R. Michael Gordon’s: The Aftermath of the War of the Worlds (Part-60)

[PART 60]

Earth’s Final Preparations

By 1938 there were 138 radio stations in America covering all 48 states and over 460 others spread around the rest of the world. There was in fact no sizable population center in the United States or for that matter most of Western Europe, East Asia or Central America which was not covered by some type of radio broadcast system. Using this resource many world leaders spoke directly to their people about the coming fight which would soon enjoin the entire planet.

In America recently elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Prince of F) spoke for and to his people during a joint session of Congress, while in Great Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed his people before the British Parliament on the coming crisis. With war in mind the American President and leader of the North American Committee Group addressed his people on the events unfolding for war with Mars. That morning before his address his friend Endicott Peabody, told Roosevelt, “Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising towards the heights – then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.”

UNITED STATES PRESIDENT’S RADIO BROADCAST

My fellow Americans this is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our nation and world today. This great planet will endure as it has endured, will revive and will continue to prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with the understanding and support of the people themselves, which is again essential to our victory over the Martians. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days and weeks ahead. We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of world unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. Remember, that we are fighting to save our planet not just for ourselves but for the future of humanity. And in the end it will be the Martians who will taste the bitter dust of defeat.

Underground office of President of the United States of America and Committee Prince

WINSTON CHURCHILL ADDRESSES HIS PEOPLE BEFORE PARLIAMENT

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, and indeed our home world, to ride out the storm of interplanetary war coming our way, as we have in the past, and to outlive the menace, if necessary for years. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in all the lands, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air and we shall defend our planetary island in the vastness of space from the Martian horde, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the very streets above and below the ground, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. And in our battles, we shall teach the bloody Martians what it really means to be fully human and ready to do whatever it takes to defeat every last one of them and finally push them off our warrior planet for all time!

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ADDRESSES THE PEOPLE OF EARTH

Fellow citizens of Planet Earth: I speak to you this day not as a Director of a world-wide organization but as a simple mortal member of our human race. We face in the very near future a grave danger to all of us who call Earth our home. Whether you live in an underground city of massive complexity or on a small farm or village far from the crowded population centers of Earth we are now one in our danger faced from an interplanetary foe that will stop at nothing to end mankind’s mastery of our home planet. This enemy of which I speak calls Mars their home but in fact theirs is a planet on its last abilities to support their people. As such these Martians now look to Earth as their savior. This is why they come to Earth and why we must defend our planet and defeat this brutal foe at all costs.

It will now become our singular task to repel these invaders using every resource we can bring to bear. Let me assure all of you this is not the unprepared Earth of 1901. In the years since we last fought the Martians we have become a powerful planet capable of meeting the challenges ahead with great determination and formidable military might. We are prepared. Nevertheless, no one believes this will be an easy fight as we may well expect many losses, yet let all know in their hearts that we will defeat this enemy. There can be no other conclusion to these future events. For the past 37 years the Committee along with national governments around the world have rallied together in order to build and deploy the most powerful military forces the world has ever seen. With these massive military formations I can assure all that we will fight the Martians for every inch of soil, every drop of water, every level of our atmosphere until the Martians are fully and completely decimated and forever driven from every corner of our warrior planet. We shall endure. Good luck to all and good hunting.

35,000 AMATEUR SHORT WAVE OPERATORS STAND BY

With their Morse code keys ready the “Ham radio” operators around the world stood by to report any Martian developments which came their way. They had organized themselves into “radio cells” with call signs and areas of observation. These teams were so well organized they had placed themselves into a hierarchy of who transmitted first, how long and where before moving to other locations. Many had set-up both primary and secondary locations. If need be they would transmit vital military information as backups around the world. This work would be but one example of how humanity for the most part came together to defend our world. Because of their use of short wave radio we knew that more than a few would pay the ultimate price for their courage and determination to do whatever they could to defend this planet and keep vital information flowing to those who could use it best.

