He had come to admire Mikhail in particular. This young man had been through so much it was amazing he was alive. His home had been on the border between the Reds and the Whites in the Russian Revolution for almost six months in Kronstadt. This small city is on Kontlin Island across from what is now Leningrad. Before the revolution in 1917 Leningrad was named Petrograd.
In 1917 Petrograd was the home of the new communist government and the center of much conflict. In addition, the port city of Kronstadt was part of that turmoil. The port was also the home of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Other facilities in the area included a naval yard and numerous forts in various states of decay.
Imperial Russian Navy personnel were instrumental in the successful February Revolution of 1917. The revolution was isolated to Petrograd and lasted less than a week. The immediate result was the abdication of Czar Nicolas II.
The more famous October Revolution of 1917 eventually resulted in the formation of the Soviet Union led by Lenin. This larger conflict was between the Red Army of the communists and the “Whites” of the old Imperial Army and supporters.
The former Czar’s allies involved foreign armies including the United States who landed in Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok. Additional troops comprised 15,000 Japanese soldiers that invaded the Eastern region, a British landing in Vladivostok and 23,351 Greek fighters who marched on the Crimea. The Multi-national troops were opposing communism and all it stood for.
In 1921 Kronstadt had an uprising of its own against Leninism. What was happening in Moscow was not their idea of what true communism should be. The work camps, total party control and lack of freedom of speech, corrupted the true meaning of the revolution and a group of naval officers in Konstadt took up arms against the Bolsheviks.
Leon Trotsky, (then in charge of the Red Army), responded by sending a large force against the rebels. A major battle ensued as Trotsky’s troops crossed over the frozen waters from Petrograd. thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict were lost in the fighting.
Petrograd was renamed Leningrad after the death of Lenin in 1924. During World War Two the Germans surrounded Leningrad and the forts in Kronstadt. Both cities were under attack by the Nazis for 900 days. Constant bombing and shelling were Mikhail’s life until 1945 when the horrific siege of Leningrad was finally lifted by a victorious Red Army. A young Mikhail experienced starvation and witnessed cannibalism.
He was 17 by the time World War Two was over. He was drafted into the army in February 1946. He was still in training when World War Three broke out and he was thrown into the thick of the fighting in Turkey. His unit remained behind to guard the Turkish Straits.
This is where the spy Mario Fiat met and seemingly befriended Mikhail. Orloff had told him his life story one night as he watched the stars and Mario watched him and his comrades. It soon became apparent that the young soldier was not worth the spy’s time yet Fiat hung around for a few more days despite the urgency of his mission.
He was fascinated by the simplicity of Mikhail’s outlook on life and his complex story of survival. Now the young man was gone. He was gone in a flash when a 16-inch shell detonated next to him.
The USS Iowa and USS Mobile loosed one more salvo and the old fort was nothing but dust and stone. Fiat thought I might be the only one who remembers Mikhail. I guess I’ll have to write a book. For now he had to forget about the demise of Mikhail and his squad and get on with the job at hand.
Figure 34 - One of many destroyed forts in the Turkish Straits
He watched in fascination as the awe-inspiring group of NATO naval vessels slid passed him on their way north towards the entrance to The Black Sea. Just about an hour before, a steady stream of bombers had dropped thousands of anti-mines ordinance on selected stretches of the Turkish Strait. The following explosions were truly impressive as mine after mine was detonated by bomblets.
He had heard of this new method for clearing minefields during a briefing before he was sent to Turkey. Now seeing it in action he understood the excitement of the Navy concerning its implementation. The shotgun approach was truly revolutionary and made minefields obsolete. Of course you needed 200 bombers or more to even contemplate using this method. Not many countries had the resources to put 200 bombers in the air simultaneously.
Mario followed the task force as closely as he could. Every few miles helicopters would leave and fly off to drop Special Forces along the route. Even he was surprised by the speed of the advance. The Airborne troops certainly made this kind of progress possible.
