Page 394 of Winter of the World (The Century 2)

As the councilors hurried away, he returned at the head of a small gang. Someone tripped Carla, and she fell to the ground. She was kicked painfully once, twice, three times. Terrified, she covered her belly with her hands. She was almost three months pregnant--the stage at which most miscarriages occurred, she knew. Will Werner's baby die, she thought desperately, kicked to death on a Berlin street by Communist thugs?

Then they disappeared.

The councilors picked themselves up. No one was badly injured. They moved off together, fearful of a recurrence, but it seemed the Communists had roughed up enough people for one day.

Carla got home at eight o'clock. There was no sign of Erik.

Werner was shocked to see her bruises and torn dress. "What happened?" he said. "Are you all right?"

She burst into tears.

"You're hurt," Werner said. "Should we go to the hospital?"

She shook her head vigorously. "It's not that," she said. "I'm just bruised. I've had worse." She slumped in a chair. "Christ, I'm tired."

"Who did this?" he asked angrily.

"The usual people," she said. "They call themselves Communists instead of Nazis, but they're the same type. It's 1933 all over again."

Werner put his arms around her.

She could not be consoled. "The bullies and the thugs have been in power for so long!" she sobbed. "Will it ever end?"

iv

That night the Soviet news agency put out an announcement. From six o'clock in the morning, all passenger and freight transport in and out of West Berlin--trains, cars, and canal barges--would be stopped. No supplies of any kind would get through: no food, no milk, no medicines, no coal. Because the electricity generating stations would therefore be shut down, they were switching off the supply of electricity--to western sectors only.

The city was under siege.

Lloyd Williams was at British military headquarters. There was a short parliamentary recess, and Ernie Bevin had gone on holiday to Sandbanks, on the south coast of England, but he was worried enough to send Lloyd to Berlin to observe the introduction of the new currency and keep him informed.

Daisy had not accompanied Lloyd. Their new baby, Davey, was only six months old, and anyway Daisy and Eva Murray were organizing a birth-control clinic for women in Hoxton that was about to open its doors.

Lloyd was desperately afraid that this crisis would lead to war. He had fought in two wars, and he never wanted to see a third. He had two small children who he hoped would grow up in a peaceful world. He was married to the prettiest, sexiest, most lovable woman on the planet and he wanted to spend many long decades with her.

General Clay, the workaholic American military governor, ordered his staff to plan an armored convoy that would barrel down the autobahn from Helmstedt, in the west, straight through Soviet territory to Berlin, sweeping all before it.

Lloyd heard about this plan at the same time as the British governor, Sir Brian Robertson, and heard him say in his clipped soldierly tones: "

If Clay does that, it will be war."

But nothing else made any sense. The Americans came up with other suggestions, Lloyd heard, talking to Clay's younger aides. The secretary of the army, Kenneth Royall, wanted to halt the currency reform. Clay told him it had gone too far to be reversed. Next, Royall proposed evacuating all Americans. Clay told him that was exactly what the Soviets wanted.

Sir Brian wanted to supply the city by air. Most people thought that was impossible. Someone calculated that Berlin required four thousand tons of fuel and food per day. Were there enough airplanes in the world to move that much stuff? No one knew. Nevertheless, Sir Brian ordered the Royal Air Force to make a start.

On Friday afternoon Sir Brian went to see Clay, and Lloyd was invited to be part of the entourage. Sir Brian said to Clay: "The Russians might block the autobahn ahead of your convoy, and wait and see if you have the nerve to attack them, but I don't think they'll shoot planes down."

"I don't see how we can deliver enough supplies by air," Clay said again.

"Nor do I," said Sir Brian. "But we're going to do it until we think of something better."

Clay picked up the phone. "Get me General LeMay in Wiesbaden," he said. After a minute he said: "Curtis, have you got any planes there that can carry coal?"

There was a pause.

"Coal," said Clay more loudly.

Another pause.

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