Command Decision: A Novel of the Army Air Forces

CHAPTERS XXV-XXXVIII

Summary

The story opens in the Headquarters of Brigadier General Casey Dennis, who is in command of a Division of our heavy bombers based in England. On this cloudless afternoon the station is “sweating it out" awaiting the return of the B-17’s from their mission over Germany. To the Headquarters comes Elmer Brockhurst, the war correspondent of a powerful American syndicate, who suspects that this is no ordinary mission. To the Headquarters also comes Captain Lucius Malcolm Jenks, a bomber pilot with a DEC and nineteen missions to his credit, under arrest because he has refused to fly today.

While General Dennis is attempting to draw the boy out, they are interrupted by the arrival of Major General It. G. Kane, Ins superior officer. Kane is escorting Dennis’s classmate at West Point, Cliff Garnett, who is also a Brigadier and who has flown across the Atlantic as an emissary from the Uniled Chiefs of Staff. Kane and his officious aide. Major Prescott, arc shocked to discover the impending charges against young Jenks. They remind General Dennis that Jenks’s unde is Congressman Malcolm of the Military Affairs Committee. They are still more shocked when, with Garnett fresh from Washington listening in, Gasey bluntly describes the mission Jenks refused to fly.

It is Operation Stitch, which Dennis has long planned and Kane has acquiesced in (but not reported to Washington). It means three days of the deepest, most hazardous bombing they have yet attempted over Germany — Posenleben the first day, Schweinhafen the second, Fendelhorst the third; it means sending the B-17’s nearly 1 wo hundred miles beyond the range of friendly lighter cover.

Tod a A is thi’ second leg, and a strike signal has already been received from Colonel Ted Martin, who is leading 1 he Division. When Cliff Garnett (Martin’s brother-in-law) hears that forty planes were lost over Posenleben yesterday, he can hardly contain himself. Such huge losses, he argues, will frighten the United Chiefs and may jeopardize the entire bombing program.

Hut General Dennis is not to be shaken. He explains grimly t hat a Czech mechanic has flown over to them, intact, one of the new German jet-propelled fighters, that he and Ted have tested it, and that it “can run us out of Europe in sixty days.” At that moment the roar of the returning bombers is heard overhead.

They come in low, and ship after ship is yawing jerkily from the suction of gaping shot holes. The “Urgent Virgin,” the bomber Jenks refused to pilot, staggers in on one sound motor and with wounded aboard; she tries for a belly landing, plows in, and explodes. Colonel Martin’s Group is the last to appear, and when Ted, grimy and exhausted, walks into Headquarters, it is with the report that fortyone have been shot down and two lost, in the Channel.

The battle damage is staggering to General Kane and General Garnett. And Colonel Martin multiplies Dennis’s troubles when he explains that through a mistake in sighting they did not bit their objective, Schweinhafen. Garnett protests that Operation Stitch must be discontinued. But General Dennis is adamant. They have been waiting five weeks for this weather, and he insists that they must go after Schweinhafen again tomorrow. The argument is interrupted by the entrance of the lead bombardier. Lieutenant Goldberg, who reporls that what they blew up —by aceidenl was the Nautilus Torpedo plant at Gritzenheim.

COMMAND DECISION.

by WILLIAM WISTER HAINES

25

GENERAL KANE understood at once what had happened. In all the world, he thought, there was no man who had luck like this. Nothing new, just a fresh instance of the kind of thing that dogged him interminably. The thought of how the Germans must be laughing at him was galling.

The Germans could afford to laugh. They had everything, over there: a short defense perimeter and impenetrable weather to reduce even the simplified problem of defending their economy with flak and policing it with swarms of cheap, expendable fighters. They had a docile, industrious people, a press that knew its place, no Congress, no allies, and a leader who loved war and warriors.

They had even had the whole Spanish campaign for maneuvers and testing. Kane’s contemporaries in the Reich had had an easy and profitable dress rehearsal for the whole war. The men who had gone down there had gained practical experience, advanced three or four ranks in a season, and come home to permanent promotion, decorations, and adulation.

He thought of them bitterly, Kesselring, Lohr, \ on Griem, Sperrle, Stumpf, Richthofen, Jeschonnek, Galland, Harlinghausen; he had met many of them in Berlin on a brief observation tour before the war. He had stayed in a cheap hotel and pondered the problem of squeezing taxi fares out of what his Government thought a suitable per diem, while these men flashed through the Kurfiirstendam and down the I liter den Linden in their sleek black Mercedes cars which the police saluted.

He shook his head heavily now, aware of the tightening silence through which the other men were regarding him. He had to deal with this now, somehow; it was always this way. There was never time. Turning to Dennis he spoke slowly, warily, half fearful still of further and worse disclosures waiting behind that expressionless face.

“You told me you’d destroyed Schweinhafen.”

“It was a mistake, sir. We hit this Nautilus place.”

“Whose mistake?”

“Mine, sir. The preparatory instruction

“No you don’t,” said Martin. “The briefing was perfect. I led the Division and I loused it up myself, General Kane.”

Goldberg broke in, “These gentlemen are both covering for me, sir. I was well briefed and I was on the sight. It’s my fault, sir. I just got mixed up in the fighting.”

It was too much. Kane could feel himself giving way again to anger. “Why did you get mixed up.”Were you scared?”

“Yes, sir. I’m always scared but — ”

The fool would talk all night if permitted. Kane wheeled on Dennis. “This is your fault, General, entrusting a mission of this importance to a bombardier who — ”

“General Kane, Lieutenant Goldberg is on the fourth mission of a voluntary second tour over German targets. You owe him an apology.

Glancing back and forth now between the deepening purple of Kane’s anger and the white-faced intensity of Dennis, Evans began to realize what was happening. As Brockhurst had warned that afternoon, he was going to see a General fired. At the first suggestion of the idea he had relished it. Now he realized that Dennis was fighting in his own way, and within limitations, everything that Evans himself hated about the Army, fully conscious of the risk as he took it. What was more, he was fighting capably. And now Goldberg addressed Dennis with quiet composure through the ominous deepening silence of Kane.

“It’s all right, sir. General Kane just doesn’t understand.”

“I understand,” said Kane icily, “that you’ve made a fool of me and the Army Air Forces, letting us report that we’ve destroyed a target we didn’t even touch. This could embarrass the Chief. Do you realize what I’d be justified in doing?”

“Yes, sir. You ought to shoot me for wasting the lives of four hundred and eighteen men this afternoon. I’d be grateful if you did.”

Without saluting, Goldberg turned and walked out the Ops room door. Kane was still staring, as incredulously as the others, when he heard Brockhurst speaking. The words came to him as if from very far away but they were clear.

“I think I’d lake it easy on that one, R.G.”

Brockhurst had not intended to intervene. It was costing him an increasing effort to remain either neutral or silent.

What met the eye was two exhausted men compressed to (he combustion point by the weight of command. Brockhurst himself could not be sure yet of the merits of the argument. He could be, and was, appalled by the process of the solution unfolding before him.

Brockhurst knew that Kane and Dennis were widely considered to be, at their differing levels of operation, the best that the Army could produce. He had not interrupted the argument to protect Goldberg. What he had feared was that the passion of either Kane or Dennis might explode.

It warmed his sympathy to see that Martin was already working for the same purpose. Ordinarily the Colonel was almost openly contemptuous of Kane. Now he was addressing him as if he had never cursed a Commander in his life.

“ —and I know the boy spoke out of turn, sir. But he isn’t our Division bombardier by accident. He made the best patterns in his school, his Squadron, his Group, and his Ming. He volunteered for this second tour of German targets only because he knows how much we need him. He knows how much the Germans would like to get their hands on him, too. The mistake was my fault, General. It was rugged out there and I couldn’t get off the nose gun for more than seconds. Jake threw a perfect pattern just where I told him to while I was standing all over his hands on the sight, shooting.”

Kane had had time to regain his temper. He nodded now and his voice was warm with friendly curiosity. “You were shooting, yourself, Ted?”

Martin grinned and the whole room seemed to relax.

“Four boxes, sir. Those Krauts must have had an order for nothing but frontals today.”

Prescott, noting Kane’s interest, spoke earnestly. “May I ask how many you got, sir?”

“Who could tell in a mess like that?”

“You’re being modest, sir. How many did you report, at the interrogation?”

“I didn’t, go to it.”

It might be Important, sir. How many do you think?”

Martin remembered that this was giving Dennis time to cool off. “Mell, three I was shooting at came apart but I guess every top turret and nose gun in our element was working on ‘em too.”

Prescott stepped over and turned the claim board toward Kane. “Three more would make an even hundred, sir, our first. In the circumstances today’s claim report and battle damage should be especially carefully done, sir.”

“They certainly must, Homer,” said General Kane.

Prescott eyed his watch. “There would still be tnne for a correction to make the Sunday papers at home, sir.”

“Correction on claims, you mean?”

“Of course, sir. One hundred.”

