Authors: Anthony G Williams
THE FORESIGHT WAR (2 page)
The porter at
‘The Rector is a busy man.
He isn’t accustomed to seeing people without appointments.’
His look clearly suggested that anyone as strangely dressed and dishevelled as Don, still perspiring from his long walk, would be unlikely to be granted such an honour.
‘Do you have an envelope I could use?’ Don asked politely.
The porter grudgingly passed one over.
Don opened his wallet and slipped something inside the envelope before sealing it.
‘Could you take this to the Rector, please?
I am certain he will want to see me.’
He tried his most confident smile.
With more grumbles and suspicious looks, the porter bade him wait and disappeared inside the building.
Henry Tizard was irritated but clearly intrigued.
‘What’s all this nonsense about?’
He asked coldly, holding up the 2002 pound coin.
Don did not immediately reply, but instead passed over his digital watch.
Tizard looked at it with incredulity, his pale face even more tense than usual, fierce eyes glinting through metal-rimmed spectacles.
Don opened his holdall and took out the notebook computer.
‘Let me show you what this can do.’
He said calmly.
Don reflected with some amusement that for all Tizard’s reputation for being penetrating, tough and prickly, he looked decidedly nonplussed now.
‘Very well, then,’ Tizard said abruptly, ‘for the sake of argument, let’s accept your story that you’re a visitor from the future.
What do you want?
Why have you come to see me?’
‘The second question is easier to answer than the first, Sir Henry,’ Don began, then realised his mistake as Tizard frowned.
‘I’m
sorry,
of course you haven’t been knighted yet.’
There was a glint of amusement in Tizard’s eyes.
‘Indeed I haven’t,’ he growled.
Don ploughed on.
‘You are chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee and shortly to become chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence, which will among other things sponsor the invention of radar.’
Seeing Tizard’s expression, Don hurried on.
‘You are one of the most respected scientists in the country and your word carries weight with politicians as well as your peers.
Besides,’ he added, ‘I knew where to find you.
As to what I want, that’s hard to say.
Perhaps, above all, to give a warning.’
‘What kind of warning?’
Don spoke slowly.
‘The War to end all wars isn’t over yet.
This is no more than a pause in the struggle.
The worst is yet to come.’
He leaned back in his chair and then paused as an increasing distraction claimed his attention.
‘Before I begin,’ he said apologetically, ‘do you think I could have something to eat and drink?’
The meeting had taken weeks of argument, demonstration and persuasion to organise, and was being held in conditions of absolute secrecy.
Don had not been introduced to anyone present, but Dunning had warned him about that.
‘They haven’t been able to ignore the evidence you brought with you, which is why they are coming,’ he explained, ‘but they are acutely sensitive of the prospect of public ridicule if news of the meeting leaks out, so they won’t officially be here.’
Tizard had introduced Charles Dunning to Don a few days after what Don had come to think of as his ‘reversion’.
A neat, well-dressed man of about his own age, Dunning was self-effacing but had an air of quiet authority.
He had described himself as a civil servant, but his reticence combined with his remarkable ability to make things happen suggested to Don that his particular branch of the civil service probably had no official existence.
He had rapidly organised some rooms close to Whitehall in which Don had been spending most of his time, and had turned up without warning to take him to this meeting.
Dunning had assured him that although no politicians were present (
‘This
is being kept away from them until their advisers know what to make of it’) the meeting included highly influential civil servants and military advisers (‘They won’t be in uniform, but you’ll probably be able to pick them out’).
So far Don had related, for the umpteenth time, the story of his strange reversion and his summary of the events of the next decade.
He had then spent a considerable time fielding detailed questions, many of which he found surprisingly difficult to answer.
He somewhat ruefully realised the extent to which general background knowledge tends to be frustratingly unspecific.
The air was thick with smoke, cigarettes vying for pre-eminence with pipes and cigars.
Don felt ill, but was too nervous to ask for a window to be opened.
The chairman of the meeting was a lean, grey-haired man wearing the authority of one whose judgement was unquestioned.
He had chain-smoked cigarettes throughout the meeting.
‘Very well, we have heard Dr Erlang’s account.
Let us assume for the purpose of this meeting that it is accurate.
Certainly there are enough straws in the wind to make his story credible.’
He began ticking them off on his fingers.
‘Last June Hitler and Mussolini met in Venice.
At the end of that month, Hitler purged Rohm’s faction from the Nazi Party.’ (Don tried to recall when the phrase ‘Night of the Long Knives’ had been coined).
‘In August
,
the
Austrian Chancellor, Dolfuss, was assassinated by a Nazi and in the same month Hindenberg died and Hitler immediately combined his position as Chancellor with that of the Presidency.
He is clearly well on the way to becoming the unchallenged dictator of Germany.
In the light of Dr Erlang’s revelations, what response should we make?’
There was a rather uncomfortable pause.
Clearly, no-one wanted to appear foolish or gullible.
Finally, an elderly man who had not yet spoken removed his cigar and cleared his throat.
‘The key problem is clearly the German Nazi Party in general and Hitler in particular.
Japan is a separate issue of lower priority.
The question must be: how can we stop Hitler?’
An obviously cultured younger man, whom Don had tagged as a Foreign Office official, elegantly waved his cigarette holder and begged to differ.
