“The initial signatories to the NATO agreement include: the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Dominion of Canada, the Fourth Republic of France, the Duchy of Luxembourg, The Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Portugal, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Republic of Iceland, with the Kingdom of Greece and the Republic of Turkey both expressing interest in membership, at the highest levels.”
“It is felt that the unmatched barbarity of the Soviet attacks has forced these diverse nations to unite in haste, without the usual diplomatic discourse.”
“NATO’s spiritual leader, and first Secretary-General, Winston Churchill, remarked, ‘If the Western nations lay down their weapons the Soviets would occupy all of East, West and Southeast Europe along with the greater part of the world. An iron curtain would fall over this enormous territory, controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be slaughtered (my apologies to Goebbels)’
Mannheim, Germany
The rows of trucks and piles of new tires seemed to stretch for miles. He was sure hidden treasures lurked in the dozens of large warehouses further back in the depot. He was ordered to search for advanced electronic equipment, like radars, something called a ‘jammer’,[12] a magic fuse for artillery, all sorts of unusual things. Already he had found six American jet engines. They were probably destined for the U.S. Shooting Star, their P-80 jet fighter.
Now they were on their way to Moscow, probably to be studied and improved upon to be used in a Soviet jet. He had heard that two dozen jet engines had been found at the B-29 base that had been overrun during the first days of the People’s Liberation War, along with six nearly-complete P-80 jets, that had been in the process of being repaired and thus, unable to fly. An attempt to destroy them had been thwarted by the early intervention of a company of paratroopers, or air-landing troops, as the VVS called them. He liked the western name far better.
These Yankee cigarettes are amazing, he thought wistfully to himself. He had forgotten how good they were. Funny how each nation seemed to specialize in certain products. He hoped the world-wide communist movement did not prevent this and standardize everything. He liked that the Belgians made the best chocolate, or that the French were great cooks.
“Major Taras, come here.”
“Yes Comrade General?”
“See that these jet engines get put on the next transports out. Make sure they are packed safer than you would pack your wife… or mistress. I want them delivered to the scientists back in Moscow immediately.”
“Of course sir.”
“Have they located any more radar sets or anything else of interest?”
“We believe we have found a number of those ‘jammers’. They fit the description, and Senior Sergeant Baskov is claiming the prize you set forth for their discovery.”
“When; and if, you are sure they are the right thing then give Baskov his reward and put him on the same transport as the jammers. He is to be personally responsible for their delivery.”
“Make sure he understands that his life depends upon their receipt in good order, and completely accounted for. Write out his orders for a thirty-day leave, effective only after he delivers the shipment… is that clear?”
“Yes Comrade General… very clear.”
“Our spies deserve extra pay this month. They have certainly done a spectacular job of keeping the NKVD informed as to what is in the depots, and their exact location. Now, it is our job to get the treasures within them to Moscow and, eventually, to that Peshkov person. I personally think he is a myth. No one ever sees him. I heard everything is done by notes passed through a hole in his office wall. He has the ear of Stalin, and that is all he apparently needs. Anyway, be on your way.”
“Yes Comrade General.”
One last look around before he left to dine at the nearby inn. He had eaten there last night and the cook had done wonders with the Yankee stock of food. He even used some of their C-Rations and did a remarkably good job of making a truly tasty pork stew. This place was immense. He had seen large ones in Moscow, but this equaled them. And to think, this was all surplus, things that the Amerikosy thought that they no longer needed… or perhaps had even forgotten that they had them. It was fortuitous that much of the equipment was familiar to the Red Army, and its maintenance crews. Lend-Lease had seen to that.
He walked over to one of the jet engines, and marveled at the complexity and workmanship. Amazing how the parts fit so well together and the tolerances were so small. He knew that the Soviet worker could replicate it if they were given the time, and proper training. He remembered how he had complained about the poor workmanship on the T-34’s he was sending into battle. Then some smart-assed Major pointed out that the average life of a T-34, at that stage of the war, was less than a week so why bother with making sure the engine didn’t wear out in a month by taking the extra time needed to mill down every piece to exacting measurements? It was considered a waste of time and resources.
