Sacrifice (The Red Gambit Series. Book 5)
Page 68
Allied efforts would rumble on for a few days, mainly in the south, but, on the 23rd April, Operation Spectrum, in all its guises, was terminated.
There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.
Xenophon
Chapter 147 - THE RAMIFICATIONS
1202 hrs, Wednesday, 24h April 1946, SHAEF Headquarters, Hotel Trianon, Versailles, France.
Gathered in the briefing room were the commanders of the Allied Army groups and many other senior officers, mostly those in command of national contingents.
Eisenhower had completed his assessment of Spectrum, praising its overall success, emphasising the heavy blows that had been dealt to all branches of the Soviet military. He accepted the Allied casualty numbers as heavier than expected, conceding that the logistical issues had helped undermine the Allies advance, as well as the Soviet defence.
He made no mention of the avoidance of heavy bombing certain centres of German culture, which had also contributed to the less than full completion of Spectrum.
No-one spoke of it as a defeat, for it simply wasn’t.
However, it had not achieved what it had been expected to achieve and, like Patton and Bradley before him, Eisenhower cited the major reasons.
“I underestimated them. Simple as. The Reds are more resilient than I could imagine, even with their physical and military weaknesses, little supply, hostile environment, and our control of the air... they have still held us up long enough for our own logistical tail to wag the dog.”
Everyone there understood that the limited gains, limited as far as Spectrum was concerned anyway, could be viewed as a setback for the Allied cause.
In truth, Spectrum had, in all its sections and sub-sections, ground the Red Air Force and Baltic Fleet down to a relative nothingness, permitting an unprecedented freedom of action in the Baltic and in the skies over most of Europe.
Soviet infrastructure had been hammered and hammered again by incessant heavy bomber attacks, hampering the front line efforts.
The Ukrainian uprising seemed to have drawn some combat formations away to help quell the revolt, inspired and provoked by Allied agent-provocateurs, although, in truth, only the timing was provoked, as the Ukrainians needed little pushing into open conflict with their Soviet masters.
This had further destabilised the Red Army, as many of her Ukrainian troops served with mixed loyalties anyway. The effectiveness of some formations was greatly reduced, as desertions and interventions by the NKVD took their toll.
The situation of the Poles was tenuous, their enclave surrounded by growing forces and the British relief stopped dead some distance hence.
Eisenhower was upbeat about the future, and this enthusiasm flowed into everyone present, as he promised that the lessons would be learned the next time, and that more and more reinforcements would be arriving, men and materiel from every Allied nation focussed on destroying the Communist state.
He closed the meeting with encouraging words.
“The Soviets have no more cards to play; they are, in essence, fully committed, almost fully spent.”
“Having tapped every source of manpower and brought their industrial base to peak production, they have simply failed to prevent our Allied armies recapturing large areas of Germany, albeit not yet back to where we started in August ’45.”
There was only one outcome now, he assured them, only one.
“The defeat of the Soviet Union is inevitable.”
And with a final flourish, Ike announced his bottom line.
“It is only a matter of time.”
1209 hrs, Wednesday, 24h April 1946, Meeting Room 3, the Kremlin, Moscow.
Beria watched his master very closely, waiting for the final sign before the General Secretary exploded.
In reality, he was quite surprised that the man had not already exploded, given the presentation that Vasilevsky and the still weak Zhukov had laid before him.
Beria had seen men manhandled away and shot for much less than what these two Marshals had done.
And yet, the General Secretary held his peace...
“...and that, Comrades, is the present military situation. In summary, we have stopped them on all fronts. This has been achieved at great cost in manpower, equipment, and munitions… and by ceding German soil.”
Silence greeted Vasilevsky’s delivery.
Half because the men, even though they had received daily briefings, were stunned by the enormity of the ‘defeat’, and half because they dare not say anything before Stalin.
The leader of the USSR sat silently, his face devoid of everything except total anger and fury.
Vasilevsky and Zhukov knew that these men viewed what had happened as an ignominious defeat, whereas they, as military men, understood that the Red Army had achieved miracles, and had, by their own and their generals’ efforts, been preserved for another day.
Stalin rose slowly, pushing his chair back and, clasping his hands behind his back, walked around the table until he stood between the two Marshals, his eyes firmly glued to the large map that showed today’s positions.
His thoughts would have surprised everyone in the room.
‘They have disobeyed our orders… retreated... and yet had they stood... what then... what then...’
He turned to Vasilevsky so quickly that the Marshal almost jumped in surprise.
“And you, Marshal Vasilevsky,” he turned to Zhukov at similar speed, “And you, Marshal Zhukov, have both presided over this... this retreat... specifically against the orders of your leaders?”
