Zoya just hoped that what she was told was indeed what was going to happen. She and her fellow Witches were told to fly like a metal duck in a shooting gallery and wait for the Nightmare Missiles hanging from her outmoded Pe-3 Bis to tell her she was being hunted. Two of the things were pointed forwards and 4 where pointed backwards! Who would have thought of that and why? But then she thought about it. Where would a night fighter with radar attack you from? The rear of course! Why not have the missile launch backwards if your enemy was behind you. Who needs a rear gunner when you have a rear missile? It was not like the rear facing ones cause that much more drag. The Pe-3 was slow as hell anyway.
She was sweating and so nervous that when the four rear missiles started to signal in unison that something was behind her she almost wet herself and would have jumped a meter if she wasn’t strapped in. She had not been trained to fly at night extensively. These Pe-3s had been given to the navy as dive bombers and no one expected them to see combat again. But they had slapped a new late war German radar set in them and put those Nightmares facing the wrong way on them and told them what to do.
Basically they were bait and a launching platform for the Nightmare. Nothing fancy about that. Just go and fly West into what looked like assured death for the Motherland. And they all did it of course. That’s what you did in Stalin’s realm. Only this might not be so deadly for them after all.
Once a rear facing missile was launched they were to turn and attempt to follow it to its target. If it did not hit the target they should be facing the correct direction and could turn on the radar or even just wait for the forward facing missiles to start signaling. If so then they were to launch them.
She and 18 others got lucky that night. A total of 53 missiles were launched with 11 rear firing and 7 launched frontally hitting their intended targets. She never did see the enemy until it exploded in a flaming ball that plummeted to earth.
After her left outside rear facing missile was launched she threw the little bomber in a tight right hand turn while Maya tried to keep an eye on the missile. While completing the turn she caught a glimpse of the Mosquito as the missile flashed by it briefly illuminating it. She supposed that the Nightmare could have some kind of flash suppressor or flame reducer or whatever they called it, so it wasn’t so bright but then again maybe that was by design to scare the enemy even more and to make them and their intended target easier to see. It did work in his case and she clearly saw the general direction the night fighter was headed. She pointed her nose at where the plane should be and her forward Nightmares started to chatter so she launched one.
She reported that she did not believe that the enemy knew what hit him. The deadly Mosquito Night Fighter did not appear to be attempting any evasive maneuvers like the initial encounter and was flying fairly straight and level. Probably trying to process his near miss with death only to set himself up again for said fate. Other successful forward firing marksmen reported similar findings, although you could hardly call them marksmen when all they did was to point and hit the launching button. The missile did the rest.
The rear firing successes appeared to be a matter of surprise. A deer in the headlights type of reaction by the ill-fated, would be hunters, caught red handed in the spotlight and not knowing how to react. Fascinated by the turn of events and not able to think to turn their planes quickly enough. Perfectly understandable if you asked her and the commissar did ask her.
The Night Witches were back![39]
The General finally seemed to be in a good enough mood and his aide decided that the time was ripe for him to ask a question that had been eating him alive ever since the first day he had joined HQ and become an aide. He was a fighting man a real grunt that had gotten a number of field promotions from private to Captain. Not because he had gone to college or because he has attended military academies. No, he had earned his Captaincy by thinking fast on his feet and using that gift to kill a lot of Japanese. He had not been to combat school or lectures or anything even close to learning the ins and outs of strategy. He knew tactics and in particular small unit tactics like no other person in the Army and he had learned it on the job.
So he was very frustrated by what he saw at HQ. He now attended the briefings and small meetings of some of the Armies highest ranking officers. The people who had attended West Point including some who had written the books that they used at West Point. He was surrounded by the brain trust of the US ground forces and he was totally confused by what the hell was going on.
“General, may I speak freely and ask a question or two? It will help me do my job, Sir.”
“Of course Porter, ask away.”
“Well sir I just don’t get what is going on in Spain. We have close to 2 dozen divisions trained and sitting waiting to be deployed. Why aren’t we getting them to the Pyrenees Line and doing it as quickly as possible?
“That is a good observation Porter and it would seem to be the smart thing to do wouldn’t it. Send those boys to shore up the line and eventually maybe even push the Reds back a ways. Let me ask you a question. How many lives and how much time do you think it would take to finally fight through those 100s of commie divisions and get to Moscow? I’ll give you a little hint. It took us close to a year to go 600 miles fighting an enemy who was being bombed day and night. Whose infrastructure was devastated, and we were facing less than 60 divisions filled with old men and boys. Divisions who were spent, yet who gave us a run for our money.
Now imagine what we are going to face if we try and attack from Spain. We would be fighting an enemy close to 4 times the size of the German forces. An enemy who has only one front to defend and not two like the Germans. An enemy who is not being bombed day and night. Who’s militarily significant infrastructure has been repaired and in relatively functional shape. An enemy who has as many resources as we do and all within his territory. Add in the fact that we have to go over 3 times farther to get to his capital and another 900 miles to get to his industrial heartland. Do you think it’s reasonable that the American public is going to support such a long drawn out war that will include many times more casualties as the last war and take up to three times as long to win?”
“Well sir I guess it’s a pretty tall order. So how are we going to do it?”
“Son, we are going to divide and conquer. We are setting old Joe up to be sliced and diced. We are making him think he is winning. We’re making him believe that just a few more divisions will do the job. Just a few more squadrons and a few more resources allocated and he will eventually punch through our lines wherever they are. A few more squadrons will finally defeat the RAF and a few more divisions will finally make the breakthrough into Spain a reality. Just a little bit more and then a little bit more until he is all in. Like a gambler who thinks his opponent is bluffing and keeps calling and raising, sure that just one more raise will break his opponents will.
If we stop him cold in the Pyrenees, he will dig in and even possibly consolidate what he has won. He might just start to set up defensive lines in depth and get ready for us. If we keep him thinking that just a little bit more and then a little bit more might just win him the brass ring he will keep feeding his forces into the meat grinder and not think about the future. If we stop him cold and even start to push him back, he will dig in and that will not be good. That will lead to a stalemate and an endless war that the American public will not support. So it is imperative that we make him commit as many of his forces as possible to the offensive and not thinking about defense. Once he digs in it is over, and no one will win quickly.”