Markov notices a bright wavering light on the water: fire, and in the spot where the trawler was supposed to be. He passed the word along for his men to be ready, especially as they slowed the rubber boats down and began to use paddles to maneuver silently around the flaming oil slicks and debris on the water. Markov spotted it first: an NKVD Sea Frontier Guard Lend-Lease patrol torpedo boat. At that moment, he decided that he and his men were going to take it. Markov signaled to the men to creep as close as possible to the PT boat without being seen. In what seemed like hours, Markov and his men finally reached the side of the ship and rushed the boat as savagely as possible, taking out the crew as quickly as possible, killing a few outright, and tossing the rest into the freezing waters of the Sea of Japan, to die a slow and agonizing death of hypothermia. They quickly pull their rubber boats aboard to deny the Russians any chance of escape, and open up the throttle to head to the friendly waters of Japan, if they had enough fuel. Markov hauled down the NKVD ensign and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, the one that he'd stowed with their escape gear. They would still get their information back to Far East Allied Headquarters and the plan might yet still proceed.
“The Wild Blue Yonder” By Rangerelite
Home Front in WWIII 1946
0930
Hangar Number One,
Temporary Command and Control Base,
Andrews Air Force Base
(formerly Andrews Army Airfield),
Outside Langley, Virginia
The day was a bit chilly and overcast, but there was nothing that could ruin this day for the men and women assembled here today. They all stood at attention for the President of the United States of America, Mr. Harry S Truman, as he passed them all down the aisle, on his way to the hastily-built, but well-constructed, dais. President Truman takes his seat, and everyone else takes theirs.
“In well-deserved recognition of the service and sacrifice that your military arm has given and continues to give, it is on behalf of the American people that I, acting in concert with the United States Congress, grant you concrete appreciation for your service and sacrifice” President Truman looks to his left, to a serious-looking General of the Army, Carl Spaatz, the newly-appointed Commanding General, U.S. Army Air Forces, then to his right to U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General of the Army, Dwight Eisenhower, and then continues, “by separating the Air Forces from the Army and granting them an independent military branch of their own, The United States Air Force. Carl Spaatz has been confirmed by the United States Senate as its very first Chief of Staff, with the newly-created rank of General of the Air Force.”
“As you all know, this war with the Soviets was none of our own contrivance, but by God, we will finish it! If Uncle Joe thinks he can lick us with his stolen Nazi wonder-doodads, he has another thing coming! We have the power of righteousness on our side!” By this time, President Truman was pounding on the lectern positioned on the dais, causing the microphones to feedback a few times, “And as long as we have the power of righteousness on our side, we cannot go wrong!” At that, all the Air Force personnel were on their feet, loudly whooping and hollering, chanting things such as “USA! USA!”, “Smash the Reds!” or “Remember Frankfurt!” the last chant was an allusion to the battle which incurred the loss of the bulk of the USAAF's aircraft in Continental Europe and a fair number of irreplaceable combat personnel: pilots, aircrew and ground crew, and the need for the new military branch to exact its vengeance.
At that moment, General of the Air Force Carl Andrew Spaatz got up and restored order “Men and women of the United States Air Force, this is your charge: master and kill the enemy with the utmost efficiency and ferocity, as you have been trained to do, and you will never lose the fight. You are now excused; return to your posts.” The most senior Air Force Master Sergeant called out “Ten-HUT!” and all present filed out, as soon as the President and Chiefs of Staff of the Army and the Air Force were clear of the hangar.
As Generals Eisenhower and Spaatz accompanied the President in the limousine, the President asked them both, “How are the plans progressing, gentlemen?” They proceeded with their portion of the briefing, before they got to the White House. When they arrived there, they were joined by the Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Alexander A. Vandergrift, and sat down to business.
Before they started, the President pressed an intercom button “Would you please send in Special Agent James Carroll and General Kenney?” “Yes, Mr. President” was the response from his receptionist. A moment later, both General George Kenney and James Carroll, who was a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and former Assistant Director under J. Edgar Hoover, step into the room and waved to seats at the table by President Truman. Carroll was tapped by President Truman, and the late General “Hap” Arnold, to head the Army Air Force's new Office of Special Investigation, tasked with rooting out security risks in the nation's combat aviation services. On the Navy's side, the Office of Naval Intelligence's counterintelligence service has weeded out several spies and communist sympathizers, and Special Agent Carroll has done yeoman's work over the past several months in making progress toward the same end. To date, there are quite a few Army Air Force officers and enlisted men in the Leavenworth Penitentiary due to his efforts. And not a few of those had high security clearances, which necessitated their being held in solitary confinement.
