"Philip Jose Farmer - The Gate of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

my voyage.тАЭ
I raised my eyebrows but said nothing. With one of the quick yet fluid motions characteristic of
him, he left my side and strode across the room to a large table. On it was a globe of the world, a
prewar model that did not show the change in boundaries that had taken place in the past year.
тАЬCome here a moment,тАЭ he said. тАЬI want to show you where my story begins.тАЭ
I rose and went to his side. He turned the globe slowly, then stopped it. With the point of a
pencil, he indicated a spot on the land a little to the left of the central western shore of the Black
Sea.
тАЬPloesti, Rumania,тАЭ he said. тАЬThatтАЩs where IтАЩll begin. I could start much further back, but to do
that would take time which we donтАЩt have. If you have any questions about my story before then,
youтАЩll have to insert them whenever you get the chance. However, I have a manuscript which
outlines my life before I went on the mission against the oil-fields of Ploesti.тАЭ
тАЬPloesti, Rumania?тАЭ I said.
тАЬPloesti, the great oil-producing and refining heart of DeutschlandтАЩs new empire. The target of
the 9th Air Force, based in Cyrenaica, North Africa. It took five years of war before the Americans
could launch an attack against the lifeblood of GermanyтАЩs transportation and military
effectiveness. Overloaded with bombs, ammunition, and gasoline, 175 four-motored bombers set
out to destroy the oil tanks and refineries of Ploesti. We did not know that it was called Festung
Ploesti, Fortress Ploesti, that the greatest concentration of anti-aircraft guns in Europe ringed that
city. Nor would it have made much difference if we had known, except that we might not have been
so shocked when we found out.
тАЬI was first pilot on the Hiawatha; my co-pilot was Jim Andrews. He was from Birmingham,
Alabama, but the fact that I was part Iroquois Indian didnтАЩt seem to bother him any. We were the
best of friends.тАЭ
He stopped, then smiled, and said, тАШBy the way, you are looking at Ye Compleat Iroquoian. I
have ancestors from every existing Iroquois tribe, including great-grandparents from the
Iroquoian-speaking Cherokees. But my father was part Icelandic and my mother was part Scotch.тАЭ
I shrugged and said, to explain my blank look, тАЬCan I expect to get some explanation of this
from the manuscript you spoke of?тАЭ
тАЬYeah, sure. Anyway. . .тАЭ
 1
The mission leader of the group had taken the wrong turn at Targoviste. Instead of heading for
Ploesti, the Circus was going toward Bucharest. First Lieutenant Two Hawks realized the error and,
like some of the other pilots, he disobeyed orders by breaking radio silence. There was no reply
from the mission leader, who steadfastly kept on the wrong road. Then, far to their left, Two Hawks
saw a smudge in the mist and knew that this had to be smoke from burning refineries. Other groups
had gotten to the correct destination, and had released their bombs.
He looked at the lead bomber and wondered if the colonel had also seen the telltale smoke.
Suddenly, the lead plane turned at right angles to the course and headed toward the smoke. Two
Hawks, with the others, turned his plane in a maneuver so tightly executed that formation was
maintained as strictly as before. The Hiawatha, engines straining to push at two hundred and forty-
five mph, swept at only fifty feet above the ground. Sections of high green corn, alfalfa, and sheafs
of wheat in gleaming stubble flashed below him. Ahead of the group, out of the smoke, the cables
and elephantine bodies of barrage balloons hovered. Some were rising from the ground, and those
at a high altitude were being pulled down to counter the low altitude attack.
Two Hawks felt dismay, although he did not say anything to Andrews. The planes were coming
in from the wrong direction, so that all the weeks of intensive briefing on identification of targets
was wasted. Approaching from this angle would make everything unrecognizable.
The road to Ploesti was twenty-five miles long and took five minutes to cover. Long before the
end of the goal was reached, the Germans sprung the trap. Sides of haystacks exploded to reveal 20