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

Even still, Richard refused to leave Chicago, preferring instead to continue to publish the propaganda paper, when and where the opportunity arose. That was the blessing, and the curse, of the True Believer, was the inabilty to see the pragmatic long view, in favor of short-term gain. Both were useful in their own right, but only one afforded the ability for a complete victory. Richard himself had attempted to agitate some worker riots on the South Side, which were promptly put down by the police department’s flying squads, assisted by Military Police units of the Illinois National Guard (the Posse Comitatus Act had been temporarily suspended by Congress, in its last session), by virtue of the truncheon, and rifle shots fired in the air. Unfortunately, there were a few deaths that resulted, and the ones that did occur were a tragic propaganda blow to CP-USA. As a result, support for the party was beginning to decline now, from their inability to secure moral support or financial backing for strikes, especially from among the Negro community, who wanted nothing more than to work and feed their families, and to be left out of the political fracas. Even the staunchly loyal original members of the CP-USA of Chicago, the “Old Guards”, were distancing themselves from the Richard’s extreme violence, and his attempts to start the revolution in Chicago.

But this time, Richard had gone too far. Last night, close to being captured, he had gotten into a shoot-out with the Feds and two of his comrades were dead, and he saw a couple Feds go down. If that was indeed the case, they would be searching harder for him now, relentless to capture or kill him, for injuring or killing their own. Richard will not yield. In the ratty tenement apartment, he had close at hand a Tommy gun and a Colt .45 automatic. He was not a rat, refused to be tortured, and resolved not to be taken alive. What he did not know was that there was a combined task force, composed of the Chicago FBI’s Special Intelligence Section, and the Chicago Police Department’s newly-established communist-hunting intelligence section, the “Red Squad”, gathering intelligence on Richard and his associates, stalking them back to where they hid.

A fierce, hard, pounding on the door. “RICHARD DAVIS BELZINGER! THIS IS THE FBI! YOU ARE WANTED IN THE MURDER OF TWO FBI AGENTS! YOU ARE SURROUNDED AND CAN NOT RUN, SO SURRENDER PEACEFULLY!” No immediate answer. Two rapid shotgun blasts, and the splintered door is kicked in, and just as quickly, Richard Davis Belzinger calmly stands up, holding up the Tommy gun to his shoulder, and fires it until the 50-round drum magazine is emptied. Sometime between the moment that he calmly puts down the Tommy gun, and the time that he attempted to reach for the Colt .45 pistol, five .45 bullets entered his chest, ripping huge chunks out of him as they exited.

As he lay bleeding, fading slowly, he saw standing over him the new FBI Special Agent in Charge, Eliot Ness. Ness had been brought out of retirement in Cleveland and recruited into the FBI, to command the Chicago office’s Special Intelligence Section. His mission was hunting down the communist cells in his hometown. “This is for my men you murdered last night, you bastard!” And the Colt .45 jumped in Ness’ hand…

The missile was in pristine shape. It was found in a field in France near Toulouse. It apparently fell to earth after expending its fuel chasing after an encounter between Soviet fighters and some RAF bombers over the Pyrenees. It had taken nearly a month to make the 100 km or so through the fighting in the Pyrenees and finally onto the BB-64 USS Wisconsin on station off Perpignan covering and anchoring the East end of the Pyrenees Line. Deep in the bowels of the great ship a laboratory had been set up and Jeff Montgomery had been flown in from the states. Jeff was the premier expert in the US stable of weapons specialists and was particularly knowledgeable in regards to the German version of the X4 air to air missile. And now he had his hands on an actual Soviet version.

His hands trembled at the thought of actually dissecting the object of his dreams that had eluded him for the past 3 months. He was about to discover what the worlds experts could not. Inside this metal streamlined bullet shaped object held the secret of how the Reds had done what the experts said could not be done. What was the guidance system that had baffled the British experts? Every jamming scheme had been tried and nothing had worked. They had even sent up a raid just to test out various inventions and nothing had worked. They had lost 6 bombers in that one.

So far the Soviet missile look very similar to its German cousin. It was larger and had a rounded nose with what looked like a large tinted dome. It seemed to be made out of the same material that aircraft canopies were made of but tinted so he could not see inside. So they are using optics was his initial thought. Some kind of television camera system or something similar he wildly guessed. If it was anything like the German version he had to work from the middle of the rocket in disassembling the unit and eventually getting at the guidance system.

He noted that the Soviets has switched to a solid propellant rather than the caustic liquids used by the Nazis. He had heard that they were moving in that direction as well. Luckily the war had ended. Come to think of it maybe it wasn’t luckily. The Reds or the God Damn murdering Krauts. Nice choice of who should be using these guided bullets. Concentrate you idiot.

“Sam bring me the long tweezers and a wire cutter and hold the flashlight for me!”

What the hell is this?! That isn’t usual on these…

“A little to the left Sam. Thanks.. that’s better. While I’ll be a son of a bitch they have booby trapped this thing! Well I supposed that makes sense. I guess I would too.”

“Stop messing with it then Jeff. You’re not a bomb expert! Close it up and we’ll get an expert in here to disarm the thing.”

“I didn’t travel half way around the world to stop now.”

“Commander get in here this idiot is going to try and DISARM THIS THING!”

“SHUT THE HELL UP SAM!”

“STAND DOWN NOW!”

“Aw shit… I mean yes sir.”

“Now step away and explain the situation.”

It took another two days for the bomb expert to arrive. It took him another 3 hours to disarm the small bomb contained within the missile. It was designed to explode when the panel was opened and it had failed to arm itself. Luck was with Jeff Montgomery and Sam that day. Despite getting dressed down Jeff was still the guidance expert.

Finally after cooling his jets in confinement aboard the battlewagon for a few days he was allowed to get back to work. The disassembly went fairly quickly and then disappointment. He had removed the unit that contained the guidance system and there it was. The same old Kehl-Straßburg FuG 203/230 that had guided the Fritz X bomb! [33] Dawn of the Electronic Age: Electrical Technologies in the Shaping of the Modern World 1914-1945 By Frederik Nebeker How in the hell could this old system be ignoring the jamming put up by the best electronic experts in the US and Britain! How can this piece of shit ignore physics!? He sat there staring at what he considered an antique for what seemed like hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He was totally confused and without any kind of explanation or answers. What was he going to tell… well anyone? He had hit the lowest point in his life after anticipating the highest. He just didn’t get it. How were they doing it? His mind went blank and he again sat there in silence until he was physically shaken by Sam.

In a small bunker near the Soviet Army area HQ