Kane pondered a minute. “Round numbers always sound suspicious, Homer. Make it a hundred and one. General Dennis, can you provide Homer and Brockie here with a place to write a press release?”

Too late, Brockhurst realized that he often underestimated Kane. With his head cool the General was as clever a man as he had known. He spoke out bluntly. “General, are you manipulating me out of here?”

Brockie, said Kane, “you have my promise. I need help from you now.”

Evans, said Dennis, “get these gentlemen what they need.” He walked over and held open the door himself with obvious relief as the Sergeant followed Brockhurst and Prescott out.

26

GENERAL,” said Kane, “this is very serious.”

“I tried to tell you before, sir.”

Kane could feel the compressed anger in the retort and he regretted having aroused it. He had half decided to relieve Dennis but it was not a thing to do precipitately. A change now would run through the whole structure with seismic dislocation. If he requested Garnett, who would get Garnett’s job with the United Chiefs? Mho would get whatever impending job had placed Garnett in such a manifestly intermediate position? Kane knew he could probably precalculate the chain of changes but he needed time with his most private card index. “Ted, how many men in the Division know this?”

“Not many, sir. Most of the camera ships were lost or shot up. Both recce planes are unreported today. Most of the men were too busy fighting to care where we were.”

“For all they knew, you might have had a signal recalling you or changing the target cn route, mightn’t you?”

“I might but I didn’t,” said Martin.

“Cliff, do you think it’s fair to the Chief, in the circumstances, to report this immediately?”

“I’d have to think that over, sir,”Garnett answered evasively.

“Me haven’t much time to think,” said Kane. “Sending the Chief into that meeting with this hanging over him is practically sabotage. I reported a successful strike to Lester in good fait h. Ted admits that even he was mixed up. There won’t be confirmatory recce for a couple of days. We could use them to put the Chief in a very strong position.”

“Yes, we could finish the job,”said Dennis thoughtfully.

“Casey! Half the United Chiefs are Admirals. Naval objectives are a legitimate ”

“This one was Fourth Category,”said Dennis bluntly.

“They don’t know individual targets on that level,” snapped Kane. “This is a significant contribution to the Naval War. If we use the remaining two days of this month on Naval objectives under fighter ewer we can average down losses, set new sortie and tonnage records, and put the Navy under obligation to the Chief just before that allocation meeting.”

“And that would be the end of Stitch,” said Dennis.

“Casey, today could be the end of daylight bombardment.”

“Could be. The Germans’ first good day with jets trill be.”

This time Kane covered his annoyance. If Dennis’s years as a lest, pilot had not taught him that flexibility survives where rigidity breaks, that was his misfortune. But the moment for breaking stress was not yet at hand. Kane wanted time to consider il without the pressure of those six eyes and ears measuring everything he said. He smiled. “Casey, let’s take these pictures down to your light, table. We’ll rejoin you in a minute, gentlemen.

27

TED MARTIN had realized that a private session with Garnett was unavoidable. FT is brother-in-law honestly thought other people’s difficulties could always be relieved by a good heart-to-hearl talk, with himself doing most of the talking. I hrough the earlier quarrels and reconciliations Ted had endured such talks attentively, hopefully. Now they were powerless to penetrate the indifference which had closed like scar tissue over the old pain. As the departure of the others locked them together again, Martin amused himself by beating his brother-in-law to the punch. “Well, how do you like life in a military bucket shop?”

The question threw Garnett off balance. He always forgot, between their meetings, Martin’s disconcerting bluntness. “Ted, how long has Casey been like this?”

“Like what?”

“So tense, strung up, unreasonable?”

“It’s a tense job. Were you sent here to replace him?”

“ I don’t know. It occurred to me, of course. The orders just said: 'Visit Fifth Bombardment Division for Tour of Observation.’ It was very unexpected. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the Chief personally before leaving, because he was in a meeting with some very important people from Hollywood.

“What does Percent think?”

“Percent?”

“Kane.”

Garnett smiled. “Between ourselves, he asked me confidentially if I d been sent here to replace him.”

“Jesus! You haven’t done anything bad enough to get a second star have you?”

This time Garnett had to force the smile but he managed it. “The same old rebel Ted.”

“What’s Percent jittering about, Cliff? Is Washington on to him?”

“You know how the Chief is, l’ed. He likes to keep 'em guessing.”

Martin sat down on the map table, took out cigarettes, lit one, and then returned them to his pocket without offering Garnett one. He inhaled and blew out a long cloud of smoke before nodding somberly. “I know. And then he wonders why he can’t get the truth out of them. W ell, they can learn it from Casey now —or wait about sixty days and learn it from Galland.”

“Ted, why in God’s name didn’t you tell us before?”

“Casey tried to, through channels. But the channels between us and you are clogged up with homemade statistics these days.

“Why do you think Kane sat on the report ?”

Martin smoked thoughtfully, but he did not answer.

Garnett took out a cigarette of his own and lit it slowly. Nothing would change Ted’s views about, the Army.

“Ted, you shouldn’t be flying missions.”

“My insurance is paid up.”

“1 don’t mean that. Helen’s worried about you.”

“ Lots of girls are worried. How’s she coming with the kid?”

“It would ease her mind to know that you re not flying.”

“I haven’t told her I am.”

“She knows you; you wouldn’t promise not to.

‘ “Did she ask you to work me over like this.1'

“You’ve done more than your share, said Garnett. “Think of those years before the war.

“Somebody had to do that too.

Garnett paused. He was always finding himself on the defensive with Martin and he knew it was probably his own fault. “Ted, I know you and Casey think because I don’t wear my wings to bed the way you do I don’t understand air problems. But flying isn’t the only part of this; it s only the part for young men. The Army needs your experience.”

“The way they needed it at Daytont

“Ted, the Chief knows now that you were right. But the whole Board heard you tell Lester he was an opinionated goddamned ignoramus. That just isn’t the way to get things done.”

“What have they done with that lousy plane since? Killed a lot of kids for nothing. Casey and I told ‘em six years ago it woiddn t fly if they amended the law of gravity. This is the same thing, Cliff. Now we’re beginning to get good bombardment from Casey and kids like Goldberg, in spite of those old bastardsThis time they haven’t got either the guts or the sense to use it for anything but political logrolling with the Navy.”

“Washington isn’t a bowl of cherries, Ted. But changes are coming, big changes and a lot of advancement.”

Martin laughed. “I bet. If you guys can keep this going long enough there ought to be three stars shining on every ring.”

Garnett controlled himself. It was useless to argue and his time was short.

“We’re outgrowing that, Ted. And you’ve got a lot of fine service behind yoy.”

Martin studied him more closely. Most of his mind had been on Dennis and Stitch. lie realized that he should have known all this palaver was Cliff’s way of coming at something important, to him.

“Which way are you changing, Cliff?”

“Frankly, old man, I’m not sure. Nothing’s settled yet but 1 have reason to think the Chief has confidence in me, and big Ii-29 jobs arc coming up soon, jobs that will start with two stars. The Commanders will pick their own Chiefs of Staff and they’re a cinch for Brigadiers to start. Think it over, boy.”

Martin laughed. “Me, a Chief, with all those papers?”

“Adjutants do that. But if the Chief knew I could add your operational experience to my knowledge of — er — higher echelon procedure, it would wrap it up. He remembers you.”

“He should,” Martin grinned impenitently.

“Well, he admires guts.”

Through the blackout curtain on the window now they suddenly heard a protesting spasm of coughing barks from the tuning of some near-by recalcitrant motor. Inwardly, Garnett cursed the distraction.

Martin tensed, ears up, forehead furrowed until slowly the spasm settled into a smooth, muted droning. Then, with a quick shake of his head he looked back at Garnett. “Thanks, Cliff, but as long as Casey will have me —”

“Ted, he knows there’s nothing for you here as his AS but those same Eagles. He’d release you. Casey isn’t selfish.”

“ He’d make me go but — ”

“We’d be a perfect team,” urged Garnett. “I’d fight the Navy and you could fight the Japs. Think it over and for God’s sake quit ibis flying. There’s no sense throwing yourself away when by waiting a little — ”

“The Krauts aren’t waiting, Cliff.”

“Ted, there’ll be good jobs in the Jap war when this one s washed up.” He saw Martin’s quick smile and hurried. “And those B-29’s are going to be sweet.”

Martin bit, hard. “What have they done about that frame expansion, Cliff?”

“They’re getting it. I’ll tell you the whole story later. But I want you to think about this.”

“Have you spoken to Casey?”

“Not yet but — ”

Well, don’t till I think it over, or the whole deal’s off. Now, what else does Helen want ?”

She wants you to pick a godfather for the impending heir.”

“Who?”

“Well, we’ve talked about it but of course she wants your views, too. The doctor thinks it will be a boy and R.G. will be a name to conjure with some day, Ted. He’s always been fond of Helen and it would be especially appropriate if it happens while you’re still here.”

“I’ll think it over,” said Martin shortly.

“Think straight, boy.”

