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Research Station 51

Page history last edited by Michael 5 years, 10 months ago

back to Tunnel Trouble or the Index

 


 

 

Saturday, October 1, 1932

 

The new moon occurred on this night.

 

Babe Ruth makes his famous called shot in the fifth inning of game 3 of the 1932 World Series.

Gyula Gömbös becomes Prime Minister of Hungary,

marking the first time a member of the radical right has become Hungary's head of government.

 

     After sunset, we boarded our boats and rowed quickly across the Dniester to the Ukraine, hiding both boats in the reeds and brush.

 

Sunday, October 2, 1932

 

sunrise at 5:56 a.m.; sunset at 5:35 p.m. (local time, Summer Time is not in effect)

 

     After midnight, we set off across the Ukrainian steppes. About 5 a.m., we arrived in the vicinity of the Soviet base, and looked for a place to hide and observe; we dug a hole and improvised cover with grass, sticks, a ratty piece of canvas, etc.. Rain began to fall.

     During the day, Our Heroes observed a industrial facility in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a fifteen-foot high fence; guard towers stood every hundred yards or so, with spotlights (not lit) and multiple bullhorns or sound-systems. Soviet troops patrolled the grounds, but security wasn't as tight as it could be.

     Three two-story, grubby socialist industrial buildings dominated the camp; one of them was the power plant, with two smokestacks spewing black sulfurous coal smoke. Inside the facility were a few "internal" fenced-off areas -- a set of sixteen crude barracks for prisoners, and two large gasometers (one marked Дизель and the other covered in peeling yellow paint). High earth berms protected several of the buildings, including the various barracks for soldiers, scientists, skilled workers, and administrators. A grain silo and several farm tractors stood on the west side of the base. A large mining-type elevator stood in a central area -- large enough to lower big trucks underground. A railway track led into the base, but no telephone lines; a radio mast stood atop one building. Various large pipes connected the industrial buildings, the power plant, and a nastily-polluted pond.

     One of the guard towers stood on the roof of a large building, and had a wind sock mounted atop it. That building had wide rolling doors facing south, and was in fact a combination aircraft hangar and (we later learned) vehicle maintenance shop.

     Not long after dawn (and still in the rain), an airplane rolled out of the hangar, and took off along the mile-long runway/approach road -- it was heavily loaded, and used 700 yards of the runway. The plane was a two-engined monoplane, with an open cockpit and Soviet military markings; it carried a long cylindrical object under each wing -- bombs, torpedoes, we didn't know yet.

 

Maybe this plane?

 

      It circled around once, fairly low, and -- passing over Our Heroes -- released an ominous vapor from the gas tanks under the wings. Alarms began to blare at the factory, and the staff scrambled indoors, closing windows and donning gas masks. We, too, scrambled to cover our heads, mouths, etc. with improvised "gas preparations". The unpleasant vapor gave several of Our Heroes coughing fits; a few of us were affected for several hours. The airplane flew around again twice and "dusted" a wheat field nearby -- the dose we had received was purely accidental. The airplane then landed at the research base and returned to its hangar.

     Even in a steady rain, the gas had serious effects; we weren't able to determine if it was a pesticide, fungicide, fertilizer, etc..

     Late in the day, an hour before sunset, and just as the moon is rising, a railway train arrives. It's only got a few box cars; one of them contains forty prisoners. All but a dozen of the prisoners were children; they apparently came from all corners of the Soviet Union -- Russians, Asians, Turks, etc.. Some of the children were as young as five years. The guards forced the prisoners to strip naked, and then hosed them down, dusted them with insecticide (presumably) and marched them off into confinement.

     After sunset there was a shift change for the guards. We observed workers (prisoners, that is) loading 55 gallon drums onto a railway box car. The drums were painted yellow, gray or red; loading the drums took about an hour.

     DeLacy snuck out into the wheat fields and collected some of the targeted wheat; since the airplane had released a vapor, it was difficult to collect samples of the actual gas. He also collected a dead snake.

 

Monday, October 3, 1932

 

Iraq becomes an independent kingdom under Faisal.

 

     In the middle of the night, DeLacy and Nora Cullen sneaked across the wheat fields, through the fifteen-foot high fence and over to the steaming, stinking waste pond. From outside the fence, they saw people in gray rubberized coveralls, black rubber boots and gloves, and a helmet-hood; these workers were repairing the large yellow gasometer. Nora and DeLacy crept over to the edge of the pond, and took a sample of the water -- from a good distance, since it smelled and looked very toxic and corrosive.

