by Unknown
USS Lincoln sat in the middle of the bay like some beached whale. There were lights around the ship, but she was sitting at an unnatural angle and low in the water. From the day she had been sunk there had been barges and teams of people diving around the ship, but nothing had changed.
Late in the evening three weeks later a barge was towed into the bay. It looked like one of the oil exploration barges commonly seen in the Persian Gulf. There was a crane, some sort of gantry along one side and other structures. The tug eased the barge up against the side of the stricken carrier and tied it off. No one on shore even noticed as the lights suddenly came on aboard the barge and people seemed to appear all along its decks. The gantry eased out until it almost touched the side of the carrier. On the carrier men and women began coming out to see what was going on. The one thing they noticed was a small weathered sign along one of the steel bulkheads that read ‘Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.’ The other thing they noticed was a stack of steel plate neatly placed on her deck along with a long row of diving helmets.
Chapter 11
Change of Direction
Vornovo, Russia
“We must do something they do not expect,” insisted General Ivan Morchenko, the new leader of the Russian attack force. “We made the mistake of allowing our lines to become static. We must do like the American General Patton and make sweeping movements which keep our enemy off balance and allow maximum advances. This means we must utilize our mechanization to the fullest. Our troops don’t walk, they ride. Our tanks continue moving all the time, only stopping when a replacement unit relieves the first. Once relieved, they return to an area nearby to refuel and rest before going back to the front. This also means our air forces must continually support our tanks and troops. There will be none of the daylight only efforts. We must all be available twenty four hours a day. We will need this since I propose we sweep down through Slovakia to this point and then continue westward. They will not be expecting this. It means traveling rapidly through these mountains, but if we do this right, we can come up here and completely surprise our enemy by attacking his flank. This will allow the forces along the front to renew their advance, join up and then sweep west. The allies will not be able to counter this kind of move. They are too heavily concentrated along the current front. With your approval, I begin moving men and equipment under cover of darkness tomorrow night. The trains and trucks are ready to move,” Morchenko concluded.
“What do you think?” asked Borodin as he turned toward Pusko.
Pusko was nodding his head. It was a daring plan, and if it worked, they would be able to move even more rapidly across the continent. The schedule could be reestablished and time made up. “I recommend approval, Comrade President. General Morchenko has thought this through well. It will allow us to make up for a number of things including the shortages of materials inflicted on us by the American missiles. More importantly, we will return to our planned timetable for the completion of the operation,” he said emphatically.
Borodin nodded. “Then it is approved. It is vitally important that you are successful, General. To fail might mean ruin for us all,” he said.
“The tanks and people will begin almost immediately, Mister President,” he said as he saluted and began gathering his briefing papers.
Borodin took Pusko’s arm and led him out of the room. “What of the protests we have begun to see?” he asked in a low voice.
“They have been dealt with,” Pusko said. “They were crowds of only about one hundred or so and the troops were able to round them up before they got too active. They are being held in the Lubkaya Prison for now. We can decide on their fate when our operations are over,” said Pusko.
“Good. I don’t have time for protesters. They will think better once the power comes back on. It has already taken too long, but that is not a priority for now. I am assured things will be back up in a week or two,” Borodin said. The electricity had already been off for a month in the dead of the Russian winter. “Just keep an eye on Morchenko. He had better get results quickly or we may have to make additional changes,” he said as they exited the grand hall.
Vednoye, Russia
The day before Christmas dawned cold and miserable. Many of the older families had been able to resurrect old wood and coal burning stoves they had from many years past. As many of the older residents remembered, during the Stalin era, this was the only source of heat many ever knew. Families sat huddled in a single room around the old stoves bundled in all the clothing they could carry. Some of the older men chuckled that they had it far better than the people in the cities. None of them had these kinds of stoves.
The austerity measures imposed upon them by the government were indeed, like the old Soviet days. Meats, cheese, canned goods, bread, all were severely rationed. Fuel for automobiles was not available. The only house in the village with lights was the government building, which had a generator to run the center as well as the phone service. Many in the town grumbled that while the people froze, the government officials still sat in shirt sleeves and watched television. The only benefit had been that the mayor of the town allowed the people to charge their cell phones in an outdoor kiosk each day. After the fall of the old Soviet government, the cell phone had become a staple in most people’s lives. The mayor found that with those, at least the grumbling fell mostly silent.
Despite the fact that there was no electricity across Russia, the mail service continued on. Yevgeny Kolchin got in his official vehicle and began making his rounds. Kolchin was the friend of nearly everyone in the town and today he was dreading his job. It wasn’t most of the mail, but specific pieces. There were over three hundred people in the small village, and there were fifty of the letters. He had seen them before. They were all in much finer envelopes than the normal mails. All were from the Military Headquarters in Moscow. Unless he was mistaken, they announced the death of someone in each family. One by one, he made the deliveries. They all knew something was wrong when he came to the door. His normally cheerful face was glum and somber. He made sure to hand this envelope to them separate from the others.
