World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First

by Harry Kellogg

  Special construction battalions were trained to setup airstrips in record time. The advanced troops would arrive with stores for the aircraft as an organic part of their supplies. Using combat troops in this role would greatly enhance getting planes over the battlefield.

  Nimitz’s job was to get troops safely on shore, defend them for the first 200 miles from air attack, and keep them supplied from the port of Trieste. At the same time, he had to keep his own supply lines open back to the US, and defend his own ships from attack by sea and air.

  The Soviet’s mini-subs would be in their element off the coast of Italy and Albania. The Adriatic Sea was surrounded by Soviet territory. The widest point of the sea was 130 miles and Nimitz would have to supply 25 divisions along the entire length. His battleships would pound anything that looked like a launching site for those mini-subs. His fighter bombers would be attacking the mini-subs in the water as well as looking as any being transported.

  There was very little doubt that NATO would have massive air superiority for the first couple of weeks. Then it would be a matter of how the Soviets reacted. He has seen estimates that they would respond very rapidly. This was a very similar scenario to Anzio albeit on a massive scale. The key was getting off the ships and moving quickly inland and on to Vienna setting up strong points all along the way. Luckily, there were defensible mountain passes both east and west of the planned advance. They just had to get there first and setup a strong defense and wait for the Reds to respond.

  Once the Stavka showed its hand, other invasions were planned to cut off the enemy’s counter attacks and further isolate them before they could breach the dagger that would be trust into their guts.

  Line in the Sand

  **** Montgomery looked supremely confident as usual. He carried himself with great élan and dash. After all, he had faced almost the exact situation before with the exception that now he was facing east. Against Rommel he had been facing west and quite frankly he was more worried then.

  The object of both Rommel and now Zhukov was to capture the Suez Canal. If Zhukov could take the Suez, and Gibraltar their capture would make the Mediterranean a Soviet lake like the Black Sea and Baltic were now. In this war, seizing the Canal was more of a propaganda goal than a strategic one.

  The airfields beyond were another matter. Controlling these airfields was Stalin’s brass ring and would end NATO’s bombing of his oil production facilities in the Caucasus area. The oil and the refineries are strategically vital to the Soviets. Seventy percent of Soviet oil was in the within range of the American B-29s flying from Egypt.

  Montgomery had a very defensible position similar to El Alamein in the last war. One of his flanks was secure with the sea on his left. His right flank was more vulnerable than against Rommel but still very defensible. The Americans had spared no expense, for once, to make sure that the Reds would not breach his lines. Montgomery had all the supplies and latest equipment they could offer. He actually did not have to beg, borrow and steal like he did against the Germans. He had virtually everything he needed to defeat the Red Army.

  On the defense, he had no equal. His skill at moving units around and plugging holes was amply demonstrated numerous times against Rommel and the Africa Corps during the last war. Zhukov would be in a similar situation as Rommel. The Reds would be forced to attack a well dug in and supplied enemy with troops that were weak from months of fighting and low supplies. Zhukov would have one shot and then it was Montgomery’s turn. The Soviets had pushed their troops to the breaking point and he was going to break them here in the Sinai Desert.

  Ike had assured him that whatever he needed was his for the asking. He had asked for it all and had gotten it. The only thing missing was the navy. He had suggested a contingent of aircraft carriers and battleships would be a welcome addition to his force structure. He was told that the naval forces would be occupied elsewhere. When he inquired where was “elsewhere” he was given the old Ike run around. He knew exactly how to tell you nothing yet was never insulting.

  Just as he had always done, he followed orders, despite his reputation. Montgomery played the good soldier. In his opinion, he deferred to an obviously inferior commander in the persona of Eisenhower. He mused and not for the first time, that Ike was a nice chap but no soldier. Eisenhower was just lucky he commanded some good soldiers who were able to lead.

