1945 (12 page)

"What?"

"It simply took too long to get my command organized, and even with practice it will still take too long. Furthermore the entire run-in is blind except for the navigator in the lead plane — and once he leads them into the area everything depends on the individual pilots, especially the transport pilots, being able to successfully identify their particular targets. And for that matter we are not even sure we have actually targeted all the sites; our intelligence promises it will get the information but I can't count on that. Infinitely better if the strike commander examines them up close just before the strike."

"How?" Göring asked curiously. "The moment you drop, the alert will be on."

"I won't drop. I plan to infiltrate into America a full week before the assault on Oak Ridge starts, and then travel as a civilian to the target area."

Göring's eyes widened incredulously.

"Think about it, Herr Air Marshal. The Americans have no concept of proper travel control. No permits needed, and everyone minds his own business compulsively, as if it were a virtue to ignore state-security needs. And now think about this: If I direct the attack from the target area, we will win."

February 22,1946 A Training Camp, Somewhere in Germany

Standing before these men, Otto Skorzeny was as nearly happy as a man like him could be when not in combat. To his right stood his second in command, Karl Radl. Across the map table from him stood the five company commanders of his strike team: Captains Holzer and Ulrich, who had both been with him for the raid on Leningrad; one-eyed Muhler who had come up through the ranks and was an expert with demolitions; Richer and Lenz who had both stuc lied in America, and thus had the special skills he now needed. Behind them stood the rest of his staff and the second in command for each company.

Covering the table between them was a highly detailed surveyor's map. An easel covered with an apparently made-to-order map that covered an area that included the United States, the Atlantic south to the Equator, and Western Europe stood to his left.

"This morning I met with our Führer and received his final approval. The attack date is scheduled for April twenty-first, fifty-eight days from today. You've been training hard for the last two and a half months. Now it is time that you learn what you are training for."

He gestured at the table map. This is Oak Ridge, in the state of Tennessee."

Openly consumed with curiosity, his staff leaned over the brighdy lit table, the men behind craning for a look.

T've traveled through that region," Richer murmured, 
breaking the ensuing silence. "In fact, there was this girl in 
Nashville----" He hesitated, then smiled with a boyish grin 
that his comrades found a bit chilling. Richer had the reputation of being absolutely pitiless, especially when it came to women. "Anyway," he continued after an uncomfortable moment, "I've never heard of Oak Ridge."

Skorzeny nodded. "Officially, this facility doesn't exist. You won't find it on any road map, in any phone book, or city directory. Oak Ridge is one of the best kept secrets in America."

"Not that well kept, if we are looking at an Army Corps of Engineers map of the place," Richer replied.

"No, not anymore," Skorzeny said grimly, "but we lost some of our best agents acquiring the information in front of you. Once we learned of its existence and purpose, a special division was set up to reveal in as much detail as possible precisely what's going on there. The operation was given the highest classification, was organized outside the usual channels, and made answerable only to the Führer. Right now we have three operatives inside, one with a middle-level American security clearance, and a half dozen more in the Knoxville area. We also have an operative running a small airstrip forty miles from the base. Obviously that information does not leave this room," he added dryly

"Do we have any close-in aerial shots?" Lenz asked.

"No. I've asked for them but nothing has come through," Skorzeny replied. "We'll worry about that later." He was pleased that no one seemed daunted by the location within the continental United States. During the training the men knew that they were practicing against an American base, but it could have been anywhere. Now they knew.

"So what does go on there?" Muhler asked.

"It is the main American facility for the manufacture of atomic bombs." Skorzeny studied the men across from him. As he'd expected, his reply had made no particular impact. They merely looked at him, waiting for further enlightenment.

"One atomic bomb will have an explosive force equal to a thousand-plane raid by British Lancaster bombers in which by magic all the bombs exploded simultaneously. Three or four atomic bombs would annihilate Berlin. Most cities would be destroyed by a single one. The Führer learned early last year that the Americans were engaged in making this new weapon. Alas, our planners had previously decided it was technically impossible to make such a bomb within a meaningful time frame. They were wrong, it seems. Now we are racing to catch up, but a stern chase is a long one, and this is a very stern chase indeed. If the Americans get it first, you can well imagine what such a catastrophe will mean for the Reich."

Now
he had their attention.

"Our mission is to destroy Oak Ridge. Gendemen, mark me: Only if we succeed can the Reich possibly have this weapon before the Americans. Thus the survival of the Third Reich is in our hands. I do not exaggerate." He paused for a moment, then added, "Our mission will be coordinated with a full-scale attack on England, and the timing of that attack is based on our mission requirements. More than that, the Führer assures me that if it were not for the necessity of our mission there would
be
no attack 
upon England.

"Consider also that if we fail, it will be worse, far worse, than had we not tried. If we fail, the Fatherland will be faced with an enraged America in sole possession of this ultimate weapon. If we fail, the Reich fails.

"We must not fail."

He paused to glare at his now-rapt audience.

"We will not fail!"

Relaxing slightly, Skorzeny nodded to the room's lone civilian, gesturing him over to the table. The man who came to stand beside Skorzeny was thin and bespectacled. He had receding hair, his double-breasted suit was several years out of date, and his vest was speckled with cigarette ash.

"Gendemen, I introduce to you
Herr Doktor Professor
Friedrich von Schiller. He's here to brief us on our target He's been in on the planning of this mission from the beginning and understands what needs to be accomplished at Oak Ridge better than anyone else, so pay attention."

