Cold Peace

“So, tell me about your runway, Robin.”

Robin kept his eye on the wind, waves and their heading, the tiller clamped under his arm and one foot braced on the opposite seat as he answered, “Back in April when the Soviets closed the land access routes, fully loaded Dakotas were landing just thirty minutes apart with the result that our PSP runway started to disintegrate. It wasn’t in the best of condition to start with, but the point is it couldn’t have taken much more traffic. So, I asked and received funds to lay down a proper 2,000-foot concrete runway.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Robin,” Frank started with a smile on his lips but deadly serious eyes, “but that sounds to me like you expect the Ruskies to close the land routes again.”

“Don’t you?”

“I’m surprised they haven’t already done it! It’s like waiting for the second shoe to fall!” Frank answered in exasperation. “I don’t know what they’re waiting for and it’s driving me crazy! Then again, the more alarmist captains on my staff think that the Ruskies may not bother with the access routes next time and will just send in the tanks.” Although not worded as a question, Emily sensed that the American was probing. 

“Nothing’s impossible, I agree, but we have no indications that such a development is likely. My Spitfire patrols have reported no concentration of Soviet ground forces on the borders to Berlin. We’ll see something building up before they strike.”

“The women are getting nervous, though,” Edith volunteered. “You missed the luncheon in April, Emily, but some of the wives were almost hysterical. They insisted that they and their children ought to be sent home ‘before it was too late.’”

“Yeah, a bunch of officers put in requests to send their families home,” Frank admitted, flashing a grin at his wife. Turning to the Priestmans he reported, “General Clay said he’d be happy to send any officer home who was ‘uncomfortable with the situation’ — but only after telling them it was ‘unbecoming’ of an American officer to ‘show signs of nervousness.’” 

The Priestmans laughed and Edith concluded, “So that’s why they were all so subdued at this last meeting!” 

“‘He who hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart. His passport shall be made and crowns for convoy put into his purse. We would not die in that man’s company, who fears his fellowship to die with us.’” Robin quoted.

It took only a couple of seconds for Edith to identify the source but then exclaimed delightedly, “Shakespeare’s Henry V!”  

“Yes,” Robin confirmed, flashing her a grin of approval before adding, “The quote from the same play that used to upset us during the Battle of France, however, was: ‘Once more onto the breach, dear friends, once more — or fill the wall up with our English dead.’”

They laughed, but there was an edge to the laughter too. Robin ended it by soberly telling Frank, “To date, the Soviets have consistently taken incremental steps. Suddenly sending in the tanks would be a break with that pattern. They don’t want to take control of our Sectors against heroic resistance. Armed resistance, no matter how futile, would expose them as the aggressors they are, result in casualties on both sides and probably spark a greater response. My guess is they want to humiliate us -- as well as force us out of Berlin. They want to make us strike the flag and retreat with our tails between our legs so they can ridicule, taunt and laugh at us as we go.”

Howley nodded thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re probably right.”

Robin continued, “I also think they’re looking for a pretext to strike. They’re waiting for us to make some move which they can cast as aggressive. That way, they can depict their actions as defensive.” For a moment, nobody spoke, and the sound of water racing past the hull of the boat and wind in the rigging seemed louder. Waves had built up on the Havel and raced after them. Curling and hissing, the agitated water overtook the sailboat causing it to corkscrew increasingly uncomfortably. 

Frank drew a deep breath and declared. “If you’re right, then the currency reform is the most likely trigger. They know we can’t allow them to keep printing money without controls, but if we introduce a new currency that they can’t print, they lose a very lucrative means of enriching themselves at our expense.”

Robin nodded. “A sound currency is certainly key to getting the economy working again. Any idea when the new currency is going to be introduced?”

Frank looked uncomfortable, like a man who knew more than he was at liberty to say. “Let’s just say we’re talking weeks not months.”

Robin nodded but he looked worried. Emily remembered him saying it would be six weeks or more before the concrete runway could be finished, and even the new PSP runway wouldn’t arrive until this coming week, meaning it was ten days away from being ready.

Frank picked up the conversation. “Whatever the cause, whenever the Ruskies close down the access routes again, Clay isn’t going to take it sitting down. He’s had enough.”  

“Meaning he’d risk war?” Robin asked, for a moment taking his eyes off their course to meet Frank’s eyes.

“He doesn’t think it will come to that. He thinks if we show any backbone, they’ll back down. So do I.” Frank underlined firmly.

Robin nodded. “D’accord. But to be on the safe side, I did some calculations on whether — with a concrete runway — we could fly in enough food, fuel and ammo to keep the garrison operational. We can. That means we wouldn’t have to fight — just fly.”

“Why don’t my flyboys think like you?”

Robin laughed. “What I don’t know is where the Germans stand in all this. If the Soviets try to push us out of Berlin and we resist, whose side will the Berliners take? Will they be out in the streets yelling ‘Yankee Go Home! And ‘Down with British Imperialism’?”

“Maybe, but in my opinion, it doesn’t matter. We still have to stand up to Stalin or he’s just going to keep on gobbling up countries.”

Robin squinted up at the sails, looked into the wind then downwind toward their destination, which was rapidly approaching. Finally, he looked over at Frank and shook his head. “I disagree. I think it does matter where the Germans stand. If we are surrounded not only by the Soviets but also by a hostile population, then it makes no sense to take a stand in Berlin. We’d be better off spending our scarce resources to defend Greece or Denmark or the Channel Islands — wherever the Soviet expansion runs up against grass-roots resistance.”

Howley took a moment to digest that answer and flashed Robin a grin. “Good point, but I think you’ll find we’ve got more support here than you think.”