THE FORESIGHT WAR (22 page)

The Army C-in-C tensed, and Herrman felt a glimmer of sympathy.
 
Chosen by Hitler for his acquiescence to the Fürher’s demands, Brauchitsch had a nervous disposition and suffered torments as a result.

‘By the spring.
 
Military production is now at a maximum and we will have twenty-five armoured divisions fully equipped with the Panzer Four entering service.
 
There will also be a full complement of self-propelled guns and other armoured vehicles.
 
A further seventy-five infantry divisions
will also have full equipment, including Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons and automatic rifles, and we have stores of clothing and other goods for both summer and winter fighting.
 
Lorries for keeping supply lines open are being stockpiled now.’

Göring stepped in.
 
‘Needless to say, we can launch a thousand heavy bombers, both Heinkel One-seven-sevens and Dornier Three-one-sevens, with another thousand Junkers Eighty-eights.
 
To cover them we have two thousand fighters, mainly Focke-Wulf One-nineties and One-eight-sevens.’

‘Quite so,’ interposed Himmler smoothly, ‘but land conquered has to be held, without fear of insurrection.
 
Plans for that are well in hand.’

Herrman felt a surge of uneasiness.
 
He found the Gestapo leader every bit as chilling as his reputation and hated to challenge him, even with Hitler’s protection, but felt compelled to speak.

‘For the defeat of Russia to be certain, the subject states must be peeled away from their side and onto ours.
 
It is important that we do nothing to dissuade them.’

The others looked at him with carefully concealed expressions and Herrman suddenly felt that he had been dropped into a snakepit full of spitting cobras and crushing pythons.
 
He knew that they regarded him with a mixture of jealousy at his influence and contempt for his weakness, and that he only survived because of Hitler’s protection.
 
Stadler had once commented, in an unguarded moment, that, left to
himself
, Himmler would have quickly extracted every item of useful information from Herrman before eliminating him as a disruptive influence.
 
With a feeling that he had nothing to lose, he battled on.

‘We may not be finished with the Mediterranean yet, either.
 
Britain will be keen to get Italy out of the war, and may yet invade
Sicily
.’

‘Without American help?
 
Surely not.’
 
Göring
 
was
scornful.

Herrman shrugged.
 
‘Who can tell?
 
They are well-equipped and determined, and we all know about the morale of the Italian forces after their uninterrupted string of defeats.’

Hitler turned to Brauchitsch.
 
‘Keep an eye on the situation, but I don’t want to be deflected from Russia if at all possible.
 
In the meantime, bring me your plans for the invasion.
 
I want to go over them in detail.’

‘One other thing.’
Himmler was smoothness itself.
 
‘Has Professor Herrman anything to say about the Leipzig experimental work towards producing an atomic bomb?’

For a moment, Herrman froze.
 
He had known that this was bound to happen sooner or later, and had prepared his reply.
 
He collected his thoughts and spoke carefully. ‘I know about this work, of course, and it does eventually lead to weapons of high explosive power.
 
The technical difficulties are enormous though, and in my time were not solved for many years; certainly too late for this war.’

Himmler persisted.
 
‘Can the Professor not help us to shorten the period?’

‘Unfortunately not.
 
The technical details were the most closely guarded of military secrets.
 
Even to try to reveal them earned an immediate death penalty.
 
And I was only a historian, not a scientist.’

Hitler nodded understandingly and the meeting broke up.
 
Herrman walked slowly back to his quarters, trying to put out of his mind Himmler’s thoughtful, predatory stare.
 
He knew that the Gestapo chief had not believed him.

Churchill gazed benevolently around the Oversight Committee.
 
Don reflected that with his love of planning military strategy, he probably enjoyed these visits more than anything else; certainly more than the frustrating sessions with his Chiefs of Staff, who had the irritating habit of deflating his most brilliant inspirations by pointing out the risks and problems.

‘Well then, we seem to have reached a temporary stalemate.
 
I propose we end it immediately by launching a new offensive in the Mediterranean, to take Italy out of the war and bring Turkey in on our side.
 
Before discussing the details with the more conventional bodies, I would like to have the views of this group.’
 
He turned to Don Erlang.
 
‘What do you think?’

Don had, as usual, been giving some thought to the matter in advance, and he was no longer overawed by the pugnacious Prime Minister.
 
‘I think it would be helpful to start with a SWOT analysis,’ he began,
then
paused at the blank looks around the table.
 
‘Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats,’ he explained.
 
‘Our strengths are well-equipped and experienced armed forces, capable of standing up to the best that the Wehrmacht can offer, given equal numbers.
 
The country is now safe from the threat of invasion, and our forces in Norway and the Middle East are also secure.
 
We hold the initiative in deciding where to fight the Axis forces next. Our opportunities to do so lie in two main directions: the continuation of the economic war against Germany by blockading maritime supplies and bombing strategic industrial targets, and by direct attack, probably in the Middle East, as you suggest.’

‘What about threats and weaknesses?’
 
Chairman sounded a little sour and Don guessed that he did not enjoy being displaced by Churchill.

‘The main weakness is that we are not yet strong enough to contemplate invasions of Northern Europe from England or Norway, so we can’t grapple directly with Germany.
 
Furthermore, we’re unlikely to become so without American help, and we can’t guarantee that that will arrive.
 
The most obvious threat is, of course, to our maritime trade.
 
