Okay . . .
Just got this one finished before the deadline. Handley Page Heyford, 'Operation Sauerkraut' spring 1935.
The Story.
Flight Lieutenant deBasha perched on the steps of the crew bus, finishing his pipe, as he watched Ginger, his co-pilot supervise the pre-flight preparations for tonight's mission. Running the contents of the briefing he had just received through his mind, he still didn't know whether to laugh or cry . . .
All of his Service career, he had been waiting to heat up this damned Cold War, between Britain and France, on the one hand, and the Boche on the other. Now, having finally got the chance to deliver some ordnance to the enemy, what was his payload; Atomic death by Carolinum Bomb ? No !, cabbages !! 'Operation Sauerkraut', the Desk Jockeys called it . . .
Apparently the whole affair started about 18 months ago, when a well-known chemical company noticed that the world famous pesticide that it manufactured, had stopped working, when tested before leaving the factory. Further research provided a shocking and sinister answer: the pesticide worked perfectly well, but the captive population of cabbage white butterflies,bred for the purpose of testing by the company, had, through prolonged exposure, become totally immune to the pesticide.
At first, this was a mere scientific curiosity, however, once the military found out, a plan was hatched to weaponise the insects.
The area of immediately to the North of thr Ruhr industrial region was the main cabbage growing area of Germany. If this region was infested with pesticide-immune caterpillars and butterflies, the cabbage harvest would be destroyed, and since the Germans lived on cabbage . . .
The details were comparitively simple. A special crop of cabbages would be grown in Britain, and the 'Super' butterflies would be allowed to lay their eggs on them. Once this had occured, the cabbages would be harvested, then dropped into the German cabbage fields from the air. The eggs would hatch, the caterpillars would devour all the cabbages within reach, then turn into butterflies. These would then spread out, and lay more eggs in turn. The result would be an uncontrollable plague of cabbage destroying insects. The effect on Germany would be devastating . . .
Like the plan, deBasha's mission was also simple. He would fly along one of the well-used routes taken by RAF reconnaissance aircraft, Northwards along the Rhine, on the French side, of course, from Cologne as far as the Belgian border. However, instead of at that point turning West for home, he would 'accidently' turn East, over Boche territory, and deliver his payload of brassicas. Once the 'dirty deed' was done, he would 'realise his error', turn West and fly back to base.
With luck, no-one would connect deBasha's 'mistake' with the butterfly plague . . .
deBasha was woken from his reverie by the sound of the approaching 'Bomb Lorry'. These articulated vehicle were used to bring the aircraft's payload, either bombs or recce pods, out to the flight line. This one however, was carrying the special 'Dispenser', that would drop the infected vegetables on the Boche cabbage fields.
Looking like of one the rockets in the 'Buck Gordon' movies he liked to watch, this device was specially built to release the cabbages precisely over the target. As a further surprise, as the cabbages were ejected from the Dispenser, they were to be sprayed with a liquid containing the spores of the Club Root fungus, another deadly pest of brassicas . . .
To this end, he wasn't to fly this mission with his usual crew, except Ginger. He would have no gunner on board, and his Navigator's place was taken by two strangers, indentified only as Brown and Black. Brown, at least, wore RAF blue and had a Navigator's brevet sewn on his tunic, but Black was definitely a 'Boffin'.
The briefing was quite explicit, once navigated over the target by Brown, deBasha must hold a precise heading and altitude, while Black and the Dispenser did their nefarious work.
By now the Bomb Lorry had arrived at his Heyford. He watched for a moment, admiring the driver's skill as he manouvered, reversing the trailer between the Heyford's spatted undercarriage, and placing the Dispenser in the correct position under the fuselage. Half a dozen 'erks' then appeared, then supervised by Black, hoisted the Dispenser into place, and attached it to the Heyford's belly.
His pipe smoked, deBasha picked up his flying helmet, goggles and parachute, and briskly walked, he was an Officer in His Majesty's Royal Air Force, he never ran, over to the aeroplane.
"Everything alright ?", he enquired of Ginger. "Yes, Skipper", replied the co-pilot. "Right-Ho, let's go and 'brassicate' the Boche !", he said, trying his best to sound enthusiastic . . .
That's All, Folks . . .
cheers,
Robin.