Fiat had heard that helicopters had been used quite successfully in gaining entrance to the Baltic Sea. One by one the Soviet defenses were falling and the NATO task force was blasting its way towards Istanbul and eventual entrance into the Black Sea.
His work had been fruitful. He had organized the Turks and convince them to make their own defenses that faced the Mediterranean inoperable. Luckily some Soviet had not put the pieces of the puzzle together regarding the sabotage. Mario was told if the Soviets had significantly strengthened their defenses leading into the Black Sea, the operation would have been canceled.
Facing minimal resistance from the Soviets, Operation Backdoor was launched. The NATO Task Force 38 was barreling down the Turkish Straits with the lead elements approaching the entrance to the Sea of Marmara.
The Sea of Marmara, during the Battle of Gallipoli, had been the goal of the British and French fleets during World War One. Mines placed in the straights by the Turks critically damaged the ships leading to their sinking or capsizing. The loss of three battleships in the span of a few hours halted the combined fleet from entering the sea.
The NATO force currently entering the sea consisted of three battleships, eight cruisers, 34 destroyers, 21 mine sweepers, 15 oil tankers and enough supply ships to carry 20,000 US Marines and Army personnel along with two months’ worth of provisions and ammunition. Mario never did see the beginning and end of the Task Force that made-up Operation Backdoor.
He had a job to do and could not spend any more time sightseeing. His job was to find Soviet Marshall Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and to make him and offer he couldn’t refuse.
How to Lose a War
Dr. Skinner was on to the next project. His group still had to run a few more trials using their newest method of masking a ship from a sharp-eyed pigeon. Pigeons are known for their remarkable eyesight. All the better to see hawks with before a hawk sees them, he guessed. Just one of Mother Nature’s ways of keeping enough pigeons alive to procreate which provide more targets for hungry hawks, and so it goes.
Skinner had guessed right about the Soviets training their pigeons to ignore the wild paint schemes. The next tactic the Reds tried was zeroing in on the ship’s antenna arrays. Skinner and his team had devised covers for all but the radio masts. The covers had worked for another couple of months.
Now it looks like the Reds were trying a new tactic. Recently they shot a few missiles at some convoys in the dead of the night. The fact that it was pitch black could only mean that they were starting to use infrared detection. He had been informed that earlier in the war over Britain they had deployed some form of heat seeking devices.
For reasons unknown, the Soviets had suddenly stopped the program. There had been no further activities along these lines for several months. Possibly they ran out of components or trained birds. Whatever the cause, Skinner was sure that they were now about ready to start using the detection system against NATO ships.
Lately he had begun to noticed a lack of urgency and decisiveness in the Soviets choice’s. He wondered if there had been a change in leadership. Perhaps he should mention his concern to someone in charge. It may be a significant change that could greatly affect the counter moves the Reds would try next. If someone less innovative or sophisticated was now making the decisions, then NATO would need to alter their thinking in response.
Skinner knew his enemy and so far, had anticipated his adversary’s every move concerning the missiles. The
doctors training and innate people skills had allowed him to see into the mind of his opponent. If he was no longer jousting with the same man he would have to get to know his new nemesis. He feared that he would guess wrong and lives would be lost because of his mistake, because he failed.
Of course, the answer was simple, don’t fail. Don’t fail and hope for a speedy end to this war. He had just heard about the invasion of Denmark and Copenhagen. Not being trained in the military arts he had no idea what Eisenhower hoped to gain from entering the Baltic Sea. At this time, considering the strategic implications of the war were beyond him. He had enough work simply trying to outwit a flock of pigeons and anticipating their trainer’s next move.
Just then Jim stuck his head in the office and reminded him of their brainstorming meeting in ten minutes. Skinner wrote a note in the margins of the outline he was working on. He wanted to remind himself to mention that he suspected someone else was in control of the Soviet ORCON project.
He made a mental note to revisit the profile he created and maintained of his longtime, yet unknown enemy. He carefully considered the behavior of his “Mr. X.” Skinner had grown quit confident in his ability to imagine and accurately anticipate the decisions of his faceless Soviet peer.
