Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age

P
RAISE FOR
W
ALTER
J. B
OYNE

“The saga isn’t a new genre, but the aviation saga is—and Walter Boyne invented it. Here’s a first-rate story of the jet age from our foremost aviation writer.”

—Stephen Coonts on
Supersonic Thunder

“Boyne packs the novel with historically accurate detail. Aviation fans will gulp this one down in one long, satisfied swallow.”

—
Booklist
on
Roaring Thunder

“Boyne’s narrative follows the story until 1954, incorporating the evolution of the B-52 bomber and the Boeing 707 commercial jet airliner. . . . Boyne doesn’t disappoint.”

—
Publishers Weekly
on
Roaring Thunder

“
Dawn Over Kitty Hawk
is an amazing book. Not only is it riveting history, it is also a suspense story that takes readers inside the ferocious competition to be the first in flight.”

—Thomas Fleming, president of the Society of
American Historians and
New York Times
bestselling
author of
The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee

FORGE BOOKS BY WALTER J. BOYNE

Dawn Over Kitty Hawk

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Roaring Thunder

Today’s Best Military Writing
(editor)

Hypersonic Thunder

Supersonic Thunder

ROARING THUNDER

A Novel of the Jet Age

WALTER J. BOYNE

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ROARING THUNDER: A NOVEL OF THE JET AGE

Copyright © 2006 by Walter J. Boyne

All rights reserved.

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-4746-6

First Edition: January 2006

First Mass Market Edition: February 2010

Printed in the United States of America

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THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO SIR FRANK WHITTLE,
HANS VON OHAIN, ANSELM FRANZ,
AND NATHAN PRICE—ALL GIANTS OF THE JET AGE.

ROARING THUNDER

• THE PASSING SCENE •

Germany protests over maltreatment of ethnic Germans in Poland; Great Britain and France pledge to come to Poland’s aid in the event of war; Germany and Soviet Union announce non-aggression pact;
The Grapes of Wrath
published in the United States; Pan Am begins regularly scheduled flights between the United States and Europe; Igor Sikorsky constructs helicopter.

CHAPTER ONE

August 27, 1939, Marienehe, Germany

The turgid waters of the Warnow River lapped at the stone-covered beach, the gentle gurgling muffled by the dense fog spreading its tendrils deep over the grassy flying field. A thousand yards away five men worked feverishly in the yellow light billowing from the “Special Project” hangar doors, checking the small, almost dainty aircraft they had just rolled out. Cautiously, as if they were handling a live bomb, they wrestled the plane into a 180-degree turn so that the odd circular hole at the end of the fuselage pointed out toward the river.

Fritz Obermyer sat on the edge of the Fiat Toppolino’s tiny running board, his 120 kilograms of muscle and fat tipping the car, suppressing its springs, and sending the glow of its headlights at a cockeyed angle. Obermyer drew deeply on the stub of a cigarette, felt its warmth flare beneath his nose, then carefully dropped it beside him, grinding it into the tarmac with his foot.

He nudged his companion and pointed. “Look at him. When he came here three years ago, a little snot-nosed graduate student from Göttingen, I thought he was crazy.”

Gerd Müller, short, lean, and wiry, stretched and laughed. “You tried to give him a hard time, Fritz, but he drove you crazy being polite. No matter what you said—or what you wrote on the wall in the latrine—he never lost his temper.”

As
Frontsoldaten,
they were accustomed to discomfort and waiting, and the long hours spent at the field meant nothing to them. Obermyer had left the Berlin Institute of Technology to volunteer for the army in August 1914. Now he was nominally a machinist foreman in the new plant building the Heinkel He 111 bomber. A forceful personality, he had used an artful combination of his engineering training and his Nazi Party connections to become accepted as an aide to Ernst Heinkel himself. Heinkel was at first quite resistant to the idea but over time, as Obermyer’s talents became obvious, welcomed his assistance.

Heinkel found that he could depend upon Obermyer to know what was happening on the factory floor, in the long rows of drafting tables, and in the local Nazi Party headquarters, usually long before anyone else was aware of it. The information was often invaluable, and within a few months of his employment, Heinkel looked upon Obermyer as an indispensable political divining rod. Müller was an excellent machinist but had been attached to Obermyer—at his insistence—as an assistant.

The arrangement suited the plant management, who saw Obermyer and Müller as agitators. They were glad to have them off the factory floor and worried each time Obermyer came through, acting as if he were the local feudal lord, gathering information and dispensing favors. They, like Heinkel, knew better than to protest. The firm was already at odds with the government, and everyone wanted to avoid any further difficulties with the Nazi Party. When Obermyer suggested that he be attached to
the Special Project organization, Heinkel acquiesced—the more sensitive a project was, the more hazardous it was to raise a political issue.