Untimely Designs

by gerald hall

  “So you are willing to provide the Allies with significant ground support in offensive operations against the Germans, Governor Dewey?”

  “I believe that I can. It still may take a little time and some political maneuvering for me back home to accomplish this. But I have an advantage that the late President did not have. I have the support of at least a significant part of the American Congress. There will still be some opposition from the isolationists within my country. But I believe that we will be able to finally get past that.”

  “I can’t tell you how much that means to me and the British people. We have been virtually fighting the Axis singlehandedly for five years now. If it were not for some fortuitous decisions that were made in the years just prior to the war, plus some key support by the nations of the Commonwealth, we could very well have fallen.”

  “We have already provided some help on the ground already as well as the US Navy escorts that have protected the shipping during much of their journey to England, of course.”

  “Indeed, all of that assistance has been greatly appreciated as has all of the supplies you’re your nation has provided us through the Lend-Lease program. Your General Patton has also done quite well as the commander of the American Eagles volunteer division even with the limited support that he was given. Of course, an aggressive personality like his is bound to come into conflict with some of my own senior officers. That has led to a certain degree of friction.” Churchill chuckled.

  “I’m sure. But I am very unlikely to get rid of him. One of my predecessors during the American Civil War had a general who also was not overly popular with certain persons of influence. But President Lincoln refused to fire this General Ulysses S. Grant because in Lincoln’s words “I can’t spare this man. He fights.” I’d rather keep a man like George Patton right where he is continuing to do the most good for us and the most harm to our enemies because he fights.”

  “How do you want to deal with the Germans though? Ever since Hitler’s death, the Germans have really focused their efforts against the Soviet Union and have virtually ceased all offensive operations against Britain. They have even started clandestine efforts towards us concerning terms of a negotiated peace in Western Europe.”

  “I was never told anything about this, Mister Prime Minister.”

  “There are few people who are aware of the German peace overtures. There’s more, of course. You have heard about the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees that have been making their way to Palestine over the past year. Well, most of these refugees are survivors to Nazi extermination camps that had been set up by Hitler. The German High Command not only ousted all of the senior Nazi Party leaders, they immediately shut down the mass murder factories that had been occurring at the camps.

  Now, I’m not trying to make them out as angels. The mass exodus of Jewish refugees into the Palestinian Mandate has caused England tremendous problems with the Arab population. The Arabs’ damned ‘intifada’ has tied up valuable Commonwealth troops needed elsewhere already.

  But this change in German operations could be an opening to finally end the conflict in Europe. If the Germans can end the Bolshevik regime along the way, all the better. Josef Stalin is certainly a mass murderer in his own right. I won’t shed any tears upon learning of his demise and the destruction of the Bolshevik state. That is one of the reasons why we ceased protecting convoys going to Murmansk. I have no illusions of Stalin having making peace with the West even had the Germans been defeated by us.

  Italy’s military has been decimated. We will be able to eliminate Mussolini very quickly with an amphibious attack from the Mediterranean using Commonwealth forces operating in conjunction with your General Patton’s American Eagles force.

  But unfortunately, our resources have been virtually exhausted; financial, materiel and personnel alike. We fought virtually alone against Germany for far too long. The British people need for this war to end soon before even we are broken. With your help, I believe that we can accomplish that. We may even be able to convince the Germans to accept a reasonable peace offer with the mere threat of a massive military intervention by America.”

  Dewey stood in shocked silence for a moment before replying. Here was Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a man who everyone believed would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Germany, talking about a negotiated settlement to end the war. Britain must indeed be exhausted.”

  “I do understand your desire to end this war. Surely the Germans have exhausted their own resources as well fighting against the millions of troops that Stalin has mobilized and thrown at them.”

  “Yes, they have basically driven themselves to the point of exhaustion. Perhaps that is why they want peace as well. The critical question is peace on what terms? I don’t think that the Germans are quite done fighting. The old Soviet regime will surely reconstitute itself and go after Germany unless the Germans succeed in utterly destroying the Bolshevik holdouts first. But that will be expensive in the short run.”

  “You are quite correct. That is probably why the Germans put essentially all of their best units into the fight on the Eastern Front. They want to negotiate from a position of strength. It is also why we so badly need your forces. Doubtlessly, the Germans still remember what happened when hundreds of thousands of American troops entered the fighting during the Great War. The Germans were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They don’t want that to happen again because of what they lost at Versailles after the armistice.”

  “Surely you are not proposing that they benefit from a war that they started, Minister Churchill?” Dewey asked.

  “Oh, we are going to get our pound of flesh from the people who started this conflict. The Nazis themselves, or at least the ones that survive this war, will be called upon to answer for their crimes. But at the same time, I don’t to create the circumstances again for another Hitler to come out of the ashes nor another Stalin.”