His ability to guess in advance his enemies next move was the reason his team was having such a string of good luck in designing counter measures. The recent subtle and dramatic shifts in the pace and follow through by the Soviets rendered his profile useless. He and his group would have to begin again from scratch.
Luckily there was physics. His invention could only do so much. His pigeons could only learn a finite amount of behaviors. The pigeons were totally dependent on the format the Soviets were able to present to the birds.
So far the first two methods had used pattern recognition, then an infrared device that was probably a scope of some kind. He knew from his own experiments that the birds could be trained to ignore very bright lights like a flare.
The next two solutions NATO had in the pipeline were heated barrage balloons and large exploding gas clouds. The challenge was to make these new decoys more attractive than the real thing. His group was confident that initially the birds would choose the brighter more shinny object.
It would likely take the Reds a good month or two to figure out what was happening. Then they would need another good three weeks to retrain the birds. Finally another week or so to relocate the birds to the various combat zones.
If his math was right that would mean they had two to three months’ lead time to figure out the next way to spoof the birds. He was told in utmost secrecy that if their efforts kept the ORCON system at bay until September, the war would be over. And if the Reds started to score a significant number of hits on the Navy’s ships before September, then the war was lost.
No pressure in that pronouncement from on high, Skinner thought sardonically.
Down by Her Head
Napoleon was doing his job aboard the jeep carrier USS Tulagi.[clxiv] He was awake, aware and constantly scanning the horizon and starboard side of the ship.
There was movement in the water to the south. His eye was caught and his brain’s attention turned to identifying whatever it was. He started looking with his naked eye and was confident that he saw something. He kept his eyes on the spot while he brought up his binoculars. As his eyes adjusted to new focal length, the object was just left of center. He zeroed in on it. Before his cerebrum comprehended what he was seeing, his amygdala caused him to reached out and immediately hit the alarm. He then grabbed and keyed his microphone and in a calm clear and forceful voice spoke the word, TORPEDO followed by… BRIDGE—STARBOARD LOOKOUT-TORPEDO WAKE BEARING WUN WUN ZE-RO-1000 YARDS—TARGET ANGLE ZE-RO TOO TREE—CLOSING RAPIDLY ON TROOP TRANSPORT—BEARING WUN SIX FIFE. His call to arms coincided with the first blast of the alarm Napoleon set off. [clxv]
The First Mate asked for confirmation just as another lookout screamed TORPEDO! The second lookout was admonished when he failed to give a bearing and speed. After Napoleon confirmed his sighting, the escort Tulagi took a sharp turn to the North towards Bornholm.
Jeep carriers are not as large as fleet carriers and only have 28 aircraft aboard. Yet these smaller ships were not particularly nimble. His ship lurched dramatically as it made its turn. The turn was an emergency maneuver done at high speed.
Napoleon had to brace himself as he continued to scan the horizon by eye followed by a sweep using his binoculars. Meanwhile, he was hoping that someone had warned the nearby troop transports that torpedoes were coming their way.
Suddenly he spotted another torpedo that was now heading for them. BRIDGE—STARBOARD LOOKOUT—SECOND TORPEDO WAKE BEARING WUN TOO TREE—AIT ZE-RO ZE-RO YARDS—TARGET ANGLE NINER SEV-EN—CLOSING RAPIDLY...
This time no confirmation was needed and the Tulagi turned to port as fast as her rudders could steer her stern and her hull could displace the water. The torpedo slid off the starboard side missing the Tulagi by 80 feet.
Figure 35 - NavPers 170069
Napoleon was the first and almost the last one to see the second torpedo. The Task Force had entered the Baltic Sea a day ago and was making good time towards Gdansk/Gdynia and its shipyards and docks.
Apparently the Tulagi had the best eyes of the task force. The single five-inch gun on the small carrier fired on what appeared to be open sea. As Napoleon followed a second shot he finally saw what some sharp-eyed gunner had seen.
