R. Michael Gordon’s: The Aftermath of the War of the Worlds (Part-59)

[PART 59]

Deceptive War – Psychological Operations

Under the direction of Directorate L (CM 33-1), world military forces had developed a full program of deception operations directed at camouflaging, misdirecting, covering up, and generally attempting to confuse the Martians at every possible turn. The plan was simply to do everything we could think of to mislead the Martians at every turn. We were to look strong where we were weak, to look weak where we were strong, to build fake facilities open to attacks, to build underground facilities (already well along) not recognizable from the air or ground, to hide as much as we could above and below ground, to broadcast false and misleading radio traffic from as many areas as possible. In short, they were to cloud every issue they could in order to help defeat the Martians by forcing them to waste their limited resources on attacks where no threat lay and to hit them when and where they least expected. Commissioned were three Psyop Groups with both military and civilian personnel assigned with overlapping areas of responsibility. The civilians would be led by members from the Martian Research Center. They were tasked with the largest propaganda effect ever conceived by mankind and they had been working on it for years. Now it was time to put their plans into full operation.

PSYOP GROUP ONE

LOWER-NEW YORK CITY – RADIO OPERATIONS

Radio misdirection with a full range of broadcasts from fake news reports, pre-recorded phone calls, civilian radio reports as well as fake military radio operations were planned across the entire Earth in the likely event of a new Martian War. There would be by final count some 14,400 local low power broadcast radio centers broadcasting false radio messages mostly on false military matters around the world expecting to be picked up by Martian forces. Part of this plan also included radio broadcasts from outlying areas which were built up to resemble small towns. The Martians would be expected to focus on many of these ‘radio active’ sites which were designed to broadcast at a slightly higher power to attract attention with the expectation that the Martians would expend their limited military resources on attacking these false targets.

THE MARS RADIO TRAPS

Knowing full well that the enemy was listening to everything we were broadcasting at all levels, 14 primary high power Radio Operation Areas (ROAs) were set up in areas where there was nothing but fake buildings, false equipment and a radio transmitter putting out a stream of calls none of which were real. These deception operations, designed to draw in the Martians, were surrounded by as many as 100 anti-aircraft weapons designed to engage ground targets as well as airborne threats. These deception areas soon became known as “Mars Radio Traps” for obvious reasons. Their locations were a closely held Committee secret before the war, but all now know where the remains of the most famous ROAs may be found today. The three most famous were MRT4 in the Arizona desert of America, MRT9 at Kotlas in the windswept steppes of Russia and MRT14 on Necker Island in the northern Pacific Ocean. All three would see close in ground combat service during the Second Martian War, and all of the remaining “Mars Radio Traps” would be attacked by the Martians and they would pay a price for the privilege.

Mars Radio Traps were located at MRT1 (Mandal Gobi, Mongolia), MRT2 (Peixe, Brazil), MRT3 (Marzuq, Libya), MRT4 (Phoenix North, Arizona), MRT5 (Flores Island, Atlantic North), MRT6 (Gibson Desert, Australia), MRT7 (Amsterdam Island, Indian Ocean), MRT8 (Bikini Atoll, Pacific Central), MRT9 (Kotlas, Russia), MRT10 (Suntar, Russia), MRT11 (Adak, Alaska), MRT12 (Prince Edward Island, Atlantic South), MRT13 (Easter Island, Pacific South), MRT14 (Necker Island, Pacific North).

The design of these Mars Radio Traps was simple enough. A radio transmitter was placed in the center of the trap area, which was used to transmit short timed radio traffic or burst as if it were an actual command and control center. The transmitter, radars and defensive weapons were the only real pieces of equipment in the area other than the batteries to support the unit and a new device known as a solar panel, which used the Sun’s rays to produce electric energy. The solar energy panel had been developed using back engineered Martian technology as part of the cover story for the Tunguska Bomb Project. Now we would put it to use against the Martians. The radio was wired directly to the operator’s control unit manned by a radio team who sat in a command bunker at least five miles away or as far away as possible for the one on Midway. The radio operations team was able to view the site via a set of ‘TV’ cameras and track any incoming enemy aircraft with twin Doppler radar sets in support.

The ring of anti-aircraft batteries were fully camouflaged and unmanned until the time came for them to be placed into war footing. (By mid-38 all traps were fully manned and operational.) Thanks to Tesla’s labs they could also be operated by hard-wired remote control. The final conventional feature of the Mars Radio Traps was the explosives pit usually dug out of the ground to a depth of 40 feet in the center of the transmission area. The pits were filled with high explosives pre-wired which could be set off from the radio bunker by way of three separate hard wire links or one radio link should the Martians actually land in the trap. As we all remember two of the traps were set off in this manner. We humans had learned a thing or two since the Martians first came to do battle. Finally, the teams had set up old Heat-Rays on a high piece of ground on two of the Mars Radio Traps shielded and if the Martians got close camouflaged so as not to look menacing. Given the opportunity we would turn their own weapons on them. Each of the Mars Radio Trap Heat-Rays had been removed from one of their own walking machines, rebuilt, and set up for “human use.” In battling the Mars Radio Traps it would be the Martians who would dance to the tune of their own weapons.