     At this point, Nora had a vision or dream, of being captured by the Russians, stripped of their belongings, and stuck in small concrete cells. Waking from the vision, she and DeLacy quickly returned to our hideout in the wheat fields.

     In the weather, the morning air was thick with mist. At nine a.m. a group of guards shepherded some prisoners, pushing four carts piled with bodies. The carts were taken to the power plant, presumably for incineration. If each cart had eight bodies, then thirty-two people had been killed ...

     After sunset, Our Heroes crept stealthily along, ten miles back to the Dniester, and rowed back to Romania.

 

along the banks of the Dniester River

 

     Well before dawn, we were in Akkermann, and we boarded the first train of the day to Bucharest. The rail journey to Bucharest took quite a few hours, but we returned "home" before sunset.

     Several of us composed messages and prepared packages for various organizations ... the next day's diplomatic pouch was notably large. Qua Lin Worthington researched and invented an herbal concoction that would treat the lung damage caused by the mysterious "crop dusting vapor".

 

Saturday, October 8, 1932

 

     The Marylebone Cricket Club, on its way to Australia for a series of Test Matches, played a one-day single-inning match in Ceylon against the Ceylon Cricket Club, at Vihara Mahadevi Park in Colombo.

 

Monday, October 10, 1932

 

Make all Experience checks!

 

     Unbeknownst to Our Heroes, three British agents were arrested by the Frontier Guards while smuggling weapons in a fishing boat. They had been part of an operation under the command of "Major Robert Hunter", who was captured by the Russians at about the same time.

 

Monday, October 17, 1932

 

     After two weeks, DeLacy had been keeping up appearances as Mr. Algernon Stayback, a Canadian representing a branch of the Citroën firm, managing to sell a few trucks, albeit at a loss. Qua Lin continued to defy Clive White's urgings to return to civilized London. Nora Cullin spent time with NKVD agents and the fencing club. 

     Victoria May received a notice about a British subject lost in the Crimea; DeLacy got a notice with a very similar subject.

     The British embassy received a Foreign Office notice about a missing British subject -- Mr. James Hunter. Willoughby began inquiries in local hospitals and jails for any un-accounted-for Britons; and in fact there were three of them in jail at the coastal city of Constantza! It was only a matter of a quick rail jaunt, a bit of questioning, and some simple bribery, to have the men released into his custody.

 

three employees of Citroën Marine ...

     Philip Bhaltair, Callum Davidson, and John Cooper claimed to be employed at the Marseille office of Citroën-Marine; they were arrested just off the coast by the Frontier Guards on October 10th, in a fishing vessel with Soviet markings and homeported in Odessa. They themselves had no identity papers, but claimed to be British subjects. A cargo of machine guns, explosives, gas masks, and other military gear was found aboard. They claim to have won the fishing boat in a card game in Odessa ... 

 

     Returning to Bucharest with the three freed men, Willoughby turned them over to DeLacy, as a representative "of the same firm" (or at least a sister firm). DeLacy and the men sent long telegrams to London, and began waiting. 

 


 

     A couple of days passed, with cables back and forth between DeLacy and his supervisors in London; negotiations that eventually placed "the three employees" under his control.

     Victoria May searched her boss's office and house. She found a number of military-related documents on tanks and aircraft, including photos of Czechoslovakian documents about Vickers-Armstrong equipment. The cover letter is from the Romanian Ministry of War; the photographs were from immediately before his disappearance. She also found another small camera with some film. Having uncovered all of this information, Victoria left the next morning to spend a well-deserved week in Paris.

 

Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aerienne

     CIDNA flights depart Bucharest every morning at 7:40 a.m.; they land at Vienna and Strasbourg before arriving in Paris (Le Bourget airport) about 8 p.m..

     Return flights depart Paris at 6 a.m., stop at Strasbourg and Vienna, and arrive at Bucharest at 7:25 p.m.

     The schedule gets more convenient as the decade advances; this is the 1932 schedule. In October of 1933 Air France takes over CIDNA.

     The aircraft employed for this service are Fokker F.VII and F.VIIb trimotors. The flight is 1400 miles; the plane carries 8 passengers, 2 pilots, a steward, and a lot of airmail. Note that the CIDNA network extends all the way to Istanbul.

 

     Bill Davis made a brief trip to Prague and bought back an alarming amount of military gear:

 

  • 10 rubberized canvas anti-gas suits, in a range of sizes to suit Our Heroes.

  • 10 gas masks.

  • 12 pairs rubber over-boots.

  • 12 pairs elbow-length rubber gauntlets.

