“Germany is just about hanging on now. Production equals losses, more or less. Except for their fleet of course; no way that’s being rebuilt.”
Branwen nodded. “Their damage control provisions are interesting as well. Their plan is to form flying squads, in convoys of cars who will go to the site of a bombed installation and organize the work of bringing it back up. The plan demands ‘energetic men’ be recruited, ones with a wide spread of expertise and who will be prepared to work as long as it takes. Their job is to immediately round up military personnel, available civilian labor and volunteer forces to help clean up, aid in casualty rescue, etc, and analyzed the damage.
“The intention is to produce a plan that lists the required machine tool replacements necessary building repair materials and man-power, emergency tarpaulins. Speer’s ministry has completed an inventory of all machine tools in the country with the plants they are located in and the priority assigned to those sites. Using that index, the damage control team can pick up suitable machine tools available in the immediate area and in plants of lower priority than the assigned one. This allows the higher-priority plant to be put back into production quickly. The stated target for the damage control teams is to have the plant up and running in 48 hours or less.”
“So it doesn’t matter what the importance of the target plant is then. It doesn’t even matter of we do manage to identify the key industrial plants. The damage will be repaired by stripping out less important ones. The Americans would have to bomb the same plants over and over again until there are no reserves of machine tools left. Well, Douhet came up with a nice theory but Speer and his cronies have just buried it. The Seer needs to see this; put it in with the next package out to Washington. When are Henry, Achillea and Iggy due over here next?”
“About five or six days.”
“They need to be here sooner than that. Ask them to come right over now. Next, send in our Swedish friend please.”
The door closed quietly behind Branwen. A moment later she opened it for a middle-aged man in a dark suit. “Mister Loki. I am afraid these are not happy times.”
“No Mister Erlander, these are not indeed. Why did those damned fool Finns have to go and do it?”
“You know the Finns Loki, obstinate, self-centered, conceited to a fault. Convinced they have the wisdom of all the world and unable to recognize they are a small part in a very large machine. It appears that the Germans convinced them that this offensive couldn’t fail and it was the way to Finnish greatness. They still believe that. I have been in quiet contact with Risto Heikki Ryti. He is not prepared to listen to reason. He told my representatives that Germany would win the war in the end. Even if it could not win, it would hold on long enough for America and Russia to give up from exhaustion. So Finland had nothing to fear from the allies but much to fear from the Germans. And I tell you this, he may well be right. How much longer will Russia lose its young men in a war that never ends? And how many more of its young men will America lose to keep this war running?”
Loki leaned back in his seat, luxuriating in the soft leather. Once, so long ago, such a chair would have been a throne for a king. “You have heard what has happened to the Germany Navy of course?”
“Of course. But the Navy is hardly the most important part of the German forces.”
“No, but it was a part of them. Now it is gone and what is left is to be scrapped, broken up. The allies own the seas of the world now.”
“The survivors are to be scrapped. I did not know this?”
“They are. Hitler was apparently not pleased. I feel that this whole mad scheme may well have been his. Perhaps, perhaps not. But the fleet is gone. Doenitz has disappeared; probably dead by now.”
“That does not change the fact that this war is being fought on land. America may rule the seas now, but how does a shark fight a wolf?”
“Carefully, I would think. The Finns need to understand this and you must tell them it. They have harmed themselves greatly by taking part in this offensive. They will be punished severely for breaking the peace on their front line. I have heard from my contacts in Russia that they will lose the Aland Islands at least and some of their southern territories. Much of their southern territories. And not a small amount in the north”
“If the allies win.”
“Yes, if the allies win, Tage. If they win. If they do not, then we will all have much more important things than Finland to worry about.”
The Super-Marauders were spread out. Their formation was designed to give the best possible bomb pattern on the ground 27,000 feet beneath them. Normally, they were closed up to give a tight pattern that would devastate the target beneath them. Not this time. That was only one strange thing about this mission, the way the aircraft had spread out to disperse the bombs over a wide area. It was almost as if the brass didn’t really want this target destroyed. If that was so, why had they sent the 424th to bomb it? At short notice too; today’s mission had been to hit another railway junction in the German rear areas. It was a much more normal target for the mediums than one almost on the front line like this. Normally, a target this close in would be assigned to the fighter-bombers.
Around them, the fighter escort of F-80As weaved a defensive fence around the bombers. Originally the B-27 had been designed as a high-altitude version of the older B-26 Marauder that would be harder to intercept. Experience had quickly put an end to that idea. It wasn’t that the fighters could easily reach them; they couldn’t. The FW-190s were running out of steam way below them and the Me-109s were operating at their margins. At first, most of the German fighters had been loaded with additional guns to deal with the B-29 raids. Taking off the extra weight had meant they could get up to where the B-27s operated. Then, the Ta-152 and the new jets had arrived. They had fewer problems getting up to the 27,000 feet where the B-27s flew. Without escorts, the bombers couldn’t get to their targets without crippling losses. For all that, the main problem was accuracy. It was just too damned hard to hit targets from up here. Since high altitude hadn’t given the bombers the expected level of immunity, the B-27s usually flew at around 18,000 feet and had a heavy escort. That meant their concentrated bomb pattern could devastate a target.
Now, for once, they had gone back to the high altitude game. Odd. Once again, Colonel Joseph Patroulis thought that it was as if the brass didn’t really want this target destroyed. As if they were going through the motions somehow. Anyway, whatever the brass was up to, the bombers would be starting their bomb runs shortly. “All gunners, keep a sharp watch out. This is where the kraut fighters are likely to hit us.” That went without saying. Once the bombers had settled down into their bomb run and were trapped flying straight and level, the fighters and flak would turn on the heat.
“Flak bursts, Sir. Way below us.” That was the one good thing about being up here; only the heavy German flak could reach them and there was little of that in the front lines. Heavy anti-aircraft guns also made good anti-tank guns and it didn’t take much effort to guess which was the preferred use.
Down in the nose, Major Leo Andrassis settled down and applied his eye to the Norden bombsight. His orders were strict; bias the aim to the right of the target complex and beyond it. The ‘beyond it’ bit made sense. He was the lead bombardier and when he dropped, so would everybody else. That meant the bombs would walk back, along the line of sight. If the point of aim was beyond the target, the pattern of bombs would be in the right place. But a right-hand bias was unusual. “Bombardier to pilot, bomb doors open. I have the aircraft.”