‘From what we have heard, the Nazi Party is an inevitable expression of German frustration at the outcome of the Great War, and Hitler no more than a demagogic catalyst.
If he fell, he would be replaced by someone else with similar ambitions.’
‘But perhaps by someone more reasonable, less megalomaniac.’
This from a rather earnest, pipe-smoking individual whose application of hair cream did not entirely stifle the exuberance of his light brown curls.
‘But Hitler’s paranoiac megalomania will be the cause of his downfall.
A more rational leader may still wish to expand Germany’s boundaries but would make fewer mistakes in so doing.
Even with Hitler’s misjudgements, we have heard how close Germany will come to winning the next war.’
‘But if only half of what we have heard is correct, Hitler is appallingly evil.’
‘
All the
better.
It gives us a much less ambiguous target.
A more reasonable man might be much harder to turn public opinion against, particularly in America.’
The last speaker was clearly military, although Don was unable to guess the Service.
‘Could the League of Nations be used in some way?’
‘No fear’, retorted Diplomat with feeling, ‘If we try to encourage them to take a more active role, they would just expect us to contribute most of the military forces. We could end up being dragged into a war anyway, in circumstances not of our choosing.’
‘Is there no way we can persuade the Germans away from their folly?
Show them our evidence?
Get them to see reason?’
Creamed Curls was sounding desperate.
Military Man was unmoved.
‘War appears inevitable.
Dr Erlang is the biggest secret weapon we will have.
His existence must not be revealed.’
There was a thoughtful pause.
Chairman broke the silence.
‘I agree that the consequences of revealing Dr Erlang’s existence are too incalculable to be risked, in terms of public opinion as well as German reaction.
Events would be set off on an entirely new course which could result in a much more disastrous outcome for this country.
And the interests of this country must be paramount in our minds.’
Don shuffled, feeling he ought to protest, but was stilled by the murmurs of agreement around the table.
Chairman was warming to his theme.
‘Let us consider the situation.
We are warned of a terrible war which we, none the less, will win.
It is therefore to our advantage to take no radical steps which might affect the outcome, but to make whatever adjustments appear necessary to our policies in order to reduce our losses and end the war in a more favourable position.’
There was much nodding around the table.
‘Some gentle nudges on the tiller,’ murmured Diplomat, ‘take in a reef here or there.
Changes which, begging your pardon’ – this to Don – ‘would do no harm even if your promised apocalypse turns out to be a damp squib.’
‘We are agreed then,’ stated Chairman with justified confidence.
‘It might be helpful for us to have a preliminary tour around our foreign and defence policies in order to identify areas which could do with attention.’
‘Mustn’t forget the empire,’ observed a man whose ruddy face was emphasised by his white hair, ‘incredible about those Japanese.
I wouldn’t have thought they would have the nerve, let alone the ability, to pose any risk to ourselves or the Americans.’
‘I agree entirely,’ smoothed Diplomat, ‘but from what we have heard, the errors which cost so dear - beg pardon, will cost; or should it be would have cost?
These tenses are becoming confusing.
No matter – the forecast problems in the Far East should be easy enough to correct with better preparation.’
‘That depends,’ responded Ruddy Face, ‘the Navy can’t be expected to deal with Japan at the same time as Germany and Italy. It would be highly dangerous to risk war with Japan unless we could be assured that America will fight with us.’
‘From what we have heard,’ commented Chairman, ‘that should not be too much of a problem.’
There was a thoughtful pause.
‘Are we agreed on that?’
Enquired Chairman.
Emphatic nods.
‘Very well then, let us turn to the German question.
What are our
options.
’
Creamed Curls was still optimistic.
‘We could speed up re-armament and take a tougher line with Hitler; aim to stop him at some point before the attack on Poland.
Perhaps the re-occupation of the
Rhineland
?
The crisis over
Czechoslovakia
?’
‘That would only postpone the conflict’ (this from Elderly Cigar) ‘and it’s not feasible anyway unless we have full backing from France.’
‘Can’t we attempt to convince France of the need to re-arm and take a strong line as well?’
Elderly Cigar looked incredulous.
‘My dear chap, have you been over there?
Read their newspapers?
Listened to their politicians?
They are perpetually torn apart by conflict between left and right-wing groups and have no political stability at all. And while most countries are pulling out of the Depression, French production is still declining. What’s more, they were so traumatised by the slaughter of the Great War that they would do almost anything to avoid conflict. They intend to hide behind their Maginot Line and haven’t the will to confront anything.
I am actually astonished that they are apparently going to stick to their treaty obligations and back us over Poland.’
Chairman frowned.
‘Very well then, what other options do we have?’
Military Man had no doubts.
‘Re-arm more quickly and effectively, persuade the French to do the same – as far as possible – and concentrate on defeating Germany as soon as possible after 1939, when they’re still busy with invading Poland and simultaneously covering the Russians to ensure that they don’t advance too far.’
‘Risky, given German strength and French weakness
,‘
murmured Diplomat.
‘Let’s face
it,
it’s clear that in order to guarantee German defeat, we would have to bring the Russians in against them.
This will only happen if Germany attacks
Russia
,
and Germany won’t do that unless France is defeated first.’