Race: human. But if, as I imagine is the case, the object of this inquiry is to determine whether I have coloured blood in my veins, I am most happy to be able to inform you that I do, indeed, so have. This is derived from one of my most revered ancestors, the Indian Princess Pocohontas, of whom you may not have heard, but who was married to a Jamestown settler named John Rolfe . . .
"They can try and make something of that!" the author of this screed bellowed in Manfred's ear, interrupting his reading. "What damned cheek!"
"Randolph," Manfred said, then he switched to a conciliatory tone. "Just bring the stamp pad, please. Mr. Churchill is being difficult."
Randolph was ready to apply the contents of his fountain pen appropriately, or as required anyhow, but when the customs clerk producd a stamp pad he rolled his thumb on first the ink and then the paper, and with a furious flourish stepped through into America.
But he didn't give up. As they waited outside the loo, Randolph pointed. "Notice the extra facilities," he said. "The people here seem to be deathly afraid of taking a pee in the presence of Negroes. I wonder how the association would afflict them? It must be a very important matter. They almost have a separate country for the coloured folk here."
Manfred looked from one door to the other. For a moment he imagined the signs saying not "Colored" but "Jude". And would the Nazis have stopped at that?
Young Manfred hobbled out the door, and Randolph gave him a hand. "Pilot next," he said, nodding towards the door, his belligerence gone.
"Let us say a prayer for the three crew and four passengers who perished in the crash Wednesday of our Flight 21 from New York to Atlanta, the Mexican Flier, and the one who died in the hospital," Rickenbacker said.
The Board of Directors meeting was in a room with a splendid view of the air. One could see to the Bahamas or Cuba, it seemed. More to the point one could see the local beaches, which were dotted with vacationers, who had fled south to escape the winter. As had the men meeting here. They bowed their heads in prayer, as did the guests. One did not disobey Cap'n Eddie.
After the "amen", Rickenbacker said, "Let's also welcome my guests. The gentleman over in that corner is the notorious British journalist Randolph Churchill, who no doubt will be writing about American business management. I'm looking forward to reading his sensible comment on our ways of business. His people need to adopt them over there, or they'll fall too far behind. Randolph? Stand up and take a bow."
Randolph did as told. Fortunately the little set-to at customs had not made the news.
Rickenbacker went on, "And then there's that shifty used plane salesman over there, who will take volunteers for a DC-3 ride before we decide to buy them. Manfred?"
Smiling ironically, Manfred got up and bowed, as Randolph had done. Who would say the Rickenbatchers (as Eddie had been named before he had "taken the Hun out of his name") were Swiss? Here was the Prussian autocrat, ready to have his loyal and devoted board of directors buy even more DC-3s at his command. The principal buyer had already made up his mind; it was now a case of having the decision ratified. One did not disobey Cap'n Eddie.
"Look, do I go meddling in British politics? Tell you to get rid of that stupid fox hunting?"
The journalist had thought to get an inside report on the management of Eastern Airlines, so he had rushed the car that was taking them to the airport. This had displaced Manfred to the front seat, where he sat next to a driver who was respectfully pretending not to hear the quarrel in the back seat. One did not disobey Cap'n Eddie.
Unless your name was "Churchill", evidently. "You're going to have riots, a dozen Amritsars here and you won't even have the excuse of keeping order!" Randolph bellowed back. He had, to be fair, some Dutch courage, but that only intensified his natural intemperateness. "Like this man Garvey! And I understand he's not the most active! There will be riots here before long, the Negroes will not endure this servility for much longer!"
Rickenbacker tried to curb his temper. "The folks here don't appreciate being pushed around. What are you going to do, get the government to send in the G-Men? Troops? Even Roosevelt won't go that far."
"He bloody well should. These rednecks are furious at the thought that the Negro should be declared the brother of the white man, constituted his legal equal, armed with political rights -- Father said that about the Negroes in South Africa and this is worse, the Negroes here are far more developed than those there."
