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

I was given the choice of choosing my own gunner. This was never done and I was speechless. Just give me one I stammered. “Well we do have only one who is unassigned at the moment but he is kind of a queer duck.”

“I’ll take him.” I responded.

Personally I would not want to be an IL-2 gunner. It was very frightening. You sat with your back to the pilot in an open cockpit crammed against a heavy machine gun. Basically there was nothing between you and the 6 or so machine guns or cannons of an enemy fighter. You had nothing to hide behind and all the time the pilot is throwing you from side to side while you try to fight back. Imagine if your gun jammed or you ran out of ammunition. You could just watch death coming in the form of a Mustang. No I would not want to be an aerial gunner.

“He” was very young and very awkward. But what a choice I had made! I knew from the very first flight when he shot a flare at an unseen enemy fighter warning the whole flight. Yes I knew from that point on that he was going to be a good one and would serve me well in our fights ahead.

Two aides are sitting outside the oval office and both looking at the latest addition of the Washington Post. They are in an animated discussion which is out of sync with the usual calm of the White House. Heated discussions and animated anything is highly frowned upon in the setting these young gentlemen find themselves in. They are surrounded by pictures of some of the most talented debaters and speakers in US history; speakers who are to this day revered for their animated discussions. But today is not the time for such a display. Nerves are on edge because of the very article they are discussing.

“Of course it’s not treason. I mean Walter Winchell mentioned it on the radio and Charley McCarthy made jokes about it. It was all over the London Times. It certainly isn’t top secret information anymore so how can it be treason?”

“I dunno it just seems un-patriotic to me to start spreading rumors about such a thing. I mean this can change the whole war if it’s true.”

“Of course it’s not true. Do you really thing that those pilots wouldn’t do everything in their power to see that it never ended up in enemy hands. No, they did crashed that thing as hard as they could and the Soviets are just bluffing!”

“Well they published the crew’s names and pictures like they were captured.”

“Ah you can’t really see their faces. Their wives and mothers couldn’t recognize them from those photos.”

“Well then how did they get their names?”

“Who says their even real names?”

“Murrow got to Mrs. Knutson and she admitted that her husband was missing before the FBI could whisk her and the others away. How do you explain that?”

“I can’t but I just know that no United States Army Air corps bomber crew carrying an atomic bomb would rather save their lives than let one get into the hands of the Reds. It just wouldn’t happen and you can take that to the bank.”

“Hey you two… knock it off. The President can hear you all the way from his desk!”

“Yes Sir… sorry Sir. We were just leaving.”

“You bet your ass you were. Now get over to the Chief of Staff’s office and wait there till I deal with you.”

“YES SIR!”

“Pretty rough on them weren’t you? The President isn’t even in here.”

“They don’t know that. Loud mouth little runts. I hate aides anyway. Who started this program?”

“What do you think about what they were discussing?”

“I have no idea what an atomic bomb looks like so they could be totally bluffing for all I know. All I know is that if they have an intact atomic bomb we are in trouble.”

“How so… they have no way of delivering it. No bomber big enough… oh wait they did have what looked like a fully functional B29 sitting there in the background. Were in hell did they get that if the story wasn’t true?’

“I heard that some of our bombers had to make landings in Russia when they couldn’t make it back to Okinawa after bombing Japan. I heard they never gave them back. It could be one of them

“But it’s got the correct markings and all I heard. They even printed the serial number of the bomber in the article.”

“I wonder what their game is?”

Madrid Spain

“I wonder what their game is?”

“What do you mean Sir?”

“Why are they tipping their hand so obviously? They have to know that we know that that bomber was seen crashing full throttle into the coastal waters off Leningrad. We have dozens of witnesses. Hell I know Knutson and that crew. They would have done everything possible to destroy that bomb. From what I know of Jennings he would have been beating on it with a crow bar after he emptied his side arm into it. He would be attempting to destroy it until his dying breath. There is no way that bomb is intact and there is no way that the crew surrendered and they have to know we know this. Yet they are exposing the fact that they have a spy in place who could provide them with names and the serial numbers etc. Why would they place that person in such obvious danger and expose him or her as a spy? I mean it can only be a hand full of people.”

“Maybe it was that guy they caught already. He was pretty high up. Maybe they figured what the hell let’s foment a little confusion and dissension between us and the Brits. Make it look like we pulled a fast one and the Reds do have a bomb. I mean I bet the general public will think that they do. How can we fight that without revealing all sorts of top secrets to refute their claims? I mean all we can do is officially deny everything and call the Pravda article a hoax… which of course it is.”

“I suppose your right. Have you ever seen an Abomb?”

“No Sir and you.”

“Nope. That thing in the photo could be one for all I know

Washington D.C.

“That thing in the photo could be one for all I know.”

“What are you talking about.”

“Hell it looks real to me down to that oddly placed arming access they added. Look there at the edge.”

“Well I’ll be jiggered. How could they know about that?”

“There was that scientist who disappeared after the polonium attack. He could have given them some last minute information before he skedaddled. Otherwise that is the real McCoy and I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“They sure are playing with us and the Limey’s. They probably don’t know who to trust now. We tell em one thing and the Soviets provide proof that it isn’t true. I mean come on those look alike crew members and that perfect B29 in the background and then the picture of the bomb. How can the Brits not think that something is amiss in our version and with this cold shoulder we’ve been giving them until the clean up their house and get rid of that mole? Shit it’s no wonder they have to be thinking non-productive thoughts.”

“Then you have those Southern Senators screaming at Truman to not help our cousins and even I would question just how far we are going to go and pay to bail them out once more. Did you see the budget figures? Holy Christmas we closing in on 150% of GDP in debt and those war bond sales are not doing too well. We have to get this over with and soon or our economy will collapse like the Brits and there is no one to bail us out.”