John Schettler - Kirov II - Cauldron of Fire

“That’s an understatement, to be sure,” said Roosevelt. “We’ve lost the Wasp , three cruisers, twelve destroyers, and the battleship Mississippi . Thousands died. A group of our destroyers got close enough to spot this demon ship, and they engaged her in a firefight, then came this new terror bomb. Our Task Force 16 was completely destroyed, and only a few of the ships that managed to get in close to the enemy have been accounted for. The others simply vanished. We presume they may have been swamped by the blast wave the weapon generated. Perhaps it got the enemy ship as well, though we haven’t found any wreckage.”

“The ocean is very deep there,” said Churchill. “If this ship has gone to the bottom, all the better. Odd that the Germans would use a weapon of this magnitude and power as they did, deploying it on a sea raider. We thought an aircraft would be the only way to deliver it on a target.”

“Clearly this was meant as a demonstration, Winston. They may have intended it to frighten us into capitulation, or perhaps even to prevent our union. Apparently they got wind of our planned meeting and thought to arrange a little welcoming committee. They could see what was happening in the growing alliance between our nations. I suppose they believed our union as one implacable foe was inevitable as well.”

“This ship may have had a darker mission,” Churchill suggested. “It may have been bound for your east coast, intending to put one of these rockets onto New York, or even Washington. They had no qualms about firebombing London last December. Having no bombers that can reach your shores, the only way they could deliver such a weapon would be by sea, on a U-boat, or one of the surface raiders. And these new rockets allow them to fire at ranges well beyond the guns of our ships. Our battle fleets never even set eyes on this new German ship, whatever it was. We thought it was Tirpitz , then Admiral Scheer , then Graf Zeppelin , but all those ships have been accounted for. So we’re naming this one Geronimo , a renegade from your own wild west for an easy handle, and we think the Germans were planning to strike you while you slept, perhaps even intending to coordinate this attack with the Japanese.”

“God forbid that,” said Roosevelt. “Yet what is the status of this ship? Has it sunk? My admirals seem somewhat flummoxed. They still have our cruisers and a few destroyers out hunting for this German raider, in widely dispersed groups now, so as not to present too inviting a target.”

“Quite right,” said Churchill. “Everything we know about this ship is a mystery. While it looks threatening in the photo images your PBY was kind enough to fetch for us, it hasn’t guns worth mentioning—doesn’t need them given what we have seen with these rockets.”

“Our destroyers were taking quite a pounding before that terror weapon struck.”

“Yes, but those guns wouldn’t bother our battleships. We’ve even shrugged off the damage from their rockets. Both King George V and Prince of Wales are still out there in the hunt as well, the latter a bit woozy, but still on her feet. Yet the enemy has vanished. We lost contact with her shortly after that last outrageous attack upon your Task Force 16, and we’ve seen nothing of her since. Planes from our carrier Ark Royal have scoured the sea as well, and seen nothing. Maybe she did fall upon her own sword and go down with your destroyer group.”

Roosevelt leaned in, tapping the table as he spoke. “I’d like to think one of our destroyers put a few torpedoes into the monster. My admirals would like to think it too, but they tell me the Germans might have run out of rockets and turned north again at high speed. Yet we’ve had planes out of Iceland searching as well, and seen nothing—no sign of the beast.”

“That is our only consolation then,” said Churchill. “Even if they have these weapons, they may as yet be few in number. If we’ve sunk this ship it will give them something to think about. We’ve also seen no sign of these rockets deployed on any other front. The Russian intelligence reports the same. So we are led to believe this was a prototype, a first deployment, and possibly a test. It has even been suggested, as you say, that the Germans learned of this very meeting, and intended to deliver that last awful rocket which struck your ships right here, on our thinning hair, to kill two birds with one proverbial stone.”

“Quite a stone,” said Roosevelt. “My people concur. They think this ship, its rockets and this bomb, to be a rarity. But that will change, Sir Winston. Now that its effectiveness has been proven, the Germans will ramp up production and we could be facing these weapons again in a matter of months, perhaps weeks if they have enough material in hand for extended production.”

“I doubt that, but what you say is all the more reason for us to forge ahead in the strongest possible way,” said Churchill.

“Yet how, Winston?” Roosevelt held out an empty open hand to make his point. “You said it yourself. We could assemble our armies, and then what? Would the Germans simply extinguish them in one blow with another of these rocket bombs? And what if they revisit London to finish what they started with the Blitz? As you say, these weapons could easily be delivered by aircraft as well.”

“We are already taking precautions. The government is dispersing to hardened bunkers all over the kingdom. What you say is correct. Our normal method of war will not do. We cannot concentrate mass in men or steel lest we simply present the enemy with a most inviting target. Our cities are vulnerable. But our military must operate by other means now, just as our ships determined they had to sail in a net of smaller dispersed groups instead of one centralized fleet. Something tells me that ships, planes and these rockets will be the means of waging this war now, and not massed armies arrayed in fronts on the continent. Yet one day, if we should prevail, we must eventually go to Berlin.”

“One day,” said Roosevelt, “and let us hope we both live to see it.”

The two men were silent for a moment, as if sitting with that thought, realizing their own mortality, as well as the vulnerability of their nations now in the face of this awesome German wonder weapon. Then Roosevelt spoke, his voice level and serious, and edged with steel.

“Let me be plain about this, Mister Prime Minister. We will in no way be intimidated by the Germans, not for one single minute. We have a big country. If need be we can move our factories to the heartland, or the Rocky Mountains, and no rocket could fire that distance to harm them in any way. We will build an arsenal the like of which the world has never seen. We’ll start with planes and ships, just as you suggest. I intend to get at Germany’s throat in due course, but before we do I’ll have her bombed from every airfield within range, rockets or no rockets. We’ll build three bombers for every rocket they turn out if we have to, and we’ll get the job done, so help me God.”

“Here, here,” Churchill concurred, slapping the conference table with his open palm.

“As for the Navy, I don’t think Germany can bother us on our Pacific coast, but we’ll more than likely have the Japanese to deal with there. Do you think Hitler would share this technology with Japan?”

“Never,” Churchill said confidently.

“That being the case, then I think we’ll handle the Japanese if they decide to get into it, and with little more than a third of our war effort. Germany first. We can hold Japan at bay for a time if they think we are alert and ready in our Pacific bases. I must tell you that Admiral Kimmel has put the Pacific Fleet on full alert, and MacArthur is putting his forces in the Philippines on a wartime footing as well. If the Japanese want to tangle with us, we’ll make them sorry for it.”