The limousine pulled up to the gate of the airport. Manfred decided it was time to end the argument. "Eddie, if you will be my co-pilot? Randolph, the best seat is over the wings, and you should be able to get a window seat."
They flew north, even more beaches on the left hand and the winter-dulled Atlantic on the right. The flight plan called for a triangular path, veering out to Nassau and then back to Miami.
"Baron -- er Prince von Richthofen, I thought it was our policy not to have female stewards -- stewardesses. Cap'n Eddie says that we put all that money into training them and then they go and get married," said one of the directors, sitting in the second row. "And now there's that one who just went into the cockpit."
Manfred had taken off with Rickenbacker in the co-pilot's seat, got the plane to altitude, and then stepped back to talk to the passengers. What with the shift in pilots, he had been listening for an explosion from the cockpit. He said, "That's not a stewardess. Eddie, how is she doing?"
Rickenbacker stuck his head out the cockpit door, a worried look on his face belied by his words. "Just fine, Manfred."
"Well open the door and let them see . . . your pilot, gentlemen, is my niece, Carmen von Richthofen." Carmen lifted a hand from the wheel and waved graciously, while Rickenbacker hastily resumed the co-pilot's seat and began strapping himself in. "You see, this aircraft benefits from the advantages of modern technology. The pilot no longer needs to struggle against the controls, but can at his -- or her -- leisure plan the flight. The tragic accident of this week is even more likely to become the exception, instead of the sad rule.
"Your airline is operating several of these planes already, to your great profit. To continue this course, you will need more such craft. This expansion of your fleet is necessary in order to properly service your current and planned routes. and the Douglas Commercial Model 3 will continue to meet the needs of Eastern Airlines . . ."
In a few years he would, he imagined, be trying to sell Junkers and Focke-Wulf transports to these Americans. When they had jet-engined ones, perhaps? The thought of a jet transport . . .
"Manfred, how would you like to see some films being made?" Manfred said to his son. "Udet has invited us to come to Hollywood."
Last night the youngsters had listened to tales of automobile racing, as Rickenbacker described the early days of mud tracks, promoters, and other dangerous parts of the sport. "The equipment we use in racing today will be tomorrow's standard for passenger vehicles. Like, say, four-wheel brakes." He had made a sardonic grimace at that; the memories of the Rickenbacker automobile, which had been condemned for those dangerous four-wheel brakes by the makers which had fitted them not long after his company had gone out of business still fresh and even painful.
Not Randolph, however, who had vanished into the hotel bar and made an acquaintance with six double scotches. Two of the people whose case he had been pleading had carried him back to his room, talking under their breath about dumb-ass drunken honkeys as they went.
Now, in the morning, room service had brought a lavish American breakfast and the Richthofen family enjoyed their patriarch's traditional lavish service, from others this time. Between mouthfuls of omelette, young Manfred said. "Yes, Father. I would enjoy taking Herr von Udet's invitation to see the cinema being made."
"And the starlets," Carmen said, wiping the sardonic smile from her mouth with a napkin.
"It was very kind of Herr Rickenbacker to pass up this suite," young Manfred went on, ignoring his cousin's implication. "He was telling me how the building was modeled af
ter a Spanish cathedral."
"No such luck," Manfred said. "This is the Merrick Suite. He has the Everglades Suite. Far too lavish for the likes of me." He inspected a link of sausage. "Americans are so energetic. I hope the government learned its lesson from the War." Then he bit into it.
INTERLUDE
From the Archives, March 1941
"The Reich is being encircled by sea!
"The English battleship construction continues unabated. They launched two battleships last year, King George V and Prince of Wales, and three more are on the slips, while Hood is undergoing reconstruction to join Renown.
"The French are also building non-stop. Richelieu has entered service and Jean Bart will follow within the year, while two more capital ships are being laid down.
"Italy has Littorio and Vittorio Veneto, which will be joined soon by two other battleships which are about to be launched.
"Even the Netherlands is building a powerful fleet, with Holland laid down last year, Zeeland this February, and Brabant by next year.
