Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series)

This series of books is dedicated to my grandfather, the boss-fellah, Jack ‘Chalky’ White, Chief Petty Officer [Engine Room] RN, my de facto father until his untimely death from cancer in 1983 and who, along with many millions of others, participated in the epic of history that we know as World War Two
,
and by their efforts and sacrifices made it possible for us to read of it, in freedom, today.

Thank you, for everything.

The ‘Red Gambit Series’
novels are
work
s
of fiction
, and deal with fictional events.
Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that
are
historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly a
ll
figment
s
of the author’s imagination.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording
,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publisher and copyright holder.
The author has asserted the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

The series deals with the
violent
events
that commenced in
1945
,
through to the end of ho
stilities in the
autumn
of 1947;
from birth in the mind of man through to
the
terrible conclusion.

All I have set out to do is relate the events as faithfully as is possible, and to leave the reader to decide the worth of those who wore different uniforms
,
and fought for different causes and reasons.

The reader will note that
,
in some areas
,
I refer to the 92nd Colored Infantry Division. This is an actual formation and I reflect its WW2 title faithfully. It is not for me to comment
further
on the reasoning
and prejudices
of those times.

Some readers of ‘Opening Moves’ have asked me whether or not I have an unhealthy respec
t for members of the Waffen-SS.

My answer is an unequivocal no.

In any field, excellence is to be admired, and any historian examining all the facts behind the service of World War Two’s fighting formations would, in my humble opinion, find it very difficult to justify
not
placing the members of the prime Waffen-SS formations in the top drawer of fighting elite.

Some
, probably those
who do not possess
balanced
knowledge
,
will always
align
themselves with popular myths and misconceptions, and will
tend to lump the
field
soldiers in with those who defiled the uniform
, their nation, and mankind,
by
serving
within other agencies
,
such as the camps. Those
who served in such places
should be universally reviled.

I do not seek to excuse the excesses that were undou
btedly performed by some of th
e Waffen-SS,
n
either
those
well documented
,
n
or
those
unheard of.
Neither am I so stupid as to believe that we
, the Allies,
fought the war according to Queensberry
rules
. I know for a fact that we didn’t.

Within the ranks of the Waffen-SS
there
were psychopaths and sadists, and many are household names, or at least were
,
until the generation that
fought
them started to die out.

Such individuals also existed in the Royal Navy, the United States Army Air Force and the Canadian Army
to name but three
. However, I cannot name one
such
individual
,
as the Allied excesses received no coverage of note
.

We won, and so no one was going to haul us up before a judge and hang us
,
were they?

Had the Axis triumphed, then maybe the
Allied
author of the ‘No prisoners’ order in
Normandy
would have had his day in
court?

The
political
system that the German soldiers
fought for was fundamentally
flawed
,
and so lacking in moral restraint as to beggar belief, and nothing about it should ever be excused, dismissed or denied.

There are no bad peoples, just bad people. That is a view I have held since I grew up and developed an understanding of human nature.
Many
of the soldiers wearing field grey were good men, brave men
,
and soldiers par excellence.

War, by its very nature, brings up peaks in human
behaviour, be it in the field of
endeavour
, science or horror
.

For me, there are a number of
unbelievable
acts of courage that can be attributed to soldiers in WW2.

Of course, most of them went unrecognised and unrewarded.

Some
continue to
stir the heart to this day.

Pointe-du-Hoc and th
e US Ranger assault, the 116th/29th I
nfantry
’s
assault on
Omaha
, and Otway’s 9th Para Battalion and their assault on the
Merville Battery, all on D-Day.

The 82nd US Airborne’s crossing of the
Waal
River
during Market-Garden;
13th Guards Rifle Division and numerous others in the hell that was
Stalingrad
.

That is by no means an exhaustive list, but it serves my point
,
I hope, because I believe it is difficult for anyone but an historian to add the likes of
the
352nd Infanterie Division of Omaha fame, ‘SS-Der Fuhrer’ Regiment during the Battle of Moscow
,
or the 1st Fallschirmjager Division at Monte Cassino.

Post World War Two, the
Soviet
s became our de facto enemies, and so our view of them became jaundiced too.

In regard to Stalin and Beria, it is difficult to find any redeeming matters
,
I grant you.

But we must never forget that the
Soviet
people
displayed
an incredible
national determination and an ability to sustain suffering on an unparalleled scale, and we applauded them for it
,
all the way to the centre of
Berlin
.

It was subsequent events that made them
pariahs
in our national psyche.

I have said enough
for you to understand where I am on this matter
. This is not a crusade, just my weak attempt to do justice to men
and women
in all uniforms who fought courageously
,
and with honour
,
for whatever cause.

I hope that you enjoy it.

Again, I have deliberately written nothing that can be attributed to that greatest of Englishmen, Sir Winston Churchill. I considered myself neither capable nor worthy to attempt to convey what he might have thought or said in my own words.

Those with an eye for detail will notice that the name of this book has changed. I produced ‘Stalemate’ as the second in the series, but it achieved in excess of 300,000 words and was too cumbersome. Therefore, it seemed sensible to split it into two parts. This is the first of those parts.

My profound thanks to all those who have contributed in whatever way to this project, as every little piece of help brought me closer to my goal.

In no particular order, I would like to record my thanks to all of the following for their contributions. Gary Wild,
Jan Wild,
Mario Wildenauer, Loren Weaver, Pat Walsh, Elena Schuster, Stilla Fendt, Luitpold Krieger, Mark Lambert, Greg Winton, Greg Percival, Brian Proctor, Steve Bailey, Bruce Towers, Victoria Coling, Alexandra Coling, Heather Coling, Isabel Pierce Ward, Ahmed Al-Obeidi
, Han
y Hamouda, and finally, the members of the ‘Red Gambit’ facebook group.

Again, one name is missing on the request of the party involved, whose desire to remain in the background on all things means I have to observe his wish not to name him.