COMMAND SUBMARINES’ LAUNCHED

On 15 August 1938 the Committee took delivery of three brand new Command Submarines, the CS Atlantic, CS Pacific and the CS Indian Ocean. The crews had already been training on them for some time and were ready to go when the submarines were delivered. The Command Submarines were immediately dispatched to their bases on both sides of the Panama Canal Zone with the CS Indian Ocean at first held in reserve in New York City. Director A and ‘Prince’ would soon serve aboard the Atlantic (code name “Poseidon” when manned by a Director) with a mostly British, Canadian and American crew. The Pacific (code name “Triton” when manned by a Director) would be manned by Director D and ‘Prince’ and a crew mostly from Russia and Eastern Europe. The CS Indian Ocean (code name “Neptune” when manned by a Director) would stay in New York City Harbor for a month with her mostly Asian and British Commonwealth crew.

Originally the Command Submarines were to serve only as backups in the event the Command and Control centers in Lower-New York City, Lower-London, Lower-Sydney or Lower-Upola were captured or destroyed. However, with a growing fleet of submarines now numbering nearly 500 on active duty it was decided to have the Command Submarines serve an early active part in any war with the Martians by controlling the submarines assigned to their oceans while they stood-by to take full command if the need arose. Their secondary mission would be command and control of larger ground and air forces if necessary. With this new assignment in mind the CS Indian Ocean was soon dispatched to Madagascar to be deployed in the Indian Ocean for battle duty. Director H and ‘Prince’ would be on board in the event of war. The Committee wanted as many active battle elements available as possible to engage early Martian forces. Two-thirds of our planet is covered by water and we were determined to bring battle to any Martian who found itself on any body of water.

SUBMARINE FLEETS

The Pacific Ocean held 143 submarines on combat patrol, with 110 in the Atlantic Ocean and 104 in the Indian Ocean. 40 additional submarines would be assigned to Aircraft Carrier protection duty and another ten submarines had been converted as troop carriers to insert special military units undercover of water to targets otherwise difficult to reach. The rest of the fleet were scattered around the world with orders to attack any Martian targets they could find. Ten each were held in reserve in New York City, London, Sydney and Upola. These were to be used for city and harbor defense as well as for emergency transportation and communications under water if all other means had failed. These subs would submerge and wait for targets of opportunity if any Martians came by. Twenty five others would hold positions outside of 25 active ports stationed around the world. Five more were stationed on both sides of the Panama Canal.

Committee submarine pens

All of the submarines were equipped with very long wave radio equipment (10 Hz signals). Designed by Tesla Committee teams the submarines would trail a copper composite wire with neutral balance some six miles behind each boat. Radio messages could be sent and received through the ocean along this wire (extra-low frequency). No receiver on land or in the air on Earth, or Mars for that matter could pick up the signal if they were below the water. To link these submarines to Lower-New York City, Lower-London, Lower-Sydney or Lower-Upola the primary underground cities had already deployed identical copper radio wires and as such could communicate directly with these submarines. Each submarine also carried new updated standard radio equipment and antennas and with this equipment the crews were expected to monitor a good deal of radio traffic in order to be kept aware of the general situation. They could receive messages, but for the most part were expected to maintain radio silence in this mode. In effect the submarines were to fight as an independent force, attacking any targets of opportunity. Their primary attack mode would be ‘hit-and-run or rather dive!

The submarines also had new receivers, which had just come on line. The Committee teams had devised what they called “flash messages.” Radio traffic could be sent in 1 second, which contained upwards of ten minutes worth of voice data. To the unaided ear the message sounded like a high-pitched screech. To the new radio/recorder when the message was played back it came out as voice communications. These ‘flash message’ machines would soon be “in the field ready for battle” with ground units. The 28 underground production teams had been given 45 days to produce some 8000 receivers, and it was going to be close.