"Most dangerous of all, the Sovietski Soyuz has been launched in Leningrad. The Bolsheviks are intent on replacing their Baltic Fleet. Three more Bolshevik super-battleships are on the launchways, along with a vast supporting fleet of battlecruisers, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.
"In the interest of defending the Reich, the Navy League insists that the Reichsmarine build the six battleships of 55,000 tons mounting eight 40.6-centimeter guns proposed by Grossadmiral Raeder in January 1940, and began preparations for the construction of the world's most powerful battleship, to be appropriately named Gross Deutschland, with a devastating main battery of eight 50.8-centimeter guns, as described in the Reichsmarine Design Office study of November 1940.
"These ships must have supporting vessels as laid out in the position paper of August 1940. In particular, we urgently propose that the U-Boat fleet of 300 boats proposed by Konteradmiral Dönitz be given an urgent priority."
-- Position paper of the Navy League, submitted to the Kaiser and his government, March 3, 1941
"This is just plain silly."
-- Comment of Reichswehr Minister Ludwig von Beck (No Party) to Reichskanzler Wilhelm Leuschner (SPD), same date
"In his speech at the Guildhall yesterday, German businessman John von Rabe repeated in explicit and gruesome detail his story of extensive massacres in China. . . 'The horrors I saw in Nanking were only the beginning,' the Siemens executive then said. 'My friends and associates still in China have continued to keep me informed of what is going on there. The most recent campaign, their "Three Alls", has been a massacre that equals, if not surpasses, the killings in Nanking.
"'These Japanese atrocities are part of a program to unite the East under the Japanese flag and create a closed trading bloc, an oriental despotism of vast power and vaster terror.'"
-- The Times (London), March 4, 1941
"The adventurer Rabe continues to peddle the propaganda of the corrupt and incompetent Chiang Kai-shek regime. The activities of the Japanese peacekeeping force in China are strictly within the limits laid down under the Imperial Rescript for Soldiers, fully in accord with the prescripts of the traditional warrior's way of Bushido. The Chinese people joyously welcome their Japanese friends, utterly reject the corrupt bandit gangs of Chiang and his Bolshevik ally Mao Tse-tung, and eagerly anticipate joining in the peace and prosperity to be created when the eight corners of the world are gathered beneath the benevolent auspices of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, where they will flourish under the avuncular leadership of their big brothers of Japan."
-- Official Statement, Japanese Embassy to the United Kingdom, March 5, 1941
"Comrades, we are fighting a vast right-wing opportunist conspiracy that has been plotting against the proletariat and its leader, the Great Stalin, ever since the Revolution! A conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man! A conspiracy in infamy so black that when it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men!"
-- Opening statement of Prosecutor Andrei Ia. Vishinsky at the Trial of the Bloc of Opportunists, Moscow, March 5, 1941
"Stalin is repeating himself. While Lvitnov, Timoshenko, Merkulov, Kaganovich, Feffer, etc. obediently declare to the court their perpetual conspiring to deliver the people's government into capitalist hands by a war scare, and how it was foiled due to the ever-present vigilance of the Great Stalin, just as in the other civil purge trials, the commanders such as Popov, Shaposhnikov, Zhukov, and some others I haven't heard the names of were tried secretly and shot."
-- Report of Fitzroy Hew Maclean, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Moscow, to H.M. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Robert Eden, same date.
"The D. Mastronuzzi Fascist Militia of Taranto saluted Greek Prime Minister Petropoulos when he stepped ashore from the Greek cruiser Averoff, which had sailed here from Athinai. The Fascist Militiamen then formed an honor guard for the Prime Minister's triumphal procession through town to the reception stand in the main plaza. There, the Duce, flanked by Foreign Minister Count Ciano and Admiral Cavaginari, with an honor guard from the Moschettieri del Duce, extended the welcome of the Italian people to their new Greek ally.
"'Rome and Greece! Together they make up the civilization of the Mediterranean, our sea indeed! Here in this city where our two cultures, our two nations, have joined, we greet our brother from the east! Evviva Petropoulos!' the Duce said in greeting."