Zhukov took the lead.
“Yes, Comrade General Secretary.”
“Why?”
There was no sense in wrapping it up; both men had agreed beforehand that they would tell it how it was.
“Had we stood and fought, we would now be briefing you on the destruction of our Armies in the west... on that we are both agreed, Comrade General Secretary.”
Beria made a distinct noise in anticipation a tirade from Stalin.
There was none forthcoming.
“And what would you suggest now... now that you have done what is done and can’t be undone?”
Vasilevsky took up the baton.
“Comrade General Secretary, we must rearm and reinforce. The closer we are to the Motherland, the easier it is to get resources to our troops…” he didn’t mean it to sound like that, but it did, and more than one member of the assembled GKO envisaged a suggestion of further retreat to shorten supply lines even more, “…And less chance of interference from enemy air activity or ground attack.”
Stalin stroked his moustache into place.
“Go on, Comrade Marshal.”
“Swap out some of the units from our southern borders; the Allies are doing nothing there, so replace the quality with units under training, or badly damaged veteran units that can renew themselves away from the European war.”
Stalin scoffed immediately.
“That will bring us... what... two-three armies at best. What you need is a million men, not three armies.”
He turned to Zhukov.
“I see... you two want more from Manchuria and Siberia. No, no , no, no, no... how many times must we tell you, NO!”
He slapped the map with his bare hand, sending a few pieces of pinned paper dropping to the floor.
“If we take from there, they would be sent to the Ukraine where those bastards are playing up.”
“No, Comrade General Secretary, that is not what we suggest.”
Stalin’s mind was suddenly exactly focused on what they intended.”
“NO!”
Exasperated, he turned away.
“Comrade General Secretary,” Vasilevsky, the not-so-malleable Vasilevsky, pursued Stalin with his firm words, “If Mother Russia is to survive, then we see no alternative.”
Stalin whirled around in an instant, the outburst that Beria a
nticipated forming on his lips.
But it died there.
Turning back to the table, the General Secretary snatched up his cigarettes and matches, taking a couple of steadying puffs before looking Vasilevsky in the eye.
“Speak.”
“At this moment, we have one hundred and eight thousand troops dealing with matters in the Ukraine and Marshal Beria has, what… two hundred thousand NKVD troops deployed also.”
Beria conceded the number with the slightest of nods.
“Give the ex-prisoners guns and make them into units. They have skills already, so would need little training. Feed them, clothe them, and send them in against the Ukrainian rebels, which would relieve the NKVD and our Army troops for service nearer the front line.”
Stalin’s eyes narrowed as he turned to silence a rumble of protest from one corner of the room.
Bulganin, suitably cowed, stopped his discontented mumbling.
“Go on.”
“You have told us time and again that these men failed the Motherland. We all agree this... all understand it. But now the Motherland is in need. Marshal Zhukov and I believe that these men should be given an opportunity to prove themselves worthy again,” Bulganin’s mumblings started once more, “An opportunity of our choosing and one that serves the Motherland best.”
Stalin silenced Bulganin with another look and turned back, this time to direct his words to Zhukov.
“So what is it that you two propose?”
“Comrade General Secretary, at this time we have approximately nine hundred thousand men within our borders, men who were once soldiers of the Red Army... trained men. We propose to equip them as best we can, organise them into units that are identifiable as ex-prisoner units, and offer them the chance of redemption by destroying the Ukrainian uprising... quickly and without mercy.”
Stalin nodded, understanding the aspects of brutality that would be needed.
“Those units that prove themselves worthy will be reinstated into the Red Army proper, given suitable designation, and allowed to serve again, without any reference to their former dishonour.”
Bulganin pushed his chair back and rose.
“Comrade General Secret...”
“Comrade Bulganin... how the fuck can we make a decision on the future of our glorious Motherland with you interrupting all the fucking time?”
Suitable cowed, Bulganin sank back into his chair and decided on dignified silence.
“And those that don’t?”
“Those that don’t will be employed to sweep our supply lines, in support of the excellent work done by our NKVD comrades, or be drafted to work in factories alongside our workers, producing the means of war, Comrade General Secretary.”
Nazarbayeva wondered if she had just watched two excellent officers commit suicide, not that she didn’t agree with them, on both their withdrawal and their proposal.
“The last time you made a suggestion regarding these men, matters were stretched beyond what was agreed, and some were employed other than directed, for which we hold you, Marshal Zhukov, directly responsible.”
Zhukov wondered why such a strange and worthless statement had come from his leader’s mouth, before realising that it was that which hadn’t been said that was important, and that a battle was going on inside the General Secretary’s mind.
