Winter Warriors

by Stuart Slade

  Zelinsky looked abashed at the rebuke. Marosy decided to take mercy on him. “Look it’s OK, here. We all hear these rumors. Just be careful who you’re talking to. The Russians paid high for their lack of operational security back in ‘41. We don’t want to do the same.”

  There had been no warning, nothing. One second Zelinsky had been about to say something. Then the whole world had just fallen apart. Marosy picked himself off the floor. The mess was a complete wreck, blasted in, tilting and about to fall. Zelinsky was dead. A fragment from the wooden wall had skewered him just as efficiently as a cavalryman’s lance. The building was wrecked, a complete wreck. Marosy knew he wasn’t making sense, even to himself. That didn’t seem to matter at all. Then hands grabbed him and pulled him out.

  It wasn’t just the mess. The whole base was wrecked. The hangars were down with two of them were burning. The flight line looked sick, just as if there’d been a tornado down it. The aircraft that had been on it were thrown about like toys. “What happened?” Marosy realized with a little amazement that he’d asked the question.

  “A-4 rockets. Eight of them. Krauts must have brought them in during the storm and set them up. Did well too. Good tight pattern.”

  “Aircraft?”

  “Don’t worry. Your bird’s OK, Captain. She was over on the other dispersal area, that got away with it. We’ve lost ten, fifteen at least though. Now you stay put while we get you to the aid station.”

  That was when it occurred to him. That was how the rumor about tunnels had got started. The bases back in home had air raid shelters in case of Doodlebug raids. Of course, shelters were no good against the A-4 rockets, one needed warning to get to an air raid shelter and the A-4s didn‘t give any. They just exploded with no warning at all. Then, Marosy relaxed as he felt his stretcher being lifted.

  Conference Room, The White House, Washington D. C.

  Some meetings were pointless before they started and this was one of them. Technically, the discussion was the invasion of Europe and the various plans for it. Marine Corps General Holland M Smith was giving the overview and he knew it didn’t matter. All that did matter right now was the battle going on in the North Atlantic because the outcome of that would change so much. So, the thoughts of everybody were there, not here. The clocks on the wall gave the times at various locations around the world. Moscow, of course, Madrid, Rome, New Delhi, Canberra, Tokyo, Pretoria, Bangkok. One gave the time in the North Atlantic and that was the one everybody kept glancing at. Howling Mad Smith was not pleased but in the presence of the President, he restrained himself nobly.

  “Gentlemen, This time last year, we were actively planning five possible scenarios for the invasion of Western Europe. In order of preference, these were as follows. The first was Plan Red which envisioned an invasion of England being mounted directly from the USA. An outgrowth of Plan Red was Plan Emerald which envisaged a landing in Ireland. In effect, the seizure of Ireland would provide us with a bridgehead for the subsequent invasion of England. Third in preference was Plan Gold which envisaged a landing along the Aquitaine coast of France. Emerald and Gold would also be mounted directly from the United States. I need hardly tell you that an invasion mounted across the North Atlantic would be a military undertaking unprecedented in history. The fourth plan that was being actively considered was Plan Olive which envisaged a landing in Spain had that country entered the war. Finally, Plan Silver looked to an invasion of North Africa.

  “Over the last year, we have continued to refine these plans. Contrary to our expectations, Spain has not only refrained from entering the war against us, Generalissimo Franco has actually moved closer to us and has provided some small, discrete, but none the less valuable services. Where the practicalities of Plan Olive are concerned, while there are suitable invasion beaches, the transport infrastructure in Spain is poor and has not recovered from the Civil War. If we were to invade, we would face heavy resistance and extensive guerilla warfare. I would remind you of what happened to Napoleon in Spain. Once we had fought our way through all that, we would still face the barrier of the Pyrenees where a much smaller force could hold us almost indefinitely. For all these reasons, it has been decided that Plan Olive is no longer a viable option and it has been discarded from future planning.