28

FROM a vantage point in the Ops room Evans watched Kane and Dennis pass on their way back from the light table to the Brigadier’s office. One glance showed him that the dispute had not been settled. Evans followed them into the office.

“The man doesn’t live who could tell those pictures apart,” Kane was saying.

“Preliminary 2300 serviceability, sir,” Evans interrupted.

He had seen Dennis drop his wife’s letters for this as quickly as he now turned from Kane to the board. He could almost feel the intensity of those eyes on the hand with which he chalked the figures up. Stealing a glance around he saw with indignation that the of hers were making free wit h Dennis’s cigars but the General had eyes only for his board.

“One twenty-six that’s fine.”

“Them guys on the line really got their fingers out tonight, sir.”

“And they’re still promising twenty-three more in time for bomb loading?”

It had been a rule of Evans’s Army career never to volunteer information. But he had broken several of his own rules today already. Again he had it in his power to assuage some of the anxiety in Dennis. “Twenty-five, sir.”

He was rewarded by a fleeting smile. “Twentyfire! Thank Cahill for me, Sergeant.”

“Sir, them officers are still waiting.”

“Let ‘em sleep while they wait but keep ‘em.”

As Evans made for the Ops room he had a further reward in the cool self-possession of ihe voice Dennis now addressed to General Kane. “Sir, we’ve got the planes and the weather. The people at the Groups are Waiting for the order — ”

In the doorway itself Evans had to stand aside for the hurried passage of Major Prescott and Brockhurst.

Inside the office Kane looked up at the interruption with obvious relief. Swallowing his annoyance Dennis observed now that Brockhurst was looking disturbed and skeptical, his forehead creased with a heavy frown*

Prescott, however, had taken on a new animation. His face glowed with the happy flush of creative endeavor. “General Kane, I think this time I can promise you something really good. I borrowed some of General Dennis’s draftsmen and I’m hav ing them make three by five mountings for the panels — flat white board with glossy black lettering. The first title will be ‘The Doom of an Axis Torpedo Factory’ —”

“Jesus F. Christ!” Dennis exploded.

Kane whirled on him, but Brockhurst was faster. Stepping between the two he blocked Kane with his shoulder.

“General Dennis, what’s so tragic about destroying a torpedo factory? Aren’t they worth-while targets?”

“The last one might be. The first twenty-odd would scarcely inconvenience them.”

“But if it’s a start — ” persisted Brockhurst.

Dennis didn’t care whether the correspondent ever learned the theory of bombardment or not, but he had seen Kane and Garnett look at each ot her over that reminder. He amplified, speaking ostensibly to Brockhurst. “The Navy can win the sub war in the Atlantic if they get. their fingers out. Can they strike the Germans in Germany?”

Brockhurst nodded quietly but Garnett took it up now. “You forget the interservice cooperation angle, Casey.”

“Did you get my memorandum to your bosses on that?”

“He did not,” said Kane. “You know that was too provocative.”

“It was generous, sir,” Dennis retorted. “I wrote them, Cliff, through channels, that I’d take any Naval target in Germany the day after they took those battleships in and shelled the fighter-plane factory at Bremen.”

“Can I use that?” asked Brockhurst eagerly.

“God no!” said Kane. “Half the United Chiefs are Admirals.”

29

KANE had recognized that memorandum as one of the best staff papers he had ever seen, terse and undeniable with Dennis’s clarity and force. He had pondered the possibility that it might cut through some of their overriding restrictions like a blowtorch. But he had had to ponder also the hazard of applying heat to higher councils.

“Sir,” said Dennis, “may I send the order?”

“Casey, we cant lose another forty planes at Schweinhafen the day after we’ve told them we destroyed it.”

“Sir, you can wait till the mission has taken off to send the correction. If you will release the Division to my discretion on the weather now—”

“No. Whichever of us got hung we’d still be sabotaging the Chief.”

“If we don’t we’re sabotaging bombardment, sir.”

Kane did not reply at once. He was conscious of the eyes upon him and acutely aware of the reservation with which Brockhurst was now palpably weighing everything he heard. But he was not thinking of Brockhurst or even of Dennis now. He would have to answer Dennis. What troubled him was answering the older questions which the Brigadier’s passion had rekindled deep within Kane himself.

Frowning with abstraction he walked over to Dennis’s desk, selected and cut a cigar through a silence so tense that Major Prescott did not even risk offering to light it for him. The steady drone of the motors outside carried clearly through the muffling of the blackout curtains; their insistence was a sound always in the background of his thought. Ji had reawakened another Kane.

“Casey,” he said. “We’re not sure. I’ve spent twenty-five years doing and preventing things that would have made or wrecked the Air Corps. The Chief has spent thirty. You don’t realize how we’ve fought.”

“No?” challenged Martin.

“No!” Then, remembering where Martin had spent the day, he softened his voice. “You’re giving your youth. We’ve already given ours. Casey has named a son after Billy Mitchell — long after. We took Billy’s side when it meant Siberia. They deadened the Chief in a Cavalry School. I went with him and stayed. I amended the Army Regulation for the Disposal of Manure for him, in longhand. They didn’t give us typewriters in those days.

“But we never gave up. We did those crazy publicity stunts and we kept our own fund for the widows. We wrote anything we could get printed, we went down on our knees to Hollywood for pictures, we tested without parachutes, we flew the mail through solid glue. The year Goring won the Munich Conference without throwing a bomb, our whole appropriation wasn’t as big as the New York City Public Safety budget —and we bought a lot of Congressmen liquor out of our own pockets to get it.”

Memory quickened in him as he spoke. But now Brockhurst broke in. “Why don’t you sell this story?”

“You don’t sell stories in uniform,” said Kane. “We wore still taking turns with obsolete junk when the country was told we were going to have an Air Force of fifty t housand planes. No one bothered to say how long it would take to make them, or how long it takes to make a pilot with a chance to live. Oh no! We were going to have fifty thousand planes and our boys were never going to fight in foreign wars.

“So the country went back to sleep and we started making a modern Air Forceout of promises and what was left over after the best of our planes and teachers had been given to every goddamned Ambassador in Washington.”

“Wasn’t that smart, to get experience?” asked Broekhurst.

“There wasn’t any experience for daylight precision bombardment. The Germans and the British had tried it and said it couldn’t be done. The Chief said it could. And there were times when some of us had to force his hand — hut there was never a time when he wasn’t taking the rap. We were just beginning to gel the tools to get started when we were in it ourselves, with a double war and a fifty thousand plane paper Air Force that didn’t add up to fifty serviceable bombers.”

He shook his head, trying to clear it again. But when he looked up, those steady gray eyes were still fixed inexorably upon him.

“Maybe we did boast and exaggerate. We had to get the public behind us. Who was telling the public the truth then? A hell of a lot of our stunting was encouraged, higher up, to cover the difference between what the country was promised and what, it had.

“We used to dream of Fortresses to use in mass formations of six! My God, Casey, if we’d had, even in 1941, what you’ve lost this week we would have had a Munich of our own with the Japs that Would have made Hitler’s Munich look like a Rotary meeting. But instead we had diplomacy and a good-neighbor policy. Now we’re beginning to get an Air Force and you want me to risk the whole thing on a premature showdown.”

30

LOSSES hit Dennis below the belt. For him the hardest duty of the war had been learning to live with his losses. Night after night and hour after hour of every waking day they were with him, always in the background of everything he had done and in the foreground of everything he must do.

He had thought about them as deeply as he could think, without finding solace. What explanation there might be beyond the limitations of his own ibought he did not know. He realized that he had spent the best efforts of an active mind on problems which were essentially rational, mechanical, and soluble.

The freedom Dennis was entrusted to defend depended upon his killing Jenks. It must he done as an example to other young men who might be reluctant to kill or be killed in defense of the concept of freedom that biologically indistinguishable young men in Germany were similarly encouraged to destroy.

It had all been done before and would be done again. The battle cries differed; ihe end was homicide. Dennis judged, on past performance, that they would continue it, intermittently, until the race had achieved its only inferable purpose in extinction. The evidence seemed plain that, of all Repurposes men had, the most certain and recurrent was homicide.

The experiment of precision bombardment was, he still considered, a promising therapy. It could no more end wars than a doctor can confer immortality. It did appear to promise a quicker, cheaper termination of this particular homicidal fever than the previous practices of bloodletting by bayonet. It was unproved, but the idea of reducing opposit ion by disarmament rather than by death seemed sound, if feasible.

For this, Dennis had taught himself to look past the doom in the strained young faces that swarmed off the trucks from the replacement centers. He himself had had a voice in determining ihe duration of the tour of duty that fixed the mathematical odds at two to one against the individual’s survival. He had been able to do it by looking beyond the boys he could see, toward the indeterminable point where this never ending stream of immolation would finally stop. It was not enough to think of the boys who were here. He had to think of the ones who might be spared coming.

For this he knew that forty planes was cheap for a target of consequence. One boy killed for statistical effect was wanton murder. For this he knew that milk runs over France were a delusion that could only mean more telegrams to different families later. An occasional easy mission was, of course, indispensable. There had to be a limit to what was asked of any individual. The current requirement of twenty-five missions was as close to that limit as he had dared to recommend.

