Harry Kellogg III - The Red Sky - The Second Battle of Britain

“Tupolev has really become a hero of the Soviet Union. Imagine designing a plane while in a prison cell and then have it impress Stalin so much that he is freed and made a hero. Quite a story.”

“I’m sure he could have done even better if he hadn’t been put in that sharshka that is for certain. I guess all that ends well is good. He will have a bright future if I have any sway with comrade Stalin.”

“I’m sure you will comrade Marshal. I’m sure you will.”

“The conversion of many of the Yak 3s and Yak 9s to long distance DD models is almost finished. The IL10s, Lag 7s and Pe 2s have been given drop tanks if needed extending their ranges as the fight progresses. There is no part of the British Islands that we cannot reach in overwhelming numbers with escorted bombers in numbers never seen over British skies. Combined with the sortie rate we had over Berlin of over 6,000 a day we can cover quite a large swath of enemy territory with overwhelming odds.”

“Beria tells me that the RAF is frantically trying to make alterations and change tactics at the last minute. A new man has taken charge but it will be too late for them.”

“It doesn’t matter as long as we keep getting the excellent and accurate information we have been receiving there will be no escape for them and no surprises for us.”

“That is true. Foreknowledge of the enemy’s plans trumps all other sources of information including advanced radar and even marginally better equipment. The British and the Yankees should know this better than anyone else given their advantage over the Germans in this area. Beria’s sources have confirmed that the British had broken the German and Japanese codes early on during the war. It was like playing chess with an opponent that has to tell you his next three moves ahead of time. Not very challenging in my estimation. Now the shoe is on the other foot as it were and we now know the enemy’s plans ahead of time and they will have to react to our initiatives. Beria informed the Politburo that the British had actually caught and then used every single German spy as a double agent. Every single one! Can you imagine what confidence and possible outright arrogance they must have in their intelligence operations when in fact we have so many sources throughout the different levels of both their government and military that it is getting hard to keep track of them all.

“Not a very enviable position to be in especially if you do not know the whole situation and how much of a disadvantage you are. It appears that the Americans are suspicious of the British. Little do they know that we have infiltrated both of their command and political systems very deeply as well. We have sacrificed a few of our agents to lull them into complacency. We shall see how they react.”

“I personally don’t like all this spying and subterfuge. We have overwhelming odds. Let’s attack them as soon as we can and not delay. Who knows when they will catch our spies? We should strike while they are changing tactics.”

“All I can do is recommend. It is up to Stalin and the Politburo to decide when we sweep the skies over Britain clean of the RAF and their cities are at our mercy. After all there is politics involved too. It is possible that the current weak kneed Limey government will acquiesce to Stalin’s demands after our demonstration flights and the atomic bomb propaganda campaign. Even I was impressed with Beria’s and Molotov’s brilliant bluff. I’m sure it’s creating a very large wave of distrust between the Capitalist pig governments of NATO. It was a very convincing performance and well thought out series of clever ruses combined with just enough grains of truth to make it seem possible.”

“The American’s have many eye witnesses that saw their atomic bomb laden B29 slam into the Baltic Sea. There can be no dissension from them.”

“Yes but the Limey’s are already suspicious of the information they have been getting from their cousins. This of course has been aided by well place pieces of disinformation planted by our agents throughout 1945 and early 1946. Neither side truly trusts the other.”

“It is like a Matryoshka doll [20] How Products are Made: An Illustrated Guide to Product Manufacturing, Volume 6 Jacqueline L. Longe pg. 256 . One inside another inside another inside another.”

“Yes a very deadly Doll. Paval a very deadly one for one side or the other.”

The fog had lifted just enough for him to use his flashlight to signal what he assumed was a Soviet sub. His red light was barely visible to someone on shore but readable for his intended target. If the coast was clear he was to pass on a short string of numbers by pointing his flashlight directly east from a certain point on the shore. He had no idea but he suspected that he was not the only one doing this. His handler said that some kind of vessel would be watching and when he got a message passed to him he was supposed to relay that string of numbers to the night on the exact minute past the hour that corresponded to yesterday’s date. He would get no response.

He was told that others would receive a response but not he and that would be the check on if his message got through. So far he and the other unknown communist sympathizers were performing as directed. His handler contacted him by what they called a dead drop and it was rotated. It was usually just a newspaper, a wadded up piece of butchers paper etc. just something innocuous that could be written on and a short string of numbers would sometimes be hidden in some other text or sometimes not. The hand writing seemed to be different every time. So far he had only been given and sent 13 messages.

The Home Guard had been given the task of once again patrolling the coastlines. He was a long time member of the Home Guard and hated the Nazis with a passion. [21] The Home Guard: A Military and Political History S. P. Mackenzie He also hated capitalism for the things it had done to his family. His father died in the coal mines that refused to install the safety measures that killed him. He was crushed in a cave in that was easily prevented. His brother was currently suffering from Black Lung disease and would not see another Christmas. To be fair he was a repository of hundreds of horrific industrial accidents and safety violations for the union and this tainted his view of the world. It was hard to look at report after report of severed limbs, preventable diseases, horrific working conditions and not be affected by what he saw. He was keeping a list of the names of the people responsible so that when the communists took over they could be prosecuted for their crimes.

And he wanted that day to come. Britain needed a cleansing like France during her revolution. The monarchy and the House of Lords would be the first to lose everything. He did not wish for their lives but he did wish for their being introduced to justice. He belonged to no Communist organizations and was approached after remarks in a pub far from home. He suspected that they had played on his position with the union and had been watching him. He was not outspoken and the Government could hardly lock up or prevent every union member from being in the armed forces or the Home Guard.

The Home Guard presented itself as the best way for him at age 54 to prevent the Nazis’ from invading his homeland. It also was the best thing he could do to see that the communists, dealt out justice to those who deserved it. There were a lot of communist sympathizers in Britain than people realized but not many joined the party. Like him they were not that blatantly political and kept their cards close to the vest. He was assured that the Soviets would not invade but just wanted to force Britain into neutrality and to hasten a home grown communist government.