“Agent Carroll, would you please brief us on the progress of your investigation as to communist infiltration of the nation's air forces?” said the President. Carroll stands up “As you well know, Mr. President and gentlemen, there was a serious issue with information being passed onto Soviet agents, resulting in their foreknowledge of our battle plans and their knowledge of our tactics and equipment. As a result of a deep and humanly-thorough investigation, I have reason to believe that we have completely vetted every security-clearance holding member of the U.S. Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps and the Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence. It is my belief that we can reasonably trust the members of our planning staffs to move forward toward the next step of this war: the impending counteroffensive.” All the flag officers were now listening intently to him now.
He continued “as a result of this strenuous investigative effort, I can confidently recommend that the Strategic Air Command be reintegrated into the United States Air Force, provided that my security recommendations are strictly followed. It is my further belief that a Defense Intelligence Agency should be formed to oversee a coordinated counterintelligence effort to ensure that this level of infiltration of our most effective and sensitive military resources never happens again.” All the men nodded their agreement, none of them except for the President caring very much for the Central Intelligence Agency, especially in light of the fact that they have been draining away their best and brightest intelligence assets and resources over the past few months. Spaatz and Kenney pass a non-descript look between each other, then the President speaks up, after the generals have digested the information for a moment “To ensure that the security recommendations of Agent Carroll are rigidly enforced, Generals Spaatz and Kenney will oversee the formation of a permanent Office of Special Investigations within the Air Force, with Carroll in charge. Agent Carroll will be inducted into the Air Force Reserve, with the rank of Colonel, to perform this duty.” All the men again nodded their agreement.
The President continued “If we have finished with this, let's move onto other business, gentleman. General Eisenhower, how is the progress of the Corps of Engineers' building the new airfields in Turkey and on Cyprus?” “Progress is steady, Mr. President, considering the secret nature of the operation. A parallel project in Palestine by the Free Russian Air Force is also progressing, near a place called Tel Aviv. There are intelligence reports that local Jewish paramilitary units are providing security for the rebel Russians.” General Eisenhower told the President. “Do you trust these Russ
ians, General Eisenhower? Can we collaborate with them to get these projects finished in the allotted time? More importantly, do we have trusted friends among them?” the President asks. General Vandergrift speaks up “We have had some informal dealings with these people in China. They seem to be fairly straightforward, if somewhat crude, and they tend to keep their word, no doubt to advance their own agenda. Perhaps we may not have friends among them now, but they could be useful strategic allies.”
Fleet Admiral Nimitz joins the conversation “I think we need to proceed cautiously as far as enlisting these rebel Russians as our allies. 'Enemy of my enemy' will only go so far, considering that recent history is replete with allies turning on us. Otherwise, I think it is a capital idea to use them to knock the Soviets off-balance and gain the upper hand.” President Truman nods and asks Nimitz “How goes that special project in Newport, Admiral?”
“Proceeding on schedule, Mr. President. The conversions are proceeding according to plan, and training is going faster and rougher than I would like for the Marines and Naval aviators, but I'm absolutely positive that all will be ready by X-Day, sir.”
President Truman nods and they all discuss strategy for a while longer, before he dismisses them for the day. He takes a moment to reflect on what a terrible responsibility was dumped in his lap by Frank Roosevelt, “You dirty lucky bastard” he thought.
Chapter Nineteen:
The Big Bang
Atomic bomb blast over Baku
***
When the enemy is at ease, be able to weary him; when well fed, to starve him; when at rest, to make him move. Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
Sun Tzu
***
Finnegan's Wake
The flight over the East Mediterranean was uneventful. Nick was amazed at how comfortable this beauty was compare to the B17s he had started out in. He couldn't imagine being at this altitude going for this distance in any other aircraft. He could actually stretch out a little and he had a view from the gunner position. The only gunner position that still had a gun was the tail gunner. All of the other guns had been stripped and the aircraft filled with machines for measuring all that was necessary to determine how to drop an atomic bomb from as high as possible while passing through what might be a 200 mph stream of air who knows how thick.
That wind at high altitudes had first raised its ugly head over Japan. That was why LeMay had decided to come in under it and use fire bombs. Of course this negated all the features that made the B29 a special plane. The Japanese where helpless by that time, against any kind of bomber. Their fighters had been decimated in various battles over the Pacific and their antiaircraft guns and radar were not that formidable. Oh they did get lucky far too often but not enough to deter LeMay.
The wind over Japan was at 25,000 ft and their job was to find it over Baku in time to calculate how fast it was and how much it would affect a 10,000 lb atomic bomb. They had 20 minutes to drop their dummy bombs and then make the calculations. He was there basically as an observer as no one expected any kind of Red plane to be able to make it up to 32,000 where they were going to drop their instruments and the dummy bomb from. The other planes were going to do most of the measuring as they had the actual fake bomb that everyone would be measuring, which took up enormous amounts of space in their Silverplate.