  • 6 Czechoslovakian Vz.24 rifles -- very similar to the Mauser M98 -- with slings, ammunition pouches, cleaning kits, etc. They are 8mm caliber; they hold 5 rounds.

  • 1 ZB26 light machine gun, with magazines, tools, etc.. It's also 8mm caliber.

  • 1 Mauser Model 1918 anti tank rifle, in 13.2mm caliber. This item did not accompany us on our trip into the Soviet Union.

  • 10 Czechoslovakian Vz.24 pistols in 9mm Short caliber, with magazines and holsters. The magazines hold 8 rounds.

  • 2 crates Czech copies of Mills bombs, 1926 production.

  • field/camping gear (tents, stoves, blankets, backpacks, canteens, etc.).

  • 2 cases industrial dynamite, 40% strength winter grade.

  • demolitions tools, electrical and pyrotechnic fusing materials, detonator box, blasting caps, etc.

  • ammunition to suit the rifles, machinegun, anti-tank rifle, and pistols.

     

     He presented the tab -- £150 -- to Willoughby, who initiated an uncomfortable series of interdepartmental monetary demands.

 

Thursday, October 27, 1932

 

     Victoria May returned from Paris.

 

Friday, October 28, 1932

 

     Algernon DeLacy gathered everyone at a garage in Bucharest, and presented the facts and plan.

     Major Robert Hunter was sent to research the Soviet facility -- Research Station 51 -- after another agent's report (probably DeLacy's report, in fact). Hunter came from England and the other three men (Bhaltair, Davidson, and Cooper) from Alexandria. Hunter was captured by the Soviets; we were to rescue him, and to bring back information about what the Soviets were up to. 

 

Saturday, October 29, 1932

 

President Herbert Hoover completes a short campaign tour through

West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana with a major rally in Indianapolis.

He accuses Roosevelt of "spreading falsehoods and calumnies about the country’s economic crisis.”

Roosevelt leads Hoover by a 3-to-2 margin in a nation-wide poll by The Literary Digest.

 

     Our Heroes departed Bucharest in the morning, arrived at Akkermann in the late afternoon, and traveled to our preferred spot along the banks of the Dniester.

 

Looking upstream, with Romania on the left, and the Ukraine on the right.

 

     After sunset, we crossed the river once again, and proceeded on the ten-mile march to the Soviet base.

 

Sunday, October 30, 1932

 

     Arriving in the vicinity of Research Station 51, we found that all the wheat fields around the plant had been tilled -- very little cover was left. Our three Citroën-Marine fellows were very competent and stealthy. We crept though a light mist, up to the fence, and cut our way through. So far, so good; we approached the largest of the industrial buildings, and Victoria May picked the lock on a door with panache. 

     Much of the two-story interior was taken up by tanks, pipes, pumps, walkways, valves, and other dangerous, hazardous plumbing. The danger was emphasized by the many warning signs, fire-suppression nozzles, fire hoses, personal wash-down stations, and the staff in rubberized protective suits.

 

Soviet rubberized chemical protective suits

 

     Also present are prisoner-laborers, NOT protected by rubberized suits. A couple of trucks were present, including one very large, specialized one. A freight elevator and vehicle ramp both led underground.

     We sneaked into the room, behind trucks and pipes, and down the ramp. We make a certain amount of noise, but the machinery was so noisy we weren't noticed.

     On the next level down was a laboratory and sort of morgue, with tiled walls; a couple dozen mortuary drawers lined one side of the room. There were various controls at each end of the laboratory. Again, the room had extensive fire sprinklers, fire extinguishers, respirators, drains in the floor, and other signs that the staff expected trouble. An autopsy table, dissection tools, and Some confinement chambers alongside the laboratory, with large armored glass windows, held a couple of experimental subjects -- a man and a woman.

  • The man was a Slavic fellow, about sixty years old, in excellent health for his age. He had a scar around -- entirely around -- his skull.

  • The woman was of Asian ethnicity, in her twenties. Her arms seemed longer than normal for a human being.

     Some of the controls seemed to be for the purpose of exposing people in the confinement chambers to unpleasant chemicals. Some of the mortuary drawers contained victims of terrible tests -- Willoughby saw one with chemical burns and whose mucous membranes had been melted.

     Standing in the room were two ... robots? They were bipedal, about nine feet tall, equipped with projectile or rocket launchers and flamethrowers, and standing on enormous rubber-treaded steel feet; Nora Cullin and one of the Citroën-Marine men checked one out. It turned out to have a cockpit, for an operator; the controls were somewhat like those of a caterpillar tractor or tank. Nora wasn't able to figure out what motor or power supply propelled the suit, other than some sort of new dry cell battery. 