The bombing raids on the ports are causing major supply difficulties and, although we’ve managed to restrict the shipping losses so far, the new electroboats are appearing in numbers now, and are becoming a serious problem. In fact, if we can’t defeat them then we won’t be able to invade Northern Europe even with American help, because it would be too dangerous to transport across the Atlantic all of the American troops, equipment and supplies we will need.’

Churchill grunted.
 
‘I’ll leave that question until last.’
 
He turned to Creamed Curls.
 
‘Haven’t we got the measure of the Nazi bombers yet?’

‘They don’t come in daylight anymore; they’ve found it too expensive.
 
Their night attacks come in a few distinct patterns.
 
First, there are the small-scale raids on our radar systems.
 
These have become more problematical lately because they seem to have invented some sort of long-range air-launched missile.
 
We suspect it homes in on radar transmitters.
 
Certainly we’ve lost a few early-warning Wellingtons in the last month.
 
Then there are the large-scale raids on docks, railway marshalling yards and military production plants by the big Heinkels and Dorniers, led in by pathfinders.
 
These have occasionally caused significant civilian casualties, but that appears to be accidental.
 
Finally there are the individual mining runs, what we call ‘gardening’, over our port approaches.’

Churchill glowered at him.
 
‘You haven’t answered my question!’

Creamed curls continued hastily.
 
‘All of the old Blenheim night-fighters have been replaced with Mosquitos, and they’re scoring heavily.
 
What’s more, they have the range to go over to the Continent and attack the German planes around their own airfields.
 
Unfortunately, the German night-fighters are returning the compliment around our fields, as well as accompanying their bomber streams.
 
Basically, it’s a war of attrition.
 
The Luftwaffe is suffering much higher losses than the RAF, but our transport system is taking a pounding.’

‘What about our own bombing?’

‘The Luftwaffe night-fighters have great difficulty in catching the Mosquito, and with the help of the new navigational aids we’re having no problems in continuing a steady programme of precision attacks on industrial and military plants.
 
The trouble is
,
the bomb load is rather small.
 
The new Avro Manchester is flight testing at the moment and is expected to be in service by the end of the year.’
 
He smiled as Don raised an eyebrow.
 
‘Not the same plane as the one in your time.
 
This one is streamlined and carries no defensive armament.
 
It has four highly-supercharged Merlins and carries a crew of four in a pressurised compartment.
 
It can reach forty thousand feet and nearly four hundred miles an hour.’

For once, Churchill looked impressed.
 
‘Given a fleet of these bombers, and taking into account our continued blockade of Europe, what chance do we have of defeating Germany by economic means?’

Diplomat stirred in his chair.
 
‘There’s no doubt that we can do a lot of damage and cause shortages of certain strategic raw materials as well as food, and this might help to stimulate unrest in occupied countries.
 
There is a limit to how draconian our blockade can be; we wouldn’t want to antagonise Portugal or Spain, and deliveries there can make their way to Germany.
 
And, of course, we can do nothing about supplies from the Soviet Union.
 
The consensus is that with the newly conquered territories the Germans will be able to adapt and find substitutes.
 
We just have to keep identifying these and bombing their production plants wherever possible.’

‘Very well, then, what about other ways of taking the war to the enemy?
 
We have all these fighter planes and soldiers standing around in England; they might be better employed attacking the coast of Europe.’

Don intervened hastily.
 
‘The difficulty with launching significant attacks on the coast is that the Germans will be stimulated into improving their defences and thereby making it harder for us to invade later on.
 
And sending fighters over to seek combat won’t achieve much except losing valuable aircraft and pilots.
 
It would be much better to send any spare armoured units or fighter squadrons overseas where they really are needed; we have no modern tanks or aircraft in the Far East at all.’

Creamed Curls looked agitated.
 
‘We must keep an adequate reserve of Spitfire squadrons in England to dissuade daylight attacks, or even renewed plans for an invasion.’

‘Granted.
But we have far more than is necessary for that.
 
Besides, we would have ample warning of renewed invasion plans.
 
The vast quantity of barges and other craft would be obvious as soon as they began to be assembled.
 
It seems pretty clear from all the intelligence reports that Hitler is now focusing on Russia.’

Churchill looked speculatively around the Committee.
 
‘Let’s consider the Far East for a moment.
 
Do you think our defensive plans are adequate?’

Military Man nodded.
 
‘I think so.
 
We have built new airstrips on both Singapore
island
and in Malaya, the latter well away from the coast so they can’t easily be seized by amphibious assault.
 
They are all fully equipped with dispersal pens and other facilities.
 
Likely invasion points, as well as the landward side of
Singapore
Island
, are receiving field fortifications ready for emplacing artillery as required.
 
Needless to say, the big guns are being modified and equipped with far more HE shells so they can help with landward defence.’

‘What about the equipment?’

‘We have started to ship heavy artillery over already and are planning for three armoured divisions by the end of the year, as well as seven infantry divisions.
 
I should add that we are rapidly building up towards our target of ten armoured and forty infantry divisions overall, with improved equipment and the new main battle tank at an advanced stage of development.
 
We are expecting India, Australia and New Zealand to provide a lot of the troops in the Far East.’

‘How well equipped do you think they are to help us?’

‘The Prime Minister will recall the Dominion Production Plans which we instigated,’ interposed Diplomat.
 
‘Australia is producing Hercules engines and Brigand, Hampden and Hereford aircraft to use them.
 
They are also preparing to produce a range of small arms and the Crusader series of armoured vehicles.
 
We don’t think that bigger tanks will be necessary in the Far East.’