Chapter 206
8th March 1942
German Airspace, south of Hamburg
War in Asia, stalemate in Italy, nothing deterred the British from their goal. The Luftwaffe pilots that flew with the 'Reichsverteidigung' or Defence of the Reich had no mind for that, all they had to do was to defend against the British and Allied Bombers that penetrated into German and occupied airspace almost daily. Whenever the British came the German Fighters of Luftflotte 1-3 and the 5th and 9th Red Air Force Air Armies had to fight not only through the screen of Spitfires and Typhoons (if the targets were in occupied Europe or western Germany) and in rarer cases when they bombed targets like ball-bearing factories in central Germany, large numbers of Mosquito fighters.
The numbers of Airfleets were deceiving, because for example Luftflotte 1 had three Geschwader (Groups), two day and one night interception, while the Soviets had only two apiece. The British on the other hand were forced to make do with a smaller number of Bombers than expected, the other fronts of the war were just soaking too many resources away.
Hans-Joachim Marseille was leading a Squadron from JG 52 on the hunt for a group of Halifaxes that had taken part in a raid on the Kraft-durch-Freude factories north of the city that had the same name. He had led them against the main group earlier on and now his 190s were attacking again. Thanks to the RDF guidance from the Freya sets he was again vectored on the British.
Their bombers had the weakness that they had no belly turrets, but the British had taken to station a large number of their escort fighters to the side and after bombing also under them, so in spite of the turrets on the back it was the best to attack from ahead and above. I/JG52 therefore dove at the British from that position and Marseille was in range soon enough. He was an expert marksman, but here nothing of his skill was needed. He placed his gunsight on the cockpit section and pressed the trigger. He was flying a A-3 version, so he had four 7.92mm MG17s and two 20mm MG151. By default he had the 20mms selected when fighting bombers and these now spat shells that walked over the bomber. The first four were spot on and turned the cockpit into a charnelhouse of death and blood, and hole after hole after hole appeared. He held the trigger for no more than six seconds, and it was enough. Both pilots were dead and the controls shot to tiny bits with the appropriate results. Marseille raced through the formation and found himself faced with a formation of sixteen Mosquitoes that were only now splitting up to attack the Germans. He levelled out his plane and fired again. The bullets slammed into the left engine and set it aflame along with most of the wing. Marseille still missed his old 109, but the punch this one packed was something he liked, and as a result of the the Yellow 14 had scored yet again. He looked around and banked left just as a Mosquito was trying to get a line on him. He put his engine to full power and flew upwards as fast as his plane would go. He ignored the gunfire that came from the rear turrets of one of the bombers as he performed an almost perfect Immelmann turn. Marseille balanced out his fighter and pumped some more ammunition into a bomber before he decided to break it off due to lack of fuel.
Even so the air defence systems in Western Europe were stronger than one might expect from a quick look. The day fighter force was smaller, but so was Bomber Command, even with all the Commonwealth and Allied Squadrons added together the bomber force barely numbered seven hundred, and that included roughly a hundred training and other obsolete planes. Resulting from this was that even the low numbers of Axis Fighters that were not fighting the Air War in the Mediterranean Area were adequate to defend against the smaller number of Allied bombers. In daylight the system was not that different from the British one, only that the Germans lacked a central Fighter-Command type information centre and instead relied on their Airfleets to do the job. The Kammhuber line was nit easily adapted to day fighting, but the same RDF stations that did the job when it was dark also worked when it was not and gave the Axis forces a similar amount of early warning as the British had enjoyed during the Battle of Britain even though Axis RDF systems would never be as capable as their counterparts. The Allied bombing campaign would never defeat Germany on it's own, never mind the Soviet Union that was simply out of range of these early-war bombers, but it did drain resources away from the front by forcing the Germans to keep a large number of ackack guns in all calibres away from the front, forced them to keep fighters and pilots back from Italy where they could be used against the increasing strength of the Allies and gave the occupied nations of Europe one thing: Hope. After the war a young Jewish girl who had spent most of the war hidden behind a filing cabinet in the rear house of what had been her father's company would say that whenever she heard the roar of the Merlin and Hercules engines overhead she felt hope and knew that the Germans were getting what was coming to them.[1]
San Francisco, Marxist Union of Pacifica, UAPR
The Radio broadcast from Radio Washington was blaring out of the loudspeakers at maximum volume. The recruits belonging to the 1st Infantry Division of the American People's Army who prepared to deploy into the Pacific Theatre. The plan was to intervene in the Phillipines and both kick the Japanese out again and force McArthur from his seat, thereby gaining bases from which the Battle could be carried to China and Japan itself. The informal understanding with the British (The Central Committee refused to call it a Gentlemen's Agreement) had allowed the APN to strip the Atlantic of ships and so the American Pacific Fleet was back up to full strength now, the ships reprovisioning here and in San Diego since Pearl Harbour was out of action after the Japanese had damaged the fuel feeding systems for the capital ships. Decision processes in Washington were cumbersome, or at least had been but now that the War Emergency legislation had passed through the house (Thereby eliminating the last remnants of Democracy) and now the Central Committee had decided that the Volunteer Principle was not enough and had widened the draft to include every able-bodied male and, in rear area combat support role even women were accepted if they volunteered. The West Coast was a massive military training camp and only the fact that the UAPR had been on a reduced war footing since 1939 and the APR had already been relatively large, this allowed the Americans to assemble four Divisions almost instantly. Transport Capacity was harder to come by what with the slaughtering of much of the American Merchant Navy either by war or by ships defecting to the various countries they had been moored in. Still, weeks of scratching everything together had allowed them to assemble enough transports in working condition to move two Divisions to the Phillipines with the entire Pacific Fleet as escort. At least that had been the plan. Now however Wake Island and Midway had fallen to twin assaults and the Phillipine expedition scrapped even though the general idea would float around Foggy Bottom for years to come. Right now the soldiers of the 1st Infantry were listening to the filtered news of how the evil Imperialist Japanese were fighting against the also Imperialist but honourable British in Burma and how the Government wanted the British to win in order to facilitate the liberation of their colonies because unlike the Japanese the British could be reasoned with and since they were true capitalists they could be bought over if it was in their interest.
