Kirov Saga: Darkest Hour: Altered States - Volume II (Kirov Series) (26 page)

On and
on it went, until Raeder determined that those
were
, indeed, Kranke’s
orders, even though they had not come from him. He had half a mind to tender
his resignation then and there, and to tell Hitler that if it were not his to
command the navy then he should find another. Now he looked suspiciously at
Canaris.

That
man knows entirely too much, he thought. And one thing he knows is that I am
determined to force the issue of the war into the Mediterranean. Could the
Abwehr Chief have been behind Kranke’s insubordination? Perhaps, he thought.
Canaris is a navy man. He knew Kranke, and if anyone could get to that man it
would be Canaris.

The
more he thought about this, the more he began to see a devious plot here. Why
would Kranke listen to Jodl or anyone else at OKW? But Canaris is another
kettle of fish. Yes, he could have been the one that put Kranke up to this
deliberate provocation. Canaris has been busy in Spain since the Spanish civil
war. He speaks the language fluently, is very cozy with Franco, and I have
heard that he has been quietly working to maintain Spanish neutrality.

Yes…
Canaris. This was the man behind everything, the man with a hand in everyone’s
pocket. If Spain remains neutral, then my plans for an attack on Gibraltar will
be compromised. We need access to Spanish territory to do that. So what does
Canaris do? He arranges this little dance with Kranke when he gets wind of my
Operation Wunderland. He knows the kindling is piled high along the Russian
border, and now he lights the match. Look at him, sitting there as if this were
an afternoon tea. I must be very careful here. I am already on thin ice now
after Lindemann’s failure and the loss of
Nürnberg
and
Sigfrid
,
not to mention the
Altmark
. I have much to account for, and Canaris is
going to enjoy watching me squirm. The question is how to prevent this incident
from becoming a pretext for war against Russia? How to prevent it from
destroying my plans in the Mediterranean?

The
sound of heavy footfalls echoed in the hall and seconds later the door burst
open. The SS guards surveyed the room darkly and announced the arrival of the
Führer of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler. He stepped into the room, giving the
three men there a narrow eyed look as they all stood to attention.

“Very
well,” Hitler looked immediately to Raeder, as if the other men were not even
present, and spoke the words the Admiral knew he would hear this day. “Explain
yourself, Raeder. Tell me… why do all the new ships you've been building have
holes in them? Tell me why there has not been a single British transport ship
sunk during your operation. Tell me what this nonsense is about a British ship
firing rockets, and driving off the finest battleships in the world! And when
you are done with that, tell me why, after six years of steel and sweat in the
shipyards, all these ships seem good for little more than running home for
repairs?” The Führer folded his arms, his eyes smoldering, standing like a
carved statue, implacable.

“My Führer,”
Raeder began, not knowing where in the list he should start. Begin with any
success you have, he realized, and hope you can somehow get this man to learn
the lessons you yourself have taken here with this hard medicine.

“The
operation was not without its successes. It was never designed to seek an
all-out engagement with the Royal Navy, but merely to test the mettle of their
strengths, and stand as a trial for our own ships, some fresh from the
shipyards and entering battle for the  first time. The experience we have
gained was invaluable, particularly regarding the use of aircraft carriers in
operation with the fleet.”

“Oh?
What about
Gneisenau?
Where is the
Nürnberg?
Where's that nice
shiny new destroyer you built for me? Thank god only two of these ships were
sunk!”

“That
was regrettable, my Führer, but combat at sea always entails the risks that
ships engaged may be damaged or sunk. This is why I gave specific orders to Lindemann
not to seek a major engagement that would place our capital ships at risk of
sustaining severe damage.”

“But
they
were
damaged, Raeder.
Bismarck, Tirpitz,
and
Gneisenau
are now in the repair yards.”

