lies.
“Let everyone be assured that this does not mean that war criminals will go unpunished. They will be tried by an international court and the guilty will receive justice, which is not what is being meted out to the German people by the Soviets. The Russian armies are committing unspeakable acts of barbarity on the German civilians. They say that they are doing so because this is the way the SS acted in Russia. Yes, the German SS did behave brutally, raping and murdering innocent people, but what the Russians are doing is revenge, not justice. By torturing and killing innocent civilians, they are behaving like Mongol hordes, not a twentieth-century civilization. Justice will be meted out after a fair trial and not indiscriminately against innocent civilians.
“Finally, we will use every weapon at our disposal to bring this war to a successful conclusion, and I do mean every weapon.”
Truman took a sip of water as the radio people disconnected him. “Well,” he said to General Marshall, “do you think Uncle Joe understood me?”
Marshall smiled tightly. “We’ll find out, won’t we?”
CHAPTER 29
I mmediately upon his return from Iceland following his daylong conference with Colonel Tibbetts, Burke found himself held incommunicado at SHAEF headquarters. He was given no tasks and told not to talk to anyone or leave the compound. Meals were brought to him by an unsmiling cook and he had his own bathroom facilities. He had been ordered by Beetle Smith, who still did not know anything but the roughest outline about his assignment, to prepare notes and thoughts. Very soon after, he’d had a one-hour meeting with Eisenhower, who listened thoughtfully, then took Burke’s notes to read at his leisure.
Burke wasn’t surprised that the high command wanted him out of circulation so that he would not even inadvertently tell about his trip. The secret he had been told in Iceland had been so vast and significant that the knowledge of it had almost rendered him speechless. Thus, Burke felt a degree of anticipation when Beetle Smith entered his tent and returned the stack of papers Eisenhower had taken from him.
Smith was subdued. He had read them and understood their significance. “Burke, there will be a meeting in half an hour at Ike’s conference bunker. You are to be there and you will bring these papers. Eisenhower has made a lot of his own notes, but he feels he may have to call on you for something specific. Now, there will be a lot of very senior officers there, so you know exactly how you are to behave, don’t you?”
“Absolutely, General. I am to sit with my hands folded in my lap and I will not speak unless called upon by my betters.”
Smith grinned. “I knew I could trust you.”
The meeting was held in a sandbagged and heavily reinforced underground bunker that was as bombproof as such a place could be. Even though the Red air force had crumbled, there were still enough scares to make such security efforts a good idea, and there was always the fear that a suicide bomber might try to plunge through.
Of the other men in the room, only the scarred Godwin was even remotely of Burke’s own relatively low rank. Godwin winked, an incongruous act considering his lack of eyelids, but said nothing. Like Burke, he took a seat in the rear. The furnishings ranged from folding chairs to overstuffed couches.
Eisenhower, Bradley, and Field Marshal Alexander were the most senior officers present. Simpson, Patton, and Smith were the only other men who weren’t either a field marshal or a full general. It was a fairly exclusive meeting of the Allied high command, and one the Russians would have loved to have bombed. After only a few moments, the room was thick with cigarette and pipe smoke. The ventilation system was totally inadequate and the air turned stale very quickly.
Eisenhower began the conference by giving them a ten-minute summary of the atomic bomb and its estimated capabilities. The others were stunned and there were exclamations of shock. While there had been suspicions regarding the possible existence of a super-weapon, the extent of its potential destructive power left them incredulous. Even though Burke would have bet good money that Bradley had already been informed, he apparently hadn’t, as he too looked surprised and even dismayed. Burke was also flattered by the fact that Ike’s information was almost word for word from what Burke’s notes had said.
“Gentlemen,” Ike went on, “we believe that we have, in this bomb, a weapon that can shorten, if not end this war. We have been ordered by the president to use it at our discretion. All we have to do is decide when and where.”
Ike looked to where Burke was seated. “A few days ago, I sent Colonel Burke to meet with Colonel Tibbetts, who will fly the plane that carries the bomb. The information I received from Colonel Burke is the basis for this discussion and he is here if he is needed to amplify anything. While I will welcome all comments, the final targeting decision is mine.”
Patton spoke. “I guess we can assume that this atomic bomb will be used in Brad’s area since that’s the main thrust of the Commie attacks.”
“Correct,” said Ike. “Further, we have only three bombs, so it is imperative that we use them wisely. By the way, the physical size of the bomb is so great that it can be carried only in a B-29. The bombs will be loaded at one of our bases in England.”
Bradley still looked concerned. “Logically, that leaves the Russian perimeter to the west of the Weser. Since their high-water mark at Dortmund, they have pulled back about a third of the way to the river and there are several areas where there are very large concentrations of men and tanks.”
Everyone glanced at the map. It showed a Russian perimeter that was still seventy-five miles wide at its thickest point near the Weser, and between sixty and seventy-five miles deep, depending on the curvature of the river. The American forces shown were not in direct contact with the Russians. It had been Ike’s choice to not engage in force until the bomb was used.
The map also showed that Patton, to the south of the perimeter, had reached but not crossed the Weser. Farther to the east, one lonely marker indicated the besieged garrison at Potsdam. Burke thought it interesting that the map showed no attempts at advances from the British and Germans who had crossed the Kiel Canal north of Lubeck and Hamburg and were probing the Soviet armies.
“Ike,” asked Bradley, “just how on earth does Tibbetts plan on delivering one of these things safely? If that B-29 should crash with the bomb on board, there could be a catastrophe.”
“Brad, there’s always some risk, but the scientists and Tibbetts have gone out of their way to minimize it. The bomb will not be fully armed and ready for detonation until just before they approach Russian-held territory. Some very brave or foolish man in Tibbetts’s crew has volunteered to do the final assembly while the plane is actually airborne.”
Patton chuckled. “How about both brave and foolish.”
Ike continued. “For some time now, Tibbetts has been misleading the Russians into thinking his planes were for harmless photoreconnaissance purposes. He has been flying them at high altitude and in groups of three, and the Reds have been ignoring them for the past couple of weeks. In one way, they have been lulled to sleep, but it also reflects on their lack of fuel and planes. They probably consider attacking Tibbetts’s few B-29s a waste of their limited resources. There will be a high probability of success that he will deliver the bomb safely and accurately.”
“But will it go off?” Field Marshal Alexander asked. “And will we not be giving away all our secrets if it does not?”
“There is an altimeter in the nose of the bomb,” Ike said. “When it registers that it is just under two thousand feet from the ground, it is supposed to detonate. If that fails, or if the bomb just doesn’t work, it is our fond hope that it will be destroyed when it impacts the earth. We are, however, very confident that it will detonate. We just don’t know exactly what the results will be. Tibbetts will be dropping the bomb from an extremely high altitude to protect himself and his planes. Since pinpoint accuracy is not essential, this is an acceptable tactic. It’s hoped that the distance he can gain by banking and diving while flying away before the bomb goes off will save him and his crew from destruction. For safety reasons, I will be grounding all of our planes that day and I will be ordering all our men to stay heads down at a certain time of that day to protect themselves from burns and
