Attack on the Homeland Page 2

  Himmler contacted Hitler when he returned to his offices in Berlin and told the Fuhrer about his visit with Mengele and although Hitler said he wanted something more quickly, it was finally agreed that this timetable would meet their needs.

  MOVING FORWARD

  Mengele quickly gathered his staff after Himmler departed and laid out his plans for meeting the Fuhrer’s desire to strike fear and panic among the Americans, possibly through the deployment of some sort of biological weapon. He discussed some of their current experiments and some ideas he had about developing a super virus engineered along the lines of both the plague and the influenza. He instructed his scientists to gather up whatever virus strains were currently being stored at Germany’s main laboratories and health facilities and to begin their research into producing a virus that could be unleashed on the Americans with devastating results. The Doctor was fairly certain that a number of viruses he wanted to work with could be obtained from the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin. Furthermore, a number of the doctors at Auschwitz were already doing research that would be helpful in completing this task for Hitler. Doctors Entress, Vetter and Wirths were currently doing extensive research on developing new medications and drugs to counter contagious diseases. He thought that through reverse engineering they might be able to quickly develop some virus that would be immune to most known drugs of the time. He also had Doctors Kremer, Clauberg and Schumann doing experiments in a variety of fields and felt that between himself and these six skilled physicians the task could be completed in the timelines given him. Mengele knew that if he could develop something that would please the Fuhrer and Himmler he would remain in their good graces and progress up the ladder of the SS and, eventually when Germany won the war, would receive a prestigious position in the new world order. Failure, on the other hand, could land him and his colleagues in jail at Auschwitz along with all the other war prisoners.

  After a few days of initial research and experimenting, all the Doctors believed that combining some existing viruses like influenza, the plague and smallpox could result in a new super virus that could withstand the new medicines currently available in the United States. Although no one was sure yet how such a virus could be delivered in order to inflict a mass outbreak, they would worry about that after they had the virus developed. Given the fact that Auschwitz had hundreds of prisoners the doctors knew they would have more than enough test subjects to try out their new contagions. The samples they had obtained from Berlin gave them the necessary starting blocks to get their work underway. A new sterile area had to be quickly built at the camp so that they could isolate test subjects and watch how the infections progressed. The Doctors themselves also had to obtain some new protective clothing and equipment so that they and the German staff didn’t also get infected in the process. The group began to work ten-hour days and had a meeting every night to discuss the progress they were making.

  BACK IN BERLIN

  While the physicians and scientists at Auschwitz worked away on developing a chemical or biological weapon that German could unleash on the Americans, Himmler began to develop a plan on how this virus could be delivered to the United States. The V-2 rocket would be the ideal vehicle for delivering the cargo to US soil but Himmler doubted that the German engineers could come up with a rocket engine capable of traveling the long distance between the two countries. They were using it successfully against the British but the rocket barely had the capability to reach the UK let alone travel to the United States. The German factories were building the V-2 as quickly as they could and over 3,000 rockets had been launched so far against Allied targets. Human casualties and overall destruction of cities and military installations was staggering. The Allies, however, were having their own successes in bombing cities throughout Germany and many of their manufacturing sites were being attacked almost daily. Wernher von Braun and his staff were continually updating the V-2 and improving on its performance to include increasing the distance it could travel by designing new and more powerful engines for their rocket. Weighing over 7200 pounds and with a height of over 42 feet, the V-2 could carry an explosive payload of over 2200 pounds of high explosive materials. Although the V-2 could reach the fringes of outer space and could travel at speeds over 3,000 miles per hour, it still could only travel somewhere around 200 miles. Himmler was sure van Braun would eventually increase this distance, however, not in the timeframe that would meet the Fuhrer’s plan to attack the Americans. Germany was also working on a stealth type aircraft that would not be detected by Allied radar, but again the big consideration factor was the range of the aircraft. The distance between German and America was just too great to use any type of aircraft or rockets the Germany currently were employing in their Air Force.

  Himmler then considered the next most logical vehicle for delivering their gift to the American people, the German U-boat. Germany’s U-boat fleets were having enormous success attacking Allied supply ships and even some of its well-equipped military ships. The U-boats were able to cross the ocean separating the two countries and once the sub was close enough to the American shores, landing parties could deliver their cargoes to German intelligence agents who were already in place and reporting from several cities throughout the United States. The agents could then target the principal cities on the East Coast and eventually the West Coast if the initial attacks were successful. The Americans would never know what hit them.

  Himmler decided to discuss his plans further with a number of U-boat Captains who were currently back in Germany having their boats repaired and refitted.

