Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [258]
At Hanau, Clint looked over the new ideas for tie-down rods. The canvas webbing was wearing out too fast. He liked the looks of light metal webs and rods and wanted to test it immediately.
At Hanau, Clarence Drinkwater had established a school to teach the Germans the tricks in cutting up heavy machinery and they went to work cutting up the shipments of small generators brought in by Marine X to raise Berlin’s capacity.
“Clint, Chip Hansen phoned to say they are down to a four-day supply of newsprint. He feels it is vital to the morale of the Western Sectors to keep the press going.”
Clint flew to Sweden, where he and a paper manufacturer designed an undersized roll of newsprint weighing only five hundred pounds.
“Clint, get down to Obie and see what the bitching is all about on the maintenance docks.”
The wooden docks were inadequate. Clint wanted light metal ones that could be assembled like temporary grandstands. He put in a priority message to Air Materiel Command to procure them and Sea Lift them at once through Marine X.
Hiram Stonebraker came to the end of a sizzling argument with Buff Morgan over the red-line phone about air time and space. Stonebraker insisted that the air had to be clear of USAFE and civil traffic at Rhein/Main and Y 80 during the Airlift bloc times.
It was causing a nightmare of scheduling, but Stonebraker would allow nothing to interfere with the Lift’s priority. The argument ended with Buff Morgan threatening to take the matter up with Chip Hansen.
Hiram slammed the phone down and continued with a number of well-chosen words about the USAFE country club when a message from Air Materiel was handed him: NAVY TURNING OVER ONE HUNDRED C-54 ENGINES AT ONCE. FLYING FIFTEEN OVER VIA C-82. BALANCE WILL ARRIVE BY MARINE X BY END OF MONTH.
Holding the message in his hand, he walked to the Control Center and studied the engine availability board. The navy engines would come just in time.
Because of the high usage of craft, the type of cargo, the pressure of heavy loads, and numbers of takeoffs and landings, the breakdowns were mounting so that nearly 20 per cent of the craft were on the ground at a single time for spare parts and repairs.
On the squadron level there were inspections at twenty and fifty hours in addition to unscheduled repairs. At a hundred hours each craft was given a more detailed inspection. At a thousand hours the craft was sent back to America for complete overhauls.
A bottleneck had developed at the two-hundred-hour interim overhaul at the new base at Obie. This two-hundred-hour inspection meant the training of hundreds of Germans and the loss of thousands of flying hours. Stonebraker wanted to eliminate the Obie Base and the two-hundred-hour overhaul, but both USAFE and MATS were against him. He returned to his office to receive a call from Clint Loveless, who had just gotten in from his latest trip, this one to British Headquarters on the possibility of setting up a jointly run operation at their fields at Celle and Fassberg. The British had more fields than planes to fill them, was closer to Berlin, and more Skymasters were coming into the American Zone than their two fields could handle.
Clint went to the general’s office and was startled at first sight. The general seemed to be chalky-colored. He showed Clint the message on the navy engines. Clint blew a sigh of relief.
The general called in his aide, told him to phone M.J. and say he would not be there for dinner, and told his aide to get something to eat for Colonel Loveless and himself.
“Clint. This hundred navy engines won’t be enough. I’m meeting with USAFE tomorrow to try to cut out the two-hundred-hour inspections. I want you to support my position.”
Clint pondered. The Skymasters were being asked to do a job for which they were never designed. All the manuals no longer applied.
The chief pilots had worked out methods to get the greatest efficiency with the least wear through absolute power settings and by cutting