and some P-47s tried to intercept him. He outmaneuvered them all, chased them all over the sky. Nobody could believe it but he did it, right in front of them. Nobody expected the result to be so dramatic. Even the people who designed the birds are saying there’s something about these big birds high up we’re not allowing for. But, you’re right, three plane sections. Those sections are called Hometowns by the way.”
“Right, so with 75 planes per group, we should be able to use between eight and ten groups to drop the devices. That gives us a heck of a margin for safety. We’ll be OK for the big birds Curt.”
LeMay laughed. “Stuyvesant, you’re a great planner and a great industrialist but you don’t know squat about running a bomb group. Look, each group has three wings right? 24 birds per wing. That’s eight three-plane sections. Each Bomb Wing will be doing well if it gets five of those sections up; three if we’re unlucky. The rest of the big birds will be down for repair or in the shop for modification. Then, there’s the crew. We have to keep some of them back in reserve for additional strikes, the first crews in won’t be flying again for days after a two-day mission. So call it four sections per Bomb Wing. That’s 12 sections per group, not 25. You do your maths again.”
Stuyvesant did it in his head. “21 groups, possibly 22. Remember what I said about a safety margin? Forget it. AWPD-1 back in ‘41 planned for 44 Bomb Groups of big birds by 1947. You’re saying we’ll need half of them for the package deliveries and the rest for the conventional strikes.”
“Looks like it.”
“We can manage the package delivery but you’ve just shot the follow-up full of holes. And we’re going to have to make sure Fort Worth, Wichita and Segundo hit their production standards. The E-ships will be entering the production cycle in April. They’ve got the uprated engines. You know, if Tibbets is right about the guns being counterproductive, that’s going to ease the production situation a bit. That remote controlled gun system is complex and takes a lot of time to build. Getting rid of it would be a good thing.”
“Agreed. That’s why I’m here, Phillip. I need to have some big birds built without guns and armor, just to see what they can do. Can you authorize it?”
“I can’t but I can make sure the people who can do. But are you sure that’s the way you want to go on this? Flying those bombers virtually unarmed is going to be a hell of a risk.”
“The kids in the B-29Bs and RB-29Cs are taking that risk right now. Few nights ago, one of the RBs outflew a kraut night-fighter. Pilot did a damned fine job, evaded the fighter, got his radar pictures and brought them back. Then flayed the debriefer alive for telling him the Krauts didn’t send night-fighters out after single bombers. But the point is, his RB-29C did outfly the fighter and they aren’t stripped down the way Tibbets stripped his. They’re taking losses but not prohibitive ones. Of course they’re flying in at night, not in broad daylight. Any reason why we can’t go in at night?”
“Accuracy. The packages are destructive but they still need to be placed right. We’ve got radar pictures for some of the targets but not all of them. Some, we’re going to have to hit the hard way. That’s why we need the recon birds to go in first. The recon big bird is going to be as important as the package carriers. They have to do weather recon, plot the defenses and draw their fire and do the target navigation on the way in. And, just to make it fun, the recon groups are still flying a mix of RB-29s and RB-23s. Not a recon big bird in sight yet.”
“And that’s even more big birds we need. Hell of a problem isn’t it.” There was not a trace of sympathy in LeMay’s voice. He had enough problems developing the tactics to use the big birds. Getting them to him was somebody else’s heartache.
CHAPTER NINE: SNOW DRIFTS IN THE WIND
“They got the bridge.” There was a triumphant note in the report. It wasn’t often that air-ground cooperation went smoothly but this time it had. A recon aircraft had spotted the trains heading west. That had been a disaster for the mechanized column. The destruction of the bridge had left them stranded on the wrong side of river and the nearest crossing point was about an hour’s drive east. There just weren’t any to the west. That had put them so far behind the escaping trains that there had been no chance of catching them. Only the recon aircraft had got through to its base, the group commander had worked miracles getting a flight of eight bombers armed and off and the pilots had been phenomenal. The bridge had gone down. Now, the only way for the trains to escape was east. Right back into the arms of the mechanized column.
Asbach got his maps out. “We can drive along the rails. They’re pretty much clear and give us a good footing. We should be able to get, what, 25 kph?”
“I think so. And the train cannot go much faster, it will have to back all the way. Can a train back that far?”
“I do not know. Do we have a railway man in the column?”
“No, not this column. I read the personnel files the night before we left.”
Asbach raised his eyebrows slightly. That was taking devotion to paperwork a bit far. “A bit of advice, Lang. Just read two or three files and remember a key fact from each, a commendable one. Then repeat it in front of the men. They’ll think you know everything. The rate this front eats men, we will never keep up with doing things the right way.’ He watched Lang nod slightly, absorbing the message. Then Asbach frowned. “What are these here?”
Lang peered closely at the point Asbach was indicating. “These are old Finnish maps of the area?”
“What else? They are the best we can get. These date from 1936.”
“Well then, those look like markings for mines. Coal probably, might be iron ore.”
“Lang, have you ever seen a coal mine without a railway spur and marshalling yard? And look, see how those mines are between the two lines? Do you want to make a bet there is a railway line there?”
“And if those mines are coal, the engines can stock up on fuel. Perhaps water as well. If there is a railway line there.”
“There must be. If there are mines there are railways. That will be a way out for them. If the lines are still there.”
Asbach stared at the map, chewing distance, speed and time over in his mind. “How about we try this, Lang. We go west, along the railway lines to this point here. If the trains are coming this way we’ll meet them by then. If we have not, we assume there is a line across this gap, through the mines. Then we turn north and head though the gap here up north to this junction. We can wait for the trains there and they will walk right into our arms. See, it’s like a triangle, the trains must go along two sides while we can cut up along the third.”
“But if the trains are coming east, just slowly?”
“They still have no way out. The rest of the Corps is heading north off to our right. There’s no way out there. We will not get the honor of capturing the guns but the guns will be captured. But the more I think on this, the more sure I am that there is a railway spur not shown on this map. The Russian maps are useless. They are never right; that’s why we use Finnish ones. We head west then north Lang, and intercept the guns at the junction of the east-west and northern lines.” Asbach grinned in a friendly manner. “And we can get you your first piece of over- decorated tin, yes?”
A second destroyer had joined
“Thank God, I’m not senior officer here anymore.” Becker was genuinely relieved. He was tired, sick, he just wanted to rest.
“I’m afraid that’s not so Captain. Admiral Brinkmann is,” Stewart hesitated, “not himself. Not at all himself. He had to be carried from
