Nursing novel go set a watchman. It all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. Of next military historian alan axelrod recounts the American BombingMission Operation aphrodite project anvil intended to stop germanys missile attacks on london. Good evening. I am tony clark from the carter library. I am really glad you guys are here. We have a Wonderful Program tonight. As always i encourage you to pick up one of these sheets from the blue skirted table, it talks about other authors we have coming. This summer harper lee, they are releasing the book, the second book that harper lee wrote and i wish we had harper lee here, we do have the author, she moved in next door to harper lee and she writes about harper lee and getting to know her. The book is called the mockingbird next door. Mark your calendar july 15th, president carter will be signing just signing, his new book, a full life here. Later in the year ahead salman rushdie, diana nicad who swam from cuba to florida. We have a wonderful list of authors but i am especially pleased to have alan axelrod to talk about joy katie junior. I grew up in oklahoma during the 50s and 60s and got caught up in the whole Kennedy Campaign and all as a kid coming home from high school. I remember the then president kennedy the motorcade going by. He had been to senator robert s. Kerrs i followed the kennedys all along. Alan axelrod got his doctorate in english from the university of iowa. He has written a a gazillion books. He has done this holes ceres that might be referred to as ceo books, napoleon ceo, gandhi ceo, Winston Churchill ceo. He has done military books like bradley, the great general sees. Eisenhower on leadership and tonight he takes us into a fascinating time of world war ii drones and perhaps the best known political family in this countrys history. Please join me in welcoming alan axelrod. [applause] thank you all for coming. Just to orient you as to the subject of this book it is probably gauche to do this, let me read two para as from a flap copy. Which i wrote by the way. On august 12th, 1944, lt. Joseph p. Kennedy jr. Heir to one of americas most glamorous fortunes, some of the disgraced former ambassador to great britain, big brother to freshly minted pt 109 hero jfk hoisted themselves into a radically modified be 24 liberator bomber. Kennedys mission was part of operation operation aphrodite project anvil, to liberate london from the german missiles lieutenantgeneral jimmy doolittle, a charismatic leader of the 1942 tokyo raid championed a plan to install radio control equipment in warweary bombers, a dozen tons of high explosives and fly them by remotecontrolled directly into the concrete german launch site the the 1s n. V. 2s. The catch was live pilots were needed to get these flying bombs off the ground. Joe jr. Was the first naval aviator to fly such a mission and in what was likely the biggest manmade explosion before hiroshima, it killed him. So i am going to read some passages which are strung together and hopefully will make sense and then we are going to get to the faithful and Fatal Mission itself. Tail number 5271, now designated more simply tee 11, the number painted on its use the launch had been modified for radio control in philadelphia. There was plenty of work to be done. The aircraft had to be stripped bare inside and out and reinforced with timbers to ensure that the structure would not be compromised by a dozen tons of high explosive. All of its guns and gun turrets were removed in a gesture intended to give the appearance that the plane was not totally defenseless, painted broomsticks were installed in place of the turret and tail guns. The silver aircraft received a coat of white paint on its wing talk to him visibility even further. Very soon after as they arrived early in june lie so james smith and cousin willing match joe kennedy. With his Commanding Officer joy in sunshine ready fresen, smith and willie had at long last explain the mission joe had volunteered for. Smith and with the began by describing what they had done to the navy designation of the be 24. It had been fitted with a system by which it could be radio controls to climb, bang, glide, lower its cliff, dissent and dive. It could not they claimed take off or land on its own and it would not be allowed even if it could. They told kennedy that the airplane would be loaded with 21,170 pounds of torpedo explosives in 327 tiny crates. This, they said, was 12 times the explosive load of a single buzz bomb. The weapon first used against london about three weeks earlier. The explosives would be carefully tied down, his mission they told kennedy, would be to take the aircraft up and fly it in a designated pattern during which he and one crew member with 3 parrot for hand off to a Remote Control island in ventura who would fly the robot plane into a heartened weapons facility on the coast of france and. After handing it off and before leaving english aerospace kennedy and his crew member would bailout. At that point of the mission was over. And oh yes, before handing of control, before bailing out they would have to arm the explosive payload. Now joe kennedy arrived at this base which the navy shared a small section of with the Army Air Force, right after four Army Missions to do the same kind of thing, to fly robot airplanes into the german facilities failed miserably and in fact by the time joe took off a total of six Army Air Corps missions had failed with two killed and one pilot named, his arms ripped off as he bailed out of his airplane and then it was joe kennedys turn to try. Embittered by the failures of august 4th and august 6th, many Army Air Corps personnel at the r. A. F. Bass the whole mission had now moved to made no attempt to hide their resentment of the small naval and shining new p b 451. Lieutenant colonel roy forest had homeland for intentional attitude the she was interested in the navys approach and when he walked to the Navy Aircraft and climbed into the cockpit he was