Some cried, some fought back the tears. The worst was with the Namirov family. They received three – one for each of the three sons the mother had borne. By the time he made the final delivery, he almost swore he could hear the whole town weeping from the streets. Only after the last delivery did he break down himself. His beloved Vednoye had sent fifty one young men to the services. He had delivered fifty letters. He sat down on the fender of his truck and wept openly.
Berlin, Germany
“Admiral, there’s a Colonel Sanders and Master Sergeant Ricks to see you,” announced an aide.
Hammond was sitting behind his desk going over a mound of reports and requests that he had to weed through each day. It was the worst part of his job and he often longed for the day when he could go back to sea and leave the command to someone else. The second worst job was the train of people wishing to seek an “audience” with the Supreme Commander about some something or another. It was endless. At least this was a welcome visit. “Send them in,” he said as he looked up from his desk. Sanders he hadn’t met before, but Ricks was a sight for sore eyes. He quickly got up and came around his desk to meet them.
The two men came in and saluted stiffly. Sanders extended his hand. “Colonel Harland Sanders. Good to meet you Admiral,” he said. “I believe you two have met.”
Hammond slapped Ricks on the arm. “Good to see you again Master Sergeant,” he said with a grin.
“Same here Admiral. When the Colonel said he was coming over, I couldn’t pass up the chance. How’s the family?” asked Ricks
“Just fine. Tough being away, but I’ll manage. What’s this I hear that you and Su Lynn are expecting again?” Hammond asked.
Ricks was beaming. “Yep. We just found out a couple weeks before this all started. She’s fine and the boys are doing well. One of these days we will need to get the families toget
her so the boys can get acquainted.”
“That would be nice. Now what brings you two over here from Poland?” asked Hammond.
“Sir, the enemy is changing a few things and we need your permission to change along with them,” said Sanders.
Hammond sat back down and leaned back in his chair. “Alright, shoot.”
“Admiral, up until just a few days ago we were tearing them up. Every night we could go in and find all kinds of targets, but I think they are wising up on us,” said Ricks. “We have noticed that now the tankers are sleeping in their tanks. They don’t get out even to go to the bathroom. The rest of the ground troops are covering their positions so that we aren’t getting a good infra-red image. The rear positions are now over five miles from the front. They are bringing meals up to the tankers during the day, and we might get some there, but it looks like they are taking all kinds of precautions against us getting in a good shot. We want to make some changes,” Ricks said firmly.
“What kinds of changes?” asked Hammond.
Ricks grinned. “You’re gonna like it,” he said. “I want to modify some of the drones. We take off that plastic pistol and replace it with this,” he said while producing a small Styrofoam mount with four screws. “With this, we can let the solenoid that pulls the trigger instead pull the pin on a grenade. The spring pops the grenade out of the holder and it falls directly into a position. You see, we can dimly make out some of the foxholes those guys have dug into. I can’t see the person, but the position gives off a faint change in color. I fly over and position the drone right over the hole and just drop it. There’s a good chance the grenade will land on top of whatever covering they have and just go off. Ought to scare the hell out of them. We also noticed that the tanks are left running for the heat. In a lot of cases, they leave the top hatch open for some ventilation. Same idea. We drop the grenade right down the hole. We get the same results, a lot of dead enemy, but we only make one trip. It will mean we can’t hit as many targets, but we might just kill a few more of them,” Ricks said with a knowing look.
“You agree, Colonel?”
“Yes, sir. They might think they are getting away with something, but we have a few tricks up our sleeves. This grenade thing is the first, but I am also looking into dispersing some small mines the same way. There’s one that we can drop and even if they try and move it, the slightest movement will set the damn thing off. My armorer says it might just be enough to take the track off one of their tanks. They usually try to move out just before dawn. If we drop a bunch around each tank, they won’t go far. We can even get some of the people trying to bring in the food. That will mean that their only option is to change out tanks and crews during the day by rotating the tanks every couple of days for refueling and refit. That costs time, people and fuel,” said Sanders.
“What about our people when we go through the area? They will be stepping on these same mines,” said Hammond with concern.
“Not a problem, Admiral. These things can be set to go inert or just explode at a predetermined time. We drop them, wait till their tanks move over them or until about mid-morning then they either all go off or go inert, then we move in. We can rotate positions and times to keep them guessing and to coordinate our own attacks. We’ll know where they are. There will be a busted tank or a bunch of dead guys,” said Ricks.
Hammond nodded thoughtfully. “I like it. Let’s try it out in your sector. If it works, get the word to the others and take it across the whole line. Start with the grenades, then talk to me when you have the mine thing ready to test. My only concern is that our own people might step on one of these things in the tall grass. I trust you have written all this down,” said Hammond.
