Winter Storm (25 page)

“What
kind of air defenses do they have?”

“The
usual flak guns, which we can avoid. Because my men can either jump from high
altitude, or I can deposit them directly on the ground out of range of enemy
guns. You see, my obsolete airships are very useful, from a military
standpoint. I think the latter strategy serves best here, and I have selected
the most suitable landing sites. I have trained my men hard for this mission,
and all the mistakes made in the last one will be corrected. This time I will
have adequate force, air cover, fire support for the troops on the ground, all
provided by my fleet, and what fighters I can muster in my regular Air Corps.
Any contribution you might make would be very welcome, fighters, bombers, anything
you can spare. My elite 1st Guard Air Mobile Division, can get the job done
this time. All I need is those planes.”

“And
once on the ground?”

“We
control the airfields, and I will quickly destroy the three enemy Zeppelins on
garrison duty there.”

“That
was not the case last time,” said Hitler with a wry smile. “I am told you lost
your fleet flagship.”

“Yet
not without inflicting great pain on the enemy. See how they have had to lease
all the Soviet airships? This time our intelligence will be ironclad. With
their flagship in the Arctic, it will be too far for Karpov to intervene. So we
seize those airfields, take Kansk, and then my men will lead the attack to
locate and secure that naval armory. Within a day or two at most, we will have
our hands on the greatest prize of the war, while at the same time denying its
use to the enemy. It will go down in history as a master stroke!” Now Volkov
smiled, and knew it was time for the icing on the cake, addressing the German
leader differently to flatter the man. “And you, my Führer, will be the
master!”

“Ah,”
said Hitler. “I was wondering when you would stir the honey into my tea. Very
well… How long would you need those transports?”

“A
week, no more. Just long enough to get my men in, and perhaps assist us with
one additional supply run. That will free up my airships for ground fire
support. I will have the equivalent of a full mobile artillery regiment in the
skies, and I can move it to any threatened sector and pour down a withering
fire on the enemy. Once your planes complete that supply run, my airships can
handle the rest. After that, your transports can retire, just as they came.”

“Your
troops will be well behind enemy lines,” said Hitler. “Eventually the Siberians
will send reinforcements. What then? How will you get them out?”

Volkov
allowed a pause here, then fixed Hitler with a steady eye. “Some missions
demand great sacrifice,” he said. “My men are willing to die to achieve my
purpose.”

Hitler
looked at him, realizing what he was saying, and this, more than anything,
persuaded him of the necessity of supporting this plan. “I will need the
details,” he said.

Now
Volkov reached into his briefcase and produced a bound manuscript. “Here is the
plan, worked out in exacting detail for your generals to review. All it needs
is your approval, and the order to begin. My men will be ready and waiting, and
the wonder weapons that might take years to develop, will all be yours in the
twinkling of an eye.”

Again,
the big lie, for there was no naval armory at Kansk in 1941, and there would
not be for many decades. There were no wonder weapons there at all, save at an
insignificant rail side inn in the tiny village of Ilanskiy…

That
was Volkov’s real objective, though Hitler would never know about it. His
promises had merely been the bait on his line, and he already knew how he would
compensate the Führer after the mission concluded. All he had to do was say
that the weapons had been moved at the last minute, but that he was able to
capture the plans. Then he would fetch them from his archive, and Hitler would
get his share of the prize in payment for his services. The success of the
mission, at least insofar as Hitler would see it, was guaranteed. In fact, he could
have easily handed the plans to Hitler at that moment… but he needed those
transports.

Seed of Perdition

“A mountain is composed of
tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so,
life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and
thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them
are far-reaching.

―
Swami Sivananda

Admiral
Raeder stood on the long pier, his eyes dark and serious
as he stared at the massive battleship. There sat the pride of the German
Fleet, and the apex of all his efforts to realize the dreams of the Führer in
his Plan Z naval building program. Look at it now, he thought, noting the fresh
paint that had covered over cinder black scars on the cold metal of the ship,
where damage from many small caliber hits pot marked the superstructure.

The
news of the death of Admiral Lütjens had shaken him, and worse than that was
the shattering of his battlefleet when
Graf Zeppelin
went down.
Gneisenau
was also lost, skewered by torpedoes in the heat of a running attack on HMS
Rodney
,
and the sinking of that British battleship had been his only consolation.

The
Kapitan of the
Hindenburg
, Adler, was now at his side, ready to escort
the Admiral aboard to survey the repairs that had been made to the damage. It
was a most humbling moment, and Adler felt like a schoolboy being called to account
for his misdeeds, a very uncomfortable feeling.

“It was
those damnable naval rockets again,” he said. “That was what killed
Loki
and
Graf Zeppelin
. As for the battleships, the British must have had a
large wolfpack right there screening the
Rodney
, and we ran right over
it. The torpedoes took down
Gneisenau
—two hits”

“Just
two?” Raeder shook his head. “We build them better than that, Adler.
Gneisenau
should have been able to absorb a pair of torpedoes and stay afloat. You say
you were running at 30 knots?”

