After learning that Sean had enlisted, Aston joined the military too.
He had to find his Seany.
He knew that his body no longer responded normally to painkillers, but enlisted anyway. Joining the military would make it easier to search for Seany.
If a day passed without seeing Seany, he would spend that day on the way to seeing him.
If a year passed without seeing Seany, he would spend that year on the way to seeing him.
If a lifetime passed without seeing Seany, he would spend his lifetime on the way to seeing him.
He applied to serve in the Pacific too, but his request was denied. In 1942 America’s strategy was “Germany First,” and more than seventy percent of the forces would be sent to Europe. Aston was assigned to Europe as well, to fight the Germans.
First he entered the air forces and trained as a pilot. America was short of pilots, and at six feet three inches, Aston was tall and strong, well suited to flying heavy bombers.
He was assigned to a B-24 bomber.
A heavy bomber with a crew of eight to ten, ten machine guns, and a maximum bomb load of 12,800 pounds.
He trained for every position: pilot, bombardier, gunner, and the rest.
Many fellow servicemen complained bitterly, but Aston didn’t care. He only wanted to find Seany.
His comrades thought he was cold, without normal emotions, mechanically flying aircraft, executing missions, and bombing targets. He didn’t care about that either.
Military regulations allowed personnel to go home on leave after completing a certain number of missions. Aston showed no interest whatsoever. Whenever he was entitled to leave, he stayed with the military instead. He didn’t fly missions or train during those breaks; he searched for opportunities to work with and meet members of other units, from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Rumor had it he was searching for someone.
But Aston didn’t remain in the air forces long, though those he’d served with remembered him vividly after he left.
His remarkable analytical ability soon brought him to the attention of a major general, who recommended him for an officer’s position in military intelligence.
Because of his business background, he was assigned to assess Germany’s factory output, transportation capacity, combat losses, fuel consumption, and much more.
Aston was outstanding. In little more than a year, by 1943, he had identified several German plans through his analyses and risen from lieutenant to lieutenant colonel. By 1944 he was a colonel.
On one occasion, for example, he discovered that German forces had purchased a large quantity of metal plates from a particular company.
About two inches long and eight to ten feet high.
“What are these for?” Aston studied the company’s exact location and the distribution of German forces nearby. At last he worked out what the plates might actually be used for.
The Germans stationed nearby had only fighters, not bombers.
Fighter planes traveled too fast and lacked the ability to dive and drop bombs accurately.
But if those plates were mounted vertically and hung beneath the wings, they could act as air brakes, slowing the planes enough to turn fighters into dive bombers in an instant.
The Germans must have changed their plan of attack and intended to bomb something.
Aston spread out a map. He thought the Germans had probably obtained information about an Allied supply convoy due to pass nearby and wanted to give it a taste of aerial bombardment.
So the Allies prepared in advance and concealed themselves in the surrounding hills. When the German aircraft arrived, they opened fire in an ambush. Not only did they save the convoy, they also brought down numerous aircraft.
Another time, Aston noticed that the Germans had purchased vast quantities of electrical wire.
He doubted it was merely for the obvious purpose of supplying electricity. Eventually he guessed they intended to pack the wires into artillery shells so that, once the shells exploded, the wires would entangle the propellers of fighter aircraft.
At the time, jet aircraft had not yet come into service, and the fighters were propeller-driven.
German tactics came in every variety and often proved effective.
The military prepared again, fitting cutters to the sides of fighter wings. Should an aircraft encounter a wire, it would slide toward the wing and be severed instantly.
Once again they caught the enemy unprepared.
He could often extract intelligence from the stock markets of different countries, too.
He analyzed corporate financial statements, compared figures with previous years and industry averages, inferred where something was amiss, guessed what the enemy had purchased, and then studied what they might intend to do with it, offering strategic recommendations.
Aston still never went home on leave.
He continued searching for clues about Sean.
Every time he was granted leave, he remained with the military, using the opportunities afforded by his intelligence posting to meet soldiers from many other units. Rumor said he was searching for someone.
But hardly anyone believed it.
Kingsley Aston was cold and ruthless. He looked at enemies he interrogated as though they were dogs. Even in the military, he seemed to have no deep affection for his comrades. It was hard to imagine him devoting himself so utterly to any one person.