  GERMANY'S U-BOATS

  The German U-boats were the pride of the German military machine at the beginning of the war. During World War II, Germany had one of the largest submarine fleets in the world, which gave Germany a huge advantage on all the oceans of the world. The early U-boats traveled a good part of the time on the ocean’s surface and were powered by diesel engines, which switched over to battery power when they dove underwater. The first U-boats carried a limited supply of torpedoes and many of their attacks were done while surfaced using deck guns that were highly effective against merchant ships traveling without military escorts. The newer Type IX U-boats, currently being built, were larger boats than the old Type VIIs and had been developed for long-range patrols, particularly for use along the American coastlines. They carried more torpedoes and armaments and could transverse the vast oceans undetected and attack and sink Allied merchant vessels and even many of the military convoy escorts traveling between America and the European war theater. As time progressed the Allies had devised new and better methods for detecting Germany’s death machines and for sending them to the bottom of the ocean. The Germans relied on their ability to transmit messages to the U-boat fleets without the Allies being about to decipher them. Unbeknownst to the German command, the Allies had managed to capture an Enigma machine from one of their U-boats and were now working on figuring out the codes used between the German High Command and their U-boat commanders. Germany had begun to suspect that something was awry when the number of successful U-boat attacks began to decrease significantly. They were, however, unaware that one of their prized Enigma machines had fallen into enemy hands.

  Himmler met with the Captains of the U-576, U-532 and U-751; all well respected and highly decorated naval commanders. Himmler started out by telling the commanders that what he was about to discuss with them was highly classified and that under no circumstances were they to divulge to anyone else, including their crews, what he was able to convey to them. Himmler said that the tide of the war was gradually shifting in favor of the Allies and that the Fuhrer had asked Himmler to devise a plan to attack the Americans on their own soil and deliver a crippling blow to them. Himmler said that numerous means of attack were discussed with the Fuhrer and some of Germany’s key scientists and that it was their consensus that either a chemical or a biological attack would have the greatest impact on the Americans and might he
lp to divert their attentions from Europe, at least temporarily. This would allow Germany to get back on track in their fight against the Allied forces in Europe. Himmler said his plan was to deliver a newly developed chemical agent to the American shores through the use of their U-boats. Three ships would carry a highly classified cargo to the East Coast of the US and commando teams would deliver the cargoes to German intelligence agents already in place along the East Coast, particularly the area between North Carolina and New York. The High Command had decided to use three U-boats in order to ensure that at least one cargo would successfully make it to its final destination. If all three were successful, then their attacks would be even more effective. Himmler told the U-boat commanders that they were not to engage the enemy enroute to their final destinations as the success of this mission was much more important than sinking a few merchant ships. They were to avoid contact with any military convoys that might appear on their radar screens at all costs. They would be free, however, to resume their routine duties once their cargoes were safe and sound on the American shores.

  Himmler said that he did not have a final time line for this mission; however, Hitler was adamant that it had to get underway very quickly. Himmler said that he had another meeting with the German scientists later that week and was to meet with Hitler next week to report on the progress of the project. Himmler instructed the three Captains to quickly get their boats and crews ready for the mission and that for the time being nothing should be said to the crews about either the mission, where they were headed next, or why they were not returning to their usual patrols after their boats had been made ready. Himmler said that he hoped to be able to deploy the crews within the next few weeks and that speed was of the essence in order for this plan to be effective in helping turn the tide of the war. He dismissed the Commanders and told them to stand by.

  Himmler next met with a few selected officers of his elite SS troops and laid out his plan to them as to what would happen once the three U-boats reached their final destinations. Himmler said that two man commando teams would travel at night in small boats from the surfaced U-boats and land on the American shorelines between North Carolina and New York. The teams would link up with German intelligence agents who were already in place in America and hand over their precious cargoes before returning to their respective U-boats for their trips back to Germany. Himmler stressed the need for absolute secrecy and that under no circumstances could the landing teams be captured or let their cargoes fall into enemy hands. The teams would do some practice runs along the German shores in preparation for their mission and different scenarios should be practiced to cover all eventualities that they might encounter.

  Himmler then rang up Mengele and suggested that they meet again next week to map the progress that he hoped Mengele and his teams of doctors hopefully had made. Himmler knew that he was scheduled to meet with Hitler in less than a month and that he had to have something positive news to give the Fuhrer or face his wrath, which Himmler hoped to avoid.