Smiling with the genial contempt natural for such men toward academics, the company officers looked at Schiller as if he were a professor who had wandered into the wrong lecture hall. But their attitude subtly changed when he leaned over the table and returned stare for stare. Clearly he had no doubts as to the tightness of his presence here— while they were a group of students in grave danger of failing a surprise examination. Perhaps he had seen combat in the Great War. Certainly these human wolves did not make him the least bit nervous, which fact probably played a role in his selection as their instructor.

He began to speak. "Listen closely. This will be difficult enough to understand even if you do." The remaining smiles faded and disappeared as he continued without further preamble: "In late 1941 President Roosevelt was informed by a group of physicists that it was possible to make an atomic bomb. Research and development on this weapon was begun shortly thereafter, but given only a 
moderately high priority from 1942 to 1944 because of their war with Japan, a war that they knew would be over before the bomb could be produced. With the coming of peace, 
however, and with the new administration, this project, code-named 'Manhattan,' has been made a crash program.

The Americans currently have two sites for this project. One is in New Mexico, where the assembly team is currently developing the actual bomb mechanism. The second site is here"—he gestured at the map with a metal pointier rather like a swagger stick—"at Oak Ridge. A third site is under construction in the state of Washington, but will not be completed for another twelve to eighteen months." "How do we know this?" Richer asked.

The professor looked at him blankly.

"That is none of your affair," Skorzeny interjected. "Now be silent and listen."

Schiller nodded acknowledgment to Skorzeny and then continued. "You have been training for the destruction of Oak Ridge and the three key industrial sites around that city." He leaned further over the table and tapped the sites with his pointer as he lectured. "The workers, of whom there are nearly seventy-five thousand, live in the town proper. Most of them are security forces and unskilled or low-skilled labor, but at least six to eight thousand are technicians, engineers, scientists of various levels, and project managers. These other three sites, located to the west and south of the city in separate security areas, are code-named Y-12"—tap —"K-25"—tap—"and X-10"—tap.

"The purpose of these three sites is to manufacture enriched uranium isotope-235 and plutonium, which are the explosive materials for the bomb. Though the process of manufacture is on a very large scale indeed, the actual quantities of material are small. You could hold the amount of plutonium or uranium needed to destroy a medium-sized city such as Stuttgart in one hand."

Schiller pointed to the K-25 site. This building, which ironically enough is U-shaped, is nearly a half mile long from one end to the other. The facilities housed within it extract from uranium ore the almost infinitesimal portion that is uranium of a special kind, isotope U-235, by a chemical process known as 'gaseous diffusion.' The Y-12 site, just a mile south of the residential area, also extracts isotope U-235, but using an entirely different technique, called 'magnetic separation.'

"Apparendy the Americans were not sure which — if either—process would work, so designed and built the facilities in parallel. As it turns out, both methods work. Finally, the X-10 site is an atomic reactor of a particular kind, a 'breeder,' which can turn the more common form of uranium, U-238, into the element plutonium, which we 
think but are not positive is as useful as U-235 for the fabrication of explosive devices."

The professor noticed that he was losing his audience. They were trying to stay with him, but they were — soldiers. "Never mind that now. You'll understand what you need to know by the time you need to know it. That's my job, to teach you enough to know who and what it is vital to destroy when you are on the ground in Oak Ridge." His audience began to look more comfortable. Killing people and breaking things was some understood very well.

Having comforted his victims, he continued. "Those of you assigned to strike the industrial plants will have one of my assistants by your side throughout the mission to direct you as to which instruments and papers are to be taken rather than merely destroyed, and to assist in demolitions. Let me add here that while uranium and especially plutonium are not particularly dangerous —you can hold them in your hand safely enough—some of the materials necessarily present in the extraction of U-235 and the transmutation of U-238 into plutonium can quickly kill you. Primarily by inhalation of poison gases in the first case, and contamination by dust that emanates deadly rays in the latter. So listen carefully to your advisors' instructions as to exactly how to proceed with the demo—"

"That information is not to be shared with the men," Skorzeny suddenly interrupted in his command voice. "I repeat: for now, no hint of that information is to go beyond this room. I will decide later what exactly the men are to know, and when they are to know it. Until such time as I have informed you, say nothing at all on this subject. Please continue, Herr Professor."

Though over his initial startlement at the harsh interruption, the professor still needed a moment to regain his train of thought. Schiller was a brave man, but Skorzeny was... Skorzeny.

After that brief moment spent composing his thoughts 
Schiller redonned his professorial persona. But his excitement grew as he continued. "Success with this mission will result not only in the destruction of the facilities but will also poison the entire area so that it will require months, perhaps years before it can be used again. It will cripple the American program. It will give Germany a lead in atomic development that I promise you will forever end war, leaving the Fatherland the sole and final victor. Truly, as foretold by our Leader, our Reich will last a thousand years!"

Skorzeny shared the pride and repressed excitement that vibrated in Schiller's voice. He had toured the German facilities hidden near the Polish-Ukrainian border and saw the frenzied level of activity there as they desperately raced to catch up. No one in that project, other than Schiller and five of his assistants, knew that in less than two months it would be the Americans who were desperate to even stay in the race.

"Thank you, Professor Schiller," Skorzeny broke in, resuming control of the meeting. "The Herr Doktor Professor will brief each of you later as to the details of the target to which you are assigned, and team you with your specialist assistants—who will train with you from now on. You are to defer to the judgment of your assistants as to what is to be destroyed, photographed, and, if possible, taken once on the ground. You are also to do your utmost to keep them from killing themselves during training.