  “We have also evaluated Plan Silver in depth. The problem is that a Mediterranean strategy does not get us anywhere. If we invade through Italy, we face all the problems that face us in Spain, severe resistance, guerilla warfare and a final mountain barrier that the enemy can hold almost indefinitely. The same applies to an invasion through the Balkans. If we strike at Southern France, we gain nothing that we could not achieve by way of Plan Gold. The logistics of operating out of North Africa are frightening. There are few suitable ports on the Atlantic coast and we would have to supply our forces via Egypt. This would mean an Atlantic crossing, then rounding the Cape of Good Hope and sailing up the eastern coast of Africa. Once the supply lanes have been established, their capacity is such that the port congestion we would face would make the problems we suffer at this time seem minor by comparison. Plan Silver offered us nothing but grief and trouble for no gain. It is not a viable option and has been discarded. Finally, with reference to both Olive and Silver, it is not our policy to go around invading neutral countries. We do not wish to acquire more enemies; the ones we have are quite sufficient.

  “Our attention has, therefore focused on refining Plans Red, Emerald and Gold. Our studies have shown that Plans Red and Emerald are very closely intertwined. We cannot undertake Emerald and then not proceed to Red, nor can we carry out Plan Red and leave Emerald in our rear. We have therefore merged Plan Red and Emerald as a new joint plan entitled Operation Downfall. This envisages two attacks. Operation Olympic is the invasion of Ireland to establish a forward base followed by Operation Coronet, the invasion of the English mainland.

  “The alternative is the invasion of France. We have now named this Operation Overlord. Both Downfall and Overlord envisage the use of six Marine Corps divisions with a follow-up of nine U.S. Army divisions and allied forces. In the case of Downfall, the allied force would be two Free British divisions. In the case of Overlord, one Free French Division.

  “It should be noted that Overlord and Downfall are inextricably linked. Great Britain is the mighty fortress that guards Europe against assault from the west. If we execute Downfall alone, we will have captured the fortress but left that which it guarded untouched. If we execute Overlord alone, we will have that great fortress in our rear and our hold on France will never be secure. Inevitably, either Overlord follows Downfall or Downfall follows Overlord. The operations are joined at the hip.

  “One factor is decisive. There are few if any good invasion beaches along the western coast of Ireland. It is a rugged coast and the few real beaches there have unfavorable gradients. We would also require suitable invasion beaches along the western coast of England. Suitable beaches have been identified as the region around Blackpool and further south near Swansea. If we proceed with Operation Overlord, we can exploit the beaches in Aquitaine which are much better suited to our purposes. This gives us an interesting possibility. The beaches along the southern coast of England are more attractive from a landing point of view than those anywhere else in the country. It is thus easier to invade England from France rather than the other way around. This had lead us to the final decision, to execute Operation Overlord first and follow it with Operation Downfall. Under this scheme, Operation Coronet will take place before Operation Olympic.”

  “You would leave Ireland in the hands of the Nazis? Will all that is going on there?” The Senator spoke passionately.

  “We have no choice. Much as it hurts every one of us that can read a newspaper, we have no choice.”

  “General.” President Dewey also had his eyes fastened on the North Atlantic clock as it ticked away. “We are landing six divisions with a follow up often or eleven? Is this sufficient?”

  “No, Mister Pr
esident, it is not. As an initial landing it will be adequate but barely so. It is simply the best we can do. Perhaps Mister Stuyvesant can enlighten us further on the industrial and economic side?”

  “That would be valuable indeed. Mister Stuyvesant, could you give us the Economic Intelligence and Warfare Committee’s findings on this?”

  The Seer stepped forward. Quietly, Lillith started distributing papers that provided background data. “Gentlemen, we’re tapped out. So is Germany, so is Russia. We can all barely support the forces and operations we have at the moment. Germany and Russia have run out of manpower. Their reserves are barely adequate to maintain their current force structure. On paper, we have manpower enough but we are supporting a vast war production machine. We fight a rich man’s war because by doing so we conserve our most precious possession, our young men. We can be the arsenal of democracy, or we can be the army of democracy. We can’t be both. The force General Smith has described is literally everything we can pull together for an invasion.