Adding to this deception plan the Committee had ‘wired’ dozens of old transport vessels (74 of them) with radio transmitters and filled their holds with high explosives. These old ‘ships’ were then towed to locations in oceans as well as large lakes as a few even made their way to the mouths of major rivers. These sea-going Mars Radio Traps would prove their worth as several Martian Flying Machines as well as at least three Martian walkers were unlucky enough to get close enough to one of them to set off the explosives on board. Committee experts had set them to go off whenever any aircraft flew within 200 feet or sailed within 100 feet from any direction. Needless to say, these positions were mapped out and placed on charts and distinctly painted so that Earth forces did not come too close. They were also placed in locations where our submarines were not stationed. But just in case these traps were also designed not be set off by underwater approach. No one expected the Martians to field any submarines.

PHONY RADIO MESSAGES

As with the other ‘radio active’ areas the Mars Radio Traps had a secondary purpose of giving the Martians the impression that many more military forces existed than were available to engage them in combat. That was part of the deception planning by the Committee Psyop group. The radio messages, call signs and data transmitted was mostly pre-recorded. However, some pre-scripted radio traffic would be sent back and forth by operators in the Mars Radio Traps to other Mars Radio Traps. This would give the impression of a world-wide network of command centers controlling military operations. They were to direct phantom armies to locations for attack when none of them existed. Many of these phantom armies were reported to be located in remote areas underground or near Mars Traps. It was hoped the Martians would expend valuable time and resources attacking these phantom bases, or would perhaps hold back on attacking any one area in full strength in order to hold some of their forces in reserve based upon our phantom armies.

PSYOP GROUP TWO

LOWER-LONDON – PHYSICAL DECEPTION OPERATIONS

Psyop group two had the job of producing other false armies with radios and fake facilities around the world. Their job was to misdirect Martian attacks away from actual built-up areas to areas that looked to any airborne enemy as military operations areas when in fact they were all fake. They also had the job of camouflaging literally thousands of above ground facilities around the world, working of course with local military units. Aiding in their work were thousands of blow-up rubber fake tanks, planes and other fake military equipment set out in areas which would help direct lethal Martian attacks into areas not occupied by military forces. These efforts included building up what looked from the air as whole towns which in fact did not exist set well enough away from actual occupied areas. These efforts were also expected to make our forces appear much larger and stronger than they really were.

Working with the Lower-Sydney Psyop group Tesla’s teams had also put out hundreds of miles of small lights which from the air at night gave the look of an occupied town or small city. With these in place it was once again hoped that the Martians would use their limited resources on targets which did not exist. It would not be long before many above ground cities had “off-site” lighting displays in place and away from their exposed positions. How effective they might prove to be was a matter of speculation but there was no real way to find out until they were actually tested in time of war.

PSYOP GROUP THREE

LOWER-SYDNEY – DIRECT PSYOP OPERATIONS

This group had the primary task of directing radio messages, loud speaker broadcasts, and leaflet drops to any Martian hybrid or Martian B forces before during or after an attack to hopefully provoke them into ending hostilities against Earth. They were also tasked to target full-human groups who were possibly in league with the Martians to surrender. Rewards would be offered to anyone who turned in any human or hybrid working for or with the Martians. This included offers of gold to any of these individuals who would surrender Martian weapons to the Committee or national forces. It was also the team’s responsibility to inform any humans or hybrids working for the Martians that if they did not surrender themselves and were instead captured they would be executed on the spot by firing squads.

Tunguska Project Nears Completion

“We have the bomb.” At least that’s what I wrote in my notes. But no one knew for certain that it would work, certainly I didn’t. All of our years of study and effort indicated that the device would work. The Tunguska West team had assembled “the gadget” and reported to the Committee that they were ready for the big test. Everyone was confident, but without a test all we really had was a large heavy piece of round complicated metal and a strange theory that few people really understood. (I for one certainly could not fully wrap my mind around all of the physics.) We also had a strategic problem. We only had one bomb. But if we tested it we would not have one to use in case of sudden Martian attack, at least not right away. We knew when we expected them to launch their next major attack, but that was little more than a guess and with the Martians we could never really be sure of anything. If we didn’t test it we would not know if it really worked. With this twin problem in mind it was decided not to test the weapon until a second one could be built. There was the fact that if we tested the bomb on Earth the Martians would realize that we had such a powerful weapon. Even if we tested the gadget on the side of the Earth facing away from Mars during the test we had no way of knowing whether or not the Martians were watching from Earth orbit. Our radars only covered so far when it came to detecting orbital craft and this would be a flash that would be hard to miss.