“Yet
none hurt seriously enough to impede their operations in the near future, my
Führer.
Tirpitz
sustained a minor torpedo hit, but one that proved again
the necessity of protecting the fleet with additional air power.” Raeder
glanced at Goering as he spoke. “In like manner, the damage to
Bismarck
simply involved the loss of a single secondary battery which can be replaced in
a few weeks time. As for
Gneisenau
, the hit that ship sustained was more
significant, and will take several months work to repair, but otherwise the
ship is sound and seaworthy. Yet in taking this blow, we have discovered that
our enemies may now have achieved a level of technical proficiency in another
area that can pose a grave threat.” He looked at Canaris now.

“You
are speaking of these rockets?” said Hitler.

“What
else, my Führer? Yes, the rockets! We are working on them ourselves, so do not
be surprised that our enemies have done the same. Only they appear to have
achieved something here that is well beyond our capabilities at this moment.
These were shipborne missiles, and they proved to be decisive in each and every
engagement, as much for the initial shock value as anything else.”

“What
about this, Canaris?” Hitler looked to his Abwehr Chief now. “Why is it we have
heard nothing of this?”

“Because
there has been nothing, sir. My agents have found no evidence that the British
have an advanced rocket project ready for deployment.”

“Then
who was firing at my ships? The Americans?”

Canaris
shifted, poised, a half smile on his face. “My Führer, we have no information
that would in any way confirm that.”

 “Raeder?
Tell me more about these rocket weapons. Clearly my intelligence Chief can tell
me nothing!” Hitler’s displeasure was obvious, but Canaris sat unmoved.

“I have
interviewed all the senior officers involved in the operation,” said Raeder,
chastened but yet determined. “They described these weapons as fast, accurate,
and having great range—a range exceeding that of our most powerful naval guns.
They were undoubtedly a secret project. These missiles move like lightning. They
strike with pinpoint accuracy, and the one that nearly hit the
Graf Zeppelin
was fired from well over 100 kilometers away.” He left the full weight of that
statement out there, watching the reactions of the other men.

“From a
ship?” Now it was Goering who spoke, a look of astonishment and disbelief on
his face, cheeks red, and the light of enjoyment in his eyes flickering behind
it all. “You expect me to believe that the British have a missile that can fire
at such range and still hit anything? This is ridiculous! If they could fire
such a missile from a ship, then they could line them up all along the English
Channel and rain them down upon our troops in France, yet we have seen
nothing.”

“The
survivors from the destroyer
Sigfrid
will beg to differ with you, Aviation
Minister Goering. They clearly saw something. That was the reason
Sigfrid
was sunk. It was cruising right alongside the
Graf Zeppelin
and took the
blow that was intended to strike the carrier. Yet there was no enemy ship
within 100 kilometers at the time. Böhmer’s planes searched for an hour, and
yet saw nothing. It has been suggested that the ship was sunk by a submarine,
yet reports from over 100 eyewitnesses all clearly state that the weapon was
airborne, a rocket. Admiral Doenitz has assured me that no submarine in the
world today could have carried or launched a weapon with sufficient fuel to
achieve that range, and a warhead heavy enough to do what we saw happen to
Sigfrid.”

“The
British have these weapons on all their ships?” Hitler tapped the table
impatiently, looking from Raeder to Canaris.

“We
were not certain,” said Raeder. “At first we believed at least one ship was
equipped with them, perhaps one of their battleships being held in reserve, or
even one of their carriers. This is what we thought—until the loss of
Nürnberg
.”
There is no way around the ice pond now, thought Raeder. I will just have to
skate across.

“Sunk
by a British ship?” Hitler waited.

 “Not
the British, my Führer,” Canaris said quietly. “We believe this ship was Russian.”

“Russian?
You are telling me that Russians have these weapons? They cannot build anything
that would remotely challenge our battleships. How could they do this?”

 “The
question of how is no longer relevant, my Führer. It is becoming more and more
apparent that they were, indeed, behind these missile attacks which so
confounded Admiral Raeder’s plans here. And they were clearly responsible for
the
Nürnberg
incident. Air Minister Goering may shed some light on
this.”