It was a periscope about 5000 feet away. Napoleon made the appropriate report and then watched in fascination as the Tulagi’s five-inch gun became only the third aircraft carrier to hit an enemy ship with its own guns. Aircraft carriers were supposed to stand off and send their planes to attack and not be put in harm’sway.[clxvi]
What turned out to be a Soviet midget submarine must have known it was being shot at yet it just kept coming and didn’t dive. The Tulagi’s third shot, it the periscope and possibly some other vital piece of the conning tower that was just under the water. The immediate result was the little sub made a rapid ascent and surfaced not more than 4500 feet from the little carrier and practically right next to a quickly approaching destroyer escort.
The destroyer escort skidded right past the now floundering sub. The captain came about so violently that the ship’s guns could not bear on the enemy. In the ensuing interval, the Tulagi held its fire so as not to strike the careening destroyer escort.
In the meantime, the two crew members climbed out of the precariously rolling submarine. They were indicating their willingness to surrender. All the Americans that could see the drama were highly amused at the antics of the Red sailors who were trying not to get shot. Simultaneously the bystanders were attempting to watch the destroyer escort frantically get into position to capture the mini-sub and its crew.
Needless to say, the Captain of the destroyer escort would be attending remedial ship handling classes after his repeated failure quickly to close in on the floundering Red Navy Babushka Mini-sub.
The Tulagi and the remainder of the task force had a job to do that couldn’t wait for the very entertaining farce to play itself out.
In a few minutes, the Tulagi and its sister ship the USS Petrof Bay would launch their routine combat air patrols. While there was no expectation of enemy air opposition it was always best to be prepared. The operation would also give the flyboys added practice. You could never get enough practice in landing on a Jeep Carrier. They looked noticeably smaller than fleet carriers at 2000 feet altitude and quite noticeably smaller at 100 feet when trying to land.
Napoleon once again started to scan the horizon as the little jeep carrier swung around to continue on its way. He saw the black cloud almost right away and focused in on what was underneath.
Someone had failed to warn the troop ship of an incoming torpedo or perhaps they just couldn’t maneuver in time. Underneath the cloud of burning oil was the wreck of the USS Edmund P. Alexander.[clxvii]
The torpedo ha
d hit just aft of the bow. Her speed must have been a contributing factor with water rushing in and pushed by momentum until she was dead in the water.
Figure 36 - Edmund B. Alexander formerly German Passenger Ship Amerika
Napoleon could see that the ship was sinking slowly, which was a blessing, considering that it was carrying 4,000 men and their equipment. The men who needed rescuing were almost 15% of the troops in this invasion force.
Already at least a half a dozen ships were getting into position to receive the rescued personnel. Life boats were ready to launch. It looked to Napoleon like few lives would be lost.
The soldiers from the Edmund B. Alexander had been scheduled to debark onto landing craft in less than a day. Consequently, the men would spend little time exposed to the elements aboard the larger ships.
Napoleon mentally saluted the brave souls who manned the sinking troop transport. After decades of service to the US Army the Edmund B. Alexander was going down by her head.
A Matter of National Pride
General George C. Marshall was pacing back and forth, which was unusual for the man. Marshall was not given to second guessing or displays of nervousness. However, he did yield to second guessing in private and this was one of those moments.
The upcoming operations of Triple Cross and Backdoor were unusually daring for Eisenhower. True, Ike’s strategies were based on proposals from Douglas MacArthur before he died. Ike had immediately embraced MacArthur’s concepts wholeheartedly and without reservation. This seemingly blind acceptance worried Marshall. It was totally out of character for Eisenhower to be so bold. George’s gut told him that Ike was one of those rare men who knew a good idea when he saw one. Moreover, Ike had the capacity to adapt, improve and implement the thoughts of others. His unique alibies were why George had chosen him for leadership. Even recognizing Ike’s innate skills didn’t alleviate his feeling of unease.
World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First Page 125