“What comes to mind is that phrase ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,’” Ledbetter said.
“There were other scenarios,” Cronley went on. “One was that the Air Force had bet on the Douglas C-54 and the later C-56. Both were Air Force designs, and production was in full swing. Then Howard Hughes had come up—on his own, at his own expense—with the Constellation. It was superior in every way to the Douglas airplanes. It was faster, had a longer range, and carried more.
“And there was another scenario that was either part of that one or stood alone. Roosevelt was not fond of Juan Trippe, who owned Pan American Airlines, which had a commercial monopoly on international/intercontinental passenger service. Trippe was operating his Clippers—seaplanes—from Miami to Argentina, for example. And from New York, via the Azores, to Europe. And from the West Coast to the Pacific.
“Trippe could be taken down a peg if somebody started flying Constellations across oceans. They were much faster and had a greater range than Trippe’s Clippers. So, since the Air Force didn’t want them, Lockheed was free to sell the Constellations. But, to keep them out of the hands of Pan American/Juan Trippe, and out of the hands of Transcontinental and Western Airlines—which Howard Hughes owned although he wasn’t supposed to, and everybody knew he wanted to start across oceans with the Connies—Roosevelt ordered that the nine that Howard had sitting at the Lockheed factory couldn’t be sold to either.
“They could be sold to others. Clete’s grandfather, Cletus Marcus Howell, of Howell Petroleum, got to buy one to fly around his petroleum empire. And Roosevelt had no objection to their being sold to neutral Argentina, which he had heard was thinking of starting up an international airline.”
“Fascinating,” Ledbetter said.
“We’ll probably never know the real story,” Cronley said.
“That happens, from time to time, in our line of business,” Ledbetter said.
“Anyway, that’s how come Clete and Hansel are flying SAA Constellations,” Cronley said.
“It doesn’t explain how you got from being a second lieutenant in the CIC in Marburg to . . . where you are now,” Ledbetter said. “Is that question off-limits?”
“Yes, sorry,” Cronley said. “I can tell you this: A decision was made by a very senior government official that a good way to divert attention from Operation Ost and DCI was to put it under a very junior captain. If such an unimportant young officer was running it, it couldn’t be very important, could it?”
“Clever,” Ledbetter said.
“Just between you and me, Colonel, not to get any further, General Seidel and Company are right. I am just about totally unqualified to be head of DCI-Europe—”
“I challenge that,” Mannberg said.
“And so do I, Jim,” Tiny Dunwiddie said. “We’ve had this discussion, and you’re still wrong.”
“And I, Captain Cronley,” Ledbetter said, “know General Greene well enough to know he wouldn’t have ordered me to do whatever you ask if he thought—”
“And as an example of that,” Cronley interrupted, “the distinguished head of DCI-Europe, after due consideration of the problem of getting Mattingly back from the fucking Russians, has come up with a brilliant plan to do so.”
“Which is?”
“Tomorrow morning I am going to go out to the Glienicke Bridge so that Comrade Serov can see me and see that I am obeying his orders, and then I am going to fly back to Munich and bury three of Comrade Serov’s comrades according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church as he ordered me to do.”
“And?” Tiny asked.
“That’s it. I don’t have a fucking clue how to get Mattingly back from the fucking Russians. That’s why I shouldn’t be chief, DCI-Europe.”
There was a moment’s silence.
Then Cronley added, “Herr von Wachtstein, would you be so kind as to slide the Haig & Haig down this way?”
X
[ ONE ]
Glienicke Bridge
Wannsee, U.S. Zone of Berlin
0625 31 January 1946
Colonel Ledbetter offered them the choice of a Ford staff car or a jeep for what Cronley had dubbed “Our oh-dark-hundred look at the bridge.”
“A jeep, I think, will attract less attention,” Cronley said.