“Yes
sir. That was in Hoffmann’s report from
Scharnhorst
.”

“Yet a
British submarine scored two direct hits? Astounding.”

“Sir,”
Adler took a long breath. “I believe the British have developed some new method
of guiding these rockets, and now the torpedoes as well. It’s the only
explanation. And this was a new torpedo—very powerful. Hoffmann says he saw
Gneisenau
literally lifted out of the water. It must have run right under the ship and
exploded beneath the hull. It simply broke the ship’s back, sir. After these
hits, both
Thor
and
Prince Eugen
were left behind to aid the
stricken ships.”

“Yet
they found no British Submarines,” said Raeder, the edge of suspicion ion his
voice. “Well, at least Topp took
Tirpitz
and
Scharnhorst
in to
finish off that British battleship. That was our only laurels,” said Raeder.
“And then I am told there was a large explosion?”

“I did
not see it at first, Admiral, but it soon dominated the horizon, impossible to
miss. I thought it was possibly an explosion aboard
Rodney
, but it was
terrible to behold.”

“I
spoke with Topp on the
Tirpitz
,” said Raeder. “It was not the
Rodney
exploding. He says he was still engaged when he saw that upwelling from the
sea. Hoffmann says it was easily a mile high, the explosion so large that it
moved his ship in the sea. It was then that the rockets came for
Tirpitz
.”

Adler
was silent, a sullen expression on his face. “How can we fight against weapons
like this?” he said at last. “We have never once seen the ship that was firing
these rockets.”

“And
what about your ship, Kapitan? What about the fleet flagship? From the look of the
damage, you were in a close quarters gunfight.”

Adler
swallowed hard.” That is the mystery, sir. Yes, we were being hit by small
caliber gun fire, five or six inch guns. Yet we never saw the ship firing those
guns either!”

“Preposterous.
What are you saying, Adler? You know damn well that any ship that could put
those rounds on you would be visible, well inside your horizon.”

“There
was nothing sir, I swear—no visual sightings and nothing on our radar either. The
entry was made in the ship’s battle logs. Struck by small caliber rounds. No
enemy ship in sight.”

“Then
it must have been a submarine on the surface using it’s deck gun.”

“No
sir. I can see us taking perhaps one hit from such an attack, but then we would
surely see that sub firing at us. But there was nothing. The sea was clear on
every heading.
Bismarck
was sustaining hits as well. Their log will
confirm this. It was very frustrating.”

“I see
you lost a secondary battery, and a gun director, not to mention the lifeboats.
Thankfully we had an extra turret for that.”

“An a
round hit one of the Arado seaplanes, sir. We had a bad fire there for a while.
Yet none of these hits compromised the ship in any real way. We were fit for
action.”

“Until
that British battleship appeared,” said Raeder, “the
Invincible
. And
this time it was the torpedoes again. No Rockets?”

“No
sir. The British engaged with their main batteries. There were no further
rocket attacks.”

“Yes, I
read your report, Adler. You allowed that ship to close inside 15,000 meters?”

“I
believed our armor protection was best suited to a range inside 20,000 meters,”
said Adler. “And our guns do their best work there.”

“Yes,
but inside 15,000 meters? You had the speed to maintain your ideal range. What
happened?”

“We
took a bad hit forward, and one of the guns in Anton turret was canted up by
the explosion. Faust says the elevation gears were badly damaged and—”

“Yes,
yes, I read all of this. I am asking you why you continued to close inside
20,000 meters.”

“The
conning tower was hit,” said Adler. “That was what killed Admiral Lütjens. He
was out on the weather deck, and after that there was considerable confusion.
It was some time before I realized the Admiral was dead.”

“Then
you believed Lütjens was still in command?”

“Yes
sir… until I finally realized what had happened. In that interval the range
closed considerably. And then those torpedoes came. Who could expect such an
attack?”

“Yes,”
said Raeder. “Who expected naval rockets, torpedoes that can break a ship’s
back, small caliber guns that range out beyond our largest batteries and strike
us from well over the horizon. That is the only explanation for that damage. The
logs show that Eisenberg warned you the range was approaching 17,000 meters.”

“It was
then that I ordered the formation to turn,” said Adler.

“The
log shows you turned to starboard.”

“I
corrected that when we got the torpedo warning.”

“You
turned right into that attack.”

“Who
could have expected that, admiral?” Adler had a pleading look on his face.

“Lütjens,”
said Raeder flatly. “He would have seen what the British were doing in a
heartbeat, but unfortunately his heart had stopped by then. You must remember,
the HMS
Invincible
was built in the 1920s. All ship designs from that
era still had forward torpedo tubes. We had them on
Hindenburg
at one
point, before they were removed. Know your enemy, Adler. That is the first rule
of naval combat.” Raeder took a long breath, deciding to ease up on this young
Kapitan. “Very well, you sustained two torpedo hits, and yes, this was most
unexpected. Luckily they did not break the back of
Hindenburg
.”

