Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [224]
“We’re playing with fire,” he said, “and we don’t have a damned thing to put it out with.”
“It’s not that kind of a fight. This is a battle of will power,” Hansen answered.
“Maybe you’re right, Chip, but I know that Marshal Popov knows that the whole United States can’t call up two reserve divisions of infantry.”
A few hours later General Hansen arrived at USAFE Headquarters in Wiesbaden for a conference with General Barney Root.
“You’ve got to think of flying in five, six, seven hundred tons of supplies a day. We need coal as badly as food, and somehow we’ve got to get some more generators in.”
Barney Root stared at Chip Hansen as though he were crazy. “Would you repeat that?”
“If I can’t sell Washington on an armed convoy, I’m going to sell them on supplying Berlin by air.”
Barney relit his cigar butt. “Three years ago we had twelve thousand aircraft in England and on the European continent. Right now our air transport consists of eighty-two worn out Gooney Birds. My crews are punchy. They’re flying almost triple the number of hours we consider safe.
We didn’t even ask them to fly this way in the war. Chip, I haven’t got enough spare parts in Europe to rebuild the ass end of a Piper Cub.”
“Barney, I intend convincing Washington to send over Skymasters to replace the Gooney Birds and I’m going to ask the President to recall Hiram Stonebraker.”
“Look, I’m with you all the way. I’ll keep scratching around for aircraft and crews. I’ve already assigned Shorty MacDonald on the Berlin supply run exclusively. He’s the best transport man we’ve got.” Barney Root squashed out the dead cigar.
“You don’t believe in this, do you?” Hansen said.
“I’m a bomber man. I don’t know enough about transports.”
“You don’t believe in it?” Hansen repeated.
“You’re going to need a hell of a lot more than Stonebraker and Skymasters.”
Back in Berlin the sound of Russian gunfire could be heard in the suburbs.
Communist agitation cars roamed the streets broadcasting food scares, blaming the situation on Western greed, justifying the blockade by swearing the bridge over the Elbe had collapsed.
Lil Blessing had been looking for Calvin for an hour. She sent the other children in the neighborhood to scour around for him. This was unlike little Cal.
Trying to avoid panic, Lil sat by the phone on the brink of calling Bless when she heard muffled sobs coming from the hall closet. She threw open the door. Cal was huddled in a corner, ran into his mother’s skirts, and buried his face.
She lifted him, torn between kisses and a scolding, carried him to a rocking chair, and tried to calm him. After a while his sobs softened to spasmodic jerkings.
“What’s all this about, Calvin Blessing?”
“Everybody in school said it.”
“They said what?”
“The Mongols are coming back and chop our heads off. The German kids have seen them before.”
Lil pressed the boy closer to her.
Yes, People’s Radio had announced that Mongolian regiments had joined the maneuvers outside the city to rekindle the memory of Berlin’s capture and Cal’s fears were echoed by everyone.
“You think your daddy is going to let anyone hurt you?”
“I want to go home.”
This is our home, Cal.”
“Teleconference with Washington is ready, General.”
In the vaulted room beneath Headquarters in Berlin, Hansen was joined by Generals Crossfield and Root. Sean O’Sullivan wrote out the first message, handed it to the teletype operator. In a moment the message was coded, radioed to Washington, decoded, and flashed on a screen in the Pentagon.
THE FOLLOWING ARE BERLIN PARTICIPANTS: GENERAL HANSEN, MILITARY GOVERNOR; OSCAR PENNEY, POLITICAL ADVISOR, STATE DEPARTMENT; LT. GENERAL CROSSFIELD, COMMANDER GROUND FORCES; LT. GENERAL ROOT, COMMANDER USAFE; BRIG. GENERAL HAZZARD, COMMANDANT, BERLIN; LT. COL. O’SULLIVAN, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO HANSEN.
Washington returned their complement:
FOLLOWING PARTICIPANTS: GENERAL COLLOWAY, CHIEF