But, if the therapy was to succeed, the country had to get its bodies’ worth out of those twent y-five missions. To send two hundred planes over an easy Channel target, even if they returned without a scratch, meant the loss, by graduation, of eight competent crews; it meant the country had to provide eight more green crews. It meant saving the boy who was here now, to kill the boy who was training at home. By longer projection it meant saving aviators to kill infantrymen, in a ralio not determinable.

There were times when Dennis doubted lhat Katie remembered this. He knew that many of his Senior’s burdens were imponderables even more elusive than the terrible ratios which tormented himself. But some of these imponderables were part of a peacetime past. Kane was still fighting the bitter clinical disputes which had preceded this experiment in blood itself. Il was possible that his long struggle for the knife had vitiated his capacity 1o use it.

Dennis had read that the human body replaces itself, tissue by tiny tissue, so systematically that every seven years sees a complete change in the structure. Studying Kane now’ he wondered if the human character and spirit likewise changed to different substance in the old mold under the same inexorable combustion of time and energy. This man fumbling with his apprehensions of past problems was not the Kane he had known. Or Dennis was not himself. Strain had changed one of them. To believe he was the one was to believe himself unfit for this Command. It was possible but others had to judge that.

Now he cut through the continuing tirade of Kane’s lamentations curtly. “Sir, that’s all true. But the point of the whole struggle was to get the Air Force in time.”

He walked over and tapped the Swastika on the wall. “They’re still ahead of us technically. It’s enough. These things can be the end of bombardment unless we check them now.”

“Casey,” protested Kane, “I’ve lived with the things that can be the end of bombardment. Do you remember the fight, to get our first Fort? Do you realize how the Navy wants them now, for sub patrol and to protect the repairing of those battleships Air Power couldn’t hurt? Do you realize how the Ground Forces want our pilots for Company Commanders? Do you know how the British want these Forts for night bombing? Do you know there’s a plan to fly Infantry supplies to China with bombers? Do you know what the Russians want? Don’t you realize the United Chiefs are half Admirals, the Consolidated Chiefs half British? Don’t you know why the whole Air Corps holds its breath every time the Prime Minister goes to Washington?

“On Tuesday every damned one of these factions will have a voice in that meeting. Every one had some pet reason for wanting us to fail, some surefire strategy of Naval blockade or attrition by defensive, or building a road across the Himalayas, or breaking German morale with pamphlets, or any olher way to keep a nice war going.

“Tuesday, this Tuesday, they’ll be waiting for the Chief like buzzards and you want to send him in there with three days of prohibitive losses hanging over the allocation we’ve got to have to prove our theory.”

“Damn it, sir. It isn’t a theory any more. We got Posenleben beyond fighters, with one Division. And Ted did wreck that torpedo plant today even if it was the wrong target.”

Martin held his breath at. the outburst but this time it was with hope. Kane had his temper firmly in control again. He seemed to be measuring every word Dennis spoke. Rising now he walked over for a long look at the two red crosses before turning back to them. There was no trace of rancor in his gravity.

“I know, Casey,” he said. “With time and planes we can do the same thing to any factory in Europe. But they don’t know it yet and the whole thing’s at stake here and now. It isn’t just a matter of a few losses this week or even a lot in six months. The Germans are going to kill a lot more of our people. But they won’t be any deader than all the ones who’ve been killed in the last thirty years, to give us air power.

“You can concentrate on Germany but I’m fighting the tough part of this war against the Ground Forces and the Navy and the Congress and the White House and the people and the press and our goddamned Allies — every one of them with a different idea of fighting this war just as the last one was fought, only more slowly.

“You think I don’t know that the boys call me old Percent? You think I’ve enjoyed spreading this mug of mine around the press like an heiress? You think I haven’t known what they could do to me for the statistics I’ve juggled, the strike photos I’ve doctored, the reports I’ve gilded? You can worry about losses and you should. But I’ve spent twentylive years watching men, my friends, killed and broken and disgraced and discarded for one single idea — to get. us an Air Force. Now you want me to gamble the whole thing to save a few casualties next winter.”

“Sir,” said Dennis implacably, “if it were a few casualties, we wouldn’t be discussing it.”

Kane relapsed into silence and Brockhurst felt a darkening presentiment. He knew that decisions like this one were not made on the abstract merits of the case. Dennis was sustaining the inequality of his position by sheer moral force because Kane was afraid of the moral force that sustained Dennis. But Brockhurst knew that men with power to do it destroy what they fear. Kane had the power.

And yet in this he was misjudging Kane as many men did. For Kane’s mind, as always, was working far above the levels of the present decision. He was acutely aware of that moral force in Dennis, aware of his own vacillation in the face of it. But he was thinking that, what was troublesome at his level might bo invaluable at another. If they had had a man of t his determination in the last Congressional hearing, instead of that mealy mouthed Lester, whose brilliance never lost a point or won a fight —

Of course Dennis was young, but. Kane knew that this war would be the end of him and most of the old gang. They’d have to retire while their temporary ranks held. There wouldn’t be another bonanza like this in their lives. Dennis would not retire. With one more star and a good war record a man like that could fight the Navy. He had everything except caut ion.

Time was with Dennis and the young men now. They had the best war in history in their hands. If he could preserve Dennis, if he could fuse just, enough caution into that power and passion

31

THE opening of the door broke his reverie. He looked up with a clearing snap of his head to see a young Major hurrying in proudly with a weather map in his hand.

Major Davis interrupted the conference with an unscientific sense of personal importance. He knew the impropriety of this feeling but could not resist it. For weary months he had been summoned and dismissed, like a bellhop. This time he bore information that warranted a voice in affairs. Haley had warned hint that Kane himself was in t he room. Davis had rejoiced in reminding Haley that there were no data indicating correlation between Kane’s whereabouts and incipient Polar Turbulence. Dennis had told him to report change instantly. He had change to report. His confidence was confirmed, upon entrance, by the instant, complete attention he could always command from Dennis — for a minute.

“Excuse me, sir. You said if anything special—”

‘Of course, go right ahead, Major.”

“We’ve a flash from Iceland, sir. Only preliminary but it does indicate a most interesting condition. A cold mass of a rather exceptional nature has formed eccentrically —”

“Never mind the genealogy,” said Dennis. “What’s it going to do?”

It was always like this. Davis compressed his indignation. “Blanket the continent, sir, if—”

“When?”

“On present indications late Monday afternoon unless —”

“When will it close my bases?”

“Best estimate now, sir, is any time after 1500 Monday.”

Davis held his tongue now. They could chew that one over and then ask him. But Dennis did not ask him. He burst out savagely, “I always said God must love Willi Messerschmitt.”

He brooded through a black silence and then, remembering Davis, nodded brief, absent-minded dismissal. “Bring confirmations or further changes as they come in.”

Davis retired with a frustrate and highly unscientific inner imprecation that the Army Air Forces and all their Generals could go to hell.

Kane watched the closing of the door with an uneasiness he could only hope he was not showing. His mind had been made up even before he heard the weather. In the long run he knew that the Allies would win this war, jets or no jets. He had resolved to save Dennis for the permanent wars among the services. A man of his force was too valuable to be destroyed by misfortune in a temporary foreign campaign. He told himself now that the only question remaining was how to whip Dennis without breaking his spirit. Even to himself he did not yet admit a deeper uncertainty as to whether he could, in a showdown, whip Dennis at all. As if aware of (his the Brigadier was already challenging him again.

“There goes our summer, sir. We’ll make it now or bite off our nails waiting for another chance.”

“Casey, I’m sorry, but two more days of prohibitive losses just now — ”

Dennis exploded. “God damn it, sir, it’s not a theory any longer. Can’t you see why we’re having these losses. Do you think the Germans would fight, like this if they weren’t scared of our bombardment?”

Martin saw Kane shake with this blast. But Kane checked himself and spoke to his aide. “Homer, make a note of that, for the Chief.”

Prescott whipped out a notebook, bent over the map table, and fixed his shocked eves upon Dennis. The Brigadier, as if conscious of the narrowness of this momentary reprieve, paused for a minute before continuing with an earnest, low-voiced sincerity more moving than any vehemence.

“We’ve scarcely scratched Germany yet, sir, but look what we’re doing to their Air Force. We’re doing what no other weapon in this war has done or can do. We re making it fight, on our initiative where it can’t refuse in order to rest and rebuild. We are tearing it up over Germany. The German Air Force has been the balance of power in this whole war, ever since Munich. It took their Ground Forces everywhere they’ve been. It beat the Polish Air Force in three days, the Norwegian in three hours; it forced the Maginot Line and beat the French in three weeks —”

“Homer,” said Kane, “be sure you’re getting this.”