Generally speaking there were two types of submarines deployed. Standard attack submarines using mostly torpedoes constituted 344 of the boats. Above water they also displayed one each deck gun and two sets of quad 50 machine guns. The remaining boats were newly designed rocket attack submarines designed to attack aircraft from underwater. At shallow depths these new submarines could lock on to flying targets with radar and fire as many as ten solid rockets simultaneously at the target. Each submarine held 50 rockets ready to fire with another 50 in storage for replacement. There were even ten specially equipped submarines which held on their decks one each large (as big as a double-decker London bus) remote controlled ‘mini’ submarine bomb. These devices, developed by Tesla’s team held enough explosives to impact and sink any ship on the ocean with a single hit! If set off in any average harbor most of the harbor would have been at least greatly damaged. If one hit any dam in the world it would have been completely destroyed. If the Martians came with any surface ships they were in for one hell of a surprise with this little device. It was planned that with these devices coming at the Martians from underwater they would not see them until it was far too late.

The final pre-planned operational support for the submarine fleet had been put into place even before the Command Submarines had come on line. At over 300 locations world-wide, fuel and other supplies had been pre-positioned, mostly on remote coastlines and small remote islands, as well as in underwater caves for use by the submarine crews. The submarines were seen as a last line of defense for planet Earth and they would need to be as independent and self-sufficient as possible. They were expected to be on duty for as long as six months without outside support or even direct radio contact with other forces. This was to be part of our battle layering effort. The Martians, in order to defeat the Earth, would be required to defeat defense layer after layer with the limited resources they had brought to Earth. This was part of an overall plan to come at them from as many directions as we could and simply wear them down. We knew this would be a battle of attrition to say the very least.

HYBRIDS ROUNDED UP

It was not long after the general public was informed that the Martians were on the way that hybrid attacks began in earnest. In almost every city attacks by the Martian Brotherhood or other hybrids were increasing very rapidly. Police and local military forces began to enforce curfews while at the same time rounding up suspected disloyal hybrids. This was no time for niceties. If there was any doubt they were taken into custody.

The round ups had begun slowly some two months earlier as to not attract too much attention when it became clear that the Martians were ready to move forward with their invasion plans but now that we were certain that Martian war craft were on the way national and Committee forces put maximum effort by police and other security forces into rounding up as many hybrids as possible from pre-prepared custodial detention lists.

Since the mid-1920s both the Committee and several national governments had been keeping files and lists of possible ‘enemy aliens’ in the form of hybrids thought to have connections to the Martian Brotherhood or other pro-Martian organizations. Many had been arrested and interviewed several times over the years since these lists were begun with only a few finding themselves taken into custody for long periods of time. Nevertheless, even though many had not been convicted of criminal activity all were required to register in the cities they lived in and report regularly to the local ‘Alien Registration Office.’ To not do so would mean immediate arrest when located without the need for a trial followed by a term of at least one year in jail for the first offense along with a heavy fine. It was from these files that the Committee and national police forces began rounding up hybrids. After being taken into custody the ‘aliens’ were informed that they were to be held in camps for the duration of the war.

It was not long before the ‘Custodial Detention Lists’ in the United States topped 167,000. World-wide some 1.8 million hybrids soon found themselves in one of 346 ‘Custodial Detention Camps’ built specifically to house hybrids with many of these facilities located in isolated areas such as small islands and remote desert locations. One of the largest camps was situated in the Mohave Desert in the south western United States.

What many people were unaware of at the time was the fact that a second most-secret list of possible enemies had also been prepared by the Committee. This Committee list held the names of 269 full-humans suspected of “having loyalties outside of Earth.” The job of locating and arresting those individuals went to the Committee Security Service. No fewer than 6 of these individuals were at the time of their arrest working directly for the Committee. We had been feeding them false information since their discovery but now came the time to round them up. All of these individuals would be spending a good deal of time in Committee prison cells deep underground. More than a few would never again see the light of day.

