When Andrei heard the news on the radio that the Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union he felt a momentary relief that they were no longer linked with the Germans and that all his forecasts had been justified. But as the German armies drove deep into Russia he was sickened at the thought of what must be happening. That week the shop sold over a hundred wall-maps of Europe and the USSR for people to mark up where the battles were being fought. He listened to the broadcasts from Moscow and even there they made no attempt to hide the fact that the Red Army was being pushed back with terrible losses. The thought of what would be happening to the civilians in the German-occupied territories was unbearable. But it had changed the attitude of the Americans overnight. Russians were no longer the Nazis’ allies. There was a tension in the air as if more and worse was to come.
By the middle of July the Germans had taken Minsk, Smolensk and Tallin; by September they had taken Kiev and were in the outskirts of Leningrad. In October they took Orel and Odessa and were only fifty miles from Moscow. Kharkov fell in the last week of October.
There were reports of the Red Army taking back towns from the Germans and Moscow was still holding out against massive artillery attacks. But there was still a lot to be done to swing American public opinion behind the Soviet struggle. It wasn’t their war and they didn’t want any part of it.
Bill and Kathy Malloy had gone over to New York to spend the weekend with Bill’s father. They had got up late on the Sunday morning and Kathy had cooked them the old man’s favourite steak and kidney pie for a late lunch.
After they had eaten she took the portable radio into the kitchen. She was going to give the place a good clean-up and she could listen to the radio as she worked. She switched on the radio and the voice said, “And now—Gangbusters—The only national programme to bring you authentic police histories. America’s crusade against crime.” She switched over to a sweet music station playing Bing Crosby records.
In the cosy living room the two men were chatting. Bill Malloy smiling as his father launched into his standard diatribe about the men in the White House. No complaints about the President himself. The villains were the politicians, the Congressmen and Senators who wouldn’t go along with what FDR wanted for the people.
“It’s no good you smiling, boy. You need to know some of the facts of life.” He pointed his unlit pipe at his son. “A quarter of the population lives on farms. You know what the average farmer made last year?”
“No idea, Dad. Tell me.”
“A thousand dollars for a year’s hard work. And we’ve got unskilled workers laying the foundations for the new road—East River Drive they call it. Those men are on 832 dollars a year.”
“That’s terrible. How do they manage?”
The old man swung his arm, sweeping aside the question. “Three out of four farms are still lit by kerosene lamps. A quarter of the houses in this country don’t have running water and a third don’t have flush toilets.”
In the kitchen Kathy was cleaning the cooking stove and singing along with Bing.
Thanks for the memory—of sentimental verse, nothing in my purse and chuckles when the preacher said for better or for worse. How lovely it was.
And then the music stopped. She thought at first that the battery had gone but then there were a few seconds of the carrier wave. A few seconds later a voice announced breathlessly that the Japanese were bombing the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
For a moment she stood there paralysed, a dishcloth clutched in her hand. Then she rushed into the living room and told them what she had heard. The radio was still on, still playing Crosby records and then the news-flash was repeated.
Bill Malloy stood up and said quietly, “I’ll have to get back to Washington, Dad.” He had not told his father anything about his work or OSS. He saw his father swallow and then nod. “I understand, boy. Whatever you think best. Keep in touch.”
“I will, Dad. I will.”
In the White House the President sat at his desk dictating his first war bulletin.
“Yesterday comma December seventh comma nineteen forty-one dash a date that will live in infamy dash the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan period. Paragraph. The United States was at peace with that nation and comma at the solicitation of Japan comma was still in conversation with that government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace …”
He broke off and kept pounding his fist on the desk. “Our planes were destroyed on the ground.” He said it again and again.
CHAPTER 11
In the first few days after the declaration of war against the Axis the situation in OSS was chaotic despite all the pre-planning that had gone on for months. It was almost two weeks later when Malloy was told to report to Lieutenant Colonel Williams. The interview took place in a suite of rooms in a hotel that had been taken over by OSS for the sections in charge of operations in Europe, until a larger and more suitable building could be allotted.
There was no proper desk, just a plain wooden folding table of the kind that decorators use for pasting wallpaper. The colonel shook Malloy’s hand and waved him to one of the several leather armchairs.
“Make yourself comfortable, Malloy.” He waited until Malloy was seated and then went on. “I see from your records that you took French as a subsidiary subject at