“The Royal Air Force,” continued Dennis, “won a brilliant battle from it but it was a defensive battle, over England. The German Air Force rested a little and then knocked off Yugoslavia and Greece for practice, captured Crete, dominated the Mediterranean, chased the Russians to Moscow and the Volga, and got close enough to that Caspian oil to smell it. They blockaded the North Cape and very nearly cut the Atlantic lifeline to England itself. Peterson would have done it if Goring had given him two Groups instead of one Squadron. And even after that they took Rommel to the gates of Alexandria.

“Now where is that German Air Force, sir? Already we’ve made them convert bomber Groups to fighters, we’ve made them switch their whole production, procurement, and training programs. We’ve made them pull Operational Groups off the Russians and away from Rommel to put them over there, across the Channel, against us.”

He walked over and banged the map with his fist, and his voice was rising again now.

“Now the Russians have been able to mount and sustain a counteroffensive. Our own people in the Med have air superiority and they’re advancing with it — ”

“Get every word of (his down, Homer,” breathed Kane.

“Well, get this too, Homer,” rasped Dennis. “The Germans know all of this better than we do. They’ve been willing to loosen their grip on their costliest conquests and break the whole balance of their Air Force for just one thing to defend Germany itself from us. They’ve done it because they know something else. I hey know that fighters, Spits and Hurricanes, saved England trotn both decisive bombardment and invasion. Now they ve got a better fighter than those were. They intend to make Europe as impregnable as the British made England. And they’re going to do it, just as surely as we sit. here with our fingers in our asses and let them! ”

Major Prescott coughed discreetly through the enveloping silence. “Do you want that in, too, sir?”

Kane did not hear Prescott. He had been listening to Dennis. It was the burning sincerity of the plea which had illuminated again for him the old dream. He was seeing in fact the old vision of Air Power itself, the vision he had followed, the vision for which he and his kind had planned and pleaded and promised.

And yet it remained a glittering gamble. Kane knew far better than Dennis how bitterly the levels above him were torn with their own disunities, political, strategic, nationalistic, now that they had achieved the suppression of Air Power to an auxiliary level. He knew the quarrels and compromises, the delays and disagreements, the wary stalemates between military strategy and international policy, the sacrifices of lives to save faces and of faces to save the fears that were older than any passing war.

Kane looked past the waiting Dennis to the map now, but even as his quickening eyes swept toward Germany, they hung on the chalk marks on the loss column of the Ops board. He shook his head and clearly heard Prescott repeat his frightened question.

“No, not that part exactly, Major. Just the sense of it. Casey, I agree with you entirely, my boy. But we’ve simply got to wait until we’re a little stronger.”

“Sir,” said Dennis, and they could all see him controlling himself with evident effort now, “wars are lost by waiting. If it were a question of potential strength there wouldn’t be any wars.

“But it isn’t like that. Decisions are won by the margins available at critical times and places. The Allies waited, at Munich. The French and British waited, behind the Maginot Line. The Germans waited, for a little more relative strength to invade England. The Russians waited, until they had to take on the German armies without an ally in the field. We waited, for more strength to coerce Japan.

“Now we’re forcing the fighting, at terrible disadvantages of distance, defenses, and weather — on a margin so thin we cross ourselves before counting losses — with a bomber that 30-millimeter cannon will make obsolete. But we’re doing it. We have, note, the advantage of the offensive, precariously, but we’ve got it. Advantage is cumulative. If we stop now and wait for 1 he cycle to swing again, we ll be waiting for them to put a roof on the Continent. I’m not trying to tell you that Operation Stitch will win the war. But no battle anywhere in this war has been won without aerial supremacy. Operation Stitch is the price of that.”

He stopped. The muffled drumming of the motors outside and the clacking of the teleprinter in the Ops room filled part of ihe silence; the rest of it hung heavily over them all. Kane knew now that Dennis was not going to yield. He could relieve him, of course. But Dennis believed these things and would say them elsewhere, anywhere, even in Washington itself if Kane sent him back there. On the other hand, if Washington itself decided to relieve him — Kane shook his head and rose with quick decision, the others springing up after him.

“Will you gentlemen wait in the anteroom, please.”

He saw Garnett’s angry flush at being included with the other ranks but he offered no modification of the order. After a second Garnett followed the others out, closing the door himself.

“Casey, I’m taking Cliff back to my Headquarters with me at once and releasing the Division to your discretion.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Dennis quietly.

Kane hesitated, wishing to say more, remembering that the spoken word cannot be unsaid. Dennis did not need things spelled out for him but his deep, haunting anxiety made Kane speak against his wiser instincts.

“Casey, you realize what can happen?”

“Perfectly, sir.”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t. Good luck, my boy.”

He was turning toward the door when Evans stepped in from the Ops room, reluctantly extending a sheet of teleprint paper.

“Top Secret relay from General Kane’s Headquarters for the General, sir.”

32

AFTFR observing Dennis’s defense of Goldberg that evening, Sergeant Evans had gone to the Top Secret files and read the plan labeled Operation Stitch. One perusal of it confounded him. The Army, or at least the Fifth Division, did have a sensible, logical plan. Evans was dazed until he remembered what was going on in the next room. That confirmed it all. This plan was so good that it was requiring the exertions of a Major General to resist its use.

Evans had shaken his head, wondering why Dennis had not already been court-martialed. And yet Kane was evidently vacillating. Against all previous experience, Evans himself had begun to hope, when the reality of the clattering teleprinter spelled out the message he now handed General Kane.

Standing by at attention he watched Kane wilt visibly through a quick reading of it before handing on the message to Dennis. “It’s from Les Blaekmer, Casey.”

Dennis read aloud slowly: “Impossible contact Chief yet. Considered opinion here implores moderation and low losses during critical three days next especially in view of Part Two which follows. Two: you are again advised imminent visit three high-ranking members House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee, arriving Prestwick probably this night. Contact Embassy at once. Representative Malcolm will particularly wish to see his nephew, Captain Lucius Malcolm Jenks 0-886924371 your Command. Suggest his assignment special escort duty this visit and must remind how opportune would be decoration Captain Jenks if eligible either presently or prospectively. End Washington. Signal Casey for God’s sake find General Kane and tell him wise men from west already Prestwick arriving Croydon daylight. Embassy frantic. Signed Saybold for Kane.”

Dennis lowered the paper slowly. But Kane did not wait to hear. “Sorry, Casey. You will put maximum sorties and tonnage on the safest Naval target you can find, under fighter cover, tomorrow. I’ll take Jenks with me in my car and make — er — medical arra ngement.”

“Sir, this is impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible, Casey. We’re doing it.”

Dennis wheeled on Evans: “Sergeant, get those two officers —”

Evans sprang for the door. Kane did not speak until it had closed. His voice was regretful but firm. “The charges will be quashed. We’ll have a formal presentation for the visiting firemen here tomorrow, timed so they can lunch afterward and then watch the return of the mission. You will instruct any plane sufficiently damaged to jeopardize landing to use one of the other stations. I’ll have a citation written for Captain Jenks in my office tonight,”

He looked up indignantly as the door opened and two officers wearing medical insignia appeared. Their faces were puffy and their blouses ruffled from sleep but the elder saluted smartly. “Dayhuff and Getchell reporting as ordered, sir.”

“General Kane,” said Dennis, “Major Dayhuff is my Division Medical Officer. Captain Getchell is Flight Surgeon of Jenks’s Group.”

“Well — ” Kane did not extend his hand.

“Major, tell General Kane exactly what you told me.”

“General Kane, there is no satisfactory medical explanation of Captain Jenks’s conduct. He acknowledges this and says he expects no medical exoneration.”

Thoroughly alert now, Kane studied the doctors closely. A presentiment was warning him to caution, as it had warned him earlier in the evening against a showdown with Dennis. He spoke more civilly, feeling his way. “Mightn’t that in itself be an indication of neurosis?”

“Doctors can be wrong, sir. In our opinion he’s normal.”

“Have you made a formal record of this?”

“Not yet, sir. We shall.”

“Do you think this is simple fear — cowardice, Major?”

“No, sir. Any man in his right mind is afraid to fly these missions. The cowards welcome a medical excuse not to. This man apparently doesn’t want, one.”

“Have you any idea of why he refused to fly?”

Dayhuff nodded a graying head to his junior. Captain Getchell chose his words with slow, conscientious care.

“We don’t, consider this a medical matter, sir. But Captain Jenks has mentioned some of his ambitions to me, in fact to anyone who would listen. He has been very frank to say that he intends to make somet hing out of t his war.”

“How?”

“Politically, I believe, sir. At first Jenks made a noticeable effort to be popular in the Group but the effect was — well, contrary to his hopes. His operational training phase was not harmonious. By the time we entered combat status he was distrusted by the others and very resentful. When the men rode him he used to say that not only they but the whole Army would come begging to his door some day and then they’d learn something about who ran the country.”

“Mightn’t that, in itself, indicate — er — instability?”

“Sir,” said Dayhuff, “ if we took to diagnosing ambition for an aberration we’d be lots busier than we are.”

“Thank you very much, gentlemen,”said Kane.