 

Soviet Na-12 Kolossus

 

     Qua Lin and DeLacy donned a couple of the Soviet chemical-protective suits and hoods from a rack here. DeLacy was able to determine that the controls were set up to spray the confinement chambers with either "Herbicide X", chlorine gas, mustard gas, or cyanide gas (from Zyklon A).

 

Note for later:  Zyklon A is commercial product, sold by I.G. Farben and used worldwide.

When it's exposed to hot water, it produces hydrogen cyanide gas, a useful pesticide.

It smells like bitter almonds.

 

     Our Heroes descended the next ramp, to an armory. There were racks of bomb- or torpedo-shaped munitions, in various colors. Red seemed to be incendiary (with a flame symbol on the casings), yellow was some toxic substance (with a skull-and-crossbones on the casings), and blue had a number. These munitions seemed to be meant for the robot-suits on the level above. Also present were many 55 gallon drums, similar to those seem outside. The Citroën-Marine men hid a dynamite bomb among some of the red drums, with a 24-hour fuse.

     The armory also had several racks of Soviet chemical-protection gear (suits, boots, gloves, and gas-mask hoods. Everyone began putting them on; while we were doing so, an elevator descended past the armor.

     As we prowled the armory, we saw death-ray mounted on a push-cart, with a long power cable coiled alongside. There were some lead-lined suits nearby, meant to be used with it -- we left it alone.

     The next level down was an active construction site.  On the elevator platform there were a dozen workmen with tools and a guard. We decided to press on and rescue the imprisoned British agent.

     As we were  ascending we noticed that lights were on in the lab level. We decided to open the vehicle hatch. A passageway went about 40 yards, in the direction of the nasty tank at the back of the surface facility. Going through the hatch at the other end, there were more drains in the floor, bigger sprinklers, nozzles pointing down -- indications of toxic danger.

     Entering a cavernous room full of pipes and tanks, we heard the sounds of a gun going pop-pop-pop in a regular pattern, like executing people. We locked the vehicle door open so that no one could open the door on the other end of the passage.

 

part of the layout of the underground chemical plant

 

     All the pipes were being cooled (steam and condensation coming off of them). We saw five large, clear tubes each with a creature:  eight foot tall ape-men wearing coveralls with an empty toolbelt. One of the ape-men had steel teeth; one had a red light on its head; one had a metallic leg; and the female one had pulchritudinous clothing. The ape-men also saw us, and gestured obscurely.

     On some catwalk and gantries there were instrument panels and five sets of switches -- one per ape-man cell. DeLacy checked out the instrument panels. There was a typewriter, a few telephones, and some boxes with moving-picture scenes in them (televisions!). One looked like it could possibly the cellblock Nora remembered. She started playing with the electronics.

 

March 9, 1932:  The U.S. Federal Radio Commission grants an operating license

to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, for the television station W9XAK.

August 22, 1932:  The BBC starts a regular television service, using John Logie Baird's 30-line system.  

 

     DeLacy crept over to see what the shooting was about. There was a truck that bodies were being tossed into; the truck was parked on the freight elevator. The bodies were wearing different types of clothing, including some in military garb. There were pair of holding cells with steel bars; prisoners were packed into the cells and were yelling in languages other than Russian. The prisoners that were shot were very young, old, infirm or pregnant.

     Qua Lin and Bill Davis got a shock when one of the various doors in the chamber opened -- right next to them! Soviet guards, in rubber chem-suits, pushed on past to the catwalks, with some shouted commands in Russian ("Out of the way, put your helmets on!"). Our Heroes, dressed in the same rubberized canvas suits, said nothing and milled about in a military manner. 

     The Russians opened one of the ape-men enclosures, and used shock-rods to direct the ape back towards the door they'd entered from. One of the Russians asked, "Who's in charge?" -- Nora Cullin raised her hand, listened to the barked commands, shrugged and followed his instruction.

     The ape-man (well, female) was led away along a passage ending in a smaller elevator. Once the ape-team was gone, DeLacy called the team over to the railed gallery looking down onto where the executions had taken place. The truck now contained most of the corpses; Our Heroes grimly shot the Soviet goons, remembering the children and women those guards had just executed.

     Most of us climbed over the railing; Nora Cullin ran over and opened the cell doors. Victoria May realized that a ricochet during the shooting had punctured a pipe, allowing some toxic gas to escape under pressure. She scampered onto a large tank, jammed her rubber glove into the hole and saved the lives of the prisoners.

