In three weeks they had taken out 24, but who was counting.
Figure 15- Soviet PTRD – 41 Anti-Tank Rifle
Chapter Eight:
Combat
Figure 16- T-34 on the move
Marsh’s Marauders
They were doing quite well for a rag-tag group of American’s and Turkish soldiers who rarely understood each other when speaking. They had developed a kind of sign language that included body, facial, and hand gestures that stood them well in combat.
They had been heavily engaged and killed many a commie. They had taken losses as well.
Two of the Turks had gotten carried away one night and attack an outpost with those God Damn knives of theirs. They ran into a sentry that was actually awake and he shot them both at close range. A week ago, the group had almost gotten into a fire fight with another commando group led by a Sergeant Mankowitz.
The two men shot had been cousins of the new group’s Turkish leader, a guy named Nazik. Naturally, he was very upset. Nazik realized it was their own fault for thinking they were such good warriors. Back home, they had both been students, and had never killed a man before the Soviets attacked. Each cousin had accounted for himself well. They had reached Nazik’s goal of 12 before they were killed. The oldest had killed over twenty, they speculated.
The Turks like to speak of their exploits and how many men they killed. Captain Marsh tried to forget as much as he could so he could sleep at night. It didn’t work. The only thing that worked was some drug they gave him and drinking himself into a coma. Neither sedative was available in his current circumstances. So, he didn’t sleep much and that is an advantage in times of danger.
Sergeant Mankowitz was a throwback of a sergeant. He was tough as nails as well as a very good leader and teacher. He seemed to really have bonded with his Turkish compatriots.
This combined group was becoming very well known among the Soviets as well at HQ back in Cairo. They were looking for heroes and his group fit the bill. A bunch of misfits that had a “Skill for the Kill” as a newspaper article had said
All of the Americans in this group were holding up just fine. They had picked up another three strays…or deserters for all he knew. As long as they performed it didn’t matter. He definitely wouldn’t turn his back on the guy named Brokowski. They called him Bull behind his back. He stood about 6’5” and was perfectly proportioned just bigger than he should be. He was probably handsome as well, but Marsh saw something wicked in the man. More than once, he had to keep the oaf from killing his own squad members, and then there was the time with that woman, young girl actually.
They had rescued her from a squad of Cossacks who had more than paid for their crimes. She had curled up into a ball after they had gotten through killing her former tormentors. The way Brokowski kept looking at her gave Marsh the creeps and he was sure the girl was not in the least bit happy about it herself.
It turns out she was a very distant relative of one of the new Turks. They decided to take her to a Red Cross unit they had passed by a couple of hours ago. A bunch of do-gooders out in the middle of a war was something you didn’t forget easily. The whole time they were working their way to the area where they spotted the group before, Bull was trying to get as close to the girl as possible. She instinctively knew what he wanted and kept putting others between Bull and herself. Finally he had just picked up one of the Turks that was in his way and placed him to the side. This caused quite a stir which he totally ignored and just kept touching her hair. It was so menacing that the poor girl shook so bad that she couldn’t walk and urinated where she stood.
Two of the Turks started to shout at Bull. He finally paid them some attention when one hit him over the shoulders with a piece of wood. He turned slowly and grabbed the guy so quickly that no one had time to draw their guns and shoot him. But, all Bull did was to pick up and thrown the Turk about 20 feet, then he turned and started to stroke the girl’s hair again.
The Turks were massing for an assault on Bull when a couple of Soviet Armored cars could be heard coming down the road and that snapped Bull out of his obsession. They dealt with the armored cars and Bull was wounded severely in the incident. He lost his left arm to a 20 mm cannon round and that was it. The Captain was sure he could have been saved but Bull just kept taking the tourniquet off and even in his weakened state, no one could keep him from tearing it off. He bled to death in less than three minutes rather than live with one arm.
All in all, the group was relieved that Bull Brokowski was dead. He was very good at killing Commies, but something about him made everyone sure he was good at killing his former friends and squad members as well.
When you stand back and look at a guy like Brokowski and how easily he died you suddenly realize the fragility of the human body. Yet, the girl had demonstrated just how strong the human spirit can be. Her little, frail body had withstood much more abuse than Bull had, even when he lost his arm. Here, she was going to try and make a new life despite the things she had seen and her torture. This small, little thing was stronger than Bull who just couldn’t live with the thought of not being perfect.
Hell, the Captain had heard of this guy with no hands. He had lost them in an accident while in the service. He now had two hooks. He had heard that the fellow was up for Best Actor, Academy Award. [11] The, Actor Harold Russell, demonstrated the strength of the human spirit in overcoming physical challenges. Bull’s suicide in contrast, showed that without his outward strength he was no match for life’s realities. Captain Marsh decided he spent enough time thinking about that psychopath.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and maybe the Red Cross folks would help them celebrate. Lord knew his group needed a respite. As he looked around at his company-sized unit, he couldn’t help but think of all they had seen and done in a few short months. True, they had retreated hundreds of miles. In the end, they had made the Reds pay for that ground many times over.