“Yes, sir, even the plans for whittling out this foam. It’s the only thing we could come up with and keep us in the running,” said Sanders.
An officer came into the room and saluted. Hammond looked up from the others. “Sir, it looks like something is getting ready to happen down south. You may want to come see in the planning room,” the officer said.
Hammond nodded and got up. He looked over at Ricks and Sanders. “I have to go.
Guys, keep doing the best you can do,” he said with a weak smile.
Ricks had already noticed that his friend was starting to look tired and haggard. He could not imagine trying to do his job. He took Hammond’s hand and leaned forward. Hammond turned his head to listen.
“Roger, take care of yourself. Don’t forget to take time out to shake some of this off. It’s what I would tell my people,” he said. He felt the handshake tighten.
“Thanks Dale. You do the same. One of these days maybe we can just sit back and swap stories like regular people.” Hammond stood back and slapped him on the shoulder with a wink and a smile.
Ricks grinned. “Aye, aye, sir,” he said.
After bidding the two goodbye, Hammond left the room and headed down the hallway to a guarded door. He looked at the soldiers guarding the door and showed them his identification and security cards.
The guards stood back and Hammond went through the doors and down a hall into a darkened room. In the center of the room was a huge square table. On it was a three dimensional image of the entire battle front. Consoles lined the walls manned by intelligence personnel and a number of high ranking officers were around the table. Hammond turned to the watch officer. “Okay, what’s the new development?”
The watch officer shifted the image to just inside Slovakia. Just east of the city of Presov, four military trains were traveling not two miles apart to the west. Although covered with netting and tarps, there was no mistaking the large outline of tanks and trucks. This was made even more evident when the image zoomed in and followed one of the trains. It looked for the world like a model train Hammond had played with as a boy.
“Admiral, it looks like this is just the first shot. Just south of Lviv, there are two more groups just like this one on the way. By my count, that makes three whole divisions of tanks, artillery, and personnel. In Smolensk, there are even more trains being set up. We know they aren’t coming to the front since they have taken the train lines headed southwest across the border into Slovakia. In Smolensk, there is a big stockpile of equipment and supplies. We first thought it was headed this way, but a lot of it was loaded on these trains. The question now is, where are they going?” the officer said.
“How much equipment is still to be loaded?” asked Hammond.
“They have only loaded about half of it so far,” reported one of the intelligence officers. “Since they started this move, nothing has gone across the Polish border. I believe this is an effort to get at our flanks,” he said.
“I believe they will push on through Bratislava and toward Vienna,” said General Keuster, the German intelligence liaison. “It’s a straight shot to Vienna. Keep on going and they achieve the same results, just going a more southern route. With their army holding our nose up here, we just don’t have the forces to stop them,” he said.
Hammond looked at the area. “How fast are they going?”
“These are moving about 80 miles an hour. It looks like they have cleared the rails all the way,” said the watch officer.
“Yes, but all the way to where? There are rail lines going up into Poland and the Czech Republic as well. If they head upward through Prague, they can achieve even more. What are you seeing?” asked Hammond.
“Sir, there is not a train on the line between where they are and the Austrian border. The rest have freight traffic,” he said.
“So it looks like they have cleared the lines so they can get there as fast as they can,” questioned Hammond.
“That’s the way it looks to me,” said Keuster.
“Okay, we go on that assumption. Where are the Italian and Spanish divisions now?” asked Hammond.
“The Italians are in Graz, in Austria, and the Spanish are near Munich. They sent two divisions each, including one armored division each. The rest are not on the way as yet
,” the General said.
“At that pace, the Russians could be in Vienna within three hours. Get those Spanish and Italian troops to the Austrian border as fast as you can. “I doubt the Russians will come across the border by train, but somewhere in there they will disembark and head west. That will give us a little time. Contact General Matthews and have him try and sortie some bombers to try and break up their party. Then call the staff together. We’ll need to take care of this new threat,” ordered Hammond.
Washington, DC
President O’Bannon sat is his chair in the briefing room and listened to the members of the Joint Chiefs as they laid out things that had happened the day before and the plans for the day. It was starting to sound the same as every other day. There wasn’t much progress in Europe. The Allies had been able to push the Russians back and to frustrate any temporary gains, but until the main push began, there wasn’t much anyone could do but watch. One good note had been that because of the use of the technology Hammond brought into play, casualties were light on the Allied side. People and equipment were being used sparingly so that when needed, everything would go at once.
As the last of the briefers finished, O’Bannon began his usual questions. “Carrier status?”
“The Kennedy made it back and is in drydock as we speak. Initial estimates are that she will be out for at least three months. Stennis is almost finished along with the Washington. The rest are down hard,” said the CNO.
“What about Lincoln?”
“Newport News sent a team and they are working day and night to get her off the bottom. It’s still up in the air,” the CNO said.
“The invasion is just a month away. So you’re telling me we won’t be able to support those landings and a crossing?” the President asked.