     We got the newly-released prisoners to remove the bodies of the executed prisoners from the truck; there were some tearful scenes as the lifeless corpses of small children, pregnant women, and harmless old grandmothers were taken down. We told (and gestured at) the rescued prisoners to get into the truck and prepare for an escape; they had the weapons from the half-dozen dead guards.

     DeLacy and Victoria May walked down a very long passage, to a ready room with four more guards, having a tea-and-cigarette break. The guards were not suspicious of DeLacy, but something about Victoria May (not walking like a Cossack, or being barely more than 5 feet tall, perhaps?) prompted them to get to their feet and grab at her. DeLacy and Victoria quickly shoot three of the guards; the fourth raised his hands, and DeLacy said in Russian, "Where is the English prisoner?" The guard pointed to the far door; DeLacy and Victoria moved him through it at gunpoint.

     Beyond were three galleries of prison cells; the guard opened two cells -- one with Major Hunter, and one with Victoria's missing boss:  Duncan Harecourt.

 

Duncan L. Harecourt

     We've been told he's been selling British secrets. He's been Second Secretary at the British Legation in Bucharest since 1930, and hadn't been reported missing. How he recently got into a cell at Research Station 51 is a mystery ...

 

     DeLacy ordered the guard to free all the other prisoners, as well, and yelled for them to follow him to freedom! In all, 37 more prisoners followed the British.

     Bill quietly cuts a hole in the fence surrounding the prisoners' shacks and leaves cutters where they could be found to cut more holes to freedom before the plant explodes.

     We led all the rescued prisoners--at least 70--out through the stairs and off into the night toward Romania. Fortunately, these prisoners had been chosen for physical fitness! The ten mile march brought us to the Dniester before dawn; we needed about an hour to ferry everyone over the river in our two boats (plus a couple of stolen Ukrainian rowboats). A few of the ex-prisoners shook our hands and slipped off into the pre-dawn mist on the Ukrainian side; some others went on their own way on the Romanian side.

     We loaded most of the escapees onto our wagons (and some wagons rented from nearby farms and vineyards) and headed towards Akkerman, just at dawn. As we got underway, people began cheering and pointing east -- a dirty mushroom-shaped cloud was rising from the site of Research Station 51. A half-minute later, the distant rumbling boom of a huge explosion was heard.

     By the time we reached Akkermann mid-morning, a dozen or so more of the freed prisoners had slipped away, confident of their own skills, or not quite trusting in our skills (or motives) ... fair enough. We booked a whole railway-carriage to move our remaining new friends to Bucharest, arriving very late in the afternoon. Again, even more of the rescued prisoners slipped away into the dark from the railway-carriages or on the station platform, but we were still left with around twenty or thirty persons to "manage". Some of us headed for our normal lodgings, for much-needed baths and sleep.

 

Willoughby quite likely gave away weapons, equipment and some money to departing escapees

-- he's pretty deeply shocked by Soviet prison methods.

 

     DeLacy and two of the Citroën-Marine men found food and housing for the remaining escapees; Major Hunter had a close escort by the third "sergeant".

     As we returned to our rooms, some of us realized our belongings had been searched in the last two days -- but were too tired to do anything about it. Nothing was obviously missing.

 

Monday, October 31, 1932

 

President Herbert Hoover gives a speech at Madison Square Garden,

arguing that a Roosevelt victory would result in more unemployment:

Grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities; a thousand towns;

the weeds will overrun the fields of millions of farms ...

Meanwhile, Roosevelt addresses an audience of supporters in Boston about unemployment.

Roosevelt criticizes the Hoover campaign for abandoning argument for personalities.

“The Administration attempts to undermine reason through fear,

by telling us the world will come to an end on November 8th if it is not returned to power for four years more.

Once more it is leadership that is bankrupt, not only in ideals, but in ideas.

It sadly misconceives the good sense and self reliance of our people.”

 

     At 10:27 in the morning, Major Hunter and his three Citroën-Marine men departed Bucharest aboard the Arlberg Orient Express, bound for Alexandria via Budapest and Athens.

     This day, Our Heroes noticed that the surveillance by Soviet agents was more thorough and professional.

     Willoughby spent much of the afternoon composing letters for Ambassador Palairet and for Mr. Montagu in the F.O.

 

Guests of Pulp Adventure stay at the Lido while in Bucharest!Some of Our Heroes were staying at the Lido, Bucharest's newest grand hotel, built in the Art Deco style.

 

 

Tuesday, November 1, 1932

 

     About breakfast time, Nora Cullin realized that Bill Davis and Qua Lin Worthington had not put in an appearance ...

 

All characters get a check in Sneak and Language (Russian) 

 

onward to The Master

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