impressed. The equipment was far more sophisticated than anything the army had produced, but then his eyes lighted on what was called the harming panel. It was a breadboard it was the very makeshift Circuit Board made out of why would. The turn to commander smith who was showing him the plane. Ginny, this looks like something you would make with a number 2 erector set and lincoln logs. Force was not an Electronics Expert but he knew a dangerously cold brittle joined when he saw one and screwing up plywood Circuit Boards directly to steal aircraft ball had invited a whole mess of short circuits and voltage spikes. Most of all he knew what a piece of junk looked like and he appreciated that the success of the mission, the lives of the air crew held the life and limb of every man on air base depended on that plywood peace of ship. Forests grillled is goodnatured the as he could command a smith on this side of hardware about all smith could say was it came straight from the Naval Aircraft Factory at philadelphia which certainly knew what it was doing. Getting no satisfaction from the navy he brought up his concerns in the Officers Club at dinner that evening with a colonel in the third bomb division, the colonel listened. The arming panel he replied, what the leader of the know about the navys arming panel, securing the martini from a proper dray he picks eyes on force and it was their problem. As an army officer knows, the gulf separating the man who wears the oak leaves of lieutenantcolonel from the man who has full colonel eagles is wider than that dividing a full colonel from a brigadiergeneral. It was time to shut up and he knew it. But couldnt stop himself. Is a matter of conscience with me explain to. And they have got it wrong. They have to blow a load of ten 12 tons with and arming system that is as safe as a basket full of rattlesnakes. The colonel could have fooled to rank with a warning that the Lieutenant Colonel was out of line. He did something worse. Raising his fresh martini depose a toast to you and your wild imagination adding when the navy blows of its jerome and give me a ring, nobody wanted the navy here in the first place. Joe kennedys principal anxiety had two sources. He did the army would have a chance to succeed or the war would end. On august 6th, one source was eliminated when two air Corps Missions of that they failed miserably and doolittle himself grounded operation aphrodite until such time as the new caster system was ready to replace the discredited double a sun system. And the rationale was twofold. Radio control technology was limited at this time, this system that the air force used had not been designed to take off on its own. And even landing by radio control but this is far from foolproof. There was a high possibility of failure and that brings up the second rationale. No way was anyone in charge to trust radio remotecontrol to guide the plane notify explosives off of a huge military airfield and over a portion of england that included several densely populated cities. Even london was not far. So kennedy is waiting to take off day after day goes by and they are always fogged in too fog in and this is a mission in which the robot plane has to be controlled by two control planes, the twinengine planes, and at all times the control plane has to be able to see visually the robot plane from thousands of feet away. You cant have any clouds and if you are flying out of england is hard to find a david doesnt have clouds. The hours and days crept by it remained elusive. Kennedy used when they for another practice flight and turned it over for loading. When the farmers began loading the plane, kennedy engines simpson who was his roommate and ambled by to watch. Work party consists exclusively of black g is, that is the way it is in segregated American Military of the day, see the doors to change on its human chain to the aircraft after hatch. And then twisted to the next man in the chain who took it, swiveled and passed it on. The work was much harder, but gracefully past a solemn ritual, contained 50, 60 pounds of a small wax paper wrapped lot of what looked like butter. Primrose in not quite translucent. At the end of the chain was a man, feet firmly planted on the tarmac, head sticking up through the open at catch hands extended, palms up as if in supplication waiting to receive each box as it came to him taking it he would have to suggest high turn face forward and slide it onto the deck of the aircraft, inside of the neighbors directed by white naval officer carry each box forward and lowered it gingerly into place, one atop another filling every conceivable space beginning with the place for the copilot seat should have been. And working back box upon box toward the rear of the 60 foot bomber. Loading went ahead like a slowmotion machine smooth and precise and silva man with his head in the planes belly, the bottom of one box on the lip of the hash, scraped the knuckles of one hand and lost his grip. The box lid down, and of the briefly in the hatch and slid free falling toward the tarmac. Instinctively the g i thrust out his foot to take the weight of the greats edge on his toe. It had to hurt. At least it meant a broken toe, may be hairline fracture of the instep but whatever pain he endured he kept loading and not another craig slept. Good thing too. The butter in each crate was the royal gun powder factory that had developed from a german recipe. Mixing an old standby with tnt and all for a fine aluminum powder to produce a high explosive, 50 more powerful than the end he alone. It made up 42 of the mix and the tnt 40 . Together these generated the release of energy while the aluminum powder, 18 , made the explosive pauls last longer and therefore enhance its destructive force. Beeswax was thrown into reduce the sensitivity to shock and impact joy 6foot drop onto asphalt would have at the very least put the effectiveness of the bees wax buffer to the test. 347 pine creeks, 21,170 pounds would be loaded into t 11, equivalent