  ***** Ike had just gotten off the phone with Montgomery and thought …He was a good soldier but not a nice chap. He hated to talk to the man over the phone. Monty seemed to become even more arrogant when he wasn’t physically confronted. He was very confident in Monty’s abilities to hold off the weakened Red Army that had spent its strength just getting to the Sinai. Zhukov’s men were running out of supplies. From all reports, Soviet soldiers did not like being so far from home. Also homesickness was starting to take its toll on some of the soldiers from the more uneducated regions. To the Soviet citizen at large invading all but a neighboring country was a very foreign concept. As crazy as it seemed, this attitude was a great advantage to NATO.

  The Russian, Ukrainian etc., history was not rife with invasion scenarios. They tended to be invaded and then fight like hell to get their homeland back. They did not perform well when faced with being the aggressor.

  Most of Western Europe was very well acquainted and sought out expeditions in foreign lands. Even America now had an empire consisting of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba. The British, French, Spanish and even the Dutch enthusiastically invaded foreign lands. Not the Russians.

  What was it about certain societies that makes them want to explore and others stay insular?

  Back to the matter at hand. Monty had pressed him on using the navy and he had deflected the request. He had given the old maid everything he asked for and he was still not happy. Ike could not confide in Monty about the impending invasions. Only a handful knew the full extent of what was planned and Montgomery was not privy to that information. Montgomery would have wanted to be leading the charge and he was not the man to lead anything but a stubborn defense. Ike had let him have his way in Operation Market Garden[cxvii] and history knows the results of that defeat.

  Eisenhower needed aggressive commanders for the four invading armies. The short list included…

  Lucian Truscott[cxviii]

  Mathew Ridgeway[cxix]

  Oscar Griswold[cxx]

  Walton Walker[cxxi]

  Wade Haslip[cxxii]

  Charles Corlett[cxxiii]

  Edward Brooks[cxxiv]

  Terry Allen[cxxv]

  William Simpson[cxxvi]

  Joseph Collins[cxxvii]

  Troy Middleton[cxxviii]

  Leonard Gerow[cxxix]

  Walker, Ridgeway, Truscott and Halslip were in training now as Army Commanders. Collins, Allen, Middleton, Gerow and Corlett were taking the Lead Corps positions. The Lead Corps units are the key to moving fast and these commanders were even more valuable than Ike was, and their Army Commanders. If the Lead Corps made their objectives, the war was won. If not, then NATO was in for trouble.

  Having seen all these commanders in action in World War Two, he was confident in his choices. He missed Patton and MacArthur. However, this new generation of hands-on commanders would do quite nicely in their stead. He didn’t need strategic thinkers, he needed doers. These men could get the job done. They were proven and tested.

  Walker would lead off at Trieste.

  Over the Hell Holes of Trieste

  Billy love his plane. He was doing exactly what he had dreamed of doing since he was sixteen. He was flying so high and the sun was so bright, he was thinking about that story of the guy and his kid who flew too close to the sun. Only, he did not intend to experience their same fate. God, this was beautiful. He wondered if he would see the day when man went into space. They said that the V2 got to the edge before it plunged down and destroyed lives and cities.

  He was at the absolute performance envelope for his converted P-38 Lightning. The model wa
s designated the F-5 and it was a plane designed to take pictures. That’s right, pictures…pretty pictures of things on the ground from very high up, very, very high up, as high as you could get. He was what was called a “Photo Joe” or officially a Reconnaissance Pilot. [cxxx]

  Later during an interview Billy recalled, “We did everything a fighter pilot did but without any guns except for the 45 caliber in my holster. Sometimes I didn’t bother with that (don’t tell my commander). We would fly so high and fast that in theory the enemy couldn’t catch us…in theory. I was “caught” a few times and had to out fly my attacker.

  On this mission I didn’t expect any opposition and I’m not going to keep you in suspense about that. I was not intercepted probably because of where I was. I was flying over Trieste on the border of Italy and Yugoslavia at the very top of the Adriatic Sea. It had changed hands many times, but now was firmly in the hands of the Yugoslavian military lead by Tito. What a name, Tito. Many a joke was made on that one, but it would be no joke if I got shot down and was captured by Tito.

