As much as I love the, "Links oder Rechts?" moment, Kat's skillset is like a really well made multitool by now.
Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Part 124, Chapter 2099
Chapter Two Thousand Ninety-Nine
15th October 1971
Curicó, Maule, Chile
“There are two truths that are working for us here” Manny said when he had explained the new plan to the others. “The first is that every South American city of any size seems to have been built around a local garrison and the second is that there is one thing that no General can resist. Chewing out a subordinate with an audience”
The original plan had been to shoot the General north of the city as he passed through on his inspection tour. That plan was toast as soon as they had spotted the Chilean Army’s 3rd Mountain Division. The new plan that Manny had come up with was better in that it killed two birds with one stone, and it revolved around the strange package that had arrived the day before. The item inside had been what looked at first like a video camera, the thing was it was no video camera.
Manny still intended to “shoot” the General, just not with a rifle. The item in question fired a laser beam, which Christian had thought was a joke at first. Until Manny explained that the laser wasn’t the weapon, it guided the weapon that had been dropped from somewhere high overhead. Still, that sounded like something from science fiction. Apparently, it wasn’t an accident that they had not heard of this before, few outside of Wunsdorf had.
That was why they had worked their way to the wire at the edge of the airfield that housed the local garrison and were watching as a Packard Limousine stopped and a man who you tell was an asshole just by the way he walked got out after the door was opened for him and he started berating another man.
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The Second World War had shown the value of high-flying recon planes that could loiter over the area and observe what was happening on any given battlefield. The recon plane in question looked like a large pencil with almost comically long wings. The fuel and engines were in wing mounted pods to reduce volume inside the fuselage. While orbiting satellites had cut into their mission somewhat, they still provided a valuable service. There was also one more secretive mission that they had perfected in recent years involving technology that no one else in the world had and the High Command was interested in keeping it that way. However, a high value target had presented itself and a field test was in order.
“Rook, we are nearing waypoint omicron” Oxcart, the pilot, said into the radio. “Are we to proceed?”
“Oxcart, Gold Three is in position” Rook said, “Mission is a go.”
Oxcart heard that. This Gold Three must have massive balls to be so deep in enemy territory and play the role of forward air controller. Better him than me, Oxcart thought to himself as he flipped the switch to arm the heavily modified AS500 that was in an unused camera bay.
As soon as they reached the waypoint, the bomb automatically fell free of the plane and started the twenty-three-kilometer fall to earth. It swiftly accelerated past the speed of sound in the cold, thin air. The two fuses on the nose and tail armed automatically as the aircraft that had dropped it passed out of range. Passing through layers of clouds, it was buffeted by turbulence and would have been knocked off course, except the seeker in the nose fed the fins correcting information. Then it “saw” the thing it was designed to seek. A single point of bright infrared light…
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Manny understood Generals, he had three of them in his family, his father, Aunt Katherine, and Uncle Stefan. When he had studied Augusto Pinochet, he had seen the same sort of arrogance that all three of them were certainly capable of. So, when he learned about the presence of a contingent of the 3rd Mountain Division, he had seen an opportunity within the crisis. Namely that this Regiment was somewhere that it wasn’t supposed to be and when General Pinochet questioned the Commanding Officer, he would probably get a vague comment about Presidential orders. If the CO were in on Allende’s plans in any way, he couldn’t exactly tell the truth, now could he.
Manny looked through the scope of the Laser Designator watching the two men. Pinochet was ripping the Officer, who Manny assumed held a Rank that was equivalent to Oberst, a new asshole as the men around him stood at attention, looking uncomfortable. He had the laser aimed right at the hood of the General’s car. With Pinochet just a few meters away, it wouldn’t matter if the shot hit him directly or not. Manny remembered a phrase the Green Beret had used to describe situations like this when he had trained with them in Upstate New York. Horseshoes and hand grenades. He heard Ralf tell him that the shot was incoming but was focused on the task at hand. When Tilo had told him about this technology and how it was part of the contingency plan, he had hardly been able to believe it. Still, there he was.
Manny only caught a glimpse of it, a black streak that crossed his field of vision so fast that it was gone before his mind even had time to register it. He released his breath the same way that he would have with a rifle shot out of long habit. The limousine and the men around it who were standing around it on the tarmac vanished in the same instant.
