THE GREAT GAME
Stuart Slade
Dedication
This book is respectfully dedicated to the memory of General Thomas Powers
Acknowledgements
The Great Game could not have been written without the very generous help of a large number of people who contributed their time, input and efforts into confirming the technical details of the story. Some of these generous souls I know personally and we discussed the conduct and probable results of the attacks described in this novel in depth. Others I know only via the internet as the collective membership of “The Board” yet their communal wisdom and vast store of knowledge, freely contributed, has been truly irreplaceable.
I must also express a particular debt of gratitude to my wife Josefa for without her kind forbearance, patient support and unstintingly generous assistance, this novel would have remained nothing more than a vague idea floating in the back of my mind.
Caveat
The Great Game is a work of fiction, set in an alternate universe. All the characters appearing in this book are fictional and any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental. Although some names of historical characters appear, they do not necessarily represent the same people we know in our reality.
Copyright © 2007 Stuart Slade
Contents
Chapter One: Picking Sides
Chapter Two: Kick-Off
Chapter Three: First Plays
Chapter Four: Initial Gains
Chapter Five: Early Advantage
Chapter Six: Blocking Actions
Chapter Seven: Breaking Through
Chapter Eight: Gaining Ground
Chapter Nine: Scoring Points
Chapter Ten: Going For Broke
Chapter Eleven: Changing The Plays
Chapter Twelve: Touchdown
Epilogue
Previous Books in This Series
The Big One (1947)
Anvil of Necessity (1948)
The Great Game (1959)
Coming Shortly
Crusade (1965)
Chapter One Picking Sides
Carswell AFB. Primary Operating base, 305th Bomb Group
“Oh my God, she's beautiful. I think I've just met the woman I'm going to marry.”
The subject of Captain Mike Kozlowski's sudden admiration was indeed beautiful. She was by the grass, sunning herself in the flattering glow of an early morning in Texas. Elegant, stylish, sleek, beautifully curved in all the right places. In the words of the prophets, she looked like the reason the riot started. For all her grace and allure, she looked almost demure in the sunshine but anybody who looked carefully could see the appearance was only superficial. Beneath the smooth skin she was feral, passionate, savage even. Her potential might be hidden now but it was still there for anybody with the eyes to see it. Life with this one was likely to be exciting. Nobody could claim to own her, but win her trust and she'd fight tooth and claw for her partner. Cross her and she'd go for the eyes with her nails. But, for all that, or perhaps because of it, she was breathtaking. There was no doubt about it, nor about the fact that Kozlowski was in love.
“I'm a nice girl.”
The voice, drifting across in the humid air into Kozlowski's mind, matched the appearance, soft lilting, laden with a level of female hormones guaranteed to cause trouble anywhere, anytime.
“Captain Kozlowski, your attention PLEASE.” It was General Declan, Commander of the 3O5th Bomb Group speaking. Kozlowski dragged his eyes away and focused on his new commanding officer. The General caught something in his eyes. “She was speaking to you wasn't she?” Kozlowski nodded. Declan turned to his aide. “Assign aircraft 57-0656 to Captain Mike Kozlowski Junior. What you going to call her Captain?”
Kozlowski stared at the RB-58C parked opposite. The name just popped into his mind. “She's Marisol Sir.” Was it his imagination or did Marisol suddenly stand a little prouder, casting supercilious glances at her sisters, the other RB-58s that had yet to find their partners and be named? Imagination of course but...
He hadn't expected the B-58s. His heart had sunk when he'd heard he was to be assigned to the 305th Bomb Group operating out of Carswell AFB. Carswell meant a Convair group and that meant either the lumbering old B-36 or the mediocre B-60. He'd checked the Blue Book out and it had the 305th listed as an RB-36 group, due for re-equipment. That latter bit figured, the B-36 was painfully obsolete now, meat on the table for any of the new fighters entering service around the world. The old bombers were vanishing from the inventory as fast as their replacements could be built and the specialized versions were following them.
The RB-36 was next to go, the chances of one doing its job, of penetrating enemy airspace, mapping defenses, drawing their fangs and surviving were slight. The alt-jet version of the B-36, the B-60, had never been modified to RB configuration, a tacit admission that it lacked the performance needed for the job. Some of the strategic reconnaissance wings had Boeing RB-52s but the 305th was a Convair Group.
With the B-36s almost gone and the RB-36s on their way out, that left only the GB-36s and their little Goblin fighters and the F-85 was almost as painfully obsolete as the B-36. So Kozlowski had resigned himself to flying B-60s at best and enduring the conventional bombing missions (hauling trash in SAC slang) to which they were mostly assigned.
Then they'd all seen the new bombers, lined up along the runway where they'd been towed over from the Convair factory opposite. The fabled B-58 Hustler. Capable of flying at twice the speed of sound. The first version, the B-58A had been a pure bomber. The Navy was taking delivery of those as part of its shore-based anti-shipping units; they called it the PB5Y-1. SAC had taken delivery of a few aircraft with uprated engines as the B-58B mostly for use as trainers. The ones here were the new production version, the RB-58C. The new mainstay of SACs strategic reconnaissance wings. Or that was the plan, anyway. And General Declan was about to tell them all about that,
“Gentlemen, for the last month the 305th has been a bomb group without aircraft. For most of that time, it has also been a group largely without personnel. This morning, the first of our new aircraft have arrived and now you are the first of their crews. Later, you will have your aircraft assigned to you however, before that I would like to speak a little about our mission. As you know, the 305th Bomb Group is being redesignated as a strategic reconnaissance unit. You may think that you will be flying bombers on the penetration mission. Nothing could be further from the truth. The RB-58C is the first of SACs new generation of strategic reconnaissance aircraft, tasked with opening a gaping hole in enemy defenses through which the load-carrying B-52s and B-60s can fly, You will have to master the roles of bomber, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and fighter aircraft. Perhaps all at once. You will have to be ready to go into enemy airspace, take on the best a desperate enemy can throw at you and destroy it.