  The F-5 was performing beautifully and the camera was rolling. The sky was clear as clear can be and I just knew I was getting some great shots. I have no idea what the top brass wants with this sea port in the middle of nowhere but mine was not to question why…”

  Billy Howe had actually heard about Trieste before this flight. It was a city of continual contention between the Italians and whoever was in charge of the neighboring country. Good port, valuable land and a rare flat spot in that part of the world. Before the last war, Mussolini had poured lots of money on the port in the 30’s. Trieste once was one of the best ports in the world for about ten years. Then, Allied bombers destroyed the docks and such, but the overall favorable terrain was still there and someone in NATO command was interested.

  The reason Billy had heard of Trieste had nothing to do with the port, but with massacres that had occurred over the centuries and burial sites called foibe, a type of giant sinkhole prevalent in the area. A mechanic in his unit was originally from Trieste and would tell stories about the area that would make Billy’s blood run cold. The most recent massacres were perpetrated by the Yugoslavians after the last war. Thousands of Italian fascists were killed and dumped in these sinkholes as retribution for what they had done to the Slovenian population after the first Great War. Also, Trieste was the site of Italy’s only concentration camp with a crematorium where thousands died.

  The foibe were sometimes as deep as 600 meters and made for conveniently disposing of bodies. The term Hell Hole came to mind. All too often they were not bodies but the living including former partisans, citizens, Jews, political prisoners, innocent men women and children who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There has been so much death and torture in Trieste, it was a wonder why anyone lived there anymore. How could you come back to or move to a place where you knew tens of thousands had been killed over politics or for retribution of former atrocities carried out by the different ethnic groups on their enemies. One atrocity led to another yet the foibes did not fill up and were still being used for all he knew. Whoever was in charge of the area, claimed the mouths of the foibe. The current rulers of the area have continued to use these natural formations to dispose of body after body, with no end in sight. [cxxxi]

  Figure 33 - At the mouth of a Foibe outside of Trieste a True Hell Hole

  Billy had to stay sharp even though he doubted very much that there would be any other planes in the air that could fly as high or as fast. A jet could easily reach and catch him. He was counting on this area being such a remote part of the war zone that even if there was another plane, it would be a couple of hundred miles away and not a jet.

  He was scheduled to move over to an FP-80 or the photo recon version of the Shooting Star. It was of great satisfaction for him to note that the Shooting Star was designed by the same man who designed the Lightning. The guy’s name was Kelly Johnson as he remembered. The only bad part about the Shooting Star was that it had killed America’s top Ace Richard Bong and if that guy had trouble flying anything but a witch’s broom, then they were all in trouble. He had heard that the bugs were now worked out, so he figured that soon he would be a jet jockey.

  Enough supposition (he had learned that word from Readers Digest), he thought as he scanned the horizon for them millionth time and saw nothing. Just an ordinary day he guessed unless you are considering that there was no oxygen at this level and he was flying over enemy territory, Ho hum. Just another day at the office. Man, he was going to miss this feeling when the war was over. The rush, the sense of purpose, the loss of this was going to be devastating he was sure.

  He wondered if he could buy a P-38 for his own? Before this dust up, the government was destroying Lightnings at a frightening rate. Such a waste but what else besides killing other men would a Lightning or Mustang be used for? He was sure that you couldn’t buzz around them back in the states. Although, he had heard that before this war someone out in Nevada was proposing a low level air race. Now that would be something.

  Billy was well into Yugoslavian air space when he turned around and started back after turning off the camera. Instead of a button to shoot cannons, he had a button to shoot pictures. He had looked at his log before this flight and this was his 53rd combat mission. That’s a lot of pictures. He wondered what would become of those pictures after the war. He caught a glimpse of something far below. Well what do you know, it was a fighter trying to intercept him. Way too late buddy. See yah later he thought. He couldn’t even see what kind of plane it was, but if it didn’t have a contrail he was safe. Yes, he would have to get him one of those Shooting Stars and then he wouldn’t have to worry at all.

