He was totally amazed when he learned that a good portion of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project fully believed that the explosion would set off a chain reaction that would never end and turn the earth into a chard piece of rock. Yet they went ahead with working on the project anyway. How in the world could you work on a project you thought would end the world? He would never understand eggheads and thank god they were wrong. No need to test the theory further.
He had heard that some of them wanted to build an even bigger bomb out of hydrogen. What the hell for! These ones were big enough. He would have liked more of them but that was not in the cards for now.
Williams came by his side and waited until the noise of the last bomber allowed conversation and not a yelling match.
“Sir that is the last of the pathfinders.”
“Thank you Colonel.”
“The Silverplates will be following soon.”
“Very good Williams. You came up with a fine plan son. I’m sure it will be executed just like we planned and have practiced for the last 2 months. How many dummy runs did we do in all?
“12 in all sir.”
“The last 3 were successful and that’s what matters now. Three in a row means that they have the timing down right and it will work I have confidence in these crews… now.”
“It was a hard training sir. We sure could have used some of the old hands. Too bad they washed out because of the tight security.”
“Yes you are right son. We missed them sorely. Many even enlisted again and then got the bad news and were regulated to the old Army Air Force in Spain flying the B17 again or should I say not flying since that last disastrous raid by the Brits. They seem to have our number and only complete surprise will make this mission work. According to G2 we should catch them with their pants down today. This could be the beginning of the end of the war Williams. If we pull this off old Joe will be in a real bad fix and if the stories are true people in high places will start to disappear.”
“I would like to point out sir, that Stalin seems to have a high tolerance for failure during times of war. Zhukov and gang made plenty of bad mistakes early on and still kept their jobs.”
“Let’s hope that is not the case this time.”
“There goes the first Silverplate sir”
The Silverplate named Three Feathers was lumbering down the east runway and everything was looking nominal. As she gained speed a slight cough in outboard starboard engine cause all watching to hold their breath. Vision of the Bikini disaster were at the back, and now the fore of the minds of those watching. It turns out she chopped up a small bird and that was what was caused the cloud of debris. Probably one of the pigeons that hung around the airfield. Next was Straight Flush then Big Stink and finally Necessary Evil. Fifi and The Great Artiste where idling on stand-by.
Thank God for those new engines, LeMay thought. Without them a good 10% or more wouldn’t make it to the target due to engine god damn failure. We lost more god damn planes due to engine failure then to enemy action.
About half of the crew members were rookies but the pilots and co-pilots were old hands that had made it through the FBIs rigorous investigations and into SAC personnel. Many old hands, experienced hands, had problems with their private lives according to the FBI. You were never told what was wrong just transferred or turned down during recruitment. No appeal and no recourse for redress. You just didn’t make it. Of course everyone in the service knew who tried and didn’t make it so your career was pretty much over. This of course hurt recruitment of the veterans and decimated the Army Air Corps stripping it of some of its finest pilots and mechanics.
It’s amazing, LeMay thought, how much damage a spy ring can cause even unintentionally. We lost a lot of good men who could have help us win this war that are now selling insurance or cars. The ugly reality of unintended consequences comes into play.
“There goes Straight Flush sir,” Williams commented even though LeMay could easily see for himself.
LeMay started thinking about those unescorted 24 bombers and wondered; Should I have used the P-80 Shooting Stars based in Turkey, Cyprus and Rhodes? They could have easily made the flight but that would have shown my hand for upcoming operations. We have a chance to surprise the hell out of them twice and he didn’t want to jeopardize that. Hell maybe he could pull off a third one if they took the bait and attacked Rhodes and Cyprus which were surrounded by aircraft carriers filled with fighters just waiting to take on the Reds.
He would be losing some of those carriers as they were scheduled to clear the skies over Britain. Those Limeys had put up a great fight but they were on their last legs. God damn they had done their job and their leadership knew what their job was. It was to sacrifice themselves so that his bombers could get to the oil, plain and simple. They had done a masterful job but now it was time to end their suffering and to bring them the peace they deserved. Thank god the Reds had not decided to bomb cities. I don’t think Washington would have allowed that and that would have put a big monkey wrench into his operations.
Now for the long wait. The wait to hear the results. God I hate the wait more than flying in combat. I much rather be up there with those boys. The second phase would launch tomorrow using conventional bombs with fighter escorts with the targets depending on the results today. I pray to God that those monstrous winds that were blowing over Japan do not play a role in this campaign against the godless Reds. If they are present then we have to give up our major advantage in order to get the job done… altitude. We will have to god damn bomb from under 24,000 or less if those devil winds are there. Why did God have them? What purpose can they serve? Mine is not to question the All Mighty but it’s hard not to Oh Lord. Those winds are going to cost us thousands of lives if they are there. I ask you once again to hear my prayer Oh Lord…
“Excuse me sir but they have all taken off and are on course for their targets.”
“Well Williams here’s hoping that this day will live on in history. October 2nd, 1946 the beginning of Operation Overwhelming should bring Stalin’s war machine to its knees. This could be the D-day of World War Three Williams. Mark my words on this day the oil fields and refineries of Baku, Grozny, Polesti and Armavir will cease to exist and so will 75% of the oil production facilities of one Joseph Stalin.”
Things were almost back to normal. The activity in the basement had slackened steadily. From what I could ascertain the little red blocks were winning. Every day the blue ones were less and less. The ratio had grown from about 5 to 1 to now around 10 to 1. Yet the people around the tables, and in the little offices, seemed unusually elated today. I noticed that some more blue blocks had appeared where I remembered Scotland was. This apparently was the cause of the noisy celebration that had brought me once again down the air shaft and into the basement.
That especially malevolent individual, that I thought I might have to have an encounter with, had disappeared. I hoped he was dead and would suffer the purgatory I was enduring. You could wish nothing better on your worst enemy. My curiosity had gotten the better of me and I had touched the man just a week before he left and what I saw even disconcerted me beyond my wildest expectations. I discovered that the man’s actual name was Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot and he had escaped the guillotine when this latest fight in France had started. He was scheduled to die by decapitation on May 23, 1946 but a stray bomb had enabled his escape from his holding cell in Paris on the 20th.