  “Will it be enough? On its own, the issue is finely judged. The opposition in Europe is not great. Most of the German war machine is in Russia. There are, at most, ten German divisions in France, assuming that the two French SS divisions, Charlemagne and Charles Martel can be considered equivalent to a German division. There are six German Divisions, including the two English SS Divisions, Black Prince and Ironsides, in England and two German divisions in Ireland. Plus the Partisanjaegers of course. These forces in France and England comprise the bulk of German forces not on the Russian fronts.”

  “English and French SS divisions! Why are these people worth fighting for?” It was the same Senator who had spoken before.

  The Seer was about to speak but President Dewey held up his hand. “It is possible to find brutal, sadistic thugs in every country, in every place, in every town. It is no different here.” He produced a copy of the Boston Globe from his briefcase, with the picture of the tarred and feathered woman on its front page. “Need I remind you of this? Nor do I need to remind you that she is not the only victim of such attacks. It is our great pride that the thugs who did this are reviled and hunted, not given exotic uniforms and turned into national heroes. But let us not pretend that such beasts do not exist here. Seer, do the Germans have plans for an American SS division?”

  “They do, Sir. They have tried to recruit prisoners of war. Not with any great success I am pleased to say. They call it the Robert E Lee Division.”

  There was a hiss of disgust that rang around the room, none louder than from the Senators representing Southern States. The idea that the saintly Robert E Lee should have his name associated with the SS appalled them. Privately, the Seer grinned to himself. He actually had no idea what the Germans planned to call their American SS division. But the invention had had the desired effect.

  “We don’t know how well the British and French SS divisions will fight. The British fought well in 1942 and in 1940 the French kept fighting despite an appalling strategic situation until Halifax stabbed them in the back. But, even allowing them German-like performance, we can take what they have in Western Europe. The problem will be if they shake loose formations from the Russian Front and bring them back. They can do that, their rail network inside Europe itself is almost untouched. We simply can’t get at most of it.

  “There is one other thing though. I said Germany is tapped out and I meant it. They have just enough manpower, just enough industrial power to keep going at their present level. In a very real sense, they are running on capital. If they have a disaster, if they lose a big chunk of that capital, they can’t replace it.” The Seer’s eyes strayed to the North Atlantic clock again. “We have the German fleet in a trap now. If they lose that fleet, they can’t replace it. We’ll own the sea, unchallenged. Unchallengeable. The German tripod will have only two legs and that will mean we can redouble our blows at one of the other legs. That way, we can bring them down.”

  “How long?” The talkative Senator was off again.

  “18 months? About that. Perhaps two years. We can’t give our invasion force air cover from the US; we have to pound German air power into the ground first. Take out the second leg of the tripod. For that we need the big carriers now entering service. That’ll just leave the German Army. We can whipsaw that, break it between two forces.” The Seer grinned nastily. “East and West of the Mississippi?”

  The allusion to the American Civil War wasn’t lost. Nor was the concept of slowly strangling an enemy to death, stripping away his means to fight, one piece at a time. The Senator nodded, with reluctance. “I doubt if I’ll see it in my lifetime.”

  The Seer smiled, nastiness replaced by confidence. “With due respect Senator, I’m sure I’ll see it in mine.”

  Conference Room, The White House, Washington D. C.

  “Stuyvesant, why do I get the feeling that this whole Overlord plan has the makings of a first-class disaster?”

  “Because it does have the makings of one, Mister President. It’s doomed; a catastrophe that will make Gallipoli look positively brilliant.”

  “I know that, Stuyvesant. It’s not what I asked, I want to know why it’s a recipe for disaster. And why has General Smith come up with it?”

  “General Smith was assigned to come up with a plan for the invasion of Western Europe using the forces we had available. That he has done and we are looking at the result now. I would venture to say that this is the best possible plan that could be made, using the forces available. The reason why it’s going to be a disaster anyway is that the forces committed to it are still grossly inadequate. What’s worse, anybody who looks at the plans, and we have to assume that the Germans will, sooner or later, will know that they are grossly inadequate. They’ll see it for what it is, a plan to land an occupation force after the war is over. And then, they’ll ask, how do we plan to end the war? That’s a question we don’t want raised.”