  After he landed, his photos would be developed and sent to the Pentagon for analysis, and for making scale models. Also, the camera Billy was using did three dimensional photos with incredibly high definition. These 3D shots were going to be used to make maps that would be invaluable to the top brass. Billy had little way of knowing, but similar flights were happening over Novomikhaylovskiy Istanbul, Gdansk, Lebanon and on the Black Sea.

  From 44,000 feet the land looked so peaceful. Suddenly his plane jumped in his hands. He realized he was daydreaming and quickly returned to keeping his plane in the air. In the back of his mind were the bodies of all the innocents far below in the hell holes of Trieste.

  99 Words per Minute

  William White was a fast typist. He could type 99 words a minute with minimal mistakes on the order of 98% accuracy. He was a much sought after commodity in the navy, and now the Central Intelligence Agency.

  Well, let’s see what they have for me today, thought William. He took a report from his in box that had scribbled instructions on it on how to format the report and who it would be sent to, etc. He placed the document into a page holder that consisted of a metal plate about the size of a piece of typing paper. The page holder tilted slightly and had a clip on the right side that had a page wide, very thin metal ruler. The metal ruler helped hold the page on to the metal plate and could be used to mark your place. William didn’t need to mark his place because he finished every page so quickly that it wasn’t necessary.

  The first bunch of notes was about the Pyrenees Line. As William typed, his mind would wander about what the report actually said when all the superfluous words were out of the way.

  He paraphrased as he typed in his head. The Spanish and British were the principle combat units and were starting limited offensive operations. The Spanish were improving dramatically and could now meet the Soviets head on in a defensive fight. While they still lacked the capacity to really launch an all-out offensive, they were gaining the necessary skills and leadership at a fast pace. They should be ready to mount a major attack in the spring to coincide with the planned invasions.

  The British were their usual efficient selves. They just lacked manpower. Also, they could barely keep their troops supplied because of the problems caused UK’s by the severe win
ter weather. Rebellions were popping up all over their former empire with India leading the charge. On the Pyrenees Line, the Brits had over all command and were aided by the Spanish, French, German and other refugee military units of the former western European nations. The whole Pyrenees Line was poised for a large scale offensive as soon as the Soviets started to weaken.

  These combined troops of the former European nations on the Line were to liberate Western Europe, while the Americans were to destroy the Soviet armies around the world.

  Additionally, the British were in charge of the Sinai and Suez Canal defense as well as that of Kuwait. The troops involved were mainly from the still loyal parts of the empire, with the majority being from Australia and New Zealand. Also, Canada was supporting the planned US invasions.

  The defense of the Suez and Kuwait were given top priority by NATO command and the British troops manning the lines were being lavished with all the material they requested. William noted that Montgomery’s defense of the Suez needed significantly more support per unit than anyone else.

  His fingers were flying over the keys now. He bet he was producing at 120 wpm. He glanced at a clock just to set the time and missed a word. So he started over again. His supervisor looked up because it was so unusual for William to waste paper and the ripping sound was very loud as he tore the offending error out of the typewriter.

  Soon William was prodigiously typing again. He did not get to see many of the reports from the US Army. They had a special group of super-secret typists who were very bad at typing but had gone through some very tough security checks. He guessed he didn’t make it for some reason. Probably due to his loud-mouthed uncle who used to belong to the Communist party. He always hated that guy.

  Once again, he was in top typing form and his fingers were a blur. It was taking more time to move pages on and off the document holder than it was to type them. William had fantasies of having a page-turner like a concert pianist. Then, he could really produce typed copy. He had never been much good with mechanical things, which made his typing prowess all the more remarkable.