 Goering
nodded. “We had planes out from Narvik and Tromso, covering the withdrawal of
Raeder’s ships after his failed operation.” Goering twisted the barb a bit, his
eyes alight. “A ship continued north, shadowing our own units and eventually
moving around the North Cape to Murmansk, and was photographed during that
transit on two occasions. The naval ensign of Soviet Russia was clearly
evident. I have the photographs with me if you would care to see them. More
photos were obtained during Operation Wunderland, which was undertaken, in part,
to obtain more information on this ship and the new weapons it employed. Am I
not correct, Raeder?” Goering tossed the hot potato back, smiling.

“Of
course we were suspicious. We knew there was a ship, but it was not clear as to
the nationality. So yes, I told Kranke to see what he could find out with
Operation Wunderland.”

“And we
paid a very high price for that information,” Hitler was not happy. “The loss
of
Nürnberg
was shameful—an embarrassment! Now to hear this may have
been a Russian ship makes the sting and the insult even worse. This is clearly
an act of war! Are you telling me the Russians have now openly sided with the
Royal Navy in combat against our ships?”

“That
appears to be the case, my Führer,” said Raeder. “Yet the incident can also be
interpreted as a simple act of self-defense. Kranke was given no order to
engage Russian shipping in the far north—at least not by me. In fact, I ordered
him to avoid engagement. If he was given those orders by someone else then let
that man account for the loss of
Nürnberg
.” He glanced at Canaris now,
his suspicion obvious. “If Kranke had followed my instructions we would not
even be discussing this.”

“Oh,
but we
would
be discussing it, Raeder,” said Hitler. “The damage to all
those other ships was more than enough reason. If it was caused by a Russian
ship, then I will have the head of Sergei Kirov on a platter!”

Hitler
seemed to simmer with that, his eyes shifting from Goering, to Canaris, to the
map on the table in front of them. He knew that Raeder had long opposed open
hostilities with the Soviet Union. The Admiral much preferred a strategy that
would see the navy lead the fight against England. He had been given Operation
Seelöwe to chew on, but nothing was discussed concerning Barbarossa, and Hitler
did not want to open that can of worms now.

“Are
you certain this was a Soviet ship?” asked Hitler, folding his arms again.

“Admiral
Doenitz concurs with the assessment of our analysts in section I-M,” said
Canaris, referring to the naval intelligence arm. “The ship is not of British
design. It is something entirely new, completely unexpected. We can only
conclude that it was a highly secret project, perhaps being tested on a maiden
voyage even as we thought to blood our ships with this operation.”

“Not
quite,” said Hitler. “We thought to blood the
enemy’s
ships.”

“And
this we did,” said Raeder quickly. “One of their fast battlecruisers, HMS
Hood
,
was battered to a near hulk in the engagement with
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz
.
It was also struck by our
Stuka
dive bombers! Another, HMS
Renown
was sent to the shipyards in a successful air strike by the brave pilots and
air crews of
Graf Zeppelin
. Hoffmann had good hunting with
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
as well. His detachment sank
Birmingham
and heavily
damaged the
Manchester
, a pair of cruisers to put on the scales for
Nürnberg
.
Dorsetshire
and
Sussex
were driven off as well, and with damage.
The battle would have been a complete victory, were it not for the sudden
appearance of this mysterious ship—this Russian ship, as we now have come to
believe.”

“Then
why was it not sunk?” Hitler was struggling to contain his anger, but it was
apparent.

“These
weapons it deployed, missiles with such accuracy and power, were not something
to be trifled with. Until we could learn more about them I wisely chose to
cancel the planned breakout into the North Atlantic and return our fleet to
friendly ports. I stand by that decision, because this development concerning
the rocket weapons deserves our most serious consideration. If the Russians
have such weapons we must learn everything possible about them, particularly if
war may come of this incident. But I must advise extreme caution here,
gentlemen. Until we know what we are up against, no open declaration of war
should be made against Soviet Russia. Remember also that Britain is isolated.
If the war moves East, Soviet Russia will surely choose to ally with the
British…” The implications were obvious and did not need to be spoken.