SPECIAL FORCES TEAMS PLACED WORLD WIDE TO BLOW UP MACHINES

(Airborne Cobra Teams)

During the First Martian War the Martians had landed their cylinders on Earth before they were ready to attack. Generally it had taken several hours for the Martians to complete the assembly work on their walking machines and later flying machines before they could attack our cities. This was a major tactical error on the part of Earth defensive forces during the 1901 war. Had these creatures been attacked during the early hours of their invasion mankind may very well have destroyed enough of their machines to make a real difference. With this in mind nations around the world as well as Committee forces put together teams of military personnel specifically trained to locate these cylinders and destroy them in place before they could be deployed against us. These teams were code named “Airborne Cobra Teams.” Before the war these teams had been deployed in an attempt to locate as many Martian seismic devices as they could before they could be set off. In this work they had been less than fully successful. Now they would have an even more difficult mission to accomplish – destroy the Martian cylinders before they could be used against our people. Looking at possible first wave targets many of these teams we placed close enough to these areas to arrive in quick order. But would it be fast enough?

UNDERGROUND CITIES CLOSE UP AND PREPARE FOR WAR

Final supplies of fresh food and medicine were quickly being brought to underground facilities around the world and final pre-programmed lists of artifacts were soon being delivered to underground locations around the world. Documents for the most part, at least copies, had been constantly moving into underground filing cabinets for many months as were primary original documents such as the 1214 A.D. Magna Carta and the Constitution of the United States. I remember well my feelings when I saw the Mona Lisa being wheeled in on a pallet and being placed in one of the painting rooms of the vault in Lower-London. How lonely she seemed and how long would it be before we could view this fine work once again in a proper museum?

By this time Howard Florey’s team from Oxford University had finally isolated the compound Prontosil, and was now prepared to produce penicillin in what they called underground mini-factories. Producing medical supplies underground had long been part of the defense plans against Mars. Now was the time to put these plans into operation in all four underground cities and thousands of other facilities around the world.

Tango teams were now fully manned and in place at all four primary underground cities as well as special operation areas world-wide. Half of the members of Tango would be assigned to defend these vital underground facilities alongside conventional ground forces. Other members of Tango were now deployed in a number of other areas ready to attack any number of special operations targets. Teams had also been deployed onboard Command Submarines, attack submarines, aircraft carriers, and Committee underground military bases as well as near large above ground cities. Most of the Tango team members deployed to defend above ground facilities were assigned as snipers in two man teams with the task of killing as many Martian Walking Machine operators as possible. The fatal flaw found in the 1901 Martian design of these machines would allow a well-placed sniper bullet to “take out” the Martian using the device. As one surviving Tango member related after the war, “It was one shot, one dead Martian squid!” In general all ground forces around the world would have snipers ready to take advantage of this ‘flaw.’ However, Tango members were going to keep track of “the hunt.” They wanted to turn in the “best count!” The secondary focus of the Tango teams was to organize resistance (stay behind forces) behind the front lines after the main Martian forces fought past them. War planners had spotted a second deadly flaw in the Martian way of war – they did not re-enforce their rear forces which would allow gorilla forces to take advantage of this flaw. Tango operatives would be the ideal force to take on this mission.

In all of the underground factories which had not been operating on military programs civilian operations were halted. Each factory had a plan to convert to military production within 40 days of war warning. Now those plans went into effect. All efforts were now directed to supporting the coming war effort.

“What price are we to pay for the salvation of the human race? 

And what price must we extract from the Martians?” 

(Graffiti found on a wall in Sweden.)

OPERATION PRIMARY 1000

One of the most-secret pre-war plans designed to go into effect in the event of war with Mars was code named “Operation Primary 1000”. In over 500 locations around the world, which included all major underground cities and all off-set underground military bases, a group of highly intelligent and very well educated individuals along with their immediate families had been selected for special protection. These “selectees” reported to be some of the brightest people on the planet were pre-selected to be housed in some of the safest underground locations on Earth for the duration of the war and to be protected and defended at all costs. In several countries, the United States, Great Britain and others, ‘stand alone’ underground facilities had been specifically constructed away from any populated areas to insure security. Three of these installations had been constructed in large caves and ancient lava tubes.