-- Corriere della Sera, 6 Marzo 1941
"While the death of Greek Prime Minister Metaxas this January appears to have been entirely natural, the replacement of his intended successor Prime Minister Korizis was less so. The Embassy in Athens reports that over seven million lire in bribes was paid to various Cretan and Epirote bandits to threaten Korizis, and last month his nerve collapsed under the strain.
"Before his nomination to the premiership, Theodoros Petropoulos was an idle young rich man with known Fascist associates. Since Petropoulos has formed a government, the new Italian ambassador Geloso has been presiding over a vastly enlarged Embassy staff, many of which train the Greek military or otherwise liase with -- or actually manage -- various departments of the Greek government."
-- Report of the Chief of the Secret Service [rumored to be Colonel Stewart Graham Menzies] to Prime Minister Churchill, same date
"I met this morning with the German Foreign Minister von Papen, who was most receptive to my pleas for assistance in facilitating the emigration of ex-Soviet Jews to Palestine. He expressed full-hearted support of our efforts and promised to make representations on our behalf to the British government, following up on the recent visit of the Kaiser to Jerusalem. He also provided me with letters of introduction to his colleague, Interior Minister Leber, urging him to permit Zionist activists to circulate among the refugee camps in East Prussia to promote and organize aliyah."
-- Letter of David Green [Ben-Gurion] to the Jewish Agency in Palestine, Tishri 1, 5764
"Saw Green, the Jew from Palestine, today. He offered to help us get the ex-Soviet Jews out of East Prussia. Anything to put an end to this filthy mess and quiet down the National Socialists. Even the Reds like Leber should see the worth of this. Goebbels foams at the mouth about this 'army of alien invaders', when not inventing fantastic tales of ships to the stars. We may have to pay off the English with some concessions, such as a renewal of our limits on the Reichsmarine."
-- Diary of Franz Graf von Papen, Foreign Minister of the German Reich, March 7, 1941
CHAPTER 43
Hollywood, California, USA, Friday, March 7, 1941
". . . and tonight we'll go to the premiere of 'Flying Wild'! The East Side Kids uncover a Bolshie spy in an aviation plant! I was the aviation coordinator, did some great work there!" The driver avoided an oncoming car at the last minute, throwing his passengers around as if in a downdraft. Horns blared as the other cars' brakes squealed.
/> "Ernst," Manfred said.
"Oh, Rittmeister, you want something more serious!" Udet put the pedal to the metal and just beat a red light. "I know just the thing. Warner has 'The Sea Wolf" coming out next week! Michael Curtiz directed, with Edward G. Robinson and Ida Lupino! I can get us some cabins on the America to see the premiere! You want literature, you'll get literature!"
"Ernst," Manfred said again.
"Ch-- At this rate, we won't live long enough to get to the ship, much less the lifeboats!" Randolph said from his position in the back seat.
Hollywood was already an assault on mental stability. Manfred and Carmen had flown the DC-3 back to California, where Douglas had been quite pleased to hear how enthusiastically the Eastern Airlines executives had been about buying more of them. "United and Pan Am will have to get their own in order to compete," he had said, and Manfred felt some concern for his Junkers holdings -- surely Herr Trippe of Pan American would appreciate the long-range capabilities of this Junkers 290 that he had been told was in the works.
They had been picked up in a car with a diplomatic plate. The short stocky figure that stood beside it had been barely restrained from dashing out on the runway. When Manfred had finished talking to the Douglas people about where to park the plane, he addressed their host, who had finally managed to get on the tarmac. "Ernst! California life has done you good!"
Which was true. The Polish war had left Udet haggard and drained. He had left the Reich about the same time that Manfred and his family had gone to Jamaica on their vacation, speaking vaguely of "affairs" in the movie community. Now he was tanned and bursting with energy.
"Rittmeister! You're beautiful! So you've come to see the flicks!" He laughed. "You've got to learn the local dialect. It sure isn't what we picked up in gymnasium."
A Man and a Plane: An Alternate Germany Page 63