Yevgeni glanced quickly at Brigadier General Dimitri, as if communicating a message.
“Comrades, it seems to me that tomorrow our behinds will already be in Murmansk. You, General Okhramenko, will have your work cut out for you there. Do we understand each other?”
The General continued displaying the same indifference, bordering on apathy, when he replied to Yevgeni as if in passing.
“The fishing boat should be of medium size or larger. I do not foresee a problem installing the equipment for the communication block, but some of the antennas are very large so a small vessel would present a problem. However, I have done much many complicated things in my life. We will find a solution.”
Colonel Yevgeni looked again at the old white-haired general and wondered. Could my appointment as team leader, even though I am only a colonel, be causing the General to feel disrespected? Yevgeni tactically decided that there was no benefit in asking the General any further questions, and instead turned his attention to the Kazakh, Colonel Nazarbayev.
“You must take into account the fact that a fishing vessel will also know how to deploy the cluster of depth charges in the water.”
“I don’t see much of a problem with this, Colonel”, the Kazakh replied readily. “Because if we take a medium-size or larger fishing boat, it is reasonable that it is also equipped with cranes large enough to do the job. Am I correct, Brigadier General Dimitri?
“Yes, you are correct, because these vessels lift nets with fish from the water and this is a large weight; but tomorrow we will be wiser and we will have all the data in our hands.”
“Very well”, said Colonel Nazarbayev. “I would like to continue discussing the method of introducing the depth charges into the water. Instead of hurling them from a catapult, as it is done on battleships, we will lower them into the water with the crane. In every case, their fuses will be set for a very long delay instead of less than half a minute, as with conventional charges. As it is now, and before we go into detail, we want the blast to occur on the seabed. As far as I know, and of course we will test this, the water depth in the North Sea or the Norwegian Sea may be more than two thousand meters. Therefore, the delay before the blast must be extremely long, and I hope that our navy has such fuses in its inventory. If not, we will improvise a device.”
Yevgeni leaned back, drumming his fingers on the table.
“Very well. Thank you, everyone”, he said, and glanced at his watch. “Lunch will be served soon, and then tomorrow, Marshal Budarenko will be coming. It seems to me that this time at least, we are more or less prepared to meet him, even though I really cannot guarantee the meeting’s outcome.”
Brigadier General Dimitri, on his right, tapped him affectionately on the shoulder and winked.
“Let’s go smoke before lunch. You should practice your smoking, so your hands don’t start shaking. Come, let’s go.”
Chapter 6
The friendship and mutual respect that had developed between Brigadier General Dimitri and Colonel Yevgeni had already caused them to call each other by their first names and drop their military rank.
Dimitri leaned towards Yevgeni, who was sitting by his side, and whispered in his ear.
“I know that lady sitting by the Minister. She’s the Head of Operations Research in the Navy, and is considered exceptionally gifted in her field.”
Yevgeni nodded in reply.
The Minister of Defense ground his cigarette butt into the ashtray.
“I want to remind you that our primary plan for the invasion and occupation of the German Democratic Republic has already been approved by the Party’s General Secretary, Vladimir Petrovich Yermolov. But that is only the beginning. All this vast force will be prepared and ready within three to four days and will be waiting, like a tightly coiled spring, only for you. We shall launch our Stage One of the military operation only after you succeed in creating for me the cause, the legitimacy, to continue from there directly to Stage B. Do you understand the responsibility that you bear and why we don’t have any more time for fanciful suggestions?”
The Minister of Defense looked into the faces of the team members, all nervously awaiting his reaction, and that of his experts, to their plan.
“Colonel Yevgeni”, the Minister thundered through his nicotine- thickened throat, “Speak up! What have you done today and what are you planning to do in the next two days?”
Yevgeni stood up and cleared his throat.
“Mr. Minister Marshal Budarenko. Today, we have already formed the plan and its details, and assigned tasks. Tomorrow, General Okhramenko, Brigadier General Dimitri, Colonel Nazarbayev and I will fly to Murmansk Naval Base and start working there.”
“What exactly do you want to do in Murmansk?”
“We have several tasks there. The first task is to obtain a medium-size fishing boat that will be manned by our Navy seamen, and we shall install on it all the electronic equipment to block communication on the American submarine. The second mission is to conduct several tests with depth charges and survey the blast effects of a cluster of charges that we shall string together. We need to check their effectiveness when they explode on the sea bed, at a depth of several kilometers, and if they can even survive intact at such a depth. If the charges implode under the water pressure on their way down, we can reinforce their structure, or else we may have to use other ordnance.”
Brigadier General Dimitri leaned toward Colonel Nazarbayev, the explosives expert, and gently pulled the sleeve of his shirt.
“Both of us are stupid”, Dimitri whispered to the Colonel. “Yevgeni is right. The bombs will implode under the water pressure way before they reach the sea bed. How did we not think of that? We are so lucky that Yevgeni has enough brains for all three of us.”
The Minister turned to the woman on his right.
“This is your specialty. What do you have to say on the subject? Do you have any comments?”
The woman, about 35 years old, shifted her considerable frame in her chair. She wore a blue dress and her blond hair was worn in a long braid fastened at the back of her head in a very precise snail pattern.
“Colonel Yevgeni”, the Operations Research specialist said quietly. “If you had consulted with Brigadier General Dimitri, I’m sure that he would have told you that the depth charges would be crushed at a depth of 500 to 600 meters. To go deeper than that, you need to reinforce the bombs in another steel shell, or maybe it is better if you search for another type of ordnance, maybe iron bombs, like those used by the Air Force. Of course, you will need to make some modifications.”
The Minister of Defense shook his head incredulously, emphatically expressing his displeasure at what he had just heard.
“You have not even begun and your plan is already as full of holes as Swiss cheese”, he said.
Just like the previous day, it was Colonel Yevgeni who volunteered to save the day by diverting the raging minister’s wrath to himself.
“Mr. Minister Marshal Budarenko, this plan is a good plan, and I believe we will resolve the ordnance problem quite easily in Murmansk. For example, I’ve just had an idea that is worth looking into tomorrow. Our navy has round diving bells made of massive steel that are used for research. These bells are designed to be resistant to immense pressures at the greatest depths. I do not see a problem in fitting such a bell with a large amount of explosives and detonating it at the bottom of the sea.”
Yevgeni finished his speech and looked at the Operations Research expert. Would she kill this idea that he had just pulled from up his sleeve, just to calm the Minister’s mercurial temper? Or perhaps she would deem it appropriate and viable. The Minister was waiting for her response, but she weighed her words carefully before speaking.