They walked into the darkness, turned a corner and strolled carefully towards an arched opening in the inner garden wall. Two shadows, automatic rifles with muzzles pointed earthward moved in the shadows as they approached. Julian Christopher did not know if Margaret Thatcher’s Royal Marine bodyguards frightened potential assassins but they certainly scared him. Just one look at them told him these men would run through brick walls to protect their charge.
“What would happen to us here if that bomb that fell in the sea last month went off now?” The woman inquired.
In the sea nearby was a two to three megaton unexploded hydrogen bomb. Had it detonated the British presence in the Mediterranean would have been eradicated in a split second.
“We wouldn’t know much about it, Margaret.”
“Ought we to try to find it? Raise it and disable it, that sort of thing?”
“It would have gone off by now if it was going to,” Julian Christopher replied wanly. “Best let sleeping dogs lie, and all that.”
“I suppose so. We now suspect that several bombs fell on United Kingdom territory without blowing up during the war. It sounds odd to say it, but things could actually have been much worse than they were.”
“Things can always be worse than they actually are,” the man concurred dryly.
Margaret Thatcher squeezed his hand.
“I’m sorry. We shouldn’t be talking shop.”
The man laughed softly.
“Why ever not, Margaret? I am your liege man, and all that. Besides, neither of us can help ourselves. By all means carry on talking shop!”
Margaret Thatcher considered this for some seconds before taking him at his word.
“I can’t get a straight answer out of President Kennedy as to why the USS Independence is still docked at Malta. How long does it take to repair a damaged catapult for goodness sake! That ship should be here by now!”
The Fighting Admiral fought to keep a straight face.
“An aircraft carrier’s catapults are like a battleship’s big guns, Margaret,” he explained, hoping he did not sound condescending.
“How so?” She asked, her momentary pique dissolving as if by magic.
Julian Christopher had slightly — but only slightly — stretched the analogy between an aircraft carrier’s catapults and a battleship’s main battery. He conceded as much then quickly qualified the apparent exaggeration.
“In the same way the calibre and number of large naval rifles determines the rest of the design of a battleship; a carrier’s catapults determine significant aspects of a carrier’s design. Although an aircraft carrier might not be, strictly speaking, built around her catapults in the same way a battleship is built around its big guns, nevertheless, catapults are integral to the architecture and construction of a carrier operating fixed-wing aircraft. Basically, what we are talking about is the mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, physical structure of the catapult at flight deck level, and the linkage of that assembly with its steam source, located several decks down and perhaps hundreds of feet distant from the working parts of the actual catapult on deck.”
“You are telling me that the problem might not be with the small part of the catapult system visible on deck? That most of the catapult mechanism is like an iceberg, invisible?”
“Yes, something like that. The USS Independence is approximately twice the size of our biggest carriers, the Ark Royal and the Eagle. Therefore, the amount of kit hidden from view, and the distances between the critical catapult components and the ship’s fire rooms — boiler rooms, rather — are correspondingly larger, and farther separated. Rear-Admiral Detweiller, the commander of the US Navy units based at Malta, has told me that one of the Independence’s forward catapults was destroyed by an accidental explosion in a steam line when she was in the Indian Ocean. Her starboard catapult was also disabled in this incident. This means that the Independence’s only fully functioning catapult; is her angled amidships catapult which cannot be used when she is landing aircraft. Repair work is scheduled to take another sixteen days, after which an intensive five-day sea trial will be conducted. If the initial trials go well the Independence will sail for Malta and complete those trials en route. If all goes well.”
“I’m talking shop because I am nervous,” Margaret Thatcher confessed.
“We’ll carry on talking shop until you aren’t,” the man suggested, amiably, unhurriedly. “You aren’t feeling nervous, that is.”
Their hands parted as they turned to face each other in the night.
“What are the Americans doing wasting time getting that old Second World War battleship ready for sea?” She demanded, deciding that they would ‘carry on talking shop’ for the while. “Surely they’d be better advised speeding up the reactivation of one of their big aircraft carriers? Especially with the Enterprise on her way home and the Independence out of commission at Gibraltar?”
“None of their mothballed big carriers is going to be back in commission for six to nine months, Margaret. A carrier is a much more complicated weapons system than a battleship, and the big ones carry two to three times the crew of the biggest battleship. To get the Iowa back to sea as soon as possible the US Navy has called up every old battleship man on the Reserve List. These are men with years and years of experience actually crewing the USS Iowa and her three more or less identical sister ships. All four Iowa class ships were laid up; two at Bremerton in the American Pacific North West, the other two at Philadelphia. Iowa was in better condition than the Wisconsin so they opted to reactive her now because they knew they could do it in a hurry. If you asked me ‘why bother?’ Well, I’d be hard pressed to give you a sound military reason for prioritising the reactivation of the Iowa, other than to say that right now I’ll gladly accept any usable asset you give me. In a month’s time we will be embarking on the biggest combined operation since the Suez fiasco to liberate northern Cyprus. If that goes well we’ll move on to Crete. After that, well that’s more to do with politics than grand strategy. I’ll wait and see what you order me to do after we’ve liberated Crete, if and when it happens. I know that there’s a lot of loose talk about island hopping north across the Aegean but frankly, that will never be feasible unless the Americans take the lead. Honestly and truly, without the American nuclear subs guarding the flanks of the Cyprus invasion fleet and the long-range anti-aircraft capabilities of the US destroyers and frigates Rear-Admiral Detweiller is allowing me to integrate into the operation, I don’t know if — at this time — I’d be in a position to recommend that we proceeded with Operation Grantham.”
“Whoever thought up that name ought to be shot!” Margaret Thatcher decided ruefully. “A month’s time?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Three US Navy nuclear hunter killers will be in position by the early hours of 29th March — Easter Sunday — when the first units of Task Force Alpha, that’s the combined bombardment and assault flotilla, sail from Malta. Task Force Charlie, comprising the Eagle’s and the Hermes’s battle groups reinforced by Admiral Detweiller’s units not tasked with the defence of the Maltese Archipelago in the absence of the rest of the Fleet, will move into position as Task Force Alpha approaches Cyprus. If all goes according to plan our troops will begin to go ashore two hours before dawn on on Saturday 4th April. The Independence, and or the USS Iowa may be in theatre in time to take part in the opening phases of Operation Grantham; but my staff have been ordered to plan only on the basis of the ships, aircraft and men we definitely know to be available. If the Independence and the Iowa join the party nobody will be happier than I, but one fights wars with the navy, the air force and the army that one has not the ones we’d like to have.”