Though, to be fair, Kingsley Aston really was a rather strange man.
For example, he was plainly born a young master. His bearing and accent made that unmistakable. And yet he was extraordinarily neat.
Men’s barracks were invariably dirty and chaotic, but he was odd: he tidied his belongings and made his room presentable with speed and efficiency, as if he’d done it countless times before. His bed was straight and smooth, his belongings orderly, his uniforms and boots folded and set out carefully. However primitive his surroundings, he maintained a sense of order. Whenever a temporary camp had to be set up, he was among the quickest and did the best job.
Another oddity: he wasn’t a Christian.
When the others prayed together before dinner, he didn’t join in. He ignored it completely. Yet before every operation, he quietly took out a talisman and gazed at it for a long time.
Later in the war, Aston was transferred to another department and began participating in, and helping devise, major operational plans.
In 1944 the Allies opened a second front.
Because he was so sensitive to numbers, Aston spent the period before the Normandy landings preparing supplies.
An operation on this scale demanded enormous quantities of strategic materials.
During the preparations, seven million tons of materiel were shipped from the United States to Britain, including 450,000 tons of ammunition.
On the first day of the landings and the following two or three days, there would be seven thousand ships, fifty thousand vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of people. Over the following months, as forces pushed inland, those figures would grow to hundreds of thousands of vehicles and millions of people.
One of Aston’s tasks was preparing the post-landing “Mulberry harbors.”
Beaches were hardly suitable for unloading cargo, and there was no convenient harbor nearby. Any existing port would be heavily defended and difficult to capture.
The Allies decided to build two temporary harbors that could be dismantled, with all the components manufactured in Britain for assembly after the landings.
Harbor A was for the Americans; Harbor B for the British.
But the weather changed abruptly on June 19, and Harbor A was destroyed.
The original plan was to repair Harbor A. An admiral brought them to inspect it and hear proposals. After calculating all available resources, Aston told him that manufacturing and transporting replacement components would take too long and involve too much risk. Even the fastest schedule he could devise would delay supplies.
He also examined historical storm records and discovered that another storm like the previous day’s was entirely possible. He recommended abandoning Harbor A and using whatever could be dismantled or salvaged to strengthen and enlarge Harbor B.
He also studied Normandy’s tidal data. Given its flat beaches and large tidal range, he judged that supplies might be better unloaded directly onto the sand. Large numbers of landing ship tanks could carry cargo and be allowed to beach as the tide fell. That would avoid the problems of unloading from vessels rising and falling in the water, and the flat sandy bottom would reduce the risk of damage from tilting. When the tide rose, the ships could head back for another load. All the resources earmarked for repairs could instead be put into beach unloading.
The admiral accepted his recommendations. Harbor B held out until the end, while the supplies unloaded directly onto the beach kept pace with demand.
Logistical support was so important that Aston was promoted to colonel.
Later came the laying of fuel pipelines.
The pipeline project fell behind schedule. Aston judged the longer line too vulnerable: if it was destroyed, the oil supply would be cut off. Using the available data, he proposed building a shorter line at the same time, supported by overland transport. In the end the shorter line became the largest source of fuel.
Later still, the Allied advance outpaced its supplies, and the Red Ball Express was organized to transport material. Aston calculated figures day after day. There were far too few trucks, so he worked out how to transfer vehicles from other departments to keep supplies flowing—
Eventually, as Allied forces entered different countries, Aston was transferred to an understaffed economic affairs department.
Each time they entered a country, he helped prevent bank runs, stabilize exchange rates, and keep prices under control.
He remained in economic affairs until May 1945, when Germany surrendered unconditionally.
After Germany failed in its campaign against the Soviet Union in 1943, Soviet troops pushed westward. In February 1945, the Soviet Union, United States, and Britain held the Yalta Conference. In March American and British forces crossed the Rhine and entered Germany from the west; in April the Soviets entered Berlin from the east. Hitler and Eva Braun died by suicide on April 30, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7.
Afterward, Aston stayed in Europe to help finish the remaining work while devoting himself entirely to searching for Sean.
By the end of June, he was almost certain Sean hadn’t served in Europe. He must have been somewhere in Asia.
“My Seany,” Aston thought, “where in the world are you?”
And another thought: “Seany, the war is almost over. At last we’ll be able to meet again.”