  “What about all of these superweapons that I have heard about being developed by the Nazis even before Hitler’s demise? Won’t they have the potential to prevent us employing American forces against the Germans without our incurring substantial casualties?”

  “It is true that we have intelligence about advanced German weapons and technology. But we also have our own advanced technology developments as well. One of my most important sources of advanced military technology has promised me that he will personally ensure that we will not be left behind by the Germans. I have known this man for nearly two decades now. He has fulfilled every promise that he has ever given to me. So I have no reason to doubt him now either.

  You actually flew here on one of his aircraft, I believe.”

  President-elect Dewey thought for a moment before realizing that Churchill was referring to Harold Cavill. This was a man who was every bit as wealthy and innovative as Howard Hughes, but nowhere nearly as flamboyant. It was almost as though Mister Cavill sought to hide from the spotlight as much as possible. Instead, He let his company’s products do the talking for him.

  “Would your friend be willing to work with American arms manufacturers to help bring our weapons technology up to a viable level?”

  “Perhaps, but you would have to ask him yourself. From what I understand, Mister Cavill already has his hands full because of Japanese attacks near his home and base of operations in northwestern Australia. He already has a few American military personnel working with him who had evacuated from the Philippines after the Japanese invaded there.”

  “When I get into office, I will do everything that I can to send your friend some help in the form of American military support. Perhaps then, he will be able to work with us in developing the tools that we need to bring a proper end to the war in Europe, defeat the Japanese and put an end to these damned fascists trying to take over the entire world. We all need to get back to business rather than killing each other.”

  Churchill chuckled for a moment and puffed on his cigar again before replying.
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  “Well, we can hope to deal with this batch of fascists. I’m afraid that there will always be another mob of them lurking around the corner for their opportunity unfortunately. But maybe we can gain a little breathing room to turn the tide towards democracy and freedom this time.”

  “I would hope so.” The President-elect replied.

  The discussion between Churchill and President-elect Dewey continue for a couple more hours before Dewey had to leave to return to America. He couldn’t afford to stay out of the public eye for too long. There were many more people that he needed to meet with prior to the inauguration in January in order to prepare for running the United States. Dewey also wanted to keep quiet about his meeting with Churchill so that the press would not have the opportunity to ask any awkward questions about the content of their meeting.

  Brooklyn Naval Yard

  New York City, New York

  December 16, 1944

  President-elect Dewey had scheduled a policy speech concerning his plans for the American military for shortly after his return from England. The Brooklyn Naval Yard seemed to be the ideal place for the President-elect to make this speech since it was one of the largest producer of warships in the nation in addition to being from Dewey’s home state.

  Dewey was surrounded by aides, local politicians as well as an armed Secret Service security detail after he emerged from a large black Cadillac sedan. As the group conversed prior to the scheduled speech, a senior US Army officer walked up to the President-elect. Most of the people surrounding Dewey then walked away to a discrete distance, apparently at the request of Dewey and the officer.

  “The Germans have completely overwhelmed all of the Soviet military west of Siberia, Sir. All that is left resisting are partisans who used to be part of the Red Army.” Dewey’s military liaison from the War Department, Colonel William Howard quietly told the President-elect.

  “Have we heard anything about Stalin’s whereabouts?”

  “No, Sir. He could have died months ago during the siege of Moscow. The Germans certainly have not appeared with a body. But I wouldn’t be surprised if his lieutenants simply have kept the rumor of Stalin’s possible escape going to be a rallying cry for the partisans and other Soviet forces still resisting the Germans. It didn’t help the Russians any when the Japanese reneged upon their non-aggression pact with Moscow and attacked into Manchuria. That had to have diverted away a lot of troops that would have otherwise gone into battle against the Germans.” Colonel Howard explained.

  “For the sake of the world at large, I hope that Stalin dies along with the rest of Lenin and Marx’s ill begotten communist movement. But will the damned Germans’ thirst for war will be sated by the Soviet Union’s destruction? I suppose that is the most important question because we still have to deal with the Japanese even if we can bring the Germans to the negotiation table.” Churchill had not told President-elect Dewey about the full extent of the negotiations that had already started.

  “We really haven’t put a tremendous effort into either theatre of operations, Sir. Much of that is because of the political pressure of the America First movement as well as a general resistance to any of FDR’s initiatives by our fellow Republicans in Congress though. There was a lot of ill feelings after Roosevelt rammed through all of those New Deal programs over our objections.” Dewey’s chief of staff, Arthur Connelly interjected.

  “I know, but now we own this relationship with the rest of the world. Let’s start getting this nation ready for what we need for it to do. Only this time, we are going to do it our way.”

  President-elect Dewey then stepped up to the podium to give his speech. In front of him were about two thousand sailors, soldiers, shipyard workers and reporters in the audience. At the beginning of the speech, Dewey thanked the people who voted for him and praised the men and women serving in the American military. Then the President-elect began to talk about his vision for the future of America’s military.