to 18 tons of tnt until the detonation of little boy at the little boy atomic bomb over hiroshima almost exactly one year later on august 6th, 1945 kennedys p b 451 is the single most destructive explosive weapon in military history. Kennedy did not wait for the final grades to be loaded. Just after the load, but falling crane on his toe joy nudged simpson lets get out of here. T 11 was loaded and ready by dawn on august 11th but dense fog ruled out any flight and joe bruited as he listened to the bbc account of a juggernaut that was general patton and the third United States army. He could comfort the fact that patten was not pushing for many be went in sight. And could hold out that much longer. August 12th dawned cloudy and another day without cattle kennedy and the others rising a foot of of the earth. And the clouds would part and the skies would clear. Joe kennedy and company with simpson and will be wind to the officers mess. And an auxiliary starter followed by the whitney cough of the engines they knew the long to t 11. The crew chief was starting his preflight check. The conclusion was inescapable. He had been told to prepare for a mission that day. Holding their own anticipation in check joy and his companions finished their breakfast, walked out and studied the sky. The great cloud cover was now ridden with. Looking down it was apparent the ground fog has completely burned off. Rosy lie and pull the pin and jeeps to say there was a final briefing at 1500 3 00 p. M. That was hours away. In the meantime, they both bounced from the operational mission, pitched in to perform a thorough preflight with villain focusing on the allimportant radio equipment. At 10 30 joe was handed the latest weather forecast. It looks promising at first feel that the target about which joe had not been informed. Not as junk pilot, he really needed to know. He was going to bailout long before the jerome, went to its target. Joe had written to his mother and father on august 4th the day after the first four failed aphrodite sorrys. He said i working on something different, is terribly interesting but at this point quite secret. Per usual i have done nothing but it is far more in justin than patrolling over the day. Then he wrote a sentence outwardly designed to l. A. Parental anxiety yet clearly meant to provoke reading between the lines. Dont get worried about it as there is practically no danger. The he apologized for having volunteered beyond his mission quota but assured his mother he volunteered for 21 2 times the missions was supposed to fly and then he decided to do this on top of that. Is mother and father, when i tell you the whole story i think you will agree that was a Mission Worth staying for. All the boys who did go home now which they did state over. With time on his hands so much time it seemed that 10 30 a. M. Joe phone laurel hurst, second wife of William Randolph hearst some time war correspondent and good friend, she kept an apartment at the exclusive london hotel. Joe asked her to pass a message to his father. I am about to go into my act, he told her. If i dont come back tell my dad despite our differences that i loved him very much. Like so many utterances that end of counting among a persons last it is both moving and touching. It is also perplexing, despite our differences what did joe mean by that . Sounds like the statement of a son who had fallen out with his father or whose father had fallen out with him but nothing of that kind happened. Before he joined the navy joe jr. Had an almost slavish in telling his fathers isolationist line there was no argument over that issue and while his father wanted to security men important but state staff appointments he did not protest when joe jr. Became a Naval Aviation cadet although he clearly recognize dangers. Went joe jr. Earned his wings joy Senior Pentagon his uniform. Kid defrays the fray some unexpressed resentment on the part of the sun . Perhaps the feeling never put into words that the acts ambassadors relentlessly public defeatism and what often seemed a cynical contempt for heroism, sacrifice and even democracy, all sentiments the ambassador publicly expressed, forced him into risking his life. At 1500, 3 00 p. M. The men assigned to the First Mission of as a you 1, special Aviation Unit 1 gathered in the hut serve as the briefing shaft. The two six man Mission Crews were present, the primary commanded by rosie lion with John Anderson serving as control pilate, the guy who actually control the drone from the mother ship, the secondary flown by harry wary, also present were the personnel of the auxiliary aircraft, b17 flying fortress navigation plane, p 38 piloted by what forest and james smith a mosquito photo plane flown by fdrs son colonel Elliott Roosevelt assigned to document the bailout and 16 p 51 must things assigned to provide security. Seated up front in the briefing were joe kennedy and budget willie, joe carefully taking notes on the kneepad he would carry with him into the cockpit. He personally delivered the mission brief. He was to take off and climb to 2,000 feet, 23 minutes southeast of first feel. It was expected that anderson and the primary ventura, a control plan, would have established radio controlled by the time tee 11 was overhead. Even so kennedy and willie were to remain on board as passengers to ensure that control was maintained and fully operational. Anderson would turn tee 11 northeast, a 20 minute flight, during this time kennedy and we would continue checking all controls before anderson turned south to the departure deck that would take the drone across the english channel. As they flew above the estuary. Willie would test the arming circuit with the safety lab. When the circuit was safe, the wire safety on the arms which, before the arm position. It all went as eds should, willie would squeeze through the nose wheel doorway. This is the only way out of a modified heebie 451. Joe would follow immediately pulling the manual arming wire just before