In the meantime, we did have “the gadget” and if the Martians paid a visit we could always test it on them under field conditions. No one felt comfortable under these circumstances, but if we had no other choice we would put that back-up plan into operation. The teams at Los Alamos, New Mexico, went back to work building the second ‘gadget’ not knowing if they had enough time to get the job done. One thing they did know was that they certainly had plenty of “weapons grade” (90%+) uranium-235 to put at least four bombs together, but only enough bomb parts to make one more bomb – for now! Naturally we were building the very complicated devices as fast as we could. One thing we did know – we were running out of time. Knakto had told us that. It did take long for a team of experts to arrive at ‘West’ to transport the ‘gadget’ to its staging area in Lower-New York City. From New York City it would be carried to anywhere we decided to use this very powerful weapon. As of that time no target had been selected. That decision would be made at the highest levels of the Committee when the need arrived.

Mass Migrations to the Hinterland

Now that we pretty much knew they were coming many large cities began moving segments of their populations to pre-planned, and now prepared outlying hinterland areas as well as cave and other underground locations. These were mostly women and children and older people who were not expected to fight. Many of these areas then under operational control of the International Red Cross were wooded and had been pre-planned to hold tens of thousands of people. Red Cross teams world-wide were now on standby ready to react after any Martian attack as best they could. Tents were stored, food and medical supplies had been pre-positioned as had other supplies needed to care for the people expected to remain in these outlying areas for up to four months. We were determined to literally hide as many ‘humans’ from the Martians and their machines as we could and we were going to do it in as many ways as we could devise both above and below the ground.

These “camp grounds” as they were called, became cities unto themselves. The only real difference was that at night there were to be absolutely no lights other than very small red ones and no radio transmitters. Personal radios were of course allowed and in fact were encouraged as to allow the people to keep up on news reports. We needed to broadcast news reports as accurate and as often as possible. And even though most of the new “camp grounds” were patrolled by reserve forces for the most part they were civilian run organizations more often than not overseen by members of the Red Cross.

The first thing they did was register everyone and set up teams of skilled individuals who could be put on call during an emergency and with the Martians expected soon that could mean just about anything. As for our underground efforts of the past 37 years we were justifiably proud our work even though we always knew it was only a partial solution. In total the people of Earth had built some 156,000 underground facilities of all shapes and sizes around the world. These would not be nearly enough but it was a hell of a lot better than 1901 when we had only a hand full of underground places to hide and none of them had been intentionally built with interplanetary war in mind.

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

Magic Order MO-503

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

4 July 1938

Because of the Martian radio message, which had rejected Earth’s peace treaty, and the Knakto warning, forces around the world, had been placed on heightened alert. Naturally, all Mars Watch Program stations had been keeping a close eye and ear on Mars. On 4 July 1938, we got our answer. Starting at 3 p.m. local time at Greenwich Observatory the Mars Watch team saw the first reddish/green flash near the launch facility at Nix Olympia. Minutes later a second flash was seen and then another and another. Dr. James McDonald knew the invasion launches from Mars had begun. It did not take long before he phoned the Committee at Lower-London and sending several Mars Flash Telegrams (MTF). Lower-New York City, Lower-Sydney and Lower-Upolu were immediately informed as were all major military commands and national governments. News reports went around the world as every nation on Earth was informed that the event had begun.

FLASH: MARS WATCH REPORTS SEVERAL LAUNCHES FROM THE SURFACE OF MARS. LAUNCHES CONTINUING. ALERT ALL FORCES TO BLUE.

Before long other observatories were reporting and counting the number of launch “explosions” in order to estimate of how large the Martian invasion force would be. Over the next 36 hours teams around the world counted an average 60 launches per hour. When all of the counting was done we knew that the Martians had launched a staggering 2146 spacecraft all apparently headed for Earth. (These were necessarily estimated counts as the Martians continued to launch as the Mars launch site rotated out of Earth view for a few hours each day.) This was four times as many spacecraft as they had hurled at Earth during the 1901 attack. Clearly they had used every resource they had to build and launch an all out effort to once again invade and perhaps conquer the Earth. In retrospect the 1901 invasion had been nothing more than a large raiding party compared with this massive attack and that ‘raid’ had nearly whipped us out! Earth was in for one hell of a fight.

For over 36 years the people of Earth had been preparing for an interplanetary war we all hoped would never come. Now the time had come to discover if we had done enough to save ourselves and keep possession of a small blue world, which had spent the past 4-1/2 billion years orbiting a local star we called the Sun. The warring inhabitants of the red planet named for the god of war had embarked on yet another attempt to conquer the fourth planet from the Sun (planet Vulcan had been verified by this time) and with it dominance of our small solar space. Having lived through the Martian War of 1901 it all seemed as if a bad dream had come once again. Would we win? In July of 1938 no one on Planet Earth knew the answer to that question. All we could do was make our final preparations, put our plans into operation, and count the days. We had some 60 days or less before the Martians would arrive.

[END PART 59]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 60: Earth’s final preparations for war with the Martians and briefing papers.]