Stalemate (The Red Gambit Series) (28 page)

“Three years
, Miss Perlo. We can sell it, and they will buy it.”

“They won’t buy that at all, Karl.”

“They will, for one simple reason, Emilia.”

The spy took a last drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out theatrically.

“And that is what?”

Da Silva repeated a phrase he had heard from the
lips of a three-star General, no more than forty minutes previously.

“Because they
will want to.”

“Brad, it’s so good to see you.”

The handshake was warm, the friendly relationship between the two men genuine and tested.

Eisenhower looked up, first at the man who stood hovering with coffee, and secondly at Bedell-Smith.

The three Generals slipped into a small alcove, followed by the staff corporal with the fresh and steaming coffee.

Drinks poured, the orderly withdrew, leaving the senior officers to discuss the momentous news.

Ike ceded the moment to Bedell-Smith, who slowly went through the preliminary report on
Soviet supply difficulties.

It took just under ten minutes, by which time the change in Bradley’s demeanour was noticeable.

When he had arrived, the burden of his command and the nature of his task were both obviously heavy upon his shoulders.

With the latest intelligence report
, a new hope was awoken, and the fire in Omar Bradley’s eyes burned bright and fierce.

“Well I’ll be. So what’s the plan
, General?”

Eisenhower smiled softly, but his eyes also reflected a new steel.

“We do what we said we were going to do. Move back to the Rhine. Their engineering issue has not improved.”

Bradley moved to remonstrate.

“Hold on, Brad. Hear me out here.”

It could have been an order but, between friends, it was a reasonable request.

“If the situation is how it seems they are perilously close to having a logistical breakdown. I do not want to do anything to dissuade them from sticking their necks out, understand?”

Bradley did
‘kind of’ understand, but that understanding brought visions of continued retreat, stand, retreat, all the way back to the Rhine.

“The further we move them westwards, the worse it will get for them. O
ur air power will only grow now. Stateside factories are now fully online. Even Boeing is back to full production despite the sabotage.”

The previous week, a number of
Soviet special troops, probably six of them, had blown up part of the Boeing’s Plant 2 facility in Seattle. None of the saboteurs had survived the attack.

“Our training schools are working full-time, and new pilots are coming into play all the time, no loss of standards.”

“We have new units arriving, either from stateside or created in country, adding to our order of battle on a daily basis.”

Eisenhower understood Bradley’s silence.

“Brad, I will make sure you have the resources to conduct a proper fighting withdrawal, but I want that withdrawal, and I want the Soviets to see our weakness, and continue to exploit it.”

Eisenhower nodded at Bedell-Smith.

“This is something we have yet to firm up, but it is a start, General Bradley.”

Bedell-Smith and Bradley tended to be formal in their exchanges.

The document listed units and resources.

It did not list times or dates.

Clearly marked were names of Generals and Armies, his own being top of the pile.

There was no indication of location or direction.

The paper was relatively innocuous.

However
, despite that, Bradley knew he was holding a document that, even in its infant stage, represented the planning of a major Allied counter-offensive.

Heading off Bradley’s most obvious questions, Eisenhower paused in the act of lighting his cigarette.

“This has not yet been discussed with our Allies, Brad. I just wanted you to see it, so you would understand better why I need you to keep going at the moment.”

Bradley nodded his understanding.

“I want the commies extended, their supplies exhausted, their men exhausted, and then I’m gonna hit them the hell back to Moscow.”

Eisenhower’s normally calm exterior had cracked ever so slightly.

Bradley felt suddenly enthused by his commander’s confidence.

With controlled humour
, he made the obvious enquiry

“Can you tell me where we will undertake this miracle of modern warfare
, General?”

Eisenhower flicked his lighter.

“Walt.”

Bedell-Smith produced a map that, so far, had only seen the light of day in his and Eisenhower’s presence.

Unrolling the paper gently, he set it before Bradley, placing a fountain pen to hold down one curled edge, as Eisenhower used the weight of his lighter on the other.

What they were unprepared for was the laughter, uncontrolled, deep, unforced, genuine laughter.

“Hot dog, but you have a sense of history, Sir.”

Eisenhower could not help but smile back.

“It’s going to be on your turf, and will be yours to command.”

“Yess
ir,” the smile was welded to Bradley’s face.

Rechecking the document, looking at the map, returning to the document, more and more questions formed in Bradley’s mind.

“Some of these assets presently belong to 6th Army Group.”

The notable arrival in Bradley’s order of battle was US Third Army.

“Keep that under your hat for now, Brad. General Devers is due here this evening, and I will discuss it with him then. In any case, he will get a lot of extra bodies to keep him happy.”

The rest of the questions were stowed away. They would keep for now.

Eisenhower stubbed out his cigarette and recovered his lighter, the rolling up of the map drawing a line under their collective thought processes.

The senior man could not resist one final moment of fun.