Private third Class Jack Harold Martin was still homesick since he had never been away from Providence in the Iowa District, but that was the case with most of his buddies in the Army. While he listened to the broadcast he was lining up with the rest of the Division in a long hall with an incredibly high ceiling to be issued with new Equipment to replace his elderly issue from bootcamp and specialized Pacifican things.
“One M1 Steel Helmet, one M1 Semi-Automatic Rifle, one pair of boots, one example of webbing...”[2]
It went on and on and after almost five minutes Martin was weighed down with a lot of equipment, thankfully he had been stripped of his old stuff earlier. All the way down the hall men were doing the same at a long, long line of tables while another one was on the other side where the men had to hand in their equipment piece by piece and each at another table, just like he had gotten the new things. Like most of them he had never fired a single round with the new Rifle even though they had been instructed on maintenance and handling earlier on, and was also not familiar with most of his other Equipment.
What seemed like hours later he was idling about with the rest of the Division on a large, open field and was waiting for
transport. He could see over the bay and the charred remains of the Golden Gate Bridge that still had not been removed even though access was restricted. In the bay ship after ship was being loaded with soldiers and moved off, probably towards an assembly area for a convoy to Hawaii which was acting as the staging ground for the eventual attacks on Japan. San Francisco, like Hawaii had been all but taken over by the Military and would continue to be so for the duration and were would see millions of men, tanks, ships and guns going through.
Cabinet Bunker, London
The Prime Minister and his highest Military leaders were doing what they had been doing since the war had started, conducting their by-monthly secret meeting during which the various secret military projects that were meant to win the war or at the very least help winning it at a reduced expense. All of the Service Chiefs were present and all of them had presented one or another utterly ridiculous scheme that would utterly destroy the enemy. For Example Grand Admiral Pound had just reviewed the idea of building a gigantic Aircraft Carrier out of nothing less than Ice. The Prime Minister, acting as Minister of Defence had remarked a carrier made out of water that was brought into the desired form simply by virtue of it being cold would work exceptionally well in the Pacific, and moved on. Up next was film footage of the tests of Wallis' pet project and Churchill had been very much impressed, and funding for 'Project Firedart' was tripled on the spot and production approved. Then the talk grew more and more secret, so secret that the men almost whispered even though the room was daily swept for bugs as a matter of cause.
The Prime Minister lit a Cigar and leaned forward.
“So what about Torchwood?”
The Programme was under the supervision of the RAF, so Dowding answered.
“Professor Einstein sent his latest report with the courier six days ago, Sir. They have much of the facilities up and running by now and are proceeding as planned.”
Of those present in the room only Churchill and Dowding were fully aware of just how large and expansive Torchwood was, even the codename was new.
“I should hope so.” said the PM. “I get nightmares when I think how many tanks and ships we could build with the money and resources sunk into this project. And for what? A theoretical science and a mystical weapon of immense destructive power.”
Churchill sighed and went on: “I can remember the times when the same was said about the heavy Bomber, and that didn't exactly work out as planned either.”
“Do you think this might develop into another Douhetian theory, Prime Minister?”
“I don't believe so.” The PM shook his head. “No I don't believe so at all – after all, the basics have been proven. From what I have heard from the Professors before they left for Africa the main reason for the Complex and the Torchwood programme was that the theories need to be weaponized. So if this weapon is really possible then we must be the first to possess it, Gentlemen, we must.” He paused and smoked his cigar for a few moments. “Imagine the Germans or the Soviets with it...”
This horrible possibility was contemplated by the military leaders of the Empire for a few minutes – each had their own nightmares about this weapon and everyone knew that the Germans and the Soviets had their own gifted Physicists and it was known that the Germans at the very least had a programme of their own. MI6 was unsure about just how large or focused it was, given that many of the pre-war networks in Europe had been destroyed and couldn't be fully rebuilt during wartime, but there were some sources left. Signal Intelligence was only one of them no matter what Bletchley Park might think and the British were to some extent aware of the whereabouts and acts of Professor Heisenberg and his group, and the great fear was that the Germans would merge their efforts with that of the Soviets, and the Axis powers with this sort of weapon in their hands was the nightmare.
The PM decided that a change of subject was needed.
“So Marshal, what does the Imperial General Staff propose to do to break the deadlock in Italy?”
“We have our ideas.” Gort rose and began to pace up and down the room in front of the other Service Chiefs.
“I am going by memory because the plans are so secret I myself have given orders that no piece of paper must leave the IGS headquarters.” He cleared his throat and stopped pacing. After turning around he said:
“Gentlemen, I present you Operation Jubilee, nothing less than the complete destruction of all Axis forces in Northern Italy.”
[Notes: This is the bit I started on Sunday but couldn't get done until today, even though I wrote bits and pieces here and there. It's far from the best for the most part, so sorry. As it happens as I was writing the bit with Torchwood I had Episode 2x02 “Tooth and Claw” running in the background.
]
[1] *salutes in tribute*
[2] It's called M1, but is slightly different from the Garrand we know. For one it uses the .30-03 Springfield round, and the receiver is slightly different due to that. The man the rifle was named after in OTL was unceremoniously booted out of the country when the Communists took over the arsenal, leaving the designs for the M1 behind.