Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [291]
Navigation kits with maps and routes from Italy to England were issued. They were briefed on altitudes, the hack watches synchronized. En route frequencies were gone over.
Plane Number Eight would carry a weather observer;
Plane Number Nine, a check pilot;
Plane Number Ten, an intelligence photographic unit;
Plane Number Twelve, a team from Time and Life;
Plane Number Fourteen, three VIP’s from the State Department.
The weatherman said, “After climbing through moderate to heavy icing you will break through on top at five thousand feet. It will be visual all the way on top. Winds are light, averaging fifteen knots from 320 degrees. A low-pressure cell is slowly developing in the North Sea area which might cause a significant weather in the next forty-eight hours.”
An Intelligence briefing stated that Russian Yak fighter- plane activity had increased between Eilsleben and Bernsburg.
Outside, the ten-ton trailers loaded the Skymasters. Loading sergeants supervised the teams of twelve Polish laborers who deftly filled, married, and tied down the cargo.
Jet engines mounted on trucks blasted hot air onto the wings of the Skymasters to de-ice them. After many systems were tried and given up, this proved the best. It was developed by a group of enlisted men at Rhein/Main.
Scott and Stan reached Big Easy One as the jet engines were being driven off. Nick handed Scott his visual-inspection sheet.
A second inspection was made with the pilot and copilot walking around their bird checking wing-tip skin for cuts, loose rivets, checking the de-icer boots, the prop blades for pits and looseness, looking for frayed cables and loose cowlings, for foreign matter in the air scoops, for leaks, for tire conditions, for faulty shuttle valves. The inspection continued in the efficient silence of a pair of surgeons in a medical amphitheater.
Inside the craft, Nick checked the cargo compartments for fire extinguishers, checked the cargo tie-downs, the hydraulic fluid gauges for levels. In the cockpit, Stan went down his list: cabin heater, circuit breakers, reserve fluids.
The three pairs of trained eyes were unable to determine a flaw. Nick brought three boxes into the cabin. One was for delivery to Hilde’s sister in Berlin. A second box contained toy parachutes and candy bars. The third box held a number of small toys collected from school children to be distributed in Berlin for a planned Operation Santa Claus at Christmas.
Stan droned down the check list as the trailers drove off.
“Auto pilot servos.”
“Off.”
“Wing flaps.”
“Up.”
“Cross Feeds.”
“Off.”
The dialogue continued until stationtime. The tower called Scott’s ship, Big Easy One. He taxied to the end of the runway, lined up, and held.
At precisely 0700, zulu, Frankfurt Air Traffic Center atop the I. G. Farben Building turned the bloc to Rhein/Main.
The tower cleared the bloc for takeoff and at three-minute intervals they were airborne.
Scott held his takeoff heading executing a turn at the Darmstadt Beacon climbing at exactly 350 feet per minute at 125 miles per hour. He went over the Darmstadt Beacon at 900 feet on the button, continued to climb toward the assigned altitude, watching for icing.
On a heading of 085 degrees, Stan tuned in for the Aschaffenberg Beacon. In moments its signal, a faint dit-da-da-da-dit was heard ... became louder. Over the beacon the needle swung wildly, telling them they had reached the null.
Scott turned now to a heading of 033 degrees. Stan tuned in the Fulda Range that would lead them to the Southern corridor. Over Fulda, the bloc set up their precision chain. Each ship radioed his time as he passed over the range and they adjusted their spacing to the three-minute interval and an air speed of 170 mph.
The line of birds droned toward Berlin in flawless precision.
At that same moment, there was activity all over the zones and in the corridors.
A bloc of coal cargo planes from the Fassberg Base moved toward Berlin in the Northern corridor.
At the British base at Wunsdorf, a bloc of Tudor tankers