633 Squadron 6.Operation Titan by Frederick E.Smith

Author:Frederick E.Smith [Frederick E.Smith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Military Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Thunderchild Publishing
Published: 2018-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Davies gave a start. “Guns? How can we put guns in ’em?”

“We must have them, sir.” Murmurs of agreement came from the two Flight Commanders as Moore went on: “We could have been wiped out today without dropping a single bomb.”

“That was an accident. It won’t happen on the day.”

“How can you be sure? From all this training we’re obviously going to carry out a low level attack of some kind. We’re sitting ducks at that height without armament.”

Davies scowled. “You’ll be getting an escort.”

“We had one today, sir, and look what happened. There’s another factor. If we’d had guns, they would have been a distraction to those flak posts. As it was they made it difficult for us to fly straight and level.”

“But, dammit Moore, it’s not possible. They’ll never get cannon in, not even the short-barrelled kind. The bomb bays are too full.”

Moore was not giving an inch. “Even Brownings will be better than nothing. We must have some armament, sir.”

With his scowl deepening, Davies turned towards the white-haired civilian alongside him. Barnes Wallis had flown into Sutton Craddock shortly after Moore and his men had taken off and had spent the next two hours anxiously waiting for news. His anxiety had seemed equally shared between concern for the crews’ safety and the success or failure of his invention. Adams, that observer of human nature, had found this mental conflict fascinating. There was no doubt that because of his inventions Wallis had probably caused more enemy casualties than the most bloodthirsty Allied general, and there had been a time when Adams would have argued that it was this inability of scientists to reconcile their better natures to their inventions that posed one of the greatest threats to mankind. Now Adams was more tolerant, accepting that scientists were also human beings who had to work within the framework other human beings had created. From the few words he had passed with Wallis, Adams was now satisfied he was a kindly man who, convinced his country was threatened by one of the worst tyrannies the world had known, felt it was his duty to defend England with every means his inventive ability could bring it.

“What do you think, sir?” Davies asked. “Is it possible?”

“There might be one or two problems, Davies. But I can’t really see why not.”

Davies’ turned back to Moore who, along with his two flight Commanders and the PR pilot, had come into the Operations Room immediately after landing. “All right, I’ll have a talk with de Havilland. If it can be done, we’ll see if the Ministry will order a crash programme, although with everyone already working flat out I can’t promise anything. Now, do you mind if we talk about the operation itself? What exactly happened?”

Moore gave a resume of the four attacks the Mosquitoes had made. When he had finished, Davies glanced at the PR pilot. “Had you a good view of all this?”

The tall pilot, with his enormous moustache, had the accent and self-assurance of a West End playboy.

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