They saluted and withdrew. As they went, Dennis noted that Evans had re-entered with them and had overheard the conversation. He dismissed the Sergeant with an abrupt nod of his head.

33

CASEY,” asked Kane thoughtfully, “are those doctors our own?”

“No, sir. Civilian reservists.”

“Hmm. Of course we can get. Jenks to our own people — ”

“One of these men is from Mayo and the other from Hopkins, sir. They will sign the report.”

Dennis had hoped that he would not have to do this. He knew now that he would and he was a little surprised at the calmness that possessed him.

It had been like this when he was testing. All through the preparation there were doubt and nervousness and tension. Then, with the take-off, those things dropped behind. It became very simple. A man did all he could firsi to eliminate needless risk. Then he forced the intended risk until something broke — sometimes the plane, sometimes the man, sometimes the prevailing boundaries of gravity and momentum.

Dennis had done it before; he was going to do it again now. He studied Kane’s troubled irresolution as calmly as he had once studied his instruments before nosing down.

“Umm. We’ve got to do something, Casey.”

“I know a way, sir.”

“What?”

“If Jenks had been acting under direct, secret orders to hold himself in readiness for t his escort duty ami to discontinue Hying missions until he had performed it, he would have been justified in refusing the mission without explanation. If the right orders, suitably dated, had been delayed, in channels, in ihis Headquarters —”

Kane got it at once.

“Exactly, Casey, exactly. I won’t forgot this, my boy.”

“I’ll attend to the whole thing,”said Dennis, soon as I’ve, ordered the Schweinhafen Mission for tomorrow.”

He saw Kane’s face twitch. “Casey, this sounds like blackmail.”

“You’ve told me, sir, that there were times when you forced the Chief’s hand.”

Kane managed a smile now. “You have your orders.”

Dennis looked deliberately at his watch. “ I’hen at five nineteen I charge .leaks with desertion in the face of the enemy.”

“General, I order you to release Captain Junks to me.”

“I understand the order, sir. But the charges will be filed, the evidence heard, and the trial held in this Headquarters unless you promise me Schweinhafen tomorrow and Fendelhorst the next day I judge suitable.”

“Casey, really, my boy, this is preposterous. If you’ll just consider —”

“I have considered, sir.”

“You realize that I might not be able to — proted you?”

“f do, sir.”

“Well, if you want to take the personal risk I eon release the Division. I was really going to anyway before that signal.”

Dennis had already picked up the black Admin plume. He kept bis back toward Kane while ordering Jenks’s release to the Major General’s personal custody, so as to give Kane time to collect himself. When Dennis faced him again, Kane managed an air of sorrowful gravity. “In the eireuinstances, Casey, I’ll have to signal Washington the correction on today’s st rike.

“I understand that, sir.”

“Well, don’t come to the gate.”

With an angry slam of the door Kane was gone. Turning in his tracks Dennis oppned the Ops door and shouted for Haley. His face was calm when the st artled Colonel appeared.

“Put Stitch, Phase Two, Schweinhafen, on the printer at once for all Groups for tomorrow. Bomb and fuel loadings as before; routes and timings to follow.”

Martin hurried in from the anteroom now. “Casey, Percent went out of here burning like a fuse. What the hell did you do?”

“Twisted his tail a little. Get going, Haley.”

“Sir, you’re sure you moan Schweinhafen?”

“Certain. I’ll sign it in a minute but get it clicking.”

Haley raised appealing eyes to inform the heavens that this was none of his work and hurried out the dour.

34

THE door had hardly closed on Haley before Marlin’s anxiety expressed it self, “Quit, smirking and tell me what you did.”

“I traded him Jenks for Schweinhafen and Fendelhorst. Jenks’s l ncle Malcolm of the House Military Affairs Committee is arriving here tomorrow.”

“Casey, this is suicide. Percent can phone Washington.”

“Well, it was the last card. He might play straight.”

“ Might.”

“You can’t tell, Ted. I can remember when Kane had guts. Let’s go to work.”

He had started for the Ops room door, when Martin’s voice stopped him. “Casey, Cliff said Helen wants me to pick a godfather for the kid. Will yon take it ?”

Dennis was so pleased that he had to hesitate u second to cover his embarrassment. “You trying to queer it for life?”

“I’m serious, Casey.”

“Well, sure.”

“And I want you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“If he ever wanls to join the goddamned Army you’ll take a club and beat His brains right out t hrough his tail.”

“I know what you mean,” said Dennis slowly.

Martin walked over to him now, unpinning the wings from his blouse as he came. “But after you gel ‘em beaten out he’ll probably become a pilot. If he does, give him these.”

He extended the wings. Dennis looked from them to Martin’s face without moving a hand. By conscious effort he kept his voice light.

“Nuts. All I owe him’s a silver cup and a blameless example through life. You give him those yourself.”

“You keep ‘em, I might lose ‘em.’

“No you don’t, Ted. You’re sitting here, biting your fingernails, tomorrow.”

Martin shook his head. “No dice, Casey. Schweinhafen’s mine.”

He had known this was coming and had meant to prepare himself for final, unequivocal decision bul there had not been time. There never was time. Dennis looked at the set face before him and tried to stall until his head cleared. “Listen, Ted. Any of the others can

“Not tomorrow. They hear too well.”

He knew his own face must be twitching now as Kane’s had. “What do you mean?”

“You know damned well what I mean. Percent can double-cross you with a counterorder from Washington and signal a recall or change of target after we’ve started.”

“I — I had thought of that but — ”

“You won’t have to tomorrow. Let’s go. I’ll get myself some benzedrine and meet you in the Ops room.”

He fell the impact of metal in his palm and tried to speak but no sound followed Marlin.

35

ELMER BROCKHURST had thought that in the course of the war he had attended enough Staff, Command, and Press presentations to inure his stomach to anything. But on the bright Sunday morning of the second Schweinhafen mission he sat in General Dennis’s office, listening to the presentation General Kane was staging for the visiting Congressmen, with a feeling of degradation that occasionally bordered upon nausea.

For this ceremony the office had been transformed into a miniature theater. Brockhurst himself, the three Congressmen, Prescott, Garnett, and Dennis were the audience, seated in a litt It’ semicircle facing Kane, who lectured them, using for illustration a series of wallboard mounted exhibits which Evans hold up in turn upon the map table.

Through the open windows came the intermittent droning of the motors in the repair hangars but it was only a feeble, fitful chorus. The parking stands were bare again. The faint whine from the stratosphere was a solitary plane circling with monotonous steadiness through the sub-zero altitude to freeze the ice cream for the impending lunch party.

“— and now, gentlemen,” Kane continued blandly, “because Naval objectives are such a vital pari of our over-all strategy I have had Major Prescott prepare for you a special presentation on‘The Doom of an Axis Torpedo Factory."’

Prescott stepped briskly to the center of the stage, took tin1 pointer from Kane, and raised a folder in his hand so that the audience could plainly see the oversized Toe SECRET lettering upon the cover. Kane seated himself and accepted a cigarette from Mr. Malcolm. Prescott waited through the lighting of it before beginning solemnly.

“I am compelled by duty, gentlemen, to remind you that the contents of this directive, which General Kane has authorized me to read you tire — Top Secret.”

He paused with the insinuating hesitancy of a strip-teaser fingering the first buttons. Brockhurst saw the Congressmen stir and quicken in their seats. He noticed also a faint., rippling readjustment, of the jaw muscles which had locked Dennis’s face into the bleak, expressionless mask In* knew so well.

It was only, Brockhurst knew, in the details of its painstakingly staged prevarications that this particular presentation differed from others he had heard and would hear. As far as he knew, the presentation was one of the many military’ novelties of this war. The device had reasonably respectable origins. The theory had been, in the beginning, that these functions informed the Commander.

Since no one man could keep the details of ever changing global warfare in his head, no man tried to. They were kept in i he heads and files of batteries of Staff officers. Those men read the news, the signals from other Commands, the discoveries of Intelligence, the reports from lower echelons, and even the public prints. Those, in continuous process, they digested, compared, and collated, changing colored pins on maps and linos on graphs wit h indefatigable intent to simplify. 'Then at the appointed time daily the great man, of whatever Command, seated himself and absorbed this predigested knowledge as painlessly as possible from the voices, maps, charts, diagrams. statistics, and, finally, the opinions of his underlings.

From its humble beginning the institution of the War Room Presentation had grown. The drama inherent in the daily ceremony could not resist improving upon itself. War rooms became the showcases of Command, the artful illustrations of alibi.

Presentations were coached unt il they became fullfledged daily theatricals to which Commanders led important guests with serene confidence of 1 he desired impression. For as information became drama its reporters kept pace with tacit understanding that the actor’s first duty is to please. From the brutality of the ancient tradition that the bearer of bad news is beheaded, the War Room Presentation had advanced so far thiit bad news simply was not borne.

And over it all the dark, dramatic mantle of military secrecy spread its protective folds.

