal. Dedmon pointed upwards and Gordon slammed all ten throttles forward