The Last Flight of XM594 - A P&S Spin-off.

[John Farson]

Why run? You'll only die tired, to coin a phrase.

Then again, as an avid jogger, that might just be the way I'd wanna go if I knew I was gonna get vaporized.

If I'm fast enough I can outrun the blast radius. If not, I get nuked while in the middle of an adrenaline-induced high. I can think of less interesting ways to go.

 

[Wolf]

Then again, as an avid jogger, that might just be the way I'd wanna go if I knew I was gonna get vaporized.

If I'm fast enough I can outrun the blast radius. If not, I get nuked while in the middle of an adrenaline-induced high. I can think of less interesting ways to go.

If it was me I'd go up to my roof, wearing sunglasses and spend my last few seconds watching the fireworks.


Also I guess I should say: Sic transit mundi

 

[Baron Bizarre]

I always said that if I knew the nukes were coming, and that I had no reasonable chance of escape, I'd get the smallest umbrella I could find, make a small sign that said "yipe", go outside, and go out doing one last Wile E. Coyote impersonation.

 

[John Farson]

If it was me I'd go up to my roof, wearing sunglasses and spend my last few seconds watching the fireworks.


Also I guess I should say: Sic transit mundi

I always said that if I knew the nukes were coming, and that I had no reasonable chance of escape, I'd get the smallest umbrella I could find, make a small sign that said "yipe", go outside, and go out doing one last Wile E. Coyote impersonation.

Hey JN, Chipperback et al, you getting all this? Who says the apocalypse has to be without humour?

 

[Lemon flavoured]

The third warhead overshot its target by quite a distance and initiated right above the spire of Lincoln Cathedral.

This makes me Dunno why really, but I guess it's because I went to Lincoln Uni and saw the cathedral every day (and I was kind of hoping Lincoln would escape a direct hit in this TL).

There's something harrowing about the understatement here, this absolute yearning that's just expressed quietly - the poor guy know's he's a ghost.

Agreed, but it does seem very British lol.

 

[CaliBoy1990]

I always said that if I knew the nukes were coming, and that I had no reasonable chance of escape, I'd get the smallest umbrella I could find, make a small sign that said "yipe", go outside, and go out doing one last Wile E. Coyote impersonation.

I really couldn't help but LMAO at that.

 

[markjones980]

This makes me Dunno why really, but I guess it's because I went to Lincoln Uni and saw the cathedral every day (and I was kind of hoping Lincoln would escape a direct hit in this TL).

Exact same feelings, but with Waddo and Scampton in such close proximity, Lincoln was bound to get glassed. I sat in silence for a couple of minutes after reading the last two chapters, remembering only four months back, me and the Missus walking around a floodlit Lincoln Cathedral. A beautiful, awe inspiring sight. For me, up there with your best writings Jan. Bravo Sir.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Exact same feelings, but with Waddo and Scampton in such close proximity, Lincoln was bound to get glassed. I sat in silence for a couple of minutes after reading the last two chapters, remembering only four months back, me and the Missus walking around a floodlit Lincoln Cathedral. A beautiful, awe inspiring sight. For me, up there with your best writings Jan. Bravo Sir.

It doesn't help that I only live about 16 miles away anyway. My family in this TL (I wasn't born till '86) might survive the initial exchange, but I'm not sure they'd last long (Would depend on the fallout from the Nottingham bomb, assuming the wind was going that way, or the fallout from the ones in Lincolnshire if it was going the other way).

 

[sloreck]

During the Cold War I was with USN VP (patrol aviation/ASW). We figured, depending upon whether we were at a stateside base or deployed, that our maximum lifespan was 4+ hours depending on whether we were a missile or bomber target (would depend on where we were). In some cases, deployed sites were on islands - no place to go. In no instance were there shelters that could ride out even a near miss. The flight crews would be airborne hunting boomers &/or being dispersed.....

 

[NoOneFamous]

Damn scary and damn good

 

[Shaby]

Both thumbs up for this. I'd be very sorry if your crew does not manage to come back. I know that their chance of return is virtually nil. But have them come back somewhere. Maybe Maldives or something.

 

[Mario Rossi]

Jan, you know I am a great fan and a small contributor to TLW, so I hope you take this right, but your writing here is (even) better than usual.

 

[Bernard Woolley]

Thanks, guys. Don't have time to reply in detail just now, but will do so tonight.

 

[Bernard Woolley]

VIII

‘We would have done it unhesitatingly. I really mean unhesitatingly’ – Air Vice Marshal Bobby Robson, RAF (retired), former Vulcan navigator, on receiving the ‘go’ signal to guide his Vulcan to its target in the Soviet Union.

‘…Because if we had got to that point, where I felt it was necessary to do it, then I would have done it. I’ve had terrible doubts, of course, about this. And if I had lived after having pressed that button, I could never, never have forgiven myself.’ – Former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan.

*

1754 hours. RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
“…And get me every scrap of information as soon as you have it.” Air Chief Marshal Sir David Craig, CINCUKAIR and AOC-in-C RAF Strike Command said into the telephone urgently.

The former Hunter and Vulcan pilot turned to the man in shirtsleeves standing beside him.

“We need a decision from you now, Minister, before it is too late.”
“Any word from the Prime Minister?” The Right Honourable Michael Heseltine, MP, Secretary of State for Defence, and one of the Prime Minister’s three nuclear deputies, asked.
“Op VISITATION will be picking her up now, but we don’t have time to wait, Minister.” Craig said urgently. “If you don’t make a decision now, it will be too late.”
“Send the signal.” Heseltine said simply.

