“I thought we were backing out of this intervention,” Maeve was not happy.
“I’m just suggesting one possible point of intervention concerning the torpedoes. You’d have to admit that a message like that broadcast to Ark Royal, or in my intervention, to Victorious, would certainly increase the chances of a hit on Bismarck.”
“Victorious did get one hit,” said Kelly. “At least in the information we had before the Golem stream was contaminated. But the damn torpedo didn’t go off.”
“A contact pistol on that one and we would have a big explosion, I’m sure of it,” said Paul.
“Yet you have no way to know whether the hit would have caused any significant damage,” said Maeve. “Not with the Golem data stream all wacky. You have no more chance of sorting it out than the professor here. Look at his notes!” She pointed at Nordhausen’s notebooks, long pages of scribbling, things crossed out, others underlined or circled.
“Insofar as the battle is concerned,” Paul reasoned, “if we take the magnetic pistols out of the equation we at least improve the odds for the British.”
“What about the U-boat? Wohlfarth is a free radical, remember? He apparently decides, in more than one variation, to retain at least one torpedo, and then consistently finds himself in just the perfect place to use it. In one variation he hits Repulse, in another Ark Royal—and these are just the ones we know of. I suppose he could just as well have hit Rodney when he spotted her. This guy is really wreaking havoc on the Meridian here.”
“Pull up whatever we can find on him from the RAM Bank,” Paul suggested.
“I’ve done that,” said Robert. “He was a very successful U-boat captain, with several boats before U-556. Called ‘Sir Parsifal’ by his navy associates, he was a hard man, somewhat arrogant, and a strict disciplinarian. Though at other times he had an almost impish streak of humor, even daring to joust with Admiral Lütjens at one point when his boat was working up on trials near Bismarck. You’re well aware of the odd connection between the U-boat and Bismarck. The RAM Bank fetched up a photo of the drawing he sent to Captain Lindemann. Look at it! The man was nearly prophetic.”
They looked and saw that Wohlfarth had drawn the Bismarck, under attack by three WWI style biplanes that were obviously Swordfish off a British carrier, and it showed ‘Sir Parsifal’ riding his U-Boat to the rescue, diverting the enemy torpedoes with a big thumb on one hand and slashing at the planes with a sword in the other hand.
“He drew this in January of 1941,” said the professor. “Four months before this campaign. Here’s the translation: ‘We, U-556 (500 tons), hereby declare before Neptune, Lord over oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, brooks, ponds, and rivulets, that we will provide any desired assistance to our Big Brother, the battleship Bismarck (42,000 tons), at any place on the water, under water, on land, or in the air. Hamburg, 28 January 1941 – Commander & Crew, U-556.’ And in every variation except our RAM Bank history, he gets a chance to save Bismarck in much the same way.”
“Not by stopping the enemy torpedoes,” said Maeve, “but by saving and using one of his own.”
“I always did say the best defense is a good offense,” said Paul.
“I thought Napoleon had the copyright on that line,” Maeve winked at him.
“And here’s another note,” Robert went on. “It’s from a British Royal Navy interrogation of Wohlfarth after he was captured later that year. In these notes it seems U-556 carried a total of twelve torpedoes, not ten: five in the tubes, five in reserve, and two mounted in a special container on deck. Now… He sunk six ships, and damaged one other according to our RAM Bank. That accounts for at least seven of his first ten torpedoes. I’ve looked up all the reports of those ships, and he put two fish into Darlington Court, and another two into British Security. That makes nine, with one left over. Our RAM Bank data shows he used that last torpedo on the light steamer Cockaponset. That’s the ship he passes over in all the altered Meridians, urged to do so by his executive officer Schaefer and sub-lieutenant Souvard.”
“In the altered Meridian, however, it’s the Darlington Court that survives. Cockaponset gets torpedoed instead,” said Paul.
“Six of one, half dozen of the other,” said Maeve. “The main point is that one ship survives. And on my watch survivors who are supposed to be dead become a real problem. Just look at old St. Lambert from our last mission for a good example, and now look at the father of this terrorist as well. Survivors become a real problem.”
“What about the last two torpedoes he had stored on deck?” asked Paul. He had been unaware of this information all along, just another of these small details that are so easily lost in the history.
“The British report states they could not load them into the U-boat due to the rough seas.”
“Thank God for that,” said Maeve. “I can only imagine what he would have done if he had three torpedoes left over instead of only one.”
“Yes,” said Paul, “but in this scenario we have to imagine a way in which he has none. Zip. Nada. It’s the only way the British get to Bismarck. So it’s down to this, as far as I can see. We either find a way to stop this cheeky U-boat captain, or we back out of this intervention and send that warning to disregard Lonesome Dove—but if we do that, we lose that easy handle for feeding in more information if we ever have to. Trying again with another independent code will likely be viewed with some suspicion. In fact, they may even change the code. Then we’d be stuck.” He looked at them, his face as serious as they had ever seen him before.
“I suggest we take a vote,” said Kelly.
Chapter 21
“There may be something more here,” said Robert. “This steamer that survives the attack by U-556—it may be more significant that you think, Maeve. In all the altered data I uncovered, it remained consistent. Darlington Court survives again and again, yet our RAM Bank data clearly shows she was the first ship sunk by Wohlfarth when he attacked convoy HX-126. I’ve got exact times from the convoy reports and ships logs.
“Here… I ran down the service history of this ship. It was the sister ship to the Arlington Court, a vessel that was picked off by U-boats as a straggler from convoy SL-7A, on November 16, 1939. It was built by the same company that commissioned the Darlington Court, and get this…. The captain of Arlington Court, a man named Charles Hurst, had an interesting history as well. He loses his ship and gets a new assignment, the Darlington Court, only to suffer the same fate as her sister ship—picked off as a straggler from Convoy HX-126. The captain survives both attacks.”
The professor flipped through his notes and then keyed in a search to the RAM Bank. “Here is the testimony of Chief Engineer A.H. Stirling, who was on the Darlington Court when she was hit: ‘About 12:58 the same day, in position 57 18N 41 07W, as our Escort hoisted a signal reporting a submarine on our starboard side, we were struck by a torpedo on the port side in the engine room, followed 2 seconds later by another torpedo in the deep tank forward of the engine room. The sea was calm, wind slight, weather was fine and visibility hazy. We were making 8 1/2 knots on Course 035°. The first explosion, which was heavier and sharper than the second, stopped the main engine immediately, and the second torpedo, which struck the deep tank, split the ship in two. The ship capsized immediately, and in about 45 seconds she was out of sight.