Dave Dawson with the Eighth Air ForceBowen, Robert Sidney
General
Dave Dawson with the Eighth Air Force
Bowen, Robert Sidney
World War, 1939-1945 -- Juvenile fiction
"A hundred British and American heavy bombers! Some of them those that
were forced down and captured before their crews could destroy them.
But most have been remade from salvaged parts. Think of it! For months
German factories have been repairing and making parts for British and
American planes. _Our_ planes that they will fly against _us_ at dawn.
They will not carry high explosive bombs, but a new liquid fire bomb.
A bomb that floods liquid fire for hundreds of yards, and destroy
everything that it touches. Herr Baron and his men have done their work
well--the devils. They have selected our biggest fields in England.
R.A.F. and Eighth Air Force fields. They know our identification
signals. Heaven help us, they seem to know everything. And tomorrow
at dawn they will take off. All the hundred of them. A suicide pilot
and suicide crew in each bomber. They will fly to England, and give
identification signals as though they really were our own planes
returning. Three of them for each of the thirty-three fields selected.
They will go in low, as though landing, and then dump their terrible
destruction. In the matter of seconds each of the selected air fields
will be flooded by the fire. The devils and their planes will perish,
too. But our loss will be staggering. It will be months and maybe years
before we can replace our losses. Yes, Hitler's secret weapon. A great
victory to give his home front. A long, long lull in the bombing of
Germany. The Nazis do not fight to win the war now. They fight for
time. Time to reorganize, and rearm. If Hitler can stop the bombing of
Germany, then three fourths of his Luftwaffe can be sent to the Russian
Front where he needs air power so desperately. And by this hideous,
devilish blow against us at dawn he can accomplish just that!"
The dying man stopped talking. He fought for breath, and his very eyes
seemed to be on fire. Stunned, Dawson gaped at him in utter disbelief.
The man was mad, raving mad. What he had told them was fantastic,
impossible. It couldn't be true. A hundred American and British heavy
bombers salvaged by the Nazis? Repaired and put in condition to
fly against England? It was the craziest pipe dream that--But what
about Krumpstadt saying that Farbin Factory Number Six was making
metal cylinders for British and American planes? And those landing
gear parts he had seen with his own eyes? Landing gear parts, being
repaired, that he was certain had been made in the U.S.A., or England?
Yes! What about his experience in Farbin Factory Number Six?
"It can't be!" he heard Freddy Farmer's voice explode beside him. "It's
mad--insane! You don't know what you're saying, old chap. Why, they
couldn't! They--they wouldn't dare!"
The dying man turned his head and fixed flaming eyes on Freddy's face.
His thin, almost bloodless lips drew back over his teeth, and his thin
fingers clutching the blanket looked as though they would snap.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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