Stalin turned and spoke to the gathering, outlining the proposal with great care, and in a surprising even fashion.
“Comrade Bulganin. Your thoughts?”
“Comrade General Secretary, the treatment of these men as non-citizens is accepted as correct. They have failed the Rodina by their surrender and we cannot trust them again. I see no reason to entrust the safety of our Motherland to those who have already demonstrated their capacity for failure.”
Stalin spoke with unusual warmth and softness.
“As ever, your words carry the weight of Party doctrine, and are wise and considered, Comrade. But I must ask you this.”
He lit another cigarette before continuing.
“The plan of these two officers calls for the commitment of these men to be made against the rebel Ukrainians, not the Allied armies. They will have no one to surrender to second time around, and in any case, I’m sure Comrade Beria’s men will hang on tight to their coat tails, should the situation arise.”
Bulganin could understand that.
“If, I stress, if we were to use these men against the rebels, we can observe them... understand if they have redeemed themselves by their actions, long before we would need to trust them again.”
Bulganin could see gentle nods around him and decided to drop his resistance.
“As you say, Comrade General Secretary.”
Stalin moved around the tables, openly voicing the plan and seeking the thoughts of each and every person.
The political animals who had been around Stalin for many years understood that his seeming agreement could be nothing more than a smoke screen to highlight weakness in Soviet resolve, and all hedged their bets accordingly.
One person in the room was free from such political burdens.
“And you, Comrade General. What do you think?”
Nazarbayeva had not expected to be asked, but answered firmly in any case.
“I agree completely with the proposal put forward by Marshals Zhukov and Vasilevsky. Give them a chance to prove themselves and we lose nothing. If they do carry out their duty to the Motherland satisfactorily, then the Rodina and the Party can only gain. I see no downside to this proposal, Comrade General Secretary.”
‘Hah! Spoken like a non-politician, my dear Tatiana... like someone who hasn’t nailed their colours to this political mast for the last twenty years or so... still...’
“Is there anything else, Comrades?”
Zhukov and Vasilevsky suddenly realised that it was they being addressed.
“No, Comrade General Secretary.”
“Then the GKO will debate this issue, and you will be advised in due course.”
Within the hour, the Red Army acquired nine hundred thousand more trained troops.
Somewhere, in a grand building in France, faint echoing words suddenly became hollow in meaning, although he who had uttered them did not yet know it.
“The Soviets have no more cards to play; they are, in essence, fully committed, almost fully spent.”
“Having tapped every source of manpower and brought their industrial base to peak production, they have simply failed to prevent our Allied armies recapturing large areas of Germany, albeit not yet back to where we started in August ’45.”
There was only one outcome now, he assured them, only one.
“The defeat of the Soviet Union is inevitable.”
“It is only a matter of time.”
Time brings all things to pass
Aeschylus
I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein
Chapter 148 - THE DEVELOPMENT
0545 hrs, Monday 29th April, 1946, White Sands Bombing Range, New Mexico, USA.
At precisely 0545 hrs, the gadget was detonated.
The beginning of the end?
Glossary
A-36A Apache
Ground attack or dive-bomber version of the P-51 Mustang. Withdrawn in 1944, and returned to combat within RG.
Aardvark
Marriage of a Panzer IV hull with an Achilles turret.
Aitch-vap
Another way of saying HVAP, as in High Velocity Anti Tank.
AK47
Soviet assault rifle, similar to the ST44.
Antilope
Marriage of an SDKFZ 251 half-track with a Puma turret, containing a 50mm gun.
AOP
Aerial Observation Post, such as an Auster Aircraft.
APDS
Armour Piercing - Discarding Sabot.
ARL-44
French heavy tank designed by the CD
M during the occupation and produced post-1945. As part of France's desperate attempt to regain a position as a world power. It was an unsatisfactory design.
Asbach
German Brandy.
B-29
US four engine heavy bomber, also known as the Super fortress.
B-32
US four engine heavy bomber, also known as the Dominator.
BA-64
Soviet 4x4 light scout car.
BBC Russian Service
The BBC Russian service did indeed commence broadcasting on 26th March 1946.
BEPO
Acronym for a Soviet armoured train - bronyepoyezd.
Black Prince
British tank, based on Churchill components but with a 17-pdr. The project was abandoned as satisfactory vehicles were available, but I have resurrected it for RG, as there were masses of components available.
Blyad
Russian for whore/bitch
BOAC
British Overseas Aircraft Corporation.
Bristol Buckingham
British twin engine bomber more used in liaison and passenger roles.
Brylcreams
Slang term for the Air Force.
C-47
US twin engine transport used for paratroopers or supply.