What the Captain didn’t know was that his 12 Americans were the last ones alive out of the original 250 sent as Combat Advisors to assist the Turkish government in its time of need. They had actually done quite well considering the conditions and resources they were saddled with. The Turkish Army had benefited from their guidance. If they had been giving more support, they might have given the Soviets a nice big black eye. Unfortunately, that was not the plan.
In fact, this slow retreat back to the Suez Canal was the plan. NATO was to put up just enough resistance to egg the Reds on to their destruction. Too much opposition and the Reds might decide to dig in. An entrenched Red Army would require a huge change in plans and negate the only true advantage the NATO forces had over the Soviets.
Maneuver was the key to winning this war. With its massive amphibious capability, NATO forces could land anywhere there was a beach or low-lying area. Attacking an entrenched and very skilled opponent on his terms was suicide. The American strategists recognized they could not overcome a dug-in enemy. That is why they had decided to rely on the strategic bomber and the atomic bomb.
Unfortunately for NATO and the Americans, the Reds knew all about the American plans for using their planes and bombs. The VVS had prepared for an escalated and expanded air war in earnest in 1945 when it was apparent that the Germans were defeated. The Soviets had invented the perfect response and now it was NATO that had to adapt to the new realities of modern war.
Lurking About
US Army Captain Mario Fiat was taking a big chance, one that could cost him his life. He was dressed as a Turkish laborer and was making his way along the Bosporus. His mission was to confirm the destruction of the defensive works that guarded the Turkish Straights. General Eisenhower needed firm intelligence on just how thoroughly the Turkish military had destroyed their own creations. NATO needed them gone, if their future plans were to work.
The destruction had to be so complete that it would take months and vast resources to, once again, rebuild them to their former effectiveness. The plan was to make the
m so hard to repair that the Soviets would keep putting the project on the back burner until it was too late.
The forcing of the Turkish Straights had not been tried for thousands of years and the planners at NATO wanted it to be as simple as possible. Hopefully, some Soviet official would not wonder why the Turkish forces had spent so much manpower on dismantling their own defenses. These defenses had once been the most formidable in all of Europe. Now, they lay in ruins.
He noticed that many of the defensive emplacements facing west from both sides the Straights had been purposely left in place, giving the appearance of being largely intact to the untrained eye. What Captain Fiat saw would make the top brass happy. The Turks had outdone themselves. He only hoped it would not be too obvious to some nosey Red officer who has the pull to start immediate repairs. He estimated that it would take a good two months from a dead start to rebuild the defenses. The new emplacements would be needed to withstand the forces of NATO.
Luckily, the guards and busybodies that had questioned him so far did not understand Kurdish. By design, he understood Russian and Turkish, as well as French, and Armenian of all things. When questioned he went into a torturous version of Turkish with Kurdish overtones that drove most Turks nuts. Kind of like a Canadian from Quebec talking to a Parisian. The guards quickly just threw up their hands and let him pass by.
His teeth were even made for the job. He had purposely had a few removed that needed caps anyway. So, he had the gapped toothed smile you would expect from a poor working stiff making his way from job to job on the historic border between East and West.
The Soviets kind of had their feet in both worlds and seemed to relish being the masters of Turkey. It had been a centuries old goal of various Russian empires to open up the Turkish Straights to have a warm water port from which to explore and to establish trade with the rest of the world. A second driving force was to rid the area of the American fighter and bomber bases in Turkey and the Levant.
Fiat was pleased to see that the Soviet’s invasion of the area had taken precedence over the repair of old defensive positions. The situation was much the same as when the Soviets first crossed the Straights and pushed into Istanbul. The lack of progress was a good thing for what NATO had planned.
He came to another checkpoint. This one was manned by former members of the Turkish army. It was amazing how fast former enemies became useful to the victors. The US was using German POWs to guard huge stockpiles of weapons just last May. Weapons that the former German SS could have easily used to try once again to create a Fourth Reich. Instead the Soviets now had use of all that equipment.
He knew of another example of using previous enemies. The entire Indo China Theater was still governed by former Japanese officials, who could have easily been hung as war criminals like Tojo.
The soldiers at this checkpoint were not very interested in him. Once again, he was allowed on his way. A few meters past the checkpoint, he heard a shout in Russian to stop. He ignored it because he was not supposed to know Russian. He was shuffling along at his usual pace so the Russian soldier that had shouted at him caught up easily. As he was spun around he was confronted by a face he knew. Luckily, the man was from an earlier checkpoint. He must have been the local commander who recognized Fiat from the other area.
The soldier was memorable because he had made fun of Fiat the last time they had met and had teased him for about an hour. Now, it looked like he was going to do it again. Fiat could easily have killed the man with any number of moves he had been taught in commando training. But as usual, he played the slow-witted manual laborer just trying to find enough to eat.
