Winter Storm

by John Schettler

  “Yes, but a very long way to go,” said Hitler, considering the matter.

  “I will prepare several designated locations along the way for the planes to land and refuel. The RAF does this all the time. They leap frog across Africa to fly in planes to Egypt, and we will show them we have the same capability.”

  “Are your forward airfields within range?” asked Hitler. “Our JU-52s can make no more than a thousand kilometers on one mission, sometimes even less.”

  “Yes, old Aunty Ju hasn’t got the legs for a long haul. But her big sister does…” Volkov smiled.

  “You know about…”

  “About the JU-252 project? I have the plans, Herr Hitler. As I have said, my people are very good. Rest assured, your secret is safe with me. I understand production has been underway for some time now?”

  “Something tells me you more than understand,” said Hitler, his eyes narrowed, uncomfortable with the thought that this man knew such a thing. The JU-252 was Germany’s replacement for the Ju-52 transport, and it was a plane that had much better range and carrying capacity. Hitler had a mind to use it both for long range air supply missions in Russia, and to augment his growing airborne capability. He had no doubt that Volkov might also know of these plans. Hitler wanted a plane that could transport these troops over much longer distances, and he entertained many ideas about how he could use such a force. Now Volkov’s daring plan began to capture his imagination, and he wanted to know more.

  “And after our planes reach your forward bases? Then what?” Hitler folded his arms, waiting.

  “Then my sixteen airships lead the way. We spearhead the attack by seizing the airfields at Kansk. That will be our first objective, so that your planes can fly directly there from our forward bases. I will not even need the full Fliegerkorps. Two regiments will do—perhaps 300 planes. The JU-52’s can do the job. I have mapped it all out, and with this plan, we could build up our forces very quickly. That would give me a full division on the ground in those crucial early hours. That was the real reason I failed last time—insufficient airlift capacity.”

  “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.

  Part IX

  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

  Chapter 25

  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? Asto
unding.”

  “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 an
d 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.”