Numbering around 1000 individuals per group the plan was simple. In the event of total destruction these approximately 500,000 people with expertise in mixed backgrounds and critical areas had accepted the task of re-building Earth’s shattered society after the war. They would be supplied with just about every tool one could think of in order for them to begin the work of recovery. In order to protect this classified operation only the primary selectees knew of the plan. Their families would be informed only when war was imminent. It is historically interesting to note that none of the Magic Twelve placed their names on the list but they did place two “Princes” on the New Washington Center list including the President of the United States and his immediate family.

Captured Martian image of a Prime Command spacecraft heading towards Earth

On 22 August 1938 the Committee issued an Executive Briefing Paper EBP 1938-42 (see Appendix I) titled Expected Losses – War with Mars. This grim assessment showed that we could expect to lose up to half of the Earth’s population and at least 75% of our natural resources during the war. This would be the true “war to end all wars” and surrender was not an option!

EXECUTIVE TOP-SECRET/MAGIC CoT

EBP 1938-47

August 22, 1938

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING PAPER

EXPECTED LOSSES – WAR WITH MARS

EXECUTIVE TOP-SECRET/MAGIC CoT 

That evening the remaining Magic Twelve and their wives held their last pre-war dinner in the underground dining hall just off of the Mars War Room in Lower-New York City. It was lavish as the meal served was to say the least – fit for a king. Many in the room suspected that this would be the last time most of them would ever see each other. When it was over after midnight the men who had spent a good deal of their lives in preparation for war with Mars gave a toast to planet Earth and to victory. The next day the Twelve went to their designated command positions (my place would be in Lower-London) and for the foreseeable future they would have only one job – engage the enemy at all points and kill as many Martians as possible as fast as they could possibly kill them! Surrender would mean slavery for humanity and that was simply not an option.

“[War] is a highly planned and co-operative form of theft.”

Dr. Jacob Bronowski

[END PART 60]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 61: Chapter 10: The Final Conflict Begins.]

A WORK OF NON-FICTION

If you are enjoying this R. Michael Gordon fictional story you may be interesting in reading his non-fiction work on the American Space Shuttle titled The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost its Way.

The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way

Details the twin Shuttle disasters of Challenger and Columbia,

Photos, charts, case documents and illustrations; 425 pages.

McFarland Publishing Company, Trade paperback 2009

This critical study of NASA’s space shuttle program provides an in-depth examination of the events, decisions, and policies that may have contributed to the horrific destruction of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia. It first traces the early development of NASA’s shuttle program, specifically examining the problems associated with the designs of shuttles OV-099 Challenger and OV-102 Columbia. The reader is then taken through a detailed look at the first successful flights made by Challenger and Columbia and the postponement of top-secret Shuttle flight 51-C Discovery, which did not launch under milder weather conditions as the ill-fated Challenger because the weather was too cold! An in-depth assessment of the shuttles’ disastrous final launches follows, including detailed accounts of the post-flight search and rescue operations, the official investigations into each accident, and the impact of each disaster on the future of NASA’s manned space program. This is a critical investigation into the history and loss of Space Shuttles’ Challenger and Columbia and their crews, revealing the men, in and out of government, ultimately responsible for its destruction.

Review: “Though this is a factual text, working around an event which is familiar to present generations, the prose unfolds with some of the dramatic immediacy of fiction. Whilst it is a piece of reportage, it has an urgency and momentum not often found in the non-fiction mode. [Gordon] writes to identify and expose the origins and consequences of a catastrophic event, approaching it from an analytical rather than a sensationalist angle. Certainly there is an authorial will to uncover the facts and to allocate responsibility, but it is articulated in a voice which is both fair and balanced.” Minerva Press reader report.