“Got anyone in mind to lead it, Brad?”

‘So that’s why you are giving me the Third
, is it?’

“I have just the man in mind
, Ike. He’s been on Jake’s back for some time now, and he hates being hogtied.”

“A fine choice
, General Bradley,” Eisenhower rose and led the others back into the main room, where they could look at more current matters, although each man took some time to erase the mental picture of the hogtied man on General Devers’ back.

A certain pistol-toting General George Smith Patton.

As was often the case with Patton, US Third Army was doing all it could to exceed the orders it was given.

It was elements of 4th Armored and 90th Infantry that had kicked the 10th Guards Rifle Corps out of Lindau
, on the shores of Lake Constance.

It
was not tank country, and the American armour started to suffer casualties at the hands of valiant Red Army soldiers armed with every variant of anti-armour weapon that the infantryman had in his arsenal.

The 4th was withdrawn, leaving the infantry to hold the ground alone.

Meanwhile, the commander of 10th Guards Rifle Corps, stung by his reverse, directed his units to the west, smashing elements of the 90th Infantry out of their positions at Laimnau, and driving them towards Route 333, where another force from 5th Shock smashed into them and threw them back to the outskirts of Tettnang.

US 17
th Corps’ commander had earlier responded to a Soviet thrust on Ravensburg, creaming off units, and sending them north to bolster the vital defence. An order was misinterpreted, and the entire force guarding the Argen crossing on Route 7776 headed to the sound of the guns, leaving a hole in the line.

Major General McBride commanding the beleaguered 80th US Infantry Division, a tested and competent officer, realised the error swiftly. He dispatched a small ad hoc infantry force to block the open Route 7776, with orders to hold on the River Argen until the
situation was properly assessed. He also contacted the 4th US Armored to get some extra beef in the line.

Nikolai Berzarin, commanding the 5th Shock Army, had been confused.

At first, the orders were to hold position. Then more arrived, encouraging him to expand his position on the shores of Lake Constance.

Even m
ore instructions followed, concerns from above about ammunition stocks, seemingly woven into woolly orders that could be interpreted in many ways.

Seeking clarification, Berzarin
had flown to 3rd Red Banner’s Headquarters at Haunstetten and spoken directly with Marshal Rokossovsky.

The trip had been worth it
, and Berzarin returned to his own headquarters at Leutkirch im Allgau with clear instructions.

Fresh orders cascaded down through 5th Shock Army
, and the whole force went over to the attack, part of which displaced the American defences at Laimnau.

The commander of the 60th Guards Rifle Division,
a number of his units pressing the retreating force northwards, sought and received permission to test other defences, and took the opportunity to also exceed his orders by sending a large group westwards down Route 7709.

Allied forces - Task Force Butcher [remnants of L and H coys of 359th Infantry Regiment and a composite reinforced Platoon from 305th Engineer Combat Battalion], all of 90th Infantry Division, and Task Force Hardegen [elements of 37th Tank Battalion, 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion and 25th Cavalry Squadron], and Composite Battery, 66th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, all of 4th US Armored Division, all of US 17th Corps, of US Third Army, of US 6th Army Group.

Soviet forces - 1st Battalion, 185th Guards Rifle Regiment, of 60th Guards Rifle Division, of 32nd Rifle Corps, and 2nd & 3rd Companies of 116th Independent Engineer Sapper Battalion, and 379th Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion, and 2nd Company, 1504th Self-Propelled Gun Regiment, and Armoured Group ‘Antonov’ [112th Guards Tank Battalion, 67th Guards Reconnaissance Platoon, 67th Guards SMG Company & 1st Company, 92nd Engineer Tank Battalion], all of 5th Shock Army, of 3rd Red Banner Central European Front.

Fig #56
- The Argen River Crossings, Germany.

Major Butcher was in command, and he let everyone know it.

A recent arrival in the ‘Tough ‘Ombres’, he had seen some combat time with the 8th Division in the
Hürtgenwald before being wounded. Other non-combat assignments followed, until the Army could no longer spare him, and he found himself placed at the head of a composite infantry group and rushed to block the Argen river crossings.

The Armored Force Major was not going to get into a pissing contest with the obnoxious man, so deferred to his command, especially as the dispositions that had been set seemed reasonable.

Major John Johannes Hardegen was not to know that the acceptable efforts of Task Force Butcher had little to do with their namesake, and were more due to the efforts of a slight Captain from L Company, and a wizened Master Sergeant in H Company.

Given the dubious honour of point duty, Sergeant Fusilov tentatively ordered his T-70 light tank to advance.

The ’70 was a two-man reconnaissance tank, in which the driver drove, and the commander did everything else from serve the gun to use the radio.

At the moment, Fusilov was concerned with only one matter; that of survival

With binoculars seemingly glued in place, his head swept left to right and back, halting while his eyes examined a clump of bushes here, a stand of trees there.