15th October 1971
Curicó, Maule, Chile
“There are two truths that are working for us here” Manny said when he had explained the new plan to the others. “The first is that every South American city of any size seems to have been built around a local garrison and the second is that there is one thing that no General can resist. Chewing out a subordinate with an audience”
The original plan had been to shoot the General north of the city as he passed through on his inspection tour. That plan was toast as soon as they had spotted the Chilean Army’s 3rd Mountain Division. The new plan that Manny had come up with was better in that it killed two birds with one stone, and it revolved around the strange package that had arrived the day before. The item inside had been what looked at first like a video camera, the thing was it was no video camera.
Manny still intended to “shoot” the General, just not with a rifle. The item in question fired a laser beam, which Christian had thought was a joke at first. Until Manny explained that the laser wasn’t the weapon, it guided the weapon that had been dropped from somewhere high overhead. Still, that sounded like something from science fiction. Apparently, it wasn’t an accident that they had not heard of this before, few outside of Wunsdorf had.
That was why they had worked their way to the wire at the edge of the airfield that housed the local garrison and were watching as a Packard Limousine stopped and a man who you tell was an asshole just by the way he walked got out after the door was opened for him and he started berating another man.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Second World War had shown the value of high-flying recon planes that could loiter over the area and observe what was happening on any given battlefield. The recon plane in question looked like a large pencil with almost comically long wings. The fuel and engines were in wing mounted pods to reduce volume inside the fuselage. While orbiting satellites had cut into their mission somewhat, they still provided a valuable service. There was also one more secretive mission that they had perfected in recent years involving technology that no one else in the world had and the High Command was interested in keeping it that way. However, a high value target had presented itself and a field test was in order.
“Rook, we are nearing waypoint omicron” Oxcart, the pilot, said into the radio. “Are we to proceed?”
“Oxcart, Gold Three is in position” Rook said, “Mission is a go.”
Oxcart heard that. This Gold Three must have massive balls to be so deep in enemy territory and play the role of forward air controller. Better him than me, Oxcart thought to himself as he flipped the switch to arm the heavily modified AS500 that was in an unused camera bay.
As soon as they reached the waypoint, the bomb automatically fell free of the plane and started the twenty-three-kilometer fall to earth. It swiftly accelerated past the speed of sound in the cold, thin air. The two fuses on the nose and tail armed automatically as the aircraft that had dropped it passed out of range. Passing through layers of clouds, it was buffeted by turbulence and would have been knocked off course, except the seeker in the nose fed the fins correcting information. Then it “saw” the thing it was designed to seek. A single point of bright infrared light…
----------------------------------------------------------------
Manny understood Generals, he had three of them in his family, his father, Aunt Katherine, and Uncle Stefan. When he had studied Augusto Pinochet, he had seen the same sort of arrogance that all three of them were certainly capable of. So, when he learned about the presence of a contingent of the 3rd Mountain Division, he had seen an opportunity within the crisis. Namely that this Regiment was somewhere that it wasn’t supposed to be and when General Pinochet questioned the Commanding Officer, he would probably get a vague comment about Presidential orders. If the CO were in on Allende’s plans in any way, he couldn’t exactly tell the truth, now could he.
Manny looked through the scope of the Laser Designator watching the two men. Pinochet was ripping the Officer, who Manny assumed held a Rank that was equivalent to Oberst, a new asshole as the men around him stood at attention, looking uncomfortable. He had the laser aimed right at the hood of the General’s car. With Pinochet just a few meters away, it wouldn’t matter if the shot hit him directly or not. Manny remembered a phrase the Green Beret had used to describe situations like this when he had trained with them in Upstate New York. Horseshoes and hand grenades. He heard Ralf tell him that the shot was incoming but was focused on the task at hand. When Tilo had told him about this technology and how it was part of the contingency plan, he had hardly been able to believe it. Still, there he was.
Manny only caught a glimpse of it, a black streak that crossed his field of vision so fast that it was gone before his mind even had time to register it. He released his breath the same way that he would have with a rifle shot out of long habit. The limousine and the men around it who were standing around it on the tarmac vanished in the same instant.
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Five-hundred kilos dropped from the Stratosphere is going to leave a mark even before it goes boom.
The technology seems to be about at least 10-15 years ahead ITTL over IOTL but that is realistic as it has been established that electronics are more developed at this time compared to IOTL.
But now the secret is out unless other nations are on the same track in developing the smart bomb technology.
But now the secret is out unless other nations are on the same track in developing the smart bomb technology.
Is it? For one thing, no one knows Manny and his team are there guiding the weapon. Perhaps they don't know that someone needs to 'mark' the target on the ground for it to work.
Good point but no doubt the American Advisors are going to go over every square inch of the impact area taking photographs, measurements, soil samples for chemical analysis, and statements by any surviving witnesses to piece together what happened and while no doubt the Germans have great security there are still some information that will get out.