  “So we need a bigger invasion force. You, yourself, said just a few minutes ago, that we’re tapped out. So the invasion is impossible.” It was a flat statement and Dewey’s voice was grave. He knew well the implications of what he was saying.

  “We are tapped out, in the manpower department anyway. The 95 division force we have now is all we can support. Industrially, we can do a lot more. The truth is that our economy is barely half mobilized; our production can go a lot higher than present levels if we really need to. Of course, every time we crank economic mobilization up, we make the post-war demobilization crash worse. We’re heading for a pretty nasty post-war economic depression as it is. We’re walking a delicate line between the level of military mobilization needed to fight this war and the level of civilian margin needed to ameliorate that post-war crunch. So, the obvious requirement is to get more manpower.”

  “Any ideas where from? Not the Russians surely?”

  “No, Mr. President. The Russians really are tapped out on manpower. They can, just barely, support what they have. However, they’re not the only ally we have. There’s the Commonwealth as well. We’re using Canadian troops up in Kola but there’s a lot of the Commonwealth we haven’t started to exploit yet. There’s a lot of the British Army scattered around. We can consolidate that and make up a pretty decent force.”

  “The British have got a lot more forces? How come we never knew about this?”

  “Oh, we did Mister President. In fact, the British were planning a transatlantic invasion long before we were. They started their planning back in 1940 with the idea of combining a transatlantic “relief force” with a military rebellion against Halifax’s regime at home. The way they saw it, and I don’t think those plans were ever even remotely plausible, was that they were looking at a re-occupation with, at most, a few skirmishes on the side. I guess they thought that getting a suitably impressive force across the Atlantic would be enough to trump Halifax. In my opinion, doing that was the easy bit. Defending the UK once recaptured, from the German response would be hard. Our sources suggest that the
y had the whole operation planned for late 1942, or so they hoped. Anyway, we’ll never know. Their plans were forestalled by the German occupation. The forces in England, the RAF and the Army, shot their bolt holding the Germans off long enough for the Royal Navy to get out.

  “In retrospect, I think The Great Escape was part of that plan. At the time, we saw it as a heroic gesture to keep the fleet out of the hands of the Germans. I think it’s equally likely that it was a key move in preparing for a re-invasion. The great problem the Commonwealth faced was that their invasion fleet would be very poorly escorted. If the Germans had spotted it, there would have been a massacre. So they had to get the RN out to screen the invasion convoys. The fact the Germans got in first was an unwanted complication, but it didn’t really change things. For several months after the occupation, all that was in England were the paratroopers and air landing troops who did the initial assault, some regular infantry and a few panzer and panzer-grenadier regiments who got either flown in or landed in the channel ports after they were secured. A Commonwealth-only invasion was practical even if it wasn’t likely to succeed. That still left the re-invasion threat untouched. Of course, we messed everything up by getting into the war and bringing the German submarines down on our east coast. By the time they’d been cleared, the window of opportunity had gone.

  “Be that as it may, the Commonwealth did a lot of planning on how to move troops around. It all proved irrelevant. Keeping the Russians in the war, holding Kola, maintaining the Arctic convoy supply line, they’re taking up most of their effort now. They’re still planning things of course, but it’s more from force of habit than anything else. They were planning to move five corps over the Atlantic, how they’d manage it don’t ask me. Apparently, it was two Canadian Corps, two British Corps and the ANZAC. Three divisions each. Then, the two Canadian Corps went to Kola. They replaced one of those corps with a mixed formation, mostly South African with other contingents thrown in. That still leaves twelve divisions and they’ve got plans to move them as well, without bouncing off our resources. Those twelve divisions as part of the second wave following the Marines ashore would be priceless. A 21-division follow-up looks like a serious invasion.”