This time, the Russian teased him by dancing food before his eyes. He played along and tried to catch the food. He didn’t have to pretend to be hungry, so that of course, added to the realism of the tableau. Fiat was not a big man, he made himself seem even smaller for his role of migrant laborer. The Russian was huge, over 6’4” tall, just plain big, and a natural bully. Fiat went along with the game the Russian wanted, who eventually tired and sent him on his way with a kick in the side.
The only part that alarmed him about the whole incident was the fact that the commie asshole remembered him. Spies are not supposed to be noticeable. He would have to make an adjustment the next time and take on a persona that was not so meek, mild, and memorable to bullies like the Soviet bastard. Maybe, add a touch more menace so they would think twice about abusing him and not recall how much fun he was to tease.
He was now within a few days walk to the mouth of the Black Sea. He was very curious to see how well the Turks had rendered the defenses from the south useless. Useless defenses were the key to what was to follow in this area. Historically, the threat usually came from the North in the form of the Soviet Navy, so not many of the defenses faced north. He would spend the next week scouting the area and making sure this was still the case. If not, he and a few of his commando friends would have to blow some stuff up this coming spring.
Montgomery at the Fore
23 January 1946
NATO HQ
Cairo, Egypt
0645 hrs
General Montgomery had been given command of the Mediterranean Theater. His main goal was to let the Soviets approach the Suez Canal, and then stop them cold. Achieving this outcome required a bit of finesse that he actually possessed. A Patton or Rommel would never have been able to resist using all the forces he had at his disposal to stop the Soviets far from the Suez. Montgomery knew he had to have a more sophisticated plan.
He was chosen for his defensive abilities. The Battle of El Alamein had amply demonstrated those skills. He was not chose for his offensive skills and that was demonstrated by his aborted attempt in Operation Market Garden. He was cautious and did not move until he had overwhelming odds. His well thought out plans and thorough risk assessments made him perfect for the job he was given.
The Soviets were on track and had just taken Aleppo in Syria. Most of the airbases in Turkey that SAC and the 15th Air Force had been using, were overrun as was the plan. The airbases had been used as bait and Zukov had taken it hook, line and sinker. Now they were reeling him in.
Farther to the east, the second Soviet column under the command of Marshal Ivan Bagramyan was the actual threat. He had under his command the bulk of the armored forces. These forces were on the move towards Kuwait, taking a more easterly path to the Suez by starting farther east and then heading south. This army could be a real thorn in the sides of NATO, and Montgomery knew it. The Marshal and his tactics reminded him of his old nemesis Rommel.
By this time tomorrow, Bagramyan would have taken Fallujah and Bagdad. More units in the form of naval airpower were being sent to further impede his progress. He was moving much faster than anyone at NATO had imagined. It was thought that he had been given the bulk of remaining fuel and mobile units for his part of the offensive.
Meanwhile, Montgomery was building up the already formidable defensive line that had existed before World War Two. The Suez was the lifeline of the British Empire and it could not be lost. Its capture by the Soviets would make the Mediterranean Sea shipping route to Britain useless. Weeks were added to the shipping time, for the vital resources the Empire was still receiving from its colonies in the Far East. To lose the Suez was to cause the deaths of many a sailor who would have to brave the Horn of Africa not to mention the extra transit time and oil needed to complete the journey to the factories of Britain. The Suez had been a strategic priority for the British since it was developed in the 1860-70s.
Montgomery’s orders were to slow up and harass the Red Army. He was to pull back and draw them in. “Show them a leg and pull it back” was how it was put to him. He was very good at implementing these types of plans. He used his natural defensive bent for fighting an enemy army. His strategies had worked in Rommel’s case, although some said it was not by design. As your opponent is drawn further from his supply line, he becomes weaker and weaker. You, in effect, defeat him long before
the battle starts.[12]
Montgomery was very comfortable in his skin at the moment and very content with the progress of the Soviet forces. The press was going nuts, which in his mind, worked in his favor. Zhukov and Bagramyan were going to take over the world. “Woe is us, we are doomed.” He uncharacteristically held his tongue. Some of the criticisms were scathing. Calls for his resignation were rampant. But still, he kept quiet. He smiled for the cameras, spouted platitudes, and deflected the insults, etc.
Luckily, the Prime Minister knew the plan, and knew that the current strategy was on track to succeed.
Chapter Nine:
Politics
Figure 17 -Truman reauthorizes the War Production Board
War Production Board
Civilian Production Administration had once again reverted to the War Production Board. The transition had been smooth with some of the members being replaced, but the majority of them stayed in place.
Erving Brown returned from Europe to take up the mantel of Labor on the Board. He had served in that capacity until the end of the war. He went to a war ravaged Europe in hopes of counter acting the pressure from the Soviet Union efforts to turn the labor unions into communist tools. He desperately wanted a future for the labor movement that did not include communism.
Communism had been included in labor movement before the war and he was convinced that it was going to happen again. The combination would mean death to the union movement if they were once again seen as an arm of the USSR.
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