“— we knew, gentlemen,” Major Prescott continued, “that this one factory was manufacturing sixty-one point t hree per cent of the delicate timing mechanism for war heads— ”

Had anyone been looking, Brockhurst’s expression might have seemed cynical.

“—and so, gentlemen,”Major Prescott dropped his voice an octave and the Congressmen obediently leaned forward, “we attacked. On this panel you see the pictures of the factory before —

Brockhurst watched Evans shift the panels without expression and wondered what the Sergeant was thinking. Evans was thinking of his conversation with the Warrant Officer, a leathery old cavalryman, who had delivered the thirty-odd chunks of wallboard in a special truck from General Kane’s Headquarters that morning before dawn.

“No War Room?” asked the Warrant Officer. “What the hell does General Dennis do?”

“Plans missions,” said Evans. “Ever heard of them?”

Together they had remodeled Dennis’s office for the purpose. Major Prescott had appeared presently, sleepless but fresh with excitement. It had been his idea to dispense with the expert sceneshifters in favor of Evans. He had pointed out to Kane that a certain mechanical crudeness would probably be even more effective than their usual polished performance.

Prescott and the Warrant Officer had coached Evans to their satisfaction before Prescott retired to study his lines. Evans had decided that he could afford some of the combat crews’ fresh eggs in exchange for further confidences. Under their influence the Warrant Officer had thawed for commiseration.

“Better hit the latrine first,” he concluded.

“It’s as bad as that?”

“Prescott won’t bother you unless you got a weak stummick,”said thcW’arrant Officer, “ but that Kane, he could put his mouth to a horse’s ass and blow the bridle off its head.”

36

DENNIS became aware that Major Prescott had finished and was simpering over the commendations of the visitors. He judged it was five minutes since he had looked at his wrist watch and decided it was absurd to stick to his resolution not to look at it again for ten. The glance showed him it had been two and a half.

By now Ted was well beyond fighter cover but yesterday they had had thirty-four minutes before the shooting began. Even allow ing that they had not picked up the expected tail wind east of Paris — He shook his head and made a new resolution to concentrate on Kane, who was about to resume the major part of the presentation. The signal would come when it came and nothing he might think now would alter it.

As Prescott resumed his seat the glowing glances of the Congressmen showed Dennis why Kane kept him for an aide. He could see that even Garnett was impressed with what the Major had made out of yesterday’s mission. With an inner chuckle he wondered suddenly how long Kane would be able to keep Prescott. Garnett was just the man to arrange wider horizons for an aide who could snatch triumph out of disaster as fluently as Prescott. Then his chuckle sobered on the reflection that Garnett himself might not now be returning to wider horizons.

“Finally, gentlemen,” said Kane, “we come to the health of our personnel. If there is one thing a Commander must be vigilant about, it is the physical and moral welfare of his troops. We never forget that, the nation has given us these boys in trust. Graph, Sergeant.”

Evans held up another chunk of wallboard, crisscrossed with multicolored graph lines.

“I have issued a directive throughout our Command,” continued Kane, “that the orders of doctors are final authority. Sometimes it has ironic results. One of our officers knew he was overdue for the dentist recently but like most men he tried to put it off. However, when the inspecting Lieutenant said, Sir, I must remind you of the Commanding General’s directive’ — well, gentlemen, I went to the dentist.”

He grimaced ruefully and waited. There was a second of hesitation before Prescott cued with a laugh which enabled the Congressmen to get the point,

Brockhurst watched the trio from America react. Field and Stone smiled dutifully now but the whole room resounded to the booming tumult of Malcolm’s belated laughter.

Good God! Ain’t that rich:' Majuh Gennel bein sent to the dentis’ by a damn Lootcnnun. f declah! You ain’t fixing to do us like that, are you, Gennel?”

Something in the riotous volatility of that laughter reminded Brockhurst of Huey Long. Malcolm looked plumper on the surface but there was power in that heavy figure and a darting cunning in the beady little eyes. Malcolm had invaded this drab little island in the full protective coloration of his native jungle. He wore a lavender shirt with matching tie, a diamond stickpin, and bright yellow shoes. The white felt hat now rested halfway back on his bald skull in acknowledgment of his presence indoors. Especially in these somber surroundings lie looked like a prosperous clown. His native state was strewn with the political corpses of men who had thought him one.

“Lnfortunate.lv, Mr. Malcolm,” said Kane, “my directive gives me no jurisdiction over the health of the Congress.”

He let Malcolm laugh again before sobering briskly to work. “This, gentlemen, is our Command’s over-all health record compared with twenty years’ peacetime averages for the whole Army.”

His pointer traced the rise and fall of the curves rapidly. “You will note that in almost everv instance our curves of incidence are substantiallv below normal. This is respiratory complaint, this curve digestive, this one neurosis, a point of particular pride for our rest-house and morale program. The American boy, gentlemen, is a very healthy young animal.”

He paused with the patient innocence of art concealing its art. and Brockhurst watched Mr. Field reach naively for the bait. “What’s that red curve that sticks up higher than the others, General?”

“The history of war, gentlemen, has always shown a remarkable affinity between Mars and Venus. I have observed that the American boy is a healthy animal and that condition produced its own paradox. The red curve is our rate of venereal disease.”

“Mahs an’ Venus!” roared Malcolm. “Good God, ain’t that rich! Looks to me like one thing heahabout ain’t rationed noway.”

“Well, of course, gentlemen,” Kane feigned an exaggerated gravity, “that’s the one argument, that could be produced for our switching to militaru bombardment at night.” He let them smile over this and then continued briskly again. “You can see that our curve is going back down to normal now.”

Obligingly, Mr. Field reached again. “What put it up for that period, may I ask, General?”

“A factor over which a simple soldier has no control, sir; springtime.”

This time it was Mr. Stone who broke the silence ihat followed Malcolm’s laughter again. Stone, Brockhurst had noticed, was the most attentive of the three, a bleak, graying man of fifty whose taciturnity had prepared Brockhurst for his New England twang. It sounded rueful now. “Well, happens so in our paaat. of the world too.”

Kane beat Malcolm to it this time with a booming laugh of his own. Dennis’s watch now showed him that there were six minutes more he would never have to live again.

“That, gentlemen,” said Kane, “is a little resume of this Command’s part in the big effort. I am at your service.”

Malcolm bounced from his seat as if sprung. Then, with the floor won, he hesitated, head down, hands deep in his pockets, round face grave with solemnity now.

“Gennel, we are deeply grateful. I think I can speak foil my colleagues an’ foh ouah country in thankin’ you fum the bottom of ouah heahts. It ain’t a easy matteh to express the things a man feels to come oveh heah onto foreign soil an’ find the American flag flyin’ an’ undeh it a fuT Commandeh who is woythy, not only of the great nation that sent him heah but of the American boys he comman s. When we get, back to ouah own post of duty in the Congress of the people in Washin ton, an’ I can sec ouah civilian lcadehs (heah, most of whom I am fohtunate enough to count among my closes’ frien’s, ! can promise you they are goin’ to know fum ray own lips how fohtunate this country is in some of its Gennels.”

Kane did not bat an eye. “Thank you, Mr. Malcolm. You will do the country a greater service if you can make the people at home realize that the full credit belongs to our boys. 1 have always thought of Command as a trusteeship, bestowed by the people who send us t hese boys, upon us who have to take them and train them and guide them and protect them until we finally face the awful decision of sending them into battle.

“War gives Commanders little time for religious thought, gentlemen, but in our darkest hours I find comfort in the teachings of our Chapel at West Point. Often at night 1 think back on the parable of the talents. There must have been moments of terrible discouragement for those servants who were trying to serve their master as best they could with what was given t hem.

“There is a great lesson for all of us in their fidelity but I think the greater lesson is to be found in the humility those experiences teach us about the wisdom of the master who knew what he was doing when he tested his subordinates. Sometimes I have had to pray that our shortages and inadequacies here are only a test (hrough which the Greater Wisdom is measuring our faith and confidence in the people we serve — until we have proved ourselves worthy of greater talents to use in their service.”

He let his voice trail off into a subdued silence, wondering, as always, whether he had overdone it Ordinarily he would nol have worked so hard on any delegation below the Senate level. Prescott had said that the touch of the parable put this effort into the Cabinet caliber. But this was not an ordinary situation.

The accident, of Malcolm’s relation to Jenks had delivered this trio into Kane’s hands before even the Hemisphere Commander had a chance to harden their ears with his heterogeny of hopes. It was not an opportunity to muff.

Of Malcolm, Kane was serenely confident. The Jenks affair was a sword of many blades, as Dennis had taught him. Stone was a cold fish; he had the look of a man who remembered his regional folklore of wooden nutmegs. Kane was stdl worrying about him when the innocuous-looking Mr. Field cut through the echoes wit h a pointed question.

“You mean you want more planes, General?”

37

DISMAYED as he was, Kane showed no trace of his inner misgiving. Field h;id been docile enough through the military matters, following every statistic with the quiet attentiveness of the earnest Pilgrim. The case hung on getting him back to t hose. Inwardly cursing the impulse that had made him risk oratory on Congressmen, Kane reverted to crisp bluntness. “If the nation wants aerial supremacy we must, have them, sir.”

