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

Konev was to be given airborne troops and the marines. He was to take the Bosporus from land, air and sea. He was given all the toys while Bagramian was given all the power and maneuver units. He was to hit fast and hard and to keep on moving. He was to have the bulk of the remaining offensive fuel supplies that were to be used for the invasion of Korea and the consolidation of Manchuria. He would have plenty of fuel and supplies to make it to the Suez and Kuwait and then defend both of up to 3 months. The Stavka’s plan became very undefined at that point with a lot of contingencies and and if that’s.

His duty was to follow orders and hope for the best and he was one of the best at this as well as proposing alternatives. He had a habit of planning and then convincing his superiors and even Stalin to modify the grandiose plans he was to carry out. His brilliant variation of the original plan for Operation Bagration had won the battle for central Belarus. His detour through the dreaded Pripet Marsh area had caught the Germans completely by surprise and paved the way for the huge advances that were to follow. His many variations to the grandiose plans of the Stavka were legendary even in the West. If anyone could improvise it was Bagramian. His many improvisations had saved tens of thousands of Soviet lives and cost the tens of thousands of Germans theirs.

The second mouthful of trout was just as good as the first and Marshal Bagramian relished the thought of finally bringing the overwhelming power of the Red Army crashing down on Armenia’s most deadly and implacable enemy, an enemy who tried to exterminate the Armenian people. A crime so heinous that the term genocide was coined to describe the systematic death by forced deportation and starvation of 1.5 Armenians in 1915.

Yet Bagramian was not bent on revenge. He was focused on the mission and its twin objectives the closure of the Suez canal by any means and the occupation of the oil fields of Iraq and Kuwait. A secondary consequence of his maneuvers would be the capture and destruction of the strategic bomber bases being used by the Amerikosi to attack the homeland. This too would be an inevitable result of his twin thrusts.

He was not a vindictive barbarian and would attempt to keep his forces from harming the buildings that three major religions of the world revered. Their continued existence under communist rule would just strengthen the idea of the inevitability of a workers paradise that transcend the superstitions that religions have used to rule the sheep of the world. A benevolent re-education would be an interesting experiment and if that failed then other means could be used.

Many of the units under his command were not Armenian by design. This operation would require the utmost of professionalism and could not be threatened by emotional displays of revenge no matter how justified. The destruction of Ottoman Empire once and for all would be revenge enough for his generation.

He had 2 months to prepare for a winter offensive in a mild climate. He was grateful it wasn’t Korea on the winter. He had heard stories about that area. He was from a cold place and was used to winter. From all indications this would be a very bad one in the north but not so in the south. Cold would not stop him only mud and this area of the world did not receive much rain at any time, much less the winter. It was usually cold and dry, perfect weather to invade a country with minimal losses. It will certainly beat winter in the Pyrenees Mountains.

In May 1946 the 15th Air Force had basically ceased to exist. It’s once proud fleet of B-17 and B-24 bombers were being scrapped at a record pace. Dumped unceremoniously into ravines, oceans and even mines, these products of Detroit and Ford’s Forest Run Factory had both caused the death of many and at the same time saved others with their powerful engines, well thought out designs and 50 caliber machine guns. The bombs they dropped had brought Fascism to its knees where it was finished off by the armies put on shore or attacking from the East.

The newest among them that were still flying were being brought to their new bases in Turkey. The B-24M was the latest and greatest of this workhorse bomber. Over a thousand had been flown from the factory straight to scrap heaps in 1945. The other 1,500 were only available by clerical error. All should have been scrapped by May, 1946 but the lucky 1500 escaped destruction and were instead parked wing to wing awaiting their fate when the Soviets struck. This lucky 1500 would form the bulk of the 15th or the next 2 months.

Although the B-17 Fighting Fortress took the limelight away from the B-24 Liberator it was the most abundantly produced heavy bomber and American plane of World War II. The Willow Run factory outside of Detroit was producing 650 a month at peak but now was producing 150. It far outstripped the more glamourous in bombs dropped, enemy fighters shot down and missions flown. Much like the P-38 Lightning being overshadowed by the less versatile P-51, the B-24 deserves higher praise than it garners.

The 8th Air Force took over 8 months to become operational but the newly reconstituted 15th would be operating in 6 from bases near Adana Turkey. The Turks had been developing the site since June and it was near a number of ports on the Mediterranean where supplies could be shipped to easily until the bottleneck caused by the Seehunds off the coast of Tobruk appeared. 10 Freighters went down in the first week before the alarm was raised. The supply route had to be changed to the Suez until an answer for the Seehunds could be found. With LeMay screaming for supplies the 15th was put on the back burner for a good 3 weeks. The first 1000 plane raid was scheduled for November 3rd, 1946.

It was anticipated that the losses would be high and in the 15% range but it would free up SAC from its missions and give LeMay time to restock his squadrons. No one expected the 15th to do any better or even any worse than SAC. The 15th welcomed many of the former bomber crews that were rejected by SAC for security reasons. Now that the cat was out of the bag every veteran was fair game and Twinning had many of the best working for him. Men that had been saddled with questionable relatives or had made some bad political decisions in the past were now working for him and were eager to prove their patriotism.

A couple of squadrons were working on special formations and maneuvers designed to evade the Stalin’s Fire missile. The bomber crews had notice with growing envy how easily the fighter pilots avoided both the X-4 air to air missile as well as the Wasserfal surface to air version. They were fairly easy to out maneuver for the fighters who did not have to fly in rigid formation.

The concept was to maneuver in formation on a squad level to spoof the missiles and then to quickly link up with the other squadrons before the Red fighter pilots attacked. LeMay had virtually forbid SAC from such experiments but Twinning encouraged them if only to keep the moral of the bomber crews high enough to function. SAC was on the verge of becoming non- operational and all knew it but LeMay.

LeMay was a brilliant strategic thinker with amazing insights on the tactical level as well. An example was his stripping of the B-29 of all defensive guns and armor once it became apparent that the Japanese could not defend themselves with fighter planes and the jet stream caused the B-29 to drop incendiaries at low altitudes. The increase in ordnance was a determining factor in creating the firestorms that killed hundreds of thousands.