This will confirm the more fanciful speculation of what the Germans are capable of and when the President is briefed the first thing he will ask is if the the United States has anything like and if not why?
The US, British, Japanese, French and Italians, maybe the Swedes also will more or less "know " what happened (they won't be dead certain that it wasn't targeted from a German satellite or drone rather than by a ground team but they would be more or less able to replicate). Russians will probably find out via spies, which they have always been good at and won't be trailing all that much at technology so will be able to verify. Everyone else will put it down to a lucky strike (stupid luck and happenstance).
The chapter itself tells us that the commanders of the mountain division are likely informed about Allende's plot. Sure, they might be caught flat-footed now, but they did in fact prepare for a man-hunt and will likely still carry it out. Those were presumably their orders after all.
Yes, but remember the old quote `three men can keep a secret when two are dead`.... The regiments commander and his second in command would have been in on the plot, but I doubt others are `in` on the plot. There is no need for it. After all, a man hunt for a sniper is something of an standard drill for an military unit. And where was the CO and his second in command standing.....
Most likely that most of the Headquarters Unit of the Regiment got wiped out in the blast and it is going to take some time to sort out first what happened and second who is now in charge then third what to do next.
Plenty of time for Manny & Co. to get out to the pick up spot undetected.
Plenty of time for Manny & Co. to get out to the pick up spot undetected.
Pave way laser guided bombs were first used operationally in Vietnam in 1968 OTL. So the Germans having an equivalent in 1971 ITTL is not a ten year technology leap at all. The main problem is having the designator tough enough to survive the impact of the drop tank!
Back to "the plot", the plot was for a sniper, not an airstrike. And as no one saw a plane, it must have been a missile, after all, everyone knows that the Germans love their high tech missiles...
No one would expect a forward air observer to guide a missile, because how would they guide it?*
So no, I would not expect a man hunt. Just a long hike for Manny and his team that will be fraught with its own perils and risk of discovery.
*OK, we, the readers know, but they, the characters, don't.
No one would expect a forward air observer to guide a missile, because how would they guide it?*
So no, I would not expect a man hunt. Just a long hike for Manny and his team that will be fraught with its own perils and risk of discovery.
*OK, we, the readers know, but they, the characters, don't.
Yeah, that’d be my read too. The Chileans will be screaming about how to improve their air defences, not pursuing a team that - as far as they’re concerned - has no reason to be there.
This could kick off a whole new "Kraut Scare" in the Pentagon:
"How in Hell's name did the Krauts bomb Pinochet, not the town, not the base, not even the building but Pinochet specifically without the radar we provided... Bob, stop coughing, I know we didn't do it officially so if anyone asks we didn't, without the radar we provided picking the attack bombers up? Have they invented invisible airplanes all of a sudden? We need to know, and we need to know NOW dammit! We don't want that new Kaiser getting it into his head that he can take out the President and all of our generals because he has invisible planes and we can't stop them. I want every asset the CIA has on this RIGHT FUCKING NOW"!!!
Oh Parker, you're going to get a call soon, I can tell...
"How in Hell's name did the Krauts bomb Pinochet, not the town, not the base, not even the building but Pinochet specifically without the radar we provided... Bob, stop coughing, I know we didn't do it officially so if anyone asks we didn't, without the radar we provided picking the attack bombers up? Have they invented invisible airplanes all of a sudden? We need to know, and we need to know NOW dammit! We don't want that new Kaiser getting it into his head that he can take out the President and all of our generals because he has invisible planes and we can't stop them. I want every asset the CIA has on this RIGHT FUCKING NOW"!!!
Oh Parker, you're going to get a call soon, I can tell...
Considering that OTL 1943 the Germans developed the radio-controlled guided bomb Fritz X (which could, somewhat, reliably hit cruiser and battleship sized targets) the CIA is more going to wonder when the Germans brought a bomber large enough for such a bomb to the theater of operations (with the death of the General maybe taken as a "lucky" hit, because with a bomb almost1,4 tones heavy even a near miss is going to be deadly to infantry in the open).
IOTL the United States Navy tried to bomb German U-Boats pens by loading B-17s with explosives and having the pilots bail out afterwards the planes would be flown by remote control using television cameras, this is how Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died IOTL.
The concept of Precision Guided Munitions should be something that the United States and other countries should aware of and at least looking to see if they can develop them.
The concept of Precision Guided Munitions should be something that the United States and other countries should aware of and at least looking to see if they can develop them.
Well... yeah, probably. I mean, greatly reduced radar cross-section, not actual invisibility, of course.