  THE NEW STRAIN

  Himmler and Mengele met again at Auschwitz and Himmler could see that Mengele was excited about the rapid progress his group of Doctors had made. The Doctor told Himmler that they were able to obtain strains of all the needed viruses from Berlin and that, because of the previous research his team had done, they were able to quickly genetically drift the influenza, plague and rabies viruses, resulting in a new super strain of virus. Mengele went on to explain that an antigenic or genetic drift was when two or more strains of different viruses combined to form a new subtype virus, which was entirely different from the original viruses, but which still maintained the original characteristics of the primary viruses. He said it was a sort of genetic mutation that would be immune to all current antidotes that normally might be effective if employed against each individual strain of virus but would have little effect on the new strain. He said that when the virus infected the host, the different strains would attack the cells simultaneously and that the host had little chance of fighting the infection and that the new, more dangerous strain, would in fact result in a pandemic. Mengele was confident that none of the current antibiotics would be effective in fighting the new strain and that the process of finding a new antibiotic to fight the infection would be most difficult and require months of research and development. He said that the team decided on the three different viruses for a multitude of reasons. Considering history and the staggering figures regarding both the influenza and the plague, or Black Death, the physicians were confident that the number of deaths resulting from a new super strain would even surpass the statistics of both the 1918 outbreaks of these two viruses. The influenza would attack the victim’s respiratory systems and death would be rapid if left untreated. The plague on the other hand caused painful swellings, sometimes as large as an apple or orange in the areas of the arms, legs, neck and groin. When the body could no longer withstand the excessive swelling, the body areas would burst open and ooze blood, fluids and pus like secretions. When the Black Death last hit mankind the incidence of death was usually within a week. The plague would also effect the lungs, which in conjunction with the effects of the influenza, would accelerate the failure of the lungs by filling them with not only fluids but with the victim’s blood. Mengele said that they chose rabies instead of smallpox, which they had originally considered, because of the extreme physical effects this disease produced. Persons exposed to the rabies virus suffered an extreme attack on their nervous systems and death was rapid if left untreated. Advanced infection could produce violent behavior ranging from extreme aggressiveness to raging to hallucinations and ranting and raving. The infected people might even begin to attack other infected or non-infected people they encountered. Mengele added jokingly that if the rabies virus became airborne, which it probably would, after being combined with the influenza virus, it would result in a zombie pandemic and the victims could take on both a zombie like appearance as a result of the plague and start to act like zombies, because of the rabies infection. He laughed and told Himmler that it would be the best of both worlds, since either the viruses would kill the Americans outright or infected people would begin attacking other people when the rabies started to drive them crazy. Either way, Hitler and his Germany would deliver a crippling blow to the Americans.

  Mengele said they were also successful in figuring ways to disperse the virus when it arrived in America. He said that normally the virus would have to be airborne for its maximum effectiveness, however, they had also figured how they could infuse it into the Americans’ water supplies without the chlorine and other water purifying chemicals having any effect on the super strain. Since the virus was normally airborne it would also spread naturally from one person to another in the same manner as the common cold. Once a significant number of people became infected, the virus would have a steamrolling effect and spread rapidly, especially in densely populated areas. Mengele’s team had already developed special canisters for both transporting the virus and for an aerial dispersement of it at selected cities on the East Coast. A second type container could be used to infuse it into the water supplies, which normally had little in the way of physical security. Mengele said that their initial testing on some of the Auschwitz inmates was very promising and that they were confident they had been successful in their development of a new super virus. Additional testing might be necessary, however, given Hitler’s timelines, he said they should be ready to proceed with deployment in less than a month.

  Himmler felt repulsed by what the Doctor of Death had described to him, however, he knew that the Fuhrer would have little problem in approving the plan. Himmler was scheduled to meet again with Hitler and he told Mengele that when the Fuhrer approved the plan they would proceed. Confident that this would happen, he instructed the Doctor to make ready the canisters for deployment as soon as possible. Mengele said they had adequate supplies of both the virus strains and special canisters and would start to get things ready.

  T
EST SUBJECTS

  Before his next meeting with Himmler, Mengele decided that he would conduct some tests of their newly developed super strain virus to make sure that it was everything he had promised to his SS boss. The camp already had a number of controlled areas that could be used to observe subjects and determine if the virus was as effective as Mengele and his staff thought it was. The Doctor decided that he would use both male and female test subjects of varying ages, some youths, middle-aged persons and some of the elderly. This should give them a good sampling for determining if the virus affected everyone in the same manner.

  Using one of the special aerosol canisters they had developed, the subjects were placed in two large control rooms and the virus was quickly introduced by means of the ventilation system. The rooms were then hermetically sealed and everyone sat back to see what the results would be. No significant changes were noticed with the subjects after two days. On the third day, however, several of the subjects began to display symptoms of the flu and started sneezing and having running noses. The fourth day produced additional results when several subjects began to display tumor like growths on their necks, arms and legs and began to become lethargic in their movements and mannerisms. By the fifth day everyone was now covered with growths over their entire bodies and some of the outer tissues began to discolor and turn black and blue. Many of the growths had also started to ooze fluids, blood and pus. By the sixth day some of the subjects had already died, however, the remaining individuals became highly aggressive in behavior and soon began attacking each other. It was at this point the Doctor decided to introduce a number of new patients who had not been previously infected. Almost immediately the zombie like subjects began to feel out and finally attack the uninfected individuals and many were killed within minutes. Shocking to even Mengele, several of the previously infected subjects began to actually eat parts of the victims they had just killed.