The tanks being used for the Liberation War were of much better quality. After all, the workers had six months to prepare, and to suitably repair the tanks, knowing that they would be called upon to travel longer distances, and also knowing that they would not become smoking piles of scrap-metal, oozing oil and blood, in just a matter of days. Yes, they were holding up very well. When given the time and proper training the Soviet worker could produce a good and robust machine.
Stalin had even sent thousands of our most trusted comrades to school in the U.S., where they had learned not only how to fix and maintain U.S. equipment, but many had done some espionage, as well. Did not the Americans realize that they were sowing the seeds of their own destruction?
Another added advantage of capturing these depots ahead of the army by paratroops, is that they could be used for fueling, repairing and supplying ammunition. In addition, many of his lead elements drove into a depot and just exchanged their tanks for new ones left behind by the Amerikosy. Nearly all his tankers knew how to drive and repair a Yankee ‘Deuce-And-A-Half’ or a Sherman tank. What did it matter that the tank that drove through the Arc d’Triumph was a T-34, or a Sherman, as long as it was driven by Soviet tankers, carrying Soviet troops? Once they had punched through the weak front line of the Amerikosy, it was a drive through the park, with virtually no opposition.
In Manchuria, against the Japanese, they had marched up to 820 kilometers, in ten days. Some of the lead elements were on pace to match that now. With these handy filling stations along the way, things were going exceptionally fast, and he was sure nothing was going to slow them down.[13]
White House Map Room
May 12, 1946
Present are the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and President Truman.
12
Electronic countermeasures — A move to develop countermeasures against proximity fuzes stemmed from the Germans, who during the “Battle of the Bulge,” captured an Army munitions dump that contained a large number of the new radar proximity-fused shells. Concerned that the Germans might attempt to copy the proximity fuze, the Research Division of the Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wright Field, along with the help of the RLL, was called in begin the development of jamming equipment. Lieutenant Jack Bowers, an engineer with the Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wright Field, recounted the following to Alfred Price:
“The proximity fuse had been a closely guarded secret on our side. Even though we had been working on countermeasures for a long time, we at Wright Field had never heard of the device. Now we were asked to investigate, on a crash basis, the possibility of a jammer to counter the fuse. We asked why such a jammer had not been developed earlier, and were told that the developing agency had conducted tests and concluded that the fuse could not be jammed! We worked on the problem, and within two weeks, a jammer had been built which would detonate the proximity fuses prematurely.”
“It was the sort of test that would never be allowed today under the prevailing flight safety guidelines. At the time, there was a war on, and the small risk to our one aircraft had to be weighed against the far larger risk to our whole bomber force if the Germans used such a weapon against us. We who were to fly the test were confident we would be all right — we hoped that the jamming would work as planned, and if it didn’t, the offset fed into the guns would burst the shells at least 240 feet away from us at a range of about 20,000 feet.”
“The test lasted about 3 months, during which about 1,600 VT shells were fired, individually, in our direction. Sitting in the fuselage of the B-17, the two RCM operators could pick up the radar transmissions from the shells coming up. The VT fuse radiated CW (continuous wave) signals, but the projectiles would often yaw a little in flight. This, in combination with the spin of the shell, would modulate the signal. We in the back could not see out, but the pilots and the navigator would get a kick out of watching the shells burst well below, or if there was a late burst because the jamming had taken some time to sweep through the shell’s frequency, it might explode close to our altitude. The general conclusion of the test was that, modified to radiate CW swept across the VT fuse band, the APT-4 jamming could significantly reduce the effectiveness of the proximity fused AA shell.”
13
Soviet Trainees in U.S.A. in World War II by Edward Pinkowski
Russian Review — Vol. 6, No. 1 (Autumn, 1946), pp. 11-16