“They
were not the same, sir. Not like the weapons which struck
Gneisenau
.”

“At
that point both formations were then steaming in opposite directions, and you
elected to disengage.”

“I
decided to rendezvous with Topp on the
Tirpitz
, recall
Prinz Eugen
and
Thor
from their rescue mission near
Graff Zeppelin
, and then
proceed to the Bay of Biscay. The loss of the carrier meant we no longer had adequate
air cover. There were only a few fighters up off the
Goeben
, and I still
had no idea where those rockets were coming from, or how many enemy U-boats
were out there.”

“I
agree with this decision, Kapitan. In this you were thinking like a fleet
commander, and not simply the Kapitan of your battleship. Now you see what
combat at sea is really all about. Ships are lost, men die. It is a hard, cruel
business. You were wise to consolidate the fleet and bring it here. Only the
British did not give us much of a welcome. The RAF visited us again last
night.”

“That
was a minor hit, sir,” said Adler. “It struck aft, and did not even penetrate
the deck armor. We’ll have it repaired by noon.”

“Good
for that, but the British will be back whenever the weather permits. The fleet
must leave here as soon as possible, and move to Gibraltar. And for that move,
I will get you all the air cover I can find.”

“We
move south, sir? The fleet is in a perfect position here to cut the convoy
routes to Egypt.”

“And it
is also in a perfect position to be attacked by the RAF, as I have just said.
At Gibraltar we can sortie to the Atlantic easily enough. And with good ships
there, the British will not be able to slip through like they did in this
incident. Those straits must be permanently closed to all ship traffic but our
own. We are seeing about better shore batteries. Some of the turrets that were
built for
Oldenburg
may end up there, if you can promise me we will not
need them for
Hindenburg
… I am also opening negotiations with the
French to permit us to use Casablanca. That port sits right on the jugular of
those very same convoy routes. We will be moving heaven and earth to improve
those port facilities.”

“I see…
Then we will not take the fleet home?”

“Not
all of it, if I get my will in the matter. Yes, there will be those who argue
that the sea lanes to Murmansk must be closed, to cut off any allied support
for the Soviets. Hitler may take this view, and I will have to accommodate him.
But in my mind the fleet would be much better positioned in Gibraltar and
Casablanca. If it is convoys the Führer wants us to kill, then they are in the
Atlantic. If we take the fleet home, then we just have to fight our way out
again. From Gibraltar and Casablanca, we do not have that problem, and the
British cannot cover both those ports easily. They are consolidating in the
Azores, and they will also try to post destroyers operating out of Funchal
Island and the Canaries, but those are small ports, and cannot sustain any large
fleet presence for long. In fact, the Canaries and Funchal Island become prime
targets for us now.”

“One
thing, sir,” said Adler. “I have learned the importance of air cover at sea.
The British knew this well before the war, which is why they built so many
aircraft carriers. Their planes are obsolete, but yet very bothersome. If we
had not lost the
Graf Zeppelin
as we did, I think that engagement would
have played out quite differently, rockets or no rockets.”

“Now
you begin to see the heart of it,” said Raeder. “Unfortunately, the news of
this little fiasco was not well received in Berlin, and Hitler is in a very
foul mood. He has already canceled the
Brandenburg
, and now the
Oldenburg
project is kaput, so you are looking at the last battleship Germany will build
in this war. But the carriers… yes, I have managed to keep up work on those
.
Peter Strasser
is ready to replace
Graf Zeppelin
, though it is in
the north. Considering that, I think I will have to send
Scharnhorst
and
Tirpitz
home. As for
Bismarck
, and
Hindenburg
, your
Schweregruppe
will head south. You can also keep
Prince Eugen
,
Thor
, and the
Goeben.
”

“What
about the
Kaiser Wilhelm?”
said Adler.

“It was
already moved to Gibraltar, fit as a fiddle after that torpedo damage was
cured.”

“Is it
wise to split the fleet like this? It will not be easy to get those ships up
north again.”

“No,
but we will have to try. We need capital ships in the Norwegian Sea now, as
Hitler will certainly demand we close the convoy route to Murmansk. The Army
tells me they will settle the matter, but I am not so sure. In any case,
Tirpitz
and
Scharnhorst
should be enough, with the support of our older cruisers
and destroyers. As for your group, you will head for Gibraltar as soon as
possible. Then we will see if we can persuade the French to move their center
of gravity from Toulon to Casablanca. With that fleet, we pose a real threat to
the Atlantic. They can add the battleships
Normandie
,
Richelieu
,
and
Dunkerque
to your southern group. And they are still working on
Jean
Bart.
Those ships, and the many fine cruisers and destroyers they have,
will be more than enough to support our operations in the Atlantic. That is
where we focus our entire effort now—the Atlantic.”

“What
about the Italian fleet?” said Adler.

“The
Italians are useless, but they still have enough good ships to guard the sea
routes to North Africa. I wish I had trained crews to take them all off their
hands. There are still three or four very good battleships there. If they can
keep Cunningham preoccupied in the Med, that is all they need do.”