Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Ninety-One
25th May 1962
Montreal, Canada
As the Director of the project that was overseeing the technology transfers to Canada, Sir Malcolm Blackwood was present when the studies of the Pfeil arrived in Montreal. It certainly made for an interesting afternoon.
The Engineers who had worked on the Avro CF-105 Arrow regarded the Arado Ar-414 Pfeil with horror since they had learned that the Germans had fitted it with Junkers Turbofan Engines with no afterburner. Turning a thoroughbred into a plough horse was how it had been termed. The Germans had ruined the clean lines of the Arrow by placing hardpoints on the wings and how the faring around the muzzle of a 30mm rotary-chamber cannon was protruding out the side of the nose. There was also armor that had been incorporated into the structure around the cockpit. The fear was that the Canadian Government would start asking questions about the priorities surrounding the development of the Arrow.
Now they were getting reems of data and reports about the Pfeil in action. It seemed that the Germans had not made it into a plough horse, they had made it into a vicious bloody-minded brute along the lines of the untamable Strawberry Roan in the old Cowboy song. Sir Malcolm was looking at photograph after photograph of airplanes returning to base with an astonishing amount of battle damage. The Engineers had commented about that damage, the airplanes being overloaded and flying at low altitude inside the range of hostile air defense. They didn’t seem to understand that these were planes that were returning from missions after sustaining that kind of damage.
Then there was what Malcolm was learning about the air-to-air missiles that the Germans were using, coupled with the fire control system. The Engineers were saying that it was at least a decade ahead of anything that they currently had. They were also grudgingly discussing how they could incorporate many of the changes that the Germans had made into the next variant of the Arrow.
Dresden, Saxony
They were sitting in the back of a car that was driving them to the center of Dresden. This visit was hardly a joyful occasion. Albert, the Crown Prince of Saxony had been killed in action while leading a Company with the 4th Panzer Division in Korea. He had been twenty-seven years of age and he had been the only surviving male heir to the Saxon throne, an older brother having been killed fighting the Soviets in 1944. Of the two daughters that Friedrich Christian had, only Anna was seen as a capable successor of her father. When the laws regarding Royal Succession had been changed at Louis Ferdinand’s prompting, this had always been a possibility, just he had no idea that it would happen so soon. In time, Saxony would have Queen Anna, the First of her name, and the House of Wettin was never going to be the same.
“They need to understand that these are consequences that every family in Germany has faced at some point and that I have children in harms way as well” Louis said looking out through the bullet-proof glass at the city that was in the middle of official mourning.
“People aren’t always rational when they’ve just lost a loved one” Charlotte replied, “And the entire ethos of service that you have been pushing was one of the things that caused Albert to volunteer when he left University.”
One of the things that Louis had always liked about Lotte is that she was always willing to tell him the truth. That didn’t mean that it was necessarily something that he was happy to hear.
“You think that they will be unhappy to see me?” Louis asked.
“Yes” Charlotte replied, “Not just you though, I think that they will be angry at the world. You just happen to be a part of it. However, they will appreciate that you came to offer condolences.”
“I’ll try to remember that” Louis said.
“Also, don’t bring up that you have children in Korea” Charlotte said, “They already know that, so it comes across as patronizing.”
Louis had been keeping tabs as best he could on them. Kristina had gotten herself promoted and received an Iron Cross, First Class with the Heer Air Service Clasp by running up staggering amounts of hours in the air running evacuation missions that brought wounded from the frontlines to hospital facilities. The promotion had resulted in her spending considerably more time managing others rather than taking on dangerous missions and working until she fell over. Louis had been happy to hear that, though knowing Kristina he figured that it was only a matter of time until she figured out a new way to ram herself into the ground. Michael was with the 5th Panzer Brigade but had yet to see much action. The 2nd Army Corps was saving its armored formations for something big that was in the offing. Louis just hoped that Michael wouldn’t do anything too crazy. Louis Junior was aboard the SMS Brandenburg. That ship could stand up to everything shy of an atomic bomb, so among Louis’ children he was probably in the safest position if he stayed there. That was a very big if. Louis feared that he would also volunteer for something crazy.
Of his children in Berlin, Louis had appointed Friedrich to be his representative in the effort to rebuild and improve the flood control in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. He had mentioned volunteering to go to Korea himself, but Louis had put him off and would continue to do so until Hell froze over if he had to. Rea was still continuing her lonely protest in front of the U.S. Embassy. This had finally caused a bit of a thaw in the relationship between Rea and Vicky, it seemed that Vicky agreed with what Rea was trying to do even if she didn’t agree with how she was going about doing it. Finally, there was Antonia. She was still a small child and considering the rumors that Louis had been hearing about Kristina dating and having possibly found someone who loved her, he hoped that Antonia remained a small child forever.