He turned and walked off to the room that had been set aside in the bunker for him. It would be the last time that any human being would set eyes on him, at least in this life.

“Get the message out NOW!” Craig yelled.

A loud klaxon sounded a few seconds after the order was transmitted, accompanied by a rotating red light. It was the warning that incoming Soviet warheads were only thirty seconds away.
Craig said a few quiet prayers.

“God forgive us.” Were his last words.

*

While the ‘go’ order had been transmitted from RAF High Wycombe just in time the same order had also come from CANTICLEER and from the Chief of the Defence Staff sailing in wide circles somewhere in the North Atlantic aboard HMY Britannia.

While most of the RAF’s Vulcans got airborne in time, not all made it. For example at RAF Aldergrove, where two bombers from No.101 Squadron had been dispersed to, there was an appalling accident. Unknown to the military authorities, airline staff on the civilian side of the airport had made their own survival plan.
When the ‘hooter’ had gone they had boarded two old BAC One-Elevens and had headed for the runway. Unfortunately due to fog the visibility was not great, the leading 1-11 ran into the second Vulcan, XL426, causing a massive explosion that killed everybody aboard both aircraft.
While neither WE.177B bombs on board the bomber initiated, lots of highly radioactive plutonium was spread across the airfield.
A minute after the accident two Soviet 750kt warheads made it somewhat irrelevant.

At RAF Machrihanish the first Vulcan to get airborne, XM575, suffered a major birdstrike, which knocked out both port Olympus engines as she climbed out. Being heavily loaded with weapons and fuel she could not maintain her climb.

“Bale out! Bale out!” The pilot yelled to the rear crew.
“Eject while you can!” The Plot nav yelled back, knowing that only the pilots really had a chance of survival.

The pilot was about to reply that he was not going to abandon the aircraft while anybody was still aboard when the nose plunged into the North Channel. The big bomber cartwheeled over and over, breaking up into a million pieces.

XM594, over the North Sea.
“Getting a coded message in from Strike Command.” Squadron Leader Currie reported. “It’s the ‘go’ code.” He said a moment later. “Check it for me, Jack.”

Pilot Officer Macragge took the coded message and decoded it for himself, rather than relying on Currie’s efforts.

“Confirm, Pilot, it’s the ‘go’ code.”
“Getting two more messages in, give me a minute….it’s the ‘go’ code again.”
“Looks like we’re on.” Flight Lieutenant Tootal commented.
“Okay, lads, this is the real thing.” Winters told his crew. “We’ve practised for this for years, just do what you’ve been trained to do and don’t think about anything else. Make sure the curtains are closed; I don’t want anybody flash-blinded.
“Anything out there we need to worry about, Mark?” He asked the AEO.
“Lots of electronic sources out there, Skipper.” Jones replied. “I reckon that there are a lot of aircraft out there. Not a lot of ground radars though; can’t pick up a lot of ground radio signals either.
“Picking up what sounds like a fighter…do you want to hear a bit?”
“Sure.” Winters said, like everybody else he wanted to know a bit more about what was going on outside his bomber.

“GCI, Taragon One, Five, I have Tally-Ho on two ‘Backfires’…engaging…Fox One!
“Target is evading…launching chaff…missile compensating…that’s a kill…bloody hell those new Skyflash missiles are good…” The Vulcan crew could hear the enthusiasm in the fighter pilot’s voice.
“Taragon One, Five, GCI, well done…keep up the good work.”

“Taragon is a 43 Squadron call-sign, if memory serves.” Winters commented. “Good luck mate, maybe you’ll save us something to come back to.” He whispered.

XM594 continued over the North Sea towards the point over southern Norway that had long been designated as the beginning of the ‘run in’ to targets in the USSR. The one problem with this route was that it took them over part of Sweden and nobody really knew if the Swedes would shoot at them or not.
Well it was time to find out.


***
BAC One Eleven.

Taragon One Five.

 

[Falkenburg]

Poor old Aldergrove.

Are those two 750kt warheads in addition to the (probable) strike(s) on Belfast?
IIRC, Stroke City also gets plastered.

Just trying to figure out how many 'Heads hit Norn Iron. Academic as I'm certainly tattie bread very soon.

Falkenburg

 

[Bernard Woolley]

In addition because Aldergrove is targeted as a Vulcan dispersal field in its own right.

 

[AndyC]

Just commenting to say from the point of view of a serving RAF Officer who's been on dispersal bomber airfields and in the bunker at High Wycombe ...

Bloody well written.

 

[Mario Rossi]

I'll repeat my comment for the previous post and add that the Vulcan downed by a birdstrike remembered me a novel by S. King set in Romero's world where a warped version of the SDI, that of course had been almost a casus belli with USSR, was entitled to shoot down a "Zombie Asteroid" only to fail to launch a single weapon. I believe the final line was something like "A good epitaph for modern technology".

 

[Shaby]

Just commenting to say from the point of view of a serving RAF Officer who's been on dispersal bomber airfields and in the bunker at High Wycombe ...

Oooooh. Awed. This is great praise for the author.

 

[Dunois]

Great update Jan!

Since RAF Elvington is not on the target list done by Macragge, then the very good news is that the Vulcan crew will have something to go back to!

Neither Aldergrove nor Lincoln were on Macragge target list but since it was incomplete, we sadly have to add them to it ... It does not make much difference anyways since Lincoln is close to Scrampton and Aldergrove to Belfast.