Command Decision Page #3

- How are you?

- Glad to see you, Cliff.

I saw Kathy and those youngsters

of yours day before I left.

- Yeah? How are they?

- Fine, Casey, fine.

Got some letters and packages for you.

- How's Ted?

- Keeping busy.

That's good. Sis gave me

a lot of messages for him.

- How is Helen?

- She's fine. She's staying with mother.

She's expecting it any day now.

Have you braced yourself

to be an uncle?

I'm hoping it will be a girl.

One who won't fly anything but a kite.

No, not Ted's daughter.

She'll probably be another Amelia Earhart.

- General, what are you doing here?

- Brockie.

I thought you were sitting

with the mighty in the Pentagon.

I gotta get out once in a while and see how

these boys are fighting the real war.

You're doing a wonderful job, Casey.

All you fellas are.

Have they turned you

into an air inspector?

Well, no.

The chief can't wait to find out

everything through channels.

Call it personal reconnaissance.

General Dennis. Who?

Just a minute, he's right here.

- It's for you, sir, the Duchess of Waverly.

- Oh, thank you.

Hello. Hello, Millie.

Yes, I just arrived.

I tried to get in touch

with you from Prestwick.

Oh, I wanted to tell you again

how charming the luncheon was last week.

The results were very evident

in Washington.

Oh, no, it was very useful to meet him

for once in an informal way.

Your luncheons may have done more

for daylight bombardment...

...than all the tonnage

we've dropped since April.

Thank you, my dear.

Thursday? Yes, yes, I think I can.

Some what?

Oh, peanuts.

Certainly. Send them over

with my sergeant this afternoon.

All right, Millie. Goodbye.

Come on now, Brockie,

don't look so gloomy.

I want you and Casey to cut this out.

We're fighting the same war.

I tried to explain to him that nobody wants

to withhold information from the press.

I've seen the way Mr. Brockhurst

handles legitimate information.

- When?

- After Bremfurt.

We needed another attack

to finish that job.

By the time you got through with our losses,

and Washington got through explaining...

...we got an order that it'd be politically

impossible to attack the place again.

Boys are being killed today with cannon

made at Bremfurt since that attack.

- Now wait a minute...

- You think, general...

...that the American public should accept

losses without even knowing the target?

Yesterday's communiqu

was pretty skimpy, Casey.

But we've certainly nothing to hide.

Our loss average

is still far below expectations.

- Is today going to help it?

- What do you mean?

Yesterday was a bloody massacre.

Won't today be worse?

- I don't like your language, Mr. Brockhurst.

- I'm sorry, general...

...but even a dumb civilian can tell

you've got a maximum effort out today.

Maximum?

Where did they go today?

This is not a matter

for the press.

Brockie's been a friend

of air power for years.

What's today's target?

Very good, sir. Schweinhafen.

Schweinhafen. And yesterday?

Yesterday's target was Posenleben, sir.

Casey, you haven't started...

Brockie, I'm afraid there is a question

of security involved here, if you don't mind.

- Have you started Operation Stitch?

- The second phase is on today, sir.

I don't want the congressional

committee to come today.

Call London and have

their itinerary changed.

See that they don't get here

before the day after tomorrow.

- And cancel that thing at the embassy.

- Yes, sir.

Get me command headquarters.

This is General Kane.

Get me General Malloway.

Hello, Bob? Oh, pretty good.

Let's scramble.

Ready?

No, I'm at Dennis' headquarters.

I want a complete security blackout

on today's operations.

Nothing to be passed on to London

without my personal approval.

Under no circumstances

will any field order be sent out...

...unless you hear from me personally.

That's right.

I'm resuming command as of now.

All right, Bob.

Casey, this may pull down

the work of 20 years.

All right, let's have it.

After you left, weather

conference gave us a clear break...

...over central and northeast Germany

for four days.

There was a chance to do the job.

Possibly the last one,

so I laid on Stitch.

Regardless that you might be

upsetting the larger picture.

Larger than what, sir?

The outcome of the war?

The outcome will depend on how large

an air force the combined chiefs allocate us.

- Isn't that correct?

- It is, sir. You see...

You took advantage of my absence.

You know it wasn't my intention

to implement Stitch this soon.

It was my decision to make, sir.

I made it.

Gentlemen, gentlemen.

May an ignorant visitor inquire

just what Operation Stitch is all about?

You must know something about this

new German fighter, Lantze-Wolf 1.

You mean that miracle jet job

they're supposed to have?

- Is that it?

- That's it.

- I want to run that special film for Garnet.

- Oh, yes, sir.

Six weeks ago, a German plane

like that model...

...landed on the number one strip

at Ted's field.

- Shot up?

- Not a scratch.

The pilot was a Czechoslovakian engineer.

He'd been forced to work for the Nazis.

When they sent him to the Baltic

to test this job, he flew it here instead.

Sweet of him.

Here are the tests.

Our Lightning, Thunderbolt,

Mustang, Spit 12.

And this is the Lantze-Wolf 1.

Speed, altitude,

almost double of anything we've got.

It's a terrific improvement.

Improvement? It's a revolution, Cliff.

- You ready, sergeant?

- Yes, sir.

Gentlemen, sit down.

If Gring can put

enough of these into the air...

...he can knock us out in 60 days.

- That's an assumption.

I'm sorry, sir,

but it's a cold fact.

These Lantzes will turn every type of plane

we have into a sitting duck.

I don't have to tell you once they get

control of the air over the continent...

...a ground invasion

will be a pipe dream.

It was fighters that kept them out of Britain.

Fighters and their own indecision.

We thought these were

just drawing-board figures.

Casey, where are they

making these kites?

We know now that there are three factories

in Germany actually producing these planes.

That is, there were

until yesterday anyway.

Posenleben, Schweinhafen, Fendelhorst.

There it is, Cliff, Operation Stitch...

...for "stitch in time."

General Kane, why hasn't more of this

been reported to Washington?

I couldn't endorse

such alarming conclusions.

Not at the very time

when everything depends...

...on our getting established

on an acceptable loss basis.

Casey, why didn't you wait

at least until the meeting was over?

We would have lost our weather,

which is everything.

To you and me, maybe,

but not to topside.

A third day like this

might kill precision bombardment.

I'm not at all sure

I'm justified in permitting it.

Sir, if we don't finish the job now...

...the men and the planes we've lost so far

will have been lost for nothing.

Here they come.

Six, eight, nine. How many

did the 329th put up this morning?

Thirty-six, I think it was, sir.

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