Norfolk Naval Base
0832 June 22nd 1940The British were coming.
The arrival of the ship had been advised as occurring at some point before 0930, depending on winds for some reason. The Army Air Corps and the Navy both naturally had patrol planes up and out looking for the British ship over the last 24 hours, but to no avail. The interception of the
Rex had after all occurred to an ocean liner operating in peacetime conditions, but this was still a vexing failure; the new radars would put paid to this.
Vice-Admiral Ernest King, as a member of the General Board, had been ordered to Norfolk for the arrival of British delegation, but had drawn the fairly short straw of awaiting it aboard USS
New York, rather than with the shoreside party. Thus, it was, after substantive internal grumbling about the damned Limeys, he found himself on the battleship's bridge when the XAF radar starting going berserk that fine summer morn. Something big was flying in, high and relatively fast, at over 45,000 feet and 250mph.
It was not long after the radar indiciation that one of the Navy's patrol planes picked up on the British aircraft and sent the rather shocked radio message "It's a goddamned flying ship!"
This rather put a different cast on the morning and things did not get better as it got closer quite rapidly, swelling from a speck on the far horizon to a rather more concerning sight as it hove into land. King had initially thought it to be some sort of dirigible, but that impression had been a rather deceptive function of the protuberances of the flying vessel's hull. It was at least eight hundred feet long and seemed to be fitted with a variety of guns, all manner of aerials and protuberances and of course a few large British roundels and even a hastily painted Union Jack for good measure.
Where in the hell have they been hiding that and HOW in the hell is that thing flying?With a delicacy that belied her size, the ship touched down gently on Chambers Field at 0916, after some
very swift radio discussions, and the British delegation, lead by a rather green looking Ambassador Kennedy and consisting of Sir Anthony Eden, Lord Chatfield, the Earl of Cork, Lord Ironside, Lord Trenchard and a bevy of other assorted generals, admirals, Air Marshals, ministers and civil servants disembarked down the smoothly extended steel gangplank. There, after the zephyr of an awkward pause, to meet them was the American reception committee, consisting of General George C. Marshall, General Henry H. Arnold, Admiral Harold Stark, the new Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and the President's personal emissary Harold Hopkins.
"Good morning, gentlemen. I am glad we weren't late, as we only left Plymouth at 8 o'clock last night. Fluctuations in the aetheric tide, I'm told. I would propose that we retire to the nearest suitable building; there is much we have to discuss." Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sir Anthony Eden smiled apologetically.
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"Well, Harry, in the circumstances, I'm doubly glad you came up here."
"Yes, Mr. President. I felt it would be better to hear it directly from me...else you might find it difficult to believe. Frankly, I find it difficult to believe myself and I saw it with my own two eyes."
“A flying ship.”
”They call it a ‘skyship’, but that is exactly what it was. They were quite open with its design and how it flies, which seems to be some forms of super lifting gas and new minerals unique to their world.”
”So it is true, then. They come from a different Earth.”
”As incredible as it seems, Mr. President, it appears that is the case. Not only a different Earth than our own, but from the future - 1943 to be precise. They’ve been at war for four years and have mobilised their industrial capacity and population to a far greater level than ‘our England’. They have more of both as well - over 116 million people and an economy…if their figures are accurate, it is a third larger than our own.”
If President Franklin D. Roosevelt was taken aback by the effective demotion of the United States of America to the second rank of world economic powers, he did not show it.
First things first.“How did Ambassador Kennedy strike you?”
”Shell shocked, Mr. President, but the same Joe Kennedy. His position has been shifted a little, after all. The British say that they intend to finish the war within six months. Before this morning, and even after the reports that have come out of Berlin, I would have thought it crazy. Now, I’m not so sure.”
”What do they need?”
”A lot of food and materials, apparently. Their economy snd industry is highly focussed on war production and all of their established trade routes and arrangements have been effectively wiped clear. They don’t seem to want weapons or ammunition at this time, but the figures they bought over for fuel, steel and explosives are astronomical.”
”It would seem that the best way to beat Hitler is to sell them what they need. After that…well, after that we shall see what happens. Now, what details did they share about their Navy?”
”Mr. President, the numbers seem to be accurate, apparently. If they are lying about the size of the Royal Navy, we’ll find out shortly. They were quite enthusiastic about having a delegation from our Navy fly back over to acquaint us with their forces and capabilities; they are quite keen on Vice-Admiral King to be part of it for some reason.”
”We can do that. They may be larger than us, for the moment, but we will catch up with them, even these fleets of ‘sky-ships’ they have. Seeing Hitler and Mussolini beaten and this business with Japan never occurring,” Roosevelt gestured at the black and white pictures of the aftermath of Pearl Harbor with his cigarette holder “will be absolutely in our interests, without our needing to actually fight. We can be like a mighty factory and workshop for the fighting Allies. An arsenal of democracy, if you will.”
”I like the ring of that phrase, Mr. President. It’s got some resonance to it. There is one thing in our favour - they like us, the British. They aren’t as hard up as our old England, but they are very grateful and positively inclined towards us. Eden said that Prime Minister Churchill is keen for a meeting, as soon as the war situation allows it…” Hopkins paused, trying to find the words he sought
”What is it, Harry?”
”For all of that bon homie and gratitude, it was a different kind of positivity; they mean kindly and good, but this kind of patronising…I haven’t seen it from the English since before the last war. It was like what you might find visiting some more backwards cousins in the country.”
Prescient Roosevelt blanched internally.
Having a smaller battlefleet and none of these marvellous sky-ships was one thing, but being compared to the Oyster Bay Roosevelts?