  “We must not make the same mistakes that we have made in the past by going to war with obsolete equipment. Our fighting men must always have the finest ships, aircraft, tanks and other weapons possible. We have already seen the results of going into combat with the weapons of the previous war when our Pacific Fleet of old battleships was destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Navy shortly after the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands.

  We will continue building more submarines to take the war to strangle the Japanese. Our destroyer construction program will also continue so that we can protect our shipping against German U-Boats and have the numbers to overwhelm Japanese naval forces. Instead of devoting vast funds towards ponderous, expensive battleships, we will build a much larger number of modern cruisers to swiftly work with our carriers to destroy the enemy wherever they sail.”

  The crowd cheered loudly as the President-elect paused for a few moments before continuing.

  “We will finally resume construction on the six new Freedom-class fleet aircraft carriers. They will be the largest and finest vessels of their type in the entire world. These great ships will also employ this necessary delay to embody all of the lessons learned in battle from aircraft carrier designs employed around the world. They will lead the way in taking the war to the Japanese so that we can finally end the bloody conflict. The aircraft from these carriers will strike our adversaries from well beyond the range of the enemy’s guns, both on land and the sea.

  We will also get back into the business of producing the best combat aircraft and armored vehicles in the world. Our engineers will build the weapons that will ensure our safety and security of our troops and airmen wherever they serve in the defense of this great nation. ”

  The President-elect continued in his speech for several more minutes, mostly speaking about the courage of the American men in uniform and the need to make the world safe from tyranny. Once the speech was over, President-elect Dewey walked away from the podium and all of the microphones there.

  “It’s going to take a while to get the first of these carriers into service, Sir. They are over ten thousand tons larger than the four new Essex class fleet carriers that are currently going into service. It just takes a lot longer to build the Freedom’s, especially with the shortages of funding and materiel for them in the past.” Colonel Howard informed President Dewey.

  “I understand that. But I understand from my sources in the War Department, that an Essex was hit in the last attack on our West Coast. A Japanese suicide bomb, or whatever it was, punched right through the ship’s wooden flight deck and gutted so much of the ship that it will have to be practically rebuilt in its entirety. We needs ships like the Freedom that can survive such an attack.”

  “These new ships have an armored flight deck, Sir. I have been assured by senior officials from the Department of the Navy that what happened to that Essex is virtually impossible with a Freedom-class carrier. It is much better protected and engineered than even the Essex-class. The Freedom-class has high-pressure steam turbines connected to turbo-generators like the Saratoga, but with even more power for higher speeds and better compartmentalization. The Freedoms have the latest electronics and weapons. These ships even have that angled flight deck like the Australian aircraft carrier has so that it can operate landings and takeoffs at the same time.”

  “Maybe we can use these ships to finally destroy the bases that those damned Jap submarines are operating out of? If we don’t find a way to stop these attacks soon, we will be the ones getting thrown out of office next.” Dewey sharply remarked as he continued to walk towards his motorcade.

  “That may be hard to do, Sir. We have received reports from our long range reconnaissance aircraft indicate that the Japanese may be doing extensive excavation along their coastline and many of their mountainsides. Intelligence believes that the Japanese are moving everything that they can underground to protect their military forces and industries from Allied bombers.” Colonel Howard explained.

  “Have we been hitting them
that hard with our bombers? I didn’t think that we had that many that could reach the Japanese home islands?”

  “We have been launching some heavy bomber raids on the Japanese home islands from Alaska using B-24 Liberators. But they have actually been pretty limited in scope. The British and Australians have actually been doing more with Lancaster heavy bombers launched from Australia and from French Indochina.”

  “What have they been doing differently than our Army Air Corps?”

  “The Brits and Aussies have been firebombing the Japanese cities every chance that they can. The commander of the RAF’s Bomber Command, General Harris, had done this to German cities earlier in the war. However, Harris’ losses became so heavy due to improved German defenses that he was forced to cease his mass raids even with the use of the escort fighters that we provided England. Mass firebombing is also the same tactic that General LeMay had been advocating, but President Roosevelt had been resisting because domestic political concerns.”

  “I think that we may very well decide to use General LeMay’s ideas after I have been sworn into office. But if the Japanese are burrowing everything underground, will firebombing even work?”

  “No, Sir. But I think that the Australians have come up with something that might. It is some sort of remotely controlled steerable bomb. We don’t have a lot of details about it though.”

  “We will need to look into developing something like that of our own. I’m sure that a steerable bomb could be very useful for our own bombers as well.”

  President-elect Dewey’s motorcade drove from the shipyard back to the office that he had maintained in his suite at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. Dewey then spent the next several days in meetings with Republican Party leaders from around the country. He even entertained a visit by his most vocal party rival, Senator Robert Taft.