For most of the trip they were over friendly territory in Turkey. Friendly was a relative term in his mind. As a boy he had read many a story of about the Ottoman Empire and blood thirsty pirates etc. associated with Turkey. For now they were secret allies but as soon as the Soviets discovered where the fighters were coming from in later raids there would be no hiding the fact that the Turks had been with us all along. He wondered how the Reds would react. He had heard that the Turkish army was not in any shape to stand up against any concerted Red attack.
At 10,000 feet he had to retire from the relative comfort of the main area where he could be with the other crew members. At that point the majority of the plane had to be pressurized, all but the station for the rear gunner that is. That is why he had to make his way to the back and close the hatch so that the rest of the crew could enjoy relative comfort while he was regulated to the tribulations of non-pressurized flight. It was not anywhere near as bad as the B17 mind you but still not the luxury his crew mates enjoyed.
As they passed over the Caucuses he really felt far from home. Without knowing it he was nearer his ancestral home than ever before. His grandfather and grandmother had come from Grozny. The very city his mission was about to eradicate from the earth. Had he hoped all his relatives had move on long ago. He had not brought up this fact when he was questioned about joining SAC. His Grandparents had lived in France for 20 years before coming to the US so he didn't feel the need to bring up the fact that they were originally from Grozny. He barely knew them for God’s sake. He was third generation American and his relatives had run away from the coming revolution and to avoid fighting in the previous wars as well.
The highest peaks of the Caucus Mountains were about 15,000 feet or so but even at 32,000 they looked pretty formidable. He was looking for the highest peak they would see on their flight path and it should be off to his left or the Southeast as they were getting close to the target since he was looking backwards. When he could see that peak they were getting very close.
As he was staring intently trying to find the mountain a very small movement caught his eye. It had a contrail coming from it!
"Skipper, we have company! over"
"What the hell are you talking about Tail?! over"
“At about 4 o'clock high there is a small bogie that has a contrail, and he's coming right for us. over"
"Holy shit. One of those guided rockets? over."
"Can't make it out Skipper, but its closing fast. We should be able to drop the package before he gets here. over"
"Copy that. Let us know of its location and distance. We have to drop the dummy or the mission is scrubbed. over"
"We should be okay. I estimate he or it is closing at 100 mph. over"
"We are 12 minutes from target. Keep us informed and you’re our only defense Nick. Do what you can. over"
"That's a roger Skipper. over"
"Flight leader to flight, we have a bogie closing in from our 5 o'clock high. We should be able to accomplish our mission before it arrives. It appears to be a rocket or jet and it's faster than we are. Over"
Nick notices that the radio chatter heated up until the Skipper toned it down. That sucker was moving and would be here shortly after we dropped the dummy. It was not fooling around and it was coming straight in with no deviations on a perfect interception course. Damn this was going to be close. The Skipper loosened up the formation a bit just in case it was a rocket and the blast of a hit was big enough to take us all out. He had heard this had happened a few times at Leningrad and to the RAF. A thought went through his head that rockets were not a very manly way to fight but then neither was a bomb, especially an atomic bomb. "We're all becoming chicken shits" he thought to himself. Whatever happened to facing each other with swords? Now that's the way to go if you had to die in combat.
He could see it better now. It has wings. That probably meant that it's a plane of some kind. A very small one that was moving very fast. He informed the Skipper. He responded with just a roger. Probably too fixed on the bombing run to even worry about it. It's a jet all right. Weird looking thing and small.
"Skipper, I'm going to take some long range shots at it just to make him think twice and give us some more time. Over”
"Roger that."
Come on you little bugger, just a little closer. Then he felt the bomb bay doors opening and shortly thereafter he could feel the bombardier taking over control of the plane. It was just a slight change in the flight path but he could always tell. It was very rare of the pilot to be right on target. He fired a few rounds as the jet was just out of range and the fighter pilot flinche
d for just a second but it was long enough. The plane lurched up as the 10,000 lb dummy bomb left the bomb bay and the Skipper put us into a tight port turn. The other two planes had to fly straight and true in order to get the best readings from, and of the dummy bomb as it dropped. The Skipper was hoping that the fighter jet would come after us because we were now going it alone. The fighter pilot would have none of it and bore straight in for Finnegan's Wake and with a few shots from what looked like twin 30 mm cannons, Finnegan and his crew exploded before Nick’s eyes. He was horrified and knew that they were virtually helpless against this small fighter.
"Skipper..."
"I know, I know! over"
They were now going away from the other planes and he could see everything that was happening. The flaming debris from Finnegan's Wake left an ugly smudge of debris, fire and smoke in a classic waterfall type arrangement that cut through the beautiful blue sky. It reached down from the heavens in a horrible curve falling towards the ground. Then he noticed a disturbance in the trail of destructions and smoke as it hit an unseen wall of air rushing from Northwest to South East. There is was! What they had been sent to find. Damn it looked strong.
World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First Page 76