Field looked thoughtfully at the map and scratched the back of his head. Stone spoke up now with troubled sincerity. “The nation wants aerial supremacy everywhere, General. They all keep telling us the same thing; the people from India, China, Africa, Australia, the Navy, the British, the Russians — ”

“I’m sure they have their problems, Mr. Stone. But a simple Field Commander would be overreaching his duty to try to evaluate the higher strategy. I only know that my boys have been given the most important ancl difficult mission of this war.”

“How do you figure that, General?” Field’s question was mild enough but Kane did not need a second lesson in the penetration behind that, mildness. It was touch and go but he had worked hard through the night and he was confident of his memory. He paused, frowning as if summoning words of his own.

“Because it is our mission, sir, to destroy the German Air Force. We are doing what no other weapon in t his war has done or can do. We re making it fight, on our initiative, over Germany, where it can’t refuse. We are tearing it up over Germany. The German Air Force has been the balance of power in this war ever since Munich —”

Brockhurst, recognizing the rhythm of these words now, glanced at Dennis. The Brigadier was studying the sky out side t he window intently. Brockhurst saw him raise his left arm as if to look at his wrist watch but instead of doing so he lowered it into his lap again and kept his eyes fixed on the sky.

Turning, Brockhurst saw Prescott, checking off sentence after sentence, with little jerks of his strained face, as Kane continued through the speech. Kane had a bad minute or two with the sequence of the campaigns but he got through them. Then, as if sensing the relief in Prescott’s face, he swept on with gathering confidence. The Congressmen were entirely his now. They were leaning forward with rapt concentration as Kane came to a carefully amended conclusion of the speech.

“—we are pinning that Air Force down in Germany, gentlemen, destroying its factories bv systematic plan and destroying its effective, operational planes by combat . We are winning aerial supremacy, and the reinforcements you give us are the price of that supremacy.”

Brockhurst stole another glance at Dennis and there stirred in the back of his mind some lines he had not recalk’d for years: —

But Dennis was not hearing it. Brockhurst doubted that he was even aware of it. His eyes were still on the sky outside. The only sign he showed of having heard Kane’s conclusion was to glance briefly at his wrist watch.

“Gennel,” said Malcolm, “I consideh that a mastchful summary, mastehful.”

“Thank you, Mr. Malcolm. I hope I’ve been able to show you — ”

“General,” said Stone, “that’s interesting but we have other problems, too. The air war isn’t the only one.”

“We never forget that, Mr. Stone. We hold it a high privilege to pave the way for our companion services. No battle in this war has been won without aerial supremacy, as I pointed out.”

“That may be true here,” said Field. “But the Navy thinks —

“Sir, cooperation with Naval objectives is one of our foremost commitments. You gentlemen have just heard Major Prescott explain how General Dennis sent this Division all the way to Gritzenheim to knock out the most significant torpedo factory in Europe. We knewr it would cost us heavy losses but if there’s one thing this Command prides itself on it’s looking at the war as a whole. Ample replacements are essential if we’re to continue fulfilling that part of our directive which gives Naval objectives a very high priority among our target categories.”

“You’re getting most of the available replacements now,” said Stone. “What did you say your loss rate is?”

“Loss and claim chart again, Sergeant.”

Evans shuffled through the exhibits and produced another twenty square feet of wallboard. Its essential information, like that of the rest, could have been written clearly on a playing card.

“Over-all rate four point nine per cent so far, sir.”

“That’s computed up to?” Field persisted patiently.

“Last Sunday, sir,” said Kane quickly. “We only total calculations at the end of each week.”

“What are losses this week, General?”

“I’ll have to tell you tomorrow, Mr. Stone, when I’ve heard from all the Divisions.”

lie nodded quickly to Evans for removal of the board but Malcolm spoke up now with authority in his slow accents.

“Just a minute Sahgent, till I see if I can get this thu my haid. What were losses in this Division, Gennel?”

Kane hesitated. “Have you the figures, General Dennis?”

Dennis rose before answering. “Ninety-four lost outright, five in the’Channel, and thirty-odd damaged beyond economical repair, sir.”

38

BROCKHURSTT saw both Kane and Garnett start at the mention of the planes in the Channel and the Category E’s. These were never included in public reports. The explanation was that such information might comfort an enemy who presumably did not. know of them, after several years of his own crossChannel bombing operations. Malcolm appeared to cogitate before proceeding with silky deliberation.

“Neah about a humd’ed an’ thirty, out of what over-all strength, Gennel Dennis?”

“It varies with the replacement flow, sir. The average runs from one eighty to two hundred.”

Malcolm’s face clouded over slowly as if struggling to cover an unbearable personal pain. “That would mean betteh than 60 puh cent in this Division against youah over-all average of less than five, wouldn’t it, Gennel Kane?”

“For this Division, for this week, yes,” admitted Kane. “But we had two exceptionally bad days. When these losses are figured into the aggregate average —

“I undehstan’ the aggregate average, suh, but I don’t undehstan’ this discrepancy between Gennel Dennis’s Division an’ the othehs. Perhaps Gennel Dennis will explain his own self.”

Dennis spoke with quiet patience: “This Division has the only extension tanks for especially distant targets, sir. Both these operations were beyond the range of friendly fighter escort.”

“An’ the boys who were lost were deliberately sent beyon’ the range of friendly fighteh coveh?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask who ohdehed these operations?”

“I did.”

“On youah own authority?”

“Yes.”

Kane intervened quickly now, showing obvious agitation.

“General Dennis was quite within his technical authority, Mr. Malcolm.It happened that when these particular attacks were ordered I was too engrossed with other duties to keep myself entirely cognizant of the changing weather picture. In those circumstances all Divisions are released to Commanders’ discretion.”

“I undehstan’ the technicalities, Gennel Kane. No one expec’s a man of youah responsibilities to plan every attack fob every Division every night.”He paused to let the exoneration sink in before continuing. “But the fac’s appeah to be that the minute youah back was turned Gennel Dennis took it on his own self to ohdeh these disastrous attacks.”

“They were not disastrous,” said Dennis evenly. “Posenleben was the best piece of bombing in this war. As for yesterday —”

“That was a great success,” interrupted Kane. “The Navy has been very eager for us to destroy that torpedo plant. It was a great piece of interservice cooperation and a very bright spot in General Dennis’s record.”

“Gennel Kane,” said Malcolm, “I honoh youah loyalty to youah subohdinate Commandeh but it looks to me like ouah boys are payin’ a pretty bloody price foil Gennel Dennis’s recohd.”

“They’re paying a bloody price for the whole country’s record, Mr. Malcolm,” said Dennis quietly.

“You considoh the country’s responsible foh you sendin’ these boys beyon’ frien’ly fighteh coveh?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“How did you vote on the fortification of Guam?”

“What?”

“How did you vote on the fortification of Guam?”

Stone’s chuckle broke a perceptible silence. “By God, Aaaathur, he’s got you.”

Malcolm’s ruddy face was turning livid.

“We’ll see who’s got who — ”

“Arthur,” said Field evenly, “it’s not our place to criticize operations. What are you attacking today, General Kane?”

“Why — as you gentlemen know, I was on my way to you at the time of the determinative weather conference. I think Genera! Dennis can explain the details more clearly than I.”

As if unconscious of Malcolm now, Dennis walked quietly to the wall, stripped the masking curtain from the map, and pointed with a linger as he explained unemotionally.

“This is a three-pronged operation today, gentlemen. General Salmond’s Division is attacking the Brest shipyards and sub pen. General Endicott’s Division will attack a submarine repair yard at Emden almost simultaneously. The Fifth Division is attacking the Focke-Sehmidt Aircraft factory at Schweinhafen.”

The others crowded over to the map for a closer examination. Brockhurst noticed that General Kane’s red cross through Schweinhafen had been erased during the night. The black markings indicating Schweinhafen and Fendelhorst gained prominence from the proximity of the heavy red cancellation of Posenleben. Malcolm scowled at them thoughtfully.

“Seems to me I heard this Division attacked Schweinhafen yestehday, Gennel.”

“The target was cloud-covered, Mr. Malcolm,” said Kane quickly. “Colonel Martin, who had been instructed for that very contingency, very wisely decided to take the torpedo factory instead, knowing how long we had been planning on it. It was a wonderful piece of air generalship, gentlemen. Colonel Martin is our outstanding flying Commander.

Stone pondered. “Is that the Marlin who was in hot water over plane tests a few years ago?”

Kane smiled benignly. “Colonel Martin was a verv impetuous young man, Mr. Stone, but those qualities are standing us in good stead now.”

Field nodded now with an air of remembrance. “It seems to me, if I recollect rightly, that plane he complained of never did come to much. Mill we have a chance to meet